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Posted
8 minutes ago, South Austin said:

I don't make all of my purchasing decisions with an entirely clear conscience.  But several years ago after my best friend was one of the few people I knew who owned a Tesla, I entertained the idea of eventually getting one, because I like to get behind decreasing our dependence on fossil fuels, he rarely had any maintenance issues, and it seemed like a pretty cool car.  

Now?  No fucking way I buy a Tesla.  But I'm skeptical that there are enough people like me who will make an appreciable dent in Tesla sales.  I still see them all over the place.

Many more viable options now than 5-10 years ago.  I don’t expect every Tesla owner to have the ability to make a change, but I do expect EV shoppers to look elsewhere and find something that fits their needs. 

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Posted
1 minute ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Many more viable options now than 5-10 years ago.  I don’t expect every Tesla owner to have the ability to make a change, but I do expect EV shoppers to look elsewhere and find something that fits their needs. 

True.  But seems like the other EV options are significantly more than the Tesla 3, which is cheaper than a lot of other standard gas-guzzling sedans.  Thankfully I'm not in the market for another couple years.

Posted
1 hour ago, South Austin said:

I don't make all of my purchasing decisions with an entirely clear conscience.  But several years ago after my best friend was one of the few people I knew who owned a Tesla, I entertained the idea of eventually getting one, because I like to get behind decreasing our dependence on fossil fuels, he rarely had any maintenance issues, and it seemed like a pretty cool car.  

Now?  No fucking way I buy a Tesla.  But I'm skeptical that there are enough people like me who will make an appreciable dent in Tesla sales.  I still see them all over the place.

Whether it's "enough" is up for debate.  But you are hardly alone.  European EV sales surge and Tesla's cut almost in half.  Sweet!

 

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Posted

I dove into the logic behind Musk and DOGE's quite lame AI projects, and chatted with the computer scientist and anthropologist @ali-alkhatib.com and the tech historian @histoftech.bsky.social to understand why they're pushing so much AI. 

And it goes beyond "they're lazy"—though that's part of it.

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Posted
25 minutes ago, Chopper said:

I dove into the logic behind Musk and DOGE's quite lame AI projects, and chatted with the computer scientist and anthropologist @ali-alkhatib.com and the tech historian @histoftech.bsky.social to understand why they're pushing so much AI. 

And it goes beyond "they're lazy"—though that's part of it.

They don't want to be held accountable, so they have the AI make decisions and wash their hands of it.

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Posted
10 minutes ago, bolverk said:

They don't want to be held accountable, so they have the AI make decisions and wash their hands of it.

 

DotARd doesn't want to be held accountable, so he has Nazi bitch make decisions and washes his hands of it. 

Nazi bitch too stupid to realize. 

As is the general public. 

 

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Posted (edited)
10 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

DotARd doesn't want to be held accountable, so he has Nazi bitch make decisions and washes his hands of it. 

Nazi bitch too stupid to realize. 

As is the general public. 

 

Hey, it's how the mob works. They've just automated it for greater corruption efficiency.

Edited by bolverk
Posted
1 hour ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Many more viable options now than 5-10 years ago.  I don’t expect every Tesla owner to have the ability to make a change, but I do expect EV shoppers to look elsewhere and find something that fits their needs. 

Again, why is there no shareholder  suit against Elmo for destroying the brand and tanking sales? Dammit plaintiff bar!!

Posted
4 minutes ago, Gatorubet said:

Again, why is there no shareholder  suit against Elmo for destroying the brand and tanking sales? Dammit plaintiff bar!!

Because there’s not a huge stock price hit yet so the shareholders haven’t been injured by it?

Posted

I'm signed up as an early adopter of T Mobile's "Starlink on a phone" feature.  Living in the boonies this is something I've wanted for 25 years.  But it's Starlink.  And fuck Elon.  This is why we can't have nice things.

