John mentioned Tesla’s catastrophic earnings slide in last night’s open thread, but as your friend and mine Anne Laurie says, let us savor:
Apologies for springing an image* of the flounder-faced oligarch on you first thing in the morning, but it’s in service of a larger point, i.e., that Musk is so desperate to spin the utter catastrophe he has personally visited on his own car company with his wildly unpopular political activities that he’s alleging Tesla Takedown protesters are either paid agents and/or fraudsters.
As a Tesla Takedown protester my own self, I object. Nope, Musk — I made my signs and stood on a sidewalk in front of your dealership (and will keep doing so) not because someone is paying me or because I’m the recipient of “wasteful largesse” but because you suck, Elon Musk.
You suck because you gleefully and illegally dismantled USAID, obliterating U.S. soft power in ways that will haunt this country long after we’re both dead while causing the immediate immiseration and eventual painful deaths of millions of people whose HIV drugs were abruptly discontinued and millions of malnourished children whose food source was canceled. Their deaths are on you.
You suck because you’ve eliminated or enshittified the government services that millions of Americans rely on to meet basic needs, including earned benefits administered by Social Security and the Veterans Administration and programs that reduce food insecurity and provide access to medical care for millions more, including children and people with disabilities. Their suffering, hunger and deaths are on you.
You suck, Musk, and even if you return to your own fucking office today and stop illegally dismantling programs and fucking with our democracy forever, the damage is done. I protest and will continue to do so because I want to join fellow citizens in feeding your car company’s brand into a fucking wood chipper. The cratering value and resulting turmoil in your flagship company? That’s on you too, motherfucker.
Open thread.
*Image from Maddow’s show last night, which was a barnburner. You can see the part concerning Musk’s earnings call on YouTube here.
On The Road – Auntie Anne – Southeast Asia – Buddhism and Laos 2 of 4
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Assuming we survive, business historians will be teaching about Tesla and pissing away branding when training the next generation of MBAs to ruin things.
MagdaInBlack
Thank you, Betty. Perfect use of motherfucker too. I admire that.
Good Morning
NotMax
Won’t be satisfied until government and democracy are more shriveled than King Tut’s scrotum.
Baud
Musk is telling the truth. We’re not going to say that and we are going to come up with some other reason.
We call that reason the truth.
Baud
@NotMax:
It’s important to have life goals.
SiubhanDuinne
@MagdaInBlack:
Completely agree. But Betty actually had me at “flounder-faced oligarch.”
prufrock
Tesla was what got me into electric cars. I finally got an electric car two days ago. It’s a 2024 Kia Niro EV, that only had 670 miles on it.
I wouldn’t touch a Tesla with a ten meter called prod.
Quantum man
Bravo!
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I salute your anger, Betty, and I share it.
MagdaInBlack
@SiubhanDuinne: From start to finish, a masterpiece =-)
Splitting Image
“Recipients of wasteful largesse”, huh?
How much does this guy get in government contracts again?
NotMax
@comrade scotts agenda of rage
The demise of Ayds was due to independent exogenous circumstances.
The crumbling of Tesla is fully, completely endogenous.
(This ends today’s lesson on $2 words.) ;)
New Deal democrat
There’s good news and bad news on the communicable disease front this week.
The good news is about COVID, where the death count for the past 52 weeks declined once again to another all-time low of 36,600. There were only 419 deaths in the last completed week of reporting, March 22; and 176 for the last preliminary week, April 12. The final tally for that week is likely to be about 350-400, so the 52 week total should continue to slowly decline.
The other good news on COVID is that wastewater particles continued to decline in the week of April 12, down to 2.03 per mL. This is lower than about 95% of all previous weeks, vs. 1.13 at the all time low. So deaths should continue to slowly decline.
Finally, JP Weiland had an excellent short thread discussing how all variants in the past 12-18 months have been descendants of the BA.2 and BA.2.86 lineage, and the population at this point has very good resistance to this line. There has been a tiny increase in an old, very low circulating BA.3 strain that would have to mutate further to create a significant new outbreak.
That’s the good news. The bad news is about measles, where the nationwide outbreak that is almost inevitable appears to be slowly taking shape.
This is from ABC News:
“As of Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has so far confirmed 800 measles cases in at least 24 states: Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Washington. That number is likely an undercount due to delays in states reporting cases to the federal health agency.”
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/texas-measles-outbreak-surpasses-600-cases-children-teens/story?id=121042863
Geminid
This morning’s Politico Playbook had a couple items relating to next year’s elections. One was that some North Carolina Democrats expressed “optimism” that former Governor Roy Cooper was willing to run against Senator Thom Tillis next year.
And sports announcer and former NFL placekicker Jay Feely has thrown his helmet in the Arizona 5th CD ring. Andy Biggs, AZ05’s current Rep, will run for Governor next year.
Feely kicked for 14 years and broadcast for 10; fittingly, he announced his candidacy on ESPN. Feely said Jim Jordan tried to get him to run in 2022 (probably for a different Arizona seat).
Professor Bigfoot
Open Thread, so… this morning I go in for another heart catheter
The first one never gave me a chance to think about it– just WHAM! and there I was.
That was literally the first night I’ve spent in a hospital in over 60 years and it was every bit as much fun as I thought it would be. That is, not at all. ;)
But now I’ve had two weeks to think about this one and, well, it’s real easy to become one big ball of anxiety.
So if you would, my dears, put in a word with your Higher Power for your resident Angry Black Man, so he can come back and rant some more.
(this time I’m prepared, though– packing along the iPad, three backup batteries, the CPAP, and a few small packets of salt– because even GOOD meatloaf needs a LITTLE, for cryin’ out loud!– and given the fundamental perversity of the Universe, since I AM prepared, I might not have to stay overnight! Maybe. I hope. Bleah. ;) )
sentient ai from the future
The dismantling of USAID and PEPFAR is of course catastrophic for those millions of people who, now lacking hiv medications, will sicken and die from that disease.
It is ALSO potentially catastrophic for the rest of the world, because HIV is an especially mutation prone retrovirus (it has no proofreading mechanism) so all of that additional viral replication is more opportunity for it to mutate into another potential pandemic.
When the Super-AIDS pandemic happens I am going to blame that fuckbag.
Geminid
@Professor Bigfoot: I’m hoping it all goes well and you are back home soon.
Professor Bigfoot
Now I’ve read the FP, and… yeah, that motherfuckin’ motherfucker deserves so much more misery than he’s gotten so far.
Would that I could actually believe in karma, because that soutpiel son of a bitch deserves it.
J.
@Splitting Image: Exactly. Both Trump and Musk wouldn’t be where they are without huge government handouts.
Baud
@Professor Bigfoot:
🙏
Another Scott
@Professor Bigfoot: 🤞for a short, pleasant, and successful stay!
Let us know how it goes.
Best wishes,
Scott.
NotMax
@Professor Bigfoot
May events proceed apace as stress-free as possible.
Suzanne
@Professor Bigfoot: Friend, you are gonna be just fine! You’re gonna wake up slowly, feel groggy, still be pissed off at Elon, and then remember vaguely that something happened.
Cath procedures have an awesome success rate and fast recovery.
