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

[animetobacco 155]

2 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

have you, i dunno, looked at what they reported? took me less than three minutes to find the relevant information. i wonder why you didn't bother going to a primary source in order to completely misrepresent something. 

here. i'll even link to up

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1318605/000095017023033872/tsla-20230630.htm

Are you suggesting that Tesla did not have a 20% increase in profit in Q2?

Are you suggesting that you read the 10-Q and came to a different conclusion?

Are you suggesting that not only do you know better than multiple main stream financial writers and beats, but that we should eschew that "secondhand" reporting and go to EDGAR, SEC, 10-Q, 10-K, etc. documentation and create our own analysis for ourselves?

Can you clearly state what it is you are saying? Example: "WSJ and the other links posted on here are wrong, Tesla profit did not go up 20% in Q2 and this is shown on the 10-Q at XYZ" because I'm missing your point.

[hayden_horn 11360]

3 minutes ago, animetobacco said:

Are you suggesting that Tesla did not have a 20% increase in profit in Q2?

Are you suggesting that you read the 10-Q and came to a different conclusion?

Are you suggesting that not only do you know better than multiple main stream financial writers and beats, but that we should eschew that "secondhand" reporting and go to EDGAR, SEC, 10-Q, 10-K, etc. documentation and create our own analysis for ourselves?

Can you clearly state what it is you are saying? Example: "WSJ and the other links posted on here are wrong, Tesla profit did not go up 20% in Q2 and this is shown on the 10-Q at XYZ" because I'm missing your point.

you are missing my point, quite intentionally i suspect. 

info you need is on page 23 btw. that might help you make your case. 

[atomheartbevo 89416]

3 hours ago, Neonmoon said:

What was the final nail in Twitters coffin? Alex

If he goes full-on pay model for people to read or post tweets, yeah, it's fucking dead.  He's already fucked up enough for this to be a textbook case for all kinds of degrees - marketing, communications, graphics design, and probably software engineering and throw in general business school discussion and maybe even legal.

[animetobacco 155]

48 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

you are missing my point, quite intentionally i suspect. 

info you need is on page 23 btw. that might help you make your case. 

You give me too much credit, I'm not that smart or clever, I'm genuinely confused.

I'll go to page 23 though and try and get out of this exit room that is your mind game.

[animetobacco 155]

1 hour ago, animetobacco said:

20%. Did you miss the discussion on the last page?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/tesla-tsla-q2-earnings-report-2023-9be2b571

  Reveal hidden contents

The Austin, Texas, maker of electric vehicles, solar panels and batteries reported net income of $2.7 billion in the quarter, a 20% increase from a year ago. Earnings per share also rose 20% to 78 cents when measured via generally accepted accounting principles.

 

 

59 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

you are missing my point, quite intentionally i suspect. 

info you need is on page 23 btw. that might help you make your case. 

I *think* I see what you were trying to say now. Are you trying to say that it was the energy generation and storage business units that buoyed the profit 20% in Q2 versus the automotive segment?

If so, that is an interesting way to try and move the goalposts, especially when your question was "i have a simple one for you: how much was tsla profit up in q2?" where you used the stock ticker abbreviation implying the question was put to the entire organization, including all business units.

I still think you are off the reservation here (or I'm still not following and you are being very cryptic and coy for some weird reason, which isn't helpful).

[hayden_horn 11360]

13 minutes ago, animetobacco said:

 

I *think* I see what you were trying to say now. Are you trying to say that it was the energy generation and storage business units that buoyed the profit 20% in Q2 versus the automotive segment?

If so, that is an interesting way to try and move the goalposts, especially when your question was "i have a simple one for you: how much was tsla profit up in q2?" where you used the stock ticker abbreviation implying the question was put to the entire organization, including all business units.

I still think you are off the reservation here (or I'm still not following and you are being very cryptic and coy for some weird reason, which isn't helpful).

if i am being cryptic or coy, it's because you are a big dummy. 

page 23, there's a fucking line item for profit. in fact, that line item for profit is divided between two business segments, making things easier to discern.

so let's stop being coy and cryptic. i think you are a troll who misrepresents shit intentionally for some reason i will never understand. either that or you are world class stupid. 

profits are different from revenues. you are aware of that. so what happens when you drop prices to drive volume? revenues pop, profits dip, volumes rise, goal achieved, as long as profit ain't your goal. 

[animetobacco 155]

6 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

if i am being cryptic or coy, it's because you are a big dummy. 

page 23, there's a fucking line item for profit. in fact, that line item for profit is divided between two business segments, making things easier to discern.

so let's stop being coy and cryptic. i think you are a troll who misrepresents shit intentionally for some reason i will never understand. either that or you are world class stupid. 

profits are different from revenues. you are aware of that. so what happens when you drop prices to drive volume? revenues pop, profits dip, volumes rise, goal achieved, as long as profit ain't your goal. 

Then I'm world class stupid, because I promise you I'm not trying to be dense here, but I think you are wrong (where I bolded). You seem to conflate profit margin and profit, I think.

Profit margin dips, not necessarily profit, as profit is a dependent outcome based on the variable of volume and revenue (versus cost).

Do you see how you may have confused yourself into thinking you are smarter than literally every reputable news source who reported something similar to what the WSJ said and what IBD says here, "Tesla reported Q2 profits growing 20% to 91 cents per share while revenue increased 47% to $24.93 billion."

Yes profit margin went down. But, because of unit of sales going up due to the price cuts, revenue and volume went up, increasing profit (even with a lower margin on every new unit).

@NoName can you explain what you learned today to @hayden_horn?

[animetobacco 155]

And yea, I'm probably a Big Dummy

[UpperWestside 6136]

5 hours ago, cactusflinthead said:

You could have probably stayed in non political politics adjacent threads and still have green rep. Which you had last week. 

But, no you just gotta express your hot sports opinions. 

Which animal tobacco name is next? 

Maybe switch it up this time. Base it on barbecue sauce or something.

Sweet baby Ray's skanky dil

KCMasterpieceof... yeah that's too easy.

Anyway you are 17 away from another one getting sent to Purgatorio.

He’s already halfway home to the replacement being banned. This is now at least 10 times that Chrispy has been banned with the one created today going for a record time in being crowd sourced.

