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You are here: Home / Archives for Balloon Juice / Commentary / Show Us On the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You

Show Us On the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You

Friday Night Wind-Down Open Thread – David ‘BoBo’ Brooks Edition

by Anne Laurie|  September 22, 20239:41 pm| 173 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Our Failed Media Experiment, Show Us On the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You, Schadenfreude

You’ve probably seen something about this story already, if only out of the corner of your eye. It’s the ‘Reader added context’ that makes this tweet perfection… not to mention the number of replies (19.5 thousand and counting), most of them mocking:

This meal just cost me $78 at Newark Airport. This is why Americans think the economy is terrible. pic.twitter.com/1qeV9qOBL3

— David Brooks (@nytdavidbrooks) September 21, 2023

You’d think by now, BoBo (he’s only 62! I could’ve sworn he was older than me, but I guess he’s one of those guys who was born age 40, and already wearing a button-down shirt) would’ve know better than to use social media after the first scotch, but…

David Brooks deciding 2 triples in to get into the price takes game and thinking he is super smart by saying meal and including the drink, lmao

— vocational politics appreciation account (@Convolutedname) September 21, 2023

This meal cost me $78 at Newark Airport. This is why Americans think the economy is terrible. pic.twitter.com/UoR6WnoQcl

— derek guy (@dieworkwear) September 21, 2023

Jamele Bouie *also* writes for the NYTimes…
Friday Night Wind-Down Open Thread - BoBo Brooks Edition

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The Guardian was one of many major outlets to cover this saga (which I guess qualifies Brooks’ debacle as an international disgrace):

… Brooks posted his complaint on Wednesday. As of Friday morning, he had not posted again…

As of 9pm EST Friday, still no updates — possibly Wife #2 is keeping him away from the liquor cabinet?

If David Brooks had just tweeted "spent way too much money on whiskey at the airport" everyone would have been like "amen brother, been there, most relatable thing you've ever said in fact" https://t.co/GZ2C2An8tS

— Leigh Beadon (@leighbeadon) September 21, 2023

Capitalism remains undefeated https://t.co/uOW0WJagJv

— Jeremy Horpedahl ????? (@jmhorp) September 22, 2023

Friday Night Wind-Down Open Thread - David 'BoBo' Brooks Edition

The New Republic:

… Americans don’t think the economy is terrible because of inflated prices at the airport. But they might be swayed by commentators like Brooks who alternate between touting how great American capitalism is and cherry-picking details from their own upper-class lifestyle as proof that we’re nearing the end.

Airport food is expensive—but it’s not that expensive. Maybe Brooks could use this opportunity to pivot into speculative fiction, but in the meantime, if he ever wants to comment on economic news, he may want to lay off the whiskey first.

Some of the better clapbacks I’ve seen:

1) How many ?? did he have? Because the cheeseburger deluxe doesn’t cost that much.

2) Newark Airport has sneaky good restaurants.

3) Give his column to someone deserving please. pic.twitter.com/aLijvP3L2W

— Greg Olear (@gregolear) September 21, 2023

This meal just cost me $78 at Newark Airport. This is why Americans think the economy is terrible. pic.twitter.com/fVJSWOlXWC

— ??????????Hollaria Briden, Esq. & Ally (@HollyBriden) September 21, 2023

(bar bill: $66. food bill: $12. tip: $0 N Y Times expense account) https://t.co/ZcmHOKuPIi

— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) September 21, 2023

Biden is failing in the polls because of how expensive it has become to drink an airport double bourbon that's aged long enough to do porn

— Gas Stove Prayer Warrior (@canderaid) September 21, 2023

i'm happy that this food looks awful https://t.co/rCFOrRY1R6

— Jean-Michel Connard ?? (@torriangray) September 21, 2023

And the stomach-turning winner, h/t Satby…

These nachos just cost me $78 at Newark Airport. This is why Americans think the economy is terrible. pic.twitter.com/D21TuLa5nk

