३१ ऑगस्ट, २०२३

"The surest proof the knives are out is a Ronan Farrow 'exposé' in The New Yorker: 'Elon Musk’s Shadow Rule: How the U.S. government came to rely on the tech billionaire—and is now struggling to rein him in.'"

"Exactly what business it is of the United States government to 'rein in' a figure remains unclear, but the establishment doesn’t trust any power center it cannot control. This is the instinct of authoritarians everywhere and with good reason — Vaclav Havel’s Velvet Revolution arguably started with rock and roll. It’s why college administrators are hostile to fraternities and why communist regimes control the churches...."

Writes Glenn Reynolds, in The New York Post.

३५ टिप्पण्या:

Sebastian म्हणाले...

"the establishment doesn’t trust any power center it cannot control"

True, but a little too gentle. We're talking prog establishment, prog power, and prog determination.

rhhardin म्हणाले...

Even worse is comedian power centers, like Trump. Ridicule wipes out even the contesting of power.

Iman म्हणाले...

Ronan Farrow…

Frank must be spinning in his grave.

Tommy Duncan म्हणाले...

"... the establishment doesn’t trust any power center it cannot control. This is the instinct of authoritarians everywhere and with good reason — Vaclav Havel’s Velvet Revolution arguably started with rock and roll. It’s why college administrators are hostile to fraternities and why communist regimes control the churches...."

Clear, precise and truthful...

Kevin म्हणाले...

The last election was not “rigged”, but the powers that be can’t stand for an election where they don’t control all media.

Kate म्हणाले...

Insti scanning Althouse for article material, lol.

Darkisland म्हणाले...

Elon should buy the NYT.

Or at least Twx that he is thinking about it.

The entertainment value would be through the roof.

John Henry

Rusty म्हणाले...

They don't like people they can't control. The left in this country feel,(not think),that if you make your fortune here you them your allegiance.
Elon Musk is an overall asset to this country.

Leland म्हणाले...

Nice observation: "Without frontiers, life becomes a zero-sum game, with people fighting to preserve or enlarge their piece of the pie instead of happily watching the pie get bigger."

Big Mike म्हणाले...

When [Elon Musk] saw how the establishment was using Twitter (in collusion with various government agencies, we now know) to suppress speech it didn’t like, he bought Twitter and put a stop to it.

Sort of. My impression is that it’s harder for the company formerly known as Twitter to stifle factual information that is uncomfortable to the DC political establishment, but by no means impossible, and in fact is still going on today.

Exactly what business it is of the United States government to “rein in” a figure remains unclear,

No, it’s perfectly clear that they have no business at all.

but the establishment doesn’t trust any power center it cannot control. This is the instinct of authoritarians everywhere and with good reason — Vaclav Havel’s Velvet Revolution arguably started with rock and roll.

Three true assertions.

Leland म्हणाले...

The last election was not “rigged”, but the powers that be can’t stand for an election where they don’t control all media.

What I find interesting is using the rules of Russia Collusion; the 2020 election was most definitely rigged. The idea that Russia successfully colluded with Trump to sway the election his way was based on a few ad buys and supposed bots. To the extent of any of that was true, it pales in the comparison to US intelligence and law enforcement agencies working with major media from TV news, news print, Meta and Twitter to suppress stories in favor of Trump and outright block stories negative to Biden. We had officials, that now work in our government, lie to the American people that Hunter's laptop was Russian disinformation. Trump is now indicted for far less egregious lies of noting that officials acted against his presidency. And we know they did, because they used to brag about themselves being the resistance. An insurrection happened, but it wasn't led by Donald Trump.

Leland म्हणाले...

I should note on my last comment. The problem with Musk is he exposed much of what officials did to interfere with the 2020 election and what they are still doing now.

gilbar म्हणाले...

it's Really Quite Simple, and this goes for Everyone, rich or poor:
The Government People SAY... And You OBEY

Bob Boyd म्हणाले...

I hope they leave the part of Elon's shadow that falls on the pavement of Arizona.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

The corrupt mob-left money whore hate free speech... and they hate that they cannot control everything ala Stalin or Mao. ... or Castro.

Biden is a mini-Castro. Merrick is his general. Wray is the paid-off lackey.

Mike (MJB Wolf) म्हणाले...

Same problem the Establishment has with Trump. And now apparently with Vivek.

n.n म्हणाले...

Beware the ides of Ronan.

Mike (MJB Wolf) म्हणाले...

Worth repeating Leland: An insurrection happened, but it wasn't led by Donald Trump.

The much celbrated "resistance" was targeted at Trump, as was Hillary's scheme to find and pressure "unfaithful electors." Funny how when leftists act unfaithfully other leftists celebrate them but when Trump does the same thing it is somehow a criminal act or conspiracy. Funny meaning psychotic, of course.

Dude1394 म्हणाले...

A person easily could get all of the news they needed from Ann Althouse and Instapundit. Amazing really.

