• Without me, Trump would have lost the election

    From JAB@21:1/5 to All on Thu Jun 5 20:20:18 2025
    Trump-Musk Feud Explodes as Elon Alleges Trump Is in Epstein Files

    Meanwhile, the president suggested the world's richest man may have
    come down with a nasty case of Trump Derangement Syndrome

    Elon Musk has been waging a full-throated campaign against Donald
    Trump's "big, beautiful" reconciliation bill, calling the keystone of
    the president's legislative agenda a "disgusting abomination" while
    trying to rally senators to oppose it.

    Trump is not happy. The president responded at length to Musk's
    opposition to the bill while speaking with reporters in the Oval
    Office on Thursday, criticizing the former head of his so-called
    Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), who officially left the administration last week. "I'm very disappointed in Elon," Trump said.
    "I've helped Elon a lot."

    https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-slams-elon-musk-dispute-spending-bill-1235356539/

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From JAB@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Thu Jun 5 21:37:47 2025
    On Thu, 5 Jun 2025 20:18:23 -0600, Retrograde
    <[email protected]d> wrote:

    Haw, can't wait to see this bromance turn into a bitch fight.

    If any of the government paperwork he filled out and signed from
    student visa onward has a single untruthful answer, then the T-Borg
    may have the cards.

    Bannon wants him deported... https://thehill.com/homenews/5335724-trump-bannon-immigration-musk/

    Shit could hit the Elon's fan....or maybe not. Elon ponied up bucks
    for Rs elections, so eliminating him might be unwise.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Retrograde@21:1/5 to JAB on Thu Jun 5 20:41:26 2025
    On Thu, 05 Jun 2025 21:37:47 -0500
    JAB <[email protected]d> wrote:

    On Thu, 5 Jun 2025 20:18:23 -0600, Retrograde
    <[email protected]d> wrote:

    Haw, can't wait to see this bromance turn into a bitch fight.

    If any of the government paperwork he filled out and signed from
    student visa onward has a single untruthful answer, then the T-Borg
    may have the cards.

    Bannon wants him deported... https://thehill.com/homenews/5335724-trump-bannon-immigration-musk/

    Shit could hit the Elon's fan....or maybe not. Elon ponied up bucks
    for Rs elections, so eliminating him might be unwise.

    Fight, ladies, fight! Nails out! Claw claw claw!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Retrograde@21:1/5 to JAB on Thu Jun 5 20:18:23 2025
    On Thu, 05 Jun 2025 20:20:18 -0500
    JAB <[email protected]d> wrote:

    Trump-Musk Feud Explodes as Elon Alleges Trump Is in Epstein Files


    Haw, can't wait to see this bromance turn into a bitch fight.

    Headline at The Verge: "Musk Finds Out Trump Doesn't Stay Bought" - ha.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From JAB@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Fri Jun 6 06:49:26 2025
    On Thu, 5 Jun 2025 20:41:26 -0600, Retrograde
    <[email protected]d> wrote:

    Fight, ladies, fight! Nails out! Claw claw claw!


    Now, Trump and Musk deserve whatever is coming, good and hard. But
    don't let the schadenfreude of this psychodrama distract you from the fundamental point -- America has fallen into a deep pit of corruption.
    Paul Krugman
    Jun 6

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  • From JAB@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Fri Jun 6 06:39:55 2025
    On Thu, 5 Jun 2025 20:41:26 -0600, Retrograde
    <[email protected]d> wrote:

    Fight, ladies, fight! Nails out! Claw claw claw!

    The triple "B" is about foolishly putting US into deeper debt, while
    DOGE's rhetoric was about "saving" taxpayers money.

    Triple B eliminated EV benefits for EV companies, which Elon needs
    now.

    "The fate of the EV tax credits depends on the GOP's megabill
    .......President Trump calls the "big, beautiful bill" that was passed
    by the House of Representatives last month includes sharp cuts to the
    tax credits designed to incentivize EV purchases." https://www.npr.org/2025/06/03/nx-s1-5414604/ev-tax-credits-republican-bill

    Why Tesla now needs the EV tax credit that Musk once said should go
    away

    It wasn't long ago that Tesla CEO Elon Musk was advocating for ending
    the $7,500 tax credit for buyers of electric vehicles.

    "Take away the subsidies. It will only help Tesla," he said in a post
    on his social media platform X last year, adding "Also remove the
    subsidies from all industries!" https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/05/business/musk-trump-tesla-ev-tax-credit

    I'm not sure what Elon is pissed about...deficit spending and/or
    removal of EV subsidies.

    Tesla's CFO would know how hard eliminating EV subsidies would affect
    Tesla's bottom line.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From JAB@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Fri Jun 6 07:25:30 2025
    On Thu, 5 Jun 2025 20:41:26 -0600, Retrograde
    <[email protected]d> wrote:

    Fight, ladies, fight! Nails out! Claw claw claw!

