Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Everybody saw this coming.

No one could have predicted…

Not all heroes wear capes.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

I was promised a recession.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

John Fetterman: Too Manly for Pennsylvania.  Paid for by the Oz for Senator campaign.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

The revolution will be supervised.

You are here: Home / Climate Change / How about that weather? / Monday Morning Open Thread: Hot Soup & Stone Cold Facts

Monday Morning Open Thread: Hot Soup & Stone Cold Facts

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Well worth a listen, if you need my prompting!


Get out the extra blankets and make sure you’re stocked up on batteries:

WaterGirl’s got us covered here — her livestream post should go up at 12:45pm:

Concerning Twitter’s Main Character for the Duration:

Speaking of assassination coordinates — the Washington Post tracked down that stalker, and apart from having nothing to do with the airport, turns out the dude is actually stalking Musk’s former girlfriend / baby mamma Grimes. That’s gotta sting.

Reader Interactions

129Comments

  1. 1.

    mrmoshpotato

    Yet after two years as president, it’s Joe Biden who is acting on those promises.

    Ah yes!  The time-honored tradition of a Democratic president working to clean a massive Rethuglican mess!

     

    ETA – Eleven degrees in Chicago.  Hello heavy socks, fleece sleeppants and a long sleeve!

  2. 2.

    lowtechcyclist

    Good morning!

    ETA: Nothing much to say today. Covid finally caught up with me – tested positive yesterday morning.  Not a really bad case, but already called in sick today, will go back to bed soon as the kiddo is on the school bus.

  4. 4.

    JPL

    @lowtechcyclist: Feel better soon and my hope is that covid does not spread beyond you.  My DIL tested positive for six days, but only had a few symptoms.   She was the only one who had the virus.

  5. 5.

    Aussie Sheila

    @mrmoshpotato: Social Democratic governments always have to fix up the messes of their opponents. It would be better if they learnt in this, the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, to make structural changes so that the particular economic and social f..ck ups of the right aren’t possible anymore. You know, ‘ for the children’ as Madame Speaker once said. 😎

    Oh and Happy Hanukkah to all those who celebrate it!

  6. 6.

    Betty Cracker

    Monday Morning Open Thread: Hot Soup & Stone Cold Facts

    Some folks are speculating that Musk’s creditors had a word. Of course, he’ll still own the platform; no one is going to buy that dumpster fire. But possibly its operations will be less affected by his personal whims. Or not, who knows.

  8. 8.

    David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch

    @Betty Cracker: The value of Tesla shares tumbled 16% last week.

    16% here, 16% there – pretty soon you’re talking real money

  10. 10.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Aussie Sheila:

    It would be better if they learnt in this, the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, to make structural changes so that the particular economic and social f..ck ups of the right aren’t possible anymore.

    A heavy, heavy lift.

  12. 12.

    Aussie Sheila

    @mrmoshpotato: I know, but we have to begin somewhere. I have watched and worked for a lifetime as the Right claimed lowering taxes and labour regulations benefited everybody. Where I am no-one really believed it, but ideas to wrest structural change have been few and far between here.

    But last week our federal Labor government slapped a price cap on the fossil fuel companies, and despite the Murdoch media screaming ‘soviet style intervention’, every one is pleased. The left because it sets a new floor for state intervention into these A holes’  profits and business, and the centre because it protects households and small business from usurious power price increases. Win win as the business schools say!

  14. 14.

    PST

    @lowtechcyclist: Yeah, COVID caught up with me too. This is Day 4. It has been mild, which I guess is to be expected when you’re vaxxed up and Paxxed up. I don’t want to be flippant about a disease that is still killing. A couple of years ago my wife and I upended our lives and lived in mortal fear, and quite properly so. We lost friends like everyone else. It’s all different now, among my friends at least, with COVID getting appropriate attention, but attention commensurate with what we give the host of other scourges that want to cut us off in our primes. We’re mostly healthy(ish) sexagenarians and septuagenarians whose biggest worry is exposing our octogenarian and nonagenarian parents.

  16. 16.

