One of the features of the progressive liberal cult movement is its complete lack of any sense of ‘fair play’. They are now pulling out all the stops, not, of course, to promote their policies but to dirty up the Trump campaign. (True, I rarely look at US media on this theme and follow it on UK media, but even in the liberal press I see more about Trump’s actual policies than I do of Biden/Harris. All I see reported from the Biden/Harris camp is that Trump is a dangerous Putin loving fascist who molests women). This week we had the carefully choreographed story about a former (apparent) model with an account of being sexually molested by Trump and the convicted sex criminal Epstein. (The link with Epstein is especially important, given that he was, unlike Trump, actually convicted of a sexual crime). Today we have a story that Elon Musk, who has been batting for Trump, is another secret Russia stooge. They are working some tried and tested attack lines; Trump is a threat to woman by virtue of his proclivities, and a threat to all of us, (Americans), because of his links to Russia. The only concrete ‘proof’ (beyond claims) of the former is that he has lost civil court cases to someone who made historical (well, ahistorical perhaps, given she can’t remember the actual date), claims. Trump was sued for libelling her by denying the claims. A valid, but novel approach. And also in the second case the plaintiff succeeded in claims relating to a sexual assault in a civil court. There is no evidence that Trump is secretly “working for Putin” and a well resourced inquiry failed to stand up the claim. Which does not in any way stop the Democrats endlessly plugging it. In a world in which narrative is everything, it doesn’t really matter if the story is true or not.
The new attack, a variation on the Trump is working for Putin line, is that Elon Musk, who is supporting Trump in this election is close to Putin. Musk = Putin = Trump. It works at the level of magical thinking.
The article reports on claims made in a Washington Post article. That story is behind a paywall so I can’t view it. I don’t know how many of the “several in-post and former US, European and Russian officials” mentioned by the Guardian were on record. According to the Guardian, Musk “has been in regular contact with Vladimir Putin for the past two years”. The next paragraph states: “The Wall Street Journal….reported that the conversations between the two men ranged from the personal to the geopolitical”. This is somewhat ambiguous; Musk could be said to “be in contact with Putin” if he had talked to officials in the Kremlin. According to the Guardian, the Kremlin’s spokesman has said that one call took place between Putin and Musk and the subject was space exploration and technology. The Guardian also reports that the Kremlin denied that “Putin or other Kremlin officials were holding regular conversations with Musk”. It is quite possible therefore that a) what Peskov is saying is true, b) the WSJ story as reported by the Guardian is true and c) the WSJ story and the Guardian report on it are heavily spinning this to create this impression, without actually lying, that Musk and Putin are in direct and regular contact.
The piece in the Guardian continues to talk about the “enormous implications for Western security”. We also have:
However, the Journal report said that the conversations with top Russian officials ran from 2022 into this year and included Sergei Kiriyenko, Putin’s first deputy chief of staff. Kiriyenko was accused by the US justice department last month of creating 30 internet domains, some on X, to spread Russian disinformation intended to erode support for Ukraine and influence the US presidential election.
and
In October 2022, Musk tweeted a “Ukraine-Russia peace” plan that largely reflected Moscow’s positions.
All this is a classic smear. Musk is the world’s richest man and a global technology entrepreneur including in the space industry. It doesn’t seem surprising that he should want to talk about space with Russia – one of the world’s leading space powers, or indeed have discussions about other cutting edge technologies he is involved with. Musk is a private individual. While I am not an expert on the US equivalent of the UK’s Official Secrets Act I doubt that there is anything it it which says Musk cannot talk to political leaders of any country. I imagine that it says he cannot tell those leaders any US secrets he knows. The implication of the article is that Musk should be controlled from speaking to whom he chooses to. They deny that they want a totalitarian state, but this is what they (modern liberals) want. The article reminds viewers of “Russian disinformation” including someone who created “30 internet domains, some on X”. You can’t create a domain on X.com – it is a domain. So, I am not sure what that is about. But, the key point here, is that, usually, claims of Russian “meddling in US elections” seem to boil down to Facebook posts/reposts. Facebook is run by Mark Zuckerberg, a Democrat supporter. At the least, this shows us that “Russian disinformation” can happen on any platform. Therefore the link between Russian disinformation and Musk fails.
Musk did put forward his idea of a peace plan for Ukraine. It did not, in fact, “largely reflect” Russia’s position. That is misinformation. Musk’s plan included an idea for UN supervised elections in the 4 contested provinces in Eastern Ukraine. Russia has never suggested this and Putin has been clear that Russia’s minimum condition for ending the war is that Ukraine cedes those provinces to Russia. More to the point perhaps, we see here a trick which is endlessly repeated in the Western media. It is the trick of the circular argument; because Musk’s plan aligns with (it doesn’t but let’s say it does) Putin’s terms, Musk must be writing at Putin’s dictation. In reality, Musk probably came up with his plan by himself. In as much as it does align with Putin’s ideas, and it does in relation to Crimea being returned to Russia and Ukraine staying out of NATO, that might be because anyone who looks at this situation objectively might reasonably come to these views. They try to mask this with their little trick which says that anyone who proposes anything reasonable is a “Putin stooge”.
The one certainty is the propaganda never stops.