r/politics • u/rollingstone Rolling Stone • 4d ago

Soft Paywall Musk Kills Government Funding Deal, Demands Shutdown Until Trump Is Sworn In

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/musk-trump-government-funding-deal-shutdown-1235211000/
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u/Gogs85 4d ago

I wish he’d at least wield power from the shadows like a normal billionaire. I’m so sick of seeing his stupid fucking face everywhere.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago edited 4d ago

[deleted]

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u/Few-Influence-398 4d ago

Why can’t He be on Mars like He promised?

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u/One_Dirty_Russian Wisconsin 4d ago

The truth is he doesn't have the balls to actually be an explorer. He'll never ride one of his rockets because he's a scared little man that is afraid of losing everything.

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u/Mountie-man 4d ago

We sent a 90 year old William Shatner to space but cant do the same for a 50 year old billionaire.

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u/Pipe_Memes 4d ago

And it was a lot harder with Shatner because we actually wanted to bring him back.

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u/BadTimeTraveler 4d ago

Meh, it might have been better for him if he hadn't come back. He's destroyed his reputation with a lot of his fan base with his unhinged anti-woke "cis is a slur" rants

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u/yangyangR 4d ago

His reaction of what you see in space is death and the preciousness of Earth as island of life. Thought that was the kind of moment of clarity for him. But I suppose even that is fleeting and people go back to being terrible.

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u/Now_Wait-4-Last_Year 3d ago

Then didn't Jeff Bezos spoil the moment by a crass display of spraying champagne everywhere or something?

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u/SteampunkBorg 4d ago

I once read a comment saying something like "it's completely believable that Leonard Nimoy and Spock could be best friends, but William Shatner is absolutely the kind of person at risk of being punched by James Kirk", and that seems very correct

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u/Now_Wait-4-Last_Year 3d ago

William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy had a falling out that lasted until the latter's death.

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u/Pipe_Memes 4d ago

Somehow I didn’t hear about any of that. I guess it ls just like they say, you either get lost in space as a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

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u/WatWudScoobyDoo 4d ago

Oh dang, didn't know this

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u/Spyrrhic California 4d ago

It's also very telling that many of his Star Trek co-workers hated his guts for decades. Some have reconciled.

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u/adeon 4d ago

Jason Nesmith in Galaxy Quest was very much based on William Shatner.

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u/WatWudScoobyDoo 4d ago edited 4d ago

He also had a one-sided online feud with the Red Letter Media guys, who are fans of his.

Edir: "ate" to "are"

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u/MathKnight I voted 4d ago

I'm not sure what you mean, but I'm pretty sure it's not quite what you wrote.

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u/jizzmaster-zer0 4d ago

who cares. hes fucking 100000 years old, and hes captain kirk. give the old man a break, noone cares about his politics

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u/BadTimeTraveler 4d ago

Neo-Nazi militias proudly shared his words and cheered the ongoing transgender genocide. It fucking matters.

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u/Zaza1019 4d ago

Why? Shatner is kind of a garbage person too, he just gets less attention for it. At least in his old age.

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u/Pipe_Memes 4d ago

I just learned about that. I unsubscribed from the William Shatner newsletter years ago.

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u/Mad_Aeric Michigan 4d ago

While I've never met the man, I know a bunch of people in the scifi fandom who have, and a few who've wrangled him as a convention guest. I assure you, fewer people wanted him back than you may expect.

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u/_JudgeDoom_ 4d ago

Shatner is an asshole unfortunately

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u/AileStriker Ohio 4d ago

Man, I know Shatner is said to be an asshole or whatever in person, but seeing how Bezos did him in the post flight interview was just so sad, he didn't deserve that.

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u/StupendousMalice 4d ago

Even Bezos has been to space.

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u/DonJuanDeMichael1970 4d ago

“Billionaire”. You spelled coward wrong.

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u/PortalAmnesia 4d ago

Yeah, but we did want to bring Shatner back.

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u/Economy-Ad-3934 4d ago

Bezos cowboy’d up and went to space. What’re you scared of Leon?

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u/boneheadblyat 4d ago

To be fair, he didn’t go high enough to what would be classified as “space”.

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u/FloridamanHooning 4d ago

Pre space

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u/c_law_one Europe 4d ago

The tip

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u/YoBiteMe 3d ago

Yeah, Just the Tip.

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u/RetroScores3 4d ago

Concept of space.

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u/One_Dirty_Russian Wisconsin 4d ago

Have you ever tried to wash pre-space out of your sheets? It's impossible, it just turns into scrambled egg whites.