[hayden_horn 11360]

14 minutes ago, animetobacco said:

Then I'm world class stupid, because I promise you I'm not trying to be dense here, but I think you are wrong (where I bolded). You seem to conflate profit margin and profit, I think.

Profit margin dips, not necessarily profit, as profit is a dependent outcome based on the variable of volume and revenue (versus cost).

Do you see how you may have confused yourself into thinking you are smarter than literally every reputable news source who reported something similar to what the WSJ said and what IBD says here, "Tesla reported Q2 profits growing 20% to 91 cents per share while revenue increased 47% to $24.93 billion."

Yes profit margin went down. But, because of unit of sales going up due to the price cuts, revenue and volume went up, increasing profit (even with a lower margin on every new unit).

@NoName can you explain what you learned today to @hayden_horn?

i realize i am no longer engaging with you but this is more for an audience of lurkers interested in how critical thinking might could be applied to poor reporting or framing. hell, even companies obfuscate as much as possible in their reporting. 

show me in the numbers where tesla profit jumped 20%, please.

[animetobacco 155]

3 minutes ago, UpperWestside said:

He’s already halfway home to the replacement being banned. This is now at least 10 times that Chrispy has been banned with the one created today going for a record time in being crowd sourced.

I 100% should have stayed out of hot-bed threads with the usual, mediocre, sad sack people as he suggested. Especially with so many great threads and discussions, and during what is shaping up to be a really special football season.

But a) I'm not trolling and being anything but sincere and earnest and b) I don't think I'm wrong and it's weird to me that the same cabal of pathetic posters who make up maybe 1% of this great community, think they represent and speak for the masses. In reality some people just don't want a dissenting opinion or point of view on political and social topics that are fair to have a wide variety of opinions.

Just on this Elon thread, one guy said "um, hey, just a quick reality check, but you guys do know that it's a consensus from a lot of people who know a lot about this stuff that indeed the UAW is posed to help Tesla out, right?" but because it's not hateful shlock, it's met with skepticism at best, and outright derision and outrage, if you are disliked.

[hayden_horn 11360]

the best part is how you gaslight me into conflating something with something else when that's clearly what you've done

[animetobacco 155]

14 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

show me in the numbers where tesla profit jumped 20%, please.

Tesla had profit of $2.5b in Q1 (https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/19/tesla-tsla-earnings-q1-2023.html)

Tesla had profit of $3.1b in Q2 (https://fortune.com/2023/07/19/tesla-quarterly-earnings-beat-shares-flat-elon-musk/)

.6bn growth, QoQ = 20%

Why is this so hard for you?

11 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

the best part is how you gaslight me into conflating something with something else when that's clearly what you've done

I apologize if you feel gaslit-- that was me (the big dummy) trying my level best to genuinely understand your position.

Edited September 19, 2023 by animetobacco

[hayden_horn 11360]

10 minutes ago, animetobacco said:

Tesla had profit of $2.5b in Q1 (https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/19/tesla-tsla-earnings-q1-2023.html)

Tesla had profit of $3.1b in Q2 (https://fortune.com/2023/07/19/tesla-quarterly-earnings-beat-shares-flat-elon-musk/)

.6bn growth, QoQ = 20%

Why is this so hard for you?

I apologize if you feel gaslit-- that was me (the big dummy) trying my level best to genuinely understand your position.

what does "profit" mean to you?

and i mean this aside from the other very obvious mischaracterization you made while comparing the two articles. i know it wasn't a mistake because you didn't quote your linked articles even once because it would've made it obvious. 

[UnivTex34 1763]

36 minutes ago, animetobacco said:

But a) I'm not trolling and being anything but sincere and earnest and b) I don't think I'm wrong and it's weird to me that the same cabal of pathetic posters who make up maybe 1% of this great community, think they represent and speak for the masses. In reality some people just don't want a dissenting opinion or point of view on political and social topics that are fair to have a wide variety of opinions.

Just on this Elon thread, one guy said "um, hey, just a quick reality check, but you guys do know that it's a consensus from a lot of people who know a lot about this stuff that indeed the UAW is posed to help Tesla out, right?" but because it's not hateful shlock, it's met with skepticism at best, and outright derision and outrage, if you are disliked.

To point a, bullshit. 10 Handles says I’m right

To point b, bullshit, you would not have been crowdsourced this many times if you had half as many good posts you think you do. Plenty of folks from the other side of the isle survive just fine. You and GRUHorn keep getting banned, I wonder why? What do you have in common? 

 

To your final sentence, maybe you should learn from the poster that wasn’t negged bombed. Maybe take a break from posting and come back when you can post something else than where every single post either looks disingenuous/lying/spewing propoganda.

 

But you wont. You will be at 20 banned handles by this time next year.

 

Edited September 19, 2023 by UnivTex34

[Goredho 17346]

4 hours ago, animetobacco said:

You are right, of course, as usual. I think @hayden_horn masterfully baited me into giving a response (making the news instead of just reporting it) and then only murderers of handles were in the building.

So you are saying you were master baited by the admin of the BBS you are posting on?

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Proud to be the first murderer of handles checking in. 
Add a new user name to the minimum of 5 we've already banned.
Donkey Cigar, Monkey Cigarette, Turkey Chew, Longhorn snus,  animal tobacco, now anime tobacco. I'm there are more and I missed some. 
Fucking ridiculous this asshole troll won't take a hint. How many bannings should it take before he is auto banned on site like GRUHorn? It's not my site, but I would argue we are way past it. This dickbag is one of the biggest sources of dissension and actual conversation derailing on the the entire site and the whole place is much worse for his posting. 

I have asked this several times in the shitposters thread. And you are leaving out a few of his screen names. Imagine being such a loser that you can’t find something better to do with your short time on this planet that you feel compelled to create 15 different accounts on a forum where you aren’t welcome because you are a fucking idiot douchebag.

['stache 21770]

I’m starting to think that Elon made a bet with his oligarch buddies that he could take a widely used platform and kill it in a year, like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. He tried everything and it’s still there so he’s finally saying “fuck it I’ll just charge everyone, can’t believe it’s come to this.”