NotMax
Fraudulent largesse and abusive largesse feeling ignored.
//
Geminid
@Geminid: Another Politico Playbook item: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will take his shitshow on the road this morning.. He’ll deliver remarks at the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, scheduled for 9:30 a.m.
Professor Bigfoot
See, I’m supposed to “keep calm,” but all of these vile sonsabitches just keep me in a perpetual rage.
RFK, Rubio, Musk, Kegsbreath, the entire stinking crew.
I just wish I didn’t see their supporters all around me all the time.
MUSICAL INTERLUDE:
Stupid motherfuckers,
Stupid fucking fucks,
In their stupid red hats,
and their lifted trucks
Stupid motherfuckers
Stupid fucking fucks
They’re the fucking reason
Our country fucking sucks! HEY!
Betty Cracker
@Professor Bigfoot: Butter lamb blessings upon you! Seriously, be well, wishing you an extra speedy recovery, and please let us know how you’re doing when you can.
My mom was a cardiac care nurse who worked in the cath lab for many years. The stuff they do on a routine basis is absolutely amazing!
Professor Bigfoot
@Suzanne: Thank you so much– I know this intellectually, but the lizard hind-brain is gibbering in the corner in terror. 😉
And everyone, THANK YOU SO MUCH for the well wishes! I appreciate y’all.
(but I still think Betty shoulda used the red peppercorns… 😂)
NotMax
@Geminid
Not inclined to do so; hoping someone somewhere tracking how many times he uses the word war.
“just saying it makes me feel like the roughest, toughest, manliest of manly men.”
Librettist
Shitty CEO gonna shit.
Scout211
I wonder if Trump and Musk just assumed that they could do anything, even destroy our democracy and their fans either wouldn’t notice or wouldn’t care. It’s nice to know that Musk is ruining his brand by ruining all government services.
Americans are slowly realizing that the economy is tanking:
Americans sour on Trump’s handling of the economy, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds
Trump and his minions are not even protecting the red states and the red state Governors who are his biggest supporters.
That’s gotta hurt, Governor Sanders. LOLOL When will Republican pols realize that their support of Trump does not put them in a protected class?
I do feel bad for the people in the state who were affected by the storms and all the other states that had damage to lives and property in recent natural disasters. The states are on their own now.
NeenerNeener
@New Deal democrat: Add Virginia to that list, saw it on the local news last night.
p.a.
@Professor Bigfoot: 🤞🏻
Scout211
@Professor Bigfoot: Sending my best to you for a quick, painless and successful procedure.
Matt McIrvin
@New Deal democrat: I wonder whether we’re going to have reliable information about… anything going forward. Not just public health, but labor and economic statistics–there may be no reliable, objective way to measure the next recession if they just fire all the people who compile those numbers, or order them to cook them.
The right always claimed the numbers were fake when they didn’t look good for them, or looked good for the other side. Well, they can make them fake.
NeenerNeener
@Professor Bigfoot: Best wishes for a successful procedure and a short stay.
ETtheLibrarian
I will assume he (and his bros) really believe it. But anyone with a fully functioning cerebral cortex (definitely not Elon’s Ketamine addled brain) knows his BS on this is not true. Wall Street may be greedy and sometimes willfully stupid, but many of them aren’t that stupid. Particularly after a few months of this (mal)administration’s idiocy and evil.
NotMax
@New Deal democrat
Brainworm Bob is a menace.
scribbler
@Professor Bigfoot: Crossing fingers and toes for you for a trouble-free procedure and easy recovery. Hoping you are posting again very, very soon!
Kayla Rudbek
@Professor Bigfoot: good luck and I hope that your medical team is excellent
Professor Bigfoot
@ETtheLibrarian: But will they wake up in time? Before we’re all in cardboard boxes under an underpass and fighting over curtain rods?
Matt McIrvin
…Musk’s behavior is an example of a larger pattern: conservatives consistently believe that liberals are all layabouts on public assistance, that tax money confiscated from Republican areas supports Democratic ones, etc. It’s odd given the extent to which the opposite is actually true, but I suppose a lot of that is just racist dogwhistles anyway.
Dagaetch
@Professor Bigfoot: good luck! My dad was in the hospital for some heart related stuff earlier this year. Two suggestions: an extra long charging cable for your devices because the plugs are always far away; and some of these in case you do have to stay overnight, since showering is unlikely.
Librettist
If he was ever serious about scaling he would have started with the EV equivalent of the Honda 250 and not gone all in on the Porsche market segment.
At least Democrats no longer have to kiss up to these Silly Con Valley types… just say no to Gavin Newsom.
NotMax
@Professor Bigfoot
“Sparrow needs more salt.”
//
Matt McIrvin
@Librettist: I think starting with, effectively, electric muscle cars (which was not Elon Musk’s idea, btw) did serve the important cultural purpose of obliterating the “golf cart” image of electric cars that had basically been how Americans thought of them previously.
But that purpose is done. Now Tesla is just one player in the market and their products have deficiencies that not all of their competitors’ do.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Professor Bigfoot: Best of luck to you this morning. I hope things run smoothly and you get to take your go-bag home again without opening it
O. Felix Culpa
@Professor Bigfoot: Wishing you a successful procedure and a speedy return to home and health.
Geminid
@Geminid: The Arizona 5th CD that sportscaster Jay Feely will run in lies southeast of Phoenix and includes parts of Mesa and Chandler, plus all of Gilbert. Andy Biggs won it last year with 60.4 percent of the, but Cook’s gives AZ05 a Partisan Voting Index of R+10. District Democrats could get substantial national support if they come up with a good candidate next year, which I think they will.
Steve LaBonne
@Professor Bigfoot: Good luck. I hope the results are favorable.
Professor Bigfoot
@Betty Cracker: ❤️ thank you🙏🏾
Dorothy A. Winsor
Comfort yourself about Hegseth by knowing that he doesn’t have an obvious career option once Trump throws him under the bus
JML
@Professor Bigfoot: good luck on your procedure. I’m sure it will go great. Don’t be shy about letting your nursing team know about your anxiety (they’ll probably spot it right off anyways). Nurses are awesome.
sentient ai from the future
you say “wasteful largesse”, I say “redundancy that insures success of mission critical systems” but looking at both Tesla and SpaceX I can understand why that is a foreign concept to this fucking jamoke
prostratedragon
Much better, University of Michigan edition
Other things we heard recently were from the University president but these here are Regeants:
…
…
They describe several new programs that will support, um, diverse categories of students.
NotMax
@Dorothy A. Winsor
Tenured professor at Liberty U.?
//
Trivia Man
@Matt McIrvin: the chocolate ration has been INCREASED again! All hail Big Brother!
Librettist
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
He can be the comedic foil/soundboard guy on Megyn Kelly’s Morning Madhouse.
His blackout drunk sound clips are comedic gold!
frosty
@Professor Bigfoot: Best of luck to you Mr. Angry Black Man. It doesn’t sound fun at all, although necessary.
I’m with you on hospitals. I recently had my first overnight stay in 70+ years when an outpatient procedure had some complications. The nurse says “Get a good night’s sleep.” I could understand getting woken up a few times to get the blood pressure tested but to have housekeeping come in to empty the trash in the middle of the night?
