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

[Genco 3040]

1 hour ago, NoName said:

Casey Newton knows his shit

https://www.platformer.news/p/is-x-bracing-for-exodus

this is the relevant bit:
 

 

The OceanGate sub is less underwater than those stock grants at $54.20/share.

[Samson's Wig 3191]

On 7/23/2023 at 6:13 PM, Bozo_Casanova said:

 

The tech industry has always been a bit of joke, especially when it comes to the way the companies market their products or speak of their lofty intentions.  This statement might be one of the more ridiculous ones I've seen.  How does anyone read this bullshit and actually buy into it?   An entire industry built on empty air, it's just incredible.  Musk is simply the natural end result of a generation of complete and utter make-believe enterprises that magically made money anyway thanks to financiers realizing they can milk idiots and "founders" realizing that they just have to pull off the grift long enough to sell to a bigger idiot (or in more recent years take the grift large and convince the idiot public to invest directly).

Now we're seeing the industry start to look a lot like it did after the first wave of bullshit investments finally caught up with reality in the nineties.  Tons of layoffs are already happening, with software companies in particular finding out really quickly how fragile businesses that aren't really businesses can be.   Here's hoping we finally learn our lesson and start to build companies slowly based on a solid business strategy and a notion of existing beyond a fat payday in the near future when we pawn our bullshit off on someone else and retire to the hills.  A successful company requires more than a neat idea and a nerd with a penchant for circumlocution, and I sure as fuck hope we can figure this out as a society soon as these fucksticks will take us all down with them. 

[Samson's Wig 3191]

On 7/31/2023 at 1:16 PM, NoName said:

they couldn't be more cringe if they tried

oh wait. the 52 year old man CAN in fact be more cringe!

 

As the husband of a Canadian woman, and the father of half-Canadian children, it pains me every time that I'm reminded that this fucker is also half-Canadian through his mother.  An entire nation full of decent folk, but then you have this guy.  But then there's Bieber. Oh, and Drake.  Shit, and those Nickelback jags. I may need to rethink my position on this issue.

[Pam Cummings 9639]

17 minutes ago, Samson's Wig said:

An entire industry built on empty air, it's just incredible. 

Hilariously, you also just described carbon credits, or RECs, or whatever the fuck. The one reason that Musk is even fucking relevant.

Edited August 1, 2023 by Pam Cummings

[Chopper 17230]

2 minutes ago, Samson's Wig said:

As the husband of a Canadian woman, and the father of half-Canadian children, it pains me every time that I'm reminded that this fucker is also half-Canadian through his mother.  An entire nation full of decent folk, but then you have this guy.  But then there's Bieber. Oh, and Drake.  Shit, and those Nickelback jags. I may need to rethink my position on this issue.

My dad was in the music biz and I've had favorable feelings about Canada ever since the time I was a wee lad and Margaret Trudeau called him on some random Saturday because she wanted Brian Wilson's phone number.

[Samson's Wig 3191]

Just now, Pam Cummings said:

Hilariously, you also just described carbon credits.

Blue sky laws used to mean something.

[NoName 16351]

13 minutes ago, Samson's Wig said:

 

As the husband of a Canadian woman, and the father of half-Canadian children, it pains me every time that I'm reminded that this fucker is also half-Canadian through his mother.  An entire nation full of decent folk, but then you have this guy.  But then there's Bieber. Oh, and Drake.  Shit, and those Nickelback jags. I may need to rethink my position on this issue.

the good news is that people only think of him as south african.

[C-Man 27200]

19 minutes ago, Samson's Wig said:

 

As the husband of a Canadian woman, and the father of half-Canadian children, it pains me every time that I'm reminded that this fucker is also half-Canadian through his mother.  An entire nation full of decent folk, but then you have this guy.  But then there's Bieber. Oh, and Drake.  Shit, and those Nickelback jags. I may need to rethink my position on this issue.

Lot of Canadian fuckstick hockey players won't recognize Pride Night across the NHL indicates otherwise. They've got shits north of the border just like everybody else.

[Chewbacca 7769]

8 minutes ago, C-Man said:

Lot of Canadian fuckstick hockey players won't recognize Pride Night across the NHL indicates otherwise. They've got shits north of the border just like everybody else.

Yeah, don't forget their whole trucker thing during COVID.  They have as many idiots as we do.

[Samson's Wig 3191]

12 minutes ago, C-Man said:

Lot of Canadian fuckstick hockey players won't recognize Pride Night across the NHL indicates otherwise. They've got shits north of the border just like everybody else.

Of course.  I thought the tone and content of my post made it very clear that I know they have their fair share of dumbasses.  You may have stopped reading after the part you bolded, which would certainly explain the confusion.