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Posted (edited)
4 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Down 37% in two months?  Are we looking at the same stock?

We are not. It’s up 40% from 6 months ago. It’s up 50% yoy. And it’s up almost 600% from 60 months ago. 

Edited by Pato del Muerto
Posted
21 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

We are not. It’s up 40% from 6 months ago. It’s up 50% yoy. And it’s up almost 600% from 60 months ago. 

Uh, it's basically where it was 19 months ago.

Posted

^ you have to be fucking kidding me

flying is now back to be scary. thanks obama

3 hours ago, Goredho said:

In this game of Axis & Allies Russia's Russia, The U.S. is Germany and Europe is Poland.

in Soviet Russia Russia is Russia!

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Posted
41 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

Here we go.

 

Because ABQ is sitting on some energy portal of doom and any time I fly anywhere near that place I'm subject to massive turbulence, near death experiences and lamentations of all the women on board.  Amd occasions vomit not of my own.

A reroute on fumes to Amarillo had me contemplating deplaning without permission to rent a car to drive home vs going back to ABQ to change planes to Aus.

Even when cruising direct to SFO if we go more northerly I know I'm getting turbulence around ABQ and again over the Sierra. Fuck that Sunport.  People think Den is the evil, I dunno ...

Posted

KUT goes out and talks to some Austin/Texas Tesla owners. A couple of the comments are hilarious.

Quote

 

As Elon Musk veers right, some Tesla drivers in Texas are saying 'hell no'

Check in with Tesla drivers these days and many will tell you: They are in their feelings.

For years, Elon Musk was politically neutral — or even leaned left. Owning a Tesla has been a badge of honor for climate-conscious consumers, many of them liberals. But now that Musk has aligned himself with the conservative right, there has been a definite vibe shift.

You’ve probably seen it on the news.

Across the country, folks are protesting at Tesla showrooms over Musk’s efforts at the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. As Musk aligns himself more closely with President Trump, people on social media are joking about refusing to let Teslas merge in traffic. In fact, there are whole Reddit threads and online forums dedicated to drivers dealing with “anti-Tesla sentiment.”

Some, like singer Sheryl Crow, have even been driven to publicly ditch their Teslas as an act of protest against Musk.

The Texas Newsroom wanted to know what Tesla and Cybertruck drivers in Texas, home to the company’s HQ and its massive Austin gigafactory, are feeling. So we put out a call on social media. We ended up hearing from Tesla drivers from all over the state.

The general consensus was clear: To a person, everyone said they love their Tesla. But, whether they like Musk or hate him, they said they are being plagued by social pressure, random targeting and, sometimes, deeply personal ethical battles over keeping their cars.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

Jimmy Ogden in Dallas said someone threw Kraft singles at his Tesla.

He said he assumed it was some sort of an "anti-Musk sentiment” and said Musk is alienating the very people originally drawn to his cars: “Fundamentally, the people who have been traditionally buying them are not the people he's making happy now.”

Ogden just bought another electric vehicle from Rivian and plans to sell his Tesla as soon as he can. He hopes he can still offload it.

“If I was more organized, I would have sold this before the inauguration,” he said.

Ammar Khan in Austin said he also believes he was the target of some anti-Tesla hazing.

Earlier this month, he says someone put a flier on his car begging him to reject Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s conservative blueprint for the second Trump administration. The message was handwritten in what looked like colored pencil. On the back, it said, “Nothing is impossible. Do not comply in advance.”

“I was so confused,” Khan said.

Khan was gifted his Tesla after his dad decided to upgrade a couple years ago. He said, at the time, taking the free car was a no-brainer. His friends know he doesn’t like Musk, Khan said, but stuff like the flyer made him realize he’s dealing with others who think driving a Tesla means he’s bought into everything Musk now represents.

So, if he had to buy a new car now, would he choose Tesla?

“Hell, no, no, no, no way, never,” Khan said. “I would never consciously put my money toward a Tesla in 2025.”

