The storied career of James Webb as the second administrator of NASA (responsible for the Apollo missions) led to the naming of the space telescope in his honor. Now, however, he is the subject of a cancel campaign to remove his name after professors accused him of being anti-gay. That cancel campaign also now includes a black astrophysicist, Hakeem Oluseyi, who published a study exonerating Webb. He is reportedly being banned from leading journals after finding no evidence to support the claim. Regardless of the ultimate conclusions that one can reach on the Webb controversy, there should be universal concern over the growing intolerance for opposing views in academic institutional and journals.
The New York Times reported that Oluseyi, president of National Society for Black Physicists, was asked to look into the allegations made by physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein of the University of New Hampshire. She joined three other scientists in writing a Scientific American article demanding the renaming of the telescope because Webb “acquiesced to homophobic government policies during the 1950s and 1960s.”
The focus of the objection was the “Lavender Scare,” a period in which homosexual government officials faced intense investigations. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had declared in 1953 that homosexual government officials were a national security threat. That crackdown is the subject of a documentary film.
Many of us are familiar with this terrible period and how homosexual scientists and officials were often unable to serve their country due to the prejudice against their sexual orientation. The powerful movie “The Imitation Game” tells the story of World War II code-breaker and early computer pioneer Alan Turing, who was hounded over his homosexuality. It is a disgraceful chapter in our history.
While media like CNN have reported that Webb “isn’t mentioned in most government records or sources” about these investigations, historian David Johnson noted in 2004 that Webb had met with President Truman on the issue of gay officials when he served in the State Department.
Prescod-Weinstein and her co-authors put forward a petition to change the name. In addition to references to the “Lavender Scare,” they noted one particular case:
Notably, in the case Norton v. Macy, former NASA employee Clifford L. Norton sued for “review of his discharge for ‘immoral conduct’ and for possessing personality traits which render him ‘unsuitable for further Government employment.’”
Even though the Norton v. Macy case rose to prominence in 1969, the actual incident that led to Norton’s dismissal took place in 1963 while James Webb was NASA administrator. Norton was arrested by DC police after having been observed speaking with another man, and was brought in for questioning on suspicion of homosexuality. While at the police station, NASA Security Chief Fugler was summoned to the police station, where he participated in Norton’s interrogation. Upon Norton’s release by DC police, NASA Security Chief Fugler then took Norton to NASA Headquarters, where he continued to interrogate him until the following morning. NASA subsequently fired Norton for suspicion of homosexuality, based on activities he was suspected of conducting during his personal time. We do not know of any consequences for NASA Security Chief Fugler, who conducted an extrajudicial interrogation on federal property.
It was government policy at that time that you could not hold a clearance or work in sensitive areas if you were a homosexual. Some 1700 people signed the petition to remove Webb’s name without any further investigation.
NASA ultimately did conduct an investigation. In October, the agency reported that:
“NASA’s History Office conducted an exhaustive search through currently accessible archives on James Webb and his career,” the agency told CNN in October. “They also talked to experts who previously researched this topic extensively. NASA found no evidence at this point that warrants changing the name of the James Webb Space Telescope.”
That did not sit well with Prescod-Weinstein or others. They ultimately focused their ire on Oluseyi who was asked to study that history. He said that he was initially “sympathetic” to these claims but, after researching the actual records, he wrote in Medium that “I can say conclusively that there is zero evidence that Webb is guilty of the allegations against him.”
I can understand that some may contest those findings. However, what followed was a cancel campaign that shifted to those who opposed it, particularly Oluseyi. Prescod-Weinstein insisted that NASA assigned Oluseyi to “impugn” her concerns and to provide a “shield” for Webb.
Others did not care what the investigation found. The New York Times reported that the Britain’s Royal Astronomical Society declared that “no astronomer who submits a paper to its journals should type the words ‘James Webb.'” The American Astronomical Society, and the publications Nature, New Scientist and Scientific American have also reportedly declared the case closed against Webb.
Oluseyi was soon also tagged and said that he has been unable to have letters published in the journal that attempted to point out the allegedly flawed evidence cited by Prescod-Weinstein and others. So, not only are journals declaring the matter effectively closed, but they will not allow readers to see opposing views.
Even former colleagues publicly denounced Oluseyi. George Mason’s Peter Plavchan, who said that he welcomed Oluseyi to that school as a visiting professor, tweeted a note to Prescod-Weinstein that “I do believe [Oluseyi] owes you and LGBTQ+ astronomers an apology.”
Yet, other academics have raised concerns over this intolerant and anti-intellectual response.