[Pig Bellmont 8691]

 

What the fuck. Along with attacking the ADL and platforming literal nazis - this is some fucking revered business genius? He’s just a blatantly antisemitic POS whose ineptitude is going to bankrupt one of the biggest social media companies in the world 

5 minutes ago, 'stache said:

I’m starting to think that Elon made a bet with his oligarch buddies that he could take a widely used platform and kill it in a year, like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. He tried everything and it’s still there so he’s finally saying “fuck it I’ll just charge everyone, can’t believe it’s come to this.”

No. He’s just bad at this. It’s not intentional 

[Skipper 6103]

4 minutes ago, 'stache said:

I’m starting to think that Elon made a bet with his oligarch buddies that he could take a widely used platform and kill it in a year, like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. He tried everything and it’s still there so he’s finally saying “fuck it I’ll just charge everyone, can’t believe it’s come to this.”

If he actually attempts a subscription model for all users, my guess is the balance sheet is even worse than we thought.   But yeah, considering he loses potential advertisers with every idiotic tweet, I guess it shouldn't be that surprising.

[texasdago 7553]

Reading through all this nonsense... 

 

Oh, I know...

[Celery Man 20884]

15 hours ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

Lulz.

 

https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/elon-musk-charge-all-x-twitter-users-fee-1235726693/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13411]

I guess Elon needed a Jewish leader to cover the anti-Semitic problems for Twitter and Elon himself. And Bibi needed a tech leader to help him stop the flood of tech companies leaving Israel. I predict this fails for both of them.

[heso 2748]

Taking what I’m sure is an overly simplistic look at this, if the UAW is even slightly successful in negotiating higher pay for its members, doesn’t that put Tesla at an even greater risk of its workers unionizing? Tesla employees would suddenly see their union counterparts making 2-3x what they are making instead of 50%, and their stock options not gaining all that much value over the last 2 years. 

If someone making the average at Tesla, took the max stock option of 15% of salary and buying at 85% prevailing stock price every month for the last 2 years they would have turned ~$27k into ~38k. The average UAW worker beat that $11k gain by ~$80k in that two year span. How good are those stock options going to look when your counterpart is making 3x what you are?

Alternatively, what happens to Tesla if it’s suddenly faced with having to double its workers’ pay?

idk, there’s a good chance that I’m a moron, but it doesn’t seem like the UAW getting a pay increase for its members is a clear cut win for Tesla long term. 

[Captainant 27447]

11 minutes ago, heso said:

Taking what I’m sure is an overly simplistic look at this, if the UAW is even slightly successful in negotiating higher pay for its members, doesn’t that put Tesla at an even greater risk of its workers unionizing? Tesla employees would suddenly see their union counterparts making 2-3x what they are making instead of 50%, and their stock options not gaining all that much value over the last 2 years. 

If someone making the average at Tesla, took the max stock option of 15% of salary and buying at 85% prevailing stock price every month for the last 2 years they would have turned ~$27k into ~38k. The average UAW worker beat that $11k gain by ~$80k in that two year span. How good are those stock options going to look when your counterpart is making 3x what you are?

Alternatively, what happens to Tesla if it’s suddenly faced with having to double its workers’ pay?

idk, there’s a good chance that I’m a moron, but it doesn’t seem like the UAW getting a pay increase for its members is a clear cut win for Tesla long term. 

yeah but this way by encouraging your employees to buy shares, you can buoy share prices with increased buy pressure and offload your hyperinflated shares onto them

[Chopper 17154]

Hot : Slave Labor

Not: Labor unions, negotiations

(article in today's WaPo)

here's an attempt at a tldr, the whole article is spoilered.

The United States last year implemented the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which treats all manufacturing in Xinjiang as tainted by forced labor unless firms can prove otherwise. Particular scrutiny is falling on Tesla. Firms that appear to undermine a U.S. ban on products made in Xinjiang emerge near the top of Tesla’s sprawling network of suppliers using forced/slave labor. Tesla did not respond to detailed questions. At a May investor meeting, chief executive Elon Musk ignored calls to disclose and sever ties with firms suspected of using forced labor in Xinjiang.

Tesla relies on China as a supplier, but also a market for its top-selling EVs. It sells about 40 percent of its new cars in the country and without China they'd be up Shit Creek without a paddle. A confidential report to investors from a Chinese research firm warns clients that if U.S. regulators become aware of the scope of the forced labor issue with EV parts, it could trigger seizures of products similar to what went down with Chinese made solar panels several years ago. The Post examined several Chinese supply chains that provide the EV industry with lithium for batteries; aluminum for batteries, bodies and wheels; and graphene, a lightweight material used in batteries and bodies. Each chain originated with companies that openly operate in Xinjiang using Uyghur labor. Tesla is knee-deep in purchasing from forced labor in Xinjiang for each of those above categories.
 

Spoiler

Tesla boasts that its electric vehicles are a marvel not just of innovation but also ethics, pledging in annual reports that it will “not knowingly accept products or services from suppliers that include forced labour or human trafficking in any form.” The carmaker touts its teams of monitors that travel to mining operations around the world, and has pledged to mount a camera at an African mine to prevent the use of underage or slave labor.

But Tesla has been conspicuously silent when it comes to China, despite evidence that materials that go into its vehicles come from the Xinjiang region, where forced labor has been rampant. Firms that appear to undermine a U.S. ban on products made in Xinjiang emerge near the top of Tesla’s sprawling network of suppliers, according to a Washington Post examination of corporate records and Chinese media reports. Among them are companies that have openly complied with China’s quotas for moving minority Muslim Uyghurs out of rural villages and into factory towns through what Chinese authorities call “labor transfers” or “surplus labor employment.”

Tesla is among several EV companies that have suppliers with Xinjiang connections, records show. Ford has a deal with a battery maker that congressional investigators allege has ties to vast lithium mining and processing operations in Xinjiang, and Volkswagen operates a factory in the region with a Chinese partner.

Though not all labor in Xinjiang is forced, China’s lockdown on information flowing from the region led the U.S. government last year to bar the import of any Xinjiang-made parts and products out of a concern they could be made with coerced labor.