    Betty Cracker

    @zhena gogolia: Just curious: do you mean the commenter who was being an asshole across multiple threads about the World Cup results or were there other troll activities?

  17. 17.

    David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch

    @Geminid: Thanks for reminding me.  I need to drop by Trader Joe and stock up on dip for the Bowls games and the coming indictments.

  18. 18.

    Amir Khalid

    @Betty Cracker:

    I tend to doubt that Elon will actually quit even if he loses this poll overwhelmingly. After all, it’s not like there’s anyone who can force him to keep his word and give up his power trip at Twitter, is there?

  19. 19.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    That “arctic blast” was here this time last week.  I had to go to Cheyenne for work last Mon-Wed.  It got down to “only” 13 degrees but constant 40mph winds were killer.

  21. 21.

    gene108

    Ran across this on Twitter. 50 years ago, President Biden’s first wife Neilia and daughter Naomi died in a car accident.

    Then President Nixon called then Senator-Elect Biden to offer condolences. It’s just a strange bit of history to see 50 years later, peaking in on a conversation like this.

    The YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IMoPjMn3KNg

  22. 22.

    Betty Cracker

    @Amir Khalid: The poll is now done, and the margin is the same as above. Last night when the vote was going against him, Musk posted something like “be careful what you wish for.” No one can force Musk to quit, and he lies a lot, so maybe he won’t step down. But since Tesla stock is tanking pretty hard and Wall Street is pinning the blame on Musk’s Twitter antics, perhaps he’ll put a lacky in charge and pretend to focus on Tesla again. We’ll see.

    IMO, the damage is done. I sure as hell wouldn’t buy a car from that reactionary buffoon, and he’s likely ruined the brand for lots of affluent liberals who were his target buyers. I also hope the U.S. government is taking steps to extricate itself from relying on companies Musk controls for national defense or space programs, though I understand that will be a long process. In addition to revealing himself as a hard-right jerk, he’s demonstrated that he’s capricious and therefore unreliable. 

  23. 23.

    gene108

    @Betty Cracker:

    It’s amazing how quickly Musk set his personal brand on fire with his Twitter acquisition. I’ve witnessed very few people fall out of public favor so fast.

  25. 25.

    The Oracle of Solace

    Greetings, all! I have returned from the land of Covid. I hope nobody minds that I did not bring souvenirs.

    Thanks to vaccination and all the boosters (including the bivalent one), all COVID did to me was mild fever and severe fatigue. There were two days when I slept more than 12 hours. I still tested positive as of yesterday, but now have only a fever and stuffy nose.

    So tell folks to get the bivalent booster! Don’t let them confuse it with the bivalve booster, which only inoculates against bad clam chowder.

  26. 26.

    David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch

    Fact that 70% of America’s GDP comes from Biden/blue counties still doesn’t seem to be well understood.

    — John Della Volpe (@dellavolpe) December 17, 2022

    The invisible hand is left handed.

  30. 30.

    Scout211

    We don’t have the arctic blast here in NorCal but we have the dreaded tule fog that yesterday never burned off.  It was dreary and cold all day long. Driving this morning will be hazardous.

    My free COVID tests arrived on Saturday. Thanks, Biden! I hope we don’t need them but I’m glad we have them.

  31. 31.

    Betty Cracker

    We’ve sort of got an arctic blast here — it’s in the 40s right now, and highs are in the 60s for the next few days. The big freeze is coming over Christmas weekend with lows in the 20s and highs in the 40s for several days in a row, which is unusual. The citrus crop in Florida is already in trouble due to the hurricane and citrus greening. I read this will be the worst year for FL citrus since the 1930s. A hard freeze on top of that will really screw the growers. Orange juice prices will be through the roof.

  35. 35.

    Scout211

    CNN  reports that Twitter has removed the tweet from @TwitterSupport that announced the policy forbidding links to other social media sites.  And @TwitterSafety is now polling the masses on that policy.

    Elon and Twitter are sure getting a lot of media attention these days . . .

  36. 36.

    Jay

    Snow and Ice here, more snow on the way, cold weather alert for the rest of the week.

