No. Not even close.
Far closer to Obama and his circle. Around Carpocalypse 2008, a bunch of three letter agencies started pushes for internet connected vehicles knowing the tech wasn’t there; but would be.
I watched it happen. There was some shady shit, and the reality was 2008 wasn’t just about GM and Chrysler but and entire JustInTime mistake that could have stopped almost all car production around the world. Different topic, but the effect was government would be involved in cars a lot more than previously.
Fast forward, and here we are. Your car ABSOLUTELY is spying on you, and the upside is you also get shipped unfinished vehicles.
Be a culture war sally about Musk all you like, I know, the bad men say the mean things. But this isn’t on him. Tesla had to and in some ways is still learning that cars aren’t computers on wheels, but this specific “feature” came from Big Government first.
Obama wasn't president until January 2009.
The fallout was after 2009, thank you though maybe I was remembering it wrong. I wasn’t, and you were making assumptions, but good to check anyhow.
Also, you can remind me who bailed out GM and Chrysler (which again, debatable move).
In fact, I'd go so far as to say that he did not exist before January 2009 /s
> the bad men say the mean things
You really lose all credibility when you downplay the richest man on earth openly bribing voters and the President claiming the man helped rig voting machines, and that same man makes Nazi salutes and goes to Europe and supports the Nazi party in the place where they invented Nazi parties. And then he basically moves into the White House and magically his companies start getting government contracts, while saying empathy is a bad thing and begins eviscerating the government with no oversight.
That isn't "bad men saying bad things." But, of course, this very bad man did say some very bad things, too.
There’s no reason it should cost credibility to say that these people are motivated by an enjoyment of the spectacle of their cruelty and do it on purpose. Bad man has a moral connotation as well as a tradecraft connotation. Neither one of you is wrong to use the Bad Man monicker here.
I recognize their username. I would say it is deliberate that they overlook seriously concerning events in a manner that is patronizing and disrespectful to the people they disagree with.
“bribing voters”. No, he hired them as spokesmen, perfectly legal. Personally I am happy for any positive motivation that gets people to the voting booth. “nazi salute”. That's willful disinformation and hyperboyle. That wasn’t a “Nazi salute” he even said verbally “I give you my heart” not “heil Hitler” give me a break. “magically his companies get government contracts”. What contracts? Are you referring to rescuing the astronauts? The Biden administration already contracted Space X for thay mission.
Imagine being trigger by a department of government finding fraud, waste, and misspending of YOUR’s and my tax dollars! If Bernie Sanders suggested it you’d be touting it as the best idea ever.
If it wasn't a nazi salute, why don't you go into work tomorrow and do it (exactly as Musk did it) in front of your manager, and then let us know what happens.
Funny have done a very similar hand gesture when giving a small speach at a going away party. Anecdotally, I don't have a manager any longer as I have retired from my career due to a chronic illness that has effectively left me disabled BUT I do play a few songs every Friday night (tonight) and I will do the exact same guesture and say exactly what Elon said when I leave :-)
Saying “I give you my heart” and then making a gesture of giving the crowd your heart is not a “nazi salute”. If that is a nazi salute then Hillary Clinton and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have both given “nazi salutes”.
I’m no fan of Musk, but this is silly. If I thought Musk was being falsely painted as a Nazi due to a gesture made innocuously, doing it myself so other people could falsely call me a Nazi would hardly convince me that Elon was actually a Nazi.
Like, I know an erudite person (“Bill”) who uses the word “niggard” as defined (miser), without any ill intentions whatsoever. Maybe there are edgelords who intentionally use it because of its similarity to you-know-what, but not this guy. If someone did try to convince me that Bill says it to be an edgelord, and told me to try using it myself and see how people react, I would no doubt get falsely accused of using it in a bad way myself. That wouldn’t convince me that Bill has bad intentions, it would only reaffirm my existing belief that people can misinterpret innocuous things.
Just one little example:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/03/starlink-benefit...
And it 100% was a Nazi salute. Plain as day. Quit telling people to ignore what their own eyes can see. Him saying a little phrase after doing that gesture doesn't change the gesture.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk_salute_controversy#/...
> Imagine being trigger by a department of government finding fraud, waste
They're doing nothing of the sort. They'll probably only end up wasting more money than anything they're "saving", which is really "saving" in the same way as not paying your rent is "saving".
No saying Elon gave a nazi salute is so silly. DOGE has already saved the tax payer BILLIONS and that has been easily proved by DOGE’s X.com account where they detail all of the taxpayer money that they have saved. Now go set some more Tesla’s on fire, disregarding what doing that does to the environment
There are ways to battle waste, fraud, and abuse that do not resort to 'parachute into the middle of an agency, fire most of the staff and then walk away congratulating yourself because you eliminated waste, fraud, and abuse.'
Sure you lowered the spend of the agency, but you probably, by removing all the people who actively investigate/police waste, fraud and abuse, promoted more people to defraud the agency and not get caught.
Congratulations, you played yourself.
Yet the government hasn’t fallen apart. I also don’t agree witn your cartoonish assessment of how DOGE goes about eliminating waste and fraud, the blatant fraud in the Social Security Department is more than evidence of that. How many 140 year olds do you know?
there is no proven blatant fraud in the SSA, the SSA actually prevents a ton of fraud. You clearly see elon tweet some dumb shit that he DOES NOT understand, and ignore all the people that correct him.
jesus expand your fucking media diet you absolute loon: https://www.marketplace.org/story/2025/02/20/150-year-olds-a...