Elon Musk took an important stand for Americans who are serving time for crimes that involve marijuana. I support this stand he took and have my own thoughts about it. But first, I’d like to share why he took the stand, and why it’s important that he did.
Maybe free some people in jail for weed here too? pic.twitter.com/AYo0ZC79lZ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 31, 2022
Freeing A Russian Arms Dealer
The New York Times reported that the U.S. offered to trade a Russian arms dealer known as the Merchant of Death for Brittney Griner, an American basketball player who got caught with cannibis oil.
Griner got herself into a pretty bad situation and I’m sure she and her family would love for her to be home safe and sound. It’s a bad situation where the U.S. wants to free an actual bad person to save a citizen who made a mistake.
Elon Musk is right and here’s why
Marijuana is becoming legal in many states. Personally, I support the changing of this law. If we can have alcohol and cigarettes, why not an herb that is known to be beneficial? Although this makes sense, it is not the case–yet.
What’s worse is that despite legalization in some states, there are still people serving time in prison for possession.
Too many Americans are being arrested over weed.
In 2018, Forbes reported that the FBI released data that showed an average of one marijuana bust almost every 48 hours. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 52% of all drug arrests in 2010 were for marijuana.
The ACLU also published a research report in 2020 that focused on the racially targeted arrests of Americans over marijuana. The report examined marijuana arrests between 2010 and 2019 while analyzing racial disparities at the national, state, and local levels.
One Man Is serving a life sentence over marijuana.
In Mississippi, Allen Russell was sentenced to life in prison for possessing marijuana. In June 2022, KPLC News reported that the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that Russell’s life sentence was not a violation of his Eighth Amendment right.
His crime was being in possession of 43.71 grams of marijuana which normally carried an up to three-year sentence.
We live in an age where marijuana is becoming legal in many states. Life in prison over an herb is, in my opinion, cruel. It’s slavery.
2 Life Sentences and 20 years for Marijuana
Russell isn’t alone. John Knock is serving two life sentences plus 20 years. For marijuana. This was his first offense.
And up until two years ago, John was housed in a high-security institution due to the length of his sentence.
John has served 23 years at the time this article was written.
Life in prison for selling $20 in marijuana
Here in Lousiana, Kevin Allen was sentenced to life without parole for selling $20 in marijuana to a childhood friend. He’s currently serving his time at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
He works in the prison kitchen making juice for a few pennies a day.
“All I did was get set up from some drugs. I still feel to this day that I’m not supposed to be here.”
Elon Musk took a stand and I support him.
The U.S. can give Russia an actual war criminal to free an Amerian busted for cannibis oil, but won’t do anything for Americans serving long sentences for a similar crime.
This is why Elon Musk taking a stand is so important. People like Kevin Allen, John Knock, and Allen Russel shouldn’t be imprisoned for life over their mistakes.
Especially if those mistakes are now being legalized across the country.
With one meme and a thought, Elon Musk took a stand for Americans serving time for crimes related to marijuana.
I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, or concerns, see a typo, you can email me at johnna@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @JohnnaCrider1
Elon Musk
SpaceX Starship Flight 10: What to expect
SpaceX implemented hardware and operational changes aimed at improving Starship’s reliability.