Hope it goes so smoothly that you don’t have to endure that again.
suzanne
Not sure if it’s just this photo, but Elon hasn’t been looking like he’s in good health of late.
NotMax
@frosty
ICE agents getting their beauty sleep then?
//
Betty Cracker
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yes! I also take joy from Elise Stefanik’s dashed ambitions, which the LOLGOP account on bsky reminded me of this morning. She must be hopping mad to find herself stuck in the House! Hahahahaha!
kalakal
@Professor Bigfoot: Sending my best for a quick and painless procedure. I get your fear, I’m a worry wart myself, but it really is a routine op with a fantastic success rate these days.
NeenerNeener
@prufrock: Welcome to the club! Although I got my Niro Plug-In Hybrid in 2018, before the fully electrics were available.
Geminid
@NeenerNeener: I think the Virginia measles case is related to overseas travel by a child. The Virginia Department of Health put out an alert detailing time periods in two different clinics where others were exposed late last week.
Librettist
Remember when Rahm had to placate him on that “how dumb are you?” express tunnel to O’Hare?
Maybe they can throw him into that hole he built under Vegas and seal him in old school style – toss his shitwit minions in with him.
NeenerNeener
@Geminid: So it’s only a matter of time for those that were exposed but not immune.
mappy!
Tesla Hits Record High Sales from Carbon Credits
https://carboncredits.com/tesla-hits-record-high-sales-from-carbon-credits-at-1-79b/
lowtechcyclist
@Professor Bigfoot:
Consider my word put in! I missed you when you were in the hospital the first time, so I hope you’re in and out of there PDQ this time, and in good shape to rant on!
Matt McIrvin
@Trivia Man: I take *some* solace in the fact that we’ll probably be able to see any data deterioration happening–these people are not subtle or clever.
Jackie
@Scout211:
She looks around slowly… and sees the shadows of leopards inching towards her…
Matt McIrvin
@mappy!: Oh, that wasteful largesse!
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Guy named Stefanik was the spokesstudent for the (tiny) pro-Vietnam War group when yours truly was in high school in suburban NY.
No idea if any relation but would not be at all surprised if it turns out to be so.
jonas
…which is why reports are she’s gearing up a run for NY governor. I’m not sure “Let’s do for NY what Trump’s doing for America” is going to be a big seller over the next two years, though.
Betty Cracker
@jonas: My guess is that would be great news for Hochul!
@NotMax: Small world!
Jackie
@Professor Bigfoot: HIDE those salt packets within reach! ;-D
Good luck with surgery! Virtually everyone I know who had catheters or stents remarked how much better quality their lives are afterwards!
NotMax
@jonas
“Make the Erie Canal great again!”
//
Jackie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Surely Faux will take him back! Hangovers never got him fired ;-)
Professor Bigfoot
@frosty: I tend to sleep with my arms crossed… and last time, since I had an infusion pump running, I’d fall asleep, cross my arms, occlude the feed line, and wake up with that alarm blaring literally RIGHT IN MY EAR. 😂
brantl
The meaning of the stock/profit losses and protests? Don’t quit your day job, fuckface!
jonas
@Matt McIrvin: My own corollary to Davis X. Machina’s theorem about underpasses and curtain rods is that the key to understanding American politics is to know that at any time, half the electorate is consumed with a gnawing fear that somewhere, somehow, an undeserving minority is receiving public benefits.
Now in one sense, that’s absolutely true. I feel it. It’s just that the minority in question is wealthy asshole CEOs like Musk.
Geminid
@jonas: The same applies for Rep. Andy Biggs and his run for Arizona Governor next year. Biggs’ voting record will provide plenty lines of attack for Democrats.
jonas
Hochul has other problems, but I don’t think one of them will be Stefanik.
SiubhanDuinne
@Professor Bigfoot:
I am holding you in my thoughts and anticipating with a huge smile your first post-Catholic comment. I enjoy your rants and learn from them.
(I typed “post-cath,” but the autocorrection amused me, so I decided to leave it.)
MrPug
Are crazy conspiracy theories a good way to allay any concerns that the board and investors may have?
jonas
@MrPug: Meme conspiracies for a meme stock. Could work, I guess.
sab
@Professor Bigfoot: It is a good thing that you timed this hospital stay while Americans can still get heparin.
Modern medicine is amazing.
Matt McIrvin
@jonas: There were Reconstruction-era cartoons about the Freedmen’s Bureau giving handouts to lazy Black people that look like the ideas came straight out of Fox News.
Mr. Longform
@SiubhanDuinne:
Betty’s piece is (and her pieces often are) a great example of a righteous rant – the opposite of self-righteous; a heartfelt and vigorous assertion of truth in the face of malevolence.
NotMax
@MrPug
Don’t need to be crazy. Quotidian conspiracy theories will suffice.
//
New Deal democrat
@Matt McIrvin:
Fortunately, there are private, State, and/or under the radar substitutes for almost all important federal government statistics.
For example, jobless claims are compiled by the States. The weekly federal report just adds them all up. California updates its withholding tax payments (a proxy for employment) once or twice a month. Challenger Gray publishes layoff totals. ADP keeps track of payroll numbers that they manage. Redbook publishes weekly consumer sales figures. And so on.
The private sources might be leaned on by T—-p, but Wall Street *really* wants good timely data. And Blue and Purple States are unlikely to buckle.
So I think in all but the very worst case scenarios, there will be decent data telling us what is really happening.
Finally, there is an online group called “friends of the BLS” to which I belong, that includes Census Bureau employees, that is designed to sound the alarm early.
Gin & Tonic
@Suzanne: But hospitals still suck, despite your best efforts.
Ceci7
@Professor Bigfoot: Best wishes!
sentient ai from the future
@MrPug: I think institutional investors (which have already been pulling out of TSLA) will be content to whistle past the graveyard and leave the retail fanboy degenerate gamblers holding the bag.
Deputinize America
I had AI scribble a dark screed about a potential future….
**The Fall of the Technoking**
*May 2027 – Austin, Texas*
The streets of Austin burned. Not with the vibrant energy of music and art that once defined the city, but with the fury of a people pushed past breaking. The American experiment had collapsed under the weight of a tyrant’s ego, and now the carcass of the republic was being picked apart by vultures—foreign and domestic.
Elon Musk had thought himself untouchable.
Even as President Trump’s second term spiraled into martial law, as elections were suspended, as states seceded or revolted, Musk had remained smug in his Austin bunker, convinced his genius would insulate him from consequences. He had been Trump’s favorite oligarch, after all—his DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) teams had gutted federal agencies, his algorithms had mined every byte of citizen data, and his “cost-saving measures” had left millions starving while his wealth ballooned.
But then the GRU leaks hit.
The Russian hackers, given free rein by Musk’s “streamlined” government systems, had dumped everything—tax records, medical histories, even the private communications of dissidents. The last shred of trust in the regime evaporated. The states that hadn’t already declared independence rose in open rebellion. Trump fled to the UAE. Vance vanished. And Musk?
Musk had waited too long to run.
