Man, some days are just a slog, but this is good news:
Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, said on Tuesday that he would spend less time in Washington working for President Trump after the automaker reported a profit drop of 71 percent in the first three months of the year.
Mr. Musk told Wall Street analysts in a conference call that he would continue to spend “a day or two per week” on Washington matters, probably for the duration of Mr. Trump’s presidency. The billionaire executive is one of Mr. Trump’s closest confidants and has played a leading role in the president’s efforts to slash government spending and cut tens of thousands of federal government jobs.
He spoke less than two hours after Tesla said it had earned $409 million, down from $1.4 billion in the first quarter of 2024. The company previously reported net profit of $1.1 billion last year, but revised the figure to reflect changes in the way cryptocurrency assets are valued.
I imagine he has no real reason to be there anymore now that he has all the data he was after. I still have no idea how the hell that stock of his is over 20 dollars, but what the fuck do I know?
In other nice news, that crazy lady from Alaska got shot down in court, again:
Ms. Palin sued The Times in 2017 after the newspaper published — and then swiftly corrected and apologized for — an editorial that wrongly suggested she had incited a deadly shooting in Arizona years earlier.
The case became a bellwether for battles over press freedoms and media bias in the Trump era, with Ms. Palin’s lawyers saying they hoped to use it to attack a decades-old Supreme Court precedent that makes it harder for public figures to sue news outlets for defamation.
This is the second time a federal jury has concluded that The Times was not liable for defaming Ms. Palin in its editorial. The case first went to trial in 2022, and both the jury and the judge ruled in favor of The Times. But last year, a federal appeals court invalidated those decisions, setting the stage for this month’s retrial.
Hadn’t heard about that wretched woman from Wasilla or her trashy kids in a while. No idea how any of them turned out.
I’ve been reading and seeing a bunch of different sources talking about the status of shipping and trucking, and saw in at least one place it was going to be a covid-like slowdown of shipping because of the tariffs, so here is some evidence of that:
The pullback in trade between the U.S. and China as a result of President Trump’s steep tariffs on Chinese goods and fears of a recession are starting to show up in major ports data, with a steep drop in container vessel traffic headed to Los Angeles and Long Beach.
For the week ending May 3, the number of freight vessels leaving China and headed to the Southern California ports, the main U.S. ports receiving Chinese freight and other Asian trade, is down 29% week-over-week, according to Port Optimizer, a tracking system for ships. Year-over-year, the data shows a 44% drop in vessels scheduled to arrive the week of May 4-May 10.
This data is updated on a daily basis based on the vessel manifests declaring the port destination. These vessels are either scheduled to leave Asia or are already on the water and headed to these ports.
Twelve vessels are scheduled to come in this week, down from 22 the week of April 20. Measured in shipping containers, a total of 62,568 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) are arriving the week of May 4-May 10, versus 120,608 TEUs as recently as the week of April 20-April 26.
The fallout from the ocean freight slowdown is beginning to hit ground transport linked to ports.
“We are at a tipping point on the West Coast,” said Ken Adamo, chief of analytics at DAT Freight & Analytics. “Looking at how many truck loads are available versus trucks, we’ve seen a precipitous drop, over 700,000 loads have evaporated nationally in the past week compared to two weeks prior,” he said.
I’ve seen at least one place refer to a summer of scarcity. Wheeeeee!
That’s it for me. See you all tomorrow.
Are We Sure He’s Not the AntiChrist?
Dr Daniel Price (excruciverbiage)
So Mr Musk will be allowed to work remotely. I thought that was not to be a thing.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Tesla is a meme stock.
At least that’s how Edolph and the sycophantic Tesla board see the company.
Problem is that over the last decade, it’s kinda turned into a real car company. Problem is Edolph and crew still don’t treat it that way. Which means once other real car companies catch up, and they have, they start doing things real car companies do. And slight refreshening of one model and rolling out the 2024 version of an Edsel, aka Der Wankpanzer, doesn’t quality as something real car companies do.
Sales in Yurp have absolutely cratered and that goes back to Dec 2024. In China, it hasn’t been Yurpean-cratering…yet. But when compared to first quarter last year, they’re down. And the competition there is only going to get more brutal than it is in Yurp or here in the USofA.
Once Tesla can no longer do any financial jujitsu (several pieces show how wonderful 21st century corporate accounting can make damn near anybody show a profit), and you’ll see just how dire things are.
