November 18, 2023

I was going to say Elon Musk needs to have a clear idea of what things mean before he re-tweets them with anything like approval.

But I didn't think it was my job to untangle the meaning that other people purported to understand and deplore.

Then, I decided to give Elon Musk the respect he deserves and assume he knows what he's doing and means to do it, and, in this case, I think that means he knew some people would make a hostile interpretation and others would present counter-interpretations and there'd be an extensive debate about good and evil.

That is: He knew there would be virality to something on X and that's exactly what he wanted. Clarity and restraint would not have given him what he wants, which is to make things happen, intensely, on X, to crank up the debate.

Meanwhile, what's up with that rocket?

Here's the NYT, 12 minutes ago: "SpaceX Starship Launch/Elon Musk’s Giant Moon and Mars Rocket Makes Progress in 2nd Test Flight/The powerful Starship vehicle reached an altitude of about 90 miles above Earth on Saturday before SpaceX lost contact, potentially because of an automated detonation."

It blew up, so that's bad, right? I'm not even sure. Is this some Elon Musk thing where bad turns out to be good?

"The upper-stage Starship spacecraft continued heading toward orbit for several more minutes, reaching an altitude of more than 90 miles, but then SpaceX lost contact, likely after the flight termination system detonated. Engineers will now have to decipher what went wrong on both the booster and the upper-stage spacecraft, make fixes and then try again...."

I'm reserving judgment on the rocket and on the anti-Semitic/"anti-Semitic" tweet. 

98 comments:

Kevin said...

I'm reserving judgment on the rocket and on the anti-Semitic/"anti-Semitic" tweet.

If no one reacts, the companies will have no justification to pull their advertising.

Original Mike said...

I got up early to watch the launch, just like in my childhood. And just like in my childhood, it blew up. But not before progressing beyond milestones achieved in the first launch. Just like in my childhood.

mikee said...

Quick question: Who submits the tweets of celebrities, politicians, instagram influencers and others with a mass audience? I seriously doubt President Biden types in his @POTUS or @White House "X" files, or even knows that Twitters still exist at this point in his dementia. PR firms are paid vast amounts of dinero to keep public figures, from Beiber or Swift to Biden or AOC to Musk or Bezos, both in the public eye for saying outrageous things and out of trouble for expressing wrongthink. Can it be confirmed that Musk, or any other celeb/pol/CEO, makes tweets personally rather than via press agent?

Howard said...

"If you want to go to Mars, you have to blow up some rockets "

Elon Musk

mikee said...

The rocket did better than expected, but not as good as wished. Running a test on a complete rocket, to destruction or success, is a hella fast way both to spend money and to get a working rocket. That it almost achieved orbit is a worthy feat, look for orbit next test and then, as Ralph Kramden often threatened his wife, "To the moon, Alice, to the moon!"

Original Mike said...

Unlike my childhood, it was hard to find a good "broadcast". Search and click several sites before finding, after the launch, good coverage. Was able to replay the launch at that site.

Where is Walter Cronkite when you need him?

hombre said...

Does anyone still believe that Apple, Disney, etc., ever take any action that does not promote some leftist agenda item, even if it costs the company money?

Are they condemning TikTok?

Drago said...

Althouse: "It blew up, so that's bad, right? I'm not even sure. Is this some Elon Musk thing where bad turns out to be good?"

This morning's IFT-2 (Integrated (both booster and starship combo) Flight Test) was a major developent advancement and success for SpaceX's Superheavy program (by far the most powerful rocket ever built).

The milestones achieved within the SpaceX Rapid Iteration process from IFT-1 to IFT-2 are remarkable.

Complete rebuild of the Orbital Launch mount, shifting of hydraulic gimbaling of engines to electrostatic, Hot Staging(!), booster separation/pitchback-return boost, Starship nominal flight at near orbital trajectory and speed for several minutes, etc. And a thousand other improvements from the first flight were rapidly incorporated into IFT-2

The speed of SpaceX progress and technical deelopment is off the charts and is why United Launch Alliance (Old Space, slow, "competitor") is throwing in the towel and begging to be purchased by Bezos' Blue Origin or some other venture party.

Remember, todays test was just the second flight of the integrated (booster and starship combo) system but look at the numbers: Booster 9 and Starship 25.

Already the next 4 or 5 boosters and 4 or 5 starships are in various stages of construction and will incorporate the lessons learned from this flight with a now pre-approved steady state launch cadence of 2 Starships per month beginning in 2024 (30 launches per year to be precise).

Meanwhile, SpaceX, having built a single launch tower in both Boca Chica and Canaveral already has the tower and mount sections for a second launch facility in both sites...with another 3rd site for Canaveral ready to go when desired. And it only takes a couple of months to erect them.

All on top of having fully developed mass-producing rocket factories in both locations.

We are in a new golden age for space techmology, systems development, exploration and human existence expansion...all thanks to Musk's vision.