    Musk's threat to withdraw Dragon capsule would leave NASA with 1
    option: Russia

    As President Donald Trump and Elon Musk argued on social media on
    Thursday, the world's richest man threatened to decommission a space
    capsule used to take astronauts and supplies to the International
    Space Station. https://apnews.com/article/musk-trump-spacex-dragon-capsule-e1fa0607a8e69bc2ad1677f5920b5f56

    Issue here is most likely the T-Borg could care less about ISS.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Blueshirt@21:1/5 to JAB on Fri Jun 6 12:54:14 2025
    JAB wrote:

    Trump-Musk Feud Explodes as Elon Alleges Trump Is in Epstein
    Files

    Okay, who had "June" in the "Predict the Inevitable Donald
    Trump-Elon Musk Fall Out" sweepstake?

    Please go to the counter and collect your winnings...

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Retrograde@21:1/5 to Blueshirt on Fri Jun 6 07:29:19 2025
    On Fri, 06 Jun 2025 12:54:14 GMT
    "Blueshirt" <[email protected]> wrote:

    JAB wrote:

    Trump-Musk Feud Explodes as Elon Alleges Trump Is in Epstein
    Files

    Okay, who had "June" in the "Predict the Inevitable Donald
    Trump-Elon Musk Fall Out" sweepstake?

    Please go to the counter and collect your winnings...

    Ha!

    It occurred to me this morning, the two guys are both narcissistic
    billionaire egos with little-to-no moral compass and an outsized
    "genius" self-perception. I think both guys secretly gloated they were
    taking advantage of the other.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Retrograde@21:1/5 to Retrograde on Fri Jun 6 09:41:53 2025
    On Fri, 6 Jun 2025 07:29:19 -0600
    Retrograde <[email protected]d> wrote:
    It occurred to me this morning, the two guys are both narcissistic billionaire egos with little-to-no moral compass and an outsized
    "genius" self-perception. I think both guys secretly gloated they were taking advantage of the other.


    Reddit is pure win this morning:

    * "Trump getting rid of his Tesla after Musk broke his heart"

    * "honestly kind of fitting that this level of catty public breakup
    between two aging divas is happening during pride month"

    * "This is Kendrick vs Drake for Republicans"

    * "Bannon wants Musk deported; Musk wants Trump impeached. Bernie
    Sanders: 'why not both?' "

    * "Who gets JD Vance in the divorce?"

    * "Darth Vader: 'without me, Palpatine would not have become Emperor,
    the Jedi would control the senate, the separatists would still have an
    army. Such ingratitude.' "

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From JAB@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Fri Jun 6 12:06:37 2025
    On Fri, 6 Jun 2025 07:29:19 -0600, Retrograde
    <[email protected]d> wrote:

    It occurred to me this morning, the two guys are both narcissistic >billionaire egos with little-to-no moral compass and an outsized
    "genius" self-perception.

    "President Trump told CBS News' Robert Costa he's focused on domestic
    and foreign policy -- and not on his feud with Elon Musk."

    he's focused on domestic and foreign policy

    More BS....he's evaluating what if he 'eliminates' Elon.

    I suspect most of the domestic and foreign policy has been determined
    by others. Domestic via Project 2025, and tariffs for foreign policy
    (which he himself did not plan the details).

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From JAB@21:1/5 to All on Fri Jun 6 11:18:58 2025
    On Fri, 06 Jun 2025 12:54:14 GMT, "Blueshirt" <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    Okay, who had "June" in the "Predict the Inevitable Donald
    Trump-Elon Musk Fall Out" sweepstake?

    Please go to the counter and collect your winnings...

    Auric Hellman...not sure if a date was given.

    Two "stable genii" having their 19th Nervous Breakdown in unison.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCmxWu2yT8c

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  • From JAB@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Fri Jun 6 14:42:19 2025
    On Thu, 5 Jun 2025 20:41:26 -0600, Retrograde
    <[email protected]d> wrote:

    Fight, ladies, fight! Nails out! Claw claw claw!

    Why Trump can't just quit Musk
    .........
    A true divorce would be messy

    As I wrote back in 2023: "NASA needs his rockets. The Pentagon needs
    his satellites. The government needs for electric vehicles to access
    his network of chargers. Officials need his social media platform --
    Twitter, now called X -- to communicate with people." https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/06/politics/spacex-starlink-trump-musk-nasa

    Unknown how contracts were written, but if his option to not honor,
    then Elon has the cards.

