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Insights on Elon Musk

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by bwilson4web, Aug 11, 2024.

  1. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    “Heav'n has no rage, like love to hatred turn'd, nor Hell a fury like a woman scorn'd” .......
     
  2. douglasjre

    douglasjre Senior Member

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    Can you post up a graph of the past 5-year performance of Cathy Woods Ark Invest for all of us to see?
     
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  3. John321

    John321 Senior Member

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    #23 John321, Aug 13, 2024
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2024
  4. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    I never understood office romances:
    • The pleasures are brief
    • The wife and other woman are going to get pissed at the guy for not spending enough time on them (i.e., women don't like to share a man.)
      • Their girlfriends are going to hate him too
    • Work is for making product, not making out
    Bob Wilson
     
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  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    There’s only one Warren Buffet
     
  6. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    Never get yer honey where you make your money.
    I mostly work alone and I am not a customer facing employee - so I avoid most of those complications.... ;)
     
  7. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    Tesla had a good day today. I still think it would be a great day trader or long term hold
     
  8. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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  9. douglasjre

    douglasjre Senior Member

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    Kathy wood is the only fund manager I've ever known who is guaranteed to lose all your money. She didn't just fail to make her investors money but she positively lost money. And doesn't even account for the fact that inflation has gobbled up your money, making it worth less. You could have sat on your money in a no yield savings account and done better than she did.
     
  10. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    Tesla has had a pretty good DECADE.
    upload_2024-8-14_5-22-14.png
     
  11. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i missed most of it, but am up 1,800 bucks in the last few months
     
  12. douglasjre

    douglasjre Senior Member

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    Kathy Woods Ark invest has not just underperformed but has actually lost money over the past 5 years. If I had done nothing and sat on cash I would have done better. If you invest with Kathy Wood, you will absolutely lose your shirt. Her stock portfolio has actually gone down from where it started 5 years ago. You could know nothing and have done better. In fact, had you just thrown it into the S&P 500 you would have gained what 20% per year? But her fund which she is not only CEO but also CIO of has actually lost money. How is that possible to be that bad? I won't even look her up on my phone anymore because I don't want the algorithm sending me more stuff like her and filling my head with information that will lead me down her path. You can look it up on your phone if you want to
     
  13. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    I tried Ark hoping they could be a reasonable diversify from my TSLA holdings. But after a year, I converted them to TSLA. More light shower than taking a bath.

    Bob Wilson
     
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  14. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    She was a rock star a few years ago, but isn’t that the nature of hedge funds?
     
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  15. douglasjre

    douglasjre Senior Member

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    I got out of AMZN and NFLX bc the p/e was too high putting me exposed to too much risk. Besides they weren't my best earners anyway. So glad I listened to Warren and Charlie. I'm self-insured now too
     
  16. douglasjre

    douglasjre Senior Member

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    I understand Trump. He's not used to anybody else's opinion mattering. If you don't like what he has to say you're fired. But political office doesn't work this way. He has never before had to bite his tongue. Others have to, not him. I'm in the same situation. If others don't like me they can leave. Same with Elon. If you don't like him you will leave the company. He's not going anywhere
     
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  17. Mr.Vanvandenburg

    Mr.Vanvandenburg Senior Member

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    In the 1850’s Dickens wrote popular novels about the workers plight from their employers in England. Now we have some labor laws in this country thank God for that. It’s no fun to be at the receiving end of an employers flawed mental state. So workers discovered by grouping together they can have some power. It isn’t about “not liking me. ” That’s t and m’s mental issue. One of the oldest stories about humankind. For some reason certain people want to be Kings. Now we have this experiment called America. No more King, if no one noticed. We group together and we have the power by votes. I get one, musk and t each get one, wealth doesn’t matter.
     