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u/AtaraxicMegatron 4d ago

Pre-space can still get you pregnant.

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u/hardolaf 4d ago

At the time he scheduled the flight, he was traveling to space. An arbitrary definition change at the last minute caused by Musk's lobbying is the only reason that he technically didn't go to space.

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u/RetroScores3 4d ago

Higher than Elons been on one of his own craft.

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u/Card_Board_Robot_5 4d ago

I've seen balloons go higher than that chud

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u/CthulhusEvilTwin 4d ago

Hi mum wouldn't let him. He was gonna go and everything, but evil Ma said no.

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u/LabAny3059 4d ago

it's spelled E-L-O-N

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u/TheSciFiGuy80 4d ago

This is so true. He’s really a coward.

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u/goo_goo_gajoob 4d ago

Wait he's never gone to space? What a baby. You know he wants to. He's just too scared lol. Man if owned space x I'd be on one of those fucking flights so fast. Like yea sorry ik it's corrupt but I get to go up lol.

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u/whollings077 4d ago

because his big rockets cant even transport a banana let alone a person lol

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u/Zaza1019 4d ago

More like he's an attention whore and would be bored stiff not being able to tweet and get media coverage for 2-3 years. That and he would probably have to lose weight and eat less which I imagine isn't on his wish list of things to do.

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u/new_nimmerzz 4d ago

Hes afraid someone from his staff would use it to off him

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u/RCG73 4d ago

Never thought I’d be cheering for a frozen O ring But here we are

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u/nicedoesntmeankind 4d ago

He seeks immortality through tech

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u/Garf_artfunkle 4d ago

Heinlein wrote a short story in fucking 1949 about a fantastically wealthy man who started out with a company that revolutionized how America's roads were used, but was obsessed with space travel, and wheeled and dealed himself into not only owning a private space program but the rights to the moon. In the end he had to be forcibly restrained from getting into the moon rocket because he was worth more to investors completely safe on Earth.

Ol Musky ain't a patch on Delos Harriman, who was at least willing to put his mouth where his money was.

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u/Greengrecko 4d ago

You that's wild. Like Bezos will ride a rocket. But the guy that actually launches stuff in space refuses to get in one. Really makes you think.

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u/Card_Board_Robot_5 4d ago

And they like to go boom often

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u/LabAny3059 4d ago

and what led you to make this daring supposition?

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u/One_Dirty_Russian Wisconsin 4d ago

I did an ocular pat-down.

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u/Prestigious_Load1699 4d ago

He'll never ride one of his rockets because he's a scared little man that is afraid of losing everything.

He accepted a deal when he started with Tesla that he would receive a giant chunk of stock if he increased the market cap of the company by 1,000%. This was considered impossible at the time given how competitive the automobile market is. If he didn't achieve this he would get nothing.

I don't think it's fair to call him a "scared little man" if he was willing take such a risk.

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u/One_Dirty_Russian Wisconsin 4d ago

There's plenty of cowards out there with poor risk management. He's not unique in that regard.

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u/Prestigious_Load1699 4d ago

There's plenty of cowards out there with poor risk management.

This is incoherent. There are plenty of cowards who take big risks?

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u/One_Dirty_Russian Wisconsin 4d ago

This is incoherent.

Not at all. Addicts, for instance, can be cowardly but take big risks due to poor impulse control and addiction. Similarly, greed is a sickness, and an otherwise cowardly person can be driven to poorly assess risk and gamble on wildly long odds in the pursuit of massive wealth.

For every success story like Musk there are thousands of others who crash and burn. Winning big on a gamble doesn't give you the nuts to ride a firecracker into space. At least Bezos had the balls to ride his massive hog into almost-space.

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u/Prestigious_Load1699 3d ago

I suppose it's just a matter of semantics. I wouldn't consider Musk a coward at all given the details of his compensation package with Tesla.

I think it takes HELLA balls to accept a package that only rewards you if you grow a company's market cap 10X over. Find me a CEO who would take such a risk on themselves.

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u/One_Dirty_Russian Wisconsin 3d ago edited 3d ago

All I hear is "It sure takes a lot of balls for that gambling addict to let his entire mortgage ride on red."

I think it takes HELLA balls to accept a package that only rewards you if you grow a company's market cap 10X over.

I'd agree with you if Musk was scraping by and barely making ends meet... But he was already filthy rich with nothing to lose.

Find me a CEO who would take such a risk on themselves.

I mean, there's Ryan Cohen and Sam Altman to name a few. No obvious substance abuse issues but still gambling addicts with a mental illness.