    Did a gig job yesterday, outside in the snow and cold, putting together a bodged together “carport”, recycled tern metal roofing over a recycled “tarp shed” frame with bracing.  Raced against dark, finished at 7pm, got home at 9pm, as Skytrain and Transit were having “issues” with the snow and cold. Should have been a 45min commute.

  38. 38.

    Soprano2

    @Betty Cracker: You don’t think he’ll make some kind of claim like “the bots did it” and just disregard it? Because we know that like TFG he lies all the time.

  40. 40.

    Anne Laurie

    @Scout211: Thus, the ‘wait 72 hours‘ tweet in the post.

    Dude is flailing, but I appreciate you guys have only so much patience for Musk-rattry.  I’m thinking he’s already (been told to, by the Arab backers he visited at the World Cup yesterday) picked out a replacement CEO.  Snark bets, last I checked, are divided between Jared Kushner (also seen in the Qatari WC stadium box) and a Peter Thiel sock puppet (Thiel being another major Elon financial backer).  Further subdivision of somewhat nervous jokes as to whether Blake Masters is willing to sacrifice his potential brilliant career in politics to climb up on the dunk tank platform…

  42. 42.

    NotMax

    Lost track of how long but at this moment into no less than hour 15 of a MASSIVE (and noisy!) thunderstorm. Heavy rains, with high wind warnings posted everywhere. Also accompanied by chilly temps.

    Frankly astonished both power and internet have not been interrupted.

  44. 44.

    gene108

    @Betty Cracker:

    The self-immolation will probably be studied in business schools for years to come.

    Having been to business school, the case studies we used were about successful situations or deals. I don’t recall ever going over a cautionary tale. This was a bit over 10 years ago, so may have forgotten something.

  47. 47.

    marklar

    @Anne Laurie: “Snark bets, last I checked, are divided between Jared Kushner (also seen in the Qatari WC stadium box) and a Peter Thiel sock puppet…”

    I hear Blake Masters is looking for employment.

  51. 51.

    mali muso

    Good morning! The cold weather blast is headed our way with supposedly some ice/snow/wintry mix in the cards for Thursday/Friday.  I’m a little bummed about it because this is the first year I sprang for tickets to take my kiddo on a “polar express” train ride (not cheap) but it’s a good hour plus driving in the mountains of west virginia to get to the boarding location and there ain’t no way I’m risking that during any kind of precipitation.

  55. 55.

    NotMax

    @mrmoshpotato

    Yesterday the first time received an automated severe weather warning (flooding, winds) on my landline. Don’t have caller ID so use the answering machine to screen calls.

  56. 56.

    satby

    And good morning to all from me. My early Christmas present this year appears to be pneumonia 😣. Heading to urgent care soon to get checked out. Ironically, I feel a bit better with less coughing; but my pulse-oximeter is telling me different. Nasty cold, hope no one else gets it!

  57. 57.

    eclare

    Love the clip of Chuck and Nancy!  “I don’t think we should talk about him (TFG) while we eat.”  Perfect!

  60. 60.

    Layer8Problem

    @mrmoshpotato:  I’m crazy about a fine thunderstorm, love the drama and the portentous leadup.  Ironically, I’m a computer person and feel like I should be pulling cords out of the wall when that happens.

  61. 61.

    jonas

    @Betty Cracker: Of course, he’ll still own the platform; no one is going to buy that dumpster fire.

    Of course not. He can’t run Twitter anywhere but into the ground. He can’t sell it for anything but pennies on the dollar. He’s in hock to a bunch of Saudi and Chinese investors for 10’s of billions. About all he can do at this point is declare bankruptcy and walk away. At that point his apprenticeship as the second Sith Lord to Darth Trump will be complete.

  65. 65.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Aussie Sheila: ​
     

    Social Democratic governments always have to fix up the messes of their opponents. It would be better if they learnt in this, the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, to make structural changes so that the particular economic and social f..ck ups of the right aren’t possible anymore.

    You’re absolutely right, but here in the USA, the problem is getting the votes.

