Latest news with #TechSupport
Al Jazeera
5 days ago
- General
- Al Jazeera
intv-pol-Piotr Buras07-020625
Video Player is loading. Seek to live, currently behind live restore all settings to the default values Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Close Modal Dialog This is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button.
Time of India
26-04-2025
- Automotive
- Time of India
Elon Musk pulls back from Trump's DOGE role to refocus on Tesla
Synopsis Musk posted a picture of himself wearing an X-branded t-shirt, instead of the "Tech Support" and "DOGE" t-shirts he has frequently been wearing since Donald Trump returned as US President. The post comes days after Tesla's earnings call, where the car maker reported a 20% fall in car sales and a massive 70% plunge in Q1 2025. Musk addressed growing shareholder concerns over his divided focus.
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion: Why Mad King Trump's Lunatic Edicts Risk America as We Know It
Suppose a dangerous lunatic were elected President of the United States. I know it's a stretch. But bear with me. Eager that he hold his position so that they could retain the power they derive by association, advisors to this madman, this Mad King, would undoubtedly seek to find a way to manage their chief executive's diminished capacity—much as they might have done should the president have become too old or enfeebled to perform effectively in office. (What? Did that scenario make you uncomfortable?) You can imagine those advisors approaching a mental health professional for advice. 'It is a bad idea to have a maniac in charge of our nuclear arsenal,' this professional might well caution. The aides would brush off such a reasoned view, of course, asking: 'Look, isn't there something you could prescribe him? Perhaps in the form of a pill or a powder we could crush up into a Diet Coke?' 'I'm not sure that's ethical,' the expert would note. 'But I suppose you could create some kind of activity to distract and placate him.' 'Like invading Canada or Greenland?' one of the advisors, perhaps a tall man wearing sunglasses and an ill-fitting 'Tech Support' T-shirt, might ask. 'No,' the shrink would counter. 'In fact, in my professional opinion, that would actually be a further sign of extreme mental illness. Not to mention, a violation of international law. Is there something he could do that would make him feel he was busy presidenting but that would be less likely to do real damage to, you know, humanity and the planet?' 'That's a tough one,' the tall one, now with a young child on his shoulders, might observe. 'What about executive orders? Those seem to be very important but they really are just memos.' 'But, if he is crazy as you say and, you know, has been given immunity by the Supreme Court, don't you think they could cause some damage?' 'Well, yes, of course. But he's president. He's bound to do some damage. We just don't want it to be so great that he gets into big trouble and we lose our jobs before we can fully monetize them.' 'Well, if their impact is limited, then yes, that sounds like just thing. I prescribe executive orders. They will keep him occupied, relieve tension, and reduce the likelihood that he starts a war or rounds up all of his political enemies and throws them in jail.' 'We can't promise that,' the smiling aides would say as they leave. I can't say whether this happened in the case of our current president. But certainly, lunacy is apparent in the Trump administration on a daily basis and so too, are the executive orders. Many assert great powers the president does not have, but that's of no concern to his aides. Unfortunately, it is not just some of the president's aides who don't understand what an executive order is. It is also many in the media. They treat them as they are the edicts of an absolute monarch, which they are not. At least not yet. That does not mean the orders are not pernicious. One such example issued this week by Trump, demanding proof of citizenship be shown by would-be voters and mandating that mail-in ballots are illegal, is likely to intimidate some folks and keep them away from the polls—an outcome the president's team seeks. More broadly, these orders can serve to buttress other administration initiatives in dangerous ways. For example, Trump's order 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.' On its face, it appears to be just another weird preoccupation with exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution and the National Zoo, putting the Vice President in charge of fixing the places up. What damage could such an exercise do? After all, the Smithsonian is not under the control of the president! He has no authority to alter its content or behavior in any way. And if he wants to send J.D. Vance to pick a fight with a panda well, that's probably less damage than he might do participating in high-level national security chats or during recon for an invasion of Greenland. But the order contained several