If Donald Trumpās administration really wants to find evidence of foreign interference in Georgiaās elections, then they need look no further than the presidentās old friend Elon Musk and his shady super PAC.
Members of the Georgia State Elections Board voted Wednesday to issue a formal letter of reprimand to Muskās America PAC over the billionaire technocratās illegal scheme to get Trump elected. Georgia, a key battleground state in 2024, was the target of aggressive campaigning by Trumpās team.
a formal letter of reprimand
What the fuck is wrong with you people?
You cheated in our sacred election system risking destroying trust and shaking the very foundations of our countryā¦ ANGRY FINGER WAGGING
Toothless cowardice. The same reason why no country has banned his CSAM generating website
Well you see, he has lots of money and in America money is considered free speech.
So more money = more free speech.
Did nobody here read the article?
partially prefilled absentee ballot applications
Not ballots, or fake ballots, or even sample ballots. Applications for absentee ballots. They only got a letter of reprimand because seriously, who gives a shit that that they were sending out applications (again: not ballots!)
I mean youāre forgetting that like ACORN was laser targetted because of a salaciously editted video by republican media. This law was likely intended to combat higher voting overall and hurt organizations dedicated to helping improve turnout.
Hence the slap on the wrist for the organization run by a republican donor to enroll likely republican voters. Lax enforcement of law for the rich guys at the top, harsher brutal enforcement for the teeming masses they detest. Its a classic rules donāt apply to team fash situation.
The evidence does show a violation of state law, however ā I do think more than a reprimand is in order. It certainly would be the case for anyone without money like Musk.
Members of the Georgia State Elections Board voted Wednesday to issue a formal letter of reprimand
That, along with a furrowed brow, should fix their Nazi problem.
Iām still so fucking pissed at my aunt & uncle for idolizing this shit stain.
They say āI donāt like him as a person, but heās doing some really great things for humanityā like no fuck you, heās literally a Nazi. I donāt give a fuck if heās autistic or has Aspergerās or whatever the fuck; the dude is a goddamn Nazi and you cannot tell me otherwise.
Let alone the fact that he has almost literally all the money.
I used to think he was a reasonably intelligent man (I was uninformed, donāt judge me toooo harshly). Then he bought Twitter and burned a profitable company to the ground, which, considering how large and widely used it was, is extremely impressive. Since then, heās made himself look like a complete fucking idiot and bigot, over and over again. But, this is who heās always been, itās just that more and more people have realized that heās nothing more than a nepo baby.
That veil was broken for me when he threw a tantrum and called a rescuer a pedophile because they wouldnāt let him build and use an overly expensive and impractical mini-submarine to rescue some children from a flooded cave.
I mean no, Twitter was not profitable even before Shitstain Must bought it. I canāt speak to how much deeper into the red he brought it, but it was not making money in the first place.
No, you were right. He used to be a very intelligent, ruthlessly effective asshole. He enabled some great things, and participated in them, and also had some flaws.
Through whatever combination of drugs, radicalization, mental illnessā¦ heās all flaw now.
I donāt agree. He sounded like he was moderately knowledgeable right up until the point where he spoke on a field in which I had expertise. Then he sounded like a fucking moron reading popscience articles and thinking he had special insights.
Heās an investor. Thatās all heās ever been. Heās never contributed meaningfully to the end results other than having money and being willing to spend it on big swings.
And note that this applies to nearly every name associated with big technical leaps. Theyāre just MBA/investor types doing cosplay as techies. Theyād be equally qualified selling pillows as they are tech.
Iāve heard the same from several other people. Some of the other points that others realized include: him scrapping a rocket because it wasnāt pointy enough, wasting over a billion dollars, when he fucked up Tesla, and when he made a fool of himself on Twitter after he had purchased it. More people realized after he created the rolling dumpster, some others realized when he roleplayed as his toddler son, even more have realized over the past year after it came out that he paid other people to play Path of Exile 2 for him, and Iām sure that even more realized that he was a loser after he posted ai dogshit of himself as Iron Man, and Iām sure some other things. Even more recently, heās been ridiculed for begging to go to Epsteinās island, and seemingly being seen as such a loser by Epstein that he wasnāt allowed to go. He went from being seen as a cool, interesting man, albeit a bit eccentric, to being seen as who he truly is, one of the biggest losers and pieces of shit in the history of the US.
some others realized when he roleplayed as his toddler son
Wait, what? Must have missed that one.
And the PoE thing was hilarious.
Yeah, he had an alt that he used to roleplay as his son. He had to admit to it in court. Shame it didnāt get more attention. Thereās also a bit of evidence that heās a babyfur. I think thatās like what he was doing with his son, but also furry? That one is nowhere near proven though.