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  18. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    some people buy more than one
     
  19. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    I found a transcript and reduced it to just Musk quotes:
    1. Elon Musk (00:00): As this massive attack illustrates, there’s a lot of opposition to people just hearing what President Trump has to say. But I’m honored to have this conversation. I want to emphasize it’s a conversation. And it’s really intended to just get a feel for what Donald Trump is just like in a conversation. It’s hard to catch a vibe about someone if you just don’t hear them talk in a normal way. And when there’s an adversarial interview, no one’s themselves in an adversarial interview. And this is really aimed at open-minded independent voters who are just trying to make up their mind. So you can understand what is it just like to have a conversation. So Donald, great to speak. We had a great conversation yesterday. As you mentioned yesterday, if we could just record that conversation and post it would’ve been excellent. And I hope we can have something like that today.
    2. Elon Musk (01:00:05): That’s the only thing that’s going to get them change.
    3. Elon Musk (01:00:50): Well, I think that the larger point here, as you’re saying, a lot of people are concerned about the economy, a lot of people concerned about inflation. Inflation is effectively a tax (a lie) on people that save money and for people that are working day to day. It’s just a form of taxation. If we can solve the government spending problem, we’ll solve the inflation problem, which means people will have a better standard of living. That’s a really big deal.
    4. Elon Musk (01:02:01): Yeah.
    5. Elon Musk (01:02:06): Like I said, think just comes down to really, I guess really two things, which is that if you solve government overspending, you solve inflation (with taxation), which improves living standards-
    6. Elon Musk (01:02:15): … of the average person. And then if you deregulate, have sensible regulations, because a lot of the regulations are nonsensical and cause the cost to be extreme for no reason. But unless you’ve got effective deregulation… Reagan did a great job on deregulation in the eighties, but it’s been 40 years since we hadn’t anyone-
    7. Elon Musk (01:02:38): … really. And during your administration, we made some progress. But I think the opportunity to make, I think, radical progress with sensible regulation. And if [inaudible 01:02:49]
    8. Elon Musk (01:02:49): Those two things. Yeah, those are the big deals.
    9. Elon Musk (01:06:12): Yeah, absolutely. I should probably say something about maybe my views on climate change and oil and gas because I think they’re probably different from what most people would assume because my views are actually pretty, I think moderate in this regard, which is that I don’t think we should vilify the oil and gas industry and the people that have worked very hard in those industries to provide the necessary energy to support the economy. And if we were to stop using oil and gas right now, we would all be starving and the economy would collapse. So I don’t think it’s right to vilify the oil and gas industry. And the world has a certain demand for oil and gas, and it’s probably better if the United States provides that than some other countries, and it would help with prosperity in the US. And at the same time, obviously my view is like we do over time want to move to a sustainable energy economy because eventually, you run out of oil and gas. It’s not infinite, and there is some risk.
    10. Elon Musk (01:08:08): … basic stuff like that. Leave the farmers alone.
    11. Elon Musk (01:08:21): It’s silly.
    12. Elon Musk (01:09:48): Yeah. Yeah. Well, my estimate would be a little more aggressive than that, but it’s not the sort of we’re all going to die in five years stuff. That’s obviously BS. But my view is if you just look at sort of the parts per million that increments every year, you get sort of two or three parts per million every year of CO2. I think some of that, it’s problematic if it accelerates, if you start going from two or three- (does not match Global Monitoring Laboratory - Carbon Cycle Greenhouse Gases showing already 4 ppm)
    13. Elon Musk (01:10:16): … to say five. And then there may be some situations where you get a step change increase in the CO2. And I think we don’t want to get too close to 1000 PPM because that’s actually makes it uncomfortable to breathe. Just existing in 1000 PPM CO2 is uncomfortable. That’s considered an industrial hazard. (currently 425.55 ppm and accelerating)
    14. Elon Musk (01:10:44): So that’s actually… You start getting headaches and stuff. So even without global warming, it’s not comfortable to live. So you don’t want to get too close to that. But I think we want to just move over. And if, I don’t know, 50 to 100 years from now, I don’t know, mostly sustainable, I think that’ll probably be okay. So it is not like the house is on fire immediately, but I think it is something we need to move towards. And on balance, it’s probably better to move there faster than slower, but like I said, without vilifying the oil and gas industry and without causing hardship in the short term. I think this can be done without-
