Trump, who doesn’t drive, announced he will use his office to perform a Tesla marketing gimmick
— PatriotTakes ???? (@patriottakes.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 12:36 AM
it’s like a golf cart that drives into a gaggle of kindergartners if you turn on the autopilot
— not an art thief (@famousartthief.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 3:36 PM
And we all know Trump got his patented five-finger “friends & family” discount, so it’s not as though there will be a bunch of bothersome paperwork. Or maybe the car was just recompense for his fine, resonant sales pitch to the nation!
— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 7:40 PM
The last thing the country saw before the ether-soaked rag hit our collective face.
— Mike Rothschild (@rothschildmd.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 8:01 PM
"I will do that. I'm gonna stop them." — Trump on declaring that Tesla protesters are domestic terrorists
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 11, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Everything Trump touches dies. You’re up, Tesla.
— Tim Hannan (@timhannan.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Poor, poor little Elon — so misunderstood!
??
— Rev Touching the Demon Core (@revan.social) March 11, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Why u no liek Elon Musk, America???
Sad.— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 5:06 PM
(Ever seen The Manchurian Candidate, Sen. Cramer?)
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I’ve seen the damage Musk has caused to people he doesn’t care about, and that tells me everything I need to know about him.
sentient ai from the future
Get musk to be the fall guy for the shit the other fascists wanted to do anyway, then wash your hands of him.
Or maybe he takes too much drugs and accidentally fall out of window, da?
Mai Naem mobil
Cheapskate billionaire Orange fartcloud picked the cheapest model. Did anybody hear the crack he made about about whether Biden would be able to get in the car? Like oooh he’s a super duper athlete because he can step Into a sedan? He’s such a stupid little man.
dc
Biden would make that Tesla look cool. If there’s a cool image of Joe Biden, it’s of him with his aviators in a sports car.
Is this not an emoluments (yeah, I know, how much criming and unconstitutionality can we fit into our attention spans) issue?
John S.
@dc:
Apparently, nothing is an issue anymore. The President can just do whatever the fuck they want. As long as they aren’t a Democrat.
prostratedragon
(Ever seen The Manchurian Candidate, Sen. Cramer?)
Or heard the term “dignity wraith?”
Shalimar
Best case scenario for Musk: millions of MAGA assholes buy Teslas, only to try to sell them 3 months from now when mom comes to live with them after they kick her out of the nursing home when Musk succeeds in gutting Medicaid.
NotMax
And the addled Orangegarch repeatedly calls the company “Tesler.”
prostratedragon
“Le Grand Tango,” in recital
NotMax
Long watch. Musk in vehicular panic mode?
sab
Do MAGAs even buy Teslas? I thought they only bought cybertrucks or actual pickup trucks. Teslas are driven by climate conscious lefties who bought them years ago.
NotMax
@prostratedragon
Why be blue? Everybody tango!
Bone-us tango.
;)
Shalimar
@sab: MAGAs notoriously hate electric vehicles including Teslas. This is a desperate attempt to change that. I will be surprised if it works, but sales are down everywhere in the world. Musk had to do something.
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’, y’all.
Asparagus Aspersions
Good morning everyone!
Question for the open thread: as nothing in my 45 years of life has prepared me for the singular experience of watching the US step on 500 rakes per day and then stab itself in the face with them, I find myself struggling to find a good balance between incandescent outrage and hatred, and normal functioning mode.
I know I’m not the only one literally losing sleep over what’s happening. I need some places on the Internet to bring me joy and calm, besides just doing random searches for “surprised cat videos”. Jacques Pepin did a series of short at-home cooking videos during Covid that never fail to soothe me. Does anyone have any go-to sites with good stories and/or distractions? Either text-based or video-based is fine, depending on the subject.
prostratedragon
@NotMax: That beginning reminds me of myself getting up for the day. Very clever, and good tango dancing.
Suzanne
@Shalimar: These supposed smart people keep setting their businesses on fire because they want a core customer who’s different than the one they have.
Pro tip for Musk, Bezos, etc: only liberals buy newspapers, electric cars, and the like. If you want to sell stuff to MAGA chucklefucks, get into the fentanyl business.