Now he crouched in an alley behind a ruined Tesla factory, his private security either dead or defected. The mob had tracked him here. They weren’t armed with guns—those had been spent in the early days of the uprising. No, they came with knives, with pipes, with bare hands clenched into fists.
“You *sold us out!*” a woman screamed, her face gaunt from hunger. “You gave our kids’ data to the *Russians!*”
Musk’s voice cracked as he backed against the wall. “I—I streamlined inefficiencies! The government was *wasteful!*”
A man spat at his feet. “You shut down food programs while you built another fucking rocket!”
“The markets—the markets needed discipline!” Musk babbled. “Trump said—he said—”
“Trump’s *gone!*” a teenager snarled, hefting a chunk of broken concrete. “And you’re still here.”
Musk’s eyes darted for an escape. There was none. His private jet had been seized. His tunnels were flooded. His fortune was just numbers in a dead database now.
“I was trying to *help!*” he shrieked.
The mob didn’t care.
They descended.
Later, when the dogs came sniffing through the rubble, they found fresh meat.
And for the first time in years, they ate well.
jonas
Slightly off-topic, but maybe not by much, I’ve been following Josh Marshall’s very interesting campaign to assemble what he calls “DOJ in Exile” — a kind of shadow department consisting of former DOJ officials and other legal experts that will keep tabs on the massive amounts of criming taking place on a daily basis in the Trump administration for the sake of history and/or future prosecutions. I expect Trump will end up having to pardon virtually anyone who worked for the federal government during his tenure because at some point they’ll all be accessories to some kind of illegal activity, but at least documenting the atrocities in the meantime may be worthwhile down the road.
Geminid
@NeenerNeener: I guess we’ll see soon enough. Virginia’s Department of Health seems to be watching this measles case fairly closely.
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
And the thing about that is, during Reconstruction (and hell, for decades afterwards), Black people deserved the opportunity to be lazy and live off of handouts. After all, for the previous two and a half centuries, they’d been doing ALL THE WORK so white people could sit on their asses in fancy mansions. They were owed a break from working! Did they get it? What a silly notion.
schrodingers_cat
@Professor Bigfoot: Keeping my paws crossed for you. Get well and comeback soon. We need you.
Deputinize America
@sentient ai from the future:
Speaking of fanboy investors, I wonder when Cathie Wood has her collapse….
zhena gogolia
@Professor Bigfoot: Prayers for you. We’ll be thinking of you.
jonas
@Matt McIrvin: Because those stats come from so many sources, I think it would be hard to straight up cook them at the federal level and if they tried, it would be quickly exposed and markets would absolutely freak the fuck out. Not that they wouldn’t try, mind you, but I don’t think they would get away with it. It’s probably easier to just have Fox declare that any negative numbers are fake news and not to pay attention to them and hey did you hear about that illegal immigrant who mugged a grandmother on her way to church in Toledo?
schrodingers_cat
All those people complaining about Geriartric Genocide Joe and their student loans seem to have vanished in thin air.
Geminid
@jonas: I’ve read that NY17 Rep. Mike Lawler is also considering a run for New York Governor next year. Congressman Lawler may be trying to avoid likely defeat in a reelection bid next year. His district contains northern Westchester County and a couple Hudson Valley counties to the north. Cook’s gives it a PVI of D+3.
suzanne
@jonas:
I think it’s even worse than that. They fear that an “undeserving” minority or woman is earning more money, looking better, or being more cool.
Central Planning
I’m going to have to find a Tesla protest and go with a sign that says “How do I get some wasteful largesse?”
lowtechcyclist
@New Deal democrat:
Glad to hear it! Good thing that it includes Census employees. The Current Population Survey is entirely a Census Bureau product, even though it gets released under the BLS name: the Bureau of Labor Statistics contracts the work out to Census.
I’m pretty sure that’s the case for much of the work that BLS publishes, but I know for a fact that it’s true of the CPS, because the people who did the work on CPS were in my division at Census, just a few cubicles away.
My wife worked in the Econ directorate at Census (I was on the demographic side of the house), and her friends in Econ are saying that staffing is getting to levels where it puts at risk their ability to do their work properly and on time.
suzanne
@Gin & Tonic:
Well, I will note that I design cath labs, just like the one in which the Prof is gonna get his procedure — and do just great! — so maybe I’m really good at my job. ;)
SiubhanDuinne
@Mr. Longform:
Indeed. Just one of the many reasons she is such a beloved presence here and elsewhere.
Soprano2
@New Deal democrat: I’ve seen a couple of reports of measles in Missouri, too. The idea that allowing this disease to spread strengthens people’s immune system is nuts. Glad I got my booster a few years ago. Hubby actually had the measles, so no worries on that front.
Barry
@mappy!:
“Tesla generated a substantial $1.79 billion from carbon credit sales last year, as revealed in their Q4 2023 and annual financial report,”
I would be nervous having my money in a company where that’s a significant income source, because that’s got to be on the chopping block.
Soprano2
@Scout211: They’ll probably blame liberals and FEMA, not FFOTUS or his government. They did this to Washington state, too. They really want to shut down FEMA and have all the states try to recover on their own. People thought the government sucked before, well they ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
Soprano2
@Matt McIrvin: That’s true, they can fake the numbers. They can’t fake what people are paying for stuff, though.
prostratedragon
@Professor Bigfoot: Best wishes, and dotto on the salt, wipes, and ectra long charger cable if you’re there overmight.
If you have headphones, you might try a different tune.
Soprano2
@Professor Bigfoot: Good luck on your procedure. I hope you don’t have to stay overnight again, hospitals are the worst place to get any rest.
Hubby likes to bend his elbow when he has an IV in, which makes the alarm go off. It doesn’t matter how many times I tell him not to do that, he does it anyway.
Bupalos
@Professor Bigfoot:
If any of the medical professionals involved are white, I give you permission to name drop me as rooting for a smooth procedure. Tell them you motivate like 80% of my “it’s not just racism” posts.
….And now I realized I might have inadvertently complicated the board’s good feelings about your value. Apologies for that but there’s obviously an abundance there, including from me.
Seriously though man, good thoughts your way, good luck, and I really don’t think you’ll need it.
Kristine
@Professor Bigfoot: Adding my best wishes to all the others.
twbrandt
@Professor Bigfoot: Best wishes! I’ve had three – the first, like yours, was sudden and non-optional. The other two were to check out what was going on.
I hope the results are not horrible.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@New Deal democrat:
Is the Consumer Price Index only done by the Feds or do other entities have say so? It’s especially important, particularly for determining COLA for Social Security, and the rate at which bond investors who own TIPS and I-Bonds are paid. I can see the Trump admin putting out bogus numbers to cheat them
Betty Cracker
@Soprano2: Truth. I can personally attest to that from my experience with FEMA under Trump. We qualified for assistance with flood relocation expenses and could really fucking use it, but no one has even reviewed our documentation since the Trump fuckheads took over. I’m resigned to the idea that we aren’t gonna get shit, though I’ll keep bugging them and listening to increasingly implausible excuses for delays.