David Johnson teaches history at the University of South Florida and is the author of “The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government.” He objected that Prescod-Weinstein and others “ignore the historical context.” He further noted that “Mr. Webb did not lead efforts to oust gays; there was not yet a gay rights movement in 1949; and to apply the term homophobe is to use a word out of time and reflects nothing Mr. Webb is known to have written or said “No one in government could stand up at that time and say ‘This is wrong.’ And that includes gay people.”
The campaign is continuing to rename the telescope. Prescod-Weinstein wants the telescope be named for Harriet Tubman. She insisted in a CNN interview that
“There are people who have argued that Harriet Tubman wasn’t a ‘real scientist.’ But to do science is to apply rational knowledge of the physical world. Harriet Tubman represents the best of humanity, and we should be sending the best of what we have to offer into the sky.”
Prescod-Weinstein, who publicly identifies as “all #BLACKandSTEM/all Jewish. queer/agender/woman,” has previously been herself the subject of controversy with critics noting that she previously argued that antisemitism by black people are due to the influence of white gentiles: “White Jews adopted whiteness as a social praxis and harmed Black people in the process […] Some Black people have problematically blamed Jewishness for it.”
In the end, being a free speech advocate means that you support all of these figures in this debate. I would be equally opposed to efforts to seek to fire or cancel Dr. Prescod-Weinstein.
This is the type of debate that was once welcomed on campuses and in academic journals. Reasonable minds can disagree on the underlying facts and their meaning. What concerns me is that, despite a division of opinion among academics, there is yet another cancel campaign that will not tolerate opposing views to be voiced.
It is, unfortunately, all too familiar today. Cancel campaigns have become a type of academic credential. It is not enough to disagree with a fellow academic. You must now seek to silence him or fire him. If you believe in a cause, anyone voicing an opposing position is now viewed as intolerable.
In my brief review of these articles, there does not appear to be much in terms of direct evidence against Webb. I am certainly open to allegations based on new evidence, but it is less likely that we will see such discussions after the treatment of Dr. Oluseyi and others who have raised objections.
Let’s apply the concepts behind this less than earth shaking 75-year-old situation to a more timely debate question:
“Can you say or do anything the Democrats consider negative about the situation in Ukraine today without being called a whatever?”
All debates should begin with some facts everyone can or should be able to agree on. So do you agree
1. Putin is a terrible person, possibly (most likely) a murderer and (need some legal experts here) a “war criminal” and Zelenskyy is the real deal and is everything Trump falsely believes Trump himself is (but Zelenskyy IS still a Ukrainian-see point 5 below)
2. Ukraine simply means frontier or fortified land or other loose synonyms for borderlands in Russian (or some Slavic tongue) and was not a specific place in the view of anyone in the world until around 1919 (and not a country until 1992 and has never been a country whose borders are agreed to by everyone)
3. People who live in this area of the world (unlike we North Americans) think in terms of millenia as opposed to a few centuries so an incredible amount of history too long to detail in a comment but involving Poland, Lithuania, the Mongols, Sweden, Ivan the Terrible, Catherine the Great, John Paul Jones, Cossacks, the Ottoman and Austrian-Hungarian Empires, Hitler, Stalin, Khrushchev, FDR and many more places and people from long ago that are still relevant to the debate today because of their relevance to the only two populations that matter here: the poor Russians and Ukrainians
4. This only matters to the Russian and Ukrainians and no one else in the world — especially Americans — because
– None of this geography (whose only sea-route access to the rest of the world is a land locked “sea” in the chokehold of NATO linked to another landlocked sea in the chokehold of the UK and the U.S.) is of any strategic value to the United States
– The 30 year old country called Ukraine is as corrupt as and as oligarchic as and as undemocratic in Anglo-American terms as Russia (because of the history noted in point 3 above but not detailed); neither of the countries have any natural resources of any value to the United States; neither of the countries represent a threat to the United States (maybe a year ago we couldn’t say that for sure about Russia despite its failure 40 years ago in Afghanistan but now it is pretty clear because it can’t even overthrow a little two-bit autocracy on its border)
– United States’ meddling in this strategically irrelevant historical powderkeg area of the world starting at least under Bush/Rice if not under Clinton/Berger and more so under Obama/Rice (Nuland etc.) is the proximate cause of the current disaster for the poor Russian and Ukrainian people
So with these facts in hand (and the last bullet under point 4 may not even be relevant to the debate), why is it considered traitorous by the Democrats to say
1. The blood of the first American Patriot Missile crew member who cuts himself or herself shaving his/her chin/legs in the geography some call Ukraine is on Wag the Dog Biden
2. Every nickel of the $100,000,000,000 American taxpayers have spent on this fiasco (borrowed from China actually) has been a colossal loss of treasure
It’s not just Democrats, by any stretch of the imagination. Sen. Lindsey Graham has been fighting Russia over there (in Ukraine) since the 1st impeachment, and Sen. Mitch McConnel is still fighting the U.S.S.R.