Agreed. He was always a rich wannabe who had a great PR team, until he thought he was smarter than them too.
His value was in listening to the smart people in the room and not giving a fuck about red tape, clearing the way for those smart people.
Those smart people have been replaced by right wing grifters and even more ketamine.
He did have some value. Even if he didnāt invent them, I donāt think electric cars get to where they are today without his help. And now they wouldnāt have begun to decline without his help.
All of the autistic people I know are not Nazis. Its not that hard.
Can confirm, am autistic and not Nazi.
I threw that in there because he apparently said thatās what heās got at one point (I couldnāt remember which). Plus, my family throws that out there anytime theyāre reminded that I donāt like him, ābecause thatās just how those people are.ā
I know autistic people arenāt Nazis. Musk is a Nazi, whether or not he is autistic has no bearing on the rest of how I feel about him. I hate him, he fucking sucks.
Iām autistic, and my father tried to use that excuse for him at least once. Heās just an asshole, and even more of one for trying to use autism as an excuse.
i dont think elon is autistic, he just made it up so people wont critcize him, he is ON KETAMINE ALOT.
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Lol what? Thatās literally not even the same.
Elon Musk is a goddamn Nazi sympathizer. I donāt like him, I donāt like his policies, I donāt like anything about him.
Why would you get the impression that I like his policies? I literally never said that. You need to go back and take some reading comprehension classes.
I forgot he used that as a bullshit āexplanationā.
They keep wanting me to read his biography. Iām just like āmaybe,ā anytime they bring it up.
He really does not almost literally have all the money.
He has stock, that if he tried to sell it all would collapse its value. It was on full display when he was selling shares to buy Twitter.
He would still be a multi billionaire, but it would be a fraction of what he has on paper if he tried to turn it all into money.
What he does have is power from wealth. But thatās different.
He has stock, that if he tried to sell it all would collapse its value.
No. I see this claim made very often to downplay how obscenely wealth is concentrated, and itās one of the Big Lies that sound superficially plausible but just plain isnāt true. There has never been a case of a stock ācollapsingā solely from a stock holder trying to liquidate it with no other factors at play; at worst itās a few percent that regain themselves after a few days. Billionaires sell stocks all the time without a blip; Bezos for example has unloaded over $50,000,000,000 in AMZN, of which $13,000,000,000 was just in the last year, all without incident.
A lot of things contributed to the TSLA drop, and it was nothing like a ācollapseā - it was in the middle of a record spike (meaning he was able to sell unusually high, hmm, nothing suspicious there) with the supposed ācollapsedā value never dropping below what it had been less than 9 months previously. If anything the example you give proves that not only is he entirely capable of raising extremely large sums of money selling stock, heās also adept at pumping the stock just before he does to snatch even more than we thought he was worth.
But, even if we did accept that he ācanātā sell his shares because it would collapse the company, that suggests something even worse about his wealth - that itās so obscenely high that even the combined wealth of the global stock market doesnāt have enough money in it to offer him a fair valuation.
(edit: oh wait I just noticed how much Musk simping you do all over lemmy. GTFO)
It wouldnāt collapse the company, it would collapse the stock price if he tried to sell it all. The company would be mostly fine.
His shares are in a sense, out of supply, and when there is an injection of new shares, the price goes down as there are now more shares available to be traded. Its very simple supply and demand. Thereās no way heād be able to maintain a sustained sell and have even half of what he has, unless he did it over a very long period of time. (edit: very late edit, but less than half and then heād lose almost another half of that to taxes so maybe around 1/4 value and thats probably optimistic if done as fast as possible)
I am pro Tesla and pro SpaceX yes. All you online folks get some much wrong about the companies, sometimes blatantly wrong, and I do try to correct people on those matters at times because youāre acting no fucking better than how the MAGA people you all think act terribly act.
This is a good example of me probably simping according to you: https://lemmy.world/post/42908537/22057585
You donāt have to like the companies because of who runs it, thatās fine.
Its very simple supply and demand.
Thatās what makes it sound so plausible and how the Big Lie has managed to get such traction, but itās not simple at all and just doesnāt play out that way.
This is a good example of me probably simping according to you: [removed]
You donāt have to like the companies because of who runs it, thatās fine.
Ok those last two remarks make me think youāre not the useful idiot I thought you were, but actually a full-on SEO stock pumping bot.
Do i get a medal or award for being called a bot? I think this is the first time?
