Elon ******* Musk

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  • RuthRuth Shipmate
    Apparently the resale value of Teslas is plummeting, with so many people trying to sell them.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    edited March 19
    A federal judge has opined Mutt's dismantling of USAID may be unconstitutional since he did not have any authority to dismantle the agency. In my opinion, that should be considered a felony. Since there is some question as to his immigration status, could he be deported to El Salvador along with the other riff-raff?

    I know that is far fetched.
  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    Ruth wrote: »
    Apparently the resale value of Teslas is plummeting, with so many people trying to sell them.

    For the first time since a junior-high project in the early 1980s, I have checked price of a stock. Tesla's numbers on the one-day tracking look impressive, but yeah, on the overall chart for the month, abysmal.

    I heard something about the Tesla board being very unhappy with Musk right now.
  • O come now. What has poor El Salvador done, to deserve a plague of Muskrats?
  • DafydDafyd Hell Host
    stetson wrote: »
    Just saw a news report about a new doxxing website which allows you to locate Tesla owners on a map of the USA. The cursor is a flaming Molotov Cocktail. Cute.
    The oddity here is that I would suppose that until Musk got high on the far-right supply the kind of person likely to own a Tesla was unlikely to support Trump.
  • I wonder. Extremists seem to meet at the extremes. As for Tesla owners, I'm thinking extreme in terms of wealth, the tech-bro ideology, and so forth. Not middle-of-the-road people.
  • RuthRuth Shipmate
    Not in California. Tesla cars were until recently hugely popular here, and plenty of ordinary, not-extremely-wealthy people own them. I see lots of them on the street all the time.

    The cybertrucks, though -- yeah, that's a real choice.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    Ruth wrote: »
    Not in California. Tesla cars were until recently hugely popular here, and plenty of ordinary, not-extremely-wealthy people own them. I see lots of them on the street all the time.
    Same in North Carolina.

  • stetson wrote: »
    Ruth wrote: »
    Apparently the resale value of Teslas is plummeting, with so many people trying to sell them.

    For the first time since a junior-high project in the early 1980s, I have checked price of a stock. Tesla's numbers on the one-day tracking look impressive, but yeah, on the overall chart for the month, abysmal.

    I heard something about the Tesla board being very unhappy with Musk right now.

    UK readers might like to check out this week's Radio 4 show about PR, 'When it hits the fan'. Musk and Tesla popped up - the PR / media pros who produce the show think that the US pension funds who have just lost billions on Tesla stock will want Musk's head, on pain of selling their stock and *really* tanking the company. They are a pretty hard-boiled and experienced pair (David Yelland and Simon Lewis, if you want to look them up), and I would be reluctant to dismiss their view out of hand.
  • I think I've mentioned that my osteopath owns a Tesla car.

    He charges it up using electricity produced by the solar panels on his house - all very green ISTM - and is horrified by what the Muskrat and his minions are doing in the US. His own politics are very much centre-left...

    The cybertruck is, surely, some sort of elaborate (and not very funny) joke.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    O come now. What has poor El Salvador done, to deserve a plague of Muskrats?

    El Salvador has built a Megaprison and has offered its services to the Trump administration to incarcerate illegal immigrants who have been accused of committing felonies. If Mutt has indeed committed a felony and is an illegal immigrant, maybe Trump should ship him down there.
  • Alan Cresswell Alan Cresswell Admin, 8th Day Host
    There was a period where Tesla was ahead of the field in terms of quality of batteries (longer range and charging rate) so that anyone who felt they needed a car with more than 200 miles range and charging times less than an hour had no real choice but to buy Tesla. Other manufacturers have now caught up, and the differences in range and charging rates between Tesla and the rest are negligible. Also, the perception of Musk has changed over recent years. If we look back maybe even only 5 years ago, Musk would mostly have been viewed as just an eccentric billionaire (eg: paying to put a car in space), if people thought of him at all. I think that changed when he bought Twitter and radically changed the platform for the worse.