The same malignant dark forces that have swayed ‘public opinion’ and ‘controlled the narrative’ concerning Twitter (& The Laptop) – surrogate/proxy media distortion, manipulation and outright fabrication (i.e. lies) – must be the same dark forces controlling the narrative about the expanding, increasingly destructive, conflict in Ukraine. I’ve never seen anything like it.
It’s an existential threat to the whole world imo. .. and already a new ‘iron curtain’ created by western Sanctions has greatly disrupted trade, commerce and culturally exchange.
For the record, afaict, the official/stated Russian alternative to war was/is(?) Ukraine military neutrality and resolution of a long and bloody civil war. .. provoked, they say, in no small way by U.S./Nato arming and funding some of the most fanatical-uber-nationalist, vicious and corrupt regime on the planet.
*U.S./Nato say, as you may have heard, it’s an ‘unprovoked war of aggression by madman Putin bent on conquest of western Europe, Democracy, Freedom and the American way’ .. . and if “Putin’s greatest fear is a strong Nato in Ukraine, that’s exactly what he will get” (Biden/Stoltenberg, Feb. 23, 2022)
Changing the subject – let us all give thanks to Man-Made Global Warming for bringing a summer-like Christmas to the mid-West.
The LGBTQ+ community is doing the same evil that they claim plagues them. They claim they are are victims of discrimination and prejudice and that it hurts them. They are doing now the same thing to the people who investigated. They weren’t even perpetrators. If anyone would understand unfairness and irrational reactions toward people it would be those of the LGBTQ community. Such hypocrisy doesn’t deserve a voice.
I am a conservative gay man with a Masters of science in quantum chemistry and wish to make it clear that unelected agitators have co-opted gay rights as a political wedge. Many are not gay. I have been involved in gay rights activities since 1974 and witnessed these radicals use gay people ruthlessly. Democrats have already thrown gay people under the bus for middle eastern money.
Great comment. Let me add that the hypocrisy has many layers. We are so concerned about what Western elite think of as antiquated values in Afghanistan that we pressed a feminist/gender queer agenda upon them in education and other institutions. For example, we ensured many women were put into important positions in institutions we control. Why do I cite this? When it comes to getting money for programs and being the world’s busy bodies, they are all about criticizing the real patriarchy embedded in Islam, but in any other context? Schtum. Same with the slaughter of Christians across the ME and Africa. They care only for that which gives them power.
I don’t care about your sexual orientation, just don’t force it on me. Don’t make me call you them, they instead of he, she. Sick of it. Don’t bring your filth into the schools showing sexual acts to children of any age. I would not condone any violence toward you and would stand between the perp and you. However, don’t let you queer colleagues talk about such issues at work and at my childs schools including college. Sick of it. Sick, sick, sick. I would say the same about putting the book “Joy of Sex” in any primary education institution.
“Others did not care what the investigation found.”
That sentence, in a nutshell, defines the rabid mindset of neo-fascist ‘liberals’ and democrats.
I am oh sooooo sick of these pervs and their demands on the normies. Pizz of and get back in the closet … come out when you can behave better. You will be tolerated if just shut up about your sex lives and stop the insane Drag Queen lunacy. LEAVE THE CHILDREN ALONE.
folks,
the first time i saw cancel city in action was way back
in 2008. Somebody looking to make money,
said John Lennon was gay to sell his books.
do you see the pattern here?
the accuser is always someone who wants something,
and they always go after the most vulnerable target.
So how does the poster child of the sixties suppose
to defend himself from the grave?
John Lennon was a brutally honest artist, you hear it
in every song he’s had a hand crafting.
remember this line: keeping her face, in a jar, by the door, who is it for?
but some folks are just brutally selfish
…
now science destroyed itself when it rejected God.
The majority of scientist are liberal and some gay.
But the minute you point out something in the bible,
you are a lunatic and you lose you science license.
Well, that attitude has metastasized, now it’s free range
and anyone who’s vulnerable can be the next target.
If you find a way to transform fission directly into
electricity, then any jealous peer can accuse you of homophobia
have you removes and take over your project and pretends
they did all the hard work.
“now science destroyed itself when it rejected God.”
Come again?
Science grew up (in the Renaissance) and flourished (in the Enlightenment) only after scientists and other thinkers rejected the religious dogmas of the Dark/Middle Ages. Scientists focus on this physical world via reason. Religion focuses on an (alleged) supernatural dimension via faith. Those are contradictory world views.