Edited August 1, 2023 by Samson's Wig

[Chopper 17230]

3 hours ago, Genco said:

The OceanGate sub is less underwater than those stock grants at $54.20/share.

I don't know what commitments have been made as far as re-purchasing stock grants from current employees but if xelmo is paying $20 or $25 per share, that's well above what it would be on the open market, and the price will never be higher than it is now.

[Fudge Nuggets 19189]

Since the shares are no longer publically traded I bet Elmo is on the hook for the full amount.

[Genco 3040]

7 hours ago, Chopper said:

I don't know what commitments have been made as far as re-purchasing stock grants from current employees but if xelmo is paying $20 or $25 per share, that's well above what it would be on the open market, and the price will never be higher than it is now.

 

3 hours ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

Since the shares are no longer publically traded I bet Elmo is on the hook for the full amount.

There's not enough information to know exactly how their equity program works. The link above says the grants are based on a $54.20 share price ($44 billion valuation). The stock grants that were announced in March had a valuation of ~$20 billion. (https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitter-offers-new-equity-grants-to-staff-938ee7f8).

If the program functions like a typical option grant and the strike price is $54.20, then yeah, the grants are worthless. They'd be worthless at a strike price of $20/share. If the program is simply granting shares to the employees with no strike price (anything above $0.00 would be in-the-money to the employees) AND Elon has committed to repurchasing the grants at some arbitrary price as a liquidity event down the road, then that would be economically relevant to the remaining employees and rather generous. That sounds very on brand for Elon./sarcasm

[Pods 7551]

Seems there might be an Xodus soon. 

[Fudge Nuggets 19189]

Imagine being such a dumbass that you stuck around for the equity stock grants back in March after it was pretty fucking clear Elmo was running the company straight into the shitter.

Edited August 2, 2023 by Fudge Nuggets

[Buzzrock 14903]

He built the first EV that people actually wanted to buy, advanced private space exploration, and killed a huge piece of social media. Where are they putting the statue?

[NoName 16351]

1 hour ago, Buzzrock said:

He built the first EV that people actually wanted to buy, advanced private space exploration, and killed a huge piece of social media. Where are they putting the statue?

[NoName 16351]

Verge: Elon Musk wants a second chance to fail at X

https://www.theverge.com/23814989/elon-musk-banking-x-paypal

you can click through but some of the relevant/interesting parts:

Quote

There is also a second thing standing in the way of the super app here in the US: the app stores. Both Google and Apple take cuts of any digital transactions, which is why you can buy cat litter from your Amazon app but not an ebook. The cooperation of both of those app stores would be crucial for any super app’s success, and it’s not guaranteed because such a super app is potentially a competitor to Google Pay and Apple Pay. “But Liz,” you might say, “isn’t that an antitrust issue?” Yes, my love, it is — and given what I have seen so far with respect to app store antitrust cases, I don’t like the odds for any super app challenger.

this is the crux of the issue:

+

Quote

Banking is highly regulated, and it’s highly regulated for a reason, as cryptocurrency enthusiasts have been discovering the hard way. Leave aside the technical questions of building a super app — the technical part’s comparatively easy. The hard part is social! Finance is built on a foundation of trust. That’s what those regulations are for! Now take a look at Musk’s behavior with respect to regulations in general and, at Twitter, with respect to the social stuff. Ask yourself, and be honest: is this kind of man someone you trust with your money?

 

 

 

 

[atomheartbevo 89632]

https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/twitter-blue

Quote

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[wildcat09 29348]

On 8/1/2023 at 12:37 PM, Brisketexan said:

Perfect response.  Lawyer-ese for "skin that smokewagon."

I dunno. Yeah, the typical lawyer response should be "lemme go point-by-point why all your claims are legally bullshit." But when dealing with Elon/his counsel? I think it might be more effective to simply respond with a "we thought you would like to know that someone is signing your name to stupid letters" response.  

[C-Man 27200]

3 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/twitter-blue

 

[elfenix 34228]

do i even want to know?

 

[Pig Bellmont 8712]

5 hours ago, wildcat09 said:

I dunno. Yeah, the typical lawyer response should be "lemme go point-by-point why all your claims are legally bullshit." But when dealing with Elon/his counsel? I think it might be more effective to simply respond with a "we thought you would like to know that someone is signing your name to stupid letters" response.  

I choose to put dumb threatening letters in the trash. Why engage in a letter writing campaign? Let them follow through on their bullshit and see

[NoName 16351]

New Yorker Cartoon gets behind the scenes look at the Twitter rebranding:

 

[atomheartbevo 89632]

[Captainant 27644]

56 minutes ago, NoName said:

New Yorker Cartoon gets behind the scenes look at the Twitter rebranding:

 

It's exactly like that opening scene from Glass Onion with the idiot owner faxing random shit it demanding they make it work

[choripan 790]

A.

