14 thoughts on “Weekend Open Thread”

1. OK, this isn’t about politics directly, but I suspect many on this site would still be interested in knowing more about the one person who may be responsible for the most impact on our planet in the last decade (spoiler alert — I’m not talking about Trump or Putin).

   Elon Musk — inside the mind of a truly bizarre man

   Now at least we know what drives him — his desire to enable interplanetary travel so that when the Earth is destroyed, Humanity (or at least his progeny) will live on.

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2. Dang!  Sorry for the broken link.

   Try this one: Elon Musk — inside the mind of a truly bizarre man

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   1. The PayPal Mafia (from Wikipedia)

      Individuals whom the media refers to as members of the PayPal Mafia include:[5][4]

      • Peter Thiel, PayPal founder and former chief executive officer who is sometimes referred to as the "don" of the PayPal Mafia
      • Max Levchin, founder and chief technology officer at PayPal
      • Elon Musk, co-founder of Zip2, founder of X.com which merged with Confinity to form PayPal. Musk later founded SpaceX, invested in Tesla, Inc., co-founded OpenAI, Neuralink, founded The Boring Company, and purchased Twitter
      • David O. Sacks, former PayPal COO who later founded Geni.com and Yammer
      • Scott Banister, early advisor and board member at PayPal[6]
      • Roelof Botha, former PayPal CFO who later became a partner at the venture capital firm Sequoia Capital
      • Steve Chen, former PayPal engineer who co-founded YouTube
      • Reid Hoffman, former executive vice president who later founded LinkedIn and was an early investor in Facebook, Aviary
      • Ken Howery, former PayPal CFO who became a partner at Founders Fund
      • Chad Hurley, former PayPal web designer who co-founded YouTube
      • Eric M. Jackson, who wrote the book The PayPal Wars and became chief executive officer of WND Books and co-founded CapLinked
      • Jawed Karim, former PayPal engineer who founded YouTube
      • Jared Kopf, executive assistant to Peter Thiel at PayPal who co-founded Slide, HomeRun and NextRoll
      • Dave McClure, former PayPal marketing director, a super angel investor for start up companies
      • Andrew McCormack, co-founder of Valar Ventures
      • Luke Nosek, PayPal co-founder and former vice president of marketing and strategy, became a partner at Founders Fund with Peter Thiel and Ken Howery
      • Keith Rabois, former executive at PayPal who later worked at LinkedIn, Slide, Square, Khosla Ventures, and currently with Peter Thiel at Founders Fund, and invested in Tokbox, Xoom, Slide, LinkedIn, Geni, Room 9 Entertainment, YouTube, and Yelp
      • Jack Selby, former vice president of corporate and international development at PayPal who co-founded Clarium Capital with Peter Thiel, later becoming managing director of Grandmaster Capital Management
      • Premal Shah, former product manager at PayPal, became the founding president of Kiva.org
      • Russel Simmons, former PayPal engineer who later co-founded Yelp
      • Jeremy Stoppelman, former vice president of technology at PayPal who later co-founded Yelp
      • Yishan Wong, former engineering manager at PayPal, later worked at Facebook, became the CEO of Reddit, and founded Terraformation Inc.
      • Yu pan, was one of the co-founders of PayPal and played a role in designing the company's user interface and user experience. Who later involved in private ventures and some of the successful startups.

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   2. I wish Musk were only the supervillain character in a sci-fi space opera. But readers would think he was too over-the-top.

      Unfortunately, the antisocial megalomaniac  who owns two global communications platforms, controls a satellite network and a space exploration company, among other assets, is real. 

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      1. And so far it is in no way clear that our government wants to take him on in his "tinkering" with the war in Ukraine (i.e. the allegation that he refuses to enable his satellites for communications Ukraine needs in their battle with Putin).

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      2. Here is the political cartoon that pretty much captures the problem with Musk:

         

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3. Because of the whisper campaign to have her in the mix for Trump's VP selection:

   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12509093/Kristin-Noem-Corey-Lewandowski-secret-affair.html

   Republicans elasticity with "Family Values" is so weird.  

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4. Ken Buck slams GOP House colleagues in WaPo op-Ed for evidence-free impeachment probe. How did Buck become the conscience of his mostly conscience-free caucus? 
    

   Opinion | My fellow Republicans: One disgraceful impeachment doesn’t deserve another

   Republicans in the House who are itching for an impeachment are relying on an imagined history. Their inquiry, formally announced by Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday, rests heavily on a fictitious version of Shokin’s career, with the alleged investigation of Burisma at the center. It’s a neat story, and one that performs well in certain media circles. But impeachment is a serious matter and should have a foundation of rock-solid facts.

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   1. Ken Buck is smart, has usually thought things through, and tends to speak his mind. I appreciate that in him.

      Yes he's a politician and he's conservative so plenty here will get down on him for not matching their ideal of perfection. 

      I think he generally is a positive actor in D.C. who tries to do what he thinks is best. So kudos to him.

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      1. Compared to the rest of the Republicans in the Colorado delegation, he's obviously the best.

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         1. It's easy to succeed if you set the bar low enough.

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            1. Speaking of…at times like these I kinda miss our favorite Pfruit imparting his biblical view with us.

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         2. He does have his moments. but he’s clearly the shining star amongst the CO GQP. 

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         3. Agree, LB. Good for him. I've no doubt many Republican Congresscritters will throw rocks at him for this piece. I disagree with him about The Yam's impeachments, but he's mostly right.

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