    15. Elon Musk (01:12:37): But I don’t know, I like cheesy humor. But I’m a big fan of let’s have an inspiring future and let’s work towards a better future, and we can do so without demonizing people.(like Trump)
    16. Elon Musk (01:14:41): Yeah. Yeah. Nuclear power is underrated. It’s awesome.
    17. Elon Musk (01:14:59): And actually, there’s the bad side of nuclear, which is nuclear war, very bad side, but there’s also, I think nuclear electricity generation-
    18. Elon Musk (01:15:08): … is underrated.
    19. Elon Musk (01:15:10): And it’s actually, people have this fear of nuclear electricity generation, but it’s actually one of the safest forms of electricity generation. It’s just a huge misunderstanding. And if you look at the injuries and deaths caused by, say… I’m not going to try to pick on coal mining, but just any kind of mining operation, and there’s a certain number of injuries and deaths per year. When you compare that to nuclear, nuclear is actually way better. So it is underrated as an electricity source, and I think it’s something that’s worth reconsidering, but there’s so much regulation that people can’t get it done. So [inaudible 01:15:48]
    20. Elon Musk (01:15:52): Yeah, it’s a rough name.
    21. Elon Musk (01:15:54): Bad branding.
    22. Elon Musk (01:16:00): I don’t think [inaudible 01:16:02]
    23. Elon Musk (01:16:05): It does have a branding problem.
    24. Elon Musk (01:16:29): It’s actually not that bad. So after Fukushima happened in Japan, people were asking me in California, “Are we worried about a nuclear cloud coming from Japan?” I’m like, “No, that’s crazy. It’s actually… It’s not even dangerous in Fukushima.” I actually flew there and ate locally grown vegetables on TV to prove it. And I donated a solar powered system for a water treatment plant.
    25. Elon Musk (01:16:57): No, no, but-
    26. Elon Musk (01:17:01): … it’s fine. It’s like Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, but now they’re full cities again, so-
    27. Elon Musk (01:17:06): … it’s really not something that-
    28. Elon Musk (01:17:11): Right. It’s not as scary as people think, basically. But let’s see, are there some other topics we should touch on? lawfare, I think we need to be concerned.
    29. Elon Musk (01:17:23): Obviously.
    30. Elon Musk (01:17:24): Yeah.
    31. Elon Musk (01:19:26): It’s clearly like we just don’t have a president right now. (LIE) This is obviously the case.
    32. Elon Musk (01:20:35): Well, yeah.
    33. Elon Musk (01:20:37): I think that’s-
    34. Elon Musk (01:20:42): Right. Yeah, just [inaudible 01:20:44]
    35. Elon Musk (01:20:44): Yeah, just [inaudible 00:18:45
    36. Elon Musk (01:21:28): Yeah, this is simply not true. This is simply not true.
    37. Elon Musk (01:21:31): Yeah, simply not true.
    38. Elon Musk (01:21:33): No. Obviously what’s happening overnight is they rewriting history and making Kamala sound like a moderate, when in fact she is far left, far, far left. (Compared to Trump.)
    39. Elon Musk (01:22:41): Yeah. No, no. Netanyahu came to give a talk to a joint Senate and house sitting, and I was there and Kamala stood him up. What does that say? (She was running for President of the USA, not a Netanyahu syncopate.)
    40. Elon Musk (01:23:54): I think you’re right. It;s important for the public that maybe listening to this to look at Kamala’s track record before the last month and say, is that a track record you agree with? And I think if you’re an independent moderate, you definitely would not agree with it because her behavior has been far left, and we’re seeing just an overnight propaganda (like I am claiming) attempt to rewrite history and make it sound like Kamala’s moderate when she in fact is not moderate.
    41. Elon Musk (01:24:33): Yeah. Yeah, that’s weird.
    42. Elon Musk (01:24:34): That’s weird.
    43. Elon Musk (01:24:35): Yeah, that’s not okay.
    44. Elon Musk (01:25:01): I think we’re in massive trouble, frankly, with the Kamala administration (she is not President, yet!), and that’s my honest opinion. And I think really, it’s essential that you win, for the good of the country, this election. I’m just stating my opinion. Now, you may have seen this, but I got a letter from the EU Commission saying to not have disinformation during this discussion that we’re having. And there’s a lot of attempts to do censorship and to force censorship even on Americans from other countries. And what do you think about that?
    45. Elon Musk (01:27:49): Yeah. I think a lot of the public isn’t aware of the fact that the United States pays a disproportionate share of the NATO expenses. (Freedom isn't cheap!)
