Elon Musk: Officially a fraud and piece of shit. Official or unofficial war criminal?

[atomheartbevo 89626]

1 hour ago, Blotto said:

 I'm sure they will bury the true number in their financials and never break it out, but I would love to know how much Tesla is spending on maintenance/warranty claims. The true margins on that  shit-bucket must be horrendous.

I'd like to know how much money they thought they were saving by not including spare tires or even designing the CT to have a spare tire without filling up the "bed" versus people having to get towed.

And while I know the CT buyers are all Musk fanbois or influencers looking for clicks, but those whose CT purchases substantially eat into their bank accounts probably have to have a few second thoughts fairly often.

 

[BearMace 2194]

I get there are a few idiots who will claim that they actually think the cyber truck looks cool, and maybe they really do think that during the day, but there is no way you can convince me anybody actually think that piece of shit actually looks good at night with lights shining on it and you can see all the ripples in the wavy ass sheet metal and I swear you can watch it flex with bumps in the road. 

[Captain Ron 12868]

1 hour ago, Ted Lange said:

 

 

 

[HenryJames 66038]

SpaceX repeatedly polluted waters in Texas, TCEQ, EPA found (cnbc.com)

[Chopper 17230]

 

10 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

SpaceX repeatedly polluted waters in Texas, TCEQ, EPA found (cnbc.com)

 

https://www.popsci.com/science/spacex-mercury-water-pollution/

Quote

Monday’s news came the same day as the FAA’s announcement that it was indefinitely postponing a series of four public environmental impact assessment meetings. The four scheduled events were focused on Starship’s future test launches at SpaceX’s spaceport near Boca Chica, Texas. SpaceX hoped to receive approval to increase its total number of Starship tests there to 25 annual launches.

[Colonel Sanders 1336]

1 hour ago, Ted Lange said:

 

 

Wouldn't this tank Truth Social and DJT stock?   Not that djt shouldn't be near zero anyway, but still seems like a bad financial move for him to go back on Twitter. 

[Ted Lange 16084]

Musk will just buy it from him at an inflated price.

[Chopper 17230]

50 minutes ago, Colonel Sanders said:

Wouldn't this tank Truth Social and DJT stock?   Not that djt shouldn't be near zero anyway, but still seems like a bad financial move for him to go back on Twitter. 

There's a thing about Truth Social stock. Oddly nobody who's invested in it cares if the company is the least bit profitable. Because it's propped up by supporters and foreign investors, it's worth $5 billion on almost no revenue and $16 million (last quarter) losses.

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/trump-media-says-its-second-quarter-revenue-plunged-30-to-under-900000/

 

Edited August 12 by Chopper

[C-Man 27187]

Elon trying to put his thumb on the 2024 election: https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/inside-elon-musks-hands-on-push-to-win-800-000-voters-for-trump-0a7d55b3

Quote

 

Beginning in the spring, Elon Musk quietly blocked out an hour on Fridays for a new pursuit: national politics. 

In weekly meetings, consultants and vendors for a super political-action committee updated him on their progress toward the discussed goal of turning out 800,000 people to vote for Donald Trump in battleground states. They proposed a budget of about $160 million they would need for the task, most of it to come from Musk himself, and talked about raising an army of more than 6,000 canvassers and other workers, according to people familiar with the matter.

Then, less than three months after launching the effort, Musk signed off on firing most of the vendors, only for the super PAC to rehire one of them after the resulting chaos. He also replaced the Texas-based advisers who helped him get the group off the ground with veterans of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s failed presidential bid.

America PAC, Musk’s first major foray into presidential politics, is less pioneering than, say, putting people on Mars or implanting microchips in their brains. But the billionaire’s full-throated support for Trump and the GOP has ignited other prominent donors. He has also received the gratitude of the Republican presidential nominee, who faces a newly energized opponent in Vice President Kamala Harris.

Musk is tackling the election effort in his signature hands-on, chaos-be-damned style, echoing his 2022 takeover of Twitter and early efforts to meet Tesla’s production goals. Whether he and the team he has assembled succeed could be an important part of the election puzzle, and some Republican political operatives said they fear the early stumbles could be costly for the Trump campaign.

The recent overhaul means America PAC, formed in May, is resetting about a month before early voting starts and fewer than 90 days before the presidential election. 

But the super PAC’s new leadership is confident it can execute the group’s mandate and the Trump camp has expressed support for the recent changes. “The New Program 100% better than the old gang. Solidly support this effort!” Chris LaCivita, a senior Trump adviser, posted on X last month.