— John has the NebraskaBlues (@sun_dawg1) September 21, 2023

Brooks maaay just possibly be angling for a new job, one better aligned with his talents:
Friday Night Wind-Down Open Thread - David 'BoBo' Brooks Edition 1

Friday Night Wind-Down Open Thread – David ‘BoBo’ Brooks EditionPost + Comments (173)

Dank Grey Dawn Open Thread: CoinBashed

by Anne Laurie|  August 11, 20234:29 am| 71 Comments

This post is in: Grifters Gonna Grift, Show Us On the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You, Tech News & Issues, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All, Sociopaths

Dank Grey Dawn Open Thread:  CoinBashed

Coinbase saying the quiet bit out loud, you love to see it https://t.co/9hPhwO4SiR

— Sean Tuffy (@SMTuffy) August 6, 2023

At least when the Beanie Babies bubble burst, a lot of shelters and afterschool programs were able to give cute stuffed toys to kids who appreciated them. Try doing *that* on the blockchain…

crypto guys constantly have to go in front of lawyers and say things like "imagine, for a moment, a widget. or a tiddlywink."

— Ashwin Rodrigues (@shwinyo) August 9, 2023

ANALYSIS: This crypto trader says the industry needs to focus on attracting new people who don’t understand the spacehttps://t.co/cWSMyIJVRK

— Blockworks (@Blockworks_) August 8, 2023


Marketing, it’s a science:

… Ansem says he likes what Drip Haus is doing to attract new users. The Solana-based platform provides free NFTs from popular creators to subscribers, recently described to Blockworks.

“Instead of doing mints, they do free drops for people every week. They give out all this art to people who subscribe to different artists on their platform. And then you can tip the artist if you really like their work and then share it with other people.”

Ansem notes that the platform has sent out NFTs to “something crazy, like 700K, 800K wallets.” Approximately 250,000 of those new wallets, he says, have proceeded to use other Solana apps. “So they’ve done a pretty good job of onboarding completely new people.”…

people with dementia, economically desperate refugees struggling with english as a second language, children who have stolen their parents credit cards: these are all growth markets

— flglmn (@flglmn) August 8, 2023

Chump harvesting industry decries lack of fresh chumps

— Neil Sporran (@KiwiPie74) August 8, 2023

Dank Grey Dawn Open Thread: CoinBashedPost + Comments (71)

Late Night Open Thread: Billionaire Cage Match (Speaking of Submersibles…)

by Anne Laurie|  June 22, 202311:46 pm| 118 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Show Us On the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You, Tech News & Issues, Assholes, social media

Zuck is finally gonna run for President by beating up Elon Musk https://t.co/nbePrHdg32

— River_Tam (@RiverTamYDN) June 22, 2023

Okay, this is unlikely to actually happen — Elon’s money guys will pay Zuckerberg’s mixed-martial-arts trainers to abduct Musk into a luxury prison in Qatar, if necessary — but until I read this, I didn’t imagine there’d ever be a scenario where I’d be cheering Zuckerberg. SRSLY:

I’ve confirmed that Mark Zuckerberg is serious about fighting @elonmusk and is now waiting on the details (if Musk decides to follow through)

“The story speaks for itself,” a Meta spokesperson says re: Zuck’s IG post saying “send me location”https://t.co/4g1IkqOl47

— Alex Heath (@alexeheath) June 22, 2023

… The backstory here: since I recently reported more details about Meta’s forthcoming Twitter competitor, Musk has been taunting Zuckerberg on Twitter with zingers like “Zuck my 👅.” During an internal all-hands meeting at Meta last week, chief product officer Chris Cox told employees the company thinks creators want a version of Twitter that is “sanely run,” drawing cheers. “I’ve always thought that Twitter should have a billion people using it,” Zuckerberg said during a recent podcast interview with Lex Fridman.