elements that are in fact, deeply disturbing. One, of course, is that it is racist to its core, a manifestation of white supremacists' long-standing grievances with depictions of American history that actually tell the truth about our bloody and cruel past. And it contains one phrase in particular that made my blood run cold, because of what it plainly says about what Trump and his aides are trying to engineer here in America: Down deep, in the section dubiously titled 'Saving Our Smithsonian,' is the requirement that the VP and other aides work with the people who run our national museums to 'remove improper ideology from such properties.' Improper ideologies? Those alone are two words that signal the end of America as we know it. There are not supposed to be 'improper ideologies' in these United States, a country with freedom of expression woven into the fabric of its founding documents. Asserting that our national museums must not address slavery, the genocide against indigenous people or the repression of women is one step away from banning saying that it is dangerous to have a country run by a group of racist, fascist billionaires and their toadies. And it is really, really important we be able to say such things, because that is just what is happening. Authoritarian states seek to suppress not just dissent but also all forms of thinking and analysis that run contrary to the narratives by which their leaders cling to or exercise their power. Asserting that we must scrub our museums of 'improper ideologies' would be dangerous enough on its own. But it is part of a broader war on knowledge and truth that should be chilling to every American. It is unprecedented. It is profoundly dangerous. Our fundamental freedoms are being stripped away. Who knows, many may already be largely gone. You see this campaign everywhere. In the administration's war on DEI, on science and on medical research, human costs be damned. In the takeover of arts institutions like the Kennedy Center that dared to promote a range of views and performers, and in the closure of agencies in the government that supported libraries and museums. (Hell, in the shut-down of the Department of Education entirely.) You see it in the intimidation of universities and law firms to ensure they toe administration lines. You see it in the denial of access to the White House of reporters who do not spout White House promoted lies and distortions. You see it in their characterization of public protests against businesses associated with administration figures as 'domestic terrorism,' and in the illegal arrest of people with views with which the administration disagrees. What is more, every successful step the Trump administration takes leads inevitably to further restrictions, arrests, deportations and yes, 'thoughtcrimes,' in a vain and destructive effort to maintain their own influence and power. Thus, as it turns out, the only real way to deal with a Mad King, as our founders realized, is not to placate him but to remove him from office. To do so, however, we must rely and therefore fight for the democratic tools Trump and his supporters are trying to crush. It is a power struggle that will define the future of our country and, in the end, whether lunacy or sanity prevails.
Fox News
06-03-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Washington Post columnist mocks Dem protests at Trump speech, calls out pink outfits and paddle props
A Washington Post columnist sneered at Democratic lawmakers' protests during President Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. In the piece, opinion columnist Monica Hesse trashed the Democratic Party's chosen methods of protesting Trump's speech. Hesse argued that the displays were ultimately ineffective in doing anything to derail the president's agenda or make him look bad, and just revealed how incompetent the party is right now. She wrote that the "Democratic message" on display at the speech was, "We do not know what to do." During Trump's nearly two-hour-long speech, dozens of Democratic lawmakers wore matching pink outfits and carried signs to protest the Trump agenda. The signs had different messages on them, with some reading, "MUSK STEALS," "SAVE MEDICAID," and others stating, "FALSE," which were meant to be held up when lawmakers heard a point from the president that they alleged was wrong. They also jeered and yelled at Trump while he was speaking. The most extreme example of this was when Rep. Al Green, D-Texas began yelling at Trump mid-speech. The congressman continued despite warnings from House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and was removed from the chamber. Hesse was not impressed with the party's efforts. She wrote, "It might have been when several dozen Democrats walked into Donald Trump's Tuesday congressional address wearing coordinated shades of bubblegum, but it was definitely by the time that several dozen Democrats started waving ping-pong-sized paddles in the House chamber that I started to