Musk is scheduled to interview Trump on X on Monday night. 

Texas roots

Richard Weekley in a screen grab taken from a video published on the Texans for Lawsuit Reform YouTube channel.

Musk started America PAC with the help of Richard Weekley, a Texas real-estate developer and Republican donor who had steered an earlier super PAC focused on voter registration in the Lone Star state, according to people familiar with the matter.

Another early adviser was Denis Calabrese, a Republican consultant who is Weekley’s longtime collaborator, the people said.

Weekley and Calabrese guided Musk toward In Field Strategies, a national political canvassing group, to be the PAC’s boots on the ground, and Raconteur Media to handle its digital marketing, including its website, texting campaigns and voter mailings. They also recruited Michael Baselice, an Austin-based pollster. 

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In mid-April, Musk met with the firms and advisers in Texas to share his vision for the PAC and ask for a proposed budget, according to people familiar with the meeting. He said he wanted to create a red wave of voters.

The political operatives described an estimated 800,000 low-propensity voters who could be nudged into getting to the polls and said that the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee needed a better ground game, the people said. Musk also wanted the consultants to convince unregistered voters in the swing states to register. 

Joe Lonsdale, Palantir Technologies co-founder and Musk ally. PHOTO: BOB DAEMMRICH/ZUMA PRESS

The subsequent weekly Friday meetings were businesslike. Musk said more than once that “bad news must be repeated before good news,” according to people familiar with his comment. He wanted details: What was the script for the door-knockers? Could they record some of the interactions? 

Musk initially didn’t want to be seen as the face of the group, according to people familiar with the matter.

Palantir Technologies co-founder Joe Lonsdale, a longtime Musk ally who was among the first to join with Musk on the PAC, told potential donors that they needed to give only enough to help the group cover initial expenses after which a mystery donor—who turned out to be Musk—would finance the rest, said people familiar with the conversations. 

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Several other associates of Musk, including Antonio Gracias, a former Tesla director and current SpaceX board member, investor Kenneth Howery, and Sequoia Capital partners Shaun Maguire and Doug Leone, cut checks of $500,000 or $1 million, according to Federal Election Commission records. 

Musk’s involvement in the PAC came to light on July 12. Bloomberg reported that Musk donated an unknown amount to the PAC.

Former Tesla director and current SpaceX board member Antonio Gracias. PHOTO: EVA MARIE UZCATEGUI/BLOOMBERG NEWS

The next day, Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pa. After the shooting, Musk posted on X, “I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” publicly formalizing his support for the former president. 

The announcement was heartily embraced by the Trump camp. “I love Elon Musk! He endorsed me. He’s great,” Trump said in July and August fundraising emails.

But the extent of Musk’s commitment to getting Trump elected was kept under wraps. Musk had emphasized to the group his desire for privacy, according to people familiar with the super PAC. He was angered by a Wall Street Journal report a couple of days after his endorsement that revealed that he told others he had plans to commit around $45 million a month to the group, the people said. He later said on X that he is donating at a lower level. 

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Former DeSantis team takes over

By mid-July, the PAC had several new faces, including Generra Peck and Phil Cox, veterans of the presidential campaign and super PAC that supported DeSantis, who bowed out of the race in January.

Their relationship with Musk is traced to DeSantis’s successful 2022 gubernatorial re-election campaign. Peck, DeSantis’s campaign manager, had courted the billionaire’s support. Cox was a senior adviser to the campaign. Peck also managed DeSantis’s presidential campaign and helped map out a super PAC called Never Back Down, set up in large part to focus on field operations.

But the campaign burned through cash quickly, forcing Never Back Down to divert resources to cover the campaign on the airwaves, according to former DeSantis campaign and PAC officials. DeSantis replaced Peck as his campaign manager in August 2023. 

Cox, who is now a business partner of Peck, was a key adviser to the DeSantis super PAC, ultimately overseeing its budget, field and turnout operation. 

Soon after Cox and Peck arrived at America PAC, most of the group’s vendors received an email notifying them that they were fired and thanking them for their efforts.

Elon Musk initially didn’t want to be seen as the face of the group, according to people familiar with the matter. PHOTO: SAMUEL CORUM/BLOOMBERG NEWS

Weekley, the Texas businessman, and his political strategist Calabrese, left along with the canvassing and digital firms—In Field Strategies and Raconteur Media—that represented the lion’s share of the super PAC’s spending. 

