Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Russia bombs Ukraine’s maternity hospitals; Republicans in the House can’t sort out supporting Ukraine.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

The new republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

Let there be snark.

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

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

Let’s finish the job.

If you’re looking for someone who’s young and athletic, go watch a fucking movie.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

I’m more Christian than these people and I’m an atheist.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

“They not like us!” (that’s for sure!)

Maybe you would prefer that we take Joelle’s side in ALL CAPS?

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Late Night Open Thread:Mother of Musk, Is This the End of Little Elon?

Late Night Open Thread:Mother of Musk, Is This the End of Little Elon?

by | 62 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

*We* should only be so lucky! Linette Lopez, at Business Insider, has been Musk-skeptical for many years — “Elon Musk’s luck has finally run out”:

… From 2019 to 2022, it seemed as if every gamble that Musk took was paying off. Tesla was consistently profitable for the first time in its history and its stock soared as its massive new Shanghai plant ramped up production. SpaceX rockets captivated the public’s attention — even when they blew up, everyone still clapped. Accusations of corruption and self-dealing slid right off Musk’s back. Musk could do and say anything he wanted and success followed: He was even named Time’s 2021 Person of the Year.

Then Musk did what every risk-addicted blackjack player inevitably does: pushed his luck too far. Overconfidence, confirmation bias, and delusions of control led to a string of bad decisions — and BOOM — Elon’s empire is in trouble again.

The change of fortune was apparent at The New York Times Dealbook Conference last week. During an interview with host Andrew Ross Sorkin, the recognizable tells that Musk’s hand had gone cold were everywhere. He raged at the very people who will dictate Twitter’s fate, seemed baffled by key questions about the future of his companies, and offered non-apologies for his unhinged, antisocial behavior online. Sorkin suggested Musk’s brain is like a storm, but it sounded more like two cats fighting to get out of a duffle bag.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what it looks like when Musk realizes he’s in a jam entirely of his own making. I know, because we’ve seen it before, including back in 2018, when he nearly flew Tesla into a mountain. He may find a way to ward off calamity, as he did then, but this jam is much tighter than the last one. Musk has to contend with over $13 billion of debt still weighing down a swiftly sinking Twitter, Tesla’s profits shrinking because of a lack of demand and new products, and a world that is generally sick of his schtick. In Muskland, everything is connected by money — problems at one business bleed into the others. That’s why Elon is being exceptionally obstinate. It’s not just your imagination — his luck has changed…

Tesla’s salvation came in the form of the Chinese Communist Party. In 2019, as executives were fleeing Tesla and the company continued to bleed cash, Musk struck a deal to build a factory in Shanghai. From permitting to construction to opening, the Shanghai Gigafactory was built in just 168 working days. Skeptical observers — myself included — were blindsided. What we failed to appreciate was the staggering power of the CCP when it’s aggressively pushing to meet a single goal. When the party said Tesla could build the factory there, that meant immediately.

Without China, Tesla would not have finally turned into a “real car company,” in Musk’s own words. He dodged destruction and started to settle down and focus on other projects, like Starlink. Sure, he was still wilding out on Twitter, but at least he wasn’t bawling to Rolling Stone about how badly he needs a girlfriend to be happy. At last, it seemed the Musk universe had found some kind of frenzied equilibrium.

Generally, there are two different lessons a person can take from surviving a brush with near ruin. They can learn to be more cautious, or they can decide that they are indestructible and tempt fate. I don’t think I need to tell you which path Musk chose…

Say what you want about him, but Elon Musk has ambition. On top of the world in early 2022, Musk decided that he had the power to single-handedly “fix” the entire concept of free speech. And given that he is hopelessly addicted to the adulation he gets from Twitter, that’s where he figured he would start.

We all know this part of the story. Musk started building a stake in Twitter in early 2022, then offered to buy it outright. He offered such a ridiculously high price that the board couldn’t say no. A consortium of banks — led by Morgan Stanley — loaned him a large portion of the money. And finally, after trying and then failing to renege on the deal, he bought Twitter. Not long after completing the deal, Musk exhausted all the ideas to turn around the platform and was left with angry former employees, skeptical advertisers, a terrible new name, and a massive pile of debt owed to the Boy Scouts over on Wall Street…

Because of the way that Musk operates, the social-media company’s troubles pose a threat to his whole business empire. Despite being the second-wealthiest person in the world, Musk is curiously cash poor. He doesn’t take a salary from Tesla, and while he owns about 20% of the EV maker, public documents filed in March show that about 63% of those shares are “pledged as collateral to secure certain personal indebtedness.” You know, like the private jets…

