Elon Musk’s coup, Sinclair 📺 and the “Plandemic,” the DHS.
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Good Monday morning beloved comrades and confused but supportive relatives. There was little news this weekend, which is probably a good thing, so let’s get straight into it.
Elon Musk loves being a complete dick: this time it came in the form of him saying that another round of stimulus checks wasn’t in the best interest of people. Somehow this led to a discussion on the coup in Bolivia. Wild!
Sinclair Broadcast Group was going to feature a segment featuring the “Plandemic” conspiracy theory: but after a heap of backlash on social media, Sinclair backed down.
The DHS was always going to end up being a secret police force: so why did it take everyone until now to realize that maybe, just maybe, it was a bad thing to create in the first place?
Not bad, huh?
THE MUSK
Elon Musk Sucks Hard and Also Likes Coups Apparently
Elon Musk absolutely needs to log off. The dude can’t help from using the platform as a stream-of-consciousness machine for all of the most inane, stupid shit someone as rich and supposedly smart as him could drum up. What trouble did he get himself into this time?
The Billionaire’s Blunder
On Friday night, Elon Musk found himself in hot water after tweeting to let the world know that he thinks “another government stimulus package is not in the best interests of the people imo.” IMO, you shouldn’t accuse people of being pedophiles without any evidence.
Many, including Bernie Sanders, were quick to point out that Musk and his company Tesla have been the benefactors of billions in corporate welfare. During the Obama years, Tesla received $465 million in federal loans as a part of a push for a greener economy.
Elon Musk responded to criticism by saying that he is in favor of universal basic income because he thinks the “goal of the government should be to maximize the happiness of the people,” which we’d agree with. However, he followed it up with pure nonsense: “giving each person money allows them to decide what meets their needs, rather than the blunt tool of legislation, which creates self-serving special interests.”
Giving money to people directly = good. Giving money to people directly who need it because they’re unemployed = somehow bad? Is he just being critical of corporate tax cuts and such? We’re lost and it’s annoying!
Bolivia’s Lithium
As muddied as Musk’s views on what is happening at any given moment may be, what came next was more interesting to us.
A user replied: “you know what wasn’t in the best interest of the people? The U.S. government organizing a coup against Evo Morales in Bolivia so you could obtain the lithium there.” Elon responded with “we will coupe whoever we want! Deal with it.”
Of course Musk backtracked later, saying that his company gets their lithium from Australia and that what happened in Bolivia—the ousting of a socialist president who claims outside forces wanted to tap into the country’s rich lithium reserves—was merely the will of the people. Check out Glenn Greenwald’s interview with Morales.
We don’t think Elon Musk had any involvement in the coup in Bolivia. That’s very silly. We do think it’s bad for one of the most popular accounts on Twitter to meme about how coups are okay while also putting forward serious thoughts on policy.
Musk also recently tweeted “pronouns suck” and “🌹 Twitter sucks” So, yeah, fuck him.
Bottom line: this guy is awful and we’re unconvinced that everyone who likes him isn’t also awful.
PROPAGANDA
Sinclair Broadcasting PLanned to Air a Conspiracy Theory
Sinclair Broadcasting Group is one of the most dangerous media entities that exists right now. If you haven’t seen the Last Week Tonight episode detailing their existence, well, you may want to check it out.
The massive network came incredibly close to airing a dangerous conspiracy theory to their audience.
Sinclair’s Role
Sinclair Broadcast Group owns over 275 TV stations in over 80 markets in the United States, which typically come across as locally run networks.
They seem to be CBS, ABC, NBC, or FOX affiliates—the kinds of local news networks that share the names of bigger outlets but their viewers presume are more apolitical—and for that reason, it may be accurate to call SBG a stealth media operation.
Unlike many truly local news networks, SBG airs some segments across the entirety of their network. That includes “America This Week,” a Sunday morning talk show program hosted by outspoken Trump supporter Eric Bolling. Bolling used to work for Fox News before being ousted after it was revealed he had sexually harassed a number of coworkers.
The Segment
Bolling interviewed Judy Mikovits, a discredited researcher who made an appearance in the conspiracy theory video Plandemic that circulated on Facebook and Twitter earlier this year.
The video and Mikovits promote a baseless idea that Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has led the charge on combating COVID-19, actually manufactured the disease.
Mikovits’ lawyer, a right-wing conspiracy theorist in his own right named Larry Klayman, was also interviewed.
Bolling didn’t attempt to challenge either interviewees or their statements.
Once news of the segment leaked and created an outcry, Sinclair pulled it, claiming that they would “rework” the segment.
Bottom line: how disastrous would it be if COVID-19 conspiracies found their way onto your local news? It’s no wonder that the rise of QAnon has been spurred by the pandemic.
POLICING
Creating the DHS Was a Mistake
The DHS was created under the George W. Bush administration. That’s important to note because, after 9/11, people were willing to let a lot of crazy bullshit fly from our government. That includes the DHS, which was a massive mistake.
An Unsettling History
The idea behind the DHS seems simple enough: that fighting terrorism was such a massive task that the responsibilities behind it must be spread out between a series of smaller entities. Essentially, it deemed travel and trade as security concerns that needed to be addressed.
There’s a clear analog to the DHS though: Russia’s former KGB, which also found its various arms working its way into every element of Russian life.
The DHS was always meant to be as a tool to wield against specific individuals though, putting the full force of the American government behind the actions of policing, whether that may be terrorists, immigrants, or now protestors.
It was just a matter of that tool getting in the wrong hands, which is exactly what has happened with the Trump administration. It’s why former U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer says she now regrets voting to create the DHS.
Bottom line: get rid of it. Yeah, that simple.
BREADCRUMBS
Where the News Gets “Fun!”
“Preventing the next pandemic will cost $22,200,000,000 a year, scientists say.”OK, to be fair, that sure does seem like a lot. However, as Ken Klippenstein pointed out on Twitter, it’s “funny how they don’t notate Pentagon spending like this.”
“Corporate Insiders Pocket $1 Billion in Rush for Coronavirus Vaccine.”Can the vultures quit it for just like, one global catastrophe?
“Stephen Miller’s Grandmother Died of COVID-19. Her Son Blames the Trump Administration.” That’s probably the right group of people to be blaming. Weirdly enough, though, the White House claims that Miller’s grandmother recovered from COVID-19 and died of unrelated causes months later. That’s not what her death certificate says, though.
“CBS News Battleground Tracker poll: Trump up one point on Ohio as Biden leads Michigan.”It seems to be becoming increasingly less likely that Trump can pull off a win this go around. That’s not the same kind of false certainty that drove people to think 2016 would end up how it did, either; it’s just difficult for anyone to bounce back from a pandemic, an economic collapse, and a social uprising all at once, let alone a monstrous buffoon.
END OF THE LINE...
That’s it for today.
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Have a good one,
The Bread Line
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