If you want to see a serious religious attitude toward science, look at the church’s condemnations and torture of Renaissance scientists (and not just Galileo).
Jews are the cancer eating away at the marrow of western society. Always have been. And we all know it. This is just another vicious anti-white jewess who hates seeing Webb honored for his distinguished career at NASA. Maybe we should stop cutting checks for Zelensky so that the jews can have their Greater Khazaria should Israel not make it.
I blame rock’n’roll music. I saw its potential negative impact on civilization back in the ’50’s.
It all started with movies in the early 1900s.
Hugh? You sound like my father who was of German ancestry that observed how the Jewish bankers used the worthless currency to purchase homes from others who were hurting financially due to inflation. The Jewish bankers (and other bankers too) took advantage of the plebeian of general German society and cause great hardship. Is that a reason to kill millions of innocent Jewish people? I say HELL NO! The problem is the filthy rich who can buy the government that favors them and not the middle class. Soros (for example) can dictate what is prosecuted in our country who just so happens to be Jewish. Its the money NOT the religion. If he really practiced the Jewish faith he would not act as he does. So it not the Jews, its the money that power purchases that is the corruption. Power corrupts.. absolute power corrupts absolutely which brings this corollary “Money corrupts, to much money corrupts absolutely” enough said
Did a Jewish girl turn down your sexual advances?
Or was that a Jewish boy?
You are a Nazi.
As a Nazi, you are, above all else, a craven coward.
You are afraid to compete with others as equals because you know you
can not measure up.
You are afraid of your own inadequacy, so you want to murder your
betters.
You are afraid of the truth, so you want to murder those who would
tell it.
You are afraid of history, so you want to murder the past, to wipe
out the knowledge of the degeneracy, cowardice and failure of National
Socialism.
Finally, you are afraid of the power of educated, informed adults.
Freedom of choice terrifies you… which is why you choose minor children
as sexual partners. You can not interact with competent adults in a
consensually sexual way. You need to be able to impose yourself on a
helpless victim, be it a prepubescent boy, or a patient in a mental
hospital.
That is what you are, a Nazi, and there is nothing polite or honest
about it.
He worked for the governmemt, so his job was to obey lawful orders.
Governments don’t always give lawful orders…
But the orders given to Webb were lawful at the time. This is like a woman being prosecuted for an abortion 30 years ago when it was legal in Louisiana to get an abortion. The law at the time was that gay people couldn’t work for the government. Are you currently in compliance with all laws and norms that will exist 50 years from now. The name should remain Webb and journals refusing Oluseyi are discriminating against him because he is Black.
True.
Of course, I have not read any arguments that the or4ders Webb was allegedly following was unlawful.
Hakeem Oluseyi, who published a study exonerating Webb. He is reportedly being banned from leading journals after finding no evidence to support the claim. Regardless of the ultimate conclusions that one can reach on the Webb controversy, there should be universal concern over the growing intolerance for opposing views in academic institutional and journals.
Persons/entities seek to censor opposing views because their preconceived conclusions cannot withstand the crucible of informed debate.
They are cowards.
Who remembers the Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan? Beautiful, powerful symbols that stood for centuries. Until the Taliban decided that the Bamiyan Buddha offended their religious sensibilities. After seizing power, the Taliban destroyed them in 2001.
A little closer to home, who remembers the paroxysm of violence that led the Progressives to destroy American statutes as part of the 2020 BLM riots? Take, for example, the destruction of Christopher Columbus statues in Chicago. A despicable act orchestrated by Progressive icon and Chicago mayor Lori “My d!ck is bigger than yours and the Italians, I have the biggest d!ck in Chicago” Lightfoot.
It turns out that Progressives aren’t sated by destroying statues and symbols. They are now destroying people.
Progressives have become the American Taliban.
You’re on target, but it’s Progressives & Rinos the way I see it.
Hopefully it’ now Goodbye McConnell, McCarthy & Ronni McDaniel!
https://usawatchdog.com/more-money-for-war-cv19-vax-mass-awakening-autos-economy-plunge/
BTW: Bamiyan Buddha reminds me of an ignorant person, the Fm SC Gov Nikki Haley, she really should deport herself back to India!
@ Epstein Didn’t Kill Himself
I distinctly remember the big Buddha. Old beautiful work of art and, iirc, the largest Buddha in the world. The Taliban intentionally blew it up with explosives.
*this was just before the U.S./Nato invaded the whole of Afghanistan, ostensibly to kill/capture OBL, a Saudi national, who was subsequently assassinated by U.S. forces in Pakistan.
This story is an excellent encapsulation of today’s left in action.
