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Free America Now (@elonmusk)
- fernandotakai 6y agowow, that's... bonkers. i wonder why the hell he's saying this kind of thing -- it's not like his companies are having issues due to covid-19 (afaik).
- jmull 6y agoHe aspires to be a populist demagogue. I have no doubt he'll be running for president one of these days. edit: I'm dumb, he can't run for president of the US.
- theboywho 6y agoYou can't run for President in the US if you were not born in the US, even if you are American.
- woofyman 6y agoAs long as your mother is American, it doesn’t matter where your born.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- vinay427 6y agoThis is an incorrect oversimplification of citizenship law and of the natural-born clause. There are residence requirements for foreign-born US citizens to pass on citizenship to children born abroad, which already contradicts your statement. This applies to mothers and fathers (with a paternity test if not married). Furthermore, it hasn't been legally settled whether someone born a US citizen abroad counts in this clause, though personally I suspect anyone born a US citizen (not just, and not always, children of US mothers) would qualify if challenged.
- xenophonf 6y agoThat's not true, else Ted Cruz wouldn't have been able to run for President in 2016. Cruz was born in Calgary. His mother is an American, father Canadian. The requirement in the Constitution is only that one must be a "natural born citizen".
- theboywho 6y agoCruz's eligibility has always been unsettled, it's just that it never actually became a problem since he suspended his campaign.
- jjuel 6y agoHe can never be President as he was born in South Africa.
- miguelxt 6y agoNot just because he was born there, George Romney and McCain were born abroad. The thing is they need to be a "natural born American citizen".
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- ainar-g 6y agoIf you mean the US, then he'd either need a consitutional amendment first or for the US to invade South Africa. Which are, considering that we live in the stupidest timeline, not impossible courses of events.
- jmull 6y agoHah, good point! I'm dumb.
- matz1 6y agoYou don't think worker not allowed to come to you factory won't cause issue to tesla ?
- 9nGQluzmnq3M 6y agoCar sales have crashed, and EVs in particular will lose a lot of allure from dirt-cheap oil. Tesla is in for a rough ride in the next year or two.
- Lua4Gee8 6y ago> It's not like his companies are having issues due to covid-19 (afaik). Well, Tesla is selling cars, which is not exactly in high demand right now. At the very least, confinement has an impact on Tesla for that reason. Basically, we may be seeing a car dealer complaining safety measures prevent him to sell his products.
- criddell 6y agoWhat's the context of this tweet? Is he just trolling?
- JeanMarcS 6y agoWell, considering how he answers to other people in the feed, or the 2 precedent tweets (« Give people their freedom back!» and « Bravo Texas! » regarding a news saying business reopen in Texas), if it’s trolling, it’s a big one.
- criddell 6y agoHe also worked on the ventilator problem. He clearly understands the pandemic problem so this tweet is a little dissonant.
- xkapastel 6y agoAFAICT the context is that he's been downplaying the severity of the pandemic for a while now. This is just the latest example.
- tecleandor 6y agoI don't think so. And his tweets aren't really aging well... https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1240754657263144960 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1240754657263144960
- bildung 6y agoHe also implied there won't be more than 0.1% of the US population infected overall, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1239755145233289217 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1239755145233289217
- pinkfoot 6y agoAnd he might still be right. But - and here is the rub - it will be because the lockdown interrupted person-to-person transfers, and not because the inert bases making up the virus suddenly decided all by themselves, and all over the world, to lower their R0 from > 3 to < 1.
- marvin 6y agoThat doesn't bode well for Tesla earnings later today.
- ausbah 6y agothis definitely tops the list of crazy things musk has said, it would be funny if so many people didn't take every word he says as absolute truth
- DyslexicAtheist 6y agohe also "predicted" close to 0 covid cases by end of April (groan): https://twitter.com/JBauernberger/status/1255452046897135617 https://twitter.com/JBauernberger/status/1255452046897135617
- DagAgren 6y agoNever trust a billionaire.
- ornornor 6y agoIt feels like he’s angling to out-Trump Trump so that he can run against him in the next election... and that might even work! It has before...
- eklin 6y agoQuite the career change from cave diving rescue missions expert to expert on how to handle pandemics.
- IgorPartola 6y agoElon Tusk would never say this. Also, yeah he really wants Tesla stock to tank today, huh?
- cwhiz 6y agoNY, NJ, PA, CT, and MA have 53% of cases. It’s time to stop treating this like every state or region is in the same situation. Edit: Some people apparently need to be reminded that Europe is a place. Individual countries are reopening as they see fit based on how they are handling the virus. It honestly is starting to feel like some people prefer the pain than the idea of safely reopening certain states and regions.
- ralusek 6y agoDifferent states have different numbers of cases due to the different measures that have been taken. Bay Area quarantined early, and has been stricter than most of the country, followed by California at large. It's not like different states net different results simply due to magic. So if you want to loosen up restrictions in California, it shouldn't be grounded in the fact that California seems to just be impervious. What you're proposing would be in direct contradiction with the reason why California has lower numbers. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that, as there is an ideological case to be made for measuring liberty against security, but the lower number of cases is totally irrelevant for substantiating that position.
