Seeing a weird amount of people bashing the Twitter board for … accepting a wildly high valuation of their company under terms that guaranteed they would make a lot of money from an oligarch's rash move.
— Prof. Paul Musgrave, Ph.D. (@profmusgrave) July 9, 2022
I was briefly startled by the news that Musk’s latest (admitted) babymomma is the CEO for Neurolink. But then I realized that even someone impulsive enough to procreate with Elon Musk should be able to understand that a governmental infrastructure which dings your company for torturing monkeys is not gonna take a ‘let’s just do it and be legends’ attitude about implanting experimental hardware into a newborn’s skull. Not even if it’s a newborn created (along with its matched control specimen) entirely by one’s own genius!
Bloomberg‘s Matt Levine has a hard-earned reputation as an honest ‘Musk whisperer’, and even he’s had enough of this sh*tshow:
I think it is helpful to start with the big picture. Elon Musk is the richest person in the world, and, like many other rich people, he has some unusual and expensive hobbies. One of his hobbies is that he sometimes likes to pretend that he will acquire public companies. He seems to find this fun, and why not? When he pretends that he’ll buy a public company, it creates a big drama with him at the center of it. He gets to boss people around, mobilize legions of bankers and lawyers and financing sources and random hangers-on hoping to get the deal done, and then when he gets bored he can tell all those people to go home. “Haha got you,” he can say, and they can all have a good laugh, or he can anyway.
This is an expensive hobby! When Musk pretended in 2018 that he was going to take Tesla Inc. private, he had to pay the US Securities and Exchange Commission a $20 million fine and stop being the chairman of Tesla’s board. You’re not really supposed to go around pretending that you will buy a public company; the SEC sometimes considers that securities fraud. But Musk is very rich and he can easily afford to pay $20 million for his little joke. His appetite for pretending to buy public companies was, apparently, undiminished.
So this April, Musk announced that he wanted to buy Twitter Inc. Why not? Musk seems to get a lot of joy out of using Twitter, and pretending to buy Twitter is a good way to create drama on Twitter. At the time, I assumed that, as with Tesla, he was doing a bit. “Ordinarily,” I wrote, “if a billionaire chief executive officer of a public company offers to buy a company, the odds that he is kidding are quite low. When it’s Elon Musk, the historical odds are, like, 50/50.” …
I like Twitter’s odds — its odds of getting specific performance and making Musk close the deal — in court, but I don’t think anything is a certainty at this point. And obviously Musk will make this fight as unpleasant as possible; already the attorney general of Texas has opened an investigation of Twitter’s bot numbers in order to harass Twitter and capitalize on Musk’s popularity with Republican voters. I have suggested in the past that Twitter’s best weapon in this dispute would be banning Musk from Twitter, because he is such an addict, but in fact he recently stayed off Twitter voluntarily for nine days, which I assume he did just to prove to Twitter the company that he can survive without Twitter the product. It is all going to be pretty awful and stupid…
Is it fun for him? If he manages to walk away having spent only millions in financing fees, millions in legal fees and say $1 billion in termination fees, was it worth it? What did he get out of this? The guy really seems to like being on Twitter, and he did make himself the main character in Twitter’s drama for months on end. That’s nice for him I guess. Also he made the lives of Twitter’s executives and employees pretty miserable; as a fellow Twitter addict I can kind of see the appeal of that? I always assume that “everyone who works at Twitter hates the product and its users,” and I suppose this is a case of the richest and weirdest user getting some revenge on the employees. He also gave himself an excuse to sell a bunch of Tesla stock near the highs. He maybe got an edit button too? Maybe that’s worth a billion dollars to him?
I tell you what though. *I* have learned my lesson. The next time Elon Musk announces that he is going to buy a public company — and he will do it again! — I will know not to believe him. I will definitely know not to write about it.
he still makes other people do the labor though
— eve 6 journalist (@Eve6) July 7, 2022
This website lolll pic.twitter.com/4tk1ABhycf
— Alex Kantrowitz (@Kantrowitz) July 9, 2022
War For Ukraine Day 137: Ammo Dump Go Kaboom! And, NO, the Russians Have NOT Destroyed All of the HIMARS We’ve Provided Ukraine!