Which brings us back to it being a meme stock. That’s the only thing holding the price from nose diving. If this had happened to GM or Ford, the market would have “spoken” in spades.
The Audacity of Krope
Or pointed out that her rhetoric was irresponsible and appeared to endorse violence against her political enemies.
To-may-to, to-mah-to
Baud
Someone drew a picture for Trump because he’s talking about backing down from the tariffs. Not that anything he says can be counted on.
The Audacity of Krope
You can count on him saying and doing what is best for him, personally.
NotMax
“I lost again?”
“You betcha (wink).”
//
Jeffro
OT but I’m noticing that some RWNJ friends and relatives seems to be doing the Fox News thing, but locally – grabbing very isolated instances of crimes committed by immigrants, illegal/undocumented or not – and acting like their neighborhoods are about to be overrun.
I think the MAGA noise machine knows that everything trump-related is horrendous, so they’re shifting over to magnifying local stories (however rare) that keep the fear factor high.
No wonder their brains are French-fried. No wonder their ‘floor’ of support for trumpov is in the low 40%. It’s all Boogeymen, all the time.
eclare
DVR alert: Jasmine Crockett on Jimmy Kimmel tonight. She has been on before, he likes her. Should be good.
Bupalos
Well apparently Musk got to all the “multicultural” grant funding that went to the university of Pittsburgh that supported a festival at the cathedral of learning there that my family has danced in and was going to be in this year. It was confirmed cancelled today. There will be some baba’s surprised to learn that what they thought was Ukrainian folk dance was actually part of the woke mind virus.
sentient ai from the future
the drop in trucking traffic is so steep that mack is going to be producing fewer trucks for sale this year, i think i may have heard that via patrick boyle’s yt channel.
teamsters were, of course, the most pro-shitgoblin of the unions, so i’ll be enjoying my schadenfreude in the same corner where i also cry about the status of my retirement account.
CHETAN MURTHY
@sentient ai from the future: you heard right
https://www.truckinginfo.com/10239576/mack-trucks-announces-layoffs
sentient ai from the future
@Baud: whether he backs down or not, the damage is already done, because the damage is to the perception of predictability. predictability in turn is based on knowledge of underlying conditions. if knowledge of underlying conditions is not something that helps predict behavior of the richest and most powerful country the world has ever seen, well….
khead
The good news is that the Canadians are staying home from the Jersey shore. So we will have plenty of room on the beach in Wildwood like in 2020 and 2021. Plus, most of the year ’round folks in Cape May County are MAGA and they are all going to take a hit late this summer
Edit – One of those Mack truck plants is a huge employer in Pulaski County, VA. Also MAGA.
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
He says he’s going to backtrack some on the Chinese tariffs, but who the hell knows how long it’ll be before he brings them back up again. There’s no way he’ll let this go, because the one thing that’s something like a true belief he holds is that other countries are ripping us off, and tariffs are the best way to stop them. He’s never going to let this go. And now he doesn’t have anybody around him who’ll argue with him. These things are going to go up and down and up and down eight hundred more times before this shitshow ends.
Socolofi
So…. wow. Elmo has fubar’d Tesla worse than I thought he could.
He saddled himself to Trump and become the MAGA poster child, so half the country that used to love him for electric cars now hates him, and the other half loves him. Means a bunch of new customers to replace old customers holding on to their cars, right? Well, today’s earnings shows that nope, not enough of them. Oh, and international is falling off a cliff due to the trade war – not just people holding onto their money (which they are) but not buying Tesla as it’s a toxic brand.
I suspect the threat of vandalism is also pretty high… even if you’re a RWNJ, if you think the libs are gonna key your car or smash your window for the lols, that F150 Lightning looks a bit more attractive. Not to mention when you look at resale value…
But y’know… fuck him.
NotMax
No fireworks for July 4?
//
CHETAN MURTHY
My understanding is that the MAGAts don’t like EVs. You know, they don’t run on fossil fuel. Roll coal!
Harrison Wesley
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): He’s terrified of appearing weak. I don’t see him lowering tariffs. This is going to be a very tough year.
The Audacity of Krope
@Harrison Wesley: Doesn’t matter what he chooses now on tariffs. He appears weak because he is weak. He tries to paper it over with money and connections, but it has always been the case. Fact is, there is a congenital weakness among the nation’s elite because they waste their intellectual effort protecting their wealth instead of doing anything useful.