- cwhiz 6y agoCalifornia started shelter in place on March 19. New York started on March 20.
- benburleson 6y agoVery impressive that the virus acknowledges state boundaries.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- cwhiz 6y agoPeople aren’t flying. Your comment is meant for laughs but states and regions are in completely different situations. And please tell your joke to Europe, and Germany in particular.
- xenophonf 6y agoWhat a fool. And it won't be just other fools who get hurt or killed by this foolishness.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- woofyman 6y agoI love how billionaires with their private jets and 40,000 square foot homes want every body else to go back to work
- menacingly 6y agoand I love how many privileged middle class people are smugly calling to press pause on civilization from the comfort of their homes which they can only do because a faceless army of poor people keeps them fed and cared for
- JoeAltmaier 6y agoYou understand that they're at home too? Just look at the unemployment stats. Most of American production is automated. Its middle-level folk keeping America running. Cherry-picked examples notwithstanding.
- menacingly 6y agouh, no they're not. do you think the chicken fairy is depositing frozen birds in your supermarket? your existence is secured by a chain of people who haven't achieved the level yet for "is it safe for me to go to work?" to even register as a question
- 650REDHAIR 6y agoAnd by non-essential workers staying home it frees more hospital beds for those more at-risk and exposed. That’s literally the point of shelter in place.
- cpr 6y agoWith hospitals shutting down, and doctors and nurses being furloughed for lack of patients...
- 6y ago
- alkonaut 6y agoHe needs to stop tweeting drunk it's as simple as that.
- aaron695 6y agoPoints for not being a Silicon Valley coward blindly following the 'lockdown' religion but he doesn't seem to have a clear handle on the virus to be saying what he is. I'm not sure he even noticed C19 in January or February. virus OR coronavirus OR c19 OR covid OR covid-19 (from:elonmusk) until:2020-04-29 since:2020-01-01
- dr_dshiv 6y agoWriting from the Netherlands. I believe the American rhetoric has fully been divided between the "if you aren't careful, you are killing people" on the left and "open the economy" on the right. I'm surprised that it isn't clear why the left is in an extremely dangerous position. They can't win unless lots of people are dying. Otherwise, the non-zoom working class will vote in anyone who prioritizes the economy. Isn't wholesale economic collapse a much bigger civilization-wide existential threat than COVID19 itself? I would have also thought that the left would be more scared of another 4 years of Trump (now with unlimited power and money) than his voter base dying in droves. Just surprising, that's all.
- Miner49er 6y agoFrom what I've seen, the non-Zoom working class is the group most against re-opening. They're the one's most at risk from the virus.
- dr_dshiv 6y agoMaybe it's different in the Netherlands. But here there seems to be a lot of contempt for not being able to do construction, cut hair or otherwise work. Luckily, the weather is nice, which generally puts people in good spirits.
- Miner49er 6y agoMaybe I'm wrong, but in the U.S. it seems most people that want things re-opened is a part of the Zoom working class and the upper classes. In the US most blue collar work has been deemed essential anyway. Construction for example, is deemed essential. Layoffs are still happening like crazy, I suppose. I'd say the left generally wants to leave non-essential parts of the economy closed, and give people UBI or freeze rent, etc to help out the working class.
- bJGVygG7MQVF8c 6y ago> in the U.S. it seems most people that want things re-opened is a part of the Zoom working class and the upper classes. This does not seem accurate to me at all. The upper classes have fled the hot-spot cities. The upper-class-aspirant professionals are stuck in the cities working via Zoom. The risk of premature opening there is real, so they're not pushing for reopening. The people pushing for re-opening are mainly non-Zoom non-essential working class people who are feeling the economic pain of the prolonged shutdowns in places where they're not needed. Also, to a lesser extent, people who object to the restrictions on freedoms on cultural-ideological grounds, either on principle or on a cost-benefit basis.
- rishirishi 6y agoEasy to dismiss him because of his wealth or other prejudices you may have of him. "Free America Now" raises an incredibly important debate that all lockdown-ridden countries should be having. Were lockdowns constitutional? Were lockdowns effective? Could other measured responses have achieved similar outcomes? Were lockdowns done in vain? And have we set a dangerous precedent? Bunch of questions. Don't flame him or me. Just participate in the debate.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- magicalist 6y ago> "Free America Now" raises an incredibly important debate that all lockdown-ridden countries should be having. That debate is already happening, so, no, shit posting like this isn't starting it and certainly not participating in it. Don't pretend this tweet is what it isn't.