Certainly if youāre not a bot, you should use it as a cue for a bit of introspection that your posting habits seem to follow the exact patterns of an astroturfing bot. Not really something to be proud of.
Your gif is cut short, only shows the first nazi salute, not the second one as well š
Ah yes. A strongly worded letter. Just the right thing.
There have been even more serious claims by The Election Truth Alliance and SMART, that they fucked with the tabulator machines to tip the election to Trump. Itās definitely a huge allegation, but they have some lawsuits in PA now so weāll see what happens.
The thing is, I fully believe Trump and Musk would do anything in their power to stay out of prison, and Trump has a history of cheating and lying. The means are there, the motive is there, and the opportunity is there, but letās see how severe and credible the evidence is.
With conservativesāor rather, the people lacking morality and empathy who flock to the ideologyāitās always projection. They canāt imagine having the integrity to not do what they would do when given the opportunity so they cry foul.
In their zero-sum way of thinking, it sets them up to be ahead of the scandal. They use it as āproofā to justify their DARVO statements and whataboutisms. Morality be damned, as long as the other side takes a bigger hit, they still feel like they win.
Glad to see this doesnāt get downvoted to oblivion on Lemmy at least. On Mastodon I have encountered quite some hostility on anything that could be seen as āblueanonā.
Took some time for the topic to federate, there were 10s of thousands of ppl on the subreddit about this immediately after election day having a look on the numbers. But cool that it did.
I think the sub was āsomethingiswrong2024ā or so, if it still exists, havenāt been on reddit lately.
it was questioned heavily after the election, but reddit drowned out with trump gaffes in order to hide the truth.
So, itās complicated. Trump and co absolutely would cheat, but thereās no proof that they cheated in that exact election. However, Russia/Iran/China (but primarily Russia) has also been stoking division in the US for decades, very successfully in 2016 and 2020, as they worked with Trump/Bannon/Manafort to stoke the whole election denial thing. In 2024, this is also their MO to stoke election denial but in Democrats this time. So there are definitely outside influences to push this narrative.
A ton of those posts in āsomethingiswrong2024ā are so fishy and unhinged. Iām still sane, so itās weird to see so many crazies just blatantly call everything fake.
Having said ALL that, who knows what the actual truth is. All I ask is to understand that there are nefarious domestic (Bannon, Thiel, etc.) and foreign (Russia/Iran/China) forces to sow further division, and to use an ounce of critical thinking before going crazy and sharing unfounded information.
Oh yeah, a lot of pure nonsense in there as well, gotta filter out the relevant bits.
And I do realise itās pretty hard to say especially from outside the USA whatever was going on as I donāt ultimately know my way around the election system. So my point is basically that I wouldnāt be too surprised if it turned out to be shady. Europe has now had its first cold shower moments with Trump II so what I hope is people stop parroting stuff like āItās a developed country, of course their elections are free&fairā.
The Weimar Republic was a highly developed country tooā¦
Iāll believe it when I see actual evidence. So far Iāve seen nothing thatās even remotely convincing.
While I respect your call for evidence, itās not even remotely out of the realm of possibility; known fucking with the voting machines goes back to 2000 and Bush v. Gore.
If youāve never read it, the 2004 Vanity Fair exposĆ© The Path to Florida is not paywalled, and while it is quite long it is also the best imaginable use of an hour of your time for anyone who wants to know just how far back this all goes:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2004/10/florida-election-2000
I will never be able to unsee the negative 16,000 votes for Gore in Volusia County again as long as I live. Thatās only a āglitchā when the machine is actually doing more than mere tabulating.
And if you ever want to know how a well-born but relatively low-level attorney can go from attorney to federal judge to Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in only five years, this will help you understand. Because for every ruling the Supreme Court makes today, we have Bush v. Gore to thank, and the 2000 election that propelled John Roberts from mere attorney to being chief justice of SCOTUS.
Itās amazing how few people really understand just how fucked the whole 2000 election situation was.
Given the various polls before and after the election it shouldnāt have been surprising. Trump hit on economic issues hard while Harris was doubling down on Bidens policies which, right or wrong, most people blamed for the inflation. Harris did fuck up though by not requesting a recount in at least the 3 closest contests. We should normalize verification of results without accusations of fraud.
Yes, thatās the other side of the coin. The DNC fucked up so badly in many ways, and it wasnāt their first time.
Itās complicated. Some polls said Harris would win, along with Allan Lichtman who has been right about every election since 1984. However there are other signs that Trump was going to win. Also further complicated that Trump has a 30 year history of cheating and lying to win, and he and Musk would do everything in their power to not go to prison. Also also, Russia/China/Iran love to stoke and accelerate internal divisions by pushing election denial conspiracies. So overall, thereās a lot of variables here and I would sleep better with PA having done a full hand recount (though I know that wonāt actual happen).