In Field Strategies told the group’s leadership that it had helped register more than 4,000 people, knocked on 725,000 doors, had 150,000 substantive conversations with prospective voters and got 26,000 absentee commitments, according to people familiar with data it provided to the PAC.

Raconteur Media, meanwhile, had compiled voter registration forms for 8,500 people from swing states who provided their information on the PAC website, these people said.

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The committee paid In Field and Raconteur Media a total of about $20 million from June 12 to July 19, according to Federal Election Commission filings. 

The New York Times earlier reported the involvement of the former DeSantis team and that In Field was being replaced.  

Calabrese and Raconteur Media have a controversial history of working together, according to separate lawsuits filed by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation against Calabrese and Raconteur Media. Calabrese is the former president of the foundation, which was co-founded by John Arnold, a former energy trader and hedge-fund manager who has become a prominent Houston philanthropist along with his wife. 

The lawsuits alleged that after being alerted by federal authorities to possible wrongdoing, the foundation discovered that Calabrese hired Raconteur Media and other vendors at inflated prices and that they in turn paid him millions of dollars in kickbacks.

Calabrese pleaded guilty to tax evasion in 2019 and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He was later ordered to pay more than $8 million in damages as a result of the Arnolds’ civil suit and was released from the judgment after paying back the foundation. The Arnolds’ lawsuit against Raconteur Media was settled out of court. 

Not hyperpartisan, Musk says

Musk endorsed Donald Trump after the former president survived an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania. PHOTO: REBECCA DROKE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

Musk discussed founding America PAC in a July 22 interview with psychologist and author Jordan Peterson. Musk said he created the committee after concluding that the Republican Party was more aligned with his beliefs in meritocracy and free speech than the Democratic Party. 

“It’s not meant to be sort of a hyperpartisan PAC,” Musk told Peterson. “The intent is to promote the principles that made America great in the first place.” 

The group’s filings with the Federal Election Commission state that its expenditures are in support of the Trump campaign.

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America PAC has replaced In Field strategies with firms that include Blitz Canvassing, which is part of communications and public affairs company GP3 Partners, according to people familiar with the move. 

Push Digital, based in Charleston, S.C., and IMGE, also part of GP3 Partners, took over from Raconteur Media, said the people. Cox is the founder of GP3 Partners and chairman of IMGE, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Since the former vendors were fired, the PAC’s advertisements on Facebook and Instagram have stopped running. Social-media accounts for the PAC haven’t been updated since July 17. 

The turnover at the PAC was followed by online glitches and complaints from election officials in swing states that the website was collecting personal info without helping people register to vote.

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A Journal review found that people from the swing states were asked for personal information and then directed to a page asking to fill in yet another form. But broken code on the page prevented the form from appearing in all cases except for visitors from North Carolina. 

The website draws people in with digital ads. America PAC spent $899,458 on Facebook and Instagram ads between July 8 and July 23, according to data from Meta Platforms’s Ad Library.

Some ads feature a photo taken immediately after the assassination attempt on Trump. Those ads started running on July 16, three days after the shooting.

The website was never meant to register voters online, said people familiar with the website. In swing states, information provided by website visitors is used by the PAC to fill out voter registration forms, which are then supposed to be mailed to the prospective voters to sign and drop back in the mail. But Raconteur Media was fired before it mailed the 8,500 voter registration forms it had compiled. 

Earlier this month, America PAC rehired Raconteur Media to mail out voter registration forms and patch up the website.

 

 

[Sawbonz 27538]

9 minutes ago, C-Man said:

Elon trying to put his thumb on the 2024 election: https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/inside-elon-musks-hands-on-push-to-win-800-000-voters-for-trump-0a7d55b3

 

This is just stupid. Trump is at his ceiling: the key for him is getting these dumbfucks to the polls. 
 

Musk is as polarizing as trump, and at this point the Venn diagram of Trump supporters and Musk supporters approaches a circle

[Nice Guy Eddie 13508]

27 minutes ago, Chopper said:

There's a thing about Truth Social stock. Oddly nobody who's invested in it cares if the company is the least bit profitable. Because it's propped up by supporters and foreign investors, it's worth $5 billion on almost no revenue and $16 million (last quarter) losses.

