The age of the internet and the world wide web is something to admire and loathe. Surveillance capitalism is very much of the loathsome, sinister variety. But ASIO, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Government and other agencies do not give a fig about that.
Source: War of censorship escalates as Elon Musk fires shots at Australia
When is the acquisitive nature of open frontier capitalism too much? When Elon Musk is told that US$56 billion as a pay package is unfair. This, at least, was the finding by Delaware Court of Chancery by Judge Kathaleen McCormick regarding the spellbinding 2018 compensation package for the planet’s wealthiest human being.
Source: When Much is Too Much: Elon Musk’s Compensation Package – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Tesla boss Elon Musk has disclosed another $US3.6 billion ($A5.2 billion) in stock sales, taking his total near $US40b this year and frustrating investors as the company’s shares wallow at two-year lows.
Source: Musk cashes out another $5b in Tesla stock – Michael West
Journalist Aaron Rupar, who had 789,000 followers and was critical of Elon, just had his Twitter account suspended on the self-entitled billionaire’s behemoth platform — whose fall from the public’s grace seems to be happening at a fast pace. Tesla’s stocks are plummeting, and Elon doesn’t know how to use his new Twitter toy.
Source: Elon Throws A Tantrum, Bans Journalists For Hurting His Feels | Crooks and Liars
Since capitalism’s dawn, power stemmed from owning capital goods; steam engines, Bessemer furnaces, industrial robots, and so on. Today, it is cloud-based capital, or cloud capital in short, that grants its owners hitherto unimaginable powers.
Two lessons here.
First, corporations that regard employees only as costs to be cut rather than as assets to be nourished can make humongous mistakes. Elon Musk is Exhibit #1.
Second, where corporations view employees as costs, the traditional way for employees to flex their muscle is to strike, thereby temporarily closing factories and stopping the machines.
But where employees are a corporation’s key assets, workers’ greater power comes in threatening to — or actually — walking out the door. Elon Musk is Exhibit #2.
I woke up yesterday, looked at my to-do list and saw that the top item was “delete your Twitter account”. I hadn’t tweeted in years, so it was something of a quiet protest, but Elon Musk giving Donald Trump the green light to use the blue bird was the final straw.
Source: Elon Musk’s idea of Twitter free speech could cost him $61 billion
Privately owned COMMUNICATION
What’s Musk going to do with Twitter? After months of trying to walk away from his commitment to buy the platform, and just before entering what was looking to be a long, potentially embarrassing and costly court battle to enforce his original agreement, Twitter is now privately owned.
Source: Why Elon Musk’s first week as Twitter owner has users flocking elsewhere
Just three days after Elon Musk bought Twitter, he posted a tweet advancing the baseless allegation that Paul Pelosi, the husband of the Speaker of the House, who was assaulted Friday at the couple’s home, had been drunk and in a fight with a male prostitute.
Instead of counting on an allegedly benevolent billionaire like Elon Musk to guard free speech online by buying companies like Twitter, we should just take our digital public square out of rich people’s hands and into public ownership.
Last weekend, Elon Musk used a twitter poll to make a political point, and it exploded in his and other Tesla investors’ faces.
Source: Elon Musk’s Extraordinary Twitter Poll | The Smirking Chimp
“This country made him rich,” said one critic. “He owes us.”
Source: Elon Musk Thinks Elon Musk Is Taxed Enough Already? Please | Crooks and Liars
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