    46. Elon Musk (01:28:00): Yeah. Well, the point of NATO is defending Europe, and it’s like then, okay, well, why is the United States paying disproportionately more to defend Europe than Europe? That doesn’t make sense. That’s unfair. And that is an appropriate thing to address. (How did buying a Russian rocket work out?)
    47. Elon Musk (01:28:49): Yeah. Yeah.
    48. Elon Musk (01:29:07): Yeah, absolutely.
    49. Elon Musk (01:29:10): Yeah. Well, I think it’s obvious that you’re a believer and an advocate of free speech because during your first time as president, you were attacked relentlessly every day, often very unfairly with false attacks, and you didn’t try to shut down the media, you didn’t try to inhibit their freedom of speech. And I think that says a lot. (Trump had Michael Cohen put in solitary confinement because he would not sign a paper to not criticize Trump.)
    50. Elon Musk (01:29:47): No.
    51. Elon Musk (01:30:04): That’s true.
    52. Elon Musk (01:30:13): Yes, we can actually have a…
    53. Elon Musk (01:30:16): This is a really big point. You can actually have a conversation with you.
    54. Elon Musk (01:30:21): And you can’t have a conversation with Biden or Kamala. It’s not possible. (So, do you want to force them to converse? You don't answer my Twitter posts.)
    55. Elon Musk (01:30:27): It’s just like talking to an NPC, so it’s just impossible.
    56. Elon Musk (01:30:53): That’s for sure.
    57. Elon Musk (01:30): Yeah.
    58. Elon Musk (01:31:29): No, it’s silly. It would be silly.
    59. Elon Musk (01:31:53): Yeah. Well, I think part of what people in America want to… People in America want to feel excited and inspired about the future. They want to feel like the future’s going to be better than the past, and that America’s going to do things that are greater than we’ve done in the past, reach new heights that make you proud to be an American and excited about the future. And it just-
    60. Elon Musk (01:32:37): Yeah, it was just absurd. But I think there are some grand projects that we could do. I think we could build a base on the moon. We could send American astronauts to Mars.
    61. Elon Musk (01:32:52): We could build high-speed connections that are more advanced than anything else in the world between our cities so people have fast transport.
    62. Elon Musk (01:33:00): … support. It’s possible to solve traffic with tunnels.
    63. Elon Musk (01:33:05): We’ve already made great progress in Vegas doing that, and just do things that are exciting and inspiring to make the future feel like it’s better than the past.
    64. Elon Musk (01:33:27): Yeah.
    65. Elon Musk (01:33:30): No, it’s straightforward.
    66. Elon Musk (01:33:33): And I think we could do some things that, like China’s got incredible high-speed rail between its cities, but I think it’s actually possible with tunnels. With deregulation, with an ability to actually, where it’s legal to actually do the tunnels, then you could have high-speed tunnels that are actually better than anything else in the world for high-speed between cities. And that would be something that Americans can say, “Wow. Okay, we’ve got something that’s cooler than anyone else in the world,” that’s the kind of thing that makes you proud to be American.
    67. Elon Musk (01:34:38): Yeah. I think also I’m hopping on the excess regulation, but I think something that I people can generally understand is that what happens with laws and regulations is that there’s more and more of them every year. And unless there’s a process to clean them up, eventually everything becomes illegal-
    68. Elon Musk (01:34:56): … and that actually slows down the development of new technologies. If you take, I think there’s room for some reform at the FDA for improving the speed with which we approve drugs that could help save lives and improve people’s lives.
    69. Elon Musk (01:36:03): Yeah. It just takes too long, and you end up in the same with the approval, but it takes years instead of something that I think could potentially take months that improves people’s lives. But I just wanted to hop on this point that there has to be an active process for reducing rules and regulations because otherwise they just keep building up every year, and you get hardening of the arteries and eventually everything’s illegal or takes forever, and then we just ossify as a society, we can’t make any progress, and it’s a really big deal.
    70. Elon Musk (01:36): Well, thank you. Well, maybe we could start off with, I mean, the assassination attempt, which was an incredible thing. And I have to say that your actions at that assassination attempt were inspiring. Instead of shying away from things, instead of ducking down, you were pumping your fist in the air and saying, “Fight, fight, fight.” I think the President of the United States represents America. And I think that is America. That is strength under fire. And so that’s part of the reason why I was excited to endorse you as the President of the United States for having another term here, is that was just incredibly inspiring. But what was it like for you?