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/trump-media-says-its-second-quarter-revenue-plunged-30-to-under-900000/

 

In the spirit of generosity, Truth Social earns $4m in revenue per year. A few google searches tell me that a high traffic convenience store earns between $2 and $5m in revenue per year. As a reminder, Truth Social has a market cap of $5B.

Then again, the Silicon Valley tv show on HBO taught us that you want to be pre-revenue. Trump screwed up by building a site that earns revenue. 

[HenryJames 66038]

[mdmost 42999]

MIND VIRUS! BINGO!

[atomheartbevo 89626]

5 minutes ago, mdmost said:

MIND VIRUS! BINGO!

All you have to do is tweet out quotes that sound like something out of Dune, and Elmo will find them interesting.

20 minutes ago, Sawbonz said:

Musk is as polarizing as trump, and at this point the Venn diagram of Trump supporters and Musk supporters approaches a circle

Musk's PAC will do about as well as his CyberTruck.

[topochico 1049]

I hear Moderna and Pfizer are already working on a Mind Virus mRNA vaccine. 

[Parliament 14240]

Will it have in board 5G?

[MrBig 5381]

45 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

[Firemans4Horn 18034]

lol, Twitter is such a piece of shit. Their servers must be corrupted by the woke mind virus. 

[Mittens 8256]

 

[Goredho 17395]

3 hours ago, Chopper said:

There's a thing about Truth Social stock. Oddly nobody who's invested in it cares if the company is the least bit profitable. Because it's propped up by supporters and foreign investors, it's worth $5 billion on almost no revenue and $16 million (last quarter) losses.

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/trump-media-says-its-second-quarter-revenue-plunged-30-to-under-900000/

 

A society supporting a 5 billion valuation to a company largely aimed at upending that society is pretty goddammed funny.  Well played, simulation.

Go ahead and tell me again how capitalism is never wrong.

[Captain Ron 12868]

1 hour ago, Firemans4Horn said:

lol, Twitter is such a piece of shit. Their servers must be corrupted by the woke mind virus. 

Did he really go with “DDOS attack?” Seriously? 

[Mittens 8256]

 

[Francisco 2.0 32386]

https://www.theautopian.com/cybertrucks-are-piling-up-as-tesla-struggles-to-move-thousands-of-expensive-trucks/

 

Quote

There was great fanfare when deliveries of the Tesla Cybertruck finally began in earnest in late 2023. Influencers and die-hard fans fought for the first trucks off the line, while flippers made out big by reselling in the early days. However, it appears demand may have cooled significantly based on new photos out of Texas.

These photos come to us from Zerin Dube, auto writer and photographer extraordinaire. He regularly finds himself passing Tesla’s delivery center down in Houston, and he’s spotted something odd of late. For some reason, there are a ton of Cybertrucks just sitting around—and the mass seems to be growing at a rapid rate.

 

Quote

We’re not just talking about a parking lot full of trucks that are waiting for eager buyers. The Cybertrucks long ago spilled over onto the surrounding bare land. Some have been sitting long enough that they have grass growing up around the tires. It begs the question—why is Tesla storing its prime stock in this way?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gofuckyourself 8204]

They're not storing them.

They all got stuck off-roading.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13508]

5 minutes ago, gofuckyourself said:

They're not storing them.

They all got stuck off-roading.

To be fair, those weeds look really tall.

[JMFP 1120]

6 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

I'd like to know how much money they thought they were saving by not including spare tires or even designing the CT to have a spare tire without filling up the "bed" versus people having to get towed.

And while I know the CT buyers are all Musk fanbois or influencers looking for clicks, but those whose CT purchases substantially eat into their bank accounts probably have to have a few second thoughts fairly often.

 

I assumed it was a weight saving decision like the wiring. Having less wires by using their shitty one wire wiring harness design...  And then using a 48v system vs a 12v system means less amps and smaller wire...Plus the thin ass aluminum and plastic frame/subframe.  I think if they would have actually built a sturdy truck in Elon's image it would have weighed over 5 metric fucktons and been F-450 class instead of F-250. 

[Chopper 17230]

1 hour ago, Mittens said:

[WelfareBuysMyWeed 5388]

35 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

https://www.theautopian.com/cybertrucks-are-piling-up-as-tesla-struggles-to-move-thousands-of-expensive-trucks/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://learnopengl.com/Advanced-OpenGL/Instancing

[Brian Fantana 6680]

4 hours ago, Captain Ron said:

Did he really go with “DDOS attack?” Seriously? 

