It seemed like an odd pairing from the start: Elon Musk, the brilliant South African immigrant who runs companies that build electric cars and lease solar panels to homeowners, and Donald Trump, the television-obsessed politician who repeatedly describes climate change as a hoax.
Musk joined the president’s advisory councils a month after the election last year, along with a band of high-profile tech executives. Trump’s election seemed like it could hurt those in the renewable-energy business, and Musk seemed to hop on board in part to get the president’s ear. It also helped that Trump supported partnerships between NASA and private spaceflight company’s like Musk’s SpaceX. The partnership seemed shaky from the beginning, with Musk criticizing Trump’s executive order banning immigration from seven predominantly Muslim nations.
On Wednesday, as rumors of the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord swirled, Musk said he was leaving the advisory councils over the move. On Thursday, after Trump announced the nation would indeed exit the agreement, Musk followed through on his promise:
Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2017
He also tweeted a pointed message referencing China, Trump’s favorite culprit for many global ailments, particularly rising temperatures:
Under Paris deal, China committed to produce as much clean electricity by 2030 as the US does from all sources today https://t.co/F8Ppr2o7Rl — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2017
Others in the technology sector have also voiced their disappointment.
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Elon Musk Quits Donald Trump
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said Thursday he would leave the president’s advisory boards over the Paris agreement withdrawal.
It seemed like an odd pairing from the start: Elon Musk, the brilliant South African immigrant who runs companies that build electric cars and lease solar panels to homeowners, and Donald Trump, the television-obsessed politician who repeatedly describes climate change as a hoax.
Musk joined the president’s advisory councils a month after the election last year, along with a band of high-profile tech executives. Trump’s election seemed like it could hurt those in the renewable-energy business, and Musk seemed to hop on board in part to get the president’s ear. It also helped that Trump supported partnerships between NASA and private spaceflight company’s like Musk’s SpaceX. The partnership seemed shaky from the beginning, with Musk criticizing Trump’s executive order banning immigration from seven predominantly Muslim nations.
On Wednesday, as rumors of the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord swirled, Musk said he was leaving the advisory councils over the move. On Thursday, after Trump announced the nation would indeed exit the agreement, Musk followed through on his promise:
Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2017
He also tweeted a pointed message referencing China, Trump’s favorite culprit for many global ailments, particularly rising temperatures:
Under Paris deal, China committed to produce as much clean electricity by 2030 as the US does from all sources today https://t.co/F8Ppr2o7Rl — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2017
Others in the technology sector have also voiced their disappointment.
do you have a point?
Sorry, I think I'll let you figure this out by yourself.
He's got a clownish side,but he's got another side:
: Top EV company in world (including 35,000 super-charging stations in US). Launching semi-trucks Dec 1) : Leading solar panel/solar battery storage company for both industrial scale and private homes : Top space exploration company in world (does launches for NASA) : Satellite company (Starlink -- essential for Ukraine military) : Top underground high-speed rail company (Boring Company) : Neural-link company to address disabilities
He's got a clownish side,but he's got another side:
: Top EV company in world (including 35,000 super-charging stations in US). Launching semi-trucks Dec 1) : Leading solar panel/solar battery storage company for both industrial scale and private homes : Top space exploration company in world (does launches for NASA) : Satellite company (Starlink -- essential for Ukraine military) : Top underground high-speed rail company (Boring Company) : Neural-link company to address disabilities
I agree. And he might still destroy Twitter. Maybe his prior successes have gone to his head.
He's got a clownish side,but he's got another side:
: Top EV company in world (including 35,000 super-charging stations in US). Launching semi-trucks Dec 1) : Leading solar panel/solar battery storage company for both industrial scale and private homes : Top space exploration company in world (does launches for NASA) : Satellite company (Starlink -- essential for Ukraine military) : Top underground high-speed rail company (Boring Company) : Neural-link company to address disabilities
Every one of your all-praise-Elon posts just shows just shows what a sucker you are.
I mean, if you haven't figured out the Boring Company is just a scam, there's not much more I can say.
He's got a clownish side,but he's got another side:
: Top EV company in world (including 35,000 super-charging stations in US). Launching semi-trucks Dec 1) : Leading solar panel/solar battery storage company for both industrial scale and private homes : Top space exploration company in world (does launches for NASA) : Satellite company (Starlink -- essential for Ukraine military) : Top underground high-speed rail company (Boring Company) : Neural-link company to address disabilities
Every one of your all-praise-Elon posts just shows just shows what a sucker you are.
