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This is one of those things that could genuinely cause problem for the entire US (corporate) legal system. There’s a genuine danger that the result of this case
by moomin 4y ago
This is one of those things that could genuinely cause problem for the entire US (corporate) legal system. There’s a genuine danger that the result of this case will be “some people are too powerful to be regulated by the US system, and this is now obvious”.
- typon 4y agoIt's wild to me that people think that Elon might actually face legal consequences for this. The Delaware court isn't some magical place run by elves. It's a court in the US. You know what's a lot cheaper than $34 billion dollars, or heck even $1 billion dollars? $200k for 3-4 judges. The Supreme Court just changed the law of the land based on a right-wing political campaign. You think a billionare, let alone the richest billionare is going to be subject to any serious consequences? It's absurd to even entertain this.
- parineum 4y ago> The Supreme Court just changed the law of the land based on a right-wing political campaign. You think a billionare, let alone the richest billionare is going to be subject to any serious consequences? It's absurd to even entertain this. You know who has the authority to overturn that decision? Our democratically elected legislature.
- zerocrates 4y agoI wouldn't be so sure a hypothetical federal law enshrining a Roe-ish right to abortion would itself survive the inevitable challenge to its own constitutionality.
- kibwen 4y agoAre you referring to the legislature where one house is deliberately unrepresentative of the people, and where the other house has been gerrymandered into unrepresentative oblivion, and whose bills are signed by an executive position who has preposterously lost the popular vote in two out of the last six election cycles?
- parineum 4y agoYeah, the one completely controlled by the party that says it's pro-choice. > executive position who has preposterously lost the popular vote What does the popular vote have to do with the presidency? Neither party strategizes to win the popular vote because the popular vote is meaningless. Therefore, the outcome if the popular vote has no value in determining who would win a popular vote should that be the metric by which the president is elected.
- mrkstu 4y ago
- exadrid 4y agoYes, the supreme court decided that the rights of women were up for democratic election. That's fucking great when you have an anti-women's rights party.
- cycomanic 4y agoAt the same time they ruled that states could not regulate a "well regulated militia", so this has nothing to do with states rights.
- ProjectArcturis 4y agoTwitter's got billions and fancy lawyers and lobbyists too.
- stale2002 4y ago> It's wild to me that people think that Elon might actually face legal consequences for this. This stuff goes both ways. Yes Elon has a lot of money. But twitter is worth XX billions of dollars. Twitter is willing to spend a lot of those billions of dollars, in order to get Elon to pay the agreed upon price that he committed too. This is not the case of a nobody vs a billionaire. This is instead multiple billion dollar entities fighting each other.
- BiteCode_dev 4y agoThat would be a good thing. Put some light on one of the biggest failure of our democracies.
- phatfish 4y agoUS law obviously works in favor of billionaires. I doubt even Musk would want to expose it further, and the other parties involved in this deal surely don't. They will set their lawyers at it and come to a settlement. The super rich know better than to be at each others throats, that sort of behavior is for the poor...
- lumost 4y agoHistory says that these people likely reside in impenetrable bubbles. The idea that he is so special as to avoid the court system sounds a bit like “let them eat cake” as there is no bread.
- scaramanga 4y agoExcept that some of the ultra-rich have major personality disorders which cause severe cognitive distortions and erratic and impulsive behaviour. Their power and influence tends to allow their cognitive distortions to spread in to the general population, which eases the cognitive dissonance that would be a problem for normal people. But anyway, these people cannot be compelled in to psychiatric treatment, and who could convince them? Who do they listen to? We're talking about a category of people who are notoriously difficult to get to enter treatment, even when they are not princes and emperors, but average Joes. I mean, if a street sweeper thinks he is King, you might convince or compel him to get treated when he comes in to contact with the system. But when the King thinks he is King... that is a much more difficult problem to deal with.. usually the kingdom joins in with his madness so as to keep him happy.
- rurp 4y agoAgreed, this situation is uncomfortably similar to a number Trump crises. Much of our legal system is based on norms and good faith, which a sufficiently motivated and powerful psychopath can pervert to their advantage. I have no idea what will happen here. Musk is clearly in the wrong both legally and ethically, but I suspect he will weasel out of resbonsibility for the damage he's caused. That alone will be bad enough, but the much larger risk is that it opens the floodgates for slightly less powerful scumbags to flout the law. US law and democracy are shakier than I've seen in my lifetime, and Musk is actively taking a sledgehammer to a piece of that foundation for his own greed and whim.