    Which leads to me classifying Tesla owners into two groups. There were those who bought their car when Musk was a relatively unknown person, known for being very rich and launching cars into space. And, there are those who bought their car after he thrust himself and his vile opinions into the public sphere (which I'm going to, possibly somewhat arbitrarily, put at his purchase of Twitter). The former group bought a good car for a range of acceptable reasons (eg: to reduce their carbon footprint, reduce local pollution) ignorant of the fascist views of Musk. The latter group bought a car when they should have known that doing so boosted the wealth of a dangerous fascist. One group sinned in ignorance and is innocent of deliberate harm, the second sinned in the knowledge of the harm caused and need to repent.

    I'm willing to accept that there's a third group, who bought their new Tesla (especially if that's one of those mobile trash cans) in the last few months because they wanted to show support for Musk and his vile opinions. This group deserve to burn in Hell for lining up to cheer on the Nazis actively harming other people.
  • JonahManJonahMan Shipmate
    One thing I find scary is that even if Musk lost 99.9% of his money due to boycotts, terrible products etc, he would still have vastly more left than he could possibly spend on himself, and vastly more than almost everyone else on the planet would have in a lifetime. So all the jubilation I am seeing about the value of Tesla stock plummeting seems hollow.
  • HugalHugal Shipmate
    edited March 20
    JonahMan wrote: »
    One thing I find scary is that even if Musk lost 99.9% of his money due to boycotts, terrible products etc, he would still have vastly more left than he could possibly spend on himself, and vastly more than almost everyone else on the planet would have in a lifetime. So all the jubilation I am seeing about the value of Tesla stock plummeting seems hollow.

    However someone like Musk will not be happy with the current situation. Hurting his pocket will upset him.
    The real problem comes with his employees. I would not buy a Tesla, I can’t afford one even if I wanted to. If Tesla tanks will Musk be good to his employees? I am not sure. I suspect he wouldn’t hesitate to sack people and pay no or little compensation if he thought he needed to.
  • ArethosemyfeetArethosemyfeet Shipmate, Heaven Host
    Hugal wrote: »
    JonahMan wrote: »
    One thing I find scary is that even if Musk lost 99.9% of his money due to boycotts, terrible products etc, he would still have vastly more left than he could possibly spend on himself, and vastly more than almost everyone else on the planet would have in a lifetime. So all the jubilation I am seeing about the value of Tesla stock plummeting seems hollow.

    However someone like Musk will not be happy with the current situation. Hurting his pocket will upset him.
    The real problem comes with his employees. I would not buy a Tesla, I can’t afford one even if I wanted to. If Tesla tanks will Musk be good to his employees? I am not sure. I suspect he wouldn’t hesitate to sack people and pay no or little compensation if he thought he needed to.

    I think Tesla will be de-Musked (and possibly rebranded) before it comes to that. Tesla has a lot of solid products and IP that go with them that are linked to its factories. Even if it collapses I would expect those to get snapped up by another company (perhaps, for irony, the likes of GWM or BYD with a view to bypassing tariffs).
  • chrisstileschrisstiles Hell Host
    I think I've mentioned that my osteopath owns a Tesla car.

    He charges it up using electricity produced by the solar panels on his house - all very green ISTM - and is horrified by what the Muskrat and his minions are doing in the US. His own politics are very much centre-left...

    The history of Tesla is that it was founded the year before any involvement with Musk, he invested $6.5m the following year and became the chairman of the board. In the 2009/2010 timeframe there was a series of suits and counter-suits where Musk asserted his right be named 'founder'.

    The designs for the original line (Roadster and S which the X, 3 and Y derive from) were completed with little to no input from Musk.
    The cybertruck is, surely, some sort of elaborate (and not very funny) joke.

    The idiocies in the design of the Cybertruck (the shape, the stainless steel panels, glued together) are all on Musk.
  • Gramps49 wrote: »
    O come now. What has poor El Salvador done, to deserve a plague of Muskrats?

    El Salvador has built a Megaprison and has offered its services to the Trump administration to incarcerate illegal immigrants who have been accused of committing felonies. If Mutt has indeed committed a felony and is an illegal immigrant, maybe Trump should ship him down there.

    I wasn't aware of this, so thanks for the clarification. A suitable Rat-hole indeed.
    I think I've mentioned that my osteopath owns a Tesla car.