Even as the New Soviet Democraticals launch wave after wave of political attacks against Musk and his businesses because he refuses to cater to their lunatic, anti-human death cult ideas.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I'm coming to the "understanding" that any criticism of Israel "at this time" is immediately being interpreted as "antisemitic".

I thought I learned after 9/11, that letting people who resort to terror, change us in fundamental ways, was tantamount to letting terrorist and their defenders win.

In the aftermath of 9/11, (again) coming out against the Patriot Act, for example, did not mean you were on the side of the terrorist.

Why does it feel like we are right back to that way of thinking again?

"Never Again" feels more like "Always and Forever".

Rich said...

When an Asperger afflicted character like Musk can’t help himself saying what he’s thinking, believe him. His tweets are his actions.

Re: Space X
Space is hard. Kudos to Gwynne Shotwell and SpaceX for keeping going on one of the most ludicrous engineering challenges since the original Apollo missions. Rocket engines don’t scale without an array of issues: the fact the thing flies at all is a major breakthrough.

However, it might be better for the company if Musk disconnects from them. He’s been a good “barker CEO” drumming up business for them up to now, but never truly invested or involved in the science, design, build or planning. In fact, they’ve long had a special team to “manage” him and keep him away from anything particularly dumb/dangerous.

Since he’s made the pivot from carnival barker to completely barking, he’s no longer adding as much value as before and needs to put a big damn firewall between his space and EV ambitions and whatever in the name of all that’s insane he’s fiddling with in the burning ashes of Twitter — sorry, his ��-company.

RideSpaceMountain said...

The advertising model of the economy is the model that simply refuses to die.

Drama/outrage equals clicks
Clicks equal virality
Virality equals attention
Attention equals influence
Influence equals advertisers
And advertiser finally, at long last, equals revenue

At no point is any revenue being generated by the outraged or potential consumer. Revenue isn't being generated for the advertiser either, at least recent research shows...it's all a game to keep primacy of place in the publics mind. It's the next best thing they can do considering more and more of the public is broke.

The advertising economy is a false economy that's specifically designed to hide the fact there's no actual selling and buying going on.

The Crack Emcee said...

He's suing Apple, etc. - and good for him. Zionists are throwing around "antisemitic" like it's candy. Somebody should be made to pay.

Krumhorn said...

This post is precisely why our hostess is such a rare treasure….even if she is sometimes a pain in the rump.

- Krumhorn

Readering said...

Advertisers see things differently.

Jupiter said...

Here's what Musk agreed with;

"Jewish communties have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.

I'm deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest shit now about western Jewish populations coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don't exactly like them too much."

Dave Begley said...

The Left was looking for any small thing to cancel Musk. After Trump, he’s the most dangerous man in America.

I don’t believe for one second that Elon hates Jews or wants Israel destroyed.

Sebastian said...

I'm as anti-antisemitic as they come, I'd like to think, but what exactly did Musk do? In the spirit of the post, what did he mean?

One possibility: Jews who helped to spread toxic prog identity politics and vilify whites--via BLM etc.--now demand protection against the same sorts of prog BS arguments turned on them. It's a little late for Jews to complain. Too charitable?

Of course, I think Jews have every right to complain, and I stand by them, regardless of their own political follies.

rcocean said...

When are the shareholders going to start suing these publically traded companies who pull adverstising for political reasons?

PRessumably Apple, IBM, etc. advertise on X because they reach plenty of people and it works (aka increases sales). By pulling out for political reasons, they're costing the companies MONEY. And hurting the shareholders.

Its not the Job of Apple or IBM to censor and gatekeep Twitter. Whats the point of a 1st Admendment if we have Speech is restricted by unelected Corporations and the ADL?

And if this boycott action is being coordinated by the ADL, I wonder if Musk can sue them. Probably for tortous interference. Tortious interference is a common law tort allowing a claim for damages against a defendant who wrongfully interferes with the plaintiff's contractual or business relationships.\

Ex-PFC Wintergreen said...

As an actual rocket engineer, I’ll try to briefly explain what SpaceX is doing differently than previous rocket developers:

The way things used to be pre-SpaceX but after Apollo - rockets were really expensive, lots of hand-built components that took a long time to make, so the companies did tons of detailed analyses, lots of individual component tests, lots of testing leading up to the launch, because the damned thing was so expensive and took so long to build that if it didn’t work right its first time, you might not get another chance. But all that analysis, component tests, subsystem tests, etc., took a long time and was really expensive, so you optimized everything for pure performance and safety, cost and manufacturing didn’t really matter much.

Then SpaceX came along. They said, “We’re gonna build lots and lots of rockets, so we’re gonna figure out how to build things like rocket engines on a production line, way cheaper and way faster than anyone else.” So they did, and as a result SpaceX is hardware-rich; they started doing full-up testing - i.e., launching rockets - much earlier in the design cycle than anyone else had done, and because their rockets were being built on a production line (more or less), they could make design changes and turn around new hardware way faster than anyone else. This is really the secret of their success.