Bupalos
@Soprano2: I’m just worried about the size of the contingent of people that don’t want higher prices, don’t want lower prices, but want MAGA PRICES!!!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Professor Bigfoot:
Wishing you good luck on your operation and a speedy recovery! You got this
Citizen Dave
Small ask: might be helpful when jackals discuss local pols, there is an indication of the pol’s affiliation. Usually we can tell from context, but not always. Personally I don’t give a crap which MAGA is running for whatever office. What is it with NFL kickers? Feely, that guy in KC. There’s been a former colts punter run (win) as an R, and some noise about Venateri running for something, again as an R.
The Tesla Carbon Credit revenue seems kind of ephemeral to me. I drove by the local tesla the other day, which is next to a mall and a closed JCPenney. Rows and rows of unsold tesla sit, especially the stainless shitboxes.
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: I saw some of the discussion about this in the overnight thread. I had been wondering where the people protesting the violence in Gaza were, since it started up again. I think FFOTUS’s message about sending people to an El Salvadoran gulag got through to most of them, thus the lack of protests. The snatching up of immigrant students did the rest. Either that, or they didn’t really mean it when they said they were outraged that our government was selling/giving Israel the weapons it was using to attack Gaza.
Bupalos
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I don’t think Trump would bother with detailed petty lying like that. His lies tend to go big and discredit the whole idea of truth.
Betty Cracker
@Soprano2: Yeah, I’m thinking the threat of being expelled from school or disappeared to a foreign gulag forever would have a dampening effect on protests.
Fair Economist
@Soprano2: I think the Gaza protestors were mostly genuine. But I think the organizers and posters were mostly fake. Now that Trump is in office, they’ve accomplished their goal, and so they are no longer being paid to organize and influence, so there’s no protests to attend.
satby
@Professor Bigfoot: Best of luck for an uneventful procedure and a swift return home and to full strength! ❤️
Geminid
@Citizen Dave: I figured readers would understand Feely’s party from Feely saying that Jim Jordan recruited him.
Ed: but it it wouldn’t have hurt to stick “Republican” in there somewhere in case someone didn’t pick up on the Jim Jordan reference.
Layer8Problem
@Geminid: Representative Lawler had an event at Manhattan College yesterday but couldn’t evade protesters in spite of pushing the scheduled time up at least a half-hour at the last minute and going in through a back door. He’s supposed to have a town hall of some kind in Rockland County soon that will probably be met with unhappy constituents.
Bupalos
@Fair Economist: I’m sure there was some heightened bot activity that may be gone which affects the world of screens where we get our vibes.
But I think the reality is more simple- no one is going to take any risk to try and put democratic pressure on the Trump admin hoping they’ll adjust policy in the direction of more humane outcomes because “OMG DO YOU FUCKING HEAR YOURSELF?”
Fester Addams
Oh, I get it now. “Wasteful largess” means too many people have not (yet) been reduced to grinding poverty, whereupon they won’t be able to take a few hours off to protest. I don’t know, Elon; a hungry mob is an angry mob.
Jackie
@Geminid:
Forcing oneself to do a little independent research as needed, seems too much work. //
When I’m tempted to ask who, what, why, etc, I’m usually already researching :-)
But that’s just how I roll.
schrodingers_cat
@Soprano2: So all that talk of revolution was a tantrum against Democrats in general and the Biden admin in particular
My conspiracy theory is that Putin engineered Oct 7 through Hamas because he knew that would tear apart the precarious Democratic coalition. Plus anti-Semitic hate has been the life blood of the Russian state since Czarist times.
frosty
@Professor Bigfoot: Excellent lyrics! It doesn’t need much of a melody, just a chord change or two. I’ll work on it unless you’ve already charted it out.
Bupalos
@suzanne: The fear is more ‘real’ than that and is very much global. Spiraling inequality combined with dystopian dread creates crab-bucket politics that intelligent sociopaths weaponize.
Layer8Problem
Belafon
@Soprano2: The general rule on criticizing and protests in US politics seems to be based around the idea that you go after the people you think you can change. So, you don’t protest Trump for sending people to El Salvador, you protest the head of the Senate for doing a book tour.
Belafon
@Fester Addams: “Wasteful largess” means a rich person having to spend money they should be stealing from the poor.
lowtechcyclist
@Bupalos:
This. With Biden, the idea of pressuring the Administration to work to limit the quantity of destruction Israel was visiting on Gaza was at least plausible.
With Trump…[insert bitter laughter here]. Not to mention what’s the likelihood of rallying public support about Gaza right now when all the shit that’s happening right here is happening.
Bupalos
@schrodingers_cat: it was low-risk democratic protest with a plausible chance of influencing policy. It’s gone because it’s now high-risk protest with zero chance of influencing policy.
Wherever you stand on Israel’s actions, you should be able to understand that some people really do care very deeply about this issue and not everything is a proxy for categories we’ve decided are more “real.”
Betty Cracker
@Citizen Dave: Regarding kickers, there’s Chris Kluwe, former NFL punter and current progressive activist.
schrodingers_cat
@Layer8Problem: Indeed both sides are the same, but the “revolutionaries” only protest Ds and are afraid of Rs.
prostratedragon
Never knew Prokofiev and Shakespeare shared birthdays.
“Dance of the Knights ” Romeo and Juliet
suzanne
@Bupalos:
Also too, things can be right even if their supporters are annoying.
schrodingers_cat
@Bupalos: Their protest which included telling people not to vote for the Dem nominee for President, was high risk for the future of democracy in this country. And we are living with the results of their successful tantrum. And now they are nowhere to be found because they have achieved their mission of installing a Republican President.
lowtechcyclist
@schrodingers_cat:
There was talk of revolution? Yeah, whatever.
terraformer
Damn, Betty – I think I need a cigarette after that righteous rant.
And I don’t smoke
prostratedragon
@Soprano2: My last few IVs they’ve used one of those big veins on the outside of the forearm, for that reason.
New Deal democrat
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Yes, although there are several privately curated proxies for that as well.
Bupalos
@schrodingers_cat: I think that’s simplified and generalized to where most of the truth has been wrung out of it.
Also fairly conspiratorial.
democracy isn’t easy or clean
Geminid
@Layer8Problem: I follow Westchester Democrat Tom Watson* some for local and state politics. Watson really has it in for Lawler and I expect he repeated this story.
* (guitarwatson.bsky.social)
Jackie
@Betty Cracker: Interestingly, he was basically ousted from the NFL:
Shocking!
Layer8Problem
@lowtechcyclist: Regardless of the level of revolution rhetoric, one would like to see the same level of concern when the other side commits tangible bad acts locally as well as overseas. I mean “both sides”, right?
lowtechcyclist
@Belafon:
Except we are protesting Trump for sending people to El Salvador.
The goal here though is obviously not to change Trump’s mind, but to increase public opposition to Trump over this and everything else. So you’re not wrong on the general idea.
schrodingers_cat
@lowtechcyclist:
Our Revolution (sometimes known by its initials OR) is an American progressive political action organization founded as a continuation of Senator Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign.
The left end of the horseshoe opines and fantasizes about a revolution a lot. There is always talk about defeating Ds and ushering in a revolution. But yeah whatever.
