Many of us have sent multiple messages to our senators, which, in the case of my state are: one R and one D. So far, they have both voted for all, and most of Trump's nominees respectively. Oh, and they sent me form letters acknowledging my contact, full of BS without apology. I post, too, although I am merely a somewhat reclusive private citizen, for the most part. You are right that we need to try. I have been focusing on Musk not because I'm a chess master, but because he has more power in many ways than Trump and is a more over fascist. But I think the job of creating a fork in the road might require other actions, such as work stoppages, withholding of taxes, a bit of nonviolent gathering in protest Tell me I'm wrong.
There will be a non-violent, respectful of private property, "Musk-Out" protest at Tesla Palo Alto on Sunday Feb 16, 1pm. Bring signs, and sure, drive your Tesla if you want. We bought them before he turned into a nut job. And BTW, here are some great protest-Elon bumper stickers out there, especially for Teslas! Mine has engendered MANY great conversations. I'd sell it and get something else if I could but they are not worth much right now...If you aren't near Palo Alto, start your own protest! This is sponsored by local churches and a local Indivisible group will be involved.
Thank you very much for some clarity on actions that could move us in the right direction. So many politicians say so much, saying nothing. But your post has helped me know where to focus some attention in the near term.
David—I think I love you. Like Nora Ephron (I hope I’m not insulting you but I love Nora too), you write clearly and with wit. I see why President Obama (and Valerie) hired you. Thank you for giving us ideas to carry out and worthy explanations of this crazy administration. In low moments I look forward to reading two of your previous books which I ordered while I await your new one. Chess—meh. Just keep writing us…..
By the way, your juxtaposition of the facts about (1) Pennsylvania‘s having been won by only 1.7%, and (2) Trump’s and Musk’s needing each other, had me believing that within the next sentence or so, you would mention that Trump would not have won Pennsylvania at all without the huge, deeply funded get-out-the vote operation that Musk paid for and implemented specifically in Pennsylvania.
There were some news articles about it at the last second. Musk paid a gazillion short term contractors to go door-to-door in Pennsylvania, for Trump. Estimates of what Musk spent were in the tens of millions I believe, or more.
Hard to imagine that Trump‘s 1.7% margin of success would have existed at all without this billionaire’s money being put into the ground operation.
Musk literally paid Trump’s way into the White House.
Whatever strategy is used to halt Musk's dismantling rampage among US government agencies I'm all for. But what is most troubling to me, after reading Bradley Hope's article in the Mar/Apr issue of Wired magazine on Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi (the UAE"S spymaster), is the threat posed by a man, in charge of the massive financial resources of his nation. whose current obsession is to turn Abi Dhabi into an AI superpower. And, according to Hope, to achieve this goal he's set out to buy the US tech industry. Apparently there is only one American company that makes Nvidia chips used to operate most AI models, and in December the US government authorized the export of some of these chips to a Microsoft-operated facility in the UAE. (The NSA and some legislators expressed concern about US intellectual property leaking to China as a result.) As Hope says, America's AI giants are scrambling for a piece of the pie. They have been talking to the world's richest investors, like Tahnoun, into financing what amounts to an enormous building boom in the US AI arms race. No wonder Musk has been swiftly gutting any and all government agencies that might curtail his plans for the creation of an AI empire, and to generate a pile of cash to help finance it. And no wonder the talk about making Canada the 51st state - our critical minerals are needed in the manufacture of AI hardware.
Hi Mr. Litt. The whole point of your post is great so forgive me if I just mention a trivial little chess thing, in case you’d find it useful. In the diagram you show here, it’s Black’s move (so it can only save one piece or the other …… that’s the point), but actually, if you ask what White’s last move just was, you can see that no matter where the White bishop came from, it already could have taken one piece or the other. This is why it’s rarely a bishop that forks anything. The exception is only if the bishop just now took a black piece on the square where the bishop now stands. Absent that possibility though ……… the fact that bishops rarely fork anything, much less anybody like Musk or Trump…… might help explain why the Church never stood up to Hitler and apparently isn’t standing up against our new American dictator either.
Fork Musk. Fork Trump. Fork ‘em all.