All of this money-incinerating activity, from the beginning of the Twitter deal to this very moment, could not have come at a worse time. For decades, Musk has operated in a placid economy where interest rates were near zero. But Musk started buying Twitter right as central banks around the world began hiking rates in an effort to combat inflation. That means the cost of servicing his debt is getting more expensive, making it harder for him to get new loans. It’s a shift so dramatic that it could rip a hole in the universe through which Musk’s reality collapses into our own…

Wall Street should be thoroughly embarrassed. According to reports, the banks holding Twitter’s debt are already expecting to take a $2 billion hit when they can finally sell it off. It’s not hard to see why. I’ve said from the jump that there was no money in this Twitter venture, and no principles either. Musk was always going to turn Twitter into a reflection of his limited view, his “Earth” — as he put it during his manic rambling at Dealbook — not a place for the average user. I never expected Musk’s fanboys to understand that, but I did expect bankers who are supposed to understand who pays for what in a media business to get it. In the end, there’s a real chance Wall Street investors will wind up owning the shambolic mess that is Twitter/X. One of the few blessings to come from this fiasco is that when that happens, at least they’ll know what not to do with it.

Reader Interactions

62Comments

  4. 4.

    Brachiator

    In the end, there’s a real chance Wall Street investors will wind up owning the shambolic mess that is Twitter/X. One of the few blessings to come from this fiasco is that when that happens, at least they’ll know what not to do with it.

    An absolutely stupid statement in an otherwise decent article. That Twitter can magically be rescued by investors is far from certain.

  6. 6.

    Poe Larity

    His Saudi friends and bank hostages can remain solvent for a long long time. Even Bibi grovels to him.

    The problem with Cybertruck won’t be people not wanting them, there’s more than 100,000 fanbois who will line up – it will be if they can actually make them in quantity.

    SpaceX going public for $150B+ will prop up StarLink for 4 or 5 years..

  7. 7.

    TS

    @Alison Rose:

    now his mommy is out here trying to defend her little boy.

    Must admit, my first thought was why is his mother involved in this – he is not a toddler, despite he acts as if he may be.

  8. 8.

    Brachiator

    @Baud:

    Do you still have to have a Facebook account to sign up for Threads?

    Not sure. Threads just launched in the EU. From The Verge.

    To coincide with today’s launch, Meta is giving users in the region the ability to browse Threads without needing a profile. Actually posting or interacting with content will still require an Instagram account, however.

  12. 12.

    Brachiator

    @Poe Larity:

    The problem with Cybertruck won’t be people not wanting them, there’s more than 100,000 fanbois who will line up – it will be if they can actually make them in quantity.

    The Cybertruck has to deliver on performance. I have seen some quick video reviews where people were impressed during a test drive, but the vehicle has to deliver on an acceptable range when being used as a truck. It also has to stand up to heavy use, show that it can deliver on performance on various roads and driving conditions, compared to other ICE and EV trucks.

    Otherwise, the thing will never be anything more than a niche vehicle and possible automotive orphan.

    ETA. Most people don’t really use pickup trucks as trucks; they just drive around in them. But if the Cybertruck is a crappy truck, even fanbois will look like total dopes for having them.

  16. 16.

    NutmegAgain

    Apartheid Mom says what? I guess we can see more of where he gets it from, in addition to the bonkers dad with hundreds of children, mom is also clearly touched. and very very special.

  18. 18.

    Brachiator

    I recently signed up for Mastodon after seeing that the hosts of a couple of podcasts I listen to finally abandoned Twitter for this service. I don’t post, but have just been looking around.

    On a recent tech show, one of the hosts noted that he has a Threads account, not to follow news stories, but only because many of his friends who used to have Twitter accounts have moved there. He says that BlueSky is mainly filled with people who like to complain about Twitter. But he noted that Mastodon has had communities for some time. He is just watching what happens, and has no opinion about what might happen with these services in the future.

    I am Brachiator on both Mastodon and Bluesky. Cool to have the same handle. I am not on Threads and never will be. I still use Twitter. It’s a shame to see how Musk is screwing it up.

  20. 20.

    Tehanu

    When I was about 12, 1959-1960 or so, my folks bought an Edsel station wagon — not one of their best business decisions ever. You younger folk probably don’t remember the Edsel, but I’m pretty sure Elmo’s shiny ninja-star/utility vehicle is going to end up the same way the Edsel did.

  25. 25.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Tehanu: As I recall reading, the Edsel was a fairly good car that was wrecked by marketing taking charge of design decisions and guessing poorly about what the buying public wanted in a car.

  27. 27.