    Come noontime on January 3rd, the GQP will have a House majority again. No luck there.

    For the past two years, the Dems have had exactly 50 Senators, and two of them were against changing the filibuster rules in any way, shape, or form, so the structural changes in question would have required the votes of at least 10 GQP Senators.

    For the four years previous (Jan. 2017-Jan 2021), the GQP controlled one or both houses of Congress, not to mention the White House.

    From January 2011 through January 2017, the GQP controlled one or both houses of Congress.

    From January 2009 through January 2011, the Dems controlled both houses of Congress in addition to Obama being President. In fact, they had huge majorities. In theory. But those huge majorities included a ton of Blue Dogs who had a pretty pro-business bent, which meant they weren’t going to raise taxes on high incomes, and weren’t going to give meaningful help to labor. Even stuff like the ACA only squeaked through the House by a few votes, despite the Dems’ huge majorities on paper.

    Before that, of course, Shrub was President, and before that, Clinton had Congressional majorities for only two years, and he had the same Blue Dog problem (by some other name perhaps) as Obama would 16 years later. And since this was really the first ‘cleaning up after the elephants’ episode, it wasn’t seen as a systemic problem yet, really more ‘well the Reagan boom had to end sometime, sucks that it happened now.’

    So there’s never really been a time when there’s been the votes for it. Really the current Congress, with its razor-thin Dem majorities, is the closest we’ve come to having them. On the House side, it’s been a very united caucus, and on the Senate side, for the first time, the vast majority of Dem Senators realize that if they don’t kill the filibuster, they’re forever going to find it extremely difficult to get the simplest things done. But two Dem holdouts still suffices to keep it in place.

  66. 66.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Apparently that ban violated an EU regulation. Musk really does live in his own little world

    There’s this new concept. It’s called “due diligence.”  All the hip kids are talking about it these days…

  67. 67.

    Betty Cracker

    Gift link to a NYT story about incoming Long Island Republican Rep. George Santos, who maybe lied about his education, employment and charitable activities. Or maybe he was schooled and employed under a different name and failed to mention that? It all sounds more than a little sketchy.

  73. 73.

    Booger

    @gene108: Well, in 2014-2015 the business cases definitely showed a strong survivor bias, which went completely unremarked on and only served to further fuel my bottomless cynicism and mistrust of my peers.

  74. 74.

    gvg

    @gene108: Oh lord, my business schools had plenty of cautionary tales. They liked to pair them, or even offer several with a range of results.  The disasters got the students talking and more involved in thinking actually. They make more of an impression and liven up the class. I was the early 90’s though.

  75. 75.

    jonas

    @David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch:  Musk is effectively putting a kind of short squeeze on Tesla stock where he has to periodically sell off huge tranches to raise cash to prop up Twitter, but each time this knocks the stock price, forcing him to sell more shares the next time around, which affects the stock price disproportionately more each time. In the meantime, investors are looking at this and asking whether they really want to continue to have their wagons hitched to a car company or a rocket company run by a megalomaniacal edgelord who clearly puts his own ego and fits of pique above the interests of shareholders.  And down and down we go.

  78. 78.

    jonas

    @gene108: ​
      Good grief. They were still sorting through the wreckage of the subprime mortgage collapse, the country was just beginning to climb out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and the B-school curriculum was all about the “success stories”? Here’s my surprised face, I guess — :|

    That’s kind of like a ROTC course in 1974 titled “Winning Land Wars in SE Asia.”

  79. 79.

    knally

    @gene108: I think this kind of thing is why Biden was keen on bipartisanship.

    It’s still a useful attitude; he just has to use it within the extremes of his own party now.

  80. 80.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @knally: There’s nothing wrong with bipartisanship per se. We should be able to work through our differences to solve problems.

    The utility of bipartisanship has dimininished in the last few decades because we’re dealing with largely intransigent assholes who want to tear down civilization on one side.

    Meanwhile, other constructive modes of political thought are sidelined in the media while the discourse caters to the median Democrat and, far more so, the median Republican.

  81. 81.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: ​

    Apparently that ban violated an EU regulation. Musk really does live in his own little world.