    He charges it up using electricity produced by the solar panels on his house - all very green ISTM - and is horrified by what the Muskrat and his minions are doing in the US. His own politics are very much centre-left...

    The history of Tesla is that it was founded the year before any involvement with Musk, he invested $6.5m the following year and became the chairman of the board. In the 2009/2010 timeframe there was a series of suits and counter-suits where Musk asserted his right be named 'founder'.

    The designs for the original line (Roadster and S which the X, 3 and Y derive from) were completed with little to no input from Musk.
    The cybertruck is, surely, some sort of elaborate (and not very funny) joke.

    The idiocies in the design of the Cybertruck (the shape, the stainless steel panels, glued together) are all on Musk.

    Yes, I think my osteopath bought his Tesla quite some time ago, possibly during the Muskrat era - but that would still be before the latter's attempt at world domination.
  • JonahMan wrote: »
    One thing I find scary is that even if Musk lost 99.9% of his money due to boycotts, terrible products etc, he would still have vastly more left than he could possibly spend on himself, and vastly more than almost everyone else on the planet would have in a lifetime. So all the jubilation I am seeing about the value of Tesla stock plummeting seems hollow.

    The problem he has is that if his personal involvement does not boost stock values, he will lose in some of his other enterprises - Space X in particular. Also, he has leveraged a lot of his wealth in loans. If that all comes crashing down, there is a possibility that Musk could be bankrupt. It sounds ridiculous, but it is not.
    Tesla has a lot of solid products and IP that go with them that are linked to its factories.

    Personally, I disagree. I think the other cars are very boring. There is some value, I am sure in the company, but I suspect it is all too dated. Other companies have progressed further, and produced better electric vehicles. Musk focussed on the Cyberskip and other technologies that have not materialised, to the detriment of their core business.

    So there might be very little apart form a US presence that is actually saleable. Or saleable at anything other than a discount price, less than its book value.

    As always the musk legacy is destruction, nothing else. He is a destrution-investor par excellence.
  • ArethosemyfeetArethosemyfeet Shipmate, Heaven Host
    The battery technology, including the new Powerwall 3, are pretty well regarded by them that know (from what I've read).
  • Well, yes. I daresay my osteopath will replace his car with a newer, and better, version in due course. The Muskrat probably doesn't have a great deal to do with the ongoing improvements in technology.
  • CrœsosCrœsos Shipmate
    Well, yes. I daresay my osteopath will replace his car with a newer, and better, version in due course. The Muskrat probably doesn't have a great deal to do with the ongoing improvements in technology.

    Definitely not.
    After multiple reports of trim pieces going rogue, Tesla launched an investigation into the issue of exterior panels detaching while driving and has decided it’s time for a recall.

    And it’s a big one, covering every single Cybertruck sold over the past 15 months, from November 13, 2023, to February 27, 2025, impacting a total of 46,096 units. This time, this issue can’t be fixed with a software update, as owners will need to bring their trucks into a dealership for some hands-on attention.

    The Issue: A Faulty Cant Rail

    The problem in question involves the cant rail, a stainless-steel trim panel that stretches from the base of the windshield to the rear door, running along the roof arch above the windows. Tesla explains that the cant rail relies entirely on structural adhesive to stay in place. Unfortunately, this adhesive is vulnerable to environmental embrittlement, meaning it doesn’t hold up as well as it should.

    To fix this, Tesla is replacing the problematic glue with a more durable version that’s not prone to environmental wear. To make sure it stays in place, they’re also reinforcing the assembly with a stud welded to the stainless steel panel, which will be clamped to the vehicle’s structure using a nut.

    Bear in mind that the Cybertruck was initially marketed at $150,000, and also marketed on the basis of its supposed durability.
  • CaissaCaissa Shipmate
    A long CBC expose on Musk's grandfather who was a conspiracy theorist https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/joshua-haldeman-elon-musk-tech-utopian-conspiracist
  • BullfrogBullfrog Shipmate
    I mean...I've seen on parked in our neighborhood on a regular basis. And it is often parked illegally. I keep thinking that one of these days I'll just report it.