really worry about the resistance." After mentioning that anti-Trump lawmakers had weeks to prepare a meaningful opposition plan for the speech, she wrote sarcastically, "That opposition plan was: wear pink." Hesse quoted Democratic Women's Caucus chair Leger Fernandez's defense of the outfits. "The color signaled 'our protest of Trump's policies which are negatively impacting women and families.'" The columnist then skewered the method, writing, "Great idea. I, too, would like to protest those policies. But if this is the revved-up version of the opposition, was the previous version just … the hooptie sitting on blocks on your neighbor's front lawn? A Schwinn?" The biting analogies kept coming, with Hesse focusing her fire on the signs next. The columnist wrote, "One presumes that the paddles, which members held up discreetly at sporadic intervals through the address, were intended to be pointed but also somber. But the overall effect of the whole scene was, 'On our way to Barbenheimer, we were kidnapped by Sotheby's and forced to bid on our dignity.'" "These props — along with the shirts reading 'RESIST' worn by some members — were simultaneously too perfunctory and too earnest. Earnest doesn't register with this White House, where Elon Musk showed up to a Cabinet meeting in a 'Tech Support' T-shirt and Dark Maga ball cap, as if he'd pwned USAID for the lulz," she added. Hesse described how the party is once again at a loss for effective protest, as everything they've done has not stopped the MAGA agenda. "In recent years, liberals have tried Minnesota nice, coconut trees, going high, going low, going 'weird,' being heartfelt, being snarky, marching, pleading, mocking, understanding, using facts, using pathos, and here we are again, like it's 2016 and some hardworking activists are wondering if we can turn this thing around via pussyhats," she stated. "These are extraordinary times, and we need an extraordinary, lawful resistance," Hesse added, though she was left wondering if Democratic leaders were "trying the wrong things, or, scarier, that there was actually nothing left to try."
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
MAGA Goes Nuts Over Musk's Cringey Cellphone Number Troll
Elon Musk made a boob joke and MAGAworld went wild. The billionaire face of the powerful Department of Government Efficiency, who is a self-described proponent of 'legalizing comedy,' trolled a Fox News reporter on his way to a closed-door meeting with House Republicans on Wednesday. After reports that Musk provided perturbed GOP lawmakers with his phone number after meetings on the Capitol, a reporter jokingly asked Musk if they could get his cellphone number as well. Musk, donning his favorite 'Tech Support' shirt, laughed as he responded: '[It's] something 8008.' The comment referenced a decades-old joke about a string of numbers that appear to spell out the word 'boob' when typed out on old devices. Musk chuckled as he walked away, ignoring another reporter who asked him what he planned to discuss with Republicans. The cringeworthy moment was a certified hit in right-wing spaces. Conservative commentator Nick Sortor effusively hyped up Musk's joke in a series of posts on X. 'Trolling the legacy media never gets old,' he said. 'I was sort of impressed with how off-the-cuff this was.' Asked by a follower whether Musk or President Donald Trump was better at trolling the media, Sortor said 'Elon just makes fun of them. Trump intentionally gets under their skin and demoralizes them. It's great teamwork.' Right-wing influencer Benny Johnson said Musk 'savagely mocked the Media right to their faces when they begged for his phone number,' appearing to miss the fact that it was a Fox News reporter who asked the question. 'The right can meme….The left cannot,' he said. A popular X account called MAGAVoice also found humor in Musk's comment, saying: 'Liberals can't stand this.' Conservative pundit Evan Kilgore took the joke a step further by cooking up a screenshot of a fake text conversation with the phone number 8008. 'Holy crap... I just texted Elon Musk at the 8008 number he shared... and he replied,' he said. Musk also reposted a clip of the viral moment on his X account. Musk met with Republican lawmakers in a pair of meetings on Wednesday. He had lunch with GOP senators and spoke to conservative representatives over dinner. The Washington Post reported that Musk told conservatives on Capitol Hill he wanted to set up a direct line of communication with them to answer their questions and address their concerns. Musk also urged Congress to codify the sweeping cuts on government spending initiated by DOGE, arguing that the law was needed to make them permanent. 'I'm very reassured by hearing him,' South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said, according to the Post. 'I mean, he wants to do logical, rational things. [But] the system needs to be fine-tuned to coordinate between DOGE and Congress and the administration, how it's all working.'