So that’s what they’re doing now - building and flying new hardware way faster than anyone else can do. In doing so, they get real test data on the real system in the real environment doing real things, so they can learn much faster than if they were still knee-deep in modeling and simulating and component testing and subscale testing, etc., like so-called OldSpace companies. Yes, the test they did some months ago had plenty of things go wrong, but they learned an enormous amount from that test, and this test -only a handful of months later! - had a bunch of changes and got much farther along in the sequence. Still some issues; the first stage blew up during the attempt to recover it, and the second stage was lost shortly before its rockets were shut down, so they still have a lot of learning to do, but they have real data to learn from, and real flight hardware in the pipeline for testing in the near future.

Anybody who’s ever developed a new aerospace systems knows that flight test is the ultimate crucible for learning, I applaud how SpaceX has changed the paradigm for rocket development.

(And I don’t work for SpaceX or have any affiliation with Musk at all except owning a Tesla.)

rcocean said...

I missed "The Deadline". I REALLY hope Musk sues. Even if he gets a Lefwing Judge who will ignore the law and rule against him, he can find things in discovery and make them public. And IBM, apple, and the ADL don't want that.

Paul Zrimsek said...

The rocket collided with the Jewish space laser.

Old and slow said...

It is always a good idea to assume that Musk is not a moron.

gilbar said...

hombre said...
Does anyone still believe that Apple, Disney, etc., ever take any action that does not promote some leftist agenda item, even if it costs the company money?
Are they condemning TikTok?

WHY, on EARTH, would they EVER bite the hand that OWNS them. Once you realize that these companies are chinese owned, their actions make MUCH more sense. Same for the DNC.. Follow the money

n.n said...

Science, engineering, and probability. They will analyze, learn, and improve their design to match parameters.

From the river to the sea... the anti-Zionists... Jews are in rare form, bolstered by Hanas's progress.

Original Mike said...

LOL. Rich is giving Musk business advice again.

Original Mike said...

Blogger Ex-PFC Wintergreen said..."As an actual rocket engineer, …"

We don't need you, we got Rich.

After all, he did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Original Mike said...

My concern is how much telemetry they did or did not get on the event(s) leading up to the loss of the StarShip. I hope they got good data.

Drago said...

LLR-democratical Rich/C****: "However, it might be better for the company if Musk disconnects from them. He’s been a good “barker CEO” drumming up business for them up to now, but never truly invested or involved in the science, design, build or planning. In fact, they’ve long had a special team to “manage” him and keep him away from anything particularly dumb/dangerous."

The transparent gaslighting lies from LLR-democratical Rich/C**** become more pathetic by the day...because what else can he do?

The results of Musk's visioning, technical/scientific/engineering brilliance and leadership are undeniable so the lefties/LLR-lefties had to migrate their sad messaging strategy to this adolescent-level "Musk is just a lucky bystander in all these endeavors" ploy.

Hilarious!

I can see how a gaslighting lie-filled tactic like that against Musk might be marginally effective where the Little Lefty Brains like Dumb Lefty Mark hang out on Threads or Facebook, etc, but it was never going to fly at Althouse blog.

Yet here we are.

Its clear the left is heavily invested in this strategy to denigrate Musk in order to lay the public rhetorical foundation to seize his companies away from him...with the lawfare against Trump as a beta test of their legal tactics to do so.

Musk is wise to counter attack immediatelyl against the New Hamas/ISIS/Dem party and their action arm affiliates.

Particularly now that X has already released the systems forensic "blow by blow" analysis of how Soros/Media Matters/lefty media curated the very "results" they wanted to create the conditions for this coordinated political attack with which the Althouse blog LLR-democraticals are running.

The sheer panic on the left/LLR-left over not yet removing Trump from the scene while X remains the only widely shared free speech platform not controlled by the New Soviet Democraticals is palpable....and they are getting even sloppier in their desperate efforts.

See Rich/C****'s comment above as a prime example.

Iman said...

“LOL. Rich is giving Musk business advice again.”

Is there anything he doesn’t think he can do ?

tim maguire said...

The thing Musk agreed with was correct—Jewish organizations have been pushing the kind of leftist agenda that has now been turned against Jews and Israel. But it was written in a more incendiary than necessary fashion and it’s not surprising that people jumped on it to call him an anti-Semite. He probably knew they would, but it’s hard to see he bothered, why he picked this hill to die on.

Personally, I’d like him to spend less time on Twitter and more time on rockets and cars and tunnels. To my mind, it is the least important of his major holdings.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

History. It's hard.

Original Mike said...

"Then SpaceX came along. They said, “We’re gonna build lots and lots of rockets, so we’re gonna figure out how to build things like rocket engines on a production line, way cheaper and way faster than anyone else.” So they did, and as a result SpaceX is hardware-rich;"

It's only speculation at this point, but there's talk of the third launch before the end of the year. I doubt they pull that off, but it speaks to how much existing hardware they have available right now. Incredible.

