How quickly our views evolve!

A few years ago, when Elon Musk was giving millions in support to Barack Obama, Democrats thought he was just fine.  Now they see Musk as a racist, a danger to the world order, and a threat to Democrats.

The left was already upset with Musk for purchasing Twitter (“X”), and for allowing the Orange Menace et al. to air their views on that website.  Recently, Musk did three more things that rankle Democrats: he re-posted a meme that makes fun of Kamala Harris; he talked with Trump for two hours in a conversation seen by millions on the “X” platform; and, most dastardly, he created a Trump-friendly political action committee — a super-PAC.

The meme

Musk re-posted a meme that utilized A.I. to imitate Kamala’s voice.  It is a video that was designed to be amusing and to highlight Kamala’s phoniness.  Here is how the meme begins:

I, Kamala Harris, am your Democrat candidate for president because Joe Biden finally exposed his senility at the debate.  Thanks, Joe!  I was selected because I am the ultimate diversity hire.  I am both a woman and a person of color, so if you criticize anything I say, you’re both sexist and racist.  I may not know the first thing about running the country, but remember, that’s a good thing if you’re a Deep State puppet.

The rest of the video is equally outlandish — and funny!  For example, the fake Kamala stresses the importance of hiding her total incompetence and the importance of trying to sound black.  (She uses her “best Barack Obama impression.”)

Numerous mainstream pundits and journalists have somberly complained that the meme violates X’s media manipulation policy.  They worry that people might confuse the meme Harris with the real Harris.  I guess the A.I. imitation is more realistic than we understood.

The Conversation

Regarding the Trump-Musk dialogue, the mainstream media assert that they have no problem with free speech but are upset because the two men spread lies and disinformation.  A comprehensive list of these supposed falsehoods was made by Daniel Dale of CNN.  Let’s assess a few of the items on Dale’s list.

• Trump and Musk said that Kamala had been the “border czar” — a claim that Dale says “is false.”  For years, however, many people and publications have regarded her as the border czar.  Even the BBC — no friend to Trump — admits it:

many people came to see [the Kamala Harris] assignment as all-encompassing.  Several media organisations, including the BBC, described Ms Harris as a “tsar” in news reports.

• Trump said, “Our crime rate’s going through the roof.”  Dale found this to be another falsehood, but the CNN fact-checker was not using the best evidence.  Trump based his statement on the periodic “National Crime Victim Surveys,” which are conducted twice per year by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).  The Bureau describes itself as “the primary statistical agency of the Department of Justice.”  Regarding its periodic surveys, BJS issued this statement:

The BJS National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is the nation's primary source of information on criminal victimization. Each year, data are obtained from a nationally representative sample of about 240,000 persons in about 150,000 households.

In contrast, Dale cited flawed data from the FBI, which only reports the data that are voluntarily submitted to it by police departments, many of which decline to participate.  That is probably why BJS surveys show far higher crime rates.

• Trump claimed that nuclear war is a far bigger threat than global warming.  I think most people would agree.  He also said, tongue in cheek, “The ocean’s gonna rise one eighth of an inch over the next 400 years.”  Obviously, Trump’s claim about a 1/8 inch increase in oceans was intended to be hyperbolic rather than factual.  However, that didn’t stop Daniel Dale from issuing this stern advisory: “Trump’s claim about the pace of sea-level rise is wildly inaccurate.”
• Daniel Dale was also upset about Trump’s claims concerning 2020 election irregularities: “The 2020 election was not rigged.  Trump lost fair and square.”  However, there is much information that contradicts Dale’s assertion.  I wrote a fact-based book that describes in great detail why the elections in the six key swing states were not certifiable.  No one has debunked anything in that book, or even attempted to do so.

To be fair, Daniel Dale pointed out some issues that were exaggerated by the former president:

• Trump claimed the inflation rate is the worst in 100 years, but it is the worst in just the last 44 years.
• Trump said that his policies made it impossible for China to purchase Iranian oil.  Dale admitted that that statement was true by the end of the Trump administration, but he added that “ships may travel from Iran with their transponders switched off” to conceal their commerce with Iran.  So Dale was basing this fact-check on a theory that ship transponders were shut off?

Musk’s new super-PAC

Without a doubt, this is what concerns Democrats the most.  Elon Musk has pledged a very large sum of money (up to $180 million) to a super–political action committee (PAC) that has the goal of developing a ground game that can get “800,000 low-propensity voters in swing states to the polls for Donald Trump.”

This is a great strategy that could make the difference between a Republican victory and a Republican defeat.  However, it is important to distinguish between a good ground game and ballot-harvesting.

The ground game is a legal strategy to encourage voting.  On the other hand, ballot-harvesting involves the use of political operatives who take physical control of voter ballots.  It is illegal in most states.

President Trump once urged his party to harvest ballots in retaliation for the harvesting done by Democrats.  That was a terrible idea for several reasons.  Here are a couple of them:

• Democrat district attorneys, like Alvin Bragg, would be delighted to prosecute Republicans caught harvesting ballots, even though they show no interest in prosecuting Democrat ballot-harvesting.
• Harvesting ballots would not be very effective with regard to Republican voters because they are more politically independent.  Harvesting works best with druggies, the homeless, and non-English-speaking Democrat constituencies.

In a separate article in the American Thinker, you will find more information about political ground games and the dangers of ballot-harvesting.

I believe that Democrats are terrified by the Musk super-PAC — and they should be.  Until now, they have largely owned the get-out-the-vote strategy and have often employed effective but disgraceful tactics.  For example, more than 20 Democrat states automatically register voters — often without telling them.  In those states, a person may become registered because she visited a state welfare agency or because she was released from prison.  Later, sophisticated ballot-harvesters can acquire county voter registration lists, assume the identity of these clueless new voters, and apply for ballots using their identities.

It seems that Musk is “all in” for Trump and J.D. Vance.  That is good cheer for Republicans — and heartburn for Democrats.

Joe Fried is an Ohio-based CPA who has performed and reviewed hundreds of certified financial audits.  He is the author of the book Debunked? An auditor reviews the 2020 election and How Elections Are Stolen, which outlines 23 problems that must be fixed before the 2024 election.  More information can be found at https://joefriedcpa.substack.com, Joe’s permanently free Substack account.

Image: JD Lasica via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (cropped).