I mean, if you haven't figured out the Boring Company is just a scam, there's not much more I can say.
I've had Tesla solar panels for 4 years (they replaced the roof when they installed the panels). In October, I heated my entire house w electric mini-splits, charged two EVs (that traveled about 2,000 miles), used an electric dryer and cooked w electric Instant Pots, in addition to the rest of the electric appliances and devices in the house. My electric bill was $60. On the service side, I called Tesla to switch my Power Wall app from wi-fi to ethernet and a week later a Tesla technician came and did the job. No charge.
Thanks to the Powerwall, we haven't lost electric power for one second for 4 years (it takes less than a second to switch on when the grid goes down).
Musk has done more to fight climate change than anyone else on earth. Anyone who hates Musk doesn't care about climate change.
I've had Tesla solar panels for 4 years (they replaced the roof when they installed the panels). In October, I heated my entire house w electric mini-splits, charged two EVs (that traveled about 2,000 miles), used an electric dryer and cooked w electric Instant Pots, in addition to the rest of the electric appliances and devices in the house. My electric bill was $60. On the service side, I called Tesla to switch my Power Wall app from wi-fi to ethernet and a week later a Tesla technician came and did the job. No charge.
Thanks to the Powerwall, we haven't lost electric power for one second for 4 years (it takes less than a second to switch on when the grid goes down).
Musk has done more to fight climate change than anyone else on earth. Anyone who hates Musk doesn't care about climate change.
In a four year period, Tesla's Fremont Factory had three times as many OSHA violations as the ten largest U.S. auto plants combined. Tesla has tapped the phones and hacked the computers of labor organizers. Tesla has repeatedly been found guilty in court of sabotaging workers rights to unionize.
But hey, you don't have to worry about losing power when the wind blows too hard. It's all good then, isn't it buddy?
Twitter is a fundamentally different type of business than rockets and electric vehicles. There's no government grants or government contracts to make money from, and there's no grand save the world narrative to pay workers with in lieu of real pay and benefits. There's no way enough people are going to pay for social media to make twitter profitable, and Musk seems to be going out of his way to scare off major advertisers. He might be able to succeed in shrinking twitter down to being a slightly larger version of Parler, maybe even break even or make a small profit at that scale, but that's not going to be worth anywhere close the the $44bn he paid for it, nor will it have anywhere near the cultural relevance of pre-Musk twitter.
Tesla stock hit a 52-week low today. It's down 50% since Musk announced he was going to buy Twitter.
"Musk has managed to do what the bears have unsuccessfully tried for years – crush Tesla's stock," Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives, a long-time Tesla bull, said in a note last week.
Ives called Twitter an "albatross," a "distraction" and a "money pit" for Musk. "The Twitter circus show is slowly starting to impact the pristine EV brand of Tesla," he said."
I like what Musk has done in terms of popularizing electric cars and promoting space exploration. However, that does not justify any sorts of poor behavior. Moreover, he is not the savior of mankind. These things would have happened anyway.
It's important to meet people where they are, and so I definitely give Musk credit for successfully branding EVs as something the kinds of guys who drive flashy sports cars would want. Those guys weren't going to buy a Prius. Now that EVs are mainstream, I'm not sure Tesla is contributing much, or even if it's a net positive or negative to society at this point.
What any of this has to do with Twitter I couldn't say.
Another aspect to the Twitter story is a labor one. Technology is one of the few examples where many workers actually have a decent amount of market power, and I'm sure that absolutely kills billionaires like Musk. No one who cares about worker power should be rooting for Musk's approach at Twitter to succeed, because if it does that'll encourage other billionaire tech bros to similarly go to war against their workers.
And for those who would respond by saying they have little sympathy for the plight of well paid tech workers who get decent benefits, you're illustrating why the American labor movement is so feckless. The right response is to ask why, if tech workers are able to be paid well and get good benefits, why can't all workers?
It's important to meet people where they are, and so I definitely give Musk credit for successfully branding EVs as something the kinds of guys who drive flashy sports cars would want. Those guys weren't going to buy a Prius. Now that EVs are mainstream, I'm not sure Tesla is contributing much, or even if it's a net positive or negative to society at this point.
What any of this has to do with Twitter I couldn't say.
Focusing on appealing to the desire for status, at the expense of paying attention to the long-term reliability and safety, is also the problem with Musk's approach to the Twitter.