    Especially after having sacked all the people who would have kept track of things like that.

    @jonas: ​
     

    About all he can do at this point is declare bankruptcy and walk away.

    I thought he had to personally guarantee those loans that form the larger part of Twitter’s debt load now. So I don’t think he can do that without shelling out another thirteen billion or so, IIRC.

    But it’s fun watching him burn up $44B in what he paid for Twitter, crash Tesla’s stock price, and make a total fool of himself, all at the same time.

  82. 82.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @lowtechcyclist: it’s fun watching him burn up $44B in what he paid for Twitter, crash Tesla’s stock price, and make a total fool of himself, all at the same time.

    It is. It really is. Time to strip the veneer off the piggiest of the capitalists and let people see that success doesn’t necessarily mean you’re smarter or better or more worthy than anyone else.

    That goes tenfold for the direct benefactors of colonialism, apartheid, and slavery.

  83. 83.

    Layer8Problem

    @Betty Cracker:  Yep.  Republicans won’t care about the sketchy, because “so what we won”, but one would like to think this would have been on someone’s radar during the election, say Jay S. Jacobs, the Chair of the New York State Democratic Committee, who you’d think might have an organization devoted to doing background work on opponents and getting Democrats, you know, elected.

    I was at a local Democrat-related event here and Jacobs was a big subject in the conversation of the rank-and-file.

  85. 85.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @Starfish: There was some speculation that the people he wants to fund Twitter will only fund if he steps down.

    Wouldn’t surprise me. This would make the poll a form of ass covering. Musk gets to pretend he cares what people think.

    I wonder how many bots he employed to keep that poll 55/45 as opposed to 73/27.

  87. 87.

    artem1s

    I get the southern states being concerned about this system. But I saw one headline screeching that it was going to be worse than 77-78 blizzard. By normal standards, this is not a bad storm for the Great Lakes region. It’s not going below zero and the snow is only going to last about 18-20 hours and be over long before Xmas day. The retail industry might be concerned but this is pretty standard stuff for December (pre-global warming). And it is nowhere close to the kind of dump Buffalo had over Thanksgiving, let alone 77-78 which was preceded and followed by weeks of terrible cold and fuel oil shortages. Yes TX is probably fucked.

  89. 89.

    artem1s

    @Amir Khalid: ​
     

    I tend to doubt that Elon will actually quit even if he loses this poll overwhelmingly. After all, it’s not like there’s anyone who can force him to keep his word and give up his power trip at Twitter, is there?

    I wonder if he’s got this poll out there thinking Tesla stock prices will bounce back? Personally, if I owned Tesla, I’d be dumping as soon as I could and not buying back until he’s no longer the majority holder – or been ousted by the board.
    Can he get fined for trying to manipulate the markets? What if he decides the only way out is to take blue bird public? As always, rooting for injuries.

  90. 90.

    Montanareddog

    @Baud:

    You’ll have to keep missing me for a little while longer.

     

    Been busy last few weeks, have we, nd now taking a well-earned rest?

    Your real name would not be Didier Deschamps, would It?

  91. 91.

    Starfish

    @Soprano2: There were several right wingers in his comments saying “Oh, we need to redo this poll because I accidentally voted for the wrong one” including failed Colorado gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl.

  93. 93.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @Starfish: including failed Colorado gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl.

    The inability to operate an online poll speaks well to her credentials

    Also, too, is it just a pavlovian reflex now for Republicans to dispute the results of any instance of voting where they don’t like the outcome?

  94. 94.

    Betty Cracker

    @Starfish: That’s hilarious because it was a simple yes or no question: “Should I step down as head of Twitter?” Not a whole lot of ambiguity there!

  95. 95.

    Math Guy

    @Starfish: This is a great place to live. The people are nice, great state parks, the town I live in has bike and walking paths everywhere and plenty of cultural events. Oh, sure, the cold will freeze your whiskers off, but at least you don’t have to bother shaving anymore.

  96. 96.