Josephbleau said...

Democrats may recall that JFK said that we produce rockets not because it is easy, but because it is hard. Musk is Heinlein come true. His political detractors enjoy anything they can portray as a failure, but the MSM has articles every day about how China is destined to rule space. Motivated reasoning.

One of my favorite Heinlein scenes is where the heros quickly climb inside and launch the rocket as mobs of process servers and federal agents arrive at the launchpad, on the scheduled launch day. Heinlein knew the territory.

Drago said...

Original Mike: "LOL. Rich is giving Musk business advice again."

No, Rich/C**** is not.

LLR-democratical Rich/C**** is simply continuing the mission of the Althouse Blog LLR's (C****, Rich, lonejustice and a couple other failures that didnt last long).

And what are the (explicitly articulated) purposes of the Althouse blog LLR's?

- Smear and lie about conservatives and republicans that effectively push back against democraticals

- drive a wedge between Althouse and her readers

Within that explicitly defined framework, every gaslighting, hilariously lie-filled post by Rich/C****, lonejustice et al makes perfect sense.

Rich said...

@OG Mike: Gradually killing a $44bn investment by saying dumb stuff strikes me as reasonable business story.

Re: SpaceX
Let's review what was accomplished:

1. 33 engines fired simultaneously on the booster stage all the way through its separation. The previous record was 27 engines on Falcon Heavy. The Russian N-1 launcher had 30 engines but blew up 4 times in a row.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N1_(rocket)

2. The hot separation from the booster worked. A "hot separation" means that the booster still had 3 engines firing (out of the 33) while the 2nd stage engines came on and separated. This is a dicey operation and it worked.

3. The second stage reached 88 miles altitude and 24,000 km per hour (escape velocity is 40,000 km per hour). The objective was not to reach escape velocity but get the speed up there to have the 2nd stage coast and checkout whether the re-entry tiles work. The 2nd stage did an auto destruction (probably didn't want to come down in Africa). The 2nd stage burned most of its fuel.

4. The launch pad had a 25 foot hole in the concrete from launch 1. This time it survived due to better design and a water deluge system.

5. There was a 6 month delay from the first launch until today's launch primarily due to regulatory review. I don't see any launch pad problems this time. Therefore I think we will see the next launch attempt sooner than 6 months.

6. When Star Ship becomes operational, it will be a quantum leap in space. By comparison, the European launch system (Ariane) can put 10 tons into low earth orbit. Musk will be able to put 100 tons into low earth orbit. And he will be able to land both the 1st and 2nd stages and use them again.....and again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_Heavy_launches

One Falcon has launched 16 times:

https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/07/spacex-launches-its-fleet-leading-rocket-booster-for-record-16th-time/

Basically that reduces launch costs by a factor of 16 (not quite but close).

Joe Smith said...

You realize that there are tens of millions of liberal citizens and government entities who will do anything to shut down X and Musk?

This is a full-on propaganda war by the Democrats in league with big business to silence him and his platform.

As for the rocket, who would have imagined 20 years ago that the most innovative space program would be run by a private citizen.

And he is magnitudes smarter than almost everyone, so he will be fine...

Drago said...

So true:

Konstantin Kisin: "The constant attacks on Twitter since Elon Musk took over are a good sign. I'd be a lot more worried and, frankly, suspicious if the corporate press approved of what he is doing."

Joe Smith said...

'As an actual rocket engineer, I’ll try to briefly explain what SpaceX is doing differently than previous rocket developers:'

From what I've read, your analysis is pretty much how he builds cars.

(I have a Tesla as well)...

Quaestor said...

Althouse writes, "I'm reserving judgment on the rocket".

Wisdom. No one who has ever published a comment here is even marginally qualified to venture a speculation. Just keep in mind what NASA accomplished through many difficult years from the 1950s to the dawn of the 21st century, and what NASA has failed to accomplish with its own manned space program since then.

Non est ad astra mollis e terris via.

Mason G said...

"See Rich/C****'s comment above as a prime example."

There are only so many hours in a day, I'd rather not. But thanks for the invite.

Chest Rockwell said...

@Ex-PFC Wintergreen

Isn't the self landing booster a huge innovation and a big cost saver?

I'm completely hooked on SpaceX launches. Can't wait till they travel to Mars.

wildswan said...

The rocket was not supposed to blow up but it did; the tweet was supposed to blow up and it did. The launch was a test and a failed test launch exposes problems which engineering works to solve. In other words, a test launch is not a PR exercise and a test launch failure is not a reason to cancel the program although I don't think those who write for the media are able to understand this. What the tweet intended I cannot say since it is my settled policy to ignore tweet wars but I can notice that Musk was convicted of antisemitism in two seconds by groups which still wonder what "From the river to the sea" means when Harvard students say it in support of the Hamas massacre in Israel.