    71. Elon Musk (01:38:17): Yeah. And actually to give Europe some props here, it’s like if a drug is approved in Europe, which has a crazy amount of regulations, it should obviously be approved in the US. I mean, they’ve get more regulations than we do, so why would a drug be approved in Europe and not in the US? That’s crazy.
    72. Elon Musk (01:38:50): Absolutely.
    73. Elon Musk (01:38:51): I think as long as people are properly informed of the pros and cons, and like, “These are the risks, those are the risk,” and you make your own decision. That makes sense.
    74. Elon Musk (01:39:21): Well, I think in terms of people-
    75. Elon Musk (01:39:40): Well, I think actually in terms of the number of people that will hear this conversation over the next few days, two weeks, it’s going to be hundreds of millions.
    76. Elon Musk (01:40:26): I mean, with all these things, I always try to get to the ground truth by just asking people. And my mom lives in New York and I was like, “Mom, have any of your friends been attacked or assaulted?” And she said, “Yeah,” three of her friends in three separate incidents-
    77. Elon Musk (01:40:42): … were assaulted just in recent months just walking around the streets in New York. And I said, “Well, what happened to the people that assaulted them?” “Oh, nothing. They got away.” And they just know-
    78. Elon Musk (01:40:57): And they don’t even bother reporting it because they know that people are not going to get prosecuted. They just let violent criminals out in New York-
    79. Elon Musk (01:41:13): Yeah. I mean, it’s just obviously messed up.
    80. Elon Musk (01:41:16): If violent criminals are being getting off scot-free, and meanwhile New York spending massive resources prosecuting you, and I think the sensible public looks at this and says, “What the heck’s going on here? This is obviously abuse of the legal system.” The legal system’s supposed to be protecting the public from violent criminals, and it should be obviously allowing the public to make their own decision about who should be president as opposed to some legal case.(Like Jan 6?)
    81. Elon Musk (01:42:24): Of course.
    82. Elon Musk (01:42:27): Exactly.
    83. Elon Musk (01:43:03): Yeah, I think there’s a lot of opportunity, absolutely.
    84. Elon Musk (01:43:16): It’s kind of you to say, thank you.
    85. Elon Musk (01:43:34): Thank you. Well, I’ll just say here’s to an exciting inspiring future that people can look forward to and be optimistic and excited about what happens next. And that’s the kind of future that I think you’ll bring as president, and that’s why I endorse you.
    86. Elon Musk (01:44:13): I think that’s a very real risk.
    87. Elon Musk (01:44:17): That’s a very real risk. I’d just like to note to people listening, I’ve not been very political before, and if you look at my record, I’ve actually been, they try to paint me as a far right guy, which is absurd because I’m making electric vehicles and solar and batteries helping them with the environment, and I actually supported Obama. I stood in line for six hours to shake Obama’s hand when he was running for president. And so it’s not like I’m some sort of dive in the world, long-term Republican. I’m actually, I call myself historically a moderate Democrat, but now I feel like we’re really at a critical juncture for the country. And I think a lot of people thought that Biden administration would be a moderate administration, but it’s not. And obviously we’re just going to see an even further left administration with Kamala. That’s my honest opinion. I mean, her dad is literally, I mean she was brought up as an actual… Her dad is a Marxist economist. You can Google it. I mean, we’re not making this up, that’s how she was brought up. (Her Dad is not running for President. So what do you think about your Dad?)
    88. Elon Musk (01:47:36): I mean, if I could summarize it, perhaps, I think these are issues that I think most people in America would agree with, which is that we want safe and clean cities. We want secure borders, we want sensible government spending. We want to restore both the perception and reality of respect in the judicial system. Stop the lawfare. How are those even right-wing positions. I think those, that’s just common sense. I mean, would you agree with that?
    89. Elon Musk (01:48:26): [inaudible 01:48:27].
    90. Elon Musk (01:49:11): Well, absolutely. And it’s obviously demoralizing if you’re a police officer risking your life to arrest violent criminals who could kill you and do kill you sometimes, and then you arrest a violent criminal and then the DA doesn’t prosecute and then just let the guy out. Well, then why should a police officer risk their life to arrest a violent felon- (They can find another line of work.)
    91. Elon Musk (01:49:37): … if nothing’s going to happen.