Jerzy Russian
Christ, what an asshole!
West of the Rockies
Does anyone know why Texas AG (and AHole) Paxton has not been prosecuted?
GregMulka
@West of the Rockies:
Because
republicansconservativesfascists can only prosecute. They can’t be prosecuted.prostratedragon
DOJ after midnight:
Documentcloud link to filing
Happy Monday!
Brachiator
So far, this is just proving that if you are the richest guy in the world, you can do shit that is stupid and self-destructive for far longer than the average person.
smike
@West of the Rockies:
Must be the slime that protects him.
prostratedragon
@Brachiator: Best argument I can think of for extremely high wealth and inheritance tax rates.
Kent
Who is going to prosecute him? He is the AG
And plus it’s Texas.
eclare
@prostratedragon: So true.
Amir Khalid
@Kent:
In such a case, isn’t the state’s deputy AG supposed to decide? (He asked innocently.)
mrmoshpotato
Seems like sucking a horse’s ass would be less expensive. Because Musk can suck a horse’s ass.
Kent
@Amir Khalid: That would be this guy, who was hand-picked by Paxton.
Chetan Murthy
@Kent: I thought the charges against him were Federal ? Haven’t been keeping up ….
eclare
@Chetan Murthy: I thought they were too…just googled, state securities fraud charges.
David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch
@prostratedragon: Ooof.
Dumped “letter” only served to help the prosecution.
Every thing he touches really does die.
David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch
@David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch:
And in Pence’s case, almost literally.
Geminid
@eclare: Last I read, Paxton’s criminal case was still bogged down in procedural motions. The latest is the prosecution’s appeal of a order denying their change of venue motion. Tbe prosecutors are triying to have the trial held in a venue other than Paxton’s home county.
Paxton’s Republican primary opponents tried to sink him with this prosecution, arguing that it was a political libility. Paxton still won his primary easily, although it went to a runoff. Democratic Attorney General Rochelle Garza may get more traction with it among the larger electorate this fall.
eclare
@Geminid: Thanks!
WereBear
@David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch: I do wonder, Pence being notoriously nicknamed “Dense,” just how obvious some plotters were for him to not get into that car.
David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch
@Geminid: He won the primary because he was running against Bush and Gohmert (ie Dumb and Dumber).
Geminid
The report of Musk’s nine day Twitter fast reminded me of Jimmy Durante singing, “Well, you know darn well I can do without Broadway, but can Broadway do without me?”
More seriously, Musk has done serious damage to Twitter. They’ve lost employees at all levels, and his trashing of the company has lessened its value. We’ll know more when the New York Stock Exchange opens in a few hours. Shareholders will be going after Musk for a lot more than the $1 billion fee due under his acquisition agreement.
As for Tesla, after falling several months, Tesla shares seem to have stabilized above $700/share. That still gives them a price-to-earnings ratio of a little over $100. Toyota’s P/E is not much above 10. I’m not sure what’s keeping Tesla’s stock price so high besides Musk’s reputation, which is itself somewhat of a bubble.
Geminid
@David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch: A stronger candidate might well have done better against Paxton. Still, Republican voters in Texas seem to have rallied behind their incumbents. I am reminded of Georgia’s Republicans, who rallied behind Kemp and Raffensperger despite the efforts of the loud mouth to their south.
Texas and Georgia Republicans may be responding to looming challenges to their state dominance, led by Beto O’Rourke and Stacey Abrams. Circling the wagons, so to speak.
Cacti
@West of the Rockies: Because he’s the States’ top law enforcement officer, he’d have to be removed from office by impeachment (not gonna happen).
The alternative would be if the DOJ prosecuted him on federal charges. To my knowledge, he hasn’t violated any, and even if he had, Merrick Garland isn’t in the habit of prosecuting important people. Just the plebs.
Tony G
@Brachiator: Extremely rich people (with, perhaps, some rare exceptions) tend to be psychopaths. They just don’t care, because they have no reason to care. Elon Musk could take $236 billion of his money and burn it in a giant dumpster fire, and he would still have almost $2 billion dollars. He does this kind of crazy stuff in order to try to alleviate his emptiness and boredom.