In terms of tech billionaire CEOs literally fighting, Musk versus Zuckerberg would be as good as it gets. Musk, 51, has the upper hand on Zuckerberg in terms of sheer physical size, and he has talked about being in “real hard-core street fights” when he was growing up in South Africa. Meanwhile, Zuckerberg, 39, is an aspirational MMA fighter who is already winning Jiu-Jitsu tournaments. He also claims to have recently completed the grueling “Murph Challenge” workout in just under 40 minutes.

Regardless of who would win, I think we can all agree that a Musk-versus-Zuckerberg match would be one of the most entertaining fights of all time. It needs to happen. Don’t back down now, Musk.

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I honestly didn’t know watching Zuck break Elon’s back Bane-style on live television was something I wanted to see until today.

— Melania Trump’s Burner Account (@IRHotTakes) June 22, 2023

This is true but consider Elon Musk thinks he became a chess master at 8 upon learning the rules. https://t.co/Cs1MUocLOp

— Slope Slipperer (@agraybee) June 22, 2023

I’d say Elon will absolutely not follow through but this website is excellent proof that it is possible to box him into humiliating himself in public https://t.co/NwziAWOlV3

— Alice Podcasts (@AliceAvizandum) June 22, 2023

Zuckerberg should just insist on a drug test before the fight.

— Slope Slipperer (@agraybee) June 22, 2023

Visualize Elon showing up in a wetsuit (we’ve seen his pallid malformed naked chest on social media, no way he’ll risk *that* again), heavily coated with what his ‘experts’ have assured him is a special seed oil poisonous only to, you know, globalists. Imagine Zuckerberg accidentally ripping Musk’s foot off, and screaming like a scared weasel as he flings it away from him and into the audience, where a clot of fanbois tear each bloody trying to claim it for a trophy…

Mark Zuckerberg has been training for no reason for years and Elon just gave him one. This is the billionaire version of Uwe Boll V Lowtax

— Ed Zitron (@edzitron) June 22, 2023

He's literally lost like 60 billion dollars on the metaverse like he's going to walk into that cage sparking and crackling like Blanka

— emmy rakete ?????? (@cannibality) June 22, 2023

Please please please please please let this happen let me go let me go to this please. https://t.co/BpaDqsUvDF

— Ed Zitron (@edzitron) June 22, 2023

If this happens in vegas this is going to be the funniest day of my life. I will do whatever I have to to attend. If it doesn’t happen it is Musk being a coward

— Ed Zitron (@edzitron) June 22, 2023

Extra lulz: Notorious sex pest / grifter, desperately clawing for another 15 seconds of fame…

It's funny he would say that because boy let me tell you if there's one place I would want to be vaccinated, it's a Romanian prison. pic.twitter.com/3FtaCYl8tv

— cai (@AnneNotation) June 22, 2023

‘For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?’

wha do you mean you beht on zuckehbehg groymes. groymes please tixt me back groymes

— knife-wielding hemophiliac (@NickTagliaferro) June 22, 2023

Late Night Open Thread: Billionaire Cage Match (Speaking of Submersibles…)Post + Comments (118)

Quickie Muskrat Gigging.

by Tom Levenson|  March 6, 20238:27 pm| 62 Comments

This post is in: Free Markets Solve Everything, Open Threads, Show Us On the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You

Musk is, of course, the gift that keeps on giving. Today’s Twitter outage is a case study in why most tech companies don’t fire most of their engineers in one go.

But there was another story that caught my eye, as an illustration of how little Musk-ish MoTUs grasp normal human emotion–despite what I’m sure some in the Muskverse see as further evidence of his business genius.

Quickie Muskrat Gigging.

That is: if you happen to want a Tesla Model S or X, you’re in luck: it’s a noticeably cheaper today than it was yesterday, and much less expensive than it was in at the turn of the year:

In 2022, a dual-motor all-wheel-drive Tesla Model S went for $104,990. In January, Tesla chopped about 10 percent off the price, dropping it to $94,990. Today, it’s another $5,000 cheaper at $89,990.

