Elon Musk is a fucking Idiot

[Esquire Bertissimmo]

The whole Trump-Elon car commercial today was rather embarrassing.

The US president should not be endorsing a specific product or firm. Senior US government officials should keep their business affairs in a blind trust during their tenure in government.

This was followed up by the Commerce Secretary begging MAGA morons to buy Tesla stock on Fox News. Unprecedented grift. Never before has a US Cabinet member done a commercial for a specific stock.

Tesla is not $TRUMP coin (Jesus Christ I can't belie that's a real thing) — that is, it's not a scam that can self perpetuate based on yokels buying $20 worth at a time. TSLA has lost half its share price *this year*. If it's going to recover it needs to rebuild confidence with actual investors — the Trump admin clown show is hurting, not helping, its prospects.

[Jamiet99uk]

The whole Trump-Elon car commercial today was rather embarrassing.

The US president should not be endorsing a specific product or firm. Senior US government officials should keep their business affairs in a blind trust during their tenure in government.

This was followed up by the Commerce Secretary begging MAGA morons to buy Tesla stock on Fox News. Unprecedented grift. Never before has a US Cabinet member done a commercial for a specific stock.

Tesla is not $TRUMP coin (Jesus Christ I can't belie that's a real thing) — that is, it's not a scam that can self perpetuate based on yokels buying $20 worth at a time. TSLA has lost half its share price *this year*. If it's going to recover it needs to rebuild confidence with actual investors — the Trump admin clown show is hurting, not helping, its prospects.

I am sure this is illegal, but the rule of law does not apply in the USA anymore.

[Esquire Bertissimmo]

Prior to his government appointment, Secretary Lutnick was the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, an investment firm that held a significant position in Tesla. All his friends and former associates benefit directly from this.

And even if they didn't, a Cabinet member trying to talk up the price of an individual stock is something that has never happened before in the US or basically any other major democracy. In Canada it would trigger an ethics investigation and be a major news story for many weeks. In the US...it's somehow less concerning than 90% of the other crazy shit that's going on so it flies under the radar. Unbelievable really.

[Esquire Bertissimmo]

It's extra stupid because it doesn't work. Real money knows that a US-government supported plea for gullible people to flood their meager savings into Tesla is a very bad sign for the firm's prospects.

Trump supporters with any common sense whatsoever no doubt see this as a grift at their expense. Tesla was a woke, climate hysteria engaging, west coast elite brand mere months ago - any of them who are paying attention must have whiplash. I would hope episodes like this serve to increase the reluctance of the many reluctant Trump voters.

[Jamiet99uk]

Reuters has in the past 24 hours revealed that a senior member of Elon Musk's DOGE team has links to a major cyber-crime ring:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/technology/doge-staffer-big-balls-provided-tech-support-to-cybercrime-ring-records-show/ar-AA1BGOUK

America, this is your government now. Criminals, hucksters, and neo-Nazis. I hope you're happy.

[Octavious]

For clarity, what is the crime this person is guilty of?

[Jamiet99uk]

Aiding and abetting a criminal gang / organised criminal conspiracy, according to Reuters.

[Octavious]

Yeah... I'm not saying that he's innocent or guilty. I genuinely don't know how these things work from a legal perspective, and I don't have a great deal of understanding about the more technical areas of IT either.

To use a real world analogy, I am certain that I've provided a great deal of aid to county lines drug runners by driving them up and down the country (as a guard I've also probably sold them train tickets. During covid they and the odd nurse were the only reliable customers the railway had ). But there was nothing illegal about providing someone who may be dodgy some transport, and my instinct would be to assume that providing someone who may be dodgy with IT support works alone similar lines

[Jamiet99uk]

Yeah... I'm not saying that he's innocent or guilty. I genuinely don't know how these things work from a legal perspective, and I don't have a great deal of understanding about the more technical areas of IT either.

To use a real world analogy, I am certain that I've provided a great deal of aid to county lines drug runners by driving them up and down the country (as a guard I've also probably sold them train tickets. During covid they and the odd nurse were the only reliable customers the railway had ). But there was nothing illegal about providing someone who may be dodgy some transport, and my instinct would be to assume that providing someone who may be dodgy with IT support works alone similar lines

The allegation is that he knowingly provided that particular group with IT support for free (they posted on Telegram thanking him for his "generous" support) and that he was also at the time active in various Telegram and other internet forums supporting / encouraging / positively discussing cybercrime, cryptocurrency theft, etc.

To use your analogy, it would be more akin to you, as a train guard, allowing county lines drug runners onto the train without a ticket so that their movements would be harder to track (and to allow them to dodge fares). That would be pretty dubious activity, would it not?

[Octavious]

Funny you should say that. That county lines gangs typically paid in full to reduce their visibility, and preferred to use teenage girls travelling alone in the late evening to make it impossible for anyone with a conscience to throw them off the train. They were frequently reported to the British Transport Police, of course, but you then had to rely on BTP to do anything about it (which was depressingly rare). Truth be told that with the lack of police interest and reluctance of guards to throw girls off in the middle of nowhere they could have got away with not paying anything very easily

[Jamiet99uk]

Well my point still stands that little mister "big balls" is accused of proactively helping people he knew were cyber criminals, rather than just happening to be the provider of an IT service that they just happened to subscribe to.

[Octavious]

What I'm struggling with is the fundamental issue that if there was clear and convincing evidence of criminality then you'd expect him to be arrested, and if not you'd expect the Democrats and the media to be kicking up an almighty stink. But what we have seems to be a solitary Reuters article that's not exactly overloaded with detail.

So my inclination is frankly to ignore it unless something rather more substantial develops with the story. A member of staff of the government might have done something that might have been illegal at some point before joining the government team? Who gives a shit? If the Democrats were running things you could easily see them spinning a similar scenario as a redemption story about a talented bad boy turning good. There might be something more to it, and I am entirely content letting others do the digging.