Tag: Elon Musk

Elon Musk Verbally Pummels BBC Reporter

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My opinion of Elon Musk is based on very little more than that he ticked off millions of leftist by buying Twitter.  But that alone has made him a sort of folk hero for me.  For all I know he’s an incipient Bond villain preparing to blow up the planet to sate his gargantuan ego.

But as long as he does things like this I will applaud him.  Watch the video clip.  It’s the usual hit and run interview where the reporter asks the victim if he still beats his wife.  But Musk breaks down the questioner’s accusations one by one and shows that they weren’t based on any concrete example he could provide.

Between this and the NPR incident Musk had made it a fun time to be on Twitter.  Now he’s talking of changing the name which sounds like a great idea.  Lots of people think that Musk’s eventual plans for Twitter are a lot more interesting than the current message board for the politically obsessed.  I can’t say that I know anything about that but I tend to believe it because otherwise he’d have been insane to pay $55 billion for it.

Well, anyway, Elon, you magnificent bastard, that was one funny slap down.

Catering to the Twenty Percent

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Capitalism is all about finding an unfulfilled need and then providing that need at a profit.  Well right now there is an unfulfilled need out there that’s dying to be fulfilled and anyone who provides it will make money hand over fist.  What the Right needs is someone smart who wants to capture our entertainment business.  Look at what the Left has been doing.  They’ve talked corporate America into backing their brand.  Professional sports leagues; the NFL, Major League Baseball even the NHL have kowtowed to BLM, the rainbow mafia and now men in sundresses.  Bud Light, the epitome of normal American consumerism has put the face of a TikTok crossdresser on their beer cans.  Taking the creepiest, most off-putting representatives of the Left and demanding that America embrace them is the standard operating procedure for the Leftist-Industrial complex.

Surely providing people with an alternative to this should be as easy as shooting fish in a barrel.  And it’s not like we have to win over the whole country.  We don’t even have to be the majority.  We just want someone to harness the natural market that exists for normal, healthy entertainment.

Think about it.  Without a doubt, there is easily 20% of the total population of the United States who, while they’re trying to relax and be entertained, would pay good money to forget about sexual deviants, BLM, girl bosses or any of the other depraved things that the Left bombards them with.  That’s an enormous market and it’s a motivated one.  Think of all the things you could sell them.  Sporting events, music shows, movies, books, video games, news services, tourist services, conference services, dating services, wedding services, branded apparel, beer and on and on and on.  And all that’s really required is to develop a marketing campaign that captures the imagination of the target population (us) and then delivers the promised services.

But so far no one has attempted this trick.  And that’s probably for a variety of reasons.  You see, none of the existing entertainment companies want to antagonize their leftist friends so they wouldn’t dream of providing services that appeal to normal people.  And those who are interested in doing it don’t have the deep pockets and independence needed to buck the multitude of roadblocks that the government and the woke corporations would throw in their way.

Now interestingly, someone like Elon Musk might just be the perfect combination of entrepreneur, multi-billionaire and contrarian to accomplish something like this.  And the way he would accomplish it would be somewhat different.  Instead of catering specifically to the Right he might try to provide an à la carte approach that allows people of different persuasions to purchase specifically the services and entertainment they prefer.

For instance, imagine if there were a streaming service that provided all the movies and shows that can’t or won’t be made by Netflix or Amazon.  And imagine if all the commercials on that channel were completely devoid of sexual deviancy, anti-whiteness and, in general, left-leaning causes.  Now wouldn’t that be worth more than a couple of bucks a month?  There’s nothing I would enjoy more than to take the money I currently have to hand over to my hated cable provider and instead give it to someone who could arrange that kind of service.

And that’s the point.  If instead of supporting the leftists at Amazon and the other studios and media companies, we could deprive them of all our business and instead reward someone who wants us to have our choices it would impoverish these terrible people.  Think of what would happen if suddenly we stopped sending monthly checks to Amazon and Netflix and ESPN and Disney.  The twenty percent (or more) of the country that would be shutting them out is the difference between those companies thriving and struggling.  In fact, without that group a lot of the worst offenders like Disney and the NFL might just go out of business.  Or possibly they’d have to give up their infuriating behavior and try to lure that 20% back again.

So far no one has jumped into the breach.  The closest that anyone has come to this is Fox News.  And basically, it’s Tucker Carlson that makes up the only mainstream content that speaks to the 20%.  And even Fox is full of leftist content and doesn’t provide much in the way of choice.  But at some point, there will be someone who decides that there is a lot of money being left on the table and picking it up is as easy as saying out loud that men and women are different and that it’s alright to be white.  Now that’s not so hard.

