Musk Wants Me Imprisoned

Friends,

On Saturday’s “Coffee Klatch” podcast, I said:

Democrats ought to “defund Musk” and lay “the groundwork for nationalizing” Starlink and SpaceX.

(My full Coffee Klatch argument is below.)

This seems to have set Elon Musk off. He posted to his 241,700,000 followers:

“Stealing companies is a serious crime. Prison for Reich.”

I’m not particularly worried about being imprisoned — although Musk does have influence over Trump, and Trump has criminally charged Americans who have done no more than express opinions he dislikes (see: Ilhan Omar, Reid Hoffman, Brad Lander, et al.).

I assure you I’m not going to be intimidated by a tweet by Musk.

I’ll continue to criticize him for making decisions — such as squelching his Starlink satellite service to Ukraine — that should be made by people who are responsible for U.S. foreign policy rather than by an unaccountable tycoon.

I’ll continue to campaign like crazy for Democrats in the upcoming midterms, and urge voters to throw the Republican bums out.

I’ll continue to highlight the connections between great wealth and grotesque power during our Second Gilded Age — of which Musk has become Exhibit A.

Elon: You may be the richest and most powerful man in the world, but I’m tough as nails. I’ve stood up to bullies my whole life, starting with playground bullies who went after me because I was so short. You think I won’t stand up to you?

Okay, I’m aware of my privilege. I come with a platform. I’ve held high-level jobs in our government. And I’m an old person with little to lose, anyway.

I worry about what Musk’s impulsive bullying is doing and has done to others more vulnerable than I am — people who work or have worked for him, women he’s allegedly coerced into signing nondisclosure agreements, people he’s done business with, people he’s threatened and racially denigrated and pushed around his whole life, voters he’s deluging with TV ads for Republican candidates.

I also worry about the federal workers who have been hurt by his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, Americans who have been harmed by his wanton destruction of public services, and people around the globe who are worse off because of cuts to USAID pushed by Elon’s DOGE.

We now have a bully-in-chief in the Oval Office and the world’s wealthiest bully dictating American foreign policy — both of whom are now pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into our elections in order to avoid accountability.

Will people speak out against these two consummate bullies, or remain intimidated into silence?

One week to go until the midterms. Maybe then we can begin to defund Musk.

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