Yep, I said it.
TBone
Heather Cox Richardson is walking these fucks down her gangplank. Unloading plus
…
…
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-11-2025
TBone
@Asparagus Aspersions:
Robert Fulghum never fails me in that department. He does his journal entries periodically.
https://www.robertleefulghum.com/blog/
TBone
@Suzanne: bwahahaha!
Baud
@Suzanne:
I don’t think Bezos cares that much about the newspaper as a business.
Sloane Ranger
Morning all.
Just popping in to say that the British news has just reported that the Captain of the cargo ship that collided with the Stena Immaculate, just off our coast a few days ago, leading to both ships bursting into flame and a leak of jet fuel into the North Sea, was a Russian national.
The ship had also apparently failed safety inspections last year.
The Captain has been charged with gross negligence manslaughter as one crew member is unaccounted for and assumed dead.
p.a
I asked before, about tRump & his “real Murcan” “appeal” (lots of “s when talking about the orange shitstain) has he ever driven a car? Has he been limo-ed around since he was a child? That’s teal Murca, that is!
Baud
@p.a:
“Real” Americans sold themselves out to rich people long before Trump.
Suzanne
@Baud: I don’t think Bezos’ attempt to pull WaPo readers to the right is likely to be effective. I get why he’s trying it, but I think it’s a swing and a miss.
Oh well, it happens. He’ll have to settle for attending events with that scantily clad talking head he married.
Asparagus Aspersions
@TBone:
Thanks very much for the recommendation!
prostratedragon
@Asparagus Aspersions:
I’ve been watching cooking shows lately, too. Pepin, Julia Child, and Lidia Bastianich are always cheerful, and lately I’ve been using the Cook’s Country/ATK shows to maintain my interest in cooking and eating; just set some beans soaking to try this New England dish tonight.
Bob Ross’s painting shows work with many people, including me at times.
TBone
Up and at ’em music for current
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g-qkY2yj4_A
TBone
@Asparagus Aspersions: he is such a mensch!
Suzanne
@prostratedragon: LOL, I always enjoy Bob Ross, but half the time, I end up wondering why he ruined a perfectly good painting with an outhouse.
Calmness for me is looking at stock floor plans of houses. Anyone else?
TBone
@prostratedragon:
@Asparagus Aspersions:
P.D. never fails to delight either! All of P.D.’s suggestions are soothers that I also adore.
Baud
@Suzanne:
I would have thought you’d spot all the problems and get stressed.
TBone
@Sloane Ranger: I read somewhere yesterday, can’t now remember where/who, someone who said Pooty does not have, has lost control of his mothership (country).
Suzanne
@Baud: Oh, I do spot problems, but then I just go to the next one.
TBone
@TBone: bagpipes!
Baud
@Suzanne:
“Putting the bathroom in the kitchen is not a good way to save on plumbing costs, dammit!”
MagdaInBlack
@Suzanne: I am addicted to floor plans, ever since I was a kid. I even used to draw them up on graph paper. Still do, to be honest. I have half a dozen in my head now I need to put on paper.
( i dont know why no one ( self included) ever glommed onto that habit and sent me off to school to be someone like you =-)
Suzanne
@Baud: Naw, more like, “Who TF needs a 4,000 square foot house with three living rooms? You only have three bedrooms. That’s one living room per person!”.
raven
My social security deposit came as usual.
Suzanne
@MagdaInBlack: I have been a floor plan reader since I was a kid. My sixth-grade teacher saw me reading a catalog of them once and was like, “What the heck are you doing?!”.
The irony is that I don’t work on houses and never have.
Baud
@Suzanne:
Sounds like a house made for one of those reality TV shows where they put a bunch of strangers in the same house.
Baud
@raven:
Congrats. Too bad that’s news these days.
TBone
@Asparagus Aspersions:
Janey Godley is also a source of much hilarity
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F5UPP8yxiJg
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Il1s7QtuCT8
Suzanne
@Baud: There are definitely houses for people with lots of money and bad taste.
TBone
@TBone: another suggestion for respite posited by Fulghum in his latest journal entry:
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: I don’t think the point is to pull regular readers to the right, it’s to quash a major source of mainstream criticism of Trump that can get passed around elsewhere. And to give other media owners a signal that they can and maybe should do the same.
