Elon Musk / Tesla / SpaceX / Twitter / D.O.G.E. | President Musk

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nycfan said:

NPR (@npr.org)

SpaceX and Amazon are asking the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to find the National Labor Relations Board unconstitutional. The federal agency is tasked with enforcing workers' right to organize. https://www.npr.org/2024/11/18/nx-s1-5192918/spacex-amazon-nlrb-labor-board-elon-musk
bsky.app bsky.app
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Yep, part of the plan. Fifth Circuit will do it, Supreme Court will affirm 6-3. It will be Jarkesy redux. That the underlying theory is preposterous and without any basis in the constitution is irrelevant.

They will stop at the Federal Reserve, even though there is no principled distinction between the Fed and any other agency, because they know that invalidating the Fed will affect them adversely.
 
superrific said:
Dude, "rooting out inefficiency in government" has been a GOP thing for decades. Every GOP administration sets up some sort of task force to cut the fat. Sometimes Congress too. Do you remember Simpson Bowles?

And the reason you don't hear about it is that there just isn't much waste at all (outside of the DoD, which I can't comment on). When the GOP talks about waste, they are only talking about things they don't like (as always) and it's usually ignorant. These things have a purpose. If you don't like the purpose, fine, but it's not just waste or inefficiency.

You'll see. This DOGE thing will come up with basically nothing and probably you will never hear of it again after the inauguration. If you do, it will be some symbolic bullshit or talking about cutting valuable programs that Musk etc. just don't like (which is not the same thing at all).
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You forgot the 3rd option besides cutting waste and outright cutting programs - doing things more efficiently. For example, SpaceX, rather than letting the booster engines fall to earth, rendering them unusable for future launches, figured out a way to catch them and reuse them. That's something that the federal government, because it doesn't have any true concern about a budget, would never think to do.

 
ZenMode said:
You forgot the 3rd option besides cutting waste and outright cutting programs - doing things more efficiently. For example, SpaceX, rather than letting the booster engines fall to earth, rendering them unusable for future launches, figured out a way to catch them and reuse them. That's something that the federal government, because it doesn't have any true concern about a budget, would never think to do.
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Yeah, NASA never ever thought about re-useability. That's why we never invented a spaceship that could land on a runway like an airplane and then be reused. What's that, we've had something like that for a long time?

Did you know that NASA experimented extensively with reusable rockets in the 1960s and 1970s. It couldn't be done with that tech at the time.

And you've gotten the causality 100% incorrect. The reason that NASA couldn't have developed that technology was that Congress DID give it a budget, and within that budget, there was not enough $$ to invest in speculative technology. It's an open question whether private companies are necessarily more innovative than governments, but that's not your point. Your point is that the government doesn't think about a budget when in fact the existence of this phenomenon is specifically the result of budgetary constraints.

And the reason that NASA doesn't have a big budget is that we've already done this "government efficiency" dance over and over again.
 
superrific said:
I mean, I suppose Congress could stop printing dollars. But that would cause the mother of all financial meltdowns, so I'm thinking no. And that wouldn't leave crypto in charge, either

As far as I can tell, the basic positions on crypto in America are 1) it should be eliminated, or at least highly regulated (for instance, so that people have to pay taxes on their gains) and 2) do nothing and let crypto keep pulling in suckers. Thiel etc are scared of position 1.

Crypto is not a currency, despite the name. At this point in existence, it's just a highly levered NASDAQ tracking index. Its correlation with tech stocks is very high, which is sort of the exact opposite of what its proponents think it is and the exact opposite of what you need from a currency. There are lots of different "coins," which means that any crypto takeover would have to decide which of the coins to adopt and which to jettison, and of course there's nobody in a position to make that decision (one could say let the market sort it out but the only way that has ever worked in the past was serial bankruptcies). There's no monetary authority to control the supply of crypto coins (the limit on 21 million bitcoins is actually no limit at all because they are fractionally divisible), and while the crypto idiots think that's a feature, it's a huge bug.

So, no, I don't think any crypto takeover is on the horizon. Not as far as the eye can see. Lots of things would have to happen to make that a reality, and most of them are bad. Some would be "world falls apart" bad. The irony is that if anyone did try to replace the dollar with, say, bitcoin, bitcoin's value would plunge to zero because the first effect would be to create a massive financial crisis, and in crises, investors run to safety. Which isn't fucking bitcoin.
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www.investors.com

Trump Expands Crypto Reach With Acquisition Talks, Coinbase Meeting

President-elect Donald Trump set to meet with Coinbase CEO. Trump Media stock bolts on crypto acquisition talks.
www.investors.com www.investors.com
 
nycfan said:

CNN (@cnn.com)

The $7,500 tax credit for buyers of electric vehicles could be vanishing early in the new Trump administration, but that might actually be good news for Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk, one of President-elect Donald Trump’s most prominent backers...
bsky.app bsky.app

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Another reward for Elon. Potentially more important to him than EV tax credits.

