Trump / Musk (other than DOGE)

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gizmodo.com

Tesla Makes a Desperate Move in Canada as Sales Collapse

Caught between a collapse in sales and punishing tariffs, the automaker is making a dramatic pivot, creating a bizarre pricing situation and leaving recent buyers with a serious case of regret.
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Tesla is making a desperate move to stay alive in Canada as its sales suffer from the fallout of Donald Trump’s trade war. In a quiet but shocking update to its website, the electric vehicle maker has drastically lowered the price of its best-selling Model Y SUV by a staggering $20,000.

The move is a direct response to a brutal trade dispute that has crippled Tesla’s Canadian operations. In retaliation for tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, Ottawa slapped a 25% surtax on all cars imported from the United States starting on April 9, 2025. Faced with this new cost, Tesla had no choice but to raise the price of a Canadian Model Y to nearly CAD $84,990 (USD $61,500).

The result was catastrophic. According to reports from Electrek, the massive price hike caused demand to completely evaporate, with Tesla’s sales in Canada grinding to a virtual halt in recent months. Tesla, which does not provide sales figures by region and country, saw its overall sales drop by 13.5% in the second quarter compared to a year earlier
 
Bob Geldof ....

"What is profoundly shocking is the cackling glee with which the Trump-Vance-Musk triumvirate went about declaring war on the weakest and most vulnerable people of our planet. America was always the most generous by far of all the countries.

Why would great America do that, while the richest man on the planet cackles that we’re going to feed U.S.A.I.D. into the wood chipper? It is grotesque, it is a disgrace to the country.

Musk said that the great weakness of Western civilization is empathy. You fool. Empathy is the glue of humanity. It is the basis of civilization."

🎁 -> https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/13/...e_code=1.Wk8.lIEx.3Hn3EFzUxuwJ&smid=url-share
 
Bobfripp said:
Bob Geldof ....

"What is profoundly shocking is the cackling glee with which the Trump-Vance-Musk triumvirate went about declaring war on the weakest and most vulnerable people of our planet. America was always the most generous by far of all the countries.

Why would great America do that, while the richest man on the planet cackles that we’re going to feed U.S.A.I.D. into the wood chipper? It is grotesque, it is a disgrace to the country.

Musk said that the great weakness of Western civilization is empathy. You fool. Empathy is the glue of humanity. It is the basis of civilization."

🎁 -> https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/13/...e_code=1.Wk8.lIEx.3Hn3EFzUxuwJ&smid=url-share
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This world has always been structured in tiers, similar to the layer of our atmosphere. MAGA lives in the troposphere. Most liberals live in the stratosphere or mesosphere. Our prophets live in the thermosphere. I cannot imagine how frustrating it must be for those living in the thermosphere to look and comment on what is happening in the troposphere.
 
lawtig02 said:
I've wondered what would have happened if Elon had just created a relatively normal-looking e-truck with Tesla capabilities. I suspect it would have been a huge hit. I'll never understand why he went the Star Trek route.
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if any of the companies could figure out an electric truck that I could put a plow on, they would have a customer in a second.
 
Elderly Woman Keeps Mind Active Justifying Trump’s Actions — MAGAs on ZZL, take notes!

theonion.com

Elderly Woman Keeps Mind Active Justifying Trump’s Actions

LEXINGTON, KY—Stressing the importance of regularly performing mental gymnastics to prevent cognitive decline, local 80-year-old Edna Connolly confirmed Thursday that she keeps her mind active by justifying President Donald Trump’s actions. “I try to break out of my routine and engage my mind by...
theonion.com theonion.com
 
Healing said:
I ultimately don't think this is great for human rights. Hope I'm wrong. Tesla is led by a garbage human with garbage workers' rights and safety record, that lives only due to the patronage of the US citizenry. It also likely significantly exceeds the workers' rights and abuses built into BYD's absurdly low priced vehicles and rapid overtaking of Tesla.
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Nor do I, but Tesla ceded the space thanks to Musk's mid-life hard-right crisis. Look at this as a metaphor for what is going to happen to the whole globe. BYD is going to fill the vacuum left by Tesla like China is going to fill the void as global leader in soft power left by the US. Both institutions have ceded their advantage thanks to graft and idealogical pandering.
 