Focusing on appealing to the desire for status, at the expense of paying attention to the long-term reliability and safety, is also the problem with Musk's approach to the Twitter.
Re Tesla, Musk's fixation with Full Self Driving (FSD) has been tipping my perception of Tesla from net positive to net negative over the years. In theory, I agree with FSD as an end goal. In practice, the actual attempt at implementation has been irresponsible and even deadly.
Focusing on appealing to the desire for status, at the expense of paying attention to the long-term reliability and safety, is also the problem with Musk's approach to the Twitter.
Re Tesla, Musk's fixation with Full Self Driving (FSD) has been tipping my perception of Tesla from net positive to net negative over the years. In theory, I agree with FSD as an end goal. In practice, the actual attempt at implementation has been irresponsible and even deadly.
Yeah, he's been promising the moon on FSD for years now. You'd think more people would notice how much he hasn't delivered on those promises.
I like what Musk has done in terms of popularizing electric cars and promoting space exploration. However, that does not justify any sorts of poor behavior. Moreover, he is not the savior of mankind. These things would have happened anyway.
this is an important point. The idea that one man alone is largely responsible for the advancement of solar power and battery storage is dubious. If Elon Musk never had gone into the solar business it's hard to believe no other entrepreneurs or corporations would have emerged to push technology forward to where it is today.
But let's give credit where credit is due. Musk does seem to have done an awful lot to promote consumer uptake of solar power by regular American homeowners and drivers.
Paul, if you owned twitter, would you let people like Tim Pool post his sick, hate-filled nonsense?
I'd ban him in a second. Musk thinks it's ok!
Their bodies haven't even been laid to rest and Tim Pool has spent all day calling the people murdered groomers and pedophiles. He like the rest of the right isn't reflecting on the violence, they're celebrating it.
Here's my take on this. I'm big into solar and EVs. Musk deserves a lot of credit for creating Tesla and hiring good engineers. Their cars are innovative and some of the technology is groundbreaking. They have overcome their early quality control issues, and the auto industry could learn from them. However, at this point he really does more harm than good when he opens his mouth. The solar company was started by relatives who he bailed out with his purchase of it. Right now it is in real financial trouble. His space company has done a great job of doing an end run around the red tape at NASA and deserves credit. The boring company seems to be just a gimmick that hasn't really separated itself from the pack. Starlink is conceptually good but he has not addressed the huge amount of space debris it will create. In the last year or two this guy, who was so creative, has swallowed too much trump Kool aid and let his ego outstrip his ability. His Twitter purchase was dubious until he started his destructive policies and has now become a disastrous mistake.
No doubt he's a bright guy, but he is no savior and he is letting it all go to his head.
They have overcome their early quality control issues, and the auto industry could learn from them. However, at this point he really does more harm than good when he opens his mouth.
Disputable.
The 2022 Consumer Reports Reliabiity. Tesla is 27th out of 28. May as well buy a Yugo.
Yeah, given Tesla's well documented problems with quality control, I would definitely think twice before installing one of their power packs in my home.
From the article: "lithium batteries at storage sites in Moss Landing have repeatedly caught fire in recent years. And last year, a Tesla Megapack caught fire in Geelong, Australia, during initial tests at the Victorian Big Battery storage site."
They have overcome their early quality control issues, and the auto industry could learn from them. However, at this point he really does more harm than good when he opens his mouth.
Disputable.
The 2022 Consumer Reports Reliabiity. Tesla is 27th out of 28. May as well buy a Yugo.
You are using selected data. Did you notice at CR when you were checking that Tesla is highest in owner satisfaction? I don't own one, but I know that there is a waiting list 18 months long to get one. but I am not here to debate whether you like the car or not, the point is that it is a very succesful company. And it is.
Happy Thanksgiving night, all. Hope you’re enjoying harmonious and delicious family gatherings.
(It’s mid-morning Friday here; I’ve just caught up on international news - Twitter Brussels was a bit surprising, plus the general wider general amnesty for previously banned users. It’s all reeking of desperation and reactive executive management, instead of coordinated and well-planned, well-communicated strategies. Disruption, shock and awe are for SF films)
RTrent, are you aware that here Tesla is recalling vehicles for dangerous faults, for the third time this month?? This time, more the 15,000 vehicles are affected:
Sorry, I think I'll let you figure this out by yourself.