It's actually hilarious because Twitter can't handle this kind of traffic so they're effectively getting DDoS'd either way. I'd love to see what load testing they tried to do earlier, if it even happened.

[atomheartbevo 89626]

I just realized why he wore the bomber jacket at that interview where he told advertisers to fuck off.

Because Steve Jobs had a bomber jacket.

And he can buy the original jacket if he was so inclined, although I don't think it would fit him very well.

https://www.rrauction.com/auctions/lot-detail/349028906984005-steve-jobs-middle-finger-to-ibm-leather-bomber-jacket/?cat=3

[Captainant 27633]

5 hours ago, Brian Fantana said:

It's actually hilarious because Twitter can't handle this kind of traffic so they're effectively getting DDoS'd either way. I'd love to see what load testing they tried to do earlier, if it even happened.

Its too bad all the folks who were CERTAIN firing all the engineers wouldn't have any bad effects aren't posting much on this thread anymore. Very fine people don't seem to like to read about elmos antics like they used to

[mdmost 42999]

It appears Elon has started using the same principle as the person he tried to interview

[atomheartbevo 89626]

15 hours ago, Chopper said:

 

https://www.popsci.com/science/spacex-mercury-water-pollution/

Oh and if anybody wants to know about why he is suddenly willing to dump tens of millions of dollars into a political campaign and drive more people away from twitter at the same time, here’s your answer.  If he can help a certain person win, the FAA and EPA will not be problems   

 

[Storm the Field 5293]

Pretty accurate recap of the Trump interview last night:

 

[DigglerontheHoof 21177]

10 minutes ago, Storm the Field said:

Pretty accurate recap of the Trump interview last night:

 

Should read "blahth, blahth, blahth....

[immamac 42835]

I thought the interview was pretty lame and tame for the first 30 minutes. Then it started to be like man this is just a sad old man clinging to the fantasy of power. 

[Fastbreak 3981]

Did Elon ask him why he wants to get rid of electric cars?

[Nice Guy Eddie 13508]

3 minutes ago, Fastbreak said:

Did Elon ask him why he wants to get rid of electric cars?

Elon gets Trump elected, Trump will buy millions of Teslas for the govt, and give NASA to Elon.

[wildcat09 29345]

Elon doesn't care about the environment any more. His new superhero cause is staving off civilizational collapse by winning the race war. 

[Pam Cummings 9639]

14 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Elon gets Trump elected, Trump will buy millions of Teslas for the govt, and give NASA to Elon.

Lmao sure. Until some option more convenient for Trump emerges, and he does that instead, leaving old Elon high and dry.

[Fastbreak 3981]

Elon doesn't care about the environment any more. His new superhero cause is staving off civilizational collapse by winning the race war. 

The race war he helped to brew

[Deej 76755]

39 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

Elon doesn't care about the environment any more. His new superhero cause is staving off civilizational collapse by winning the race war. 

[atomheartbevo 89626]

1 hour ago, Storm the Field said:

Pretty accurate recap of the Trump interview last night:

Here’s a better recap:

Ketamine interviews Adderall.

[Captain Ron 12868]

[atomheartbevo 89626]

I know a lot don’t like him, but I appreciate his trolling

 

[4th&Five 41511]

 

[HenryJames 66038]

[aggie08 21487]

What? A judge actually recusing himself after it's discovered that he has a conflict of interest? Is that even legal? Certainly not at the Supreme Court level.

[Chopper 17230]

11 hours ago, Brian Fantana said:

It's actually hilarious because Twitter can't handle this kind of traffic so they're effectively getting DDoS'd either way. I'd love to see what load testing they tried to do earlier, if it even happened.

To summarize a reporter: The intvw drew not even as much traffic as on a regular weekday morning (their busies time). There was a 10 percent spike from normal evening traffic on the site.

3 hours ago, wildcat09 said:

Elon doesn't care about the environment any more. His new superhero cause is staving off civilizational collapse by winning the race war. 

Interesting. "Kill the people. Destroy the environment," Elon said.

[Brian Fantana 6680]

1 minute ago, Chopper said:

To summarize a reporter: The intvw drew not even as much traffic as on a regular weekday morning (their busies time). There was a 10 percent spike from normal evening traffic on the site.

This is kind of misleading. X people browsing twitter is quite different from the same number of people trying to simultaneously establish a connection with a stream.

Either way, it's the kind of load balancing problem that was solved many years ago and it's hilarious to see them consistently fail at it.