Why Does Elon Musk Still Have a Security Clearance? The U.S. government seems to think he’s too big to fail.
The U.S. government seems to think he’s too big to fail.
I've said for a long time now that the U.S. government needs to stop relying on SpaceX and I've got a ton of pushback. "He's not in charge of the company! He just owns it!" Yeah, well I am guessing he wasn't talking to Putin about electric cars or Twitter.
I mean, he absolutely was talking to Putin about Xitter as well, I'm guessing! This "champion of free speech" has pretty much silenced any opinions about Trump and his companies that he doesn't like. Nice little preview of the world we're careening toward where billionaires get all the money, all the power, and they can even direct the speech of media outlets...
Nice little preview of the world we're careening toward where billionaires get all the money, all the power, and they can even direct the speech of media outlets...
It's already like that. It'll just get a lot worse in the U.S. if Trump wins. There are plenty of countries where this is the norm already unfortunately.
Hard to stop relying on the best rockets in the world. Maybe Blue Origin or RocketLab will step up but it’s hard to see that happening.
Better to just force him to divest than to drop one of the very few good launch providers.
The Americans should probably nationalise SpaceX, or at least buy out a controlling percentage of the shares.
The US should honestly just nationalize SpaceX and merge it into NASA. Add its operating costs into NASA's budget, cut some redundancies, and I'm sure we'd see a lot of progress happen pretty quickly.
I'd rather see it run like the USPS. Let it be a quasi-independent company owned by the government. Even though Congress fucks with the USPS, they don't fuck with it like they do NASA.
Nationalizing SpaceX would probably be financially disasteous (seeing as how Musk has to keep pulling money from his businesses to fund twitter, and to buy out Gwynne Shotwell, who was approached by Boeing to be their new CEO in late 2022)
Most people assume Musk's businesses are all on incredibly shaky ground financially and are propped up entirely though hype and speculative credit.
Thats like saying Bezos doesn't run WAPO and didn't kill the endorsement, its a nonsensical notion
I agree, but I heard it many times right here on Lemmy. By people also saying things like "I know Elon is terrible, but..." in the post.
Actually, Musk is not running the day to day operations at spacex, so removing spacex is not really a big need. He was driven out successfully from there a few years ago. But he's still wrecking havoc at tesla.
He's been talking to Putin regularly for years now. The damage has already been done.
His starlink --> SpaceForce --> Alphabet agencies pipeline is what scares me
More of this shit's going up next year..... Just in time for for the DPRK/PRC/Russian/Iranian escalations
Lets privatize top-secret comms and AO mission orchestration. That's not gonna bite us in the ass....
CIA needs to start doing its job and um... you know, protect American interests. The African scammer needs to go.
Security clearances are nominally the domain of the FBI, rather than the CIA. They tend to see themselves as a right-wing organization though.
I don't think they were talking about revoking the security clearance here. At least not directly.
One part of having a security clearance is also willingly signing away certain protections that you as a private citizen otherwise have.
So fwiw him having a clearance does open the door for additional scrutiny were anyone willing to look.
Yes, plus, he owns contracts with the government that likely contain classified information. It is just much easier to have him under a contract that allows them to just spy on him, in this situation.
Because money.
That's it. That's all. He's rich enough to do literally anything he wants. He could use the FBI as his own personal dead hooker disposal company if he wants. Welcome to America.
Leon could buy a Medal of Freedom from the Orange Asswipe.
This is the corruption that takes the United States and throws it on the history pile with Rome
Now imagine the Roman empire with the most endgame capitalism for-profit motive on every strata of society and they also have nukes. If/when America falls, it would be reckless to think they'll fall alone. I think it may actually look similar to how Russia tried to take Ukraine because their country was falling off a cliff economically, but like if Russia has military bases in the vast majority of countries on earth.
Milquetoast doesn't want to do his job if it even sniffs at being political.
I cannot wait until his weak ass is kicked to the curb by Harris.
Can we stop declaring things "Too big to fail!"
Socialism for the rich.
Rugged capitalism for the poor.
Back to the bootstrap factory with you
Doesn't he already smoke weed. Openly? On YouTube videos? The exceptions made for him are truly staggering.
I'm aware of the LSD and Ketamine, weed wouldn't surprise me too.
Look at that asshat, skipping on stage with a shirt thats a size too small and a head filled with government secrets. Clown world.
Because cowardice runs rampant in Washington
Merrick Garland is a eunuch
I mean... He makes rockets for them. Wouldn't he have to have some clearance of some kind?
Security clearances have dependent requirements. His admitted and open drug use should have been the first thing to get his clearance revoked but as others have stated: in America you are only liable for the crimes you cannot afford to commit; as long as you have the money for it you can do anything here.
I have crossed paths with a couple celebrities that I was surprised had top secret clearances at the (based on open drug use). That part doesn’t really surprise me. His propensity for blackmail is what I find troubling. He may not be a financial risk but he’s certainly a risk due to his desire for control and/or power.
Lol. So did MacAfee. He said he had tried "all the drugs" and they gave him a clearance.
I don't think there are any hard and fast requirements. The idea is to analyze your overall risk, not whether or not you're a naughty person for having done drugs.
I suspect not. Even if they still work with SpaceX, the contracts could be handled in a way that doesn't involve him. He could still manage the overall direction of the company but have others manage projects that require a clearance. I don't know if this has ever been done before or if it would ever be done, but it is theoretically possible.
Alternatively, they could make a requirement that either Musk steps down, or is removed, from his position at SpaceX or they stop getting contracts. This would almost certainly work because the company doesn't survive without these contracts most likely, or at least makes far less money. The board cares more about money than they do about him probably.
The bastard should be stripped of his US citizenship for illegally working in the USA.
When your net worth is equivalent to the GDP of Iraq and greater than that of most countries.
Well, they’re wrong.
Oh, in almost every country any1 can be an a$$h0le as long as it's big enough to continue doing weird stuff.
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