Musk, America PAC sued for allegedly rigging $1M election prize Elon Musk and his America PAC have been sued for allegedly lying about their $1 million election lottery after letting slip in a court hearing earlier this month that it wasn't as random as Musk suggested. The proposed class action complaint [PDF] was filed after election day by an Arizona resident who signed America PAC's …
51% of the ones who voted, 63.7% of the eligible population apparently. For those who can't do the maths themselves, that's 32.5% or thereabouts, so only one in three Americans were daft enough to vote for fascism, and still not quite as much as the 38.9% of the eligible vote that a certain angry Austrian got in March 1933. Maybe there's hope yet (or maybe T___p is less well-liked than H_____r?)
I recently checked by doing an image search for idiot. Trump used to get at least twelve of the top twenty results. This time the idiot was pushed so far down that his face did not appear until image 109. This is a case of clear censorship by a big tech company. Please do an image search for idiot and click through an appropriate image so the algorithm will restore Donald to his hard earned number 1 position.
I suspect it's worse than that - those 51% were just those idiots who could work out how to register to vote, locate a polling place, how to get to it, know what month it is and whether it's Tuesday, and finally whether they could read the names on the ballot.
I understand adult (il)literacy is a real problem in the US to the point that it hampers military recruitment.
From a foreigner's perspective any eligible US resident who didn't vote is, by definition, an idiot and, have by that default, can be said to just as effectively voted for the nutjobs now infesting or soon to infest all three branches of the US government.
Strictly speaking with aprox 77 million votes for Trump on a population of 337 million (and change) we only have actual evidence that about 22% of Americans are idiots. If we include people that didn't vote at all (224-151 million = 73 million) it's 44%. Only if we take those that did NOT vote AND those that voted for Orange Man as idiots and calculate a percentage against only those eligible to vote do we get past 50% (150/224*100%=67%)
I hope they loose. You get what you voted for. You signed a form because you did no reseach on the smarmy cunt that Elon is and most likely went on to vote for Trump because "Eggs are too expensive". They'll be a darn site more expensive when Trump gets in and puts in his tariffs.
Well... this was not (openly) about "vote republican", bat rather "support this and that thingy", so no need to vote for Trump to be (allegedly) elegible - but of course you never were elegble, and that is the problem.
Still, yes, you get the eejits in charge you voted for, and their cronies who you absolutely knew about, and they will see the country similarly as the governor of Korsika did in the Asterix comic book. They even said so. And still you voted for them. Pity for the rest of the world, but sorry, you do get what you apparently wanted so badly. Just sucks to be poor, coloured, female, have a non-traditional lifestyle (in any way, family, sexuality, personality, or whatever they will target now), work in science (unless you develop big weapons), or are not a billionaire.
Yes, over where I am people vote for eejits as well, though so far we have been spared the worst idiots - until the next election at least.
Is that the percentage that think the human race has had only 6,000 years, to not evolve, to have a decent intelligence?
Or the percentage that think that a second-cousin is a far distant relative?
How can I still be surprised by the number of supposedly intelligent people on the West of the Atlantic who think that London is the capital of Europe, or that all the sights of Europe can be visited in a couple of days just by flashing a few dollar bills?
Much like the hispanic undocumented worker they recently interviewed on the news, said he voted for Trump as he'll sort out the economy, they pointed out to him they'll also be deporting him, despite him having lived there for 20 years. He clearly didn't realise that. And Trump won't sort out the economy. He inherited Obama's good economy which he then ruined, he'll inherit Biden's and then proceeded to ruin that, like he does all his business'. He's made Tom Homan his border czar who's clearly a racist and you also have the walking dead weirdo Stephen Miller.
«vote for Trump because "Eggs are too expensive"»
Sorry. I read that as "eggs were too expensive to throw at the prat, so instead vote for the arsehole."
Such logic seems natural in the insane US political context but could also explain the last two decades of UK politics.
"He can't afford it, if he has to pay cash. Would they accept payment in Tesla stock?"
There's some question whether he has any Tesla stock left that isn't pledged in security for loans/lines of credit. He's already put himself in a more risky position at Tesla by reducing his holding by half so he could buy Twitter and reduce the value of that by 70%+.
"but between the rise in the stock price and the idiot shareholders giving him $50 billion in additional stock"
The stockholders once again approved the stock package, but that doesn't override the judgement that took it away. Did the judge reverse her decision? I would assume that would be headline news.
Yes it was headline news.
The judge stopped the old pay package because it was awarded on the basis of false information. Musk then took it to a share holder vote and knowledge of the lies was very much public domain for that vote. The shareholders voted for the full pay package anyway so the judge's ruling was overridden.
Tesla's share value is based on Musk's lies. Without a huge additional chunk of shares Musk would have no financial incentive to lie for Tesla. It is clear from Twitter what Musk can do to a company's share price with minimal effort. I think share holders decided that diluting the value of their shares was a better alternative than Musk actively trashing the stock.
