R Soul on 7/6/2025 at 11:13
So who else expected Musk and Trump to have their falling out?
I kind of wish that, for bragging rights, earlier on I'd posted that those in despair about the situation can at least look forward to the fireworks when they break up, but never mind.
It'll be interesting to see how the fanboys of each of these defective men react to the situation. They both attract the type of person who was the same all or nothing approach to who's friend or foe. People hanging on to Trump would have decided they also loved Musk, (and vice versa), but will they now turn on the other one too? Will they question the judgement of their idol, or of themselves?
heywood on 7/6/2025 at 12:41
I wasn't going to bring it up and say I told you so, but here is what I wrote here in January:
Quote Posted by heywood
There is no question any longer that he intends all of it. It's just a question of how far the more reasonable Republicans and the courts are willing to go along with him. His severe narcissism works in our favor because he can't tolerate anybody with intelligence and competence in his inner circle for long. The bust up between him and Musk is going to be entertaining.
Quote Posted by heywood
Their egos can't coexist or share power. Besides, they have opposite visions for the world: Trump is a textbook reactionary, Musk is a futurist. And they are motivated by different things. Trump is interested in his brand, culture wars, and basking in the glow of big crowds Hitler style. Musk is interested in building his personal global business empire and wants his legacy to be some monumental achievement like going to Mars.
Just wait until Musk realizes that the $280M spent this cycle didn't buy him the power and influence he thinks it should have. I'm pretty confident we'll see the alliance break up before the next election cycle.
I was thinking around the end of the year, but it happened sooner than I thought.
It seems Trump didn't want to extend Musk as a special government employee because DOGE was generating bad publicity and it wasn't finding any fraud or abuse and not enough waste. Then Trump decided to withdraw Jared Isaacman's nomination for NASA administrator. Issacman is a Musk ally and Musk is majority owner of Space-X. That may have been a tipping point, because a couple of days later Musk started attacking the "big beautiful bill". One may wonder how much of his anger with the bill was due to pork barrel spending and increasing the deficit, and how much may have been due to the bill eliminating EV & solar incentives and subsidizing oil & gas instead. Trump threatened to terminate federal contracts with Musk's companies, and then Musk went nuclear with the Epstein files and saying Yes to a post about impeaching Trump.
The righties are going to drop Musk like a hot potato. He was never part of their movement and they only admired him for his money. It will be interesting to see where Musk goes after this. Will he stay out of politics, or pursue a vendetta against Trump? If he cares about his fortune he'll stay out of it. But he's such a thin skinned petulant child, who knows?
Starker on 7/6/2025 at 13:35
The only thing surprising about it is that it didn't happen sooner. Musk is famously an absolutely insufferable person to be around and a narcissist like Lord Dampnut must have just been eaten up by someone getting any amount of clout and attention next to him.
As for the future, Musk is indeed a child who is terrible at politics. His big truth bomb that Lord Dampnut is in the Epstein files alone goes to show how little he understands of the current climate. Lord Dampnut is the one who can actually hurt Musk's companies (even more than Musk has) while Musk can at worst be an annoying gnat, needling Lord Dampnut on social media and amplifying the critical voices there.
I think the real problem for Lord Dampnut is the rest of the tech bro oligarchy. As Thiel's funding of Vance shows, they are just hankering for political power and have a lot of money to throw around.
Nicker on 7/6/2025 at 14:26
There is so much to unpack in this Bro Spat but perhaps Colbert does it best, striking a balance between savagery and more savagery.
[video=youtube;1k1lOINq51c]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k1lOINq51c[/video]
Pyrian on 8/6/2025 at 08:29
Quote Posted by R Soul
So who else expected Musk and Trump to have their falling out?
Inline Image:
https://i.imgur.com/xxa9SFs.gifHere you have two people widely famous for their inability to get along with anyone. What could've possibly gone wrong?
Starker on 8/6/2025 at 11:59
Musk: "We need to cut government spending."
Republican bill cuts credits for electric vehicles
Musk: "No, not like that!"
Nicker on 8/6/2025 at 13:35
That's why Musk calls the BBB an Abomination, not because it starves children or defunds cancer research...
Starker on 9/6/2025 at 09:26
US policing culture keeps on keeping on, as a rioting apple shoots an Australian reporter from behind with less lethal ammunition, hitting her in the leg:
Quote:
(
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/video-australian-reporter-shot-at-while-covering-los-angeles-protests-8623820)
An Australian journalist was shot with a rubber bullet while reporting on the anti-immigration protests in the United States' Los Angeles, with the incident caught live on camera. Nine News US correspondent Lauren Tomasi was reporting on camera on Sunday when she was shot in the leg, the now-viral footage of the incident showed.
In the video, Ms Tomasi can be heard saying that "after hours of standing off, this situation has now rapidly deteriorated, the LAPD moving in on horseback, firing rubber bullets at protesters, moving them on through the heart of LA".
In the background, a bystander can be heard telling the officer, "You just fucking shot the reporter!"
[...]
SD on 9/6/2025 at 10:58
Quote Posted by R Soul
So who else expected Musk and Trump to have their falling out?
Musk was always going to be thrown under the bus once he'd outlived his usefulness.
heywood on 9/6/2025 at 11:59
Quote Posted by Starker
US policing culture keeps on keeping on, as a rioting apple shoots an Australian reporter from behind with less lethal ammunition, hitting her in the leg:
You can see the cop did it on purpose too, aimed right at her at close range while the camera was rolling. So much for "To Protect and to Serve". Seems like another Kent State shooting is inevitable now.