The companies’ kid-glove approach on China and potential violations of U.S. law come as the White House and powerful congressional committees scrutinize the EV industry, which is booming as automakers race to gain the upper hand in the transition to climate-friendly battery-powered engines. The situation in Xinjiang is a key point of tension in the strained relationship between China and the West, as the United States and allies step up enforcement of penalties on industries operating there.

EVs are widely considered vital for confronting climate change, and the companies that make them are at an inflection point. The contracts and accountability measures they lock in now could affect communities around the world for decades. Many experts warn that companies are failing to ensure that their supply chains are free of forced labor, washing their hands of responsibility for upstream suppliers they shrug off as out of their managerial reach.

“We know from every other industry there is that if we don’t fix this now, in the early days of this transition, it will be a massive mistake,” said Duncan Jepson, a lawyer and supply-chain management expert. “But the auto companies are not giving much hope they are willing to do anything to make a difference.”

Automakers say they take pains to ensure that their suppliers are not sourcing from Xinjiang. Their efforts are hampered by China’s lack of transparency and demands that companies doing business there fall in line with the country’s industrial and ethnic policies even when they conflict with Western laws. And they say the vast web of up to 13,000 companies that provide materials is difficult to vet.

Yet evidence of sourcing from Xinjiang lies not very deep in their supply chains, The Post found. Chinese supply chains that provide the industry with materials for batteries, bodies and wheels include companies that openly use Xinjiang labor, according to The Post’s examination.

The extraction and processing of materials used in EV manufacture, such as lithium, manganese and bauxite, are rapidly expanding, posing a test for company policies that tout respect for human rights and the environment. Tepid enforcement has contributed to the exploitation of workers in the cobalt mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the destruction of livelihoods in the villages of Guinea and the potential enrichment of the repressive Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

The shifting of Uyghurs from rural areas to factory towns has been part of a larger crackdown in Xinjiang, mounted by the Chinese government and aided by private industry. In recent years, Muslim minorities have been forced into reeducation camps where, rights investigators say, they undergo political indoctrination and military-style training.

Many of the reeducation camps have emptied since the peak of the repression in the late 2010s. But the United Nations said last year that the continued mass detentions may constitute crimes against humanity, and the United States accuses Beijing of genocide.

China’s secrecy and threats of penalties for those who cooperate with human rights inquiries make it nearly impossible to verify if workers in a factory or mine are there by choice. Against that backdrop, the United States last year implemented the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which treats all manufacturing in Xinjiang as tainted by forced labor unless firms can prove otherwise.

Particular scrutiny is falling on Tesla because of its market dominance and conscientious image.

“Tesla is proclaiming one thing in its sustainability reports and English-language pronouncements and then doing something totally different,” said Nathan Picarsic, a co-founder of Horizon Advisory, a geopolitical risk advisory firm that worked with The Post to map EV company links to Xinjiang.

Tesla did not respond to detailed questions from The Post. At a May investor meeting, chief executive Elon Musk promised to place a webcam at a Congo cobalt mine but ignored calls from shareholder groups for the company to disclose and sever ties with firms suspected of using forced labor in Xinjiang. On its website, the company says it continues “to map our complex supply chains to understand their origins. New suppliers are required to disclose the details of their supply chains so we can verify sources and identify risks via third-party audits.”

Tesla relies on China as a supplier, but also a market for its top-selling EVs. It sells about 40 percent of its new cars in the country.

“The risk of not being able to sell in China is crippling to Tesla,” said an industry supply-chain consultant who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly. “There are just red lines Tesla cannot cross because of that. Talking about the problem of forced labor publicly is one of them. They might be working on the issue privately, but if they are, they won’t be talking about it.”

Chinese companies supply nearly 40 percent of the materials for batteries that go into Teslas worldwide, according to Nikkei Asia, a financial newspaper that scrutinized more than 13,000 companies in the Tesla supply chain.

Researchers at the Helena Kennedy Center for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University in Britain found that a complex web of suppliers and middlemen allows Tesla and several other companies to source material from Xinjiang without buying directly from there.

“We knew that there was forced labor built into the whole program,” said Kendyl Salcito, a co-author of the center’s report. “But we didn’t know it would touch on so many commodities and parts. We hadn’t actually understood how horrific the spread of forced labor was in this sector.”
A battery supply chain

The Post examined several Chinese supply chains that provide the EV industry with lithium for batteries; aluminum for batteries, bodies and wheels; and graphene, a lightweight material used in batteries and bodies. Each chain originated with companies that openly operate in Xinjiang using local labor.

One of those chains involves the world’s largest EV battery maker, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., or CATL, based in Ningde, on China’s east coast. CATL’s products power hundreds of thousands of Teslas assembled in both China and North America. It also has contracts with at least six other major global automakers.

CATL has already attracted scrutiny from U.S. officials because of its business relationship with Xinjiang Zhicun Lithium, one of the largest lithium carbonate producers in China. CATL’s collaboration with Ford on a new battery plant in Michigan has triggered forced-labor inquiries from two influential House committees and a group of Republican senators.

While there are large lithium deposits around the world, much of the refining and processing happens in China, where three-quarters of the world’s lithium-ion batteries are made. China is expanding those sectors in Xinjiang, and Zhicun is a big part of that effort. In the past few months alone, Zhicun has poured more than $1 billion into the region, according to corporate disclosures and media reports in China.

A confidential report to investors from a Chinese research firm lays out Zhicun’s growth in Xinjiang, detailing four major acquisitions in the region’s mining belts, some of them in partnership with government authorities. The report, which was written in February, was shared with The Post by a researcher on the condition that the author’s name and firm not be disclosed, as the person could be at risk of prosecution under China’s anti-sanctions laws.

The report warns clients that if U.S. regulators become aware of the scope of Zhicun’s involvement in Xinjiang, it could trigger seizures of products.

Auto industry suppliers such as Zhicun are a linchpin of the Chinese government’s policies in Xinjiang. The information they share with Chinese news outlets and on social media platforms has included photos of ethnic-minority laborers transferred to the factory cities of Xinjiang. Recent local press coverage of Zhicun emphasizes how the company is facilitating “rural employment of surplus labor” and is helping government officials “strengthen the transfer of employment of the rural labor force.” Such phrases are not an admission that labor is forced but are seen by investigators as indicating there is a high risk. Refusing a labor transfer order can lead to internment, activists say. Officials from other companies have shared details about months-long ideological and military-style training programs their workers complete.