Some drivers described it as a struggle between the economics and the ethics of the issue. Chris Brown in Rowlett has already sunk about $90,000 into his Tesla.

So, practically, he can’t just dump it — no matter how much he dislikes Elon Musk.

“It is kind of an ethical struggle, right? Like, like, all things being equal, I wish I could, you know, just get rid of it sooner rather than later,” Brown said. “Where I've landed is to say, you know, I'm separating the artists from the art.”

He then added: “I'm not going to buy another one.”

This “artist versus the art” thing came up a lot in our conversations. Nearly everyone The Texas Newsroom talked to said they’ve dumped another product recently because of ethics concerns — like Chick-fil-A or Hobby Lobby if they’re liberal, Target or Bud Light if they’re conservative.

The Tesla debate, they said, is harder.

For some answers, I turned to Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke, psychologists on a KUT News podcast called Two Guys on Your Head.

“We live in a world right now where a lot of people feel like they have no agency,” Markman said. “I think one of the reasons why questions like, ‘Should I keep my Tesla?’ are plaguing people is because it's one of the few things that they have some agency, and so this becomes a proxy for all the other things that you wish you had more control.”

They said there’s really no other product like Tesla right now. A car is a major investment. So economically, it’s hard to dump on a whim. And it’s a public commodity, you consume it where everyone can see it.

There are some fixes for people suffering from deep ethical concerns about keeping their Tesla, the doctors said, like taking a serious moral inventory of the pros and cons of keeping the product. Then there’s people solely dealing with peer pressure.

“If you're just worried about what other people think, we'll give them an easy way to think something else,” Duke said. “The bumper stickers are cheap.”

You’ve probably seen them around town. Bumper stickers with sayings like “I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy.” They’ve become a popular way to indicate support for the brand and dislike for its CEO.

Matt Hiller, the guy who makes them, doesn’t have a Tesla. But he saw the market for the stickers emerge a couple years ago, when Musk’s conservative political leanings began to become clearer.

For a long time, Hiller said he averaged around 100 to 200 sticker sales a day.

Then, Musk went on stage at a Trump rally and threw his arm into the air in a gesture that was compared to a Nazi salute.

“I'm sending out 500 a day since the salute,” Hiller said.

People are ordering the stickers from all over the country and the world, he said; the day we spoke he had about 10 orders from Texas. With a day job, Hiller said he and his wife work until 1 or 2 a.m. sometimes to get all their daily orders ready to ship.

“My hopes are that this does not last forever,” Hiller said. “I would love it if these stickers just chilled, you know? And, then, if he wasn't so newsworthy, that would be great.”

It’s hard to know how — and even if — this kind of anti-Tesla sentiment is really hurting Tesla as a brand. Sales were reportedly down in some European markets this year. But Tesla is still the most popular EV brand in the world.

So, perhaps the Tesla fans are the quiet majority?

Hiller said he doesn’t make an “anti-Elon Cybertruck club” sticker. Asked why, he said, “because if someone has a Cybertruck, I am firmly of the belief that they're all in on Elon.”

Matt Holm loves his Cybertruck. In fact, he likes it so much he’s on his second. He also leads the Tesla Owners Club of Austin.

Holm said he is not aware of anyone dropping out of the club over Musk’s newfound political power. Sure, political discussions among members can get spicy once in a while.

But that’s not really what they are really there for: socializing with fellow Tesla and Cybertruck drivers who are invested in the product’s value and the company’s mission. The club hosts events and afterparties to celebrate new releases and factory expansions. Later this year, Holm said they’re taking a caravan down to the SpaceX launch side near Brownsville.

Holm himself sees Musk as a visionary: “I find him the most inspiring person that's got amazing business acumen and is not afraid of any doing, taking on any project, is arguably one of the best minds on the planet.”