Jonathan: In all the chatter about Elon Musk we have neglected what is going on in TrumpWorld. So as a public service announcement here is the latest.
Last week, Trump, desperate to refill his bank account after having to spend so much money on lawyers, announced a new scam. Trump fans can now buy a $99 NFT of him as a superhero and will be entered to win a “priceless” meeting with the Superhero at Mar-a-Lago. There’s only one catch. Those who win will have to cover their own travel and lodging. What did you expect–a room at Mar-a-Lago with room service? Trump says the sales of the NFTs will not go to his 2024 campaign. So where will the proceeds of the sale actually go? I have a pretty good idea and they won’t go to “voter integrity”.
So for all you loyal MAGA supporters out there on this blog this is your chance to get a last minute X-mas gift for that special someone. Oh, I nearly forgot, for all my loyal followers out there, have a great holiday season!
Dennis must be a bot on auto pilot.
Two post decrying the hosts fixation on Musk and trying to get back to Trump. But the post has nothing to do with Musk. Who ever programed the bots posting must have set it up days in advance, and went to Celebrate the Birth of Christ.
“Oh, I nearly forgot, for all my loyal followers out there, have a great holiday season!”
all his “loyal followers” = three. Gigi, Svelaz, Anonymous (who always ‘like’ his comments).
Priceless from David Sedaris, the gay Andy Rooney of our time
Alan Turing was British and feel afoul of British law at the time.
“fell”
renaming of the telescope because Webb “acquiesced to homophobic government policies during the 1950s and 1960s.”
I’ll have ALL note that if govt employees DON’T acquiesce, today, to ‘government policies’ you will be fired. ACGCC, COVID, VACCINE EFFICACY. COVID ORIGIN, TRANSGENDER, UKRAINE, AR15’S, GAY MARRIAGE, DRAG QUEEN STORY HOURS, FBI’s raw, unwavering, honesty
Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a lawsuit on behalf of FBI analyst Marcus Allen in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina against FBI Director Christopher Wray for violating Allen’s constitutional rights by falsely accusing him of holding “conspiratorial views,” stripping his security clearance, and suspending him from duty without pay. The FBI revoked his security clearance because apparently the FBI believes that any views contrary to its own regarding what occurred on January 6 constitutes disloyalty to the United Stating es.
https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/todays-blacklisted-american-the-fbis-purge-of-conservatives-forces-one-agent-to-sue/
The intellectual high ground to keep homosexuals away from State Secrets, was required because their behavior had to go on in secrecy. The requirement for such secrecy is the very real danger of being blackmailed to turn against the United States to keep your disgusting activities secret.
What sense does it make to try history in the court of political correctness? What’s the end of the line? Convict God Himself of thought crimes?
To make them feel warm and fuzzy about their meaningless lives?
THE GAY COMMUNITY IS A HATEFUL COMMUNITY. THEY COMPULSIVELY DESTROY GOOD PEOPLE FOR NO GOOD REASON. ENOUGH ALREADY.
I wouldn’t generalize as it relates to Gays, many of them hate this behavior as much as we. It is more of a Leftist behavior, they are the ones attempting to destroy America with their totalitarian control of everything, including our thoughts and words.
People are people regardless of race, creed, sex, ….
Every attribute of humanity good or bad distributes much the same through any large enough group.
Gay people on the whole are no better or worse than the rest of us.
Individually they are as likely to be hateful, as those who are not gay.
It is wrong to treat any such group as inherently superior.
It is wrong to treat any such group as inferior.
Yes! Their goal is to replace God with themselves and/or government. Therefore, their goal is to replace God’s morals and ethics with their own and/or government’s, which of course, means whatever they and/or government decides is “correct”. Which, yes, can and will change by the year, month, week, day, or hour. Excellent catch, by the way!
Freedom of cognition, opinion, thought, discernment, discrimination, etc., are all subsumed under the freedom of speech.
Freedom of holding and advocating collective opinions is subsumed under the freedom of assembly and freedom of the press.
Americans certainly enjoy the freedom to favor and disfavor particular individuals or groups.
That one does not like the opinions of others does not bear.
The right to private property provides owners and only owners the right to “claim and exercise” dominion, in all aspects and facets, over private property, including denial of service, etc.
Americans cannot deny constitutional rights and freedoms to others, and cannot compel favor, admiration, respect, value or love.
Legislation that denies freedom of speech, cognition, opinion, thought, discernment, discrimination, etc., or compels favor, admiration or respect must be struck down by Judicial Review.
The singular American failure is the Supreme Court.