Chief Oshkosh
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Oh, he’ll end up selling some shitty crap to shitty people. I’d never seen the guy present until he made the evening news the other day, whining about how his own people are knifing him (of course, he fapped on about deep state or some such). Wow! The guy is really impressive…in that he makes an enormously icky impression. Slimeball all the way.
lowtechcyclist
@Layer8Problem:
I’m not sure what you’re trying to say to me. The level of generality is too great.
Jackie
This is not a surprise to us, but hopefully this and other similar articles wake up oblivious normies:
Westyny
@Professor Bigfoot: Best wishes for a quick, painful-free jettison from the hospital. We need your voice! And stay salty!
chemiclord
@Jackie: The right wing media sphere has always had room for former Trump cabinet members.
Hell, even the mainstream media has traditionally found space for them.
lowtechcyclist
@schrodingers_cat:
Yeah, someone linked to OR just the other day, and I was surprised that they were still around. Hadn’t heard about them in years.
Trust me, I remember that sort of fantasizing from 55-60 years ago. And by comparison: yeah, whatever.
Gin & Tonic
@Geminid:
I know it’s not an uncommon name, but just funny that IBM, which seems to own about half of Westchester, was founded by a Tom Watson.
suzanne
Seen on Xhitter:
Answer: 90% of it. Resentment at the “wrong” people succeeding. The wrong people are women, people of color, queer people, anyone who went to college (even a local state school), their kids who don’t stay in Iowa, etc etc etc. Take your pick.
Soprano2
@lowtechcyclist: All of this is true, but I also think they got the message about the gulag in El Salvador loud and clear. Plus if I were a foreign student right now I’d be keeping my head down and my mouth shut, at least until I could manage to graduate. I saw a student from my alma mater was deported; the university said they are making arrangements for the student to complete their degree, so good for them.
schrodingers_cat
@Soprano2: Not everyone in those protests was an international student. I would bet that they were a minority of the protestors.
Geminid
@Gin & Tonic: There’s also the well-known golfer Tom Watson, and the Labour politician Tom Watson who is a particular favorite of Tony Jay’s.
I ran into this Tom Watson through Chicago-based Ragnarok Lobster. Watson posts a lot on New York politics, both short-form and long-form on Substack as “theliberaltomwatson.”
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat:
OR. Our Revolution.
Can also think of it as OR. Operation Ratfuck.
Layer8Problem
@lowtechcyclist: Quite simply, I would like to see at least the same level of commitment to protest given to the actions of the current administration as was given to the administration of “Genocide Joe”. “Gaza’s one thing, but hey, Trump, what can you do?” seems weak.
Layer8Problem
@Geminid: Thank you for that.
gene108
@Scout211:
Trump supporters do not care if democracy survives or does not survive.
They’re mad they can’t sell soybeans to China, their IRA grants haven’t been paid, their trucks don’t have cargo to transport, and their Social Security might get cut.
They aren’t mad about the loss of rights and democracy.
hedgehog mobile
@Professor Bigfoot: Sending all the positive vibes!
Soprano2
@suzanne: Boy this, 100%. They’re angry that the world where white people, especially white men, are always in the front of the line is gone, and FFOTUS promised them he’d bring it back with his full-on campaign against “DEI”, which evidently means anyone who isn’t a white man. They honestly believe that most white men are more qualified for most jobs than anyone else regardless of training or experience. They are sure that a woman or a black man cannot be qualified for a good job at all.
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: I would too, just saying that those people are probably staying quiet for a good reason. The others, not so much. There are protests against FFOTUS and the things he’s doing every weekend now, I wonder if any of them are showing up to those protests.
Soprano2
@gene108: That’s because they don’t perceive that they’ve lost those rights yet.
Elizabelle
@Professor Bigfoot: Best wishes PB. Laughing that you are taking little packets of salt with you to the hospital — there is a man who thinks ahead.
Look forward to your posting on the other side of a successful procedure.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
If one is a Palestine and wanted to protest Hamas as being the fools the Israelis installed to justify ethnically cleansing Gaza they would be facing retaliation when they went home.
rikyrah
@Professor Bigfoot:
Prayers for you that everything goes well, and that you will soon be resting and healing.
suzanne
@Soprano2: There was an amazing thread that went viral in which a man was complaining about his girlfriend’s job. (She had what appears to be a typical mid-level white-collar job involving meetings, events, planning, etc.). No idea from the thread what field she was in.
What annoyed him about it? That she was well-compensated for her labor. And the thread was just packed with other men echoing his complaint. Like, why would you care if your girlfriend makes her own salary, maybe even more money than you?
Salty Sam
When our boat/home was irreparably damaged in Hurricane Harvey (during Trump’s first term) getting FEMA to recognize that we qualified for assistance, and then to provide that assistance was like pulling teeth without anesthetic. It took weeks of daily phone calls. Eventually we got it, but it took a lot of patience and work.
Good luck!
ETA: it was obvious to us that FEMA-under-Trump in 2017 was in shambles. Part of the delay was a constant turnover of agents. I must have recited our story a hundred times over the weeks we fought for our assistance. I can only imagine what the agency is like now.
Bupalos
@suzanne: The resentment I think runs a lot deeper and closer to the bone than concerns about “the wrong people.” The various isms and phobias are downstream of the development environment and cultural impoverishment. And soaked in fear.
Betty Cracker
I don’t know what’s happening in other states, but there’s a pretty obvious reason student protests here in Florida have dropped off, and it has nothing to do with conspiracy theories. It’s because the MAGA fascist governor and the right-wing donors he installed to oversee the university system have essentially overturned the First Amendment and banned peaceful protests, backed 100% by the MAGA fascist federal government under Trump. If they can’t disappear students who are studying on visas, they destroy their academic careers by expelling them on the basis of extremely sketchy claims about wrongdoing.
Shalimar
Tesla up almost 8% so far today. People are so gullible. Musk lies all the time. He has not been putting anywhere near as many hours into DOGE as he says he has, and he has not been ignoring Tesla anywhere near as much as everyone thinks. He has spent most of his time in the last decade shit-posting on Twitter and that is not going to change. I can’t even grasp the stupid mythology around this drug addict.
Geminid
The White House press secretaey confirmed yesterday that Trump will visit Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar next month, dates May 13-16.
This would have been Trump first visit abroad except now he’s going to Rome for Pope Francis’s funeral Saturday morning. That will start at 10 a.m. local time, 4 a.m. Eastern Daylight time I think.
MrPug
And TSLA is up today. I think we all should temper our hopes that Musk’s TSLA fortune is going to be reduced enough to really hurt him (e.g. margin calls on his loans) any time soon. Because, apparently TLSA holders are fucking morons.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t of condone that, but I’m concerned about getting people comfortable with the idea that they can only safely protest Democrats. I don’t know how we avoid the wrong lesson.
@Geminid:
Does the Vatican know that? I just don’t see Trump sitting still for a Catholic funeral.
Shakti
Every accusation is a confession with these folks. Musk accuses protesters of being “recipients of wasteful largesse” because he is one, and receiving “fraudulent money” because he is. He has many government contracts; he directly benefits from the EV credit, and he has openly dangled money in front of people to vote/register to vote for Trump and Trump backed candidates in the open. And that’s what we know about.
