The polls Mr. Elon. Apparently everyone hates you.
Like literally everyone.— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) March 12, 2025 at 10:15 PM
On the one hand, Trump can’t afford to dump Elon — even if their Russian master would permit him to do so, a scorned Musk has literally billions of ways to make Trump’s life less comfortable. On the other hand, if Musk is catching a nasty case of Luzer Stink, he’s certainly the most *high profile* potential sacrifice…
JPMORGAN slashes $TSLA Q1 delivery estimates “to just ~355K, which is -8% y/y .. and -28% q/q
from 495K in 4Q24 ..
“.. We struggle to think of anything analogous in the history of the automotive industry, in which a brand has lost so much value so quickly ..”
Cuts target price to $120 (prior $135— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) March 12, 2025 at 12:29 PM
BREAKING
$TSLA to change ticker symbol to $FAFO
The Trump bump has become the Trump slump for Elon Musk’s golden goose: Tesla.
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast.bsky.social) March 10, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Whether it's SpaceX, Twitter, or the US government, Elon is a true master of making very expensive things explode
— Fentanyl Tsar ?????? (@canderaid) March 10, 2025
"If you read his full quote, he said 'we think.' So it's an estimate" — after a reporter asks a question citing direct quotes from Elon Musk about Social Security cuts, Leavitt insists Musk was taken out of context
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 11, 2025 at 1:49 PM
I would just like to remind that azz that a Trump endorsement could help this #TeslaTakedown go even further down. Musk's clown meme stock is still overpriced 15X compared to price/earnings of Toyota, the world's largest automaker.
— L O L G O P (@lolgop.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 6:33 AM
Baud
If Twitter were a car company…
Jeffg166
I thought from the start Musk was being set up as the fall guy. Who gets the job once he is gone is another story.
Hildebrand
@Jeffg166: Vance. He is definitely next.
JoyceH
The fiasco of the federal workforce can be pushed off to Musk perhaps but the tariffs – that’s all Trump all the time. And nobody else. There’s nobody else within the administration or the right wing opinionators or anywhere who’s pushing tariffs but Trump – and he’s been singing the same crazy song for ages. It’s all on him. I heard a clip of a right wing finance guy on Fox start by saying “I might get fired for this” and then saying that Trump’s tariff obsession was “crazy”. Finally! The C word, being said in public about Trump. Of course we’ve all known it for years, but if THEY are starting to say it, dare we hope the fever is breaking?
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’, y’all.
Just out of curiosity, for those of y’all contacting your members of Congress, are you getting any responses?
Noskilz
I don’t know if Trump has the inclination or disposition to do so, but as a president the supreme court has basically decided is above the law, he has all sorts of means to annihilate Musk if that’s what he feels like doing.
Even without the more colorfully cinematic options, he could have him imprisoned, his assets frozen, his companies seized – simply unleashing the DOJ on him to follow up on the many legally shaky to outright criminal things he has done.
Whether Trump would ever do such a thing is something else, but a US president, particularly one in a time where “if the president does it, it’s not illegal” is a terribly dangerous thing with power vast enough even the thickest of wallets may provide little protection.
Nukular Biskits
@Noskilz:
That would probably be one of the few things Trump could do to actually unite this country, if only for the moment.
The MAGAs are going to support Trump, regardless of WTF he does, “moderate” Republicans loathe Musk because he sucks up all the political oxygen and threatens their own power and the rest of us would love to see him launch himself into the sun on one of his exploding spaceships.
Betty Cracker
@Nukular Biskits: Nothing substantive, just the usual blah blah blah. How about you? Same old crap all the time?
TBone
@Nukular Biskits: complete silence.
eclare
A couple of nights ago on Colbert, the crowd instantly roared when he mentioned how much wealth Musk lost on Monday. I know it’s a biased audience, but even Colbert seemed taken aback by the response.
And then he explained the economic principle causing Tesla’s stock to fall: everyone fucking hates you.
eclare
@Nukular Biskits:
The only one I can get in touch with is my D rep. I’m shocked that Marsha Marsha Marsha and Hagerty are useless.
TBone
I’m so very frustrated once again. Was violently ill with IBS several times during the night and have a lymph node so swollen and ugly and painful that I might try to lance it myself. Also the weird headache is back.
Had to reschedule my MMR and Covid booster jabs set for today. I must have picked up yet another germ at the butcher shop a few days ago. My immune system SUCKS.