    Betty Cracker

    @SiubhanDuinne: I had a similar thought. As we know, Rubio also lied about his family background for political gain (said they were “exiles” who fled Castro, which has a lot of cachet in South FL, when in fact they were economic refugees who arrived in FL before Castro came to power). But it sounds like this guy is even more of a fabulist!

  98. 98.

    jonas

    @artem1s: ​
      That’s something I’ve been wondering, too. There have got to be a bunch of shareholder lawsuits being teed up over what he’s doing to Tesla stock.

  99. 99.

    jonas

    @The Moar You Know: ​
      That’s exactly it. He’s loaded Twitter up with so much debt that no sane investor, or group of investors, would ever take it on. He couldn’t give it away. It will simply never get out from under it all w/o bankruptcy.

  100. 100.

    Betty Cracker

    @jonas: Meanwhile, Twitter’s former shareholders are the luckiest ducks ever. The management team that reeled the world’s biggest, slowest mark in for a ridiculous share price should be bombarded with lavish gift baskets forever.

  101. 101.

    Soprano2

    @gene108: It’s because the press mostly ignored what a huge asshole he was and how badly his companies treated their employees until what he was doing on Twitter made it impossible for them to ignore it any longer. He’s the same asshole he’s always been, same as TFG.

  102. 102.

    MisterDancer

    @Soprano2: the press mostly ignored what a huge asshole he was and how badly his companies treated their employees until what he was doing on Twitter made it impossible for them to ignore it any longer.

    I said it in my front-page post — a large part of why I bailed as soon as it became official was seeing the race/gender discrimination lawsuits against Musk companies, as well as his public behavior. Add to that the “we FORCE you to own this company!” situation, and nothing good was coming out of that for a while.

    The odds of at least the ramp-up in hate speech on Twtter — speech very likely to be directed at me and people I care about — was, like the rent, just too damn high. And that many didn’t see this as a very likely outcome says something about the lenses thru which many in the media (and elsewhere) see the world.

  103. 103.

    lowtechcyclist

    @gene108:

    Ran across this on Twitter. 50 years ago, President Biden’s first wife Neilia and daughter Naomi died in a car accident.

    Then President Nixon called then Senator-Elect Biden to offer condolences. It’s just a strange bit of history to see 50 years later, peaking in on a conversation like this.

    Two things struck me: first, Nixon’s incredible social ineptness. I can’t imagine saying some of those things in a condolence call.  Here he was, just shy of his 60th birthday, and he hadn’t mastered this basic social grace any better than that.

    In a way, I can relate to that and feel sorry for him; he reminds me of me, up to when I found the Lord. On the other hand, Nixon chose to go into public life and put himself in the position of having to have conversations like that with strangers.

    You’d think he’d have had people who could help him bone up on the right things to say in calls such as that, kind of like Crash Davis tutoring Nuke Laloosh on cliches in Bull Durham.

    The other, much more minor thing: photos of Joe Biden back then always remind me of Chevy Chase.

  104. 104.

    artem1s

    @The Moar You Know: ​
     

    Investors will take one look at balance sheet and past performance and it’ll be running about 5 bucks a share, going down precipitously with every fuckup he makes.

    Well $5/share is going to look pretty good once all his revenue streams dry up. If the IPO specifies a CEO replacement and he is prevented from buying a majority share, the opening price might not be that bad. I bet it brings more than the $8 bucks he’s trying to swindle the blue checks out of. I’m not sure if it also might create some chapter 11 protection while he figures out how to repay what he owes Morgan Stanley. Mostly it will staunch the gushing wounds he now has at all his companies.

  106. 106.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @lowtechcyclist: Thank you for this great summary.  I constantly hear the moans of Very Online Progressives about how Dems failed to do X, Y, and Z under Clinton, Obama etc.  And I’m always like “um, do you know how math works?”  As soon as you take into account actual vote counts and the national political mood at specific times, it makes the idea that “we should already have __ (insert favorite policy/structural change) if only Dems would’ve tried..” to be a pretty transparently silly assumption.

  107. 107.