Healing said:
I ultimately don't think this is great for human rights. Hope I'm wrong. Tesla is led by a garbage human with garbage workers' rights and safety record, that lives only due to the patronage of the US citizenry. It also likely significantly exceeds the workers' rights and abuses built into BYD's absurdly low priced vehicles and rapid overtaking of Tesla.
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I doubt BYDs are assembled with human rights violations. You don't build precision electronics with slave labor.
 
Healing said:
Maybe. Is it just a case of the ccp massively subsidizing? BYD vehicles are cheap - real cheap. Also, it wasn’t just a comment on the factory conditions, rather the fast growing influence of China on various markets, which will increase their influence on the world stage. Not to say the US is a beacon of human rights, but we once were pretty good and China isn’t.
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I don't know enough to have any clue. But I suspect they have automated/streamlined a lot of their production.

My son was just telling me literally today about Tesla's auto structures. He's interning at Hyundai R&D and he went to a presentation about chassis tech. Apparently the main Tesla chassis is super efficient to produce -- something like 1/10 of the cost of an average vehicle -- because it's all cast metal and it is much quicker to fab. It was a short discussion and I can't say anything more about it, but the point is that there are a lot of cost savings out there.

One reason that leadership in tech industries tends to oscillate is the problem of depreciating equipment. When you build a manufacturing facility for $1B this year, you're not building a new one two years from now. So the company gets tied down to a specific method of fabrication. That might not always or even usually be a problem, but in a fast changing field, a new process could be developed in the very near future that dramatically reduces costs -- but the whole facility has to designed around that process.

BYD and pretty much everything in the Chinese EV industrial system is new. American automakers are producing cars out of old plants. The plants are modernized and updated, but there is only so much efficiency that can be squeezed. Ford and GM can't make cast metal chassis without building entirely new plants. At least that's my cursory understanding with some of my own inferences, so take it for what it's worth.
 
Healing said:
Interesting. Appreciate the anecdote and insight. I obviously have next to zero knowledge of the industry, much less BYD, so my base assumption is that cars retailing for those price points must be rife with human rights abuses in the manufacturing. Certainly hope your insight is the reality.
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I mean, I don't know for sure. Here's how I think about it:

If I was making shoes and I cared for nothing but profits, I'd open a sweatshop and pay very low wages. What would happen? Maybe my low morale, low quality workforce wouldn't stitch the best but I can automate much of that. Worst case scenario, I have to toss out some shoes upon inspection.

If was making autos and I cared for nothing but profits, I wouldn't want a low morale workforce. If they fail to apply enough glue don't fasten everything perfectly, I might not be able to detect it but 15000 miles later I have a warranty claim to deal with. It seems a lot more cost effective -- not to mention competitively useful -- to have at least decently paid workers with skills and some vested interest in doing a good job.
 
You would think DOGE would have sniffed out this government waste.

gizmodo.com

Elon Musk-Founded Brain Implant Startup Says It's a 'Disadvantaged' Business Despite Being Worth $9 Billion

Another "woke" business is crying for help from the federal government.
gizmodo.com gizmodo.com

Elon Musk, the rightwing culture warrior waging a “civilization-saving” battle against the “woke mind virus,” apparently isn’t above taking advantage of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs when it serves his business purposes. Neuralink, the brain implant startup that Musk founded that was recently reported to be valued at $9 billion, characterized itself as a “small disadvantaged business” in a federal filing with the Small Business Administration.


The SBA website notes that Neuralink attested in its filings that it is a “Self-Certified Small Disadvantaged Business.” According to the SBA, businesses can qualify for this designation if the company is “51% or more owned and controlled by one or more disadvantaged persons.” The firm must also “be small, according to SBA’s size standards,” the site states. According to the code of federal regulations, socially disadvantaged people are defined thusly:

…those who have been subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice or cultural bias within American society because of their identities as members of groups and without regard to their individual qualities. The social disadvantage must stem from circumstances beyond their control.
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