Mike (MJB Wolf) म्हणाले...

And 53% per cent of Americans polled agree that the DOJ under Garland is acting as "Biden's gestapo." "Then they came for me" used to be something Liberals and Conservatives understood about evil, but apparently the will to power overcomes any disgust at seeing one's fellow citizens treated like criminals for a large portion of this comment group and the votong public.

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

Musk is no savior or saint, but he does skew libertarian.

And his companies, SpaceX in particular, are outperforming what the government can do.

Kind of looks bad for the bureaucrats...they hate being shown up : )

Dude1394 म्हणाले...

"Blogger Leland said...
The last election was not “rigged”, but the powers that be can’t stand for an election where they don’t control all media.

What I find interesting is using the rules of Russia Collusion; the 2020 election was most definitely rigged. The idea that Russia successfully colluded with Trump to sway the election his way was based on a few ad buys and supposed bots. To the extent of any of that was true, it pales in the comparison to US intelligence and law enforcement agencies working with major media from TV news, news print, Meta and Twitter to suppress stories in favor of Trump and outright block stories negative to Biden. We had officials, that now work in our government, lie to the American people that Hunter's laptop was Russian disinformation. Trump is now indicted for far less egregious lies of noting that officials acted against his presidency. And we know they did, because they used to brag about themselves being the resistance. An insurrection happened, but it wasn't led by Donald Trump.

8/31/23, 9:24 AM"

Wow, very, very insightful. It is the way that our media and politicians obfuscate now. The focus on disputing the illegitimate vote counting, which in my opinion it was. But they conveniently leave out the 3 years prior of election interference.

Of course all with the silent ( and not so silent ) assistance of Mitch McConnell, Liz Cheney, John Cornyn, Mitt Romney, Neo-cons and the Bush clan.

hombre म्हणाले...

It is self-evident that Democrat/mediaswine knives are out for Musk, and so many others who are not complicit in the Gramscian takeover. Proof is unnecessary.

Jake म्हणाले...

Is he a real life Henry Rearden?

Dude1394 म्हणाले...

"Blogger Joe Smith said...
Musk is no savior or saint, but he does skew libertarian.

And his companies, SpaceX in particular, are outperforming what the government can do.

Kind of looks bad for the bureaucrats...they hate being shown up : )

8/31/23, 10:24 AM"

Compared to our other social media companies, google, apple, facebook, he IS a saint.

Michael K म्हणाले...

Musk has made the original sin of relying on merit. He hires great engineers and pays them well. The results speak for them selves and enrage Democrats who are all about "equity" which means universal mediocrity.

PM म्हणाले...

Jake:
Or S.R. Hadden.

Maynard म्हणाले...

Is he a real life Henry Rearden?

My first impression of Elon was Hank Rearden, but I think he has the potential to be John Galt.

If he goes Galt, he will get the Trump legal treatment and he probably knows it.

Mazo Jeff म्हणाले...

Elan's real name is Henry Reardon! And Dr Ferris and Wesley Mouch will need Directive10-219 to "rein" him in!!!!

Darkisland म्हणाले...

Directive10-219 didn't work on Hank Reardon, John, Galt of Ragnar Danneskold

Why would it work on Musk?

John Henry

Oligonicella म्हणाले...

Blogger Dude1394 said...

"A person easily could get all of the news they needed from Ann Althouse and Instapundit. Amazing really."

Only if you only want their biases. I cruise a wide range of blogs and vlogs. These two are my favorites but by no means cover everything. Black perspective, for instance.

Original Mike म्हणाले...

Blogger Dude1394 said..."A person easily could get all of the news they needed from Ann Althouse and Instapundit. Amazing really."

Pretty much what I do. Instapundit is the source of a lot of links elsewhere. Althouse commentariat provide a lot of insights.

boatbuilder म्हणाले...

He's wrong about college administrators and frats--just natural ememies--but he's not wrong about the rest.

Narr म्हणाले...

I come here less for news per se than for the insights and analysis (not to mention the jokes). I visit Insty but have never commented and don't read the comments; I visit Chicago Boyz and sometimes comment, but after a week or two there I need a break--there seem to be more monomaniacs there.

News-news is abundant, and confusing or obfuscating even when that isn't the intent, and it would be too much work to list even the sources I think are decently reliable at the moment.

Prof. M. Drout म्हणाले...

"The last election was not “rigged”, but the powers that be can’t stand for an election where they don’t control all media."

There is no possible way for any reasonable observer to have that degree of certainty about that topic, because none of the claims have been thoroughly and transparently investigated by impartial agents (because such probably don't exist).

Yet for the past few days, in comment-sections small and large, commenters whose various handles are some masculine first name are saying exactly that--sometimes in the same words, sometimes in a paraphrase--followed by a generally anodyne statement that agrees with some small part of whatever else the post is about.

The coincidence is absolutely uncanny. Maybe Jung was right about synchronicity, because how else could such synchronization possibly happen?