GAH!
David_C
$400M cuts to Columbia, $800M from Hopkins, with the promise of more to come. Stupid comments about measles – that the immunity from an infection is better than from a vaccine, but to get immunity from an infection you first have to get sick, in which case you wipe out immunological memory to other pathogens.
Nukular Biskits
@Betty Cracker:
I never get a response from my US Rep, Mike Ezell, or Sen Cindy Hyde-Smith.
I get an occasional boilerplate from US Sen Roger Wicker.
I’m not expecting a personal response (although that would be a refreshing change) but at least a fucking acknowledgement would be nice.
Yesterday, my call went straight to voice mail for Ezell and Hyde-Smith (I actually talked to a staffer for Wicker). Whether they’re just not answering the phone (which I think is the case for Hyde-Smith) or the call volume is that high, I’m not sure. I’d love to see the call summary the staffers supposedly provide to their bosses every day/week.
Hmmm. Maybe that’s another thing to ask for. After all, it’s produced courtesy of my taxpayer dollars.
Nukular Biskits
@eclare:
I assume “Marsha Marsha Marsha” is the one and only Marsha Blackburn.
She is the Cindy Hyde-Smith of TN.
Nukular Biskits
@TBone:
Sorry to hear that. Looking on the bright side, your immune system must not suck if you are getting a response to whatever crud you have.
ETA: Normally, I’d be doing my 2.25 mile walk at this time before trundling off to work but just wasn’t feeling it today. Bit of a headache myself, although most of that is probably self-inflicted from cutting concrete blocks yesterday after I got home from work.
Nukular Biskits
@David_C:
Yeah, but think of all the stupid libs that were owned …
Baud
eclare
@Nukular Biskits:
That’s the one. The line is from a Brady Bunch episode where Jan complains about her older sister, Marcia.
Nukular Biskits
@eclare:
Blackburn and Hyde-Smith could be sisters, given they look and act a lot alike.
TBone
@Nukular Biskits: thank you for that reminder. It’s just so frustrating to get more sick than “normal baseline sick” this often over decades of persevering. Groundhog Day!
I will buck the eff up, as usual, as the days wear on. I truly appreciate your reminder that at least I have an immune response!
I hope your headache disappears with a quickness!
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
Only a matter of time before we find out he moonlighted as a drag queen …
Nukular Biskits
@TBone:
It’s waay too early. I read this:
as this:
and wondered what you’ve been drinking all these years.
eclare
@TBone:
So sorry that you’re not feeling well. I’m sure living through these interesting times doesn’t help your immune system.
Good luck on getting those vaccines rescheduled.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
A reminder from your friends at the West Glendale Observatory…
There is a total lunar eclipse tonight, totality starting about 11:30pm PDT. You can shoot it with any camera(including cell phones). It is the Moon, so no special filters are required.
Nukular Biskits
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
Waaay past my bedtime, dang it.
TBone
@Nukular Biskits: I was formely a functioning alcoholic before opioids were prescribed. I used to yell out to my BF
JETHRO! BRING ME THE TONIC.
Thankfully, I went into remission and was able to immediately cease alcohol/drugs of any kind. Quitting drinking was as easy as rolling off a log. The pain pills were a horse of a different color but I emerged victorious. Praise Teh Lort!
TBone
@eclare: thanks woman! I actually was already able to reschedule using the online system at CVS, which is the only time I appreciate the convenience of online health care. Two weeks (sound familiar? Hahahaha!)
Two weeks.
Nukular Biskits
@TBone:
Can’t post GIFs here but next best thing: Leondardo Decaprio Toast
TBone
@Nukular Biskits: perfect! Thank you! I still dabble in alcohol but only on very special occasions, mebbe twice a year. J.C. open thread post subject last night WILL be one of those occasions!
Getting good feels here at BJ is a soothing salve!
TBone
A deguello in appreciation of everyone. Never give in!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VjEq-r2agqc
TBone
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: that explains a lot. (snark tag goes here)
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Noskilz: Yup. Trump has Elon’s (and his DOGE shit lackeys) balls in a legal vice. If he wants to turn the screws he can at any point.
Bostondreams
@Baud: odd. I don’t see anything about him being trans or a drag queen. /s
pictures of him with Trump are floating around. Another classy duo.
