‘Tell Him to Get Lost’: Musk’s Dad Urges Public to Ignore His Son

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/tell-him-to-get-lost-elon-musks-dad-errol-urges-public-to-ignore-his-son/

Elon Musk’s dad has some advice for Brits who are taking issue with the world’s richest man trying to insert himself into their politics through social media fiat.

“Just don’t listen to him, that’s all,” Errol Musk said in an interview with LBC radio Monday. “I’d say don’t worry about it. Tell him to get lost.”

He kicked off the new year with days of manic posts—many of them wrong or misleading—aimed at toppling the Labour Party government.

Musk’s attacks on government ministers, whole-hearted defense of a jailed far-right activist, and bizarre request that King Charles dissolve Parliament have gotten so extreme that even his British friends would like him to kindly pipe down about a country he doesn’t call home.

Why U.S. Flags Are Being Flown at Half-Staff on Inauguration Day—And Trump’s Reaction

 https://time.com/7204711/us-flags-flown-half-staff-inauguration-day-trump-reaction/

The act is in accordance with a proclamation issued by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954, which states that when a President or former President dies, 30 days is the appropriate amount of time to fly the flag at half-staff at federal government buildings and their grounds, as well as at U.S. embassies and other facilities abroad, including military installations and vessels.

January 6 becomes marker of Trump's degradation of wall between violence and politics

Elon Musk loves to provoke – and Nigel Farage is his latest victim

 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/06/elon-musk-loves-to-provoke-and-nigel-farage-is-his-latest-victim

And yet, just from a surfeit of human kindness, I feel like offering Farage some consolation: he could have fallen in line over Tommy Robinson, he could have signed up to Musk’s other tweet-proposition that Jess Phillips is a “rape genocide apologist”, and Musk would have found something more unhinged to say about British politics. Never mind that Musk is unconstrained in these pronouncements by reality or evidence; it’s all about the spectacle. Musk’s opinion-giving is dictatorial in its purest sense; he dares his acolytes to refute him, the better to flex his power over them. He wants to replace their observed reality with his own, and it has to be in public. He won’t be satisfied – and this goes for every politician he has in his pocket, up to and including the new US president – until he’s forced them to resile from their core positions while the world watches. This is why he picked a fight with Maga over visas before the inauguration was even cold, when reducing immigration was at the core of their offer. It’s chilling to witness, even if you have no time, let alone love, for its object, and don’t care to parse the fine differences of their dog-whistle politics. I’m not even looking forward to the bit where he gets Trump to surrender on the subject of high-skilled immigration. Nobody likes a sadist.

‘We stand by Jess’: Telford survivors criticise Musk’s attack on Phillips

 https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jan/07/jess-phillips-telford-survivors-musk-attack-letter-women-girls

A group of victims of gender-based violence has criticised Elon Musk for his remarks attacking Jess Phillips, saying the safeguarding minister had “devoted her life to fighting for women and girls”.

In a letter shared with the Guardian the seven women, including three survivors of the Telford sexual abuse scandal, came to the Labour MP’s defence and said that there was “no one in public life who has done more to support victims and survivors and to advocate for their interests”.

Their intervention came after Musk, the billionaire Tesla boss who is in line for a senior role in Donald Trump’s administration, posted on his platform, X, that Phillips should be jailed and called her a “rape genocide apologist”.

Capitol Police chief on possible Jan. 6 pardons: ‘What message does that send?’

 https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/5068913-capitol-police-chief-january-6-pardons/?tbref=hp

“What message does that send to police officers across this nation, if someone doesn’t think that a conviction for an assault or worse against a police officer is something that should be upheld, given what we ask police officers to do every day?”

More than 100 police officers were injured during the attack. One Capitol Police officer died of a stroke a day after suffering injuries on Jan. 6, and four others died by suicide in the days and months after.

