Musk Merges His AI Company With X, Claiming Combined Value of $113 Billion

Forget about the financial smokescreen, he controls the money now.  But what really matters is.



Our goose is cooked.  Merging with AI is full censorship.

  Would be proud.

As I mentioned when Columbia responded to Trumpolini's demands originally, they were attempting to appear to acquiese without going the full 9 yards on Academic Reeceivership or masks.  It was questionable whether it would be enough to satisfy His Trumpness, and clearly so far it hasn't been.  The $400M is still being held hostage, and my guess is rather than further capitulate, the interim Prez decided to resign and hand off the thankless job to somebody else.

Faculty and students are already unhappy, so further actions to get the money released likely won't go over well.  So they need a new tactic.

Rather than demonstrations, a Student-Faculty Strike would be worth a try, particularly since they would likely get support from the other Ivies.    They also have to make thee narrative about Freedom of Speech and not about Palestinian genocide.

It will be interesting to see what the new interim Prez does now.  Definitely a job with no upside.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/28/columbia-university-katrina-armstrong

RE

Quote from: K-Dog on Mar 27, 2025, 09:24 PMFirst they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out.  Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out.  Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.

Niemoller's quote is getting a lot of play these days.  Of course the MAGAotts figure they're safe because they're old white folks.  Wait till their Social Security checks go missing and nobody answers the phone on the help line.

The whole idea that Ph.D, candidates at Ivy League schools are a threat to National Security is utterly preposterous.  All that is happening here is like any Totalitarian state, dissent is being crushed.  Same as Stalin sending Solzhenitsyn to the Gulag.  ICE is Trump's Stazi & KGB.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/28/rumeysa-ozturk-tufts-trump-immigration-gaza

RE

QuoteEl Salvador.

Indeed 'Gitmo' is now privatized.  New and improved and more EFFICIENT   than a fucking NAZI gas chamber.  Add in a few of the more native American, latino looking DACA Dreamers to start with next. Then when there is not a peep from anyone, add in Joe next door.  Put him on the list.  Native born corn fed Scots-Irish too.  Come one come all.

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out.  Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out.  Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.

The rank and file of MAGA slowly wakes up.  But the full realization that Trump never gave a fuck about them, they will not realize in time.  Not until it is too late.  The truth can be painful, and we all avoid pain.

Some veterans in MAGA have reached a point where they are thinking.  'He does not get it.  Somebody needs to tell him stuff, and as soon as Trump understands he will do the right thing.

In a case of such total delusion, coming to one's senses can be painfully slow.

Quote from: Goldernen Oxernen on Mar 16, 2025, 08:02 PM

Quote from: Fantasy Girl on Mar 10, 2025, 02:29 PMI think we have a new troll !

Reminiscent of one with only one V in their name.

By this logic, people are all atheist because they have dogs who don't believe in gods.

I thought he was saying how LTG is received, rather than his own opinion on it.

None of these new active topics are easy to find. I came across this by accident trying to revisit the last one I posted in, which I didn't find. Is it not possible to have the topics /threads listed in order of most recent activity?

Oh my gawd, like, the source that was all, "how it was received," was totally, like, right-wing propaganda—literally the same kinda trash the tobacco companies used to, like, totally manipulate people. Ugh, so cringe!

K-Dog did good.  Right wing lying ass trolls can play somewhere else.

Not gonna see campus rebellions like  1968 this time round.  By targeting the immigrants and foreign students, Trump has successfully put the fear of deportation and imprisonment in the people protesting.  This has divided the community into a them and us situation, demonizing the foreigners.  During Vietnam, protesters might get arrested, but they weren't being deported to jails in El Salvador.  The risks this time around are substantially larger.

I suspect with Peaceful Protest now off the table, we'll see a rise in bombings and violent actions to draw attention to the plight of the Palestinians.  This in turn will result in even more repression.  Civil War seems inevitable.



At Columbia University, Trump's crackdown chills a fervent campus

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/columbia-university-protests-trump-crackdown-rcna198016

This could become a very BIG problem very quickly.  If they are already   falling apart after just a couple of weeks, what's it gonna look like in a couple of months?  Beyond that, is there any way to stop the chaos before it spins out of control?

Besides being malicious, the even bigger problem is that Musk & Trump are incompetent and have no clue how to administer a goobermint.  Thee Yes Men Trump surrounds himself with are equally clueless.

Civil War may arrive sooner than expected.