Kudos to Elon Musk for Turning Twitter Around

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Six months into his tenure as “head twit” Musk says:

“Twitter Could Be ‘Cash-Flow Positive’ Within Months“

“Elon Musk said Twitter Inc. has a shot at being cash-flow positive next quarter, and he is optimistic about the company’s future after what he called a difficult past few months.

“I definitely don’t want to count chickens before they hatch,” he added Tuesday about his latest expectations for the company’s financial situation.

Mr. Musk, who acquired Twitter and took over as its chief executive in October, said the company would have gone bankrupt in four months if he hadn’t taken steps to rein in the company’s expenditures. … He also said Twitter faces around $1.5 billion in yearly interest payments on debt borrowed when he took the company private.”

The article says Twitter went from 8,000 employees to less than 2,000.  So he eliminated more that 75% of his employees and now it works better and cheaper than before.  You’ve got to ask if most of those 6,000+ salaries were worse than useless.  How many of them were making Twitter worse.

I’m curious exactly how many were former intelligence agency employees whose real job was spying on the public.

Well, however he did it I commend him for the start he’s made and his future steps to make the company profitable and useful to the general public. And now that I’m a dues paying blue check twit I say let’s get OCF the viral status it so richly deserves.

Well done Elon.

Guest Contributor – ArthurinCali – 28FEB2023 – Musk Earns the Two Minute Hate

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Hopefully more people are noticing how quickly the apparatus composed of media, academia, and government figures turns on those highly public figures who speak heretically such Elon Musk. Disagreeing with the DEI ideology is unforgivable in their eyes. Once he was identified as an enemy of the Hive, the attacks became merciless. A quick search online currently brings up accusations of him being practically a Neo-Nazi from South Africa, a fraud in his educational path, or a P.T. Barnum figure for Tesla or SpaceX.

However, the Internet is forever, and it doesn’t take too long to pull up glowing articles from a few years past on Mr. Musk’s achievements in business and furthering technological advancement.

Whatever one’s opinion on Donald Trump, this technique of demonization was swiftly employed against him once he became a potential candidate for president, and continued throughout his term as president. For those of us of a certain age, Mr. Trump was a constant public figure in the news, entertainment, and media.

From the 80s onward into the 2000s his presence and relevance was seen. While not always receiving positive news coverage, the accusations of racial, sexual, and overall caricatured evilness did not begin until he ran for president.

The astounding thing is how arrogant mainstream media was towards the American people in that they expected us to fully accept the new narrative on Trump. The same NY real estate developer that these industries used to sell newspapers, advertising dollars for ‘The Apprentice” show, hell, even Domino’s Pizza commercials he starred in at one point. The man they helped build up with all the exposure became the Anti-Christ incarnate.

How insulting it was, it least to me, that they all but demanded we believe this new presentation of the man. To now see the same strategy and playbook used on Elon Musk is pathetic, yet predicable.

Elon Musk Makes a Suggestion

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I guess Musk is serious about speaking the truth when it’s not popular or even safe.  But it makes him a more relatable figure.  Now if only he’d get around to that billion dollar funding for OCF.  Then I’d call him a genius.

Musk Suspends Keith Olbermann. Universe Heaves Sigh of Relief

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Alright, admittedly no one knew that Olbermann was still alive. It’s like Dan Rather. Once these guys fall off the front page they become like lint that gets trapped behind the dryer. They’re still there but no one really notices them unless there’s a fire or something.

How could you not love this?  Elon is fast becoming one of my favorite people.  Sure it could be better.  He could have shut down Dementia Joe, Obama and the Pope too.  But there’s definitely good stuff in this Musk guy.  This is kind of like a Christmas present to the normal world.

It makes me feel like Tiny Tim saying “God bless us, every one.”

There are reports he’s also banning anyone who doxxes people’s locations.  Apparently some Antifa types have been stalking Musk’s family.  And I’ve read he’s shutting down Antifa accounts in general.

We need more good billionaires.  Or maybe we need fewer evil billionaires.  Maybe when Soros finally kicks the bucket the balance will finally begin to return to the universe and the portal to hell that he maintains will collapse and Biden will be forced to revert to his true form as a giant armadillo with aviator glasses.  Well, that’s what I’ve heard anyway.

What Could Twitter Be?

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All of the revelations about government directed shadow banning on Twitter of conservatives and other opponents of various government policies is very interesting and may help to convince some few remaining idiots who haven’t already seen what’s perfectly obvious to most people of normal intelligence.  But I don’t see that it will accomplish any practical result.