Baud
Via Reddit, on topic.
TBone
@Baud: pirated that for my crew hahahaha!
prostratedragon
@Suzanne:
Oh thank God!!
Asparagus Aspersions
@TBone:
I literally just watched a Flash Mob video! There is something about good-natured fun that just hits all the right buttons these days.
TBone
@Asparagus Aspersions: 💜🤘
I also highly recommend the Fulghum journal entry titled “Who Knows?” just before “Flash Mob.”
I have a few of his books, also highly recommended.
Uh Oh
It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It
and of course
Everything I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.
MagdaInBlack
@Suzanne: And I think most of them are on my drive to work. I’ve been watching one go up since fall 2023. I think they’re finally moved in. It is worthy of a McMansion Hell post.
ColoradoGuy
The marketing is what baffles me. Melon Husk, with his flagrant Nazi-love, his gang is spoiled Teenage Mutant Ninja Coders, and cancellation of desperately needed African aid programs, has thoroughly destroyed the image of Tesla worldwide. There is nothing he can do at this point to redeem himself. I don’t think many Russian oligarchs will buy Teslas.
MAGAs love big, expensive he-man trucks. Ford F250’s with diesels and dual-tire sets on the rear, or hard-core off-road rigs that you need a stepladder to get into. Big, big trucks. They’re all over the place here in Colorado, but we have lots of dirt/rock tracks and intense blizzards with heavy snow where these extreme vehicles actually make sense. Cybertrucks are grossly unsuited for the hard-core off-road stuff, and the off-road community is well aware of that, seeing them as urban toys.
Which leaves the market for Tesla as … what? Urban Nazis?
Asparagus Aspersions
@Suzanne:
My brain isn’t built to understand floor plans. I think it’s the same malfunction that means I have literally never successfully assembled a piece of furniture from Ikea. Mr Asparagus kicks me out of the room when there is something to put together.
Suzanne
@Matt McIrvin: Yeah, maybe that’s more realistic. Because there’s heaps of research about college-educated people (who make up an outsize share of newspaper readers) shifting leftward in significant numbers…. thus, a rightward shift is not going to grow that readership.
raven
@Baud: yea
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: Looking at floor plans of houses gives me anxiety because it makes me think about the process of buying a house. (And how the last time I bought one was in the midst of the real-estate crash that led to the Great Recession, which didn’t help me buy because the price of my old house was crashing too, and it meant the deals to sell it were always in danger of suddenly collapsing.)
Suzanne
@Asparagus Aspersions:
You’re not alone. That’s something like 85% of people…. thus why I have a job, LOL.
MagdaInBlack
@ColoradoGuy: I see a lot of them in the wealthier white suburban “enclaves” like the ones I drive thru on my commute.
TBone
@Matt McIrvin: I feel your pain acutely. Am dreading trying to move again, but it must happen… I’ve done it so many times I should be an expert, plus I had a Real Estate Salesperson license, but no. It is always painful.
I learned a lot about realtors though. That is a two syllable word. I hate when people pronounce it with three syllables.
Suzanne
@Matt McIrvin: Buying or selling a house is always excruciating.
TBone
@ColoradoGuy:
And idiots. But I repeat…
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: The intended audience for the Bezos Post is one person, who doesn’t even read it.
TBone
Mike Drucker on Bluesky
HCR says it was an old school DDoS attack.
https://www.wired.com/story/x-ddos-attack-march-2025/
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: My spouse likes looking at real estate listings for fun but I can’t separate the fantasy of living there from the blood-pressure-spiking nightmare of negotiating and closing real-estate deals.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Paul Krugman says both Trump and Musk have literally lost their minds
Jackie
@raven:
I checked mine; it hasn’t. Not in pending either. Stress level just skyrocketed…
Betty Cracker
@Asparagus Aspersions: Cooking shows on streaming TV are my digital Xanax. After running through all available episodes of Great British Bakeoff and its numerous spinoffs, the complete works of Ina Garten, many seasons of Julia Child, etc., I’ve been binge-watching cooking shows on the free Roku channel, which offers decades of Martha Stewart and America’s Test Kitchen, among others. I am calmer (though no more rested, tbh), and I’ve added some new dishes to the old repertoire, so I’ve got that going for me. Good luck!