    92. Elon Musk (01:49:51): Well, I thought it was very telling, incredibly telling that when there was a case where a gang of thugs beat up police officers. I think it was in Times Square in New York, and then nothing happened to those guys. They were let out zero bail, and I think a bunch of them were given free tickets to California. Well, I mean that is a gross indignity against the United States, and that’s how this is insane. Have we lost all pride? How can such a thing be allowed to occur? (What about Jan 6th?)
    93. Elon Musk (01:50:54): Dead.
    94. Elon Musk (01:51:17): Yeah. We just cannot have a situation where our police officers are beaten up on camera by a gang of illegal immigrants (or Jan 6 thugs) and then nothing happens to the guys that beat up the cops, and they’re let out. This is unacceptable.
    95. Elon Musk (01:52:19): Yeah, it’s-
    96. Elon Musk (01:52:57): … yeah, it’s just got to be done. We just can’t have, whether they’re citizens or not citizens, we can’t have, because they weren’t prosecuted citizens either, not just illegals. So you can have repeat violent offenders that don’t get incarcerated.
    97. Elon Musk (01:53:20): Because they will obviously by definition continue to hurt people. And I think where part of this comes from is that, and I do consider myself liberal in some ways. I mean, it is just that you want to have empathy for people. Obviously you want to have empathy for people. I totally agree with that. You want to have empathy, but you also have to have empathy for the victims of the criminals. And if you just have empathy for the criminals, it’s actually shallow empathy. It’s not real. You’re not thinking you have one layer deep empathy. You’ve got to say, if you don’t incarcerate this person, who are they going to hurt? They might kill someone, they might rape someone if you don’t incarcerate them. You have to have empathy for the victims. And there’s a lack of empathy for the victims of the criminals, and too much empathy for the criminals, it doesn’t make sense. That’s why you want to have deep empathy for society as a whole, not shallow empathy for criminals.
    98. Elon Musk (01:56:29): Yes, it’s horrible. The facts speak for themselves.
    99. Elon Musk (01:56:32): The facts speak for themselves. It’s gone to the point where people just don’t even bother reporting crime in a lot of cities-
    100. Elon Musk (01:56:36): … because they know nothing’s going to happen. That’s what I hear anecdotally from people all the time. So my values, I’m just saying to people out there, the things I think are important for the future is we’ve got to have safe cities. We’ve got to have secure borders, we’ve got to have sensible spending, and we’ve got to have deregulation so we can have a prosperous future. And then we want to have some exciting moonshot projects that people can get fired up about, and that’s the future I’m looking for. And I’m pro environment, but I’m not against, I don’t think we should vilify the oil and gas industry because they’re keeping civilization going right now, but I do think we want to move a reasonable speed towards a sustainable energy economy. Those are my values. I mean, that’s why I’m supporting you for president.
    101. Elon Musk (01:59:42): No, I think we’re a fork in the road of destiny of civilization, and I think we need to take the right path, and I think you’re the right path, so I think that’s what it comes down to.
    102. Elon Musk (02:00:05): Sure.
    103. Elon Musk (02:00:11): All right, sounds good. Thank you.
    104. Elon Musk (02:31): Not Pleasant.
    105. Elon Musk (03:45): Yeah.
    106. Elon Musk (04:12): I mean, maybe it’s a sign. Maybe that’s a sign.
    107. Elon Musk (04:17): You highlighted a serious issue, and at that moment, the bullet hit your ear, but missed your head. I mean-
    108. Elon Musk (05:24): Yeah.
    109. Elon Musk (05:45): Yeah.
    110. Elon Musk (06:15): Yeah.
    111. Elon Musk (06:57): Sure. Absolutely.
    112. Elon Musk (07:24): Yeah. Absolutely.
    113. Elon Musk (07:39): I mean, that’s clearly, he was very competent in taking that shot to stop the attempted assassination. But I mean, there does seem to be, I mean, some pretty significant failings elsewhere in the system. There’s just no way that, how on earth does a shooter get on a roof 130 yards away? That seems crazy. I think most people are wondering how on earth could such a thing happen?
    114. Elon Musk (08:29): Yeah, yeah, yeah. I saw the videos.
    115. Elon Musk (08:33): I guess from my part, and I think probably many members of the public are wondering how the heck are basically people wondering why, pointing out there’s a guy on the roof with a gun.
    116. Elon Musk (08:46): And they’re seeing it, but somehow it’s not being addressed. That does seem crazy.
    117. Elon Musk (09:25): Okay.
    118. Elon Musk (09:41): Yeah.
    119. Elon Musk (09:55): Yeah, it’s not a tough shot.
    120. Elon Musk (10:04): Yeah.
    121. Elon Musk (11:14): Yeah.
    122. Elon Musk (11:36): Sure.