What Happens If Trump Pardons Jan. 6 Rioters

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President-elect Donald Trump has said he plans to pardon many participants charged in the Jan. 6 riot. Experts and those involved in the event explain what it would take for Trump to follow through on that promise. Photo Illustration: REUTERS/Cheney Orr/File Photo/Carol Guzy/ZUMA Wire

By Wall Street Journal

President Elon Musk Is Roiling European Politics

 https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/elon-musk-is-roiling-european-politics-0199c66d?mod=hp_lead_pos1

Elon Musk is throwing grenades into Europe’s political mainstream over issues ranging from immigration to free speech, creating a dilemma for governments as they try to respond to the tech billionaire and key adviser to the incoming Trump administration.

President Musk plays politics abroad as world leaders brace for Trump’s return

 https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/07/politics/the-dangers-of-elon-musks-personal-foreign-policy/index.html

Elon Musk’s personal foreign policy of promoting far-right parties is sparking outrage among leaders in Europe and handing them a dilemma: How do they rebuke the tech titan without angering his new patron — Donald Trump?

He’s also previewing the international disruption that likely lies in store when the president-elect returns to the White House in two weeks and the potential conflicts of interest ahead. That’s because the Tesla and SpaceX pioneer will not simply be a powerful free agent — but an inner circle adviser to the new US government at the head of the Department of Government Efficiency. It’s therefore going to be hard to know where Musk’s policy ends and official US foreign policy starts.

Congress certifies Trump’s 2024 win in sharp contrast to mob violence of 4 years ago

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/congress-certifies-trumps-2024-win-in-sharp-contrast-to-mob-violence-of-4-years-ago/

Trump denies that he lost four years ago, muses about staying beyond the Constitution’s two-term White House limit and promises to pardon some of the more than 1,250 people who have pleaded guilty or were convicted of crimes for the Capitol siege. He calls Jan. 6, 2021, a “day of love.”

Pence, who had been rushed into hiding that day as rioters threatened to hang him for his refusal to reject Biden’s win, wrote online that he welcomed what he called “the return of order and civility” to the certification process.

Jan 6. Becomes 1984 All Over Again Thanks to Trump's Doublethink

 https://www.newsweek.com/jan-6-becomes-1984-all-over-again-thanks-trumps-doublethink-opinion-2010554

Trump's years-long Orwellian disinformation campaign justifying the riot as legitimate political expression and lionizing the perpetrators as heroes suffering from unjust persecution succeeded in muddying what should have been crystal-clear waters. After getting wound up with one of Trump's patented speeches featuring a firehose of lies, non-sequiturs and bombast, thousands of brainwashed MAGA die-hards descended, lemming-like, on the United States Capitol Building, scaling the walls, roaming the halls and creating violent mayhem. Some of them were armed with guns, carried zip ties and had plans to capture and possibly kill members of Congress. Others likely believed they were along for some kind of twisted joyride and seemed to be having the time of their lives.

Britain's new PM promises change, supports Israel

 https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hj4hzfbva

Starmer stands by Israel's right to self-defense and backs an end to the war only when hostages are freed; he is expected to be more critical of Netanyahu's government and supports a Palestinian state after a comprehensive peace agreement

Musk savages Farage, calls for new Reform UK leader

 https://www.politico.eu/article/nigel-farage-elon-musk-reform-uk-leader-party-politics-governent-child-sexual-abuse-x-social/

Musk’s strident criticism of centrist politicians like Prime Minister Keir Starmer (whom he called a “national embarrassment” who “must go” on Sunday) is not unexpected — the Tesla entrepreneur’s politics have veered ever further to the right on race and migration in recent years, and he often picks fights online with left-wing leaders.

But his schism with Farage, a darling of the anti-immigration movement, is more surprising. Earlier on Sunday, when asked in a television interview about the insults and semi-truths Musk has thrown at Labour politicians, Farage defended Musk’s right to free speech.

Musk says UK’s Starmer should be in prison

 https://www.politico.eu/article/elon-musk-us-says-uk-keir-starmer-should-be-in-prison/

“Prison for Starmer,” Musk posted on his X platform Monday, as he shared a post from an anonymous account claiming that Starmer prioritized tackling anti-Muslim abuse over condemning a child-killer. The billionaire followed that up with a poll asking whether America “should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government.”