Origin and meaning of gay
late 14c., “full of joy, merry; light-hearted, carefree;” also “wanton, lewd, lascivious” (late 12c. as a surname, Philippus de Gay), from Old French gai “joyful, happy; pleasant, agreeably charming; forward, pert; light-colored” (12c.; compare Old Spanish gayo, Portuguese gaio, Italian gajo, probably French loan-words).
It was not culturally appropriated until the 1940s in order to socially distance homosexuals from others in the transgender spectrum.
On which planet? On THIS planet, in the “western” and many other cultures, homosexuals have been closeted for centuries. In Muslim-heavy and Muslim-run countries, homosexuals are stoned to death, or dispatched via other means even today. As for “transgender”, before very recent times, that phenomena has been almost non-existent, and almost entirely limited to cross-dressing because surgeries & hormonal “treatments” have been virtually non-existent. Note that I did NOT say “non-existent”, I said “virtually” or “almost” “non-existent”, because there have been attempts made over the centuries. Please do your homework. Thank you.
My interactions with NASA were limited, but it was my observation that a NASA Director’s career would not be damaged due to homosexuality if he was a gentleman. In that bygone era, keeping one’s sexual orientation/activity private was part of being a gentleman, whether you were straight or not.
Frankly the photo of James Webb above the page reflects a super handsome man. I’m not gay (but my husband is) and if James were in front of me, I’d ride his telescope to the moon
😉
I, and a great many others, in a great many nations, wish the h*ll we’d go back to those times. I, and a great many others, couldn’t possibly care less what other people’s sexual “orientation” is, was, or might be, and certainly don’t want to hear or read about it, let alone have it forced down our throats, and expected to acknowledge and fawn over it. Let’s just get on with life, shall we? Please!
Jonathan: With everything bad happening in Elon Musk’s world I can understand why you would want to change the subject. You bet the farm on Musk and lost. So for your benefit and that of your loyal followers I want to mention just a few news stories that highlight Musk’s problems in bringing “free speech” back to Twitter:
1. According to a Yale School of Management poll 79% of CEOs say Musk has become a detriment to the value of his companies. They say companies should stop advertising on Twitter. 69% believe Twitter’s best days are behind it. 100% of the CEOs don’t want their brands associated with hate speech on Musk’s platform.
2. Tesla shareholders are up in arms. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives says Musk is “asleep at the wheel”. The car maker’s stock has plummeted 50% just this year. The only ones to benefit are short sellers. Leo KoGuam, Tesla’s third largest shareholder, said on Twitter: “Tesla needs and deserves to have a working full-time CEO”
3. Jack Shafer, writes in Politico (12/21/22) that “it’s time to close down the Elon Musk Circus”. Shafer says Musk is “now the greatest press manipulator since Donald Trump” and “given Musk’s track record, reporters should put little stock in what he says”. Shafer recommends that reporters put Musk on notice they “will no longer bestow automatic wall-to-wall coverage of him”. Shafer concludes that “Musk is a rich publicity hound who goads reporters almost daily with his flim flam stunts”. My sentiments exactly. But I doubt the mainstream media is going to stop covering every Musk utterance. His bizarre statements get “eyes”. Like his latest prediction that “Tesla [will] be worth more than Apple”.
As for me, unless Musk actually lands on Mars or can make his self-driving cars actually work I’m going to try very hard to follow Jack Shafer’s recommendation.
This does not even rank as a “nice try” Dennis–albeit you obviously did.
1) The Yale School of Management? They have accomplished exactly what in business? Why would such a Woke Crowd ever state anything other than Musk is a detriment to value of (oh, yes here it is) HIS companies.
2) Twitter needs and deserves a full time CEO. Oh.
3) “Musk is a rich publicity hound who goads reporters almost daily with his flim flam stunts”. I cannot imagine the level of self righteous indignation roiling and boiling within Jack Scafer’s mind fields of failed aspirations. Standing within his sanctimonious sewer, nose on grate, he looks down on Musk who towers over him as he strides by–clearing a path towards free speech.
God Bless Elon Musk. Like James Webb, I cannot imagine he gives his distractors much credence.
Mark Rustad,
Great post.
Upstate. Sic’em! Thank you. God Bless America. Let’s stay Vigilant. Merry Christmas.
Mark Rustad,
Thank you!
A Merry Christmas to you and yours! May you be in good health, happiness with good friends and family, AND warm as this arctic blast covers much of America.
Definitely not a Let’s Go Green Weekend! Keep those power plants burning that Carbon!! Greta can sleep outside!! Ho, Ho, Ho!
How to explain the sudden transformation of Elon Musk from Green Savior to pariah?