    123. Elon Musk (12:18): I mean, looking at the aerial views, that building would be the number one spot for a sniper. It’s like if you were to pick what is the favorite… So if the goal is to assassinate, what’s your favorite spot? That building.
    124. Elon Musk (12:30): That building would be number one.
    125. Elon Musk (12:32): It’s like you couldn’t ask for a better location. It’s like number one.
    126. Elon Musk (12:36): Yeah.
    127. Elon Musk (13:19): Yeah. But he totally would’ve hit if you hadn’t turned your head. So it was a very near thing.
    128. Elon Musk (13:31): Exactly.
    129. Elon Musk (13:35): You’d be talking to me from another realm perhaps.
    130. Elon Musk (14:01): Yeah.
    131. Elon Musk (14:26): Well, I think your actions in the heat of fire, what I find admirable there was that you can’t fake bravery under such circumstances. The courage is instinctual, or it is not. It’s not a rehearsed action. And so I just want to say that I think a lot of people admire your courage under fire there. Yeah. (Getting shot at is not an act of courage, just bad luck.)
    132. Elon Musk (15:45): Yeah.
    133. Elon Musk (16:14): It was incredibly moving. Yeah. Well, and I mean speaking of the sort of slide that got you to turn, that saved your life really, was the legal immigration slide.
    134. Elon Musk (16:29): Maybe this is worth talking about that slide. That slide saved your life, basically.
    135. Elon Musk (16:42): I mean, that’s a great one. Saved by illegal immigration.
    136. Elon Musk (16:58): Yeah.
    137. Elon Musk (17:40): Well, what were you about to say about illegal immigration before you were rudely interrupted?
    138. Elon Musk (17:51): Great.
    139. Elon Musk (18:20): Yeah, so rudely interrupted by an assassination attempt.
    140. Elon Musk (18:25): Some people have no manners.
    141. Elon Musk (18:38): Yeah, yeah.
    142. Elon Musk (19:54): Would it be accurate to say that you’re supportive of legal immigration, but we obviously need to shut down illegal immigration, and especially unvetted illegal immigration?
    143. Elon Musk (20:06): And that’s not the same as saying that everyone who’s an illegal immigrant is bad. In fact, I think most people who are illegal immigrants are actually good. But you can’t tell a difference unless there’s a solid vetting of who comes across the border.
    144. Elon Musk (20:20): Does that actually represent your position?
    145. Elon Musk (20:27): Yeah.
    146. Elon Musk (22:10): Yeah. Sure.
    147. Elon Musk (22:45): Yeah. No, I think it is essential to have a secure border. I mean, you’re really not a country unless you’re in a secure border. (Like Ukraine?)
    148. Elon Musk (22:57): Yeah, absolutely. Secure elections. And so it is just essential to have a real border, or we can’t function as a country, and our central services are being overwhelmed in a lot of cities. But as we were talking about earlier, I think having a legal immigration process that is smooth and efficient and done well, and speaking as someone who is a legal immigrant. And I think that one way to think of it is, who do you want on your team? Who do you want on Team America? And I think we want to just say, “Okay, we want to let in people who are going to be great contributors to our society and to our economy.” And who do you want on the team? And it’s not to say that, in my opinion, actually, I’d say probably most of the illegal immigrants are actually good, hardworking people. (First senible claim.) That’s my opinion. But some are not.
    149. Elon Musk (25:06): I think you’re right.
    150. Elon Musk (25:30): That’s what Castro did.
    151. Elon Musk (25:35): Yeah.
    152. Elon Musk (25:49): Yeah.
    153. Elon Musk (27:21): It’s simply not working.
    154. Elon Musk (27:24): Whether it’s a question of intention or competence, either way, we don’t have a secure border. And we have people streaming over, it looks like a World War Z zombie apocalypse at times. And sometimes you got to sort of wonder, is it real or not? Because you see things, and you’re like, “Is it real?” So I went to the border at Eagle Pass, and I saw it for myself in Texas. And I was like, “Okay, it’s real.” I’m seeing this in real time. I actually posted the video just live. I just flew there one day and just to see, hey, is this made up or real? And I’m just seeing people stream across the border. And I have to say, at least the people that I saw did not look friendly. People can look at my video and say, “Hey, these people look friendly.” They don’t look super friendly. (So why did Trump kill the immigration bill?)
    155. Elon Musk (29:33): Yeah.
    156. Elon Musk (29:37): Yeah. Frankly, I think this is a fundamental existential issue for the United States. And if we have another four more years of open borders, and with another four more years, it’s going to be even worse than it’s been for the past three and a half years. I’m not sure we’ve got a country at that point.
    157. Elon Musk (30:19): Yeah, this is a super important point. Basically, when I went down there, I was like, “Well, where are people from?” It’s like almost no one was from Mexico.