An A+ would have required them to work in an "and make sure X gon give it to ya"

['stache 21801]

I just noticed that embedded sheeeeeits have the X logo in the upper right hand corner looking like a close button. I can absolutely guarantee you that a legitimate percentage of clicks to the x website are people instinctively trying to close out the box and ended up in elons world of crazy. 

[Herpa Derpa 6125]

20 hours ago, elfenix said:

do i even want to know?

 

I'm more intrigued by Jew Mexico. Is there a large Hassidic community in Taos previously unknown to me?

[Brisketexan 105086]

5 minutes ago, Herpa Derpa said:

I'm more intrigued by Jew Mexico. Is there a large Hassidic community in Taos previously unknown to me?

You ain't lived till you've had red chile cabbage rolls.

[wood 11225]

8 hours ago, NoName said:

New Yorker Cartoon gets behind the scenes look at the Twitter rebranding:

 

Wow. Not sure I've ever seen anything more perfect on the internet ... outside of Thujone's body of work, anyway.

[Brisketexan 105086]

2 minutes ago, wood said:

Wow. Not sure I've ever seen anything more perfect on the internet ... outside of Thujone's body of work, anyway.

I mean, we live in an era where satire is functionally indistinguishable from reality, so....yeah, this checks out.  It makes me laugh.

Except it might also be real.

It is simultaneously funny satire and also an accurate reflection of reality.  Elon truly is Schrödinger's asshole.

[wood 11225]

21 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

I mean, we live in an era where satire is functionally indistinguishable from reality, so....yeah, this checks out.  It makes me laugh.

Except it might also be real.

It is simultaneously funny satire and also an accurate reflection of reality.  Elon truly is Schrödinger's asshole.

Yep. It's funny 'cuz it's true.

[elfenix 34228]

38 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

You ain't lived till you've had red chile cabbage rolls.

[dcbc 14467]

1 hour ago, wood said:

Wow. Not sure I've ever seen anything more perfect on the internet ... outside of Thujone's body of work, anyway.

The weirdly placed LOL emojis after "or you're fired" are the Chef's Kiss."

Edited August 3, 2023 by dcbc

[F250 28766]

10 hours ago, NoName said:

New Yorker Cartoon gets behind the scenes look at the Twitter rebranding:

 

The required features of Winamp cracked me up.

[atomheartbevo 89632]

1 hour ago, F250 said:

The required features of Winamp cracked me up.

Just need to ask the dev to make it whip the llama's ass.

[atomheartbevo 89632]

https://www.semafor.com/article/08/03/2023/elon-musks-plan-to-own-the-meme-stocks

Quote

The company formerly known as Twitter is seeking a financial-data giant to build a trading hub inside the app, according to a request for plans viewed by Semafor and people familiar with the matter.

“Real-time information is a powerful force, especially in the world of investing,” reads the request, which was sent to big providers in recent weeks asking for proposals for financial content, real-time stock data, and other features.

Quote

What X is offering: the ability to reach “hundreds of millions of highly-qualified users.” What it isn’t: any compensation. The request tells interested bidders to say how much money they’ll commit to the project themselves. It isn’t clear which firms, if any, submitted proposals, which were due last week.

Quote

Owner Elon Musk has said he sees X as the first Western super-app, similar to WeChat in China, Gojek in Indonesia, Grab in Singapore, and Gozem in Africa, which offer a mix of consumer services such as food delivery, ride-hailing, payments, investing, and even identity authentication in a single app.

“You basically live on WeChat in China,” Musk said at a company town hall last year. A Swiss army knife set of tools could boost the app’s users from 237 million to at least a billion, he said.

Quote

“Twitter’s real-time, public platform has become the heartbeat of the financial community,” the request for proposals reads.

There was a moment when that was true, or at least sort of true. In the late 2010s, Twitter feeds held real financial value as a gauge of public sentiment and a source for breaking news. In 2018, Bloomberg — the epitome of the walled-garden, proprietary model — started integrating tweets into a feed for algorithmic traders.

Quote

And that assumes that the West even needs a super-app, or that finance needs to be a big part of it. Developing economies where that model has worked tend not to have robust, trusted banking systems. Their financial behaviors were formed in a mobile-first, decentralized world.

In other words, they skipped the part where X would have to retrain consumers and unseat banks’ own apps, which are quite good, and credit-card networks, which are quite entrenched.

Quote

To the extent anyone can pull it off, my money has always been on Amazon, which is pretty good at most everything it does, has a natural tie-in to people’s spending habits, and is established in payments. (If you think of unused gift cards as deposits, it’s the 230th largest U.S. bank.)

Quote

After publication, Musk tweeted: “No work is being done on this to the best of my knowledge.”

