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- technology@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.ml
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Musk is a fucking anti American liability. How the fuck does he have access to military contracts
Money
Money
Well, despite its owner, SpaceX is actually doing cool and useful stuff. Nobody else bothered with the reusable rocket thing until they made it happen. Starship is on the way to becoming the world’s first 100% reusable orbital transport system, propulsively landing the second stage as well as the first. Soon as they get those toasty melty flaps figured out.
It just sucks that he’s in control of it.
Maybe NASA would have bothered if its funding hadn’t been cut again and again and again…
I actually prefer NASA to focus on science engineering. There’s a need for private launch capabilities anyway and this way NASA can focus on what they do best.
What’s the need for private launch capabilities? Private = capitalist. I don’t see much good in capitalist ventures.
Because there’s a need for private satellites? Should NASA use limited resources for that?
The airspace is a public asset though. Letting capitalists exploit it for profit isn’t going to end well, if the rest of the environment is anything to go by.
NASA farms these out to outside companies to build anyway, as seen with the latest Boeing space fiasco, so I don’t necessarily believe this to be true. These defense contractors seem to be interested in little more than milking the US government for all they’re worth.
Sure, because they don’t have any budget themselves…
They have a $25B yearly budget.
What is SpaceX spending on R&D? From what I’ve read, Starship is estimated to cost $10B for development and their R&D budget for 2023 was $1.5B. If NASA was going to build something similar themselves, they’ve had nearly 70 years and hundreds of billions to accomplish it.
In reality their budget goes toward companies like Boeing, Northrop Grummon, and Lockheed Martin, who then pocket it and build substandard equipment. This is all public information so I can’t imagine why people are downvoting other than being extremely emotional for some inexplicable reason.
NASA doesn’t have effective control of their budget anymore. Congress holds the purse strings and uses them like a harness
NASA gets funding to do something - like go to the moon, or track CO2 emissions. But it comes with strings - sometimes you have to build a certain component in a certain congressional district, sometimes Congress chooses the design you have to use
It’s a problem of politics and corruption. When the public supports NASA, they have more autonomy. When NASA gets a blank check, they do more with it - reusable rockets aren’t a new idea, and when they cancelled the shuttle program NASA had brain drain. Some of those people founded spaceX - Elon didn’t start it, he came in when they were getting off the ground, just like with Tesla
From wikipedia:
In early 2002, Elon Musk started to look for staff for his company, soon to be named SpaceX. Musk approached five people for the initial positions at the fledgling company, including Michael Griffin, who declined the position of Chief Engineer,[17] Jim Cantrell and John Garvey (Cantrell and Garvey would later found the company Vector Launch), rocket engineer Tom Mueller, and Chris Thompson.
So your claim that
Some of those people founded spaceX - Elon didn’t start it, he came in when they were getting off the ground, just like with Tesla
conflicts with wikipedia’s history of the company.
You are omitting the lede. Public appetite for failure on tax payer funds is near zero. That increases time, complexity, and cost for launches (with or without humans aboard).
Which can be a failure in itself when you spend 10 years and tens of billions building something “perfectly” only for it to break on its maiden voyage. That makes you wonder what was the point of doing everything so methodically when they could have taken a more efficient and iterative approach.
What spacecraft do you think they built themselves, without big contractors doing mos5 of the work…?
SpaceX broke the decades-long practice of costs-plus contracts for lump sum contracts from DOD. DOD wanted to offer them the same costs-plus contract style they give to other defense contractors and SpaceX turned that down and demanded lump sum on delivery.
People forget Musk isn’t actually technically smart, he’s just good at buying into and investing in already good ideas using money he got by playing the capital machine (and his parents south africa money).
He didn’t found PayPal; he merged another company with them and capitalized on their already good idea.
He didn’t found Tesla, he invested in them and then drove the original founders out.
He did admittedly create SpaceX, but only by bringing on good engineers from the start after failing to buy ICBM’s from Russia. Yes, he tried that… spaceX has been successful only because he gave them the runway to let engineers work right.The cult of personality is insane, he’s just another average investor bro who got lucky in the crazy growth of the 90’s/00s.
