Oligarch Enemies
Elon Musk, who has arguably become the most dangerous person in America, “is giving away $1 million to a Pennsylvanian each day until Nov. 5. Two people have already won the prize money after signing Musk’s America PAC petition backing the Constitution.” The move is certainly unethical and disturbing, and it probably breaks sweepstakes laws, but it’s hardly the worst trick Musk is pulling. He’s the conspiracy theory spreader in chief on his own social network and he basically runs Trump’s ground campaign. From 404 Media, here’s a look at how his PAC is microtargeting Muslims and Jews with opposing messages. It gets darker. Elon Musk’s Fake Sites and Fake Texts Impersonating the Harris Campaign.
+ What’s in it for Musk (and a handful of other billionaires funding the entire Trump operation)? Well, let’s narrow the answer down to this: Everything. Franklin Foer in The Atlantic (Gift Article): What Elon Musk Really Wants. “Many other titans of Silicon Valley have tethered themselves to Trump. But Musk is the one poised to live out the ultimate techno-authoritarian fantasy. With his influence, he stands to capture the state, not just to enrich himself. His entanglement with Trump will be an Ayn Rand novel sprung to life, because Trump has explicitly invited Musk into the government to play the role of the master engineer, who redesigns the American state—and therefore American life—in his own image.” (On the positive side, if the turnout is good for Dems, they can beat Trump and Musk in one election.)
+ NYT (Gift Article): U.S. Agencies Fund, and Fight With, Elon Musk. A Trump Presidency Could Give Him Power Over Them. “Given Mr. Musk’s immense business footprint, he will be a major player no matter who wins the election. But he has thrown his fortune and power behind former President Donald J. Trump and, in return, Mr. Trump has vowed to make Mr. Musk head of a new ‘government efficiency commission’ with the power to recommend wide-ranging cuts at federal agencies and changes to federal rules. That would essentially give the world’s richest man and a major government contractor the power to regulate the regulators who hold sway over his companies.” And from WaPo (Gift Article): “In essence, Musk is running a real-time experiment on American democracy. “Can a billionaire change the results of a close election by buying a communications platform, stretching legal limits by throwing millions around in swing states, and funding organizations that run deceptive ads?”
+ “‘They see Trump as their instrument. This is an investment for them to take power.’ Wilentz noted that, unlike the ‘traditional corporate conservative élite’ dating back to the Gilded Age, this new ‘class of the super-rich’ appears both more numerous and less civic-minded. ‘The other guys might have been robber barons,’ Wilentz said. ‘These guys are oligarchs.'” Susan Glasser in The New Yorker: How Republican Billionaires Learned to Love Trump Again.
+ Our politics has increasingly become billionaire v billionaire. And that trend will continue. Mark Cuban says ‘It’s the Harris campaign vs. Elon,’ not Trump.