    "It's all still true, although Trump has no interest in electric
    vehicles, and a standoff over whether a massive tax bill should
    continue to incentivize Americans to buy electric vehicles may have
    contributed to their beef. There are still a growing number of
    Americans buying electric vehicles, and Tesla's charging network is a
    part of that infrastructure. "

    "incentivize Americans to buy electric vehicles
    may have contributed to their beef."

    Bingo....Tesla has a cash flow issue with sales decreased.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From danny burstein@21:1/5 to JAB on Fri Jun 6 19:58:45 2025
    In <101vgas$2f3ip$[email protected]> JAB <[email protected]d> writes:

    [snip]

    "incentivize Americans to buy electric vehicles
    may have contributed to their beef."

    Bingo....Tesla has a cash flow issue with sales decreased.

    They're still raking in yuge amounts of money courtesy
    of "carbon credit" sales to... the legacy car makers.

    Getting rid of that boondoggle would do a hefty smash
    to his profit line


    --
    _____________________________________________________
    Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
    [email protected]
    [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From JAB@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Fri Jun 6 18:15:19 2025
    On Fri, 6 Jun 2025 19:58:45 -0000 (UTC), danny burstein
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    carbon credit

    Tesla's Sales Are Falling So Much That the Cash It Rakes in for Carbon
    Credits Is Under Threat
    ...
    ...
    "If things go bad for Tesla and they don't sell enough cars this year,
    they might not have enough credits for what they promised Stellantis
    and the others," ITCC managing director Peter Mock told Politico.
    "Tesla is under pressure."
    ...
    ...
    "The much bigger impact on Tesla is the fact that the models are
    outdated," German used car platform Cardino cofounder Lukasz Pajak
    told Politico. "And then you have the pricing element where new
    players on the market are much more affordable."

    https://futurism.com/tesla-sales-carbon-credits-europe

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  • From Retrograde@21:1/5 to JAB on Sat Jun 7 02:57:26 2025
    On 6/6/25 17:15, JAB wrote:
    On Fri, 6 Jun 2025 19:58:45 -0000 (UTC), danny burstein
    <[email protected]> wrote:
    "The much bigger impact on Tesla is the fact that the models are
    outdated," German used car platform Cardino cofounder Lukasz Pajak
    told Politico. "And then you have the pricing element where new
    players on the market are much more affordable."


    No, the much bigger impact is that enough consumers have a visceral hatred
    for Nazimusk that he has made the brand toxic. UK sales are down by over
    33%.

    He's a collossal douche, exactly the wrong "face" of a brand. Guarantee you
    a lot of America, when they saw him come in with a black eye, wished they'd
    been the one to sock him right in the face.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From JAB@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sat Jun 7 07:28:06 2025
    On Thu, 5 Jun 2025 20:41:26 -0600, Retrograde
    <[email protected]d> wrote:

    Fight, ladies, fight! Nails out! Claw claw claw!

    "Oh and some food for thought as they ponder this question: Trump has
    3.5 years left as President, but I will be around for 40+ years," Musk
    wrote on his social media platform.

    In other words: Make sure you think long and hard about what you do
    next, because you could live to regret it

    https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/06/politics/republican-party-trump-musk-analysis

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Retrograde@21:1/5 to JAB on Sat Jun 7 09:07:47 2025
    On Sat, 07 Jun 2025 07:28:06 -0500
    JAB <[email protected]d> wrote:

    On Thu, 5 Jun 2025 20:41:26 -0600, Retrograde
    <[email protected]d> wrote:

    Fight, ladies, fight! Nails out! Claw claw claw!

    "Oh and some food for thought as they ponder this question: Trump has
    3.5 years left as President, but I will be around for 40+ years," Musk
    wrote on his social media platform.

    In other words: Make sure you think long and hard about what you do
    next, because you could live to regret it

    Ha, remember when he was going to fight Zuckerberg in a cage, and then
    realized Zuck would pound the living hell out of him as a far stronger,
    better fit guy with decent martial arts skills. And then he had to
    invent some sudden 'back problem' and back out with his tail between
    his legs?

    Musk talks a big game. But he too chickens out. Trump has the upper
    hand in this bitchfight. Talk about a clash of inflated egos. God I
    hate the billionaire class, at least the ones who insist on being on TV
    every moment. How bout we tax the motherf*king lights out of Musk and
    be done with him? I'm betting every Tesla board member who voted in
    favor of his stupid $35B pay package/bonus compensation package is
    regretting it at the moment. The guy is a behaving like a middle
    school bully who turns out to be made more out of fat than muscle.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Retrograde@21:1/5 to Retrograde on Sat Jun 7 09:36:52 2025
    On Fri, 6 Jun 2025 09:41:53 -0600
    Retrograde <[email protected]d> wrote:
    Reddit is pure win this morning:

    And theregister.co.uk slips in a good one too:

    "Fighting like cats and doges"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From JAB@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sat Jun 7 11:20:38 2025
    On Sat, 7 Jun 2025 09:07:47 -0600, Retrograde
    <[email protected]d> wrote:

    Musk talks a big game. But he too chickens out. Trump has
    the upper hand in this bitchfight.