Yeah, like I said, those are massive claims. Iām an experienced data scientist and Iāve followed ETAās methods and results, and even debated with another internet election science guy about it. On the surface ETAās data looks like evidence of something fucky, but digging a little deeper shows some potential odd methods they choose to represent stuff and not enough baseline data analysis to compare against their anomalous data analysis.
Still, I fully believe they tried to cheat given their character and long history of cheating in every aspect of life, so Iām withholding final judgement until the lawsuits are born out.
Would you support a hand recount in PA? I still would, just to put the whole issue to bed once and for all.
Sure, no reason not to count again as long as itās open and honest. But I personally doubt they will find anything major. Itās not that I donāt think Trump would cheat, but itās hard to do and harder to get away with.
Devilās advocate: if they had access to the software thatās on the network-connected machines, of only 2 major brands, wouldnāt that make it easier to install malware?
Well, fortunately for us, everything theyāve tried so far has backfired, because they didnāt account for the fact that unleashing the Gestapo would piss off both red and blue states. Even the push for gerrymandering backfired, not because of Democratic opposition, but because they got their asses kicked in the 2025 elections and can no longer adequately project which races will favor them.
backfired
WHAT? You mean the dictator that personally controls every agency, the SC, most of Congress, a ton of mainstream wide-reaching media, and represents the billionaire ruling elite (Musk et al) that further control every other institution in America? Theyāve set back America by DECADES with what theyāve done. We need to take some serious action to unfuck things, but it will take a long long time.
Oh my God will someone please just kill both of those pieces of shit already? They are literally ruining lives and deserve death
Sorry we live in gun and drone country but nobody brave enough or good enough shot to do the deeds.
Lock Him Up
In October 2024, the Georgia secretary of stateās office launched an investigation after receiving numerous reports from residents across several counties saying theyād received partially prefilled absentee ballot applications from Muskās America PAC, according to John Fervier, the State Elections Boardās chairman.
There was evidence to suggest America PAC had violated a state law that prohibits any person or entity, other than an authorized relative, to send an elector an absentee ballot application prefilled with the electorās required information, according to Janice Johnston, the SEBās vice chairman.
America PAC had also failed to display in a conspicuous location that this was not an official government publication, was not provided by the government, and was not a ballot, Johnston added.
The board swiftly voted to issue a letter of reprimand to America PAC.
I canāt find a single picture of the fake ballot. I donāt like Trump but I wonāt believe it until one appears.
Because there isnāt one. The PAC wasnāt sending out ballots, real or fake - it was sending absentee ballot applications that were partially refilled with the applicantsā information. Presumably their name and address at least, since how else could they mail it.
No wonder they only got a letter of reprimand. This is truly making a mountain out of a molehill.
Fuck them and fuck Musk, but the outrage for this is ridiculous.
The fact we donāt perform limited and randomized hand-counts to verify tabulation accuracy AS A RULE is insane.
Surely there will be repercussions
No shit. Of course he didnāt win legitimately in 2024.
During the run up to the election Trump was holding regular rallies and traveling constantly - then he suddenly stopped and relaxed. I remember thinking the sudden shift was really strange and couldnāt understand why his entire demeanor would change so suddenly.
In retrospect I believe Musk and the other party leaders sat Trump down and told him he had nothing to worry about. Between Russian propaganda, Muskās use of Twitter to spread his own Nazi propaganda, and the takeover of the the serious news platforms by oligarchs they knew they had it locked up. When you add in the black-box voting machines sold by companies owned and operated by major Trump donors I donāt think Harris had a chance no matter how people actually voted.
Someday, in an overhauled Americaā¦
A nationalized open-source voting machine will be needed. A facility builds the devices, inspectors from every single state verify the product before and after it gets shipped out. Each state is free to do unannounced checks, and to share their results with other states and the public.
Every machine produces a paper receipt for the voter. By using a QR code, the voter can make a digital record for their state and the national verification boards, if they so choose. When the physical receipt is being printed out, the voter can choose to have it laminated, so that they can keep it for a pretty darn long time.
Or, just do what most other democracies do and donāt use machines at all. There is nothing about putting an X in a box with a pen and then having them counted by people under observation then leaving the bits of paper in an archive that needs improving. Your country is rich enough that it can afford a few thousand people hours every few years to do some counting.
red states mostly use VOting machines, because they know they can rig it all the time.
*kleptocrat, not technocrat