Tres comas, indeed.
A glorious Silicon Valley reference.
It’s more than that - he failed to create PayPal so his group bought a competitor, he didn’t found Tesla or spaceX - he claimed he did, then reached settlements with the actual founders to not contest his claims. He did start the boring company. It didn’t get off the ground because he can’t build a team
Thats right in Paypal and Tesla’s cases, he bought them and then gave himself the title of founder, but he did actually found SpaceX. Per wiki:
In early 2001, Elon Musk met Robert Zubrin and donated US$100,000 to his Mars Society, joining its board of directors for a short time.[11]: 30–31 He gave a plenary talk at their fourth convention where he announced Mars Oasis, a project to land a greenhouse and grow plants on Mars.[12][13] Musk initially attempted to acquire a Dnepr intercontinental ballistic missile for the project through Russian contacts from Jim Cantrell.[14]
Musk then returned with his team a second time to Moscow this time bringing Michael Griffin as well, but found the Russians increasingly unreceptive.[15][16] On the flight home Musk announced he could start a company to build the affordable rockets they needed instead.[16] By applying vertical integration,[15] using inexpensive commercial off-the-shelf components when possible,[16] and adopting the modular approach of modern software engineering, Musk believed SpaceX could significantly cut launch cost.[16]
In early 2002, Elon Musk started to look for staff for his company, soon to be named SpaceX. Musk approached five people for the initial positions at the fledgling company, including Michael Griffin, who declined the position of Chief Engineer,[17] Jim Cantrell and John Garvey (Cantrell and Garvey would later found the company Vector Launch), rocket engineer Tom Mueller, and Chris Thompson.[18][19] SpaceX was first headquartered in a warehouse in El Segundo, California. Early SpaceX employees, such as Tom Mueller (CTO), Gwynne Shotwell (COO), and Chris Thompson (VP of Operations), came from neighboring TRW and Boeing corporations. By November 2005, the company had 160 employees.[20] Musk personally interviewed and approved all of SpaceX’s early employees.[21]
Sure would be too bad if someone decided to federalize SpaceX… sure would…
Oh yes. Surely the federal government could manage it better than Musk. Think of the progress we could have if NASA were running SpaceX instead.
Musk isn’t managing SpaceX… and why would the government do such a terrible job? Or is this one of those libertarian “government is always bad” things? Because NASA has a pretty good track record.
I’m hoping reusables becomes so standard Musks company isn’t needed anymore.
But that’ll be a long ways off. I agree SpaceX basically revitalized the industry.
asks the same question ☞ https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/26/elon-musk-us-national-security
Money
No one’s assassinated him yet 🤷♂️
Some ai tdlr The document appears to be a comprehensive research dossier on J.D. Vance, dated February 23, 2024, and labeled as “Privileged & Confidential.” It includes detailed background on Vance’s political career, financial records, personal history, and potential vulnerabilities. Below is a summary of key sections:
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Executive Synopsis and Vulnerabilities:
- Anti-Trump Record and Establishment Ties: During the 2016 election, Vance was opposed to Donald Trump, referring to Trump as dangerous and criticizing his policies. He was described as a “never Trumper” and expressed doubts about Trump’s effectiveness.
- Questionable Conservatism: Vance’s political positions often cross party lines. He has praised certain Democratic policies, opposed some core Republican policies like the 2017 tax cuts, and supported higher taxes for businesses and individuals without children. His stance on labor unions and criticism of corporate interests also mark him as diverging from traditional Republican economic priorities.
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Top Hits:
- Political and Voting History: Vance failed to vote in several elections between 2018 and 2020 and was not a registered Republican in Hamilton County until 2022.
- Lobbying Ties: While at Sidley Austin, Vance worked for clients such as Purdue Pharma and companies tied to the Chinese Communist Party.
- Liberal Tendencies: Vance has previously expressed admiration for Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Bernie Sanders.
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Campaign Finance:
- 2022 Senate Campaign: Vance raised nearly $16 million, with contributions from Republican committees, corporations, and notable PACs. He also received donations from individuals with anti-Trump views.
