My friend and former colleague at the Center for Investigative Reporting, Michael Keep, pointed out in a comment on yesterday’s essay, “Do Look Up,” that if Elon Musk cared about the risk of another asteroid hitting and thereby once again destroying life on earth, he would fund the effort to defend the planet from this very real threat.
But instead, as the richest man on earth, he devotes most of his fortune to perfecting an escape to Mars.
Here is a thought. What if Musk’s plan in gaining Trump’s trust and heading up the plan to cut trillions of dollars from the government budget is to use that money to put his escape plan on steroids?
I’m beginning to suspect Musk is playing Trump for a fool. Trump may fancy himself a dictator in the banana republic sense, but meanwhile, as crazy as it sounds, Musk plans to get the financing for his escape plan from our tax dollars that otherwise would be going to help protect our health and welfare and the environment around us.
Elon’s scheme is to rocket off to space and leave all of this behind.
You see, it’s all right there in the math. Musk is very rich, but there is only so much wealth a guy can generate on his own. He’s worth about $321.7 billion, which is a drop in the bucket compared to the annual federal budget of $6.75 trillion.
Musk is in the unique position not only to cut funding for most of the government agencies but to redirect it to his space program. So if this proves to be true you might ask, “What about the rest of us?”
The answer is we’ll be stuck back here in one big banana republic.
HEADLINES:
How Scott Bessent Went From Democratic Donor to Trump Treasury Secretary Pick (NYT)
US Treasury Pick Bessent ‘Is a Fiscal Hawk’: Wall Street Reacts (Bloomberg)
Sharp elbows and raised voices: Inside Trump’s bumpy transition (WP)
Trump’s AG pick Pam Bondi is more conventional than Gaetz, but the agenda to disrupt the Justice Department won’t change (CNN)
How Gaetz crashed and burned (Politico)
Trump and GOP consider vast changes to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (WP)
Trump’s pick for budget head worked on Project 2025 – and wants to bypass the US Senate (Guardian)
Marty Makary to lead FDA, agency that oversees vaccines and drugs )WP)
Elon Musk is directing harassment toward individual federal workers (Verge)
Scott Turner, former Trump White House official, tapped for HUD secretary (WP)
What now for the Democratic Party? (Economist)
Trump selects Brooke Rollins to be agriculture secretary (WP)
Russia’s warning to the ‘reckless’ West (Reuters)
Israeli strikes in central Beirut kill at least 15 as diplomats push for cease-fire (NPR)
UN climate talks in disarray as developing nations stage walkout at COP29 (Al Jazeera)
COP29 nations debate over the price tag of survival (Reuters)
A Common Blood Pressure Drug Extends Lifespan And Slows Aging in Animals (ScienceAlert)
rump’s word is your bond market (Reuters)
Alice Brock, who helped inspire Arlo Guthrie’s classic ‘Alice’s Restaurant,’ dies at 83 (NBC)
OpenAI is funding research into ‘AI morality’ (TechCrunch)
The DOJ Demands That Google Cease Innovating (Forbes)
Apple Is Planning a Major AI-Powered Overhaul to Siri, Report Says (CNET)
‘Well the end of aging and death wouldn’t be bad’: Professor who coined the term AGI for superintelligence thinks we’ll get human-level AI in ‘three to five years’ (TechRadar)
Everyone In Family Claims To Be The Black Sheep (The Onion)