    Ken

    @gene108: To me, only presenting business success stories would be a major flaw. Engineering curricula devote some time to stories like Tacoma Narrows or Therac-25 to make students aware of the human consequences of failure, and that both your company and you personally can be held liable for errors.

    I blame modern corporate law, especially the corporate shield. Adam Smith’s invisible hand doesn’t work properly when the officers of a failed company get golden parachutes. Not that I’m advocating a return to the days when they would have been put in debtor’s prison, and allowed out only once a week to spend a day in the stocks being pelted with rotten vegetables.

  108. 108.

    jonas

    @Betty Cracker: ​
      Yep. I’m sure a lot of former vested Twitter execs and employees let go by Musk were laughing all the way to the bank. Feel sorry for the poor schmucks who for whatever reason were forced to stay on and get “extreme hardcore” and sleep on the floor for no extra pay or benefits.

  110. 110.

    Soprano2

    @gene108: We studied one, about a manufacturer of airplane brakes that had a contract to do the brakes on a fighter jet of some kind. A flawed design actually got onto a test plane because there was one asshole engineer who insisted that design was correct, and everyone was afraid to cross him. That was almost 40 years ago, and it was quite instructive.

  111. 111.

    lowtechcyclist

    @jonas:

    There have got to be a bunch of shareholder lawsuits being teed up over what he’s doing to Tesla stock.

    On what basis? At its peak, Tesla’s market cap was greater than the next nine auto manufacturers, combined.  So now maybe it’s only worth more than the next three, put together.

    IANAL, but I just don’t see a case getting much traction based on a still-way-overvalued stock not being nearly as overvalued as it used to be.

  113. 113.

    mrmoshpotato

    @eclare:

    Love the clip of Chuck and Nancy! “I don’t think we should talk about him (TFG) while we eat.” Perfect! 

    Hahaha!  So good!

  115. 115.

    Caroline

    I am annoyed that the photo of the VP and her husband lighting Hanukkah candles has a Christmas tree in the background! Minor point I know, but it still stings.

  118. 118.

    Another Scott

    @jonas: Someone made the point on Twitter a few weeks ago that Tesla’s entire profit is the same as what they earn from selling emissions credits to other manufacturers.

    Doesn’t seem like a sustainable business model to me, but who knows…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  119. 119.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @Qrop Non Sequitur: Just to be clear, I don’t think these things are remotely analogous.

    I’ve been hip to these fools disparaging other traditions intruding on the ubiquity of Christmas fare since my 6th grade teacher’s rant in Catholic school

    Would have been 1994.

  120. 120.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: I am so tempted to make that a rotating tag. But I wouldn’t want anyone to be offended so I guess I won’t, but I really want to.

  121. 121.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Ken:

    Not that I’m advocating a return to the days when they would have been put in debtor’s prison, and allowed out only once a week to spend a day in the stocks being pelted with rotten vegetables.

    Awww. Maybe a few rotten vegetables, pretty please?

  123. 123.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @WaterGirl: It’s just for eight craaazy nights…

    It’s been crazy to me since I figured out Hanukkah was about people trying to maintain their own culture then seeing the way it gets treated by so many as alt-Christmas.

  124. 124.

    Geminid

    @lowtechcyclist: I don’t know much about the laws underlying shareholder lawsuits. But one of the first things I read after Musk went through with his Twitter purchase was that he had brought a crew of Tesla IT people over to help him out with Twitter. That, I thought could be the basis of a shareholder lawsuit, because Tesla is not Musk’s company and management has a duty to all the stockholders.

  125. 125.

    Kirk Spencer

    @Caroline:

    I am annoyed that the photo of the VP and her husband lighting Hanukkah candles has a Christmas tree in the background

    It’s a Hanukkah bush. 😜

  128. 128.

    Bill Arnold

    @lowtechcyclist:

    IANAL, but I just don’t see a case getting much traction based on a still-way-overvalued stock not being nearly as overvalued as it used to be.

    A lot (like everything over $40-50) of the Tesla stock price is a Musk-cult premium. He’s doing damage to that, his reputation for vision and competence, every day.

    (ETA; seen somewhere, maybe here, if here, thank you to whoever it was.)

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