Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, as a person in actual office, should probably keep his mouth shut unless he can determine whether or not what Musk is doing is illegal, regardless of what anyone thinks about his actions.

Being a state governor comes with some rather important obligations. If he had concerns about legality, he should be talking to the DA quietly behind closed doors.

If being in "actual" office compelled you to "keep your mouth shut" or else, Trump would have noticed while he was in office. Obviously, it doesn't.

I'm not clear how Trump acting atrociously justifies others acting atrociously. Can you elaborate?

So Freedom of Speech™ - unless you are in office...?

He's governor, not attorney general, so it's not in his purview.

Well first of all cornetman, Shapiro is not only a lawyer, but he used to be the Attorney General of Pennsylvania from 2017-2023. But hey, why let the facts get in the way of a dumbass comment?

18 U.S. Code § 597 - Expenditures to influence voting

Whoever makes or offers to make an expenditure to any person, either to vote or withhold his vote, or to vote for or against any candidate; and

Whoever solicits, accepts, or receives any such expenditure in consideration of his vote or the withholding of his vote—

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if the violation was willful, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

52 U.S. Code § 10307 - Prohibited acts

52 U.S. Code § 10307 -(c) False information in registering or voting; penalties

“Whoever knowingly or willfully gives false information as to his name, address or period of residence in the voting district for the purpose of establishing his eligibility to register or vote, or conspires with another individual for the purpose of encouraging his false registration to vote or illegal voting, or pays or offers to pay or accepts payment either for registration to vote or for voting shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both…”

"18 U.S. Code § 597 - Expenditures to influence voting"

In essence, only non-tangible persuasion should be used to influence voters. Other inducements and/or threats are right out. Saying that legally takes pages and pages which, unfortunately, might lead to loopholes, the lawyer's best friend.

If Elon were smart, he wouldn't have gone anywhere near this sort of thing, but as a political newbie, he was backing Kanye West previously. Full of hubris, he's going to make some very big errors. I supposed he better hope Mr Trump is elected and willing to pardon him.

I'm not disputing the question of legality one way or the other, I'm not a public prosecutor but neither is Governor Shapiro or Trump. More specifically, they are/were members of the Executive Branch.

Joe Biden has done, in my view, a good job in this area, while there may be question marks about him side stepping separation of powers in other fields, he's always stayed in his Executive lane when it comes to commenting on the relative legality of the actions of political opponents or on the decisions of the courts that he evidently personally disagrees with (e.g. Rittenhouse).

So this doesn't really answer the question of why it's acceptable for Governor Shapiro to make comments that are within the purview of the Judicial branch. "Trump did it" is, in my view, a poor excuse.

"he's always stayed in his Executive lane when it comes to commenting on the relative legality of the actions of political opponents "

Yes, but. Like more and more Presidents, he's used "Executive Orders" to circumvent congress when he knows they will take longer than he likes or won't pass the legislation he wants. He also knows that they won't take action against those orders most of the time. He's still trying to find a way for government to pay off student loans without creating a tax bill for those people. There are no saints in politics and you just have to chose the ones you think won't commit the sins you find the most grievous. Executive Orders need to be reigned in. They were put in place at a time when calling Congress to meet to declare war would take day or weeks and time was of the essence. That isn't the case anymore and it's abused more than used properly (by all of them).

I don't expect or ask for spotless purity, I only object to the bunch that gives the "it's (D)ifferent" slur (more often than not used falsely) actual ammunition. It makes it difficult for the rest of us to meaningfully point the finger at the misdeeds of the right when there's an overlap.

Who knows, perhaps many of them are actually sock puppeteering right wingers.

Creepy McCreepface, or the Elongated Muskrat, or one of the Musketards... does something skeevy, creepy, fascistic and anti-democratic.

In other news... what water touches... is wet (Which, co-incidentally... is also the opposite of every woman he's ever slept with).

Shame all that wealth can't buy Musk a character transplant or personality makeover.

Normally the transplanted element may be rejected by the adopting body, but I suspect in Musk's case the to be transplanted thing would reject Musk.

Revulsion, thy name is Musk.

Seems like the smart move would be to sign up and reduce the chances of a Republican winning. Any Democratic winners could even donate their winnings to the Harris campaign.

The great uMthondo we Sizwe, who is famous for not paying his bills, doesn't know how to write a check? Inconceivable!

Icon because USAF should've done it to his security clearance a long time ago.

The giant cheques are symbolic only and then only for the older people because a whole generation wouldn’t have a clue about them as they virtually disappeared from commerce since the last century.

Judging by the downvotes, I’d say that the magatards and musktards are out in force today - but too busying shuffling about in the corner whilst listening to music to be able to reply verbally.

Come on! Use your words!

Prediction: Musk keeps deferring payment until after the election (there are not many days to dream up excuses for) and then refuses to pay. It's cheap and gets him out of a legal hole. (Unless Florida Man wins and decides to pardon him.)

Sign up, register, vote for the elephant in the room, potentially win a million bucks.

Now, d'you think people signing up now are interested in politics or Trump or rich right-wing cockwombles, or are they hoping to be one of the ones picked to win a decent pile of cash?

With this and my Soros check, I'll be rich I tell ya! RICH!

Has oh-so-pious Mr Constitution Supporter had any comment to make yet about the level of support for the constitution that the candidate he's supporting to the tune of millions of dollars showed after the last presidential election?

At University, there were a number of foreign students whose tuition were paid in full plus a stipend by his country. (there were no females except their wives, mind you) Those from this country loved to flaunt their wealth. Especially by driving ostentatiously impractical vehicles and parking then illegally. To them, the citations were just the fee to park wherever they wanted. Like it was a premium service just for the rich. They soon learned that some of those "premium parking" areas included "valet service" to the impound lot and a lot of paperwork to get it released. They also destroyed their vehicles when the snow started falling. And most were expelled, often after only one semester, when they learned that can't just pay peasants to do their school work for them. They got every angry because they just couldn't understand why it wasn't allowed, especially since they paid the individuals. None of them drove Tesla, BTW. Too much pride in the oily source of their wealth.

Of course, he has a lot of money. But then again, he is a very big fool