Rosalyn C. said...

In my opinion, this controversy centers around the ADL, the Anti-Defamation League, and in particular the direction it has been taking under the leadership of Jeffrey Greenblatt. Jeffrey Greenblatt is definitely a Obama disciple and has supported all the typical positions that you would expect from leftists which have nothing to do with the Jewish people. Indeed Greenblatt seemed to believe that there was so little antisemitism that he could turn his attention to defending people who are actually anti-Semitic, like the anti white crowd in Charlottesville, and all those who wanted to tear down Confederate monuments. Imagine a Jewish organization spending its time supporting a bunch of atheists and you get a picture of how absurd and off track the ADL has become.
Things have obviously obviously changed quite a bit lately and Mr. Greenblatt seems to be getting back on track addressing issues with antiSemitism. However no one should think that the ADL represents all Jews. Being critical of the ADL and some of its positions is not automatically being anti-Semitic. Many Jews are not left wing and many Jews are now reconsidering their left wing positions.
It might be possible to accuse the ADL of being anti-white because of the direction that Jeffrey Greenblatt has taken the organization but certainly he doesn’t represent the attitudes of all Jews. If Greenblatt thinks he does he’s got quite another problem. I believe Elon‘s fight is particularly with the ADL not with Jews in general.

Jason said...

Musk is not only correct, he's obviously and indisputably correct.

But this is not an age where that fact matters a whit.

They killed Socrates and Jesus and countless others for expressing uncomfortable truths. And they've canceled and destroyed millions more.

Jupiter said...

And then he followed up with this;
"The ADL unjustly attacks the majority of the West, despite the majority of the West supporting the Jewish people and Israel.

This is because they cannot, by their own tenets, criticize the minority groups who are their primary threat.

It is not right and needs to stop."

The Crack Emcee said...

Sebastian said...

"I stand by them, regardless of their own political follies."

Exactly: They're the only people on Earth who can do no wrong.

Drago said...

LLR-democratical Rich/C**** leaps over to wikipedia to try and catch up on some basic stuff in a vain attempt to try and reestablish some vestige of credibility in order to advance his gaslighting claims!

Too funny...and far, far too late.

And did you catch the none too subtle goal-post shift by our LLR-democratical Rich/C****?

Its now "Gradually killing a $44bn investment" instead of already having destroyed the entire enterprise!

LOL!

Cant wait for discovery when X sues Rich/C****'s beloved Soros-directed Media Matters.

As Dr Seuss might have written: "Oh The Lefty Collusion And Coordination And Account Manipulation And Disinformation We Will See!"

Jupiter said...

Musk is apparently not aware that the ADL was created specifically to defend a wealthy American Jew who had raped and murdered a young white girl in his employ. Other wealthy American Jews were aware that he was almost certainly guilty, but that did not concern them. They attempted to frame a black man for the crime, but he proved to be smarter than they thought. They then bribed the governor to pardon him. Not because they thought he was innocent. Because their religion held that the goyim are cattle, not people. It was unacceptable to them that a Jew should be punished for raping and murdering a goy.

Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...

I definitely agree with Wintergreen but from a totally industry. Much the same thing prevail in the oil business. As I former geologist [the Alberta oil patch paid for my doctoral work] I can report that drilling deep holes in rock does not come cheaply. This is especially problematic in that with vertica drilling something like 90 percent of holes turn out to be "dry", meaning "no oil".

Until horizontal drilling and fracking came along, the most profitable oil companies were those which had figured out how to drill the cheapest dry holes in the business. Same basic strategy.

John henry said...

Joseph bleu

I take your point about Musk being Heinlein. I disagree, though. I think he is really Delos D Harriman, the muskian/trumpian "man who sold the moon" in the eponymous novella by Heinlein.

Like Musk, Harriman did not know the first thing about space flight when he started. He knew the two key things he needed to go to the moon were the vision and hiring expertise. Then basically stand back, find resources and cheerlead.

Wonderful story, one of Heinleins best imo.

Sad ending though. The company was so successful the stockholders would not let him go to the moon. He was deemed too critical to the company's success.

John Henry

Drago said...

"Imagine being Media Matters and finding out that X already knows how you manipulated the platform and is going to sue you into oblivion."

Indeed.

Kate said...

If you can dodge a wrench ...

John henry said...

Full text of the novella seems to be available here

https://metallicman.com/laoban4site/auto-draft/

In the sequel (prequel?) written 10 years before dd escapes his handlers, hires a pair of barnstormer with a hoopty of a rocket and makes it to the moon. He does not survive the trip and is buried on the moon.

I can't find the text of requiem just now but would bet it is available somewhere.

Always available through Ann's portal.

John Henry

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

More users than ever on Twitter is not exactly killing his investment, genius. He took it private so he doesn’t have to listen to jerks like you or Media Matters. Or the ADL.