Waldo
If things get bad enough, I suspect Elon will bow out awkwardly to “spend time with his family.” But I would gladly pay to see him fired like a Doge. Ideally by Big Balls.
eclare
@TBone:
Walgreens, which is more prevalent here, has a really good on-line vaccine scheduler too.
TBone
@eclare: good to know, thank you!
I just read the daily Heather Cox Richardson. This snippet is particularly galling, but her entire letter is worth a look.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-12-2025
I’m wondering how she can keep up with *waves hand around* alla this.
lowtechcyclist
@Jeffg166:
Depends on the job. The job of dismantling the government will be with Russell Vought, but he won’t be out front. JD would be a good front man/fall guy except they can’t fire the VP if they need to fire another fall guy.
TBone
Stanwyck night on TCM last night was helpful self care! But I fell asleep during my favorite, Ball of Fire. Hoping it’ll be in my On Demand menu today. Blankie, tea, OJ, apple juice, kittehs and good TCM commercial-free entertainment in front of a crackling fire on the couch. I’m all out of frozen homemade soups just this week, but there are cans in the pantry…hubby will help with anything else we need. He’s a good nurse. So grateful for him today and always.
And ginger ale, my new addiction 😍
lowtechcyclist
All the recent plummet in Tesla’s stock valuation has done is take its price back to where it was six months ago, so there’s still A LOT of helium left to let out of its valuation.
If you go back a half-dozen years or more, Tesla was trading for $15-$20 a share. The only question in my mind is, how long does it take to get back down there?
TBone
Is this good news? ICE returns all migrants from Guantanamo to Stateside facilities:
https://bsky.app/profile/klasfeldreports.com/post/3lk7qs4c4nf2o
Not sure how to feel about it yet…
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
But the drag queens are the real threat. /s
MagdaInBlack
@TBone: I’d be more comfortable if that crackling fire were in the fireplace….rather than on the couch….
Good Morning
🌻
TBone
@MagdaInBlack: good morning! Starting the day with a LOL is always appropriate!
Here’s another one:
https://bsky.app/profile/lincolnproject.us/post/3lk7bccedbs23
(trigger warning for the faint of heart, of which group you are not a member, heh).
lowtechcyclist
@Nukular Biskits:
Reminds me of yesterday’s Covid/bird flu post where I first read “None of the sentinel pigs housed with the infected pigs were infected” as “none of the sentient pigs…”
Baud
Via reddit
lowtechcyclist
@Nukular Biskits:
Totality is at 2:55am Eastern time, which matches up well with when I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep.
MagdaInBlack
@TBone: Oh My ! Ok, got my morning laugh 🌻
TBone
@MagdaInBlack: autogolpe 😎
TBone
@lowtechcyclist: lol!
TBone
@Baud: didn’t we rename Pennsylvania Ave.? Needs updating, that…
Loser Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
Professor Bigfoot
@TBone: American “conservatism” is far closer to Jefferson Davis than it is to Edmund Burke.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Hahaha, good one — the bikini babes at the end!
In previous clips I saw of the South Lawn sales event, I hadn’t noticed that Musk is now dressing the toddler/human shield like a Mini-Me. Poor kid.
TBone
@Professor Bigfoot: 🎯 astute as always
TBone
Time to make the go nuts
Professor Bigfoot
@TBone: Thanks for the trigger warning. LOLOL
CindyH
@Nukular Biskits: not yet
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker: So it’s revealing that Elon is always wearing his kid like a hat. He must not have a Kevlar helmet.
I hope he dreams about Luigi.
Suzanne
I want to be all Glenn Greenwald about this:
Luigi, who I do not support, has obviously terrified Elon Musk, who I do not support….. but that, I support.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: #DEAD
geg6
@Baud:
Good one! I lol’d.
Geminid
There wwre a couple items about next year’s Michigan Senate race in this morning’s Politico Playbook. Former Transportation Sec Pete Buttigieg is expected to indicate he will not run for the seat being vacated by Senator Gary Peters.
And former U.S. Rep. Mike Rodgers, who lost to Elissa Slotkin last November, is exploring another Senate run. Playbook reported that Rodgers has retained Susie Wiles wingman Chris LaCivita to guide him.
eclare
@Suzanne:
Perfect.
Kayla Rudbek
@Nukular Biskits: Beyer is responding fairly well, Warner is less responsive, Kaine doesn’t even have voicemail on
Suzanne
EVERYTHING’S COMPUTER!
LAWL.