Their only semblance of strength comes from them and their class of natural serfs having each other’s backs. Not for each other but to protect a system that allows them to feel superior. Let’s see how well that holds when it becomes hard to put dinner on the table and their version of a mutual support network doesn’t shift from exploitation to service so quickly.
YY_Sima Qian
This f*cking timeline:
prostratedragon
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.):
Hysteresis — path dependence or memory. Things don’t just snap back after a shock. If they ever get back, it takes longer. Repeated frequent shocks like repeatedly stretching a rubber band, which eventually loses its elasticity.
The Audacity of Krope
@YY_Sima Qian: Ex post facto rationalization is a hell of a drug…
Bostondreams
@Socolofi: and yet the stock went up. It’s insane.
YY_Sima Qian
I want to both laugh & cry:
Jackie
@Baud:
It’s FFOTUS math. What he says he’ll do can be counted on to mean what he really won’t do.
Until he does. And then doesn’t.
The Audacity of Krope
@YY_Sima Qian: One could also say they’re negotiating with reality.
Harrison Wesley
@The Audacity of Krope: I think we’re hosed.
CHETAN MURTHY
@The Audacity of Krope: @YY_Sima Qian: I read these articles about how retail investors are buying on the dip, and hedge fund managers are selling selling selling. I just don’t get it. Can’t these retail investors see that they have no idea where things will be in a few months? Feels like watching Lemmings!
The Audacity of Krope
Not so. Though the effects will be disparate. Helps that we can conceive of a mutual aid effort as a constructive good.
Giant lemmings casting great nets and taking us all with them
Wapiti
@Baud: While Trump starts backing away to his corner, I expect China/Xi to continue working on the eye. (that is, hitting Trump where he is already injured, taking advantage of Trump/Republican/USA weakness at this moment in time.)
Harrison Wesley
@The Audacity of Krope: Bless you, but I don’t see it. Malignant and moronic is a tough combo, especially when they hold the reins.
scav
@Jackie: The yoyo / bouncing laser pointer does keep the media happy and him in the spotlight.
The Audacity of Krope
@Harrison Wesley: The reins don’t reach everywhere and they’re on track to lose control of the lead horse.
We have state governments. They’re going to matter a lot if the federal falters as badly as I fear.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Jeffro: Fear is the mind killer
whatever one thinks of Dune, in its various manifestations, Herbert was right about that.
Kayla Rudbek
@Socolofi: yeah, I wouldn’t buy even a used Tesla at this point in time (too unreliable and too likely to be a target for vandalism) and I would be one of those lefty environmentalists buying an EV so I don’t have to put more CO2 into the atmosphere than I have to (also screwing over the Texan and Saudi right wing nut jobs by buying less gas is a bonus).
jonas
I’m sure all those patriotic MAGA truckers are proud to be taking one for the team like this.
wjca
How long before the Chinese start laundering their exports thru Vladivostok? Take advantage of the zero tariffs for Trump’s buddy Putin.
Shalimar
wrong thread
jonas
Investors love this kind of straightforward predictability. Threatening to fire the Fed chief every other day should also do wonders for confidence in the US economy.
jonas
@HopefullyNotcassandra: It sounded sort of silly, but FDR was right: “All we have to fear is fear itself.” Because he knew that that’s what would tear the country apart if it seized hold of people. Alas, I’m glad he’s not around to see what we’ve become…
jonas
Not just a meme stock, but a meme stock for a crypto fund with an operation that makes some shitty cars on the side. Great.
prostratedragon
Put out that Welcome mat:
Must be another mistake.
prostratedragon
Tonight in a public defender’s office in Albemarle County Courthouse
Jay
@prostratedragon:
The US’s State Department’s own guidance on visiting other repressive states, basically says that US Citizens, should not visit US States.
Earl
It’s not just data. He’s going to “implement” “AI” — not real ai, and his shitty knockoff — but he’ll do his best to land some billion dollar contracts that Democrats (hi Cuck Schumer) will be unwilling to dissolve / terminate because, well, the obvious reasons. But $20 – $100 a seat-month, times a couple million seats, and soon you’re talking real money.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Socolofi: One of the car channels was pointing out even if the Red States love Musk now it won’t help Tesla because they aren’t enough recharging stations there.
prostratedragon
On TCM next hour, Missing (1982), a docudrama of the search for an American who was disappeared in Chile during the coup against Allende. A film of Costa-Gavras, director of Z.