CATL said in a statement that it hasn’t had a relationship with Zhicun since selling its stake in the lithium company this year. It said it “opposes and prohibits any forms of forced labor in the operations of CATL and our suppliers.” The company said that it has an audit program to assess the sustainability of its suppliers and that it has joined the U.N. Global Compact, a voluntary initiative in which companies pledge to support human rights.

But days after CATL’s sale of Zhicun closed, a limited partnership run by a former senior manager at CATL “with the financial support of CATL and one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries” purchased a majority stake in Zhicun, according to House investigators. Zhicun did not respond to questions from The Post.

Ford, which has entered into a licensing agreement with CATL, said in a statement that there are no Zhicun materials in its supply chain, and that Ford will “continue to engage CATL to prevent and, if necessary, address human rights issues in their supply chain.”
An aluminum supply chain

A second supply chain examined by The Post focuses on the provision of aluminum.

One company that has emerged as a red flag for researchers is Shandong Nanshan Aluminum, based in Yantai, on China’s northeastern coast, which supplies metal for EV batteries and exteriors to Tesla and several other automakers, as well as CATL.

Shandong Nanshan appears to be buying and shipping aluminum from smelters in Xinjiang through another company and a joint venture, according to evidence uncovered by the Sheffield Hallam researchers. A separate review of Chinese public financial disclosures by Horizon suggests that Shandong Nanshan and a subsidiary have been major buyers from a Xinjiang industrial giant called Xinjiang Zhonghe Co., which is deeply involved in carrying out the Chinese government’s labor transfer programs.

Shandong Nanshan did not respond to a detailed list of questions from The Post. Xinjiang Zhonghe, which did not respond to questions either, has been open about its role in China’s ethnic policies. The company in 2019 was among those that set up “vocational” training centers. Investigators from the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council warned in March that some of Xinjiang’s vocational centers have functioned more like prisons.

A top official at Xinjiang Zhonghe in September 2021 received an award from the regional government for embracing “the [Communist] Party’s ethnic policies” and helping secure “an ideological Great Wall for safeguarding national unity and ethnic unity.”

Xinjiang Zhonghe works with the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, or XPCC, a paramilitary organization that carries out the Communist Party’s repression in the region. The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the XPCC in 2020, accusing it of “implementing a comprehensive surveillance, detention, and indoctrination program targeting Uyghurs and members of other ethnic minority groups.” The Chinese government denied the allegations and retaliated with sanctions against Western officials.

Xinjiang Zhonghe also reported in financial disclosures in 2020 and 2021 that its major customers included a Chinese firm called Beijing WKW Automotive Parts. Beijing WKW, which did not respond to written questions, has a deal to supply exterior parts to a Tesla factory in Shanghai.

Beijing WKW reported in its financial disclosures in China that Xinjiang Zhonghe was a top supplier from 2014 to 2019, after which the company stopped revealing the names of its top suppliers.
Another supply chain for EV metals

A third supply chain examined by The Post centers on Xinjiang Zhongtai Group, a huge industrial player in China that supplies the EV industry with aluminum and graphene. The company openly embraced Uyghur labor transfers as recently as 2020.

As Uyghur repression was intensifying in 2017, the company reported that it had transferred “2,000 surplus workers” to its industrial parks in Urumqi and Korla from Kashgar and Hotan, both about 900 miles away. The article highlighted how workers were taught to “appreciate the kindness of the [Communist] party” and participated in military-style training. The Uyghurs, who speak their own Turkic language, were also required to learn Mandarin and adhere to the “three loves and three antis — love the Party, love the motherland, love the big family of Chinese nationals; anti-separatism, anti-violence, and anti-extremism.”

In separate photos, groups of workers from a rural village — some pinned with big red flowers, others in military fatigues — are exhorted as they board buses and trains headed for the factory to strive toward Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s expectations for social stability. Postings in 2020 showed transferred workers in face masks at a facility where they were undergoing up to six months of training in such topics as “national unity” and “ideological and moral education.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security in June placed the publicly traded arm of Xinjiang Zhongtai on its list of companies whose products cannot be imported under any condition, as a result of its “working with the government of Xinjiang to recruit, transport, transfer, harbor or receive forced labor or Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, or members of other persecuted groups out of Xinjiang.” Robert Silvers, the department’s undersecretary for policy, put U.S. companies on notice at the time that ties to the Chinese suppliers would have consequences. “Businesses must know their supply chains,” he said. Xinjiang Zhongtai did not respond to questions from The Post.

But enforcement of such rules is inconsistent. The auto industry has been able to work around the Biden administration’s ban on investments in, and certain business partnerships with, major suppliers to the Chinese military, including China South Industries Group Corp., a firm that sells weapons and also is a large auto manufacturer.

A review of EV maker connections to the Chinese military, commissioned by The Post from the firm Strategy Risks, revealed that Ford nonetheless remains in a major joint venture with a subsidiary of China South Industries Group. The partnership, which operates under the name Changan Ford Automobile Co. Ltd., employs 13,000 people making EVs and other cars in China.

Ford said it is in compliance with the White House order, as it is not an investor in Changan or China South Industries Group. “Changan is one of China’s largest publicly traded auto companies with most of the shares held by the public,” a statement from Ford said. “When Ford entered the China market more than 20 years ago, Ford and Changan created an independent joint venture as required to manufacture and distribute Ford vehicles.”
Experts shocked

As international condemnation and investor concern mount over Uyghur-made products infiltrating global supply chains, Chinese companies have become more selective about the information they share revealing participation in the mass transfer of “surplus” Uyghur labor, according to Adrian Zenz, a scholar who has compiled some of the most vivid evidence of what the U.S. government calls genocide. Photos of indoctrination ceremonies and military-style training on social media have given way to reports of job fairs and employee success stories.

Zenz this year presented research before Congress finding that while many of the reeducation centers have closed, the repression is taking other forms — including outright imprisonment, stepped-up surveillance and restriction of movement — as “intrusive and coercive labor placement and retention mechanisms are being intensified rather than dismantled.” The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, part of the federal government, found the same this year. China has meanwhile prohibited investigators from accessing the region and threatens harsh penalties for anyone who helps companies operating in China investigate their exposure to forced labor.