Geminid
@Professor Bigfoot: I like how a contemporary of Jefferson Davis described the Mississippi politician:
“Cold as a Reptile. Ambitious as Lucifer”
Suzanne
Spawn woke up early, came downstairs and snuggled up against me while I was drinking my coffee, and ripped a big fart. Good morning to me.
MagdaInBlack
@Betty Cracker: I was thinking the same thing about that poor child. So much therapy in his future.
lowtechcyclist
@Suzanne:
It’s the little things that make being a parent all worthwhile, amirite? ;-)
TBone
PSA it is still Barbara Stanwyck Day all morning and most of the afternoon on TCM! Lady of Burlesque at 7:45am. The Gay Sisters at 1pm. B.F.’s Daughter at 3
Thank you TCM!
TBone
@Suzanne: me too
sentient ai from the future
@TBone: to be scrupulously fair, hopkins is gonna be able make up for that one easily, because of its prestige. their public health school has bloomberg’s name on it, for instance, and there is no end of middle eastern oil money eager to do the same. i think they may already have a satellite campus in the UAE, a number of schools do that.
so hopkins itself and its researchers will be fine, sorta. it’s all the other schools who are far more dependent on the federal grant system and the NIH generally that are going to suffer.
Suzanne
@lowtechcyclist: I mean, it’s gross, but I laughed. I’m in a mood today, man. Client meetings are gonna be fun!
TBone
@Suzanne: on the bright side, at least it was human – cat farts will melt your eyeballs.
sentient ai from the future
@Suzanne: i think it’s likely to be not just luigi, but also putin. novichoking or defenestrating a 5yo is a bad look.
TBone
@sentient ai from the future: it’s the scientific research money that I’m most pissed about though. No way that missing funding won’t hurt all of us. Dollar cost averaging.
Johns Hopkins is still within driving distance for me. I’ve been seen there in the past and may go again in the future.
https://www.hopkinslyme.org/
It’s personal
Gin & Tonic
@TBone: I was forced out of bed by a dog fart about 20 minutes ago.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
TBone
@Gin & Tonic:
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: Vanity Fair ran an in-depth piece on Slotkin yesterday. Here’s a link — it’s probably paywalled, but I think they give out a few free views to nonsubscribers.
TBone
@TBone: especially this!
https://www.hopkinslyme.org/news/invalidation-by-medical-professionals-in-post-treatment-lyme-disease/
Suzanne
@sentient ai from the future: That’s a good point.
Putin’s also a big fan of plane crashes.
TBone
@TBone: women and children first…
GAH
p.a.
Just days after Ohio University announced that it had put the Black Alumni Reunion on hold, the university’s Lancaster campus has now paused its annual Celebrate Women conference. https://nbc4i.co/4kL3vI7?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_NBC4
BretH
@Baud: Chef’s kiss! Shared.
Chief Oshkosh
@sentient ai from the future: This is simply incorrect. Money per se is fungible, but that’s only a part of the loss of federal grant support.
Geminid
I saw a report that Steve Witkoff, Trump’s diplomatic troubleshooter, has flown to Russia. Or at least flight trackers say Witkoff’s private jet entered Russian airspace last night.
I think Witkoff was in Doha, Qatar Tuesday for another round of talks on the Gaza ceasefire. Mediators Egypt, Qatar and the US still have not gotten Israel’s and Hamas’s agreement to begin the ceasefire’s second phase.
Those negotiations are continuing without Witkoff. The U.S. team is apparently led by Witkoff deputy Adam Boehler. Mr. Boehler’s name came out in connection to the Gaza talks around ten days ago, when it was revealed that a Trump administration official had been meeting secretly with Hamas representatives for some weeks.
It turns out Boehler was that Trump envoy, presumably working as Witkoff’s deputy or associate. Boehler had a role in the first Trump maladminstration in connection to Trump’s Covid non-response.
And as Gomer Pyle would say, “Surprise, surprise!” Adam Boehler was Jared Kushner’s college roommate.
catclub
@Baud: What _is_ analogous is how rapidly Tesla gained value.
lowtechcyclist
@catclub:
This. In 2020, Tesla went from about $30 per share to just shy of $300. Insane.
ETA: The reverse will happen, it’s just a question of whether it’s this year or a few years away.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Thanks, I’ll read it. I’ve been keeping up on Elissa Slotkin ever since the 2018 midterms, when she was one of the 40 Democrats who flipped Republican seats that year.