- wronglyprepaid 4y ago[flagged]
- arcanus 4y agoThis is a cyberpunk future. I'm overall a fan of Musk, but this is too far. There simply must be rule of law for the United States to remain a dynamic society.
- MrMan 4y agoWhat a legacy opinion. We are all about destroying everything here
- edgyquant 4y agoLiterally there’s not even a hint that Musk is above the law yet you’re calling it a cyberpunk future
- v21 4y agoThere was that whole thing where a court said a lawyer has to check all of his tweets, Musk shrugged it off, and the court did nothing about it.
- wronglyprepaid 4y ago
- JaimeThompson 4y agoSmoking weed makes you lose your security clearance, Musk did it on camera and still has his because of "reasons". That is one example of the rules that apply to most others not applying to him.
- towaway15463 4y agoProbably also an example of a rule that should be retired. Either that or they should remove clearance if you enjoy whisky.
- leetcrew 4y ago
- KerrAvon 4y agoIf this court doesn't have real power against clever C-suite types, maybe it's better that we find that out. In terms of compensation and personal money management, Musk isn't doing anything that other wealthy execs haven't done. (For example, Steve Jobs famously took a $1.00 per year salary for a long time.) Either there's an enforcement mechanism that works or there isn't.
- sircastor 4y agoSteve Jobs also famously illegally parked in disabled parking spots and paid the fine because he didn’t care. And he famously leased a new car every 6 months because he didn’t want to put license plates on his car. And tangential to that kind of behavior, Apple recently was paying a weekly 5 million Euro fine in the Netherlands rather than comply with an order from regulators.
- Red_Leaves_Flyy 4y agoJail. The consequence needed here is jail. Put these clowns in jail with junkies and wife beaters and gang bangers. While we’re at it, treat them the same as their local pd treats the most vulnerable in their community. They deserve no better than the most vulnerable and marginalized.
- google234123 4y agoJail for parking multiple times in disabled places or for buying a car every 6 months? Hard no from me. Both of those things are not the same as beating people.
- z3phyr 4y agoRoutinely breaking the law and then paying fine? Jail is a good way to put routine offenders away from the civil society
- google234123 4y ago
- tenpies 4y ago[flagged]
- MrMan 4y agoMainstream media is too woke! It's all a conspiracy
- edgyquant 4y agoThe fact your argument rests on a convicted billionaire is pretty ironic
- ALittleLight 4y agoI think it's more about the people who murdered Epstein getting away without consequences or even an investigation than the fact that a rich guy, eventually, after repeatedly sexually abusing and trafficking children for years, finally was facing serious legal risks which he might've evaded.
- willcipriano 4y agoIt's the billionaires that didn't get convicted that are the problem. Lots of powerful people spent a lot of time on the lolita express.
- dopidopHN 4y agoI have no insight into this but it looks that it will happen eventually. ( the degradation of the US gov authorities on the conduction of large financial arrangements)
- haliskerbas 4y ago> There’s a genuine danger that the result of this case will be “some people are too powerful to be regulated by the US system, and this is now obvious”. This should have been obvious by now. Cash rules everything around me.
- HWR_14 4y ago> Cash rules everything around me. Serious question: Are you in the US? Any Western European country? There's a tendency for people in corrupt areas to assume the whole world works like that.
- hnbad 4y agoNot the parent, not just cash, but capitalism literally means capital is (political) power. Just because you don't bribe police officers with cash that doesn't mean your political system isn't corrupt. In the West we just find it more comfortable to talk about lobbying and public-private partnerships instead of calling it what it is.
- 8jef 4y agoThis
- scaramanga 4y agoThat is a great point and I'm not disputing it at all. We all know monarchy is tyranny, but in that category there is quite a difference between a cult ruler with a bag of shrunken heads who is getting his orders from God vs. a stable, well managed, system in which the institutions basically function, including to some extent for the poor, and yet in which which the ruling class still basically dominate and exploit everything and everyone in order to enrich themselves and maintain their power. The latter is a social malady, the former is completely chaotic. I think people are concerned that the US is resembling the latter less and less, and resembling the former more and more.
- hdctambien 4y agoCash Rules Everything Around Me is a Wu-Tang song (C.R.E.A.M.)