For those who want to go really fast, the Model S Plaid, which uses three motors for a sub-2-second 0–60 mph time and a 200 mph top speed, is now $109,990, $5,000 less than last week and $26,000 less than you’d have paid in 2022.

The Model X SUV sees even bigger discounts. After heavy price drops in January, Tesla has now cut an extra $10,000 from Model X prices. That means the all-wheel-drive dual-motor version now starts at $99,990, with the triple-motor Plaid Model X starting at $109,990.

All good, right? Unless you’re one of the (relatively few) poor suckers who took delivery in the last few weeks, not to say last year.

Which means, I guess, buy now. Or not. Or wait. Or not:

How long those prices will stay is anyone’s guess. Within less than a month of enacting its January price cuts, Tesla had already increased the prices of the Model Y crossover again.

Here’s the thing: I don’t know about you all–but I hate to feel dumb.  I hate to feel like I made a bad deal.  It’s one of the reason I (and everyone I know) hates car shopping, used, or new or whatever. It’s just so damn hard to know how badly I’m being schrod at any moment.

One of Tesla’s selling points is that you never had to wonder. It was direct to buyer, no dealer bullshit, fixed price–what you see is what you get.  That may not have been the decisive advantage for the new car maker, but it helped.

Now–not so much.

Tesla does make cars lots of people want, and they’re not terrible.  Hell, at current price-and-gov’t-incentives the Model 3 is actually kind of a bargain, almost an eveeryone’s electric vehicle.  Tesla also has the production capacity to deliver them to many more people than any of the legacy or start up car makers that have entered the EV market. I’ve bashed Tesla (and Musk) a lot, and will do so some more, but despite what many on these comment threads have said, their cars are not all even mostly farce.

But, but, but….brands and brand reputations accumulate over years. They can crumble much more quickly.  There’s nothing really special about Tesla offerings now. Rather, a growing number of choices are out there that do as well and often much better at meeting people’s transportation and coolness desires.  Every miss matters–and if you think buying a Tesla will make you feel like you’ve been cheated a year or a month from now, that’s not good business.

Or so it seems to me. But what do I know?

I drive a 2o13 plugn-in Priuus, AKA the most boring car known to humankind.

Open this thread!

Image: Advertisement, 1908

 

Quickie Muskrat Gigging.Post + Comments (62)

Open Thread: Revanchist Fantasies of A ‘Revenge Divorce’

by Anne Laurie|  February 23, 20238:59 pm| 203 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Show Us On the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You

Open Thread: Revanchist Fantasies of A National Revenge Divorce

(Drew Sheneman via GoComics.com)

 

I am a patriot, which is why I intend to drag conservatives into the 21st century whether they like it or not https://t.co/Xm90feLQ0s

— chatham harrison is tending his garden (@chathamharrison) February 20, 2023

Many, many people have pointed out that this idea was field-tested in the 1860s, and failed miserably. Others have made clear that ‘I want to keep everything the same in my current nice life, but I don’t want to do all the dreary onerous stuff required for that’ isn’t much of a plan. But MTG seems to be voicing (pitching) a somewhat more specific complaint: Not only are people allowed live their lives in ways she doesn’t approve, but she can’t block those people from visibility any longer!…

… Greene, who has been touting the idea since 2021 when she wanted to halt “brainwashed” Californians from moving to states like Florida, is gaining new attention for the concept, now that she has become a close ally of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and a member of the House Homeland Security Committee…

“Everyone I talk to says this. From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are done.”

“The last thing I ever want to see in America is a civil war,” she told Sean Hannity. “No one wants that — at least everyone I know would never want that — but it’s going that direction, and we have to do something about it.”

On conservative commentator Charlie Kirk’s show on Tuesday, Greene laid out another part of her proposal: allowing red states to block Democrats from voting if they came from a blue state.