The extent to which Xinjiang labor has seeped into the broader EV supply chain has shocked even experts who have long studied the region. The Sheffield Hallam report detailed the links that most major auto companies now have, finding that every one of them is at high risk of making cars that use forced labor.

The report touched off a Senate Finance Committee investigation into auto companies’ ties to forced labor in Xinjiang.

“There is no excuse,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the committee’s chair. “This is a place where the Chinese government is committing genocide. … These companies are not going to be able to get on top of their forced-labor problem by papering it over with a bunch of marketing gloss.”

The targets of Wyden’s committee include Volkswagen, which is among the non-Chinese automakers most closely linked to Xinjiang. The company, which relies on sales in China for nearly half its revenue, operates a plant together with a Chinese firm in Xinjiang. Volkswagen said in a statement to The Post that it has found no evidence of forced labor in its operations there and plans an independent audit.

Wyden said the responses the committee is receiving from the carmakers reveal that EV companies do very little to apply their ethics codes to the lion’s share of businesses that make their parts. They typically vet their suppliers by asking them to fill out a questionnaire.

“These questionnaires are hilarious,” said Salcito, the co-author of the Sheffield Hallam report. “They include questions like, ‘Do you employ forced labor? Do you employ children?’ You’ll be shocked to learn the answer is always no.”

Several experts interviewed said EV companies risk a reckoning similar to that of solar panel firms, which plunged into crisis last year as U.S. agents seized more than 1,000 shipments over concerns of possible forced labor in Xinjiang and other trade violations.

Automakers are addressing the issues with varying degrees of urgency.

Researchers at Sheffield Hallam and the nonprofit Lead the Charge, which ranks EV companies for supply-chain ethics, pointed to Mercedes-Benz as an example of a company that is working hard to address human rights problems in its supply chain. The company has aggressive auditing targets, sends teams to investigate abuses reported at upstream suppliers, and gives its sustainability team considerable clout in the corporate office.

Ford argues that it does many of those same things and has one of the industry’s most comprehensive systems tracing raw materials from mines to assembly plants.

Tesla helped launch a mapping program to show customers the origins of the cobalt in one of its batteries. Volvo, which disputes findings by Sheffield Hallam that at least six of its suppliers have links to forced labor, says it is using blockchain technology and artificial intelligence to locate problems.

“Mapping our supply chain is an immense work, which is an equally important as challenging task,” said a statement from Volvo. “The supply chains are complex, global and dynamic. Hence, this is a way of working that has no end date.”
Tracking EV materials

There’s still heated debate, though, over whether the industry is up to the task of honestly confronting human and environmental exploitation in the production of EVs, considering how rampant they remain. And there is suspicion by even many inside the industry that some of the mapping and tracing initiatives automakers are unveiling are more driven by the hope of keeping regulators at bay than boosting accountability.

Such concerns have moved the European Union to mandate that by 2026 all EVs come equipped with a “battery passport” that details the origin of materials in the battery, along with its carbon footprint.

“Some in the industry are saying tracing these things through the supply chain can’t be done. [Though] it may not be easy … it is nowhere close to impossible,” said Doug Johnson-Poensgen, chief executive of Circulor, a supply-chain monitoring firm advising European regulators. “Everybody is going to have to do this.”

Johnson-Poensgen says new technologies enable auto companies and their suppliers to track materials through each step in the production process, setting off alarms if sustainably mined minerals are mixed with other minerals, for example. The tracking systems sort through reams of data to determine if there are local labor or environmental violations at facilities. Satellites can use cameras to help monitor the operations and who is coming and going from them.

Some major suppliers and automakers, though, are lobbying the E.U. to allow the industry to design and enforce battery-passport rules, rather than subjecting their reports to independent review.

Jepson, who has deep experience helping companies use technology to confront modern slavery, said the ability of shoestring-budget operations like Horizon and Sheffield Hallam to discover forced-labor connections that car companies haven’t found shows that the firms are not trying hard enough.

“You are going to tell me a tiny [nongovernmental organization] can find out what is happening with your suppliers and you can’t?” he said. “For car companies to say they don’t have the technology or manpower to figure this out is nonsense.”

###

 

Edited September 19, 2023 by Chopper

[atomheartbevo 89416]

4 hours ago, heso said:

Taking what I’m sure is an overly simplistic look at this, if the UAW is even slightly successful in negotiating higher pay for its members, doesn’t that put Tesla at an even greater risk of its workers unionizing? Tesla employees would suddenly see their union counterparts making 2-3x what they are making instead of 50%, and their stock options not gaining all that much value over the last 2 years. 

Imagine if your stock price was tied to your CEO who potentially sells his stock to pay for his overpriced social media platform and/or whose comments about all kinds of subject matter, including Tesla, on said social media platform could, at any time, affect your stock price, and not in a good way.

[C-Man 27050]

21 hours ago, cactusflinthead said:

You could have probably stayed in non political politics adjacent threads and still have green rep. Which you had last week. 

But, no you just gotta express your hot sports opinions. 

Which animal tobacco name is next? 

Maybe switch it up this time. Base it on barbecue sauce or something.

Sweet baby Ray's skanky dil

KCMasterpieceof... yeah that's too easy.

Anyway you are 17 away from another one getting sent to Purgatorio.

 

19 hours ago, Pods said:

Proud to be the first murderer of handles checking in. 

Add a new user name to the minimum of 5 we've already banned.

Donkey Cigar, Monkey Cigarette, Turkey Chew, Longhorn snus,  animal tobacco, now anime tobacco. I'm there are more and I missed some. 

Fucking ridiculous this asshole troll won't take a hint. How many bannings should it take before he is auto banned on site like GRUHorn? It's not my site, but I would argue we are way past it. This dickbag is one of the biggest sources of dissension and actual conversation derailing on the the entire site and the whole place is much worse for his posting. 

Think he's reincarnated as AnimationTaco. New user handle created 15 hours ago and posting in the Dallas BBQ thread. Of course "he" lives in Frisco/Collin County.

