This morning I was thinking about how strange the times we live in are what with the anxieties over Covid-19 virus coming together to create a perfect storm of terror with the prospect of a second Trump term, and then being hit out of the blue with credible allegations that our hope for salvation, Joe Biden, has allegations of sexual assault against him. (I previously wrote “credible” but now there are numerous questions about the veracity of her claims. Here’s one for example: “Why I'm skeptical about Reade's sexual assault claim against Biden: Ex-prosecutor.”
As I surfed through the many progressive websites I look at for ideas about what to write about which weren’t getting a lot of attention and I was struck by this article in BuzzFeed News:
In an earnings call, the Tesla CEO called public health orders in the Bay Area an "outrage."
Elon Musk, seemingly out of nowhere, is making the news because of some extreme statements about the shelter-in-place rules which sound like they are right out of a Trump tweet.
Elon Musk, you say.
As if becoming very rich for being a pioneer in electric car production (he’s a multi-billionaire worth about $39 billion) wasn't enough, he’s known what may be the most expensive publicity stunt in history even if it didn’t go exactly as planned.
The SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket successfully blasted into space, but it looks like the cherry red Tesla has veered well off course.
More important for the space program he truly made history when his SpaceX rocket made a perfect landing on a barge.
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Musk’s political views are less well known. He supported Andrew Yang in the primary. This is from the Wikipedia section on his politics:
Politically, Musk has described himself as "half Democrat, half Republican" and "I'm somewhere in the middle, socially liberal and fiscally conservative."[274] In 2018, he stated that he was "not a conservative. I'm registered independent [and] politically moderate.”
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He has described himself as a socialist, but "not the kind that shifts resources from most productive to least productive, pretending to do good, while actually causing harm" – arguing instead, "true socialism seeks greatest good for all."
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Before the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, Musk criticized candidate Trump by saying: "I feel a bit stronger that he is probably not the right guy. He doesn't seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States." Following Donald Trump's inauguration, Musk expressed approval of Trump's choice of Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State and accepted an invitation to participate in two councils advising President Trump. Regarding his cooperation with Trump, Musk has subsequently commented: "The more voices of reason that the President hears, the better." He subsequently resigned from both business advisory councils in June 2017, in protest at Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change, stating: "Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world".
I don’t see anything in his history that would suggest he’d make these comments in a call with analysts and investors following his company’s positive quarterly earnings announcement.
The extension of the shelter in place or frankly I would call it "forcibly imprisoning people in their homes against all their constitutional rights" — that’s my opinion — and breaking people’s freedoms in ways that are horrible and wrong and not why people came to America or built this country. What the fuck? Excuse me. Outrage. It’s an outrage. It will cause great harm, not just to Tesla, but to many companies. And while Tesla will weather the storm, there are many small companies that will not. And all of people’s — everything they’ve worked for their whole lives has been destroyed in real time. And we’re going to have many and have many suppliers that are on super hard times, especially the small ones, and it’s causing a lot of strife to a lot of people. Yeah.
and
This is a time to think about the future and also to ask is it right to infringe upon people’s rights as what is happening right now. I think people are going to be very angry about this and are very angry. If somebody wants to stay in their house, that’s great. They should be allowed to stay in their house and they should not be compelled to leave. But to say they cannot leave their house and they will be arrested if they do, this is fascist. This is not democratic. This is not freedom. Give people back their goddamn freedom.
By all indications Elon Musk is intellectually capable of recognizing the dangers of spreading Covid-19 and the likelihood that relaxed shelter-at-home practices will increase the chances of a second, perhaps more severe, outbreak. Like his Tesla in space going off-course, has Musk taken a turn and is he heading into the asteroid belt himself?
Go figure. These are indeed strange times.