 

[NoName 16351]

5 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

 

so it actually will go live on Monday?

[Brisketexan 105086]

2 hours ago, NoName said:

so it actually will go live on Monday?

[Captain Ron 12872]

Once the platform is live...

 

 

[F250 28766]

It seems the new name now requires an explanation in articles and has entered "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince" phase.

[hayden_horn 11362]

11 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

https://www.semafor.com/article/08/03/2023/elon-musks-plan-to-own-the-meme-stocks

 

that's real isn't it. fucking christ

[Francisco 2.0 32389]

The check is in the mail!

 

https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/4/23820859/x-twitter-ad-sharing-payment-unpaid-delay-elon-musk

 

Quote

In news that isn’t very surprising given the recent history of Twitter, which Elon Musk is currently rebranding to X, the company won’t be able to make some promised payments on time. The X Support account says that because its “Ads Revenue Sharing” program is so popular, “We need a bit more time to review everything for the next payout and aim to get all eligible accounts paid as soon as possible.”

 

 

 

Quote

From the linked support page:

August 4, 2023 update: The volume of people signing up for revenue sharing has exceeded our expectations. We previously said that payments would occur the week of July 31st. We need a bit more time to review everything for the next payout and hope to get all eligible accounts paid as soon as possible.

Thank you for your patience!

 

Quote

In between replies to parodies of his own account, tweets about the SpaceX Starship, The Boring Company, and other posts, Elon Musk tweeted a few times about the delay. 

 

 

 

Quote

Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino has not tweeted publicly about the delay.

He replied to one comment claiming a lot of people are interested, saying, “Which is great! They should be,” and later claimed that due to the overwhelming interest (without attaching numbers), payments would “take a few more days to process.”

 

Spoiler

That’s not exactly what you’d want to hear from a program touting itself as “part of our effort to help people earn a living directly on X,” and the key to Elon Musk’s X dreamfor an app that handles banking, stock trading, and other vital financial features. Musk announced the revenue-sharing plan in February, and the company sent out the first round of payments for eligible accounts (with paid verification via Twitter Blue or Verified organizations, 15 million “organic” impressions in the last three months, and at least 500 followers) a couple of weeks ago before opening up registration to more people.

However, hearing that payments aren’t arriving is familiar news to a number of people and organizations involved with X / Twitter since Musk’s takeover. That includes landlords of buildings used by Twitter in San Francisco and London or former employees of Twitter Africawho complain they were “ghosted” and left without promised severance payments.

The list also features several former employees that filed a lawsuit against the company in May, saying “Twitter’s new leadership deliberately, specifically, and repeatedly announced their intentions to breach contracts, violate laws, and otherwise ignore their legal obligations,” while leaving rent, vendors, and severance unpaid.

A Wall Street Journal article in February counted nine lawsuits covering $14 million in unpaid bills at the time.

In July, Musk tweeted about Twitter / X’s financial situation, saying, “We’re still negative cash flow, due to ~50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load.”

But hey, Twitter’s unpaid Google Cloud bill reportedly got paid eventually, so maybe everyone who shelled out $8 (or $84 annually) in the hope of cashing in on Elon’s revenue sharing will get paid too — and soon.

 

 

[hayden_horn 11362]

when the payments take too long to process, that means you don't have the money. 

it's so funny how it's the same the world over with people in bad debt. like @Francisco 2.0 says, the check is in the mail!

my dad always cracked that joke. 

hell, knowing how to float a weekend check used to be a fucking art form.

we all see you, elon. lol.

[Hermanator 7033]

Anybody ever look at all this shit then sit back with a drink in hand and wonder "was the Unabomber right after all?"

[Francisco 2.0 32389]

The check is still in the mail, but look!  We changed the name again!

 

 

 

 

[Pods 7551]

How much longer until they rename the homepage The Eagle's Nest, or Kehlsteinhaus ?

[ConferenceRoom 6141]

2 hours ago, Hermanator said:

Anybody ever look at all this shit then sit back with a drink in hand and wonder "was the Unabomber right after all?"

He wasn’t wrong, he was just an asshole. 

[atomheartbevo 89632]

1 hour ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

The check is still in the mail, but look!  We changed the name again!

Wonder who they stole the premium handle from.

4 hours ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

August 4, 2023 update: The volume of people signing up for revenue sharing has exceeded our expectations. We previously said that payments would occur the week of July 31st. We need a bit more time to review everything for the next payout and hope to get all eligible accounts paid as soon as possible.

Thank you for your patience!

They’re full of shit.  Content creators typically get paid for a month 30-60 days after the end of said month, and some sudden influx is not going to cause them to miss a payment - the people getting paid at the end of July, they knew how much they were paying them on July 1st.