    Guy shouldn't be illegally parking his massive car, no?
  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    Bullfrog wrote: »
    I mean...I've seen on parked in our neighborhood on a regular basis. And it is often parked illegally. I keep thinking that one of these days I'll just report it.

    Guy shouldn't be illegally parking his massive car, no?

    Just like Al Capone shouldn't have been cheating on his taxes.
  • CrœsosCrœsos Shipmate
    stetson wrote: »
    Bullfrog wrote: »
    I mean...I've seen on parked in our neighborhood on a regular basis. And it is often parked illegally. I keep thinking that one of these days I'll just report it.

    Guy shouldn't be illegally parking his massive car, no?
    Just like Al Capone shouldn't have been cheating on his taxes.

    Al Capone's tax evasion was a necessary element of his vast criminal enterprise. My guess about the illegal parker is that he's just an asshole.

    And speaking of the Musk family, today's entry could be titled "stop 'helping', dad".
    According to The Post, [ Elon Musk's father ] Errol said that Musk and his brother were “interested in motorbikes, computers, basketball and a little about girls” as kids, and “They were not into political nonsense.” According to Errol’s telling, “We lived in a very well-run, law-abiding country with virtually no crime at all. Actually no crime. We had several black servants who were their friends.” He also reportedly told the paper that Musk had several Black friends.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    All the cybertrucks in the United States have been recalled because the external steel panels which are glued together are separating. They have to be reglued with a stronger adhesive.

    Meanwhile, Tesla's stock has fallen by 50%

    Oh, and Musk is now interfering with the election for a Wisconsin, Story here.


  • RockyRogerRockyRoger Shipmate
    edited March 21
    According to The Post, [ Elon Musk's father ] Errol said that Musk and his brother were “interested in motorbikes, computers, basketball and a little about girls” as kids, and “They were not into political nonsense.” According to Errol’s telling, “We lived in a very well-run, law-abiding country with virtually no crime at all. Actually no crime. We had several black servants who were their friends.” He also reportedly told the paper that Musk had several Black friends.

    This ineluctably reminds me of the story about the ady who, lamenting the state of immediate post-war Germany, told her interviewer, "At least there wasn't any crime in Adolf's time".

    So it goes.
  • BullfrogBullfrog Shipmate
    RockyRoger wrote: »
    According to The Post, [ Elon Musk's father ] Errol said that Musk and his brother were “interested in motorbikes, computers, basketball and a little about girls” as kids, and “They were not into political nonsense.” According to Errol’s telling, “We lived in a very well-run, law-abiding country with virtually no crime at all. Actually no crime. We had several black servants who were their friends.” He also reportedly told the paper that Musk had several Black friends.

    This ineluctably reminds me of the story about the ady who, lamenting the state of immediate post-war Germany, told her interviewer, "At least there wasn't any crime in Adolf's time".

    So it goes.

    I wish they had more reports from people like that in history books instead of acting like the ordinary folks were all helpless victims instead of enablers.
  • chrisstileschrisstiles Hell Host
    Bullfrog wrote: »
    RockyRoger wrote: »
    According to The Post, [ Elon Musk's father ] Errol said that Musk and his brother were “interested in motorbikes, computers, basketball and a little about girls” as kids, and “They were not into political nonsense.” According to Errol’s telling, “We lived in a very well-run, law-abiding country with virtually no crime at all. Actually no crime. We had several black servants who were their friends.” He also reportedly told the paper that Musk had several Black friends.

    This ineluctably reminds me of the story about the ady who, lamenting the state of immediate post-war Germany, told her interviewer, "At least there wasn't any crime in Adolf's time".

    So it goes.

    I wish they had more reports from people like that in history books instead of acting like the ordinary folks were all helpless victims instead of enablers.

    I don't think there's necessarily a sharp distinction between the two, and people often start off as one of those and then become the other. Apart from the felines chomping faces cases, cognitive biases can make it difficult to assess the chances of outlying scenarios until they actually happen.