But what would be really useful is if Musk decides that providing a legitimate commercial platform for non-Leftists is a profitable business model.  Of course, this is a question that hasn’t been answered.  Now, Jeff Bezos was eventually able to make Amazon very profitable.  But he had the advantage that he was able for many years to provide his customers with a product line that avoided all state sales tax.  And Google was able to capitalize on government contracts to fund their capture of the worldwide advertising market.

But what’s left for Musk to capture?  Twitter is a political gossip column and little else.  If kept in its current form it’s really not good for much.  So, what was Musk thinking when he spent $44 billion for it?

For that kind of investment, he must be looking at something enormous.  My guess is that he’s looking at some kind of integrated on-line service platform.  The question is how he plans to steal a march on his competitors.  So, if you are eying the revenues that Apple, Google, Facebook, PayPal and Amazon have, how do you steal away some of them?

His first step was easy.  Fire the worthless two thirds of your employees that spend their time in yoga and meditation rooms and demand results from the remaining people.  Right there he’s practically made the company profitable.  But after that he needs to find the future of digital enterprise.

And it’s not going to be something idiotic like Zuckerberg’s ridiculous metaverse.  Thinking the world is going to be revolutionized by everybody walking around wearing VR headsets is close to moronic.  It’s going to be something that uses artificial intelligence for something more than advertising.  Currently Silicon Valley has just been shilling for the woke powers that be who are looking to eliminate the great unwashed (meaning us).

A way to utilize artificial intelligence in a profitable and useful way is to provide those who are currently being ostracized and silenced with a platform to organize and accomplish useful things.  And not just political organizing.  In fact, the cultural and commercial aspects are even more important and desperately needed.

In fact, what Musk could make the most money on is streaming entertainment.  There is such a drought of enjoyable content that he could get his whole $44 Billion back on that alone.  When was the last time there was anything actually funny put out on television or in the movies?  Other than Dave Chapelle everyone is so afraid of offending someone by saying something actually funny that they’re reduced to just insulting straight white men, the only allowable target for abuse.

And there are many other forbidden enterprises that Musk and his partners can get involved with.  Being one of the original creators of PayPal makes it certain that he could add financial functions to his platform.  It could include payment processing, crowd funding, and even normal banking services.  Grateful customers would be more than happy to throw their other on-line business his way.  He just has to make it simple to get started.

He could steal a page from Amazon and get into self-publishing.  He could build a better smart phone.  I’ve heard he’s even considering starting his own news network.  There are all kinds of opportunities.  He could even become a site host for all the folks who’ve been de-platformed.

And these are just the things that occur to a regular guy like me.  Surely super-genius Elon Musk can produce ideas that are a thousand times better and more lucrative.  So come on, Elon get cracking, we’re getting tired of waiting.

Welcome to the Hotel California

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So I’ve returned from the dead.  And it was a transcendental experience.  Like one of those California, peyote fueled spirit journeys that most of the Eagles indulged in back in the 1970s I faced my demons and have come back with enlightenment.  Or at least, I’m five pounds lighter from profuse sweating.

Yes, I have new insights.  For instance, I’ve discovered that every third news story involves Elon Musk, Twitter and Hunter Biden.  And what I realize is that none of this stuff will move the needle at all.  Now sure, Elon Musk can do a lot of good if he turns Twitter into a meaningful business.  And the first thing he should do is come up with a better name.  Twitter just sounds hopelessly lame.  Musk is a tech guy who makes rocket ships.  He should rename it “Atom Smasher” or “This Island Earth” or something cool like that.  But whatever.  The main thing is he needs to make this expensive toy a money maker and a business opportunity that does something useful.  Telling me about past management shilling for the Democrats is fine but it’s old news.

And all the rest of the news is the Republicans reporting on how hated Joe Biden is and the Democrats reporting on how beloved Joe Biden is.  Not exactly must see tv.  There was a little bit of news coming out of Florida.  DeSantis continues to telegraph his legislative and administrative actions.  And that makes him sound more and more like a 2024 candidate.  And that is problematic.

Hopefully DeSantis is smart enough to recognize that the GOP establishment is setting him up to be the Trump-killer.  And hopefully he realizes that attempting to fulfill that role will make him radioactive to at least twenty percent of the Republican electorate.  That is not a good look for him.  A better idea would be to have a sit down with Trump and thrash out a path forward for both of them.  That’s what grownups would do.  And DeSantis would have to swallow a lot of pride because Trump has already attacked him pretty hard in the last month or so.  Let’s face it Trump is one of the prickliest personalities in the world.  He needs a press secretary whose job should be to prevent him from saying anything about people who could do him some good.