Rosalyn C. said...

In my opinion, this controversy centers around the ADL, the Anti-Defamation League, and in particular the direction it has been taking under the leadership of Jeffrey Greenblatt. Jeffrey Greenblatt is definitely a Obama disciple and has supported all the typical positions that you would expect from leftists, many which have nothing to do with the Jewish people. Indeed Greenblatt seemed to believe that there was so little antisemitism that he could turn his attention to defending people who are actually anti-Semitic. Imagine a Jewish organization spending its time supporting a bunch of atheists and you get a picture of how absurd and off track the ADL has become.
No one should think that the ADL represents all Jews or that being critical of the ADL and some of its positions is automatically being anti-Semitic.
It might be possible to accuse the ADL of being anti-white because of the direction that Jeffrey Greenblatt has taken the organization and the extreme left causes he has supported. The ADL is just one organization however. Greenblatt was never elected by the majority of Jews to represent the Jewish people. I believe Elon‘s fight is particularly with the ADL and Jeffrey Greenblatt. But unfortunately there seems to be some confusion possibly because the ADL behaves as if it represents the Jewish people.

Drago said...

And remember, this Hit Job on Musk comes right on the heels of the full exposure of the entire New Soviet Democratical/deep state/lefty academia/lefty tech companies Censorship Industrial Complex that reigned in 2020. See: Stanford University Election "Integrity" (wink wink) Project.

And what were the authoritarian censoring triggers?

False accusations of hate speech and disinformation.

Sound familiar Rich/C****?

All on top of the Jan 6 videos being released with the New Soviet Democraticals/LLR-democraticals unable to hide them from the public.

Howard said...

The launch was spectacular and was a tremendous success. People who don't know anything about machines are the only ones who don't understand this.

Oligonicella said...

Rich:
However, it might be better for the company if Musk disconnects from them.

I'll stick with the guy who steered everything to where it is now.

Funny how people want what's working to stop. Usually for emotive reasons.

Oligonicella said...

The Crack Emcee:
Zionists are throwing around "antisemitic" like it's candy. Somebody should be made to pay.

Kinda like your throwing around 'racist'. Or are you retracting your rants against whites and your explicit statement that they're inferior to you?

Drago said...

Fun contest:

What is the most moronic/amusing version of STEDs? (Smarter Than Elon Diseases)

1) Gordon Johnson variant
2) Ross Gerber variant (sorry about your utter failure to land that Tesla Board seat Ross!)
3) Gary Black variant
4) #MeetKevin variant
5) $TSLAQ variant
6) Althouse Blog LLR/Little Lefty Brains variant
7) Jim Chanos, Tesla shortseller gone bankrupt variant

Drago said...

Interesting question/observation posed elsewhere: They might be trying to stop X.ai Grok using the pretense of antisemitism. Sam Altman was fired by OpenAI during the same time frame. Coincidence?

Oligonicella said...

@Rich - 11:49:

All of which happened under Musk's guidance. Mush has basically, single-handedly created our viable space industry.

And you want to give him advice. :)

Oligonicella said...

Crap. Wish there was a review after publish. My last was meant for Rich. Mea culpa if I used the wrong name.

gilbar said...

Original Mike: "LOL. Rich is giving Musk business advice again."

and Why shouldn'y he?
rich is sitting alone in his parent's basement; eating cold pizza..
musk is on of the richest men in the world..

one of these men has put more mass into orbit than any country on earth
one of these men has done.. WHAT?

So, Clearly, One should be giving advice; and the other should be shutting up..
So shut up musk; and listen to the expert!
wait a minute, let me redo that math; i've got a parity check

Drago said...

FYI: It appears Media Matters also created hoaxed up screen shots of showing ads next to supposedly nefarious content.

Its as if Media Matters is loaded own with LLR-democratical types.

Again, discovery in Musk's lawsuit against these highly funded tptalitarians should be a blast.

narciso said...

Oh

https://twitter.com/alx/status/1725915949205774748

chuck said...

been a good “barker CEO” drumming up business for them up to now

That was Gwynne Shotwell. I give her credit for making SpaceX financially viable. And I give Musk credit for hiring her.

Rich said...

Now, if only Musk could fix phantom braking, the terrible auto-wipers, and the atrocious parking sensors on Teslas.

Drago said...

LLR-democratical Rich/C****: "Now, if only Musk could fix phantom braking, the terrible auto-wipers, and the atrocious parking sensors on Teslas."

LOL

Blown out of the water on the Media Matters hoaxed up X content farce as well as his laughable attacks on Musk's Business Strategy/Engineering/Scientific leadership record, Little Lefty Brain Rich/C**** hurriedly scurries to a new, equally ignorant limited modified hangout position...as if he were a cockroach after the lights came on!

Keep running Rich...though its not going to help.

The jig is well and truly up for you.