@Suzanne: LMAO — truth bomb!
Raoul Paste
@Suzanne: You are in the right business. It must be very satisfying
There go two miscreants
LOL. I used to have a fair collection of plan books; got rid of most when I finally decided I would never build my own place. Off on a tangent: Do you have any thoughts on Sarah Susanka (“Not-so-big house”)?
Always enjoy your comments on architecture!
O. Felix Culpa
@Matt McIrvin:
Fixt.
TBone
WuTang Is For The Cheap Snark
https://bsky.app/profile/wutangforchildren.bsky.social/post/3lk5dqi6r5c2a
TBone
@NotMax: well done again! I’m in a rare mood of uncontainment today.
Oops, did I really say rare?
Matt McIrvin
@ColoradoGuy: I don’t think these businesses are intended to make money from consumers any more–these billionaires’ behavior is intended to flatter the President so they can get fat federal contracts from the openly corrupt regime. If the President also helps sell their stuff to his obsessive fans, that’s a side benefit, but it’s not the main story.
Now, there are some areas where Musk’s businesses and Bezos’s are directly competing for the federal teat, and that’s where it gets interesting.
TBone
The Inky has a new feature. Let’s Eat! Included:
P.S. Marlene Frusco knows her shit!
Matt McIrvin
@ColoradoGuy: …The other thing is that Tesla could literally succeed in manipulating the President into banning or hobbling all of his competition, so that if you want an electric car, Tesla is your only really feasible option. I think that’s why an electric-car manufacturer is OK with a President who hates and wants to destroy electric cars–now the President can just hate and destroy all electric cars other than his.
Suzanne
@There go two miscreants: I have a couple of Susanka’s books, too! I don’t really have an opinion on her architecturally (’cause I don’t do houses), but I am always in favor of thoughtful design and consuming less, and thus I like her philosophy.
The common conception of architecture is that we have big budgets and thus we always want to build cool stuff. It’s a lot more about deciding what to build, how to stretch a budget, and how to make decisions — because no one can afford everything.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@ColoradoGuy: Remember, Tesla doesn’t have a marketing department because Musk doesn’t believe in it.
frosty
@Suzanne: Not calmness, but we bought several books of Craftsman house floor plans when we bought our four square, thinking we might build ourselves the perfect bungalow. Square foot construction costs ended that idea.
I am one of that minority who can read them. What’s so hard about it?
oldgold
Looking at the “would you buy a used car from this man “ political poster makes me nostalgic for a time when Democrats knew how to communicate effectively.
Have we had an ad or poster that cuts right to the core of Trump’s corrupt sociopathic being?
Suzanne
@frosty: Just…. Lots of people don’t have the visual/spatial ability to do it. Can’t look at something from above and thus imagine it also having sides. No sense of scale. Not correlated to any other form of intelligence, AFAIK. It just…. is a quirk in humans. Those of us who can read them are very much in a minority.
otmar
The German equivalent to the Onion is covering this as well: https://www.der-postillon.com/2025/03/ex-reality-star-autos.html
Baud
@Suzanne:
Trivia Man
@Suzanne: same reason olden day armies would burn the crops as they swarmed through enemy territory. Remove a mans of sustenance. Bonus points if it is something that takes years to replace like mature olive trees. Or in this case a respectable and trusted brand name with credibility and distribution infrastructure.
Geminid .
@Suzanne: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s *father* was an architect, and did a lot of work for the City of New York. No grand projects there, but rather smaller, complex renovations of municiple infrastructure. That’s challenging work.
Edited for meaning.
Baud
@Geminid .:
Did you leave our a word, or is AOC an architect?
Geminid .
@Baud: Thanks again. My proofreader is a lazy airhead.
trnc
He’ll get it for free, and then he’ll successfully sue for millions when it blows up sitting in the driveway.
trnc
@TBone:
Personally, I would have gone with a response of “You’re a moron”
suzanne
@Geminid .:
It is. A lot of architects and engineers work for various governments and companies as project managers. Managing budget, schedule of design and construction, procurement, and making decisions about scope.