    158. Elon Musk (30:31): It’s just the border with Mexico. But the people coming in, it’s Earth. The rest of Earth. And America is only about 4% or 5% of the population of Earth. It would only take a few percent of the rest of Earth to overwhelm everything in the US.
    159. Elon Musk (30:57): Yeah.
    160. Elon Musk (31:48): It’s just an everywhere on Earth thing. It’s just not possible for the United States to absorb everyone from Earth or even a few percent of the rest of Earth, is just not possible.
    161. Elon Musk (33:39): They just took him out back behind the shed and basically shot him.
    162. Elon Musk (34:11): Yeah, I think you’re making an excellent point here, which is that when other countries that are thinking about invading or doing bad things, when they’re thinking about that, they’re thinking about, okay, what’s the American president going to do? Do they fear the American president? Or is there someone they do not respect and do not fear? I think they do… They would rightfully be, I mean, look at the footage of the assassination. They’re like, okay, President Trump is like, “Don’t mess with me.”
    163. Elon Musk (37:01): Yeah, it doesn’t make any sense. It’s inconsistent, certainly. I mean, I think it’s just worth emphasizing to listeners the immense importance of whether the United States president is intimidating or not intimidating and how much that matters to global security. There’s some real tough characters out there and if they don’t think the American president is tough, they will do what they want to do.
    164. Elon Musk (37:31): It puts the whole world in danger.
    165. Elon Musk (40:09): Those were some epic tweets, by the way.
    166. Elon Musk (40:49): Exactly.
    167. Elon Musk (40:52): Yeah. It’s because people like Kim Jong Un, they respond to strength, not weakness. He projects strength.
    168. Elon Musk (45:06): I think you’re right. I think people underrate the risk of World War III. When looking at the risk of global thermonuclear warfare, it’s game over for humanity. It’s something that, I think after the end of the Cold War, people have become complacent about. They actually have forgotten that there are currently a lot of nuclear missiles that have targeting parameters for the United States from other countries.
    169. Elon Musk (46:42): No, they could not.
    170. Elon Musk (47:00): Yes, absolutely.
    171. Elon Musk (47:52): A lot of people just don’t understand where inflation comes from. Inflation comes from government overspending (Inflation is demand exceeds supply!) because the checks never bounce when it’s written by the government. So if the government spends far more than it brings in, that increases the money supply. If the money supply increases faster than the rate of goods and services, that’s inflation.
    172. Elon Musk (49:31): Thank you.
    173. Elon Musk (50:48): Sure. Well, just going back to this basic thing, which that people try to make it sound complicated, but it’s not. Inflation is caused by government overspending (Wrong!). Would you agree that we need to take a look at government spending?
    174. Elon Musk (51:05): Have perhaps a government efficiency commission that tries to make the spending sensible so the country lives within its means just like a person does?
    175. Elon Musk (51:45): Wow. That’s insane.
    176. Elon Musk (51:56): That’s a crazy number.
    177. Elon Musk (52:48): Exactly. Multiply it by a zillion.
    178. Elon Musk (52:56): I think it would be great to just have a government efficiency commission that takes a look at these things and just ensures that the taxpayer money, the taxpayers hard-earned money is spent in a good way. I’d be happy to help out on such a commission.
    179. Elon Musk (53:13): If it were formed.
    180. Elon Musk (53:32): Well, I’d be happy to help out.
    181. Elon Musk (54:37): Yeah, well, it’s just from government overspending and just not spending taxpayer money effectively and having so many departments, you can’t even name them all. What Milei is doing is he’s cutting government spending. He’s simplifying things. He’s putting in regulations that make sense. Argentina overnight is experiencing a giant improvement in prosperity.
    182. Elon Musk (58:01): Yeah, I think you’re making a good point in that if each state has to compete against other states, then people will naturally move to states where it’s better.
    183. Elon Musk (58:51): Sure. No, but some of these governors are doing so badly. I mean, they got so many people moving out of their state they should get U-Haul Salesman of the Year award because they’re driving so much U-Haul sales.
    184. Elon Musk (59:07): People moving out.
    185. Elon Musk (59:57): I think the only thing that’s going to force some of these states to change is if they risk bankruptcy and they’re not getting bailed out by the federal government.
    It is always best to go to the source.

    Bob Wilson