    Unknown how government related contracts are written. Rocket launches
    can be backuped several years.

    Elon has complete control over X....

    Elon dontated some 300 million bucks to Rs...that ain't chicken feed.

    Elon 'needs' those carbon credits and EV tax incentivies...unknown if
    he is a fiscal hawk, but there are Rs who like Elon

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From JAB@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sat Jun 7 12:25:10 2025
    On Thu, 5 Jun 2025 20:41:26 -0600, Retrograde
    <[email protected]d> wrote:

    Fight, ladies, fight! Nails out! Claw claw claw!

    Trump says Musk will face 'serious consequences' if he funds
    Democratic candidates
    =============================

    Oh my....is the T-Borg going to deport Elon?

    If so, Elon's lawyers can show political threats...

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Mike Spencer@21:1/5 to JAB on Sat Jun 7 16:43:16 2025
    JAB <[email protected]d> writes:

    I suspect most of the domestic and foreign policy has been determined
    by others. Domestic via Project 2025, and tariffs for foreign policy
    (which he himself did not plan the details).

    Trump is far too cognitively/mentally disordered to have said,
    proposed or planned anything whatever of substance.

    Trump's enablers, the people who *have* injected matters of substance
    are not buddies or birds of a feather. Vought, Vance/Thiel, Miller,
    Navarro, Posobiec, Musk, Noem and others are a very heterogeneous bag
    with widely differing, sometimes hostile agendas -- personal,
    political, financial or combination of those.

    Their only point of intersection is their perceived need to "burn it
    all down", demolish the existing order to clear the burdensome
    structure of government out of the way of their goals. Trump has been singularly helpful to them all in this task.

    But a time will come, possibly quite soon, when they have to rid
    themselves of Trump because he is so demented that he can't be relied
    upon to support and effectively enable any one of the several
    disparate agendas to step into the results of arson and pull the new
    order together out of chaos.

    It's a problem for the enablers.

    This sounds to me like a scenario of sufficient complexity that a pattern-deducing or -inferring AI could be consulted to sort out the conflicting strands -- those of post-constitutional or post-democratic or post-enlightenment or pro-techno-oligarchy among other variants -- and
    propose a strategy to put the new order into place.

    Publicly available AI chatbots appear to be so constrained that they
    correctly see a request to do that as seeking help with illegal,
    revolutionary, unconstitutional planning. It's a safe guess that not
    all AI systems are so constrained.

    Ho hum, more bother.

    --
    Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada

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  • From JAB@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sat Jun 7 19:28:18 2025
    On 07 Jun 2025 16:43:16 -0300, Mike Spencer
    <[email protected]e> wrote:

    But a time will come, possibly quite soon,

    Sidebar: Time Has Come Today
    The Chambers Brothers
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIqwzQ7g-Cc

    Trump's enablers

    "The grass is greener on the other side" they may think, in their
    simplistic reasoning. Messing with US's economic engine will affect people/institutions/corps, but these Rs seek their narrow vision.

    Harry Nilsson - Jump into the Fire - "Jump into the Fire" is a rock
    song written and performed in a style that music journalist Matthew
    Greenwald likens to the early-1970s sound of the Rolling Stones. He
    adds: "Lyrically, on the surface, it's a hot lovers plea; however, it
    could easily be taken as a plea to society as a whole." Wiki https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfjNpgZ4C5Q

    "burn it all down"

    Major General Smedley D. Butler - (Born: July 30, 1881- Died: June 21,
    1940) - In November 1934, Butler claimed the existence of a political conspiracy by business leaders to overthrow President Roosevelt, a
    series of allegations that came to be known in the media as the
    Business Plot.....In November 1934, Butler told the committee that one
    Gerald P. MacGuire told him that a group of businessmen, supposedly
    backed by a private army of 500,000 ex-soldiers and others, intended
    to establish a fascist dictatorship. Butler had been asked to lead it,
    he said, by MacGuire, who was a bond salesman with Grayson M. P.
    Murphy & Co. The New York Times reported that Butler had told friends
    that General Hugh S. Johnson, former head of the National Recovery Administration, was to be installed as dictator, and that the J.P.
    Morgan banking firm was behind the plot. Butler told Congress that
    MacGuire had told him the attempted coup was backed by three million
    dollars, and that the 500,000 men were probably to be assembled in
    Washington, D.C. the following year. All the parties alleged to be
    involved publicly said there was no truth in the story, calling it a
    joke and a fantasy.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler

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