"It is clear from Twitter what Musk can do to a company's share price with minimal effort."
That's a bit different since Elon took the company private. Previously, it was publicly traded so it had a "market cap" determined by what people were paying for the stock. After going private, it's not that easy to do the same thing as the stock isn't openly traded. There's a big change since the real value (what somebody might pay for the company) becomes the benchmark far more than stock price. X is a corporation with stock shares, but those are only allowing it to be easier to apportion blame more than value.
«Amazing how all the claims of a rigged election that went on for 4 years suddenly stopped, isn't it?»
Pretty stupid not to drop it.
Otherwise the otherwise the other side could come back with: "Sorry mate, yep you did win the 2020 election. Bad luck you were excluded but unfortunately it was actually your second term and consequently you weren't an eligible candidate in 2024."
Quelle embuggerance!
Yep. 4 years of him lying, none of his supporters thinking "Hang on, so he claimed the election was stolen in 2020, so what happened in 2024? Did the Dems totally forget how to steal an election in 4 years? But hold on, a few days before the election he said they were already starting to steal the election again, but that never happened, so was it all a lie? Did he say that they were stealing it again near election day so if he lost he could claim it was stolen again? Is everything he says just one big lie???"
This is the problem with Trump voters, they don't think or question, they just shout 'merica!
If you signed a petition with the expectation of payment -- or even the chance of payment -- then that's effectively a bribe.This 'lottery' was already being legally challenged on that bases so the only way out for Musk was to claim that there wasn't really a prize.
But if someone promises me money for no reason at all and then fails to deliver I don't see how this could be a tort. Its disappointing, maybe, but seriously why would there be an expectation on anyone's part? Are people that stupid? (....for the answer, see results of election, so maybe it was to be expected.....)
All of which require you to pay a stake to enter. A key question is whether signing the petition can be considered any form of payment and so any sort of contract was entered. At most the only remedy I can see is that the personal data has to be deleted to prevent future harm - but even then it was uncertainly covered in the terms of signing the petition.
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Not the whole nation. 53% saw how Trump cut taxes and increased spending to drive up the national debt and cause a spike in inflation after he left office. They wanted yet another round of the same thing. This time Trump will be providing inflation more immediately with import tariffs. I know it sounds strange but the exit polls showed the most significant reason for people voting for Trump was inflation.
El Reg» ...selecting winners based on their suitability to serve as spokespeople for the group
But isn't this how it always is with such lotteries & competitions?
Somehow the most beautiful, the best connected or those being bribed seem to win.
I remember thinking back in the 1990s how odd it was that the average winner of MTV competitions happened to be people who could be models.
This «competition» is not for you, it's for us and this marketing stunt has been set up to make us look desirable.
But isn't this how it always is with such lotteries & competitions?
Depends, and in the US depends on the state rules wrt lotteries and gaming.. A few youtubers have fallen foul of this with prize giveaways for buying merch. Then states pointing out that they're lotteries and sometimes illegal ones. So now the smart ones have disclaimers like 'no purchase necessary, T&Cs apply'. Which may come into play in this case. Elon may have said 'randomly', small print might have said something different. Election interference was a stretch with the previous litigation, but lottery complaints are looking like they should be a slam dunk.
My employer has flowers at the front desk, and every week has a drawing for who gets them. (Surprisingly, after a week, they're still good for another week.) Employees (and probably permanent contractors) put their names on a piece of paper and put them into a box, and someone draws out a name. But they don't use the words "drawing" or "sweepstakes" because of the legal ramifications.
Mentioning Knuth and Musk in the same sentence is likely to strip the gears in the mechanics of the English language.
"Musk thinks" I can see a problem there for a start. The subject and verb aren't supported by the semantics.
"Musk [has] been reading Knuth." I would be very surprised if Space Karen was aware of Donald Knuth in any context let alone his havng read any of Knuth's work.
The new Doge has claimed at some point that he is an engineer but hasn't elaborated on what branch of engineering but I would conjecture it's that branch of civil engineering that specialises in the management of sewerage.
Elon Musk is like Thomas Edison. Although Edison is credited with numerous inventions -- in the US, at least -- in reality what he created was what we could call "industrial invention". Before Edison the typical inventor was a lone individual toiling in attic or basement. Edison added an element of organization to this, turning what was an individual activity into effectively a production line. Similarly if you credit Musk with either Tesla or SpaceX you'll get hit with 'he didn't invent XXXXX" which is both true and false. His genius -- and it is genius -- is to not only recognize the path to success but to force an organization on that path. The only snag with the entire DOGE thing is that its actually far easier to shape a new organization from scratch than reform an old one, or as I've put it before "He's been handed ULA and asked to make SpaceX out of it". This might be a bit much of a mouthful, even for him and his co-conspirator. It will be interesting finding out.
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