West of Fort Worth, Gina Wood said she and her husband liked their first Tesla so much they bought another one. She doesn’t like Elon Musk and what he’s doing with DOGE, but also said she does not see driving one as a political statement.

Plus, they are concerned about the environment and see electric cars as “the way of the future,” Wood said.

“As far as these two Tesla drivers in Parker County, Texas: We're public school advocates, we are Democrats, we're liberal Democrats,” she added. “But we're still driving those cars.”

Then, a few days after we talked, Wood emailed with an update. She and her husband are now talking about opting for a new brand of electric vehicle. What changed their minds?

“Every day the Elon administration gets worse,” she wrote.

 

 

Oh, and the head of the Tesla Owners Club of Austin interview above who thinks Elmo's a genius?

Spoiler

image.thumb.png.fcc4f08ec2a02f1cea6f8d50a55bd6ab.png

 

 

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Posted
48 minutes ago, bolverk said:

Oh, and the head of the Tesla Owners Club of Austin interview above who thinks Elmo's a genius?

  Hide contents

image.thumb.png.fcc4f08ec2a02f1cea6f8d50a55bd6ab.png

I get trying to grow a beard to compensate for a receding hairline, but if you can't grow a proper beard, you're drawing attention to the fact that you just suck at growing hair.

If you asked me to play "name that occupation" based on just that photo, I'd have used card salesman first, realtor second.

 

 

Posted
46 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

I get trying to grow a beard to compensate for a receding hairline, but if you can't grow a proper beard, you're drawing attention to the fact that you just suck at growing hair.

If you asked me to play "name that occupation" based on just that photo, I'd have used card salesman first, realtor second.

 

 

Pastor, a close third 

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Posted
8 hours ago, Firemans4Horn said:

I don’t care if Tesla was giving out their cars for free. There isn’t any fucking way you would find me driving one of that piece of shit Nazi’s cars. I’d rather hitchhike. 

I mean, I would take as many as I could for free. 

 

 

But then I would have them self-drive off a cliff like a herd of lemmings. 

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Posted
10 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

If you asked me to play "name that occupation" based on just that photo, I'd have used card salesman first, realtor second.

 

 

Insurance agent whose wife is into swinging, but never brings him along.

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Posted (edited)
14 hours ago, InkaUtexas said:

Here we go.

 

This is going to be skirting CR level commentary, but ya know most of the time when one has a business owner who quite blatantly inserts themselves into profiteering from taxpayer dollars and has associations that might be a leeeetle sketchy when it comes to foreign enterprise and agencies and unfriendlies, handing the system responsible for air travel to that person seems not only stupid but massively so.

If I wanted to crater the airline industry so I could then buy them at discount and monopolize them even further, I'd be doing that too.

Edited by Mrs Whiggins
grammar
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Posted

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgd9v3r69qo

Tesla sales in January bucked European electric car sale trends, which grew by more than a third in the month, according to trade body Acea.
Instead, Tesla sales across the EU, EFTA and the UK fell more than 45%, and more than 50% in the EU alone.
It comes after Tesla sales fell last year for the first time in more than a decade as demand faltered and rivals gained pace.
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Posted
On 2/24/2025 at 5:23 PM, GhostOfTomJoad said:

I'll be out there with y'all. Except at 55 I still walk comically fast & my wife has to always tell me to slow down because her surgically repaired toe (thanks to Texas Ex Kris Stockton) can't keep up.

Kris is the man. It's not as on point as ole' Dick Chop, urologist to, well, everyone with a penis in Travis County for decades, but a UT kicker as a top podiatrist in town makes me smile nonetheless. 

