Hacker News: whats_a_quasar

New comment by whats_a_quasar in "Google broke its promise to me – now ICE has my data"

whats_a_quasar — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 01:27:59 +0000

Yes, the First Amendment applies to all people within the territory of the United States equally. US law does not limit the political speech of non-citizens present on visas.

New comment by whats_a_quasar in "Oakland cops gave ICE license plate data; SFPD also illegally shared with feds"

whats_a_quasar — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 16:42:23 +0000

Fair enough, but it is also valid to be angry at your local law enforcement if they are acting against the community's preferences. Especially when local law enforcement is breaking state law in the process.

New comment by whats_a_quasar in "FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities"

whats_a_quasar — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 16:34:04 +0000

To your question - A state judge cannot be required to hold someone on behalf of federal agents. That's federalism 101 and settled law.

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/sanctuary--supremacy--h...

New comment by whats_a_quasar in "FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities"

whats_a_quasar — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 16:30:37 +0000

"You can beat the rap but not the ride" is phrased like the judge actually did anything wrong. That seems very doubtful. This administration has shown they are not entitled to the presumption that they are acting in good faith.

New comment by whats_a_quasar in "FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities"

whats_a_quasar — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 16:28:51 +0000

Source?

New comment by whats_a_quasar in "FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities"

whats_a_quasar — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 16:27:13 +0000

Given the circumstances, the government absolutely does have an obligation to present its evidence up front. You cannot use federal agents to arrest officers of a state government unless the charges are rock solid. There is a strong public interest in this case and the current administration has shown that it is owed zero deference or presumption that it is acting in good faith.

New comment by whats_a_quasar in "FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities"

whats_a_quasar — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 16:25:03 +0000

This doesn't really have any fifth amendment implications. The prohibition against self incrimination reads "no person ... shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself."

That doesn't relate to being compelled to attend a proceeding in person where another federal agency can arrest you. If the government can legally arrest you, it does not matter if they determine your location based on another proceeding.

New comment by whats_a_quasar in "FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities"

whats_a_quasar — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 16:22:15 +0000

No, a "publicity stunt" is not the best way to describe this latest escalation in the Trump administration's campaign to destroy the rule of law in America. It may be deliberately flashy, but that phrasing very much undersells the significance of the executive attacking the judiciary.

New comment by whats_a_quasar in "xAI has acquired X, xAI now valued at $80B"

whats_a_quasar — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 20:04:10 +0000

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddit

Owners: Advance Publications (30%), Tencent (11%), Sam Altman (9%)

New comment by whats_a_quasar in "xAI has acquired X, xAI now valued at $80B"

whats_a_quasar — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 00:07:54 +0000

Definitely, and a lot of that haircut actually happened in between when the deal was signed and when it closed, too. That was right when interest rates went up and Musk tried to wriggle out of the purchase agreement. So it's a great outcome for Twitter investors, assuming it sticks.

New comment by whats_a_quasar in "xAI has acquired X, xAI now valued at $80B"

whats_a_quasar — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 00:04:59 +0000

Oh yeah I totally agree with that framing. I find this fascinating intellectually because of the deal dynamics and worthy of critique but agree that the tone of some of the commentary is a bit silly. It's a really unethical thing to do, but it's all private capital and everyone with exposure knowingly made the choice to go into business with Musk. They can sue and definitely will win if Musk did cross any legal lines.

New comment by whats_a_quasar in "xAI has acquired X, xAI now valued at $80B"

whats_a_quasar — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 00:00:12 +0000

And also Sam Altman doesn't own either OpenAI or Reddit, lol.

New comment by whats_a_quasar in "xAI has acquired X, xAI now valued at $80B"

whats_a_quasar — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 23:59:16 +0000

What do you mean, what's going on? The judge rejected Musk's motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Meaning that the suit against him is going forward. Which is the correct outcome, because yeah he's obviously guilty.

New comment by whats_a_quasar in "xAI has acquired X, xAI now valued at $80B"

whats_a_quasar — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 23:55:45 +0000

It's all private capital. The only people who are exposed to this deal are the banks who make loans to Musk and Twitter, and the investors who put capital in to take Twitter private or to invest in xAI. If one of those entities is mad they will sue, and the legal system works pretty well for fights between different capital holders. Doesn't really matter what the general public's opinion is.

New comment by whats_a_quasar in "xAI has acquired X, xAI now valued at $80B"

whats_a_quasar — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 23:51:44 +0000

The commenter also included past presidents, which is silly. Once a president is a past president, he no longer controls that military apparatus.

New comment by whats_a_quasar in "xAI has acquired X, xAI now valued at $80B"

whats_a_quasar — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 23:34:57 +0000

Fair enough, edited to just revenue. But those are just datacenters bought with VC money - my intent was to say that xAI's resources are basically just the investment they've received.

New comment by whats_a_quasar in "xAI has acquired X, xAI now valued at $80B"

whats_a_quasar — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 23:32:05 +0000

As best I can tell the deal includes paying off $12 billion of Twitter debt. So that's real money, though that seems like it's basically all of the cash that xAI has raised, so if that's the case that's pretty wild.

Edit: I misread, Musk said it's an all-stock deal, so you're right, it's all funny money. I think that means the combined entity is taking on that debt. It's still great for Twitter and bad for xAI investors because the combined entity now has both the $12 billion debt and all the VC xAI raised.

New comment by whats_a_quasar in "xAI has acquired X, xAI now valued at $80B"

whats_a_quasar — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 23:26:06 +0000

What's the source / evidence for that? If the xAI shareholders really are all fine with it there's no ethical issue. But they have to be basically unanimously ok with the deal. Even a small investor has the right to not have their capital used for an insanely conflicted deal.

New comment by whats_a_quasar in "xAI has acquired X, xAI now valued at $80B"

whats_a_quasar — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 23:24:20 +0000

The negativity is because he's using investor money in xAI in a related party transaction. He's negotiating both sides of the sale and it's not at all obvious the transaction price is a good or real price for Twitter. It may make sense to merge the two, but this is an unethical way to make a deal and I think it is likely the xAI investors are getting screwed.

New comment by whats_a_quasar in "xAI has acquired X, xAI now valued at $80B"

whats_a_quasar — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 23:18:45 +0000

The solar city acquisition was for "only" $2.6 billion. This deal is way bigger. I'm not sure what the Tesla valuation was at the time of that deal, but I have to imagine it's proportionally way bigger too. A $45 billion acquisition when the acquirer, xAI, has an $80 billion valuation will threaten the integrity of xAI. Particularly because that's just a paper valuation and xAI doesn't have much of any revenue.

If I were an investor in xAI I would be furious about this. They're almost certainly overpaying for Twitter and there's definitely going to be litigation.

Edit: It sounds like the combined entity is taking on Twitter's $12 billion of debt from when it originally went private. As of last December xAI had raised "more than $12 billion" in total [1], so the deal attaches Twitter's debt to that ~12 billion pot of VC money. Unless I'm really misunderstanding something this deal looks like a bailout of Twitter and a huge new liability for xAI.

It's definitely possible my hot take is wrong and the xAI investors support the transaction. I hope so because if not there's going to be some brutal lawsuits over this.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/24/technology/elon-musk-xai-...