- 2028 Re-election Campaign: Since 2023, Vance raised over $1.5 million, with funds coming from PACs and corporations like SpaceX, Honeywell, and Comcast.
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Policy and Controversial Views:
- Vance has supported raising taxes, especially for those without children, and has advocated for stronger labor union reforms.
- He has been critical of both Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare and Trump’s domestic policies.
- On social issues, Vance opposes abortion, supports traditional family structures, and advocates for stricter immigration controls.
- He has also been critical of foreign interventions, particularly in Ukraine, and supports non-interventionism.
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Personal Information:
- Vance is married to Usha Bala Vance and has three children. He has served as a U.S. Senator from Ohio since 2023. Prior to that, he worked in venture capital and at a law firm.
This summary highlights Vance’s evolving political positions, campaign finance details, and areas of potential vulnerability that could be used by opponents in future political contests.
So, uh… Why does Elon even care about this?
Is this from that Iranian hack of the Trump organization or something?
(EDIT: Literal first paragraph of the article. Yes.)
According to the article, the reason X has taken action is because the dossier contains Vance’s home addresses.
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Nice.
What a strange read. I can’t believe they went with this weirdo.
This is pretty much a summary of a lot of already public data. Could be valuable as an appendix of ways to attack Vance but otherwise not much new here.
My takeaway is the Trump campaign was too sycophantic to Trump to notice Vance’s actual problems. They have records of his weird views on domestic violence and other strange views but they’re buried in mountains of data about everything he’s said about Trump. And his obsession with childless women isn’t in the document anywhere as far as I can tell.
I didn’t even take that away from it because, like you said, it was all public information already. The second I heard they picked the guy who called Trump “America’s Hitler” was when I knew that they once again didn’t bother doing their due diligence.
He has praised certain Democratic policies, opposed some core Republican policies like the 2017 tax cuts, and supported higher taxes for businesses and individuals without children.
“Free Speech Absolutist.”
So that’s what $45B worth of free speech looks like.
Don’t be ridiculous and mean.
It was $44 billion.
Whenever the right says “free speech”, they mean “speech controlled by us”.
For anyone on this thread who doesn’t know who Ken Klip is, please check out his free Substack (and subscribe if you can). I wasn’t on Twitter very long (maybe 1.5 years before Elmong took over) but one of the people I value that I ran into on that platform is Ken Klippenstein and I’ve been following him since. He’s amazing at filing thousands of FOIA requests and doing the digging into them that no mainstream journalist does anymore. He also recently quit The Intercept because they were enshittifying far more than he was comfortable with, which for a writer is a huge thing to leave the umbrella of a company like that and a paycheck behind. Writers going out on their own in this climate is the only way we’ll stay even remotely unfucked in the post-information (or misinformation) age.
Klip fuckin rules. Please give him some due.
To quote a commenter on Ars:
“Freedom of speech for me, not for thee”
That sums it up quite accuratly.
44… plus Fallout cost
I just can’t take all this free speech that’s happening right now
Someone trying to invoke good old Barbara Streisand?
Matching suits and ties. How fucking weird.
The ties don’t exactly match. The orange one made sure his tie was the longest and stupidest looking.
I hope he eventually dyes his hair the same color, too.
Either one of them. It would be weird either way.
It would make trump look a tiny bit more normal I think.
What a twat.
Is JD Vance required to wear the same outfit as Trump, except with a shorter, less girthy tie?
Out of the criticisms I have of Vance, I do have to say that he wears the Trump uniform better than Trump himself.
I mean that’s not hard to do, Vance is at least vaguely human shaped.
FB is also threatening bans for posting any links to it.
Anyone have a working link to it?
This link doesn’t work anymore, which is why I believe OP specified.
Hmm seems to be working for me? 🤔
Thank you.
Here’s a better link that actually works
https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/read-the-jd-vance-dossier
No idea where the other person got their API link
Free speech absolutist
They’re fucking, aren’t they?
Musk and Vance?
Nah, Vance needs more cushion for the pushin’.
… the general population, yes.