Elon Musk's DOGE Cuts Are Crashing Social Security

https://newrepublic.com/post/193134/social-security-falling-apart-elon-musk-doge-cuts

RE

For our post-truth word, some fiction:

The Privatized and Fascist States of America

The year was 2029. The American Experiment had ended.  Not with a bang, but corporate acquisition has trumped all freedom.

Following Donald Trump's re-election in 2024, the U.S. government underwent a radical transformation. With Elon Musk as Chief Efficiency Officer, Trump's unofficial but all-powerful special government employee, the new administration began the largest privatization scheme in history. Agencies deemed "inefficient" were sold to the highest bidder. Social Security was acquired by Meta. The U.S. Postal Service? is replaced by Tesla Logistics. The Federal Reserve is gone and a new digital currency run by an AI, " $TRUMP dollars" takes its place.  With a picture of the smiling orange motherfucker on every god-dammed digital wallet.  This is required by law.

At first, markets surged. Investors celebrated. America became a corporate utopia, innovation replaced bureaucracy and stimulus checks squelched any resistance to Trump's profit of plunder.

By 2026, cracks began to show. California and New York, resisting federal mandates and the surging poverty, declared economic independence, refusing to recognize the authority of the newly privatized government.  California became fully independent while Texas unlike the rest of America, thrived. 

Fully embracing Musk's vision of a decentralized, crypto-backed society based on cultivated economic disparity, Texas became the go to place for slave labor and tax free profit.  The Texas economy boomed at the same time interstate trade collapsed.

Basic services became subscription-based. Water in Arizona became a premium commodity controlled by Amazon Aquatics.  Any emergency medical care required a Platinum + membership.  Nothing was free and Trump instituted an air tax on anybody deemed a useless eater.  $50 a month if your net worth was less than $1,000,000 or if your politics were considered "progressive".  The tax became known as the "progressive tax",  but nobody who had to pay it thought it was funny.

By 2028, Washington D.C. was an abandoned husk, its marble monuments covered by corporate branding. Power had moved to Austin, where Trump, Musk, and their billionaire council presided over the fragmented remains of a once-united nation, fully protected by their mercenary armies of private police.

Their Privatized States of America restored the age of great robber barons.  For a small few America was great once again.

But not everyone was happy with the changes. A resistance movement, inspired by abandoned and outdated ideals of democracy and fueled by daddy issues with the big orange daddy, emerged in the Rust Belt.

Led by ex-government officials and the legion of unemployed.  The resistance sought to reestablish a public government, battling AI-controlled security forces and corporate mercenary forces. Their leader, a former postal worker named Hope Dashed, spread propaganda through underground networks.  Distributing printed pamphlets which urged Americans to reject their status as "subscribers" and reclaim their rights as citizens.

California its own nation began to launch its own communication satellites unwilling to pay the Musk nut for use of Starlink in 2028.  A direct challenge to Musk's dominance Starlink satellites went dark in an attempt to bring California into submission as had been done successfully to Canada.  Armed skirmishes erupted along the Mississippi in the ensuing chaos.  The Mississippi is a de facto border between privatized corporate states and free territories.

Now as the battle for America's rages on, one question looms.

Will America find its way back from the brink, or is it destined to follow the Soviet Union's path.   Fragmented, leaderless, impoverished, and lost to history?

It appears to be so.  Millions now die.

Can't win in the courts?  Get rid of them!

Fascism on steroids.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/26/mike-johnson-congress-courts-trump

RE

The social security system in Greenland includes:

    Public pensions for retirees and disabled individuals
    Unemployment benefits for those who qualify
    Healthcare coverage under a publicly funded system
    Family and child benefits, including parental leave and childcare support

Though benefits aren't as generous as in Denmark, they are still more secure than many U.S. states.

Greenland: Public pension system ensures a basic income for seniors, regardless of work history.  In the U.S. Social Security provides a pension based on work history.  Benefits depend on how much one has paid in.  There is universal access to pensions in Greenland, but In the U.S., people receive little or no Social Security if they haven't paid in.

Greenland: Parental leave policies exist, though not as generous as Denmark, child benefits are available.  In the U.S. there is no guaranteed paid parental leave, it depends on employer policy.  Any paid parental leave is better than the U.S.'s lack of guaranteed leave.

Greenland: Free education, including university options in Denmark.  In the U.S. only public school is free.  College is expensive, and student debt is common.  Greenland education comes without a massive debt burden.

But as they must have the COVID brain damage in Greenland like everywhere else, they must be standing in line to bend the knee to Trump.


The Greenlanders 4 Trump theme song.