Socolofi
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: this isn’t that huge a deal; most people charge at home. 110 works overnight, 240 is usually easy to install as most garages also house the circuit breaker nowadays (I’ve done it twice now). Public EV chargers are also cheap and don’t require nearly the permitting of a new gas station.
What will be interesting is that Tesla decided to license its plug standard (NACS) and offer other cars access to its SuperCharger network, which is way better than other networks (short version: not a lot of money in charging so third parties have done a mediocre job of it). With Elon’s new clout I expect the Tesla plug to become the legal standard which is just a huge gift to Tesla. That jagoff.
Gretchen
@prostratedragon: I don’t understand why the courthouse personnel let a masked guy in. Why do people have to allow themselves to be arrested by people with no uniforms, badges or warrants, and bundle them into unmarked cars? Why does nobody say show us ID?
They announce that they’re Homeland Security, but any gang could claim to be homeland security and kidnap someone if they don’t have to prove it.
CHETAN MURTHY
@Gretchen: indeed, and this is the smallest and first thing that blue state Governors and Mayors could insist on: that all police identify themselves and wear identifying badges with names and numbers and unit numbers. I mean, I thought that that was just the way things had to be done anyway. But somehow these fuckers have decided that they don’t have to follow these rules.
prostratedragon
@Gretchen: People who were either accompanying the men or in the office tried to get the goons to show a warrant or i.d. At least one of the men was either asking in Spanish for a lawyer or trying to explain thst they were there to see a lawyer.
sab
@prostratedragon: So much for the advicein the comments yesterday to run to the police if ICE is after you.
prostratedragon
@sab: The goons have accounted for that possibility pretty well.
TS
@jonas:
Does wonders for those in the know who play the markets – knowing when to buy/sell brings immense profits
Matt McIrvin
@jonas: Consider how FDR treated Japanese-Americans. He might be OK with a lot of it.
Princess
@sentient ai from the future: Yes, Mack is laying off workers. But I don’t know if that’s because of the China tariffs, or because of the Canada Mexico auto tariffs or steel/ aluminum tariffs. Or all of them! So much winning.
Anyway, a lot of truckers will be out of work very soon.
Geminid
This morning’s Politico Playbook had a couIle items,relating to next year’s elections. One was that sime North Carolina Democrats expressed “optimism” that former Governor Roy Cooper is willing to run against Republican Senator Thom Tiis next.
Also, Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs is running for Governor. If wins the nomination Biggs will likely face Governor Katie Hobbs next year.
Former NFL placekicker Jay Feely says he’s running for Biggs’ AZ05 seat. Feely spent 14 seasons on the football field and 10 years a broadcaster; fittingly, he announced his candidacy on ESPN. He said Jim Jordan recruited him to run for the House in 2022.
Arizona’s 5th CD lies southeast of Phoenix and includes parts of Mesa and Chandler. Biggs won with 60% of the vote last year, but Cook’s gives the district a Partisan Voting Index (PVI) of R+10. Democrats may make a serious run at AZ05 next year on the principle: “get those surfboards in the water, it could be a big wave.”
Barry
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): “He says he’s going to backtrack some on the Chinese tariffs, but who the hell knows how long it’ll be before he brings them back up again. ”
*Assuming* he does, what does that even mean? ‘Only’ 100% tariffs?
AM in NC
@sentient ai from the future: The Trump-voting truckers were my first thought here as well. FAFO, Teamsters. Just wish it were limited to the fatherfuckers who voted for cruelty, stupidity, and sociopathic greed.
Matt McIrvin
@Barry: Like an abusive parent, Trump likes to keep everyone in a state of perpetual uncertainty about what he might do to them. His position on the tariffs keeps changing from day to day, causing the markets to thrash around.
For some people, that keeps them in thrall to him like a gambler playing a slot machine. You never know when you’ll get that random reward, and the dopamine hits seem to be worth the fact that in the long run the house rules are against you. That’s the effect Trump counts on to keep people loyal, and fear can keep some of the rest from turning against him.
But it’s not an environment in which it’s good to do business.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: You had an extra D at the end of your nym, so it went into moderation.