    Chief Oshkosh

    Clicking through to the articles about the FCC decision, it’s just pathetic that two of the five FCC Commissioners are MAGAts spouting MAGA Whinges about mean ol’ Biden irrationally trying to destroy Musk. Why on god’s green earth those two wankers haven’t been turfed is ANOTHER DeJoy-level mystery.

    I would be first to cheer on Uncle Joe kicking Elon right in the nuts, but that ain’t Joe’s style and it ain’t what’s happening. Starlink’s bid relied on Starship as the delivery rocket. Has there been a successful Starlink mission? Nope. Hell, even in their appeal, MotU Musk stuck with Starship. So it’s almost-literally a non-starter. Why should the US taxpayer continue to fund Musk’s development program? Fuck ‘im.

    Second, Musk has demonstrated that he’s not a trustworthy partner in any endeavor, but ESPECIALLY with regards to Starlink. With his betrayal of the UKR effort (and his whiny ass titty baby mewling about it), it’s clear that he’d use a rural communication system that he would “own” for his own political goals. Again, fuck ‘im. [And AFAIC, we should consider just nationalizing Starlink – hell, we’ve paid for it at this point – but then we’d have to start looking hard at doing that with other members of the MIC. That army of lobbyists would never let that happen.]

    I suspect/hope that this FCC loss will get everyone else at “Musk Industries” one step closer to realizing that Elon isn’t actually Tony Stark and that they should either leave soon or figure out a way to toss Elon over the side (and his smack-talking mom, too).

    Fuck ‘im.

  29. 29.

    Kent

    @Brachiator:An absolutely stupid statement in an otherwise decent article. That Twitter can magically be rescued by investors is far from certain.

    No, they’ll just cash out, take the loss, and sell it to google or some other big tech company who will know what to do with it.

  30. 30.

    Kent

    @Baud:Do you still have to have a Facebook account to sign up for Threads?

    No, you need an Instagram account.  If you don’t have one then signing up for threads will automatically create and Instagram account for you, even if you don’t actually ever use it.  It is the same account as threads is a component of Instagram.

    I’m not sure if having an Instagram account gives you a Facebook account automatically.  I suspect if you went over to Facebook, “login with Instagram” will be one of the options.

  33. 33.

    Tony Jay

    Scene: The interior of a SpaceX storage unit in Texas, redecorated at the cost of millions to be a perfect replica for Ming’s Thronehall from the 1980 version of Flash Gordon. The Special One slouches in his throne wearing a juice-stained What’s Da Beef? T-Shirt and an expression of sullen boredom while the Choir Imperial finishes off verse sixty-six of ‘Your Musk Is A Very Fine Musk‘ and a troupe of dancing girls in Catholic SchoolGoth outfits are ushered out to be sprayed for fleas and sign extra NDAs.

    Omead Afshar hitches up his black hooded robe and leans closer to the Special One’s ear. His whisper echoes breathily through the mouthgrille of his titanium facemask.

    “Today’s PR minion is ready with their suggestion, Oh Lord of All Time and Space.”

    The Special One shrugs, “Whatevs.”

    Afshar raises a hand and four hulking beefcakes with surgically compressed genitalia stomp forward with a cage suspended between them. Inside it swings a terrified looking marketing drone wearing a bright yellow canary costume. His face sweats and his eyes flick helplessly between the Special One’s throne and the corner where two nervous wranglers restrain a chained up black jaguar. Around the jaguar’s neck is a nametag reading Sylvester. It licks its lips hungrily, gold-red stare fixed on the cage.

    “Address your Master”, booms Afshar.

    “O… O… O Limitless Prince of The Planets. O Grandiose Avatar of Mankind’s F… F… Future. O Font of Truth Most Stark, hear my unworthy words.”

    The Special One flicks a spitball at a nearby courtier. It misses by some distance but the courtier mimes a Hollywood fall and is carried out on a stretcher. The Special One smirks.

    “Hit me.”

    “The, uh, the Deep State are out to get you, O Luminous Orb, but the people of Earth, they really, really love you and everything you, uh, you do for them. But, uh, their small minds don’t understand the threat to, uh, to your Temporal Dominion because they kinda, uh, they can’t imagine how a Divine Emanation from the Mind Dimension could ever be threatened by mortal agencies.”

    The Special One nods, rolling an uncompleted Rubik’s Cube around in his hand, “Get to it.”

    “We gotta show them! Humanise your, uh, your origins? I was thinking it might be, uh, get your Mom to say something.”

    Silence falls. Even the jaguar crouches lower to the ground as it senses the chill. The Special One’s eyes bulge and slack muscles tense.