Many of us have sent multiple messages to our senators, which, in the case of my state are: one R and one D. So far, they have both voted for all, and most of Trump's nominees respectively. Oh, and they sent me form letters acknowledging my contact, full of BS without apology. I post, too, although I am merely a somewhat reclusive private citizen, for the most part. You are right that we need to try. I have been focusing on Musk not because I'm a chess master, but because he has more power in many ways than Trump and is a more over fascist. But I think the job of creating a fork in the road might require other actions, such as work stoppages, withholding of taxes, a bit of nonviolent gathering in protest Tell me I'm wrong.
There will be a non-violent, respectful of private property, "Musk-Out" protest at Tesla Palo Alto on Sunday Feb 16, 1pm. Bring signs, and sure, drive your Tesla if you want. We bought them before he turned into a nut job. And BTW, here are some great protest-Elon bumper stickers out there, especially for Teslas! Mine has engendered MANY great conversations. I'd sell it and get something else if I could but they are not worth much right now...If you aren't near Palo Alto, start your own protest! This is sponsored by local churches and a local Indivisible group will be involved.
Thank you very much for some clarity on actions that could move us in the right direction. So many politicians say so much, saying nothing. But your post has helped me know where to focus some attention in the near term.
Regards!
I’m sharing this with my Indivisible group! Thanks!
Thank you! And glad you found it helpful
On it!
David—I think I love you. Like Nora Ephron (I hope I’m not insulting you but I love Nora too), you write clearly and with wit. I see why President Obama (and Valerie) hired you. Thank you for giving us ideas to carry out and worthy explanations of this crazy administration. In low moments I look forward to reading two of your previous books which I ordered while I await your new one. Chess—meh. Just keep writing us…..
Thank you for that very nice note - and obviously I am a huge Nora Ephron fan so I can't really imagine a nicer compliment.
By the way, your juxtaposition of the facts about (1) Pennsylvania‘s having been won by only 1.7%, and (2) Trump’s and Musk’s needing each other, had me believing that within the next sentence or so, you would mention that Trump would not have won Pennsylvania at all without the huge, deeply funded get-out-the vote operation that Musk paid for and implemented specifically in Pennsylvania.
There were some news articles about it at the last second. Musk paid a gazillion short term contractors to go door-to-door in Pennsylvania, for Trump. Estimates of what Musk spent were in the tens of millions I believe, or more.
Hard to imagine that Trump‘s 1.7% margin of success would have existed at all without this billionaire’s money being put into the ground operation.
Musk literally paid Trump’s way into the White House.
Whatever strategy is used to halt Musk's dismantling rampage among US government agencies I'm all for. But what is most troubling to me, after reading Bradley Hope's article in the Mar/Apr issue of Wired magazine on Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi (the UAE"S spymaster), is the threat posed by a man, in charge of the massive financial resources of his nation. whose current obsession is to turn Abi Dhabi into an AI superpower. And, according to Hope, to achieve this goal he's set out to buy the US tech industry. Apparently there is only one American company that makes Nvidia chips used to operate most AI models, and in December the US government authorized the export of some of these chips to a Microsoft-operated facility in the UAE. (The NSA and some legislators expressed concern about US intellectual property leaking to China as a result.) As Hope says, America's AI giants are scrambling for a piece of the pie. They have been talking to the world's richest investors, like Tahnoun, into financing what amounts to an enormous building boom in the US AI arms race. No wonder Musk has been swiftly gutting any and all government agencies that might curtail his plans for the creation of an AI empire, and to generate a pile of cash to help finance it. And no wonder the talk about making Canada the 51st state - our critical minerals are needed in the manufacture of AI hardware.
Hi Mr. Litt. The whole point of your post is great so forgive me if I just mention a trivial little chess thing, in case you’d find it useful. In the diagram you show here, it’s Black’s move (so it can only save one piece or the other …… that’s the point), but actually, if you ask what White’s last move just was, you can see that no matter where the White bishop came from, it already could have taken one piece or the other. This is why it’s rarely a bishop that forks anything. The exception is only if the bishop just now took a black piece on the square where the bishop now stands. Absent that possibility though ……… the fact that bishops rarely fork anything, much less anybody like Musk or Trump…… might help explain why the Church never stood up to Hitler and apparently isn’t standing up against our new American dictator either.
Ha - I believe you've proven my point about being not great at amateur online chess.