    In this specific case where much of the radicalisation has happened online, I'm not sure to what extent the public at large are aware of it. To pick an example, try telling someone who isn't online that the Vice President regularly interacts with someone calling themselves 'Bronze Age Pervert'.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited March 21
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    All the cybertrucks in the United States have been recalled because the external steel panels which are glued together are separating. They have to be reglued with a stronger adhesive.

    <snip>

    It's a good job the US military didn't invest in the cyberskips - there was AIUI a rumour that they were considering buying them...

    I wonder how many of them will actually end up as rubbish skips, or dumpsters?
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    At least they won't have to adapt the design ... :mrgreen:
  • chrisstileschrisstiles Hell Host
    I wonder how many of them will actually end up as rubbish skips, or dumpsters?

    They'd be useless as skips for the same reason they are currently falling apart - the binding between the panels isn't particularly strong and wouldn't hold up under loading.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    Ian Fleming's James Bond series has not aged well, For instance, Moonraker which was published 70 years ago (April 1955) featured a supervillain who was a rich industrialist that loved to fly rockets and was a secret Nazi. Such a silly idea.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited March 22
    There's one big difference, at least as regards the 1979 film - Drax (Michael Lonsdale) is much better-looking than the Muskrat.

    YMMV, of course.
    :wink:
  • betjemaniacbetjemaniac Shipmate
    edited March 24
    There's one big difference, at least as regards the 1979 film - Drax (Michael Lonsdale) is much better-looking than the Muskrat.

    YMMV, of course.
    :wink:

    You’d have liked a film more faithful to the book - lots of chasing up and down the Kent marshes (from where the Moonrakers were to launch) IIRC.
  • RockyRogerRockyRoger Shipmate
    There's one big difference, at least as regards the 1979 film - Drax (Michael Lonsdale) is much better-looking than the Muskrat.

    YMMV, of course.
    :wink:

    You’d have liked a film more faithful to the book - lots of chasing up and down the Kent marshes (from where the Moonrakers were to launch) IIRC.

    The book is indeed rather good. The gambling scene is horridly snobby, but what I liked is that Bond was protective of the girl and (wow!) didn't get her at the end.
  • DafydDafyd Hell Host
    I've read three of the books and Bond ends up with the girl in one of them. (One of the differences between books and films is that book Bond knows his attitude to women and sex is unhealthy and wants to grow out of it.)
  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    There's one big difference, at least as regards the 1979 film - Drax (Michael Lonsdale) is much better-looking than the Muskrat.

    YMMV, of course.
    :wink:

    You’d have liked a film more faithful to the book - lots of chasing up and down the Kent marshes (from where the Moonrakers were to launch) IIRC.

    I've never seen Moonraker, but it was the first Bond film I was ever aware of, and of course I noticed how the promotional material echoed Star Wars. My understanding(and it seems pretty obvious) is that the studio just liked the title because it allowed them to cash in on the Lucas-driven space opera craze of the late 1970s, but the plot is otherwise unconnected to the book.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    This is rich. Reuters is reporting a person Elon Musk has referred to as Big Balls, one of his right hand people, is known to have provided technical support to a cybercrime syndicate that specialized in hacking government programs.

    Why am I not surprised?

    Why isn't this a reason to shut down DOGE forthwith?
  • On the cars again, I spoke to a body shop owner about a year ago and asked if he'd worked on Teslas. "Once", was the answer. He tells people to go back to the dealer for any bodywork, as they are so badly designed and made that he won't have anything to do with them again. That was before Musk bought trump.

    I am sure some older people will remember cutting something like a Cybertruck off the back of a cereal packet, many decades ago. Just like the current model, all you had to do was glue the flat pieces together.
  • Gramps49 wrote: »
    This is rich. Reuters is reporting a person Elon Musk has referred to as Big Balls, one of his right hand people, is known to have provided technical support to a cybercrime syndicate that specialized in hacking government programs.

    Why am I not surprised?

    Why isn't this a reason to shut down DOGE forthwith?

    Is the cybercrime syndicate DOGE? I mean, it seems to be what they do.