[Pods 7527]

2 hours ago, C-Man said:

 

Think he's reincarnated as AnimationTaco. New user handle created 15 hours ago and posting in the Dallas BBQ thread. Of course "he" lives in Frisco/Collin County.

Also appears to have reserved and set aside animaltobacco2 on August 15th.

https://www.surlyhorns.com/board/profile/8141-animaltobacco2/

What a fucking loser. 

[Anastasis 23394]

18 hours ago, hayden_horn said:

the best part is how you gaslight me into conflating something with something else when that's clearly what you've done

 

17 hours ago, hayden_horn said:

what does "profit" mean to you?

 

I can't tell who is gaslighting who here, but I never had to take business math for non-science majors. 

[cactusflinthead 27594]

 

[Hefeweizen 5307]

Uh-oh.

[atomheartbevo 89416]

13 minutes ago, Hefeweizen said:

Uh-oh.

He doesn't understand the 1st Amendment, he doesn't understand advertising, he doesn't understand the whole "town square" concept, he doesn't seem to understand social media in general, and the list goes on.

Can we add "doesn't understand the difference between a private company (SpaceX) and a public company (Tesla)" to the list?

Because that shit can get real dicey, really fast, when you've got a company providing you with houses, etc.  I don't know if it's an FTC/FEC/IRS/PAC-10/A2M/2G2C/DVDA situation and who has jurisdiction.

[mchookem 16207]

6 hours ago, Chopper said:

Hot : Slave Labor

Not: Labor unions, negotiations

 

 

[Grade of D as in David 13253]

46 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

He doesn't understand the 1st Amendment, he doesn't understand advertising, he doesn't understand the whole "town square" concept, he doesn't seem to understand social media in general, and the list goes on.

Can we add "doesn't understand the difference between a private company (SpaceX) and a public company (Tesla)" to the list?

Because that shit can get real dicey, really fast, when you've got a company providing you with houses, etc.  I don't know if it's an FTC/FEC/IRS/PAC-10/A2M/2G2C/DVDA situation and who has jurisdiction.

He doesn't even understand colors, he doesn't know red from hell.

 

 

[UpperWestside 6136]

The US government is going to wind up declaring war on him in all but name. His actions on a variety of issues are absolutely abominable. 

[Blotto 23432]

11 minutes ago, UpperWestside said:

The US government is going to wind up declaring war on him in all but name. His actions on a variety of issues are absolutely abominable. 

That depends on who sits atop the US government. A GQP DOJ might just yawn and move along. 

[UpperWestside 6136]

4 minutes ago, Blotto said:

That depends on who sits atop the US government. A GQP DOJ might just yawn and move along. 

I would probably concur there. I don’t say this lightly, but he is a danger to himself and the rest of us, even the people whose affection he is seeking.

[atomheartbevo 89416]

24 minutes ago, Blotto said:

That depends on who sits atop the US government. 

17 minutes ago, UpperWestside said:

I would probably concur there. I don’t say this lightly, but he is a danger to himself and the rest of us, even the people whose affection he is seeking.

At this point, I'm wondering if it's Tesla shareholders that are egging on the investigations.  None of them can be happy if it seems that he's having the company spend a shitload on his little whims, not to mention if he sees Tesla stock as his personal ATM he can use to prop up Twitter.  He's also easily distracted, and could easily take a Tesla product line in another direction because twitter user @redbird12850234 got in his head.

And Tesla needs new designs, but then again, how long has it taken them to not get Cybertruck to market?

[trza-hawk 269]

So for the past three days the Elon echo chamber including Catturd2, a major Canadian online activist named Libby Emmons, Posobiec, Ian Miles Cheong, and others have been sharing cropped screengrabs of an obituary from a month ago, the reporter investigating soon received a video that changed the story and later led to a murder investigation. But some of the influencers just skip from the obituary to the murder video and claim its a media conspiracy after the fact.

 

 

 

The full story of the totally mindless spoon fed dishonesty from some of the biggest influencers

 

 

[Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand 13546]

Huh. Motorist intentionally hitting a cyclist. How unusual. 

[Pig Bellmont 8691]

lol holy shit

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/09/20/tech/musk-neuralink-human-trials/index.html
 

[NoName 16293]

16 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

He doesn't understand the 1st Amendment, he doesn't understand advertising, he doesn't understand the whole "town square" concept, he doesn't seem to understand social media in general, and the list goes on.

Can we add "doesn't understand the difference between a private company (SpaceX) and a public company (Tesla)" to the list?

Because that shit can get real dicey, really fast, when you've got a company providing you with houses, etc.  I don't know if it's an FTC/FEC/IRS/PAC-10/A2M/2G2C/DVDA situation and who has jurisdiction.

i thought it was fine for a public company to provide perks but had to be publicly reported if they were over 10k?

[Brisketexan 104595]

1 hour ago, Pig Bellmont said:

lol holy shit

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/09/20/tech/musk-neuralink-human-trials/index.html
 

Yeah....totally looking forward to a future where one of your core human functionalities can be turned off because Elon Musk has a temper tantrum, or decides he needs to make that a separately priced (and high-priced) feature.  Elon to tech team: "turn off the part of the chip that regulates their anal sphincter, so everyone shits their pants."  "Yes, lord Elon."

Fuck.  That.  Shit.

[atomheartbevo 89416]

1 hour ago, NoName said:

i thought it was fine for a public company to provide perks but had to be publicly reported if they were over 10k?

Pretty sure that's the problem.

[C-Man 27050]

16 hours ago, trza-hawk said:

So for the past three days the Elon echo chamber including Catturd2, a major Canadian online activist named Libby Emmons, Posobiec, Ian Miles Cheong, and others have been sharing cropped screengrabs of an obituary from a month ago, the reporter investigating soon received a video that changed the story and later led to a murder investigation. But some of the influencers just skip from the obituary to the murder video and claim its a media conspiracy after the fact.

 

 

 

The full story of the totally mindless spoon fed dishonesty from some of the biggest influencers

 

 

More on this: https://news.yahoo.com/elon-musk-unfounded-attacks-las-174859229.html

Quote

Dog whistle virtuoso Elon Musk is at it again, setting loose the bigots, blowhards, and antisemites of his X social media platform (formerly known as Twitter) with a misleading post reaching millions of his frothing followers.