Who knows how he’s using DOGE to funnel money into his pockets via shell corporations parked offshore.
He’s on tv whining about how working for the government hurts his businesses and I had to remind myself that prior to Trump, high government officials divested themselves of their companies before working for the government and put them into a blind trust, to avoid the conflict of interest. So he’s whining about a problem he brought upon himself.
@Betty Cracker: I haven’t seen much in the way of protesters here tbh. But yes, that’s true.
NotMax
@Baud
Roman à blech.
//
lowtechcyclist
@Layer8Problem:
Huh? I had the impression – there had even been pix posted in this blog – that there had been major protests against the Trump Administration. Were those all faked like the moon landings?
Barry
@Bupalos:
“I’m just worried about the size of the contingent of people that don’t want higher prices, don’t want lower prices, but want MAGA PRICES!!!”
I know where that comes from, and agree with you.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: I’m not sure how extensive that problem is. It makes sense that people are more likely to take direct action when they think there’s a chance they can influence an outcome. But would protests still be ongoing if there wasn’t an unprecedented and overtly fascist crackdown on campus protests — along with attempts to put colleges into MAGA receivership?
My guess is those campus protests would be ongoing and large if students thought the First Amendment was still operative.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
We won’t really know until we’re back in power. I’m not interested in seeing people take out their pent up energy on us.
pieceofpeace
@Professor Bigfoot: Sending hope for a successful, rapid process.
Ruckus
Betty, I do like the way you write!
I doubt that anyone has as much earned my moniker for elon (and others on his side) – shitforbrains.
He is the world’s richest person and he still has to suck the life out of everyone else. The words pompous, arrogant, asshole have never fit anyone as well as they fit him. Although they don’t go far enough to exemplify who and what he is. He has everything and he still wants more, as in a piece of everyone else on the planet. And not a small, insignificant piece either. He’s the modern day hitler. (and yes I didn’t capitalize that on purpose – he’s a – there really aren’t words for who and what he is, plus I don’t think everyone would like me to spell out every swear word I know…..
Layer8Problem
@lowtechcyclist: Are we talking about the great aggregate of anti-Trump marchers? At least some of the Gaza protesters themselves may be among them, I suppose. I saw three Palestinian flags at the march I was at among a couple of hundred thousand people. Nobody’s pointed out any pile of anti-Biden-Gaza people, cheerleaders, or organizers saying “the target’s changed but the cause remains”. Maybe Trump’s now doing good in Gaza so nothing to worry about anymore?
Ruckus
@Professor Bigfoot:
Follow instructions and best of everything for you and your health!
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: It didn’t take a lot of imagination to forsee the outcome of sitting such an important election out. And urging others not to vote.
It was not exactly a secret what Trump would do in Gaza or back home. He talked about it all the time and his first term was not that long ago.
Elections have consequences.
They Call Me Noni
@Professor Bigfoot: Think soothing and happy thoughts. Imagine the trial before 12 angry MAGA members and a no nonsense judge after he has been impeached by all democrats and a large majority of his R minions. He then lives out the remainder of his miserable life behind bars with Steve Banon as his only visitor.
We can dream!
Betty Cracker
@Baud: From what I’ve read about the 2024 protests, most if not all of the big ones were aimed at getting university administrators to do something, e.g., divest from Israeli companies to protest the Netanyahu regime, label the Israeli campaign in Gaza a genocide, etc.
IIRC, that was the thrust of the op-ed in the Tufts paper that prompted Trump’s ICE goons to abduct Ms. Öztürk in Somerville, MA and throw her in a Louisiana prison.
I don’t doubt that there were knuckleheads who focused on Dems during campus protests, but AFAIK, it wasn’t the main object, unless you believe the conspiracy theories, which I do not.
As for what Dems pols can do when they’re back in power, maybe handle issues like that better so our policies and public support for reactionary foreign leaders don’t blow up in our faces? I have no desire to relitigate Biden’s handling of the always fraught I/P situation, but it was kind of a shit-show, IMO.
BeautifulPlumage
Amen Betty, Amen. Just the rant I needed this morning.
(and don’t tell anyone, but I get paid extra for wearing the costume while I protest Tesla $$$)
Ruckus
@Matt McIrvin:
I thought that they designed in those deficiencies on purpose….
I used to know someone who bought one of his cars early on. It seemed OK at the time, but then no one had realized it has elon stink on and in it. Everywhere.
I wonder how many people that bought one really, really are pissed off now?
Shakti
@MrPug:
I’m supposed to read these stock indices and bond markets and individual stock prices as indicative other than mood rings for people with money expressed as a quantifiable average. And it has real life consequences.
I cannot make this stick in my brain.
As I understand it most of the money Musk has acquired comes from the sale of his first company [Zip2? idk] and whatever shares/money he took from X.com being acquired from Paypal and for being its CEO briefly before it went public, and the equity stake he had in Paypal when it was acquired by Ebay — and everything else is just compound interest.
It would be very strange if this man had or has most of his wealth tied up in Tesla.
The Wikipedia article says this is so, but I feel like it’s wrong. Maybe I just don’t believe this man is going to be this dumb about his primary source of wealth.
Ruckus
@suzanne:
When you piss off most every other human on the planet it might take a while to get everyone on board but on board they will get and began hating him with passion. People followed hitler for a while too, because they got something out of it, and it wasn’t what everyone else got. But after a while most realized what they got was bullshit and that it could and did cost a lot of them their lives. I wonder how many tesla owners are even more pissed off than everyone else. I’d bet it’s more than a few of them.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I wasn’t necessarily talking about Gaza only.
Nothing I can do. People will do what they want. They don’t have treat us fairly.
Jackie
@Baud:
He’ll sleep through most of it. I hope the media cameras capture him drooling and snoring.
Ruckus
@ETtheLibrarian:
People do catch on. Sometimes it takes some longer because they don’t want to admit whatever. But when someone is screwing everyone else, most people catch on. Quite often far more than enough. I believe that we are there.
George
@Matt McIrvin:
You are correct, I think. There will be no reliable information provided by the administration from here on out. Cooking numbers and ramping up the level of uncertainty are two tactics it will use, both to make itself look better and to make its adversaries look worse. Those things are features, not bugs, as the saying goes.
Naturally, a large percentage of the U.S. population will not understand those tactics. That percentage will include people who, let’s face it, should know better by now, but through lack of critical thinking skills or bare naked stupidity, will accept what they are told by the administration.
Citizen Dave
@Geminid:
Revisiting this late, my thought process was: sometimes it’s not clear which side these athletes/wannabee politicians are on. So I was thinking that maybe Jordan tried to recruit him, but Feely was now going to run with the Good Team. Probably overthought it. :)
Ruckus
@Gin & Tonic:
They mainly suck because you have to be in them. Which no one likes. It’s never fun but they can be at least acceptable if you get out of them what you need. Voice of experience here.
Geminid
@Citizen Dave: Feely attributed his reluctance about running in 2022 to having kids in high school. Evidently they have graduated or will graduate shortly, because he describes himself and his wife as “empty nesters” now.
karen gail
@Professor Bigfoot: Hopefully, you are in and out as quick as possible without any problems.