But there’s no way around it.  Unless Trump is imprisoned by the Justice Department, he will be the 2024 Republican candidate for president.  And DeSantis is a very young man.  He’s doing extraordinary work in Florida.  Some might say being the governor of Florida is more powerful that being a Republican president of the United States.  He can continue to make Florida the envy of the nation.  And honestly, being Trump’s running mate would be a much, much better idea.  Since it seems that the Democrats have managed to game the Electoral College permanently there’s not much upside to going to war with Trump to possibly get the nomination but certainly alienate the Trump voters and lose in the general election.

So yes, I’m back and I’m surrounded by boring and stupid stuff as far as the eye can see.  By tomorrow I should be energized back to 75%.  And I’ll be able to opine on some of this dreck.  Today, this is what I could do.  Enjoy your weekend.

Elon and the Deplorables

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Elon Musk has jumped into the middle of the culture war with both feet you could say.  He’s spent fifty-five billion dollars buying a company that the Left thinks must belong to them and that has ticked off the powers that be.  He’s refused to disenfranchise the various deniers; COVID, climate, election, you name it.  He’s even pardoned Donald Trump.  And now he’s unbanned everyone who hasn’t broken the law getting kicked off.  He’s a heretic and must be punished!

Essentially, he’s embraced the deplorables.  Why?  I have a theory.

I think Elon Musk sees an opportunity.  The cultural divide in the United States is a powerful force.  And power, if harnessed correctly is one of the most valuable commodities there is.  The endless conflict between the Left and Right on Twitter is far from a useful activity.  Nevertheless, it is an energetic process.  It doesn’t produce much light but it does produce heat.  And heat is a kind of energy.  And it attracts attention and in some ways that was the main product that Twitter sold during the Trump presidency.  Even with the biased treatment of the two political sides there was an active interest in the antics on Twitter.

And yet Twitter never made any money.  And as the field of battle on Twitter became more and more tilted against the Right it lost more and more money.  I think Elon realized that Twitter was run by very stupid people that had no clue how to harness the tool they’d been given by the government.  After all, the big tech companies exist because the intelligence agencies subsidize their operation in order to use their data feeds as surveillance resources.

I think he realized that if someone smart were running things a profit could be extracted from the operation.  And I’m only guessing, but I suspect he would like to use the outsider status of the deplorables as a marketing mechanism.  Here is an enormous pool of people who have been demonized, mocked and whose purchase preferences have been the target of a campaign of eradication.  Think about it.  Hollywood, television and the major corporations have outlawed anything that doesn’t wholeheartedly embrace and display the woke message.  Old movies and shows have to be remade just to insert abnormal sexual lifestyles and minority characters.  In fact, Hollywood has an actual quota system for actors and production crew.  Straight white men need not apply.

Suppose Elon has decided that this large unappreciated market that is just sitting, waiting for someone to embrace it could make him a lot of money.  Wouldn’t he be the obvious person to take advantage?  And the beauty of it is he doesn’t even have to lose the other part of the market.  He doesn’t have to reject the woke.  All he needs to do is provide an option for each side.

Door Number One could be the present woke system.  It would have all the rainbow and BLM flags flying in the breeze.  There would be trans this, trans that and trans the other thing as far as the eye could see.  Basically, he just links to Disney and Amazon.  But to take advantage of the other half of the world it would require Door Number Two.

It could be a tiny button with a huge warning label that cautioned the general public that down this path are forbidden things.  Books and movies where the cowboys are the good guys and Thomas Jefferson isn’t a monster.  There would be historical dramas about Rome and Greece, Tudor England and the Age of Exploration, where all the actors were (gasp!) white.  It would have an explicit bias toward normalcy and it would be unabashedly proud of the western tradition.  Even Christopher Columbus would still have a place of honor.  Every boy meets girl plot line would feature a real boy and a real girl.  Oh, the horror.  Someone alert GLAAD.

So, Elon Musk is positioned to take advantage of almost half the population looking for someone to sponsor them and sell them things that somehow are now forbidden.  He could be the Jeff Bezos of the Right. His Lord of the Rings series wouldn’t have to have trans-hobbits and boss-girl Galadriel.  He could just follow the books.  His payment system could be PayPal or it could be his own.  And it could be a bank and a crowd funding platform too.  As he’s said he could have his own cell-phone company too.  None of this stuff is rocket science and he is a rocket scientist!  All these things could be packaged to people who currently feel left out by the woke business world.  All he has to do is take our money and get richer.

So, think about it Elon.  Currently you’re losing a billion dollars a year catering to woke snowflakes who spend all their time complaining about their feelings and are too cheap to pay eight dollars a month to be certified on your website that they spend all their time on.  Or you can sell things to people who like to pay cash, believe two plus two equals four, can tell the difference between a man and a woman and only ask for the minimum of respect.  It’s a pretty easy choice.