  • The incoming Trump administration intends to prioritize loosening federal regulations for self-driving cars, per a report by Bloomberg.
  • The report claims policy details aren't yet confirmed, but it suggests the new rules could make it easier to get more fully autonomous vehicles on the road.
  • Reducing roadblocks would benefit companies that have invested in self-driving tech, including Tesla, which recently debuted the Cybercab.

 
WaynetheDrain said:
I think it’s very possible that I may hate Elon Musk more than I hate Donald Trump.
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The full reach of his impact on the 2025 presidential election still hasn't come to light. I don't believe he didn't violate FEC campaign contribution limits and disclosure requirements, even if indirectly. The new information recently reported on false flag digital campaigning is also highly disturbing and there are no safeguards against it.
 
Positive: Elon Musk may speed up the move to, and support of, E.V. vehicles by folks on the right.

Negative: There is a good chance that he is going to bring the country down in the process, and almost certainly will be responsible for an increase of political, and social, violence if we get to "that" point. Twitter is much more of a cesspool right now than many people on the left realize (although many of them are starting to understand), and people on the right are falling for the propaganda. The platform plays right into the nation (and the world's) fetishization for violence and desire to fear the "other."

He is, in my opinion, by far and away the most dangerous immigrant in the country.
 
gizmodo.com

Teslas Are Involved in More Fatal Accidents Than Any Other Brand, Study Finds

The study cites data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
gizmodo.com gizmodo.com

Elon Musk has sought to portray Tesla’s vehicles as the “safest cars on the road.” However, a new analysis of federal data purports to show that Musk’s company actually has the highest rate of involvement with fatal accidents of any car brand.


The analysis, which was put together by automotive search engine iSeeCars, cites fatality statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) to claim that Tesla has “the highest fatal accident rate by brand, followed by Kia, Buick, Dodge, and Hyundai.”

The report further notes: “As with the model rankings, it’s possible these high fatal accident rates reflect driver behavior as much or more than vehicle design.” In other words, Teslas may not have any particular features that make them more dangerous. It may be that drivers of Teslas are just more prone to crashing or being involved in crashes.

“The biggest contributor to occupant safety is avoiding a crash, and the biggest factor in crash avoidance is driver behavior,” said Karl Brauer, iSeeCars Executive Analyst. “A focused, alert driver, traveling at a legal or prudent speed, without being under the influence of drugs or alcohol, is the most likely to arrive safely regardless of the vehicle they’re driving.”

Gizmodo has not independently verified the findings of the report. We reached out to Tesla and the NHTSA for comment.
 


“… But this week, Musk has escalated from targeting government agencies to singling out individuals—sparking his online army of followers to launch blistering critiques of ordinary federal employees.

One recent post by the billionaire zeroed in on Ashley Thomas, a little-known director of climate diversification at the U.S. International Development Finance Corp., after another user on Musk’s social-media platform X questioned her role.

Musk’s repost—“So many fake jobs”—garnered 32 million views, triggering an avalanche of memes and ridicule from his followers against the employee, such as, “Sorry Ashley Thomas Gravy Train is Over.”

…
Musk’s targets this week included Alexis Pelosi, California Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s relative and a senior climate adviser at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

But that post also included the names of two obscure federal officials with climate-related jobs—including one who had actually left her job at the Energy Department in August.

“These tactics are aimed at sowing terror and fear at federal employees,” said Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 800,000 of the 2.3 million civilian federal employees. “It’s intended to make them fearful that they will become afraid to speak up.”

Kelley said Musk is going after the wrong target if he focuses only on federal employees. Kelley said far more is spent by federal contractors such as himself—$750 billion annually compared with about $200 billion for the civilian workforce, one third of which are veterans as he is. …”
 
(Cont’d)

“… The 37-year-old Thomas, the target of Musk’s viral repost, works for a federal agency that partners with private companies to finance ways to improve living standards in developing countries.

With engineering, business and water science degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Oxford, Thomas spent years doing field work in Africa and writing research papers such as one on a technology that can help extract water from air in arid countries, according to her past tweets.

She eventually went to work as the agency’s director of climate diversification in 2023, when federal personnel records show she earned $172,075 a year.

An agency official said the climate diversification portfolio is highly technical and is focused on identifying innovations that serve U.S. strategic interests, including bolstering agriculture and infrastructure against extreme weather events. …”

She Is Awful Season 1 GIF by Paramount+
 
(Cont’d)

“… The controversy erupted when “datahazard,” an X user whose anti-Biden posts have drawn Musk’s attention, questioned Thomas’s job on Tuesday to nearly 170,000 followers.

Musk’s repost sparked a barrage of taunts, with his followers making jeers such as, “A tough way for Ashley Thomas to find out she’s losing her job.” …”
 
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