Geminid .
Some Syria news: interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa has been invited to an international Syria donors’ conference in Brussels, on March 17. This will be al-Sharaa’s first visit to Europe.
I’m hoping Derek Guy covers it. Syria’s President seems like a sharp-dressed man; I’d be interested in Mr. Guy’s opinion.
Baud
@Geminid .:
He knows every girl goes crazy over that.
NotMax
@Asparagus Aspersions
A smattering of possibilities in no particular order.
Tasting History
Today I Found Out
Ed’s Auto Reviews
The History Guy
CGP Grey
Food Wishes
different-church-lady
Well, Elon Musk has never met me either.
And he better hope he never does.
different-church-lady
@trnc: How about, “…and you’re a moron”?
cmorenc
@Asparagus Aspersions: It’s not just struggling with incandescent rage vs trying to put on a normal enough face to cope, it’s the sleepless passages in the middle of the night unable to fend off a nightmare because it’s pervasively real – stuff I never thought possible in this country that is turning out to be very different than i always believed it was.
Really bad stuff happening to lots of people – and watching what was our very safe comfortable retirement accounts melting away because of the fart cloud’s malevolent idiocy.
Baud
@cmorenc:
I’m not going to tell you to try to time the market, but it hasn’t collapsed that much yet. We’re back where we were at around election time. If you’re health is hurting with worry, consider something safer while you can.
different-church-lady
@Baud: “I think it would be fun to run a newspaper.“
different-church-lady
@cmorenc:
If there’s any solace in it, I still believe it’s not inherent — it’s being deliberately changed into something horrible. It’s not spontaneous, there’s a lot of social engineering involved.
tam1MI
My favorite “Lower My Blood Pressure” blog…
Horace the Alresford Bear
Geminid .
@Baud: Ahmed al-Sharaa definitely set Levantine hearts a-flutter when he burst onto the scene last December. I saw a funny exchange over a picture of al-Sharaa standing over a cookstove, ladle in hand.
“And he cooks! My little heart can’t take it,” exclaimed a Lebanese woman. A Syrian lady responded, “Keep your hands off our boy. He’s for Syrian women!” Much good natured bantering ensued.
But as it turns out, Ahmed al-Sharaa is a married man. He and his wife were photographed together some weeks ago during his trip to Saudi Arabia, when they visited Mecca. Like her husband, Mrs. al-Sharaa comes from Syria’s educated middle class. Both families had members who served as government officials during the last century.
MoCaAce
@There go two miscreants:
I just finished building a mother-in-law apartment on the house I have a stack of scaled floor plan drawings at least an inch thick. It’s amazing how many different layouts you can draw in one 24×36 footprint. I would sometimes draw two a day… very relaxing
NotMax
@MoCaAce
Soundproof?
(couldn’t resist the low hanging fruit snarkage)
YY_Sima Qian
Honestly, my brain hurt from reading the Know Nothing nativism exhibited in the article:
The mixture of emotions I felt was anger, pity, sadness, amusement, bemusement.
Gretchen
@MagdaInBlack: I have a friend, now in her 70s, who always loved drawing house plans. She tried to sign up for drafting in high school, but wasn’t allowed – that was only for boys. She could take home Ed or typing.
evodevo
@raven:
So did mine…it was still “pending” as of 10 last nite, and I was beginning to wonder..
Sandia Blanca
@Asparagus Aspersions: Someone here recently posted a video by the Atik family (look for Atik Ailesi on Youtube) about their massive custom camper. They camp in the mountains in all kind of weather. I find their videos utterly enthralling and peaceful. Highly recommend!
https://youtu.be/gYn6_ls662Q?si=yElqBmRaWopdrLrI
JustRuss
It’s amazing that Trump using the presidency to shill for a car company doesn’t even crack the Top 100 Horrible Things Trump Has Done list.
Yutsano
@Suzanne: That reminds me: I was driving to work this morning* & I saw a really neat piece of architecture. It was a single level building but instead of just levelling the lot they sunk the building into the hill. It looks really neat from the road or at least I thought so.