Think of the government, corporate media, big tech and academia as a malign immune system acting to protect the sanctity of the body politic in which it operates. Like lymphocytes, macrophages, T-cells, and antibodies, each has a specific function. Yet they act together to defend their interests against perceived threats. To eliminate unwanted objects from the body they mistakenly view as their own.
Once it perceives a threat, the malign immune system swarms to isolate, surround, and destroy its enemies. Always present, the malign immune system has been overstimulated since Donald Trump entered on the scene in 2016. So much so that the malign immune system has become an auto-immune disease. Left unchecked, it will attack and destroy the body – the very nation – in which it has evolved to thrive.
What is the therapy? How do we restore the health of our nation? By ending the censorship regime, demanding transparency, and seeking accountability for the malign influences that are a mortal threat to our nation.
Well said. Great analogy.
Epstein Didn’t Kill Himself,
Hear! Hear!
Absolutely spot on!
Very well stated!
Yes, except it already has been attacking and destroying the body, this nation – and that nation is teetering, and may have toppled already.
No Idea who Schaffer is. Wiki bio has him as a life long media writer. In short, no experience or expertise is anything. The absolute weakest category of opinion hacks.
Are you an idiot? All the publications you referenced are political hacks that have NO credibility in the real world.
Carolyn: Was your comment directed at me? If so are you saying the CEOs in the Yale SOM poll are all “political hacks”, or that the Yale SOM is composed of “political hacks” or both–“that have NO credibility in the real world”? In case you didn’t know the Financial Times has ranked Yale SOM 9th globally and 7th among US schools in the ranking of 100 full-time global MBA programs. You are another one on this blog who doesn’t know what she is talking about!
Dennis, do you remember the story about the child who said the emperor wasn’t wearing any clothes? Apparently not based on your comment. However, what you have exposed is your own nudity, or is it naiveté, since you are so impressed with titles.
“. . . the Yale SOM poll are all ‘political hacks.’”
The organizer of that Yale conference, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, is worse than a “political hack.” He’s a Woke mobster who strong-arms corporations.
What you’re saying is Musk is paying a penalty for obeying his conscience and going against the financial oligarchy. Are you 1) saying that is bad and 2) who doesn’t pay a penalty for going against the powers of their day?
“2) who doesn’t pay a penalty for going against the powers of their day?”
That is exactly the psychological issue. Today’s CEOs are known for floating with the current. Musk swims against it. And that is why they envy him.
It is those who “boldly go where no one has gone before” that have the greatest successes.
They also risk the greatest failures.
There are very very few CEO’s who have taken the kind of Risks Musk has, much less taken them and won, multiple times.
If Musk offered stock in “new Twitter” I would buy as much as I could.
My bet is that in 10 years Twitter will be a $1T company under Musk.
Tesla does not need Musk anymore. There are no new frontiers for it to cross.
They make an excellent electric car. Without going in a radically differnt direction the Future of Tesla is in ever better engineering and minor innovation around a successful product.
Twitter is a big new gamble. It is a new challenge a new oportunity for Musk to transform the world – again.
He might fail – but I would not bet against him.
There is serious talk out there that Musk is a CIA op – not only an operative, but an operation as well. The more I know about him, and the more times goes, by, the more believable this seems.
“According to a Yale School of Management poll 79% of CEOs . . .”
And 100% of those CEOs probably would’ve said that Musk is crazy for trying to start a new automobile company. And that he is insane for trying to create a private space transportation company, with reuseable rckets that land back on Earth.
Perhaps Musk, a visionary, sees things that they do not.
Here’s everything you need to know about that poll. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld was the organizer of the event at Yale (where the poll was conducted). He has long been a social “justice” warrior who pressures corporations to be more Woke.
Musk’s “flim flam stunts”:
Jack Shafer — Exhibit A of the West’s nihilism and envy: See greatness. Hate it *because* it is great. Seek to destroy it.
I will be happy to listen to the views of every CEO that has been as successful as Musk.
That would be ZERO
The NASDAQ has dropped 50% over the past year.
The best thing that could happen to Musk and Twitter right now would be Left Wing nut reporters to quit lying.
If the way to reach that is through silence – great. Frankly Schaeffer makes an excellent offer, lets have the entire left wing nut press silence themselves entirely they have nothing worth listening to anyway.
And absolutely you should follow Mr. Shaeffers recomendation and shut up about things you are clueless.
In the meantime I am happy with What Musk has done at Twitter. Tesla is doing fine. SpaceX and the Boring company are private and fully owned by Musk like Twitter and none of anyone else’s business how they are run.
I have returned to Twitter after a couple of year Hiatus. For a while it was pleasant. Now it is full of hate speech – from the left.
Regardless, generally it is improved, and will continue to improve.