I give it another 2 weeks and Team Dem/Hamas/ISIS is going to have drag another "new" LLR-democratical out of the woodwork to up the gaslighting "effectiveness".

At which point Rich/C**** will join lonejustice and the other LLR's on the bench due to permanent and unrecoverable rhetorical failure.

Good help really is so hard to find.

Mikey NTH said...

Elon Musk, owner of a social media network, might stir up controversy for the sake of keeping the business relevant?

Sakes Alive!

Oligonicella said...

Rich:
Now, if only Musk could fix phantom braking, the terrible auto-wipers, and the atrocious parking sensors on Teslas.

From rocketry critique to auto-wipers. How the mighty have fallen.

Rosalyn C. said...

Addition: In my discussion about the ADL I neglected to mention that until recently they were focused obsessively on researching the threat of "white supremacist" extremist groups (which actually are rather small in number and membership) compared to the rampant anti-semitism of groups on the left. This might have been the basis of Elon's quip that Jews are anti-white.

Leland said...

Regarding the rocket.

The full test objectives were to clear the tower without significant damage to the pad (tower cleared, but don't know about pad damage at this time, some will certainly occur as it often did at Pad-39A after any Shuttle launch, but the concrete pad should be solid), have nominal operation of engines in flight (looks like that happened), reach space (check), reach stage separation (this occurred), control the first stage to a splash down in the Gulf of Mexico (First stage tumbled after separation and was detonated. It was never planned to be recovered. They got some failure data but not control data, which likely means an extra test before attempting fly back recovery), control the second stage to engine cutoff (maybe this happened, but hard to tell), control the second stage after engine cutoff (didn't happen), re-enter the second stage and splash down in the Pacific (didn't happen).

It appears to me that the both stages had control issues after engine cutoff. There are many things that could cause it. While not all test objectives were achieved, the fact that the assembly reached space and successfully separated is amazing. As neither stage was intended to be re-used, SpaceX received lots of information on failure modes that they can now design out before their next flight.

The problem with this failure is the over-reaction by the government. Both SpaceX and US government will want to fix the failures, but only the former has plans to learn quickly, implement incremental fixes, and be ready for the next flight in the next year. The US government will probably want significant fixes, which slows the learning process and could delay a third flight much longer than it needs to be.

As a former systems engineer contractor to NASA, I'm quite impressed with what SpaceX accomplished. This was the largest vehicle to make it space. It was lost, but NASA's comparable rocket (SLS) will lose nearly 95% of the vehicle every mission as designed (although perhaps more gracefully). SpaceX's design will ultimately flip that loss to no more than 5% expended each mission. To achieve that will require lots of flight test and failures before being fully successful. This was the case for Falcon 9, so no surprise it is the case for Starship too.

Leland said...

Disney is pulling ads? Oh no... It must be because of Elon Musk, and not because their latest $200 million release is slated to be down -80% in just its 2nd week and rake in only $10 million. An alternative question could be, what's up with "The Marvels"? Most people probably didn't notice or care. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if more people watch the clip of the Starship flight than will ever watch "The Marvels".

The Crack Emcee said...

Oligonicella said...

Kinda like your throwing around 'racist'.

This is the same fool who said "I'll take screaming kids over pissy cotton-heads any day," right?

n.n said...

Musk triggers a response. Trump is also skilled at exposing persons' two-faced character... abort the baby... and have her, too. Our beloved establishment futures are down and progressing.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Musk retweets Shapiro: Video link to X... it's complicated.

Howard said...

Don't Bogart that joint, my friend..


11/18/23, 12:57 PM
Drogger Blago said...
Interesting question/observation posed elsewhere: They might be trying to stop X.ai Grok using the pretense of antisemitism. Sam Altman was fired by OpenAI during the same time frame. Coincidence?

Original Mike said...

"The problem with this failure is the over-reaction by the government. Both SpaceX and US government will want to fix the failures, but only the former has plans to learn quickly, implement incremental fixes, and be ready for the next flight in the next year."

If NASA wants to come anywhere near their lunar landing schedule, they need to get out of Musk's way. He is their only hope.

MikeD said...

Althouse consistently and rfightly denigrates "journalists" who pretend to know the thoughts of another. Yet; "That is: He KNEW there would be virality to something on X and that's exactly what he wanted. Clarity and restraint would not have given him what he wants, which is to make things happen, intensely, on X, to crank up the debate."

Oligonicella said...

The Crack Emcee:
Kinda like your throwing around 'racist'.

This is the same fool who said "I'll take screaming kids over pissy cotton-heads any day," right?

You honestly think that's a win?

Yep, my sentiments concerning infants in duress vs old people acting pissy still stands.

Weren't you ignoring me?

rcocean said...

THanks Ex-PFC very informative. Blowing up rockets is OK as long as they don't cost too much and move the program forward.

Oligonicella said...

@MikeD - 6:19PM

Reread that long sentence just in front of that which was the hypothetical setup.