“Red states can choose in how they allow people to vote in their states,” Greene said. “What I think would be something that some red states could propose is: well, okay, if Democrat voters choose to flee these blue states where they cannot tolerate the living conditions, they don’t want their children taught these horrible things, and they really change their mind on the types of policies that they support, well once they move to a red state, guess what, maybe you don’t get to vote for five years.”….

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Yes, but also the dynamic is like Jews, or "witches," in that hillbillies are afraid the queers will steal &/or corrupt their children. The actual Enemy in question is always secondary to that abiding anxiety https://t.co/XSHP0Jc0zW

— chatham harrison is tending his garden (@chathamharrison) February 22, 2023

The fear / resentment of The City luring innocent young rural folk into its clutches is probably as old as the concept of cities. But in America, there was a definite uptick in such ressentiment during the prelude to the Civil War — elitist / immigrant / weakly ‘Northerners’ forcing their depraved habits on fine Southern keepers of the Jeffersonian tradition. There was a another wave of ‘These wily city folk must be resisted at all costs’ public media sentiment during the First Gilded Age, when postwar economic and technological changes made it both easier and more common for ambitious young rural inhabitants to move away from ‘home’ and remake themselves.

MTG sounds a lot like the small-town civic leaders Mark Twain and Finley Peter Dunne mocked… and she’s got additional sources of frustration. It’s not only practically impossible to home-school the offspring sufficiently strictly that they won’t eventually discover TikTok and Black / LGBTQ+ Twitter, but the Ones Who Get Away no longer disappear into a cloud of rumor and gossip; the Bad Girl, the Sissy Boy, the troublemakers are all over social media, utterly failing to understand the good Christianist values of shame and secrecy. And even inside the suburban boundaries, Those People are forcing their oppressive ‘tolerance’ and ‘inclusivity‘ on those — like MTG — who consider themselves entitled to set the standards of decent behavior. One hastily-uttered slur, one thoughtless assessment of a newcomer’s social status, and suddenly you’re the one being judged!

If you really want to understand the roots of rage in the red states, think about how much time people in those states spending think about cities and blue states. Now considcer how little time anyone in those places spends thinking about what goes on in, say, rural Alabama. /1 https://t.co/NmJUmxxccy

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) February 20, 2023


Conservative curmudgeon who grew up in a working-class urban environment:

In part, as I explain in my last book, it’s because people now have an *awareness* of how other people live, and the dominant culture in America is rapidly becoming a coastal entertainment/ politics /etc culture. This isn’t about money, it’s about *resentment* /2

People on what is now called “the right” are obsessed with how people live in other places, and they are *furious* that no one cares how *they* live and basically would ignore them if they’d just leave other people alone (and respect their rights as Americans). /3

And so Blue culture reporters go and trek to the East Jesus Pancake House to let people vent about lib’ruls and all that crap, when what America needs are buses taking people for walking tours of Boston and Chicago and yes, even San Francisco. (At least know what you hate). /4

We now live remarkably similar lives, rich and working class, North and South, Heartland and Coasts. But this is not about living or money, it’s about *attention and respect*, and Red Staters are insanely angry that winning everything in 2016 produced none. In fact… /5

The past seven or eight years have produced the *opposite*, a kind of confirmation among many Americans that, as my pal @SECupp once said, the Forgotten Man was forgotten *for a reason*

lt wasn’t supposed to be like this. Libs were supposed to be owned and contrite. /6

It’s not about “tradition” or any of that hooey; most of these people couldn’t explain any of that stuff for five seconds. It’s about the sense that the dominant culture (and sure, there is one) just doesn’t like or care about them very much./7

And, yeah, also:

Every single state that voted for Donald Trump in 2020 receives more federal dollars than it contributes. Every. Single. Goddam. One. Fund. Their. State. Budgets. With. Money. Paid. By. Blue. State. Taxpayers. https://t.co/zPQVVrPk61

