Trusting Elon Musk with our national security
Woodland Park, N.J.: Give an American in need a $100 food card to fight hunger and millions of Americans will be outraged. Where’s the outrage from those same people over the billions of American taxpayer dollars handed over to Elon Musk (photo, with Donald Trump) during the last 20 years to finance his SpaceX company and subsidize the sales of Tesla electric vehicles?
Now that Musk has paid his way into the next Trump administration with more than a couple of hundred million dollars in campaign contributions that we know about, where’s the concern over the South African/Canadian/U.S. citizen possibly sharing SpaceX technology with his telephone pal and fellow member of BRICS, Russian President Vladimir Putin? After all, South Africa is a member of the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) global economic group. Let’s remember that SpaceX is under no legal obligation to share any new technology with its American benefactor and co-partner, NASA. Is SpaceX legally estopped from sharing its new technology with foreign countries, particularly adversaries like Russia? Will there be any level of concern on this subject with the new Trump administration and his MAGA cohorts in Congress and the Senate?
Right now, the government of Taiwan is moving forward with its own satellite program because the Taiwanese understand the security risk of depending on Musk’s Starlink satellite system due to his connections to Moscow and Putin’s alleged request, passed on from China’s President Xi Jinping, to terminate Starlink service over Taiwan. American public concern over the national security threat posed to the United States by Musk, who has paid his way into our White House and Oval Office, needs to be addressed now. Ina Kay
Strap in
Bronx: Don’t be naïve folks, Donald Trump has no interest in managing anything. For these four years, everything is going to be about the money. By the look of things, this administration is going to make any organized crime syndicate look like a church choir. Virgilio Carballo
Sordid affairs
Stockholm, N.J.: Everything is screwed up. The Mets got Juan Soto, the Giants and Jets stink after promises of a good year for both, and Trump is Time magazine’s person of the year. Well, the Mets are going to get better, so are the Giants, and the Jets are too, but don’t you think with his history, Trump should have been on the cover of MAD or Playboy magazine? Nat Saraceni
The mayor & the prez
Manhattan: Ya gotta ask, “What’s the quid pro quo between this pair of overtly corrupt public servants?” It has a bad stench. Frankie Turchiano
Power player
Astoria: I did not vote for him, but Mayor Adams is growing on me. He’s a straight-up crook who games the system and doesn’t care who knows it. Under federal indictment on corruption charges, not only does he not resign, he’s currying favor with Trump, looking for a presidential pardon. He’s cynically throwing the city’s migrant population, which he previously supported, under the bus by guaranteeing cooperation with Trump’s deportation plan. How can you not love this guy? Bradley Morris
Lack of substance
Cincinnati: Election postmortems continue. The other day, the campaign manager for Kamala Harris said she ran a “flawless campaign.” Really? In her years as President Biden’s vice president, Harris never progressed beyond her identity as a woman of color. She failed on the southern border, a specific task the president assigned to her early on. And she never forged an issue identity, one she could claim as her own when her chance for the Oval Office came around. Thus, she was caught napping when the palace coup came about and she was cast by party panjandrums in the starring role. Voters were left grasping for an issue handhold, for anything of substance they could identify her with. But her attempts to define herself as different from the unpopular incumbent had the purchase of quicksilver. We voters were left with Gertrude Stein’s description of their shared California hometown: There is no there there. Paul Bloustein
Last-minute maneuver
Manhattan: Biden can make history in a meaningful way one last time after honoring his promises to nominate first the African-American woman to be his running mate, Kamala Harris, and Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first African-American female Supreme Court justice. Biden then failed in his attempt to run for reelection. Dropping out too late, Biden’s low approval rate then helped doom his own vice president’s chances of succeeding him in the White House. His mass amnesty of worthy persons did not redeem a morally-dubious pardoning of his troubled son. Still, in the one month that he has left in office, Biden can flip the script by making that period belong to the young and energetic Harris rather than to a frail man ending a storied career on a low note. Finally, a Harris inauguration as the 47th president will ruin all of the merch already produced for Trump 47. Itai Nartzizenfield Sneh
Broke the case
Brooklyn: Yes, it’s true that the NYPD put a lot of clues together and put it out there to the public, but it was a sharp McDonald’s customer and employee to make the call and apprehend Luigi Mangione. So, not all the credit goes to law enforcement. Josie Oliveri
Mass omission
Manhattan: Enesco successfully peddles inoffensive, if slightly corny, merchandise. It might want to oversee one of its major producers, Jim Shore — in particular, his line of international Santa ornaments. Missing is a Chinese Santa (Korean and Japanese as well). China has more Christians than 90% of the European states, and more than 100 times the number of Christians as Turkey, which is represented in the Jim Shore collection. Actually, Israel has as many Christians as Turkey — where is the Santa of Zion? One might guess politics, but Shore offers a Russian St. Nick. So, explanation falls on the “yellow peril” and similar racialist metaphors, revealing the Caucasian cultural fear of being absorbed by the Mongol hordes. Michele P. Brown
Dishonored guest
Whiting, N.J.: Isn’t it enough that Daniel Penny choked a man to death and was let off scot-free? Now he has been honored by Donald Trump via his invite to Trump’s private suite at the Army-Navy game. What’s next for Penny? A cabinet position? Perhaps Health and Human Services, addressing the plight of the mentally unstable and homeless from a whole new perspective? Or perhaps secretary of defense? After all, he was in the military and has been on TV, which are apparently the only qualifications needed. Or Department of Transportation? Subway problems solved! Bill McConnell
Nice one
Accord, N.Y.: Great column by Bill Madden on Sunday, “Here, it’s all yours,” about Steve Cohen spending $765 million for Juan Soto. You need to print more Madden stuff. Frank Lancellotti
Optimistic
Merrick, L.I.: The New York Mets just welcomed Juan Soto to their family and it’s already giving off vibes of baseball magic. Think Willie “Pops” Stargell and the unforgettable “We Are Family” 1979 Pirates, who rallied together for an incredible championship run. Stargell led the charge, nabbing the LCS, World Series and National League MVP titles — and who’s to say Soto can’t spark a little of that same magic at Citi Field? Curtis Izen
Poor play
Sea Isle City, N.J.: When you have first and goal at the 5-yard line and you run the ball and pick up three yards, and now you have second and goal, a smart coach would have ran the ball again — and again, if need be. Three downs to make two yards. It’s a no-brainer, except for the Giants coach who is also calling the plays! Like the airplane said, “Put out this dumpster fire.” It’s time to go, Brian Daboll. Jim Fusco
Somethin’s up
Manalapan, N.J.: Let me get this straight: We don’t know where the drones are from, who’s behind them or what they’re doing. But we are perfectly safe, so nothing to worry about! The only way the feds could say this is if they are part of a U.S. research program. They once denied reports of a “bat plane,” which were actually test flights of the F-117 stealth fighter. Now it makes sense. Joe Fontanelli