Posted
On 2/23/2025 at 12:27 PM, NoName said:

IMG_0494.thumb.jpeg.72ce55d9e2004960c694b4389c0d01ba.jpeg

Every single response should have been this:

  • Redesigned org chart due to short notice personnel losses
  • Pushed out all service and product delivery schedules to account for unplanned manpower losses
  • Pushed out all service and product delivery schedules to account for unplanned budget shortfalls
  • Prepared and sent communications to all recipients of said services and products notifying them of the schedule delays and service reductions
  • Developed this list

Or alternatively:

  • Planned my country's 500th anniversary
  • Arranged my wedding
  • Murdered my wife
  • Framed Guilder for it
  • I'm swamped
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Posted
21 minutes ago, Guadaloopy said:

Every single response should have been this:

  • Redesigned org chart due to short notice personnel losses
  • Pushed out all service and product delivery schedules to account for unplanned manpower losses
  • Pushed out all service and product delivery schedules to account for unplanned budget shortfalls
  • Prepared and sent communications to all recipients of said services and products notifying them of the schedule delays and service reductions
  • Developed this list

Or alternatively:

  • Planned my country's 500th anniversary
  • Arranged my wedding
  • Murdered my wife
  • Framed Guilder for it
  • I'm swamped

What about "argued with a bunch of strangers on the internet about Tesla automated driving capabilities"?

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Posted
Just now, jimmyjazz said:

What about "argued with a bunch of strangers on the internet about Tesla automated driving capabilities"?

If I were still a federal employee, I would have definitely added that.

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Posted (edited)

president elmo leading the first cabinet meeting of the 47th president

kw9b25469jle1.jpeg

“We simply cannot sustain as a country $2 trillion deficits. Just the interest on the national debt now exceeds the Defense Department’s spending. … If this continues, the country will become de facto bankrupt,” Musk explained of DOGE’s work, adding that he’s received a lot of “flak” and death threats for it. Later Wednesday, Trump is scheduled to sign more executive orders.

source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/26/trump-presidency-news/

photo credit: Brian Snyder, Reuters

Edited by Captainant
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Posted (edited)
8 minutes ago, Captainant said:

president elmo leading the first cabinet meeting of the 47th president

kw9b25469jle1.jpeg

“We simply cannot sustain as a country $2 trillion deficits. Just the interest on the national debt now exceeds the Defense Department’s spending. … If this continues, the country will become de facto bankrupt,” Musk explained of DOGE’s work, adding that he’s received a lot of “flak” and death threats for it. Later Wednesday, Trump is scheduled to sign more executive orders.

source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/26/trump-presidency-news/

photo credit: Brian Snyder, Reuters

He slept they Drumpf.

Edited by Judge Roybeanbag
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Posted
1 hour ago, Captainant said:

president elmo leading the first cabinet meeting of the 47th president

kw9b25469jle1.jpeg

“We simply cannot sustain as a country $2 trillion deficits. Just the interest on the national debt now exceeds the Defense Department’s spending. … If this continues, the country will become de facto bankrupt,” Musk explained of DOGE’s work, adding that he’s received a lot of “flak” and death threats for it. Later Wednesday, Trump is scheduled to sign more executive orders.

source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/26/trump-presidency-news/

photo credit: Brian Snyder, Reuters

I fucking hate this remake of Blazing Saddles. 

 

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Posted
1 hour ago, Captainant said:

president elmo leading the first cabinet meeting of the 47th president

kw9b25469jle1.jpeg

“We simply cannot sustain as a country $2 trillion deficits. Just the interest on the national debt now exceeds the Defense Department’s spending. … If this continues, the country will become de facto bankrupt,” Musk explained of DOGE’s work, adding that he’s received a lot of “flak” and death threats for it. Later Wednesday, Trump is scheduled to sign more executive orders.

source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/26/trump-presidency-news/

photo credit: Brian Snyder, Reuters

Didn't the house R's just ram through a budget that will add an additional $2.5T

For fuck's sake

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/25/nx-s1-5308067/house-republicans-budget-vote-mike-johnson

Quote

The budget framework included $4.5 trillion in Trump tax cuts, and $2 trillion in spending cuts that would dramatically reshape the federal budget.

 

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