Would You Let This Guy Hold Your Lunch Money?

In 2022, Elon Musk paid 44 billion dollars for the social media platform Twitter. Under Musk's management (or, some would say, mismanagement), the company, inexplicably renamed "X", lost nearly 80% of its value within two years.

At the start of 2024, Tesla, Musk's electric vehicle business, was valued at $58.3 billion. By the end of the year, its value was estimated at $43 billion, a drop of nearly 26%. Although Tesla's decline may have been partly fueled by Musk's reputation as a bullying goon involved in right-wing extremist politics, the ugliness of the Cybertruck, along with a series of vehicles fires and explosions, didn't help.

Musk also owns the Boring Company, a tunnel construction service notable for impractical proposals and failed or abandoned projects.

SpaceX is another Musk business, a space exploration technology company. Although the company's failed launches and rocket explosions have attracted attention, it has also succeeded in many of its ventures, which include cargo delivery to the International Space Station. SpaceX's rapid success was built on financial support from the U.S. government, in the form of lucrative federal contracts and grants.

Another Musk venture is Starlink, an Internet satellite service, hated by many astronomers for blocking our view of the stars. Starlink has had many satellite malfunctions and failures. As an Internet service, it is expensive, and has a reputation for poor customer support. Musk has also been accused of using Starlink in attempts to manipulate global politics by making it either available or unavailable in different areas. As a proponent of vicious and disproportionate revenge, Musk used his influence with America's Republican administration to terminate funding for USAID, an independent agency of the United States government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance, thus cutting off food, medicine, and shelter for millions of needy people, apparently as punishment for the agency's questioning its relationship with Starlink.

Neuralink is a company attempting to build implantable brain-computer interface systems. The company has been criticized for the deaths of primates used in its experiments. Following false statements about the deaths, a national physicians group asked the SEC to investigate Musk for possible securities fraud.

Musk formed a supposedly temporary organization known as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which masquerades as a U.S. government department. The formation of new departments requires the approval of Congress, which DOGE did not receive. Although its stated purpose is to find and eliminate government waste, DOGE's most visible activity has been the infiltration of government agencies and departments for the purpose of gaining access to computer systems and allegedly harvesting cititzens' financial and medical data. Despite consensus that DOGE's activities have been illegal, there has been no intervention by law enforcement. Musk has been accused of staging a coup and attempting to completely destroy the U.S. government.

Elon Musk was born to a wealthy family in South Africa in 1971. In 1989, he emigrated to Canada, where he became a citizen. In 1995, he and his brother Kimball moved to California. Kimball has publically admitted that they were illegal immigrants. Somehow, Elon acquired U.S. citizenship in 2002.

• NASDAQ on X/Twitter’s Valuation Decline
• Tesla Fire lists 232 incidents.
• A Forbes contributor compares the Cybertruck to broccoli
• Can we please let the Boring Company die already?
• How Federal Grants and Contracts Helped Elon Musk Reach New Heights
• Alleged USAID Probe Into Starlink Raises Elon Musk Conflict Concerns
• Neuralink faces federal inquiry after killing 1,500 animals
• Physicians Group Asks SEC to Investigate Elon Musk for Securities Frau
• What will it take to stop Elon Musk and DOGE?
• Wikipedia article on Elon Musk

 

Bond Villains

When people compare someone to a "Bond villain," they may be thinking of Auric Goldfinger, the main baddie of both the novel and the film bearing his name.

Goldfinger is an extremely wealthy man whose obsession with acquiring more money prompts him to cheat at golf and at cards. In particular, he loves gold, and constantly plots to get more of it. There is no limit to the crimes Goldfinger is willing to commit in pursuit of his goal. He plans to murder everyone at Fort Knox as part of his scheme to steal the entire U.S. gold reserve.

Goldfinger's vices do not include smoking or drinking, but he does pay for sex. His kink is that he likes a woman to be covered in gold paint so that he can feel that he is making love to gold.

Bond villains often seem cartoonish. They live in a world of sci-fi gadgets and over-the-top displays of opulence. Unlike Batman's villains, they typically do not sport costumes, makeup and caricatured personas that would be likely to bring them to public attention as insane if they existed in the real world. Nevertheless, their sanity may be in question as they expend vast resources of time, money, and hired help on personal obsessions and maniacal quests.

While many Bond villains are involved in political intrigue, often as agents for Russia or for terrorist organizations seeking world domination, wealth and greed are recurring themes. The villains may need money to support their causes, but often they are already rich and powerful, motivated by the desire for even more wealth and power. Sometimes they are seeking revenge.

Bond villains tend to have sadistic personalities, and may waste time for the sake of indulging in acts of physical or mental cruelty. Their vengeance is generally out of proportion to the original offense.

Lyutsifer Safin, from the film No Time to Die, is a chemist whose main motive is to get revenge on the organization that killed his family. He carries this to extremes by killing individuals uninvolved in the original murder, and becomes willing to kill millions of innocent people, ostensibly as a way of preventing future terrorist organizations from forming. He commands a large security force on a private island and appears to have nearly unlimited financial resources. Like most Bond villains, he seeks world domination.

Another aspiring world dominator, Emilo Largo, from both the novel and film Thunderball, is a leader of a criminal organization. He enjoys an upscale lifestyle, hobnobbing with socialites, and uses a private yacht in his crimes. His plan is to steal nuclear weapons and use the threat of destroying cities to intimidate world leaders into compliance with his demand for a huge payout.

Bond villains couldn't do what they do without the assistance of henchmen. These are usually powerful bodyguards, but may also be co-conspirators, double agents, technology experts, or seductive women. The henchmen may be motivated by personal loyalty to the villain, a shared vision of world domination, or a fat paycheck. Or maybe they are just nasty guys who like doing evil things.

James Bond always destroys the villains in the end. He has plenty of help - from his fellow British agents, from old pals in the CIA, from the villain's own colleagues who have a change of heart, or from good luck and fortunate timing. Perhaps our inclination to characterize certain adversaries as Bond villains reflects the powerful hope that we, too, can be assured of vanquishing them in the end.

 

Death in the Gulf

Yes, I know, this isn't in the Valley. But everyone should see this.