Baud
@Tony G:
He could save a lot of money if he just hung out on a almost top 10,000 political blog all day.
satby
@Baud: word
germy shoemangler
My local sinclair station a few days ago:
Kovar told The Sun that she was sleep-deprived and exhausted after returning to the network early following the death of her dad Willie.
Kovar was due to work the 6am and evening shifts on Saturday.
She revealed that she would not be renewing her contract when it expires on July 31.
Robert Croteau, the vice president and general manager of WRGB-Albany, told the Times Union: “Heather Kovar has been suspended pending our internal investigation.
Geminid
@Baud: Balloon Juice might be too egalitarian for Musk. He may think like Julius Caesar, who said, “I would rather be first in a village than second in Rome.”
germy shoemangler
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Baud: Wouldn’t work. He’s too used to saying “jump” and having people respond “how high, sir?” On this almost-top-10,000 blog, if he said “jump”, the response would be to tell him to jump. Into a lake. Of lava.
Baud
@germy shoemangler:
Hard to believe a right wing business would violate its union contract and treat its workers so poorly.
Geminid
@satby: I was sorry to hear that your former mayor is moving to Michigan. I hope he at least comes back to visit now and then. He has been tied up in Washington anyway.
Pete Buttegieg has been doing a good job as Secretary of Transportation, I think. Some were sceptical that he would, given his apparent lack of experience in this area. Buttegieg knows how to hire the people with subject matter expertise and make the most of them, though. Also, as Mayor of South Bend he learned how federal programs get implemented on the state and local levels, and he is a good learner. This is a base of knowledge that one does not necessarily acquire as a legislator. I think that Virginia’s Tim Kaine is a better Senator for having been Mayor of Richmond.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: They probably have Steve in the WTF on retainer.
satby
@Geminid: Well, once they adopted twins it was logical for them to move closer to Chasten’s family (his parents are younger than Pete’s) for help; Pete’s dad passed away early during or just before the 2020 campaign, and his mom is in her 70s. He did a really good job as mayor here, but Indiana is no place for a smart Democratic public servant to be able to have a career.
Indiana’s no place for smart people generally; the schools suck so badly, Xtianist homeschooling is rampant here, and large corporations based around Indianapolis are having a hard time recruiting competent talent. Bright people leave.
Brachiator
@Tony G:
I am not certain that this really explains Musk. And I think that sometimes psychological terms like psychopath and sociopath are thrown around too loosely.
But something is going on. It’s not quite that Musk doesn’t care. He bounces back and forth between building companies and wrecking them. And making a shambles of his own life.
Geminid
@Geminid: In “pre-market” trading today, Tesla stock is up a little under 1%, while Twitter sock is down a little over 5%.
Anne Laurie
His mom has claimed he’s on the autism spectrum. Which, okay, maybe so. (The few interviews I’ve read from her & Elon’s father indicate they knew he was ‘not quite right’ even when he was very young; they also make me wonder if either parent is ‘quite right’, frankly.) But that’s hardly a Disneyworld all-access pass for Elon being a racist credit-thieving attention monster, IMO…
bjacques
@Anne Laurie: just another guy who’s his own worst enemy and would sink without a trace if he hadn’t been born sliding into home with the World Series fixed for him.
Scout211
@Anne Laurie:
In his SNL monologue he announced that he had Asperger’s.
Burnspbesq
@West of the Rockies:
The two sides have been fighting over venue and special prosecutor compensation (normally the case would be handled by Paxton’s office, which is obviously untenable) for years, with multiple appeals. I believe that the venue issue has finally been resolved and a trial date has been set for early 2023 in bright-red Collin County, Paxton’s once and future residence.
Brachiator
@Anne Laurie:
Yep. I don’t admire Musk and certainly don’t defend or excuse his actions.
Mo MacArbie
Pity about WRGB’s Sinclair connection, but I thought they were in Schenectady.
Paul in KY
@germy shoemangler: Sounded a bit tipsy.
J R in WV
@Burnspbesq:
So… There’s a TX state prison in Collin County? just asking for a friend… won’t be visiting anyone in TX any time soon.
;~)
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
He likes the applause?
Because – any fame is better than none?
I believe that is what’s known as narcissism. Elon? Surely that’s not possible……