Are you opposed to Musks ongoing war against Bots ? One in which he has been very successful, but requires constant management ?
Are you opposed to Musks efforts to purge Child porn from Twitter ? Something the prior owners did little about. Something in the FBI’s perview which they did nothing about and instead meddled in elections.
Are you opposed to a system of public rules that are implimented without political bias and followed clearly ?
What is it beyond exposing the malfeasance of Social media companies and our government that you oppose ?
I’m waiting for the left to cancel Franklin Roosevelt. Under Roosevelt gay men were not allowed in the military. https://www.thedailybeast.com/franklin-d-roosevelts-forgotten-anti-gay-sex-crusade. I think I will be waiting for awhile for Roosevelt to be cancelled.
I find it interesting that no one on the left is calling for Margaret Sanger to be expunged from history. She was a devout racist. https://www.plannedparenthood.org/uploads/filer_public/cc/2e/cc2e84f2-126f-41a5-a24b-43e093c47b2c/210414-sanger-opposition-claims-p01.pdf. I also find it curious that no one on the left is calling for the removal of any Franklin Roosevelt memorial. https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/m-project-franklin-delano-roosevelt-jews. Franklin is still a towering influence on the Democratic Party. Franklin Roosevelt was a racist and a he believed in eugenics. Where is the outrage and cancellation of these heroes of the left. Nary to be found.
Exactly, spot on. Sanger, in particular, will NEVER be cancelled – because she was also a devout eugenicist… And so was Bill Gates’ father, who worked with Sanger – and I believe Killy Boy is as well, as he undoubtedly believes he knows what’s best for the rest of us and the entire world. Eugenics is at the heart of Marxism, communism in general, and the like. Those who practice, or are attempting to practice, said ideologies may or may not be aware of this fact. But it is there, nonetheless. If it wasn’t, there would not an “elite” to run things – and, of course, decide who lives and who dies.
Is Frosty the Snowman going to be next cancellation? He’s pure white, a man, smokes a pipe, has carbon eyes that pollute, a carrot nose, and twigs for arms. He has some many strikes against him; its only inevitable cancellation will follow. This absurd fiction is illustrative of the ludicrous notions of the radical and racist woke, and their cancellation movement of anything contrary to their farcical quest for nirvana. What do these YUTZ’s do with their brain, take it out and play with it? This perverse WOKE movement and its abysmal disciples must be shunned, ridiculed, and shown to be the morons they are.
“Is Frosty the Snowman going to be [the] next cancellation?”
– George W
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The question for Americans is whether they, and you, are going to allow it.
Americans have allowed the complete corruption of the vote since 1863, and the Supreme Court has been the singular American failure.
Vote criteria in 1788 were male, European, 21, 50 lbs. Sterling/50 acres.
Vote criteria in 1840 were landowning white males.
Vote criteria in 2022 were any person from anywhere that was physically inside the U.S. borders with a mailing address or otherwise real or artificial identification.
The Supreme Court has failed in its sworn-oath duty to support the “manifest tenor” of the Constitution, and failed to vigorously exercise its power of Judicial Review.
The entire American welfare state is unconstitutional and must have been struck down by the Supreme Court.
America would be very different if the Supreme Court had found no prohibition of secession in the Constitution in 1860, as was irrefutably the case.
There would have been no civil war and the Naturalization Act of 1802 would have described the American population.
America has an massive amount of corrective action to be taken.
Alternatively, America may simply surrender and formally abrogate the Constitution and Bill of Rights, imposing the principles of the Communist Manifesto – oops, they already did that.
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“[We gave you] a [restricted-vote] republic, if you can keep it.”
– Ben Franklin
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You couldn’t.
If you’re an American, then that’s WE couldn’t. And, what makes you think Xiden (Biden) (or rather, his handlers, in whom the power really rests) won’t declare Martial Law and do exactly that? They’re itching for – no, they’re purposefully creating situations to try to push us into violence, which would be the perfect excuse to do so. I, and a great many others, believe the 3-letter agencies are already working on our “Reichstag fire”, if not have several in the works in case one or more doesn’t work… In fact, Jan. 6 was SUPPOSED to the our “Reichstag fire”, only the men & women who came to & into the Capitol that day did NOT act as hoped. Hence, the illegal Jan 6 Committee whacking every bush possible to try to whip a “fire” into existence. That doesn’t mean they’re going to stop – no, SEVERAL “fires” would no doubt be entirely welcome… the more the merrier, and the more “justification” and the more “justified” they’ll appear as they drive us into the concentration camps, which already exist in nearly every state.
Now you’ve done it! You’ve given them an entire target-rich environment – imaginary figures…