  • RockyRogerRockyRoger Shipmate
    And so the nightmare continues .....
  • HugalHugal Shipmate
    Musk has sold X to his own AI startup, in an all share deal. Selling to yourself. Interesting
  • ArethosemyfeetArethosemyfeet Shipmate, Heaven Host
    Hugal wrote: »
    Musk has sold X to his own AI startup, in an all share deal. Selling to yourself. Interesting

    Presumably this is solely to avoid the investors in Xitter getting antsy about him tanking its value.
  • TurquoiseTasticTurquoiseTastic Kerygmania Host
    Bullfrog wrote: »
    RockyRoger wrote: »
    According to The Post, [ Elon Musk's father ] Errol said that Musk and his brother were “interested in motorbikes, computers, basketball and a little about girls” as kids, and “They were not into political nonsense.” According to Errol’s telling, “We lived in a very well-run, law-abiding country with virtually no crime at all. Actually no crime. We had several black servants who were their friends.” He also reportedly told the paper that Musk had several Black friends.

    This ineluctably reminds me of the story about the ady who, lamenting the state of immediate post-war Germany, told her interviewer, "At least there wasn't any crime in Adolf's time".

    So it goes.

    I wish they had more reports from people like that in history books instead of acting like the ordinary folks were all helpless victims instead of enablers.

    I would recommend "The Nazis - A Warning from History" which has lots of interviews from folks rather like this. On viewing it one Year 11 pupil asked me the obvious question: "Sir, why aren't all these people in jail?".
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    Elon got a Wisconsin Civics lesson yesterday. While throwing tons of money into the state Supreme Court Race. He announced he was going to give away two one million dollar checks to two people who would attend his get out the vote rally today. but the state attorney general intervened and told him it is against Wisconsin law to give anyone something of value to either vote or refrain from voting in Wisconsin.

    With all the money Musk has committed to the election, I sure hope his candidate loses. It will be a huge no confidence vote in Wisconsin for him.
  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    edited March 29
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    Elon got a Wisconsin Civics lesson yesterday. While throwing tons of money into the state Supreme Court Race. He announced he was going to give away two one million dollar checks to two people who would attend his get out the vote rally today. but the state attorney general intervened and told him it is against Wisconsin law to give anyone something of value to either vote or refrain from voting in Wisconsin.

    Why is he spending two million dollars to guarantee the attendance of two people at his rally? Is it a lottery, and everyone shows up to put their name in the box in the hope that they're one of the two chosen?
  • Hugal wrote: »
    Musk has sold X to his own AI startup, in an all share deal. Selling to yourself. Interesting

    Presumably this is solely to avoid the investors in Xitter getting antsy about him tanking its value.

    All depends how he paid for it doesn’t it? I suspect it’s more the investors in Tesla getting antsy that’s driving this…
  • RuthRuth Shipmate
    stetson wrote: »
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    Elon got a Wisconsin Civics lesson yesterday. While throwing tons of money into the state Supreme Court Race. He announced he was going to give away two one million dollar checks to two people who would attend his get out the vote rally today. but the state attorney general intervened and told him it is against Wisconsin law to give anyone something of value to either vote or refrain from voting in Wisconsin.

    Why is he spending two million dollars to guarantee the attendance of two people at his rally? Is it a lottery, and everyone shows up to put their name in the box in the hope that they're one of the two chosen?

    He only wants two people to attend.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    stetson wrote: »
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    Elon got a Wisconsin Civics lesson yesterday. While throwing tons of money into the state Supreme Court Race. He announced he was going to give away two one million dollar checks to two people who would attend his get out the vote rally today. but the state attorney general intervened and told him it is against Wisconsin law to give anyone something of value to either vote or refrain from voting in Wisconsin.

    Why is he spending two million dollars to guarantee the attendance of two people at his rally? Is it a lottery, and everyone shows up to put their name in the box in the hope that they're one of the two chosen?

    AP is running this story. As I understand the story. Musk originally said he was going to give away a million dollars to two voters at his rally {That would be illegal}. After the state AG got involved, Musk said he was going to give the money away to two people who signed his petition against activist judges. (Might be a gray area). Then his people announced the first recipient was a man who gave money to the GOP candidate's campaign (something smells a little fishy here). I hope the AG takes his ass to court. Make it a felony offense, Mr AG.
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