One of the others, Andy Kim also advanced to the Senate this year. Two more, Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger, are running for governor this year in New Jersey and Virginia respectively.
Slotkin, Sherrill and Spanberger were part of a small, informal caucus of freshmen Democrats with military or CIA backgrounds. Sherill is a Navy veteran, while Slotkin and Spanberger are ex-CIA. The three women hooked up with Chrissy Houlahan (Air Force), Jason Crow (Army) and Jared Golden (Marine Corps) and arranged to have their Capitol Hill offices located next to each other.
Albatrossity
@Nukular Biskits: The responses I have gotten from my elected reps are all keyword-triggered boilerplate stuff. Mention vaccines and the minion in charge of responses churns out the vaccine reply. Mention tariffs. or farmers, etc, and that reply is chucked into the reply pipeline. But I will say I have yet to get any response at all for the yes-or-no question “If Trump announces he is running for another term, would you support him?”
Maybe they can use AI to generate that response, because they don’t seem to have one in the hopper yet.
David_C
@sentient ai from the future: Not true. The money lost is per year. NIH funding attracts other funding.
Albatrossity
@Chief Oshkosh: Agreed. Hopkins has lots of money, but they spend lots of money as well. As for other donors ponying up the funds, that suggestion hits up against the hard reality that other donors do not want to get crosswise with the brownshirts of the current administration. These cuts to science funding are gonna hurt now, and they are gonna hurt for a very long time afterward.
Tom Levenson
@sentient ai from the future: Dead thread note, but I very much doubt Hopkins will be able to make up $800 million in research funds easily. Up here at MIT we’re gaming out various scales of cuts possibly or likely coming our way. That scale of research funding cuts deep into bone, and while private philanthropy or even sponsored research from sources other than the feds may cover some fraction of that no other nation is going to replace federal funding on a sustained basis. They may pick some lab or another if the work is relevant to the interests of someone there, but the move places that have that kind of money will make will be to try to attract talent and expertise to their own research base.
I haven’t looked closely at the Hopkins news, so I don’t know how many years the grants being cancelled cover on average, but even, say, a $200 million/year hit involves firing people and shutting down labs and research programs. There’s a ton of informal knowledge and technical expertise in such ongoing research efforts, all of which will be lost, fast, when the money stops.
MAPA: Make America Poor Again.
frosty
@Nukular Biskits: Responses? One boilerplate email from my Rep, nothing from either Senator, D or R.
I haven’t checked if they’ve gone to spam.
Belafon
@TBone: It probably helps that she makes like so much money off of her substack – from just imposing a $5/month charge to comment just to keep the spammers out – that keeping up is her only job.
chemiclord
@Noskilz: Oh, the Supreme Court would definitely deem acting against a rich man to be beyond the “official powers” that Trump could invoke.
That’s the kicker in Trump vs. United States; the Supreme Court basically set themselves up as the final arbiter of what an “official act” is. And why no, Biden couldn’t just “cancel all student loan debt” or “terminate all support to Israel.” Because this court was (and maybe is) going to have a very different definition of “official act” if a Democrat is president.
Denali5
The CF hawking Teslas on the White House lawn is just another indication that the CF owes Musk. Musk gave him the election, one way or another. That is why he can’t get rid of him.
kindness
Friends of mine in Oakland just bought a Ford Mustang EV. He’s liberal, she’s conservative, it’s her car and they both refused to own a Tesla. Hell, I’m doing my part in not buying Teslas or Starlinks.
TBone
@Belafon: ummm, it is most definitely not her only job. She is a college professor and also writes books in her “spare” time.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_Cox_Richardson
I read her every single day for free.
TBone
@Tom Levenson: thank you!
TBone
@p.a.: wtaf
brantl
@lowtechcyclist: Stumpy can ask Vance to resign. I’m pretty sure he’d do it if Stumpy told him to.
brantl
@lowtechcyclist: Nobody can actually force Republicans to live with the infected pigs, though no one can prove they’re sentient, either……
Citizen Alan
@Nukular Biskits: Blackburn and Hyde-Smith (I once embarrassed myself in front of a former employer by making completely accidental Freudian slip of calling her “Cindy Hide-White” after one of her numerous “racist hag” scandals) are proof positive of something I’ve said for years:
Conservatives are the worst. But conservative women are the worst of the worst.