— Jeff Timmer (@jefftimmer) February 23, 2023

Open Thread: Revanchist Fantasies of A ‘Revenge Divorce’Post + Comments (203)

Late Night Open Thread: Getting Done, By Brexit

by Anne Laurie|  February 3, 20232:43 am| 164 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, Show Us On the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You, United Kingdom

The natural endpoint of modern ‘Conservative’ thought:

with on point marketing like this who can doubt that the Tory Party can climb out of that -25 point polling hole https://t.co/551pd8oayV

— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) January 31, 2023

Palmer is a British expat, and the Deputy editor at ForeignPolicy…

look I have hopes for Ukraine but the UK is simply too ridden with oligarchic corruption. https://t.co/Uyk1vReUjM

— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) January 31, 2023

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Blankets, Food Banks, and Shuttered Pubs: Brexit Has Delivered a Broken Britainhttps://t.co/lgGgOvuSUd reporting from @liz_cookman

— Robbie Gramer (@RobbieGramer) February 2, 2023

Just asking: Given Russian oligarchs’ takeover of the London financial market, are we sure Brexit wasn’t another GRU operation?…

"Global Britain" was a dangerous dream. "Singapore on Thames" was a dumbass, "move fast and break things"-level pitch. But at this point it's looking like "regional Britain" will be a stretch.

— Thankful Musgrave ?? (@profmusgrave) January 31, 2023

Late Night Open Thread: Getting Done, By BrexitPost + Comments (164)

Late Night Hate-Reads Open Thread: Apartheid Princeling Is Having A Bad 2023

by Anne Laurie|  January 19, 20232:36 am| 136 Comments

This post is in: Show Us On the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You, Tech News & Issues, Schadenfreude, social media

Elon Musk claimed in a 2018 tweet that he had lined up the financing to pay for a $72 billion buyout of Tesla, but it never materialized. Now Musk will have to explain his actions under oath in federal court. The trial begins Tuesday with jury selection. https://t.co/F6WuLdyrq4

— The Associated Press (@AP) January 16, 2023

You may have too refined a media palate for such frantic antics, but *I* am here for it…

Heckuva job, genius disruptor https://t.co/0vsfZJFCfY

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) January 18, 2023

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Twitter’s staff spent years trying to protect the platform against impulsive billionaires who wanted to use it for their own ends — then one made himself the CEO. @ZoeSchiffer , @CaseyNewton , and @alexeheath report, in collaboration with @verge https://t.co/Trw0ulxWeP pic.twitter.com/JWifgB7zzv

— New York Magazine (@NYMag) January 17, 2023


He’s so far over his head, he doesn’t even grok how much he doesn’t understand:

… On October 26, an engineer and mother of two — let’s call her Alicia — sat in a glass conference room in San Francisco trying to explain the details of Twitter’s tech stack to Elon Musk. He was supposed to officially buy the company in two days, and Alicia and a small group of trusted colleagues were tasked with outlining how its core infrastructure worked. But Musk, who was sitting two seats away from Alicia with his elbows propped on the table, looked sleepy. When he did talk, it was to ask questions about cost. How much does Twitter spend on data centers? Why was everything so expensive?

Alicia was already tired of Musk’s antics. For months, he had gone back and forth about buying the company where she had worked for more than a decade. He’d tried to back out of the deal, but Twitter sued, and the chief judge of Delaware’s Chancery Court said a trial would move forward if the acquisition wasn’t complete by October 28. Facing what many legal observers called an easy case for Twitter, Musk caved. So here they were, trying to show Musk what he was about to buy, and all he wanted to talk about was money…

Fine, she thought. If Musk wants to know about money, I’ll tell him. She launched into a technical explanation of the company’s data-center efficiency, curious to see if he would follow along. Instead, he interrupted. “I was writing C programs in the ’90s,” he said dismissively. “I understand how computers work.”…

Unlike some of her colleagues, Alicia wasn’t reflexively anti-Musk. She respected what he had done at his companies and felt hopeful that, as someone who thought of himself as an engineer, he would support her highly technical work. But Musk had a different interest that day. Twitter, he said, should immediately get into video.

