Musk spends record sum on Republicans, jokes about the defeat it bought.

Clive Quieter. I am always quieter before a reading, and nobody has once called that modesty a strategy.

Gary Nobody's called it a strategy because it isn't one. You read in the kitchen. He bought a party.

Fold in the scale. By October 7, an analysis counted 172 billionaire families who had already spent more than $1.7 billion on this cycle, most of it through the very super PACs that the 2010 ruling allows.

Keith Bought a party. I could sell that. I'd stick a flag on it and charge double.

Turn up the heat. By October 12, the Times, reading the filings, found Musk had put at least $276 million into GOP groups and his own super PAC since July alone, and set his total for the cycle near $366 million.

Gary You'd put a flag on anything. You put a flag on the immersion heater and we still haven't got hot water.

On November 4, Le Monde put Musk's total at nearly $500 million. The Republicans he had fed lost. This is the mishap: the dish he paid for went off the table on the way to the result, and he was reported, by both Le Monde and RTÉ, joking about it the next morning.

Le Monde's own headline has it as Musk jokes about Republican losses after spending nearly $500 million on election; RTÉ printed it the same way, Musk jokes about election loss after spending record sums. At home, when the spending was only $276 million, Common Dreams had already called it, in its own headline, Absolutely Insane.

You will be looking for the part where the money comes back. There is no such part; a super PAC does not refund on a loss, win or lose, and no one here has asked it to.

It serves the Republican Party, fed for now, and it serves Musk's own super PAC, which keeps whatever is left in the tin. The bill, such as it is, goes to no one in particular, which is rather the point of the dish.

Rob No hot water and you're on about flags. This house hasn't fed anyone on time since the meter went, and nobody's joking about that one either.