    “My? Mom? My Mom? MY MOM?”

    The Special One chuckles and lets out a noisy fart.

    “Yeah, sure. Whatevs. Give the little people what they want for Christmas.”

    Thunderous applause. The marketing drone starts crying. Afshar gestures and the cage is carried out. The wranglers with the jaguar follow, they know the drill.

    In such ways are matters decided in the House of Musk.

  34. 34.

    MagdaInBlack

    I so enjoy watching Elon fall. Thank you as always, A.L.

    ( i’m up studying some more, Illinois Rules of the Road, because I have my first road test in 49 years at 1:30 today in a fkn Tahoe)

  35. 35.

    Tony Jay

    @MagdaInBlack:

      I have my first road test in 49 years at 1:30 today in a fkn Tahoe

    Remember the rule. If you get nervous just imagine everyone else naked.

    Then again. Tahoe? Best not.

  43. 43.

    JAFD

    Good morning, jackals !

    You get three guesses for my BlueSky handle.  First two don’t count.

    Found and followed Ms. AlisonRose, no such luck with Brachiator.

    Spent an hour-and-a-half after my bedtime last night, trying to put a ‘banner’ picture over my profile.  No joy.  Advice (reading Bluesky on my web browser, on portable computer) ???

  44. 44.

    p.a.

    The Fanbois will go when there’s a “Gandalf dismisses Saruman, breaks his spell” moment.  But they’ll just latch on to someone else.  It’s who they are.

  45. 45.

    Betty Cracker

    @JAFD: When you click “edit profile,” you should see a camera icon you can click and upload a photo for your banner. You’re not getting that option?

    ETA — you should see an option to upload an avatar photo and a banner.

  47. 47.

    Anne Laurie

    @JAFD: @Betty Cracker:  It may be a web-browser issue.  I also read BlueSky on my laptop, and I can’t see anyone’s banner photo — not even my own, which was visible when I first started posting there.

    (Not an important issue, to me; I keep in mind that the site is still an ‘incomplete’ beta version.)

  49. 49.

    Geo Wilcox

    @Brachiator: It’s a crappy truck. I saw a video of one that got stuck on a small, snowy incline having to be towed out by a Ford 150. Too bad it wasn’t the Lightning (Ford’s EV truck) that pulled it  out, THAT would have been even more hilarious.

    The biggest problem for off roading is the weight of this thing. It’s easily 3 tons and the short ground clearance is a deal breaker for off roading.

  51. 51.

    moops

    I had originally expected to find out that many of Elon’s X posts were really being done for him by his own AI creation, trained on his own utterances and the utterances of his friends and followers on the former Twitter.  Thus the strange erratic behavior that is an account with two different entities in the driver seat.  Like TFG’s account on Truth Social with TFG, and his emulating staffers.

     

    Then he released Grok as its own feature at X, and now it is apparent that Grok is not a sock puppet of Musk.   Grok is not nearly as incoherent or as antisocial as Musk and his fans.  Grok should take over as CEO for X.  I guess it would make sense that our first AI CEO would be a social media company.

  52. 52.

    moops

    @Geo Wilcox: why does being 3 tons make it a bad off-road vehicle?    I would think the main factor is power to weight ratio, which puts Cybertruck as the highest of any consumer trucks on the market.   The Humvee was a copy of the military off-road capable truck, and it was heavy too.    The ice misadventure looked like that driver would have been stuck no matter what consumer-grade truck they were seated in.

     

    what is going to kill Cybertruck is being ugly and being priced at a point where Tesla can’t make enough profit on it with the small levels of demand that are going to eventually appear.  I think most pre-orders are not going to convert into sales.  It showed up too late.  The EV truck market has options now.

  53. 53.

    sdhays

    @frosty: My favorite part was the spitball that missed the minion who then pretended to have been “taken out” by it. I think something like that, if not exactly that, happens regularly with “The Special One”.

  54. 54.

    FelonyGovt

    I seem to remember that  Elmo’s mom was a rather famous, mature age model at some point,  back when her son was respected and not known to be an unhinged wacko. I guess that modeling career is done with.

  58. 58.

    stinger

    @Brachiator: Following you on Mastodon. Can’t find you on Bluesky but will keep trying. I don’t know much about how either system works.​
     
    ETA: Ah, found you through Alison Rose!

  60. 60.

    E.

    Musk apparently held some kind of X forum with Matt Gaetz, the Infowars psychopath, and Andrew effing Tate. It can’t really get all that much worse. I sympathize a lot with people who use Twitter still but whoa.

Comments are closed.