“We really should be able to do longform video and attract the best content creators by giving them a better cut than YouTube,” he said, according to Alicia’s recollection. The infrastructure engineers in the room agreed that adding support for longform video was technically possible, but their job was building stuff — not strategy or marketing. It seemed as though Musk didn’t understand the basic organizational structure of a social-media company; it was as if a rich guy had bought a restaurant and started telling the cooks he wanted to add a new dining room. Might he want to speak with the media product team instead?

Just then, David Sacks, a venture capitalist and friend of Musk’s who had advised him on the acquisition, walked into the room. A fellow native of South Africa, Sacks had worked with Musk at PayPal and later led the enterprise social-networking company Yammer to a $1.2 billion sale to Microsoft.

“David, this meeting is too technical for you,” Musk said, waving his hand to dismiss Sacks. Wordlessly, Sacks turned and walked out, leaving the engineers — who had gotten little engagement from Musk on anything technical — slack-jawed. His imperiousness in the middle of a session he appeared to be botching was something to behold. (Musk did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)…

Those who remain at the company mostly fall into two camps: those trapped by the need for health care and visas or cold-eyed mercenaries hoping to ascend through a power vacuum https://t.co/Trw0ulxWeP

— New York Magazine (@NYMag) January 17, 2023

hahahahaha fucking owned pic.twitter.com/Oi26EDbuLw

— fell out of lulag watchtower (@michaelleung) January 17, 2023

i would be extremely curious to see what this looks like plotted out on a month to month chart, because i'd bet cold, hard cash that most of the finding out began once he started fucking around https://t.co/RPq6GfX3o5

— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) January 18, 2023

he was never going to be able to cut enough cost to afford the debt service (and the banks were either fools or foxes to let him do it), but he single-handedly created multiple other existential problems for them, all by himself

— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) January 18, 2023

anyway, still very bullish on the idea that he will not be running twitter *or* tesla by the end of this year

— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) January 18, 2023

It’s funny how Twitter was actually making a profit, then Musk bought it because he took a bit Too Far, then came in with an agenda of Making Everything Worse https://t.co/vEpngsJsTZ

— Peter Wolf (@peterawolf) January 18, 2023

“Bankers are in discussions with Musk to replace about $3bn of expensive unsecured debt that has an interest rate of 11.75 per cent, with margin loans, backed by Musk’s stake in Tesla, according to two people close to the matter.” What. https://t.co/se0lVE1Oa5

— Joseph Cotterill (@jsphctrl) January 17, 2023

The bill for Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter is coming due, with the billionaire facing unpalatable options on the company’s enormous debt pile, ranging from bankruptcy proceedings to another costly sale of Tesla shares.

Three people close to the entrepreneur’s buyout of Twitter said the first instalment of interest payments related to $13bn of debt he used to fund the takeover could be due as soon as the end of January. That debt means the company must pay about $1.5bn in annual interest payments.

The Tesla and SpaceX chief financed his $44bn deal to take Twitter private in October by securing the huge debt from a syndicate of banks led by Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Barclays and Mitsubishi. The $13bn debt is held by Twitter at a corporate level, with no personal guarantee by Musk.

The company’s dire finances — it made a loss of $221mn in 2021 before the acquisition and Musk has said revenues have declined since — have led the new owner to regularly raise the prospect that the company could crash into bankruptcy.

How Musk deals with the looming interest payment is a crucial test of his leadership of Twitter, which has so far been marked by chaotic management that has alienated its corporate advertisers…

Tesla stock down 46% in the last 6 months, interesting
Interesting
Twitter interest payment due end of January, looking into this now
Looking into this now pic.twitter.com/KyQOjXQSyH

— Ed Zitron (@edzitron) January 18, 2023

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