- xenophonf 6y ago"Just participate in the debate" is the kind of nonsensical rhetoric Creationists use to push their religious beliefs into science education. There is no debate. There are no questions. The only dangerous precedent we're setting is one of ignoring the expert epidemiologists tasked with protecting the public. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/pandemic-economy-lessons-1918-flu https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/pandemic-economy-less... https://www.ssrn.com/abstract=3561560 https://www.ssrn.com/abstract=3561560 To summarize, during the 1918 flu pandemic, American cities that implemented early and extensive non-medical measures (including quarantines) suffered no additional adverse economic effects due to implementing those measures when compared with cities that implemented measures late or not at all. http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20150111194407/http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/influenza_main.htm http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20150111194407/http://www.hist... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3291414 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3291414 Again, to summarize, American Samoa and New Caledonia succeeded in preventing even a single death from the 1918 influenza through effective quarantines.
- Analemma_ 6y ago
- mgoetzke 6y agoHe might just want to do it as e.g Germany does it. i.e. basically opening most smaller and some bigger businesses. shops with limited people at the same time, masks, hygiene procedures etc. schools more or less closed until end of summer. Though Germany already has receding numbers for a while now, US is still a little behind. Total number of cases vs deaths is (if counted and reported correctly in worldometers) quite comparable (to my surprise). UK is way worse in this respect. Difficult to say what he really wants as he does NOT communicate well in this respect. In longer interviews he is way more thoughtful.
- SolaceQuantum 6y agoI actually heard Germany’s infection rate has now increased directly related to their reopening (before R0 was <1 now it is ~1?)
- tsbinz 6y agoI doubt that you can measure this already, it has only been two days (also when the lockdown started it took over a week until the effect was visible). That's why at least some countries want to take it slow, after each small step you need at least two weeks to judge the effects.
- orwin 6y agoI read that too but actually the case augmentation is not statistically significant yet (comparing d1 and d2 after the reopening is not enough). You'll have to wait until at least d4 to have a better idea and i think they can manage to wait until week two to decide to either go for herd immunity (at R0 ~ 1 this is viable, deadly but viable for healthcare workers) or lock their country for a month again.
- bildung 6y ago"US is still a little behind" is a bit too understated I'd say - the US measures haven't even managed to make the number of active cases stop growing. They are shrinking in Germany since about the beginning of april.
- NautilusWave 6y agoStep 1) Widespread, compulsory testing.
- menacingly 6y ago"lol just don't work, it's for the best" is as tone deaf as "let them eat cake"
- generalpass 6y agoI tend to feel that what we are seeing is a society without any philosophical understandings. The hard sciences have taken over, and we are to see a new version of eugenics take over - a different name, a stated different goal, but an equally immoral result. Does anyone remember Hunter S. Thompson?
- paypalcust83 6y agoA Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream. But does anyone remember City Light Books? :hmm:
- smcl 6y agoDid this open up focussed on a tweet by a "Melissa A" with a reply by Elon Musk saying "True" for anyone else? Took me a few seconds to realise that I needed to scroll up to see the actual linked tweet (literally just the words "FREE AMERICA NOW"). I tried on a few browsers with the same behaviour, looks like this is deliberate.
- JeanMarcS 6y agoWell if it’s the case I’m sorry about that. I just copy pasted on my iPhone when I saw it, so may be the URL change when you scroll ? In any way it was not deliberate
- smcl 6y agoNo no no I don’t mean that you did this - you used the correct URL for the tweet. I meant that this looks like another weird Twitter UX decision. And it seems this is on Desktop (so FF, Chrome, Edge), I just looked on mobile and it was fine.
- dang 6y agoI had the same issue yesterday in a different context and almost posted the same question.
- cczizou 6y agoI struggle to take Musk seriously. He has too much to gain from getting people working again. His production operations are notoriously behind schedule and only accelerate by throwing more (literal) bodies at the problem.
- me_me_me 6y agoTo quote the classic: "Many of you will die, but I am ready to make that sacrifice."
- Turing_Machine 6y agoCan we please stop pretending that economic destruction doesn't kill people? Because it does. If the food supply chain gets disrupted, as many fear that it may, that could be a lot of people.
- me_me_me 6y agoCan we stop pretending Covid19 doesn't kill people?
- Turing_Machine 6y agoNo one is pretending that. Now, does anyone care to address my point, rather than brigading down something because you actually don't have a response?
- me_me_me 6y agoNo one cares to address point that have been addressed already. If we talk about the numbers then opening up a country runs a risk of even higher daily deaths and longterm economical damage due to lack of workforce after the disease passes. Americans want to be South Koreans without taking South Korean measures. You simply cannot have a cake and eat it too.
- rabboRubble 6y ago
- JoeAltmaier 6y agoWow he really likes his money. But not so much, people.
- SecurityMinded 6y agoWhy do all the rich people want to "free America now" ? Would it be because their factories are not running ? Get real people. Do not follow the wolf in sheep's skin. If something happens to you because you contracted the virus, you will be no more than collateral damage, as long as Tesla's roll off the production line.
- dang 6y agoPlease don't post like this to HN. It's off topic [1], against the spirit of the site, and led to a wretched and utterly predictable flamewar. HN is fragile. The idea here is to try to stave off the default fate of internet forums [2, 3]. The forces pushing in that direction are far stronger than the ones in our favor. It wouldn't take much to destroy this place, and a thread like this is a real dose of poison. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html [2] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20stave&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html