Prior to this week’s widely publicized meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a conversation which included—surprise!—a call for Musk to “roll back” the antisemitism on X, Musk weighed in on a strange Las Vegas homicide case. He characteristically got his facts wrong, but didn’t bother to clarify or call off his dogs even as they smeared and threatened a good young reporter and her employer, the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

It's nothing new for Musk, just the latest instance which finds him exercising his Freedom of Speech on his personal platform, and offering opening lines for those who can’t wait to wave their “anti-woke” and antisemitic flags.

This time, the sleight-of-hand played a heinous homicide for political sport.

On the morning of Aug. 14, 64-year-old Andreas Probst suffered fatal injuries after being struck by a car while riding his bicycle. The newspaper reported that police suspected a hit-and-run driver speeding in a stolen vehicle. As the investigation continued, reporter Sabrina Schnur published a follow-up article on Aug. 18 that included an interview with Probst’s widow and daughter who described the victim as a loving family man and retired police chief from Bell, California.

On Aug. 31, the Review-Journal reported that police investigators had found an incriminating video taken by one of the suspects indicating the hit-and-run had been an intentional homicide. The 17-year-old suspect, his name withheld because of his age, is being held on a murder charge as police continue their search for the passenger in the vehicle who shot the graphic video accurately described as a snuff film. The video has since gone viral.

On its website, the Review-Journal updated the headline on the Aug. 18 article to reflect the changed status of the case.

But that didn’t stop Musk, who, on Sept. 17 reposted to 157.2 million followers a misleading graphic from @Libbyemmons (editor of the far-right website, The Post Millennial) that raised the specter of a media manipulation.

“An innocent man was murdered in cold blood while riding his bicycle,” Musk wrote. “The killers joked about it on social media. Yet, where’s the media outrage? Now you begin to understand the lie.”

Thanks in part to Musk’s irresponsible mischief and catcalls from loony conspiracy stoker Laura Loomer, the accurate Review-Journal news coverage morphed into an attempt to downplay a homicide of a retired white cop. Toxic posts accused the newspaper of purposefully tanking elements of the story after it did the journalistically responsible thing and changed an online headline to reflect a new status in the evolving case.

Most of the refrains from Musk followers were familiar to veteran reporters who waded hip-deep through the media-bashing Trump era: It turns out the press is “the cause of 100 percent of societal problems. Had this been a minority hate crime murder, businesses and cities would have been torched by now,” as one post put it.

When a self-identified Tesla shareholder (whose X feed is filled with Musk retweets and other pro-Musk posts) determined, “The media seems to under report wrong to white males. They seem more likely to express outrage if a ‘marginalized’ group is targeted. I don’t think it’s my imagination,” Musk responded, “1000%.”

There’s palpable irony in posts that imagined the Review-Journal—owned by the family of the late billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson (a devoted supporter of Israel who regularly funded pro-Israel political candidates and initiatives)—is a “woke” newspaper given its longstanding conservative editorial views and early endorsement in 2016 of presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Musk loves his speech rights, but those who push back find their free speech doesn’t always sit well with the X man.

When the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) pointed out Musk’s high tolerance for purveyors of hate speech, bigotry, and antisemitism on Musk’s own site, he accused the ADL of damaging his advertising base with false accusations and threatened to sue the organization that has been calling out haters since 1913. ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt accused Musk of “engaging with a highly toxic, antisemitic campaign on his platform—a campaign started by an unrepentant bigot that then was heavily promoted by individuals such as white supremacist Nick Fuentes, Christian nationalist Andrew Torba, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and others.”

Outgunned on Musk’s home field, the Las Vegas newspaper fought back with a front-page story and a terse editorial.

“The social media outrage machine never had it so wrong,” executive editor Glenn Cook said. “Sabrina Schnur and the Review-Journal are the target of vicious cyber harassment because a prodded digital audience never noticed the story that infuriated them was published almost a month ago, before new facts ever came to light.” He added that the newspaper’s social media and email accounts had been inundated with “obscenities, racial hatred and wishes of personal suffering, and death.”

Not everyone fell for Musk’s misdirection, and one X observer, @scottsantens, was particularly cogent: “The headline was written weeks before it was known that this guy was murdered. So why would you share it as if the media somehow knew the truth? Because you want people angrily clicking… You want pissed off people to spend more time here.”

Schnur’s colleagues stuck up for her, but their best efforts fall far short of being heard by the legions Musk reaches with every keystroke. Fortunately, most of the time the trolls have short attention spans.

With help from the man with the biggest dog whistle on the internet, I’m sure they’ll soon find someone new to pick on.

 

[Celery Man 20884]

I’m just thinking about the first chapter of The Diamond Age. 

[atomheartbevo 89416]

Cybertruck...from the biography:

“Every time someone would point to a picture that was more conventional,” Isaacson writes, “Musk would push back and point to the car from the video game Halo, or in the trailer for the forthcoming game Cyberpunk 2077, or from Ridley Scott’s movie Blade Runner.”

“I don’t care if no one buys it,” Musk said to his design team. “We’re not doing a traditional boring truck. [...] I want to build something that’s cool. Like, don’t resist me.”

[Pods 7527]

36 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Cybertruck...from the biography:

“Every time someone would point to a picture that was more conventional,” Isaacson writes, “Musk would push back and point to the car from the video game Halo, or in the trailer for the forthcoming game Cyberpunk 2077, or from Ridley Scott’s movie Blade Runner.”

“I don’t care if no one buys it,” Musk said to his design team. “We’re not doing a traditional boring truck. [...] I want to build something that’s cool. Like, don’t resist me.”

Once again, the Simpsons predict the future. Hopefully it leads to the same result. 

[Fudge Nuggets 19149]

1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

Cybertruck...from the biography:

“Every time someone would point to a picture that was more conventional,” Isaacson writes, “Musk would push back and point to the car from the video game Halo, or in the trailer for the forthcoming game Cyberpunk 2077, or from Ridley Scott’s movie Blade Runner.”

“I don’t care if no one buys it,” Musk said to his design team. “We’re not doing a traditional boring truck. [...] I want to build something that’s cool. Like, don’t resist me.”

The ironic thing being it’s about the most uncool vehicle since the Gremlin.