Rich said...

It’s kind of sad that SpaceX and Twitter are both going through rapid unscheduled disassemblies at the same time. At this rate, Cheech and Chong gummies are going to be the only advertiser left.

Narr said...

Jupiter, in your opinion what's the best source for the truth about the Frank-Phagan case?




Drago said...

LLR-democratical Rich/C****: "It’s kind of sad that SpaceX and Twitter are both going through rapid unscheduled disassemblies at the same time. At this rate, Cheech and Chong gummies are going to be the only advertiser left."

Be sure to keep us updated on all your future short positions against Musk enterprises.

LOL

Ex-PFC Wintergreen said...

@Chest Rockwell
“Isn't the self landing booster a huge innovation and a big cost saver?”

Absolutely, being able to amortize the cost of the first stage over several (maybe even tens) of flights is a huge deal. But it came about because SpaceX had sufficient hardware to fly often enough to refine the technology; without being able to fly early and often, they’d still be struggling with it.

The two big areas where SpaceX innovated on first stage recovery are the boost-back, where the rocket is flying in the wake of its own engine exhaust much of the time, and the hover-slam landing, needed since the engine can’t be throttled deeply enough to actually hover - so the engine has to come on very precisely to deliver just enough delta-v at just the right time for the touchdown, and the guidance, navigation, and control system has to deliver the returning booster to exactly the right location with exactly the right attitude and velocity to successfully land. I’m a GNC specialist and know how difficult this tightrope walk is. There are a lot of uncertainties and variability in all the parts of the process, and gathering data on real hardware in the actual flight conditions is the only way to reduce the uncertainties enough to make it work.

Drago said...

Howard: "Don't Bogart that joint, my friend.."

Is this another one of those times where you really want to join in but you dont understand anything thats going on so you just blurt out something?

Spoiler: thats not even adorable behavior in a 5 year old.

Lokeish Umak said...

It is now a difficult time for "X"

Howard said...

Drago, why are you squidlies so thin skinned? Or is it just your short guy syndrome?

Considering that OpenAI just fired the anti-Musk management team, it does make me wonder what you are smoking. You probably didn't see this reshuffling telegraphed by Musk on the Lex Fridman podcast.

Drago said...

Howard: "Drago, why are you squidlies so thin skinned?"

Note to self: noticing dem/lefty BS is now officially defined as "thin skinned" by those same dems.

Which makes sense really, given how the dems/left/LLR-left alter all definitions nearly daily to satisfy political needs.

Rusty said...

Ex-PFC Wintergreen said...
I think I read somewhere that an F1 rocket motor took 10,000 man hours to build. A lot of it was tig welding.

Rich said...

Comrade Dlago wrote: "Sam Altman was fired by OpenAI during the same time frame. Coincidence?"

Altman is first person to lose their job as a result of AI....LOL

Drago said...

LLR-democratical Rich/C****: "Comrade Dlago wrote: "Sam Altman was fired by OpenAI during the same time frame. Coincidence?"

No, Media Matters boy, I didn't write it.

You can tell I didn't write it because...

....Interesting question/observation posed elsewhere: They might be trying to stop X.ai Grok using the pretense of antisemitism. Sam Altman was fired by OpenAI during the same time frame. Coincidence?

(Note the bolded part for the "sluggish" amongst us)

As predicted, with increasing lefty desperation over the collapse of their hoax/deceit operations, they would become sloppier and more pathetic...

...and Rich/C**** wastes no time proving it! Again!

LOL

Thanks Rich! Though it was not necessary given the sheer volume of failure data points on your "performance" record already captured.

Rich said...

/Drago said...
Interesting question/observation posed elsewhere: They might be trying to stop X.ai Grok using the pretense of antisemitism. Sam Altman was fired by OpenAI during the same time frame. Coincidence?

11/18/23, 1:17 PM/

Comrade Drago may want to put down his bottle of vodka……

Drago said...

LLR-democratical Rich/C****: "Comrade Drago may want to put down his bottle of vodka……"

And there it is. All that Rich/C**** has left.

LOL

Gadfly rejoices as he's no longer in the Biggest Dunce Chair! Promotion and relegation, English soccer league style!

Rich said...

The biggest problem with Comrade Drago's day drinking is it inhibits his night drinking....

Rusty said...

Rich:
"Now, if only Musk could fix phantom braking, the terrible auto-wipers, and the atrocious parking sensors on Teslas."
You bought a Tesla? Money to burn.

My favorite Tesla storey is the guy(Rich Rebuilds) who put an LS7 engine in a Tesla. THAT was an interesting piece of garage engineering. Since the battery pack in a Tesla is where all the body bstrength comes from building a drive shaft tunnel becomes interesting.
Rich of Rich Rebuilds(not the whiney leftist here) is the reason Tesla has to comply with the "right to repair". Tesla can't void it's warrenty if you want to fix some structures yourself.