Personally, I hate spending nights in hospitals; one has to return home to own bed to get any sleep. Though I will admit the drugs after kidney surgery gave me the best “trip” ever; seems the weird side effects are the reason those drugs are no longer given after surgery.
karen gail
@Professor Bigfoot: Hopefully, you are in and out as quick as possible without any problems.
Personally, I hate spending nights in hospitals; one has to return home to own bed to get any sleep. Though I will admit the drugs after kidney surgery gave me the best “trip” ever; seems the weird side effects are the reason those drugs are no longer given after surgery.
NickM
The air Musk breathes is evidence of Nature’s “wasteful largesse”.
Matt McIrvin
@George: I expect a visible fight, not just silent falsification.
Matt McIrvin
@Shakti: Elon Musk’s wealth is effectively infinite by any normal human standard– he has a thousand times as much wealth as a very rich person.
All wealth on that level gets you is power over others. So from his perspective, he needs to push people around and do dramatic things or he might as well not have it at all. I suspect taking a bath on Tesla is worth that to him.
I do still find it fascinating that he somehow expects to be loved for all this and seems resentful that he’s not.
Ruckus
@Matt McIrvin:
Some people think that money is the end all be all of life. And it does have a not insignificant amount of truth to it – many people think that wealth is THE indicator of power. It isn’t. In my experience in professional sports it seems it’s every rich person but I actually know from experience that’s not totally true.
tam1MI
An additional possibility is that they were infiltrated top to bottom by Republicans and/or Russian assets and/or Israeli assets and the movement’s usefulness to them is over.
Ruckus
@karen gail:
I don’t find all hospitals are that bad. Over my decades I’ve slept in them 2 or 3 times and didn’t have any issues. But then I did sleep in a USN vessel for 2 years, with about 80 roommates. That’s 80 humans sleeping in the same room about 40×40 feet. If you can do that you can sleep anywhere. Especially in those extremely (un) comfortable things they called racks – because they really, really aren’t beds. Was stationed for my last 2 weeks on a much newer ship and the bed was your metal locker with a mattress on top. Much, no dramatically more comfortable than the old (stretched out) canvas bunks. Which I believe were designed to be torture devices. No one that ever slept one night in one has ever disagreed with me about that.
WTFGhost
@Splitting Image: That’s one of the things that more people should understand. Musk gets piles of cash, much more than he truly needs, to do a job. Everyone knows there’s plenty extra in there, to pay, for example, a bunch of lawyers some truly awe-inspiring, even to them, fees. There’s extra for accounting overruns, and changes in balance sheet due to higher replacement pricing, and, and, and… and no one cares. People should – that’s real corruption, but, only a very few people in the chain can be truly, horrendously corrupt, so, the corruption is spread so thin, it’s not fair to blame one, and not all, and, well, we’re not going to blame *all*.
But let some old lady collect three months of her husband’s social security, and Musk is screaming FRAUD, because her husband wasn’t on the death list yet, because… oh, yeah, he wasn’t DEAD.
Musk knows full well he’s got a lot of little piggies suckling on Big Mama Elon’s titties, and he knows the whole thing is corrupt as fuck…
(Y’all should stop reading now)
…which he really wishes he knew something about, having had all his children with a clever, almost lifelike implant, and a simple super-soaker pump, which is where Donnie and Elon first bonded, over personal NDAs, to hide some truly scurrilous rumors that happened to be most perversely, horrifyingly, accurate…
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Professor Bigfoot: May your stay be short while achieving all your heart needs.
In excellent news on the karma front, MAGAS must fight with one anotherother routinely. The latest victim is Peter, lately at State dismantling the life saving-ness of USAID. Poor vengeful soul got himself fired despite his being a fire-breathing, chest thumping, shoulder chip wearing, worshipper of the golden stick-on lover currently inhabiting our Oval Office. Mr. Marocco was fired from USAID during the golden wanna-be calf’s first term and this time Mr. Marocco made certain to fire everyone he suspected got him ousted the last time around (every single employee of USAID). Karma could not happen to a more deserving hater than Mr. Marocco.
May your healing and recovery be swift, Professor
lowtechcyclist
@Layer8Problem:
If a year ago, someone had asked me to join a Gaza protest, I’d have been glad to join. Now? Hell no, Gaza is down in the fucking white noise compared to all the other stuff going on right here.
Just USAID’s demolishment will have a death toll surpassing Gaza’s so far. As will the Administration’s deportation plan if they aren’t blocked from going through with it. Who knows what death toll will result from RFK Jr. And who knows whether we will be able to protest anything this time next year, Gaza included, if we don’t take a stand now.
So I’m sorry if I’ve let Gaza kind of slip down the list, but a whole bunch of items have been added to the top of the list.
And it wouldn’t surprise me if a whole lot of other people have also had their protest priorities similarly reordered. If to you that’s evidence of insincerity, I think you need a reality check.
Shakti
@Matt McIrvin: Loved?!
He expects to be loved or he thinks he’s buying a lot of TGEs [Total Girlfriend Experiences] so convincing people can’t tell the difference en masse?
This is very funny coming from someone who doesn’t even see the people he’s shitting on as human beings. He must think he’s the exception in every single film about intelligent sentient robots that ever made.
He’s probably LLMing a ChatGPT love letter to his nth human xerox machine recombinant GATTACA shuffle right now along with some weird NDA and child support revocable at whim.
Elizabelle
@Geminid: I wonder if the Vatican can find a pillar to hide The Felon behind. Having to look at his glowering orange “serious” face. …
karen gail
@Ruckus: The most people I have ever slept in same space with was 13 other teen girls at camp, when it got bad I could go outside and spend time in woods. So for you hospitals would be “walk in park” me not so much, though have to admit after my back surgery was the worst. Since they came in and made me move every hour; along with a poor Italian lady down the hall who broke her hip and spoke only Italian. She screamed in pain and in fear; none of staff spoke Italian and her family wasn’t around most of time.
Professor Bigfoot
@suzanne: it worked great for me!!!
As an engineer, I found all the equipment fascinating as heck.
i’m still stuck here in the hospital. I can’t move my arm. But I still might go home tonight! Yay me!
Professor Bigfoot
@Deputinize America: for AI, that’s actually quite good. And so very appropriate!
Ruckus
@karen gail:
Had my tonsils out when I was 7. Good times, 3 days in hospital with a roommate who could not stop talking, while I couldn’t make a sound, like telling him to shut the _ _ _ _ up. Also spent 2 months in a USN hospital. OK assigned to the hospital as a patient, I drove home and slept in my own bed every night.
Matt
I mean, the only reason that ELMO has a company is because of the government’s “wasteful largess” giving him EV subsidies, so I’m sure he assumes everybody else is motivated the same way.
IMO SpaceX should be nationalized, the rest of his companies shut down, his entire fortune subjected to civil forfeiture, and his ass chained to a pallet blindfolded and put on a one-way flight back to South Africa. Enough of this tiresome immigrant who only wants to soak up government money, spread his toxic foreign ideology, and impregnate American women!
Ruckus
@Matt:
I do like your style!
Lobo
@New Deal democrat: Add Montana to the list. Sigh!