SpaceX is preparing to launch the tenth test flight of its Starship vehicle as early as Sunday, August 24, with the launch window opening at 6:30 p.m. CT.
The mission follows investigations into anomalies from earlier flights, including the loss of Starship on its ninth test and a Ship 36 static fire issue. SpaceX has since implemented hardware and operational changes aimed at improving Starship’s reliability.
Booster landing burns and flight experiments
The upcoming Starship Flight 10 will expand Super Heavy’s flight envelope with multiple landing burn trials. Following stage separation, the booster will attempt a controlled flip and boostback burn before heading to an offshore splashdown in the Gulf of America. One of the three center engines typically used for landing will be intentionally disabled, allowing engineers to evaluate whether a backup engine can complete the maneuver, according to a post from SpaceX.
The booster will also transition to a two-engine configuration for the final phase, hovering briefly above the water before shutdown and drop. These experiments are designed to simulate off-nominal scenarios and generate real-world data on performance under varying conditions, while maximizing propellant use during ascent to enable heavier payloads.
Starship upper stage reentry tests
The Starship upper stage will attempt multiple in-space objectives, including deployment of eight Starlink simulators and a planned Raptor engine relight. SpaceX will also continue testing reentry systems with several modifications. A section of thermal protection tiles has been removed to expose vulnerable areas, while new metallic tile designs, including one with active cooling, will be trialed.
Catch fittings have been installed to evaluate their thermal and structural performance, and adjustments to the tile line will address hot spots observed on Flight 6. The reentry profile is expected to push the structural limits of Starship’s rear flaps at maximum entry pressure.
SpaceX says lessons from these tests are critical to refining the next-generation Starship and Super Heavy vehicles. With Starfactory production ramping in Texas and new launch infrastructure under development in Florida, the company is pushing to hit its goal of achieving a fully reusable orbital launch system.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk takes aim at Bill Gates’ Microsoft with new AI venture “Macrohard”
It is quite an appropriate name for a company that’s designed to rival Microsoft.

Elon Musk has set his sights on Microsoft with a new company called “Macrohard,” a software venture tied to his AI startup, xAI.
Musk described the project as a “purely AI software company” that’s designed to generate hundreds of specialized coding and generative AI agents that could one day simulate products from companies like Microsoft entirely through artificial intelligence.
Macrohard‘s Purpose
Musk announced Macrohard on Friday, though xAI had already registered the trademark with the US Patent Office a few weeks ago, as noted in a PC Mag report. Interestingly enough, this is not the first time that Musk has mentioned such an initiative.
Just last month, he stated that xAI was “creating a multi-agent AI software company, where Grok spawns hundreds of specialized coding and image/video generation/understanding agents all working together and then emulates humans interacting with the software in virtual machines until the result is excellent.”
At the time, Musk stated that “This is a macro challenge and a hard problem with stiff competition,” hinting at the venture’s “Macrohard” moniker. A few years ago, Musk also posted “Macrohard >> Microsoft” on X.
Powered by xAI and Colossus
Macrohard appears to be closely linked to xAI’s Colossus 2 supercomputer project in Memphis. Musk has confirmed plans to acquire millions of Nvidia GPUs, joining rivals such as OpenAI and Meta in a high-stakes race for AI computing power. Colossus is already one of the most powerful supercomputer clusters in the world, and it is still being expanded.
xAI is only a couple of years old, having been founded in March 2023. During its Engineering Open House event in San Francisco, Elon Musk highlighted that the company’s speed will be its primary competitive edge. “No SR-71 Blackbird was ever shot down and it only had one strategy: to accelerate,” Musk said.

Elon Musk tends to use social media platform X as his personal platform to express himself, so much so that critics tend to allege that the CEO is no longer serious about his numerous companies.
As per Musk, he is still very much in wartime CEO mode, despite all the jokes and fun posts about Ani on X.
Elon Musk leads several prolific companies, much more than the average CEO. And while Tesla is the only publicly traded entity that he currently leads, Musk is so visible that everyone across the internet pretty much has a strong opinion of him one way or another. For his longtime supporters and followers, however, what truly matters is if Musk is locked in.
Considering that Elon Musk’s feed on X has recently been filled with AI imagery, a good portion of which involve AI-rendered women, some X users have expressed concerns that the CEO may be losing focus once more. Musk responded to one such user by highlighting his very busy schedule and his numerous active projects.
Needless to say, Elon Musk is still locked in. He is still in “wartime CEO” mode.
As per the CEO, even his recent AI posts about AI are “part of a broader vision and strategy.” He also highlighted that SpaceX’s Starship Flight 10 is launching in a few days, xAI’s Grok 5 is starting its training next month, and Tesla’s Autopilot V14 is also coming next month. As per Musk, “long-term strategy is compelling.”
Elon Musk’s comments are quite accurate. While he may seem to spend all his time on X, after all, he is very much still neck-deep in all his companies’ projects. There is a reason why Musk became known as a visionary, and a lot of it is because he really is intimately involved in all of his companies’ projects.
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