Headline of the Day

How SpaceX Became the MyPillow of Government Contractors

—The Verge

Musk, long before Mike Lindell was Mike Lindell, has used the political process to enrich himself.

In fact, he has been more shameless and more aggressive about it than either Lindell or Trump.

If one looks at his history, it's all been government money in some way or another.  Regulatory forbearance for PayPal, saving money on customer service and money laundering compliance, massive subsidies for Tesla, (Tesla would not be profitable without them), FDA allowing Neuralink to maim disabled people, his various misbegotten tunnel efforts, and government money for SpaceX,

It really has been something to watch Elon Musk turn SpaceX into the MyPillow of rocket companies, hasn’t it?

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I have never accused Musk of being anything other than self-interested. As I see it, his only real politics are: Elon Musk should get to do whatever he wants, forever. And his latest political outbursts strike me as being clearly connected to his money. He’s come to the same conclusion as Donald Trump, which is that it’s particularly easy to grift Republican voters, and there are lots of rewards and very few consequences for doing so. Donny, these men are nihilists.

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Those of you familiar with SpaceX may recall its litany of lawsuits against the government. For instance, in 2005, the company alleged that Boeing and Lockheed Martin had engaged in anticompetitive behavior meant to keep SpaceX from letting its Falcon 9 compete in government contracts. (The Falcon 9 didn’t have its first launch until 2010.)

And in 2014, Musk sued the US Air Force over a $11 billion sole-source contract awarded to the United Launch Alliance. (The Falcon Heavy wouldn’t have its first launch until 2018.) SpaceX got concessions, dropping the suit after the Air Force agreed to speed up its efforts to certify SpaceX to launch military satellites — and making more launches available for SpaceX to compete on. 

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Look, Musk’s appearance at the Trump rally launched a thousand think pieces and the goofy photo that launched a thousand memes. But to talk about Musk’s political convictions, you have to talk about the only thing he really believes in: money.

It's worth a full read.