Since its Friday, I wanted to take a timeout from the news of the day. I did read a headline about Rush Limbaugh offering to run Facebook after they lost 119 billion in stock value yesterday. Facebook has no value in any real metric. They do nothing and produce nothing. They have no tangible assets, they are vaporware. Facebook exists only on paper. If you liquidated the company, you could only get a few million for real estate and office equipment.
My purpose today is not to bash Facebook, as fun as that may be, but my mind did wander to Rush. I rarely listen to him anymore. I like him and enjoy his program much of the time but work and listening don’t always go together.
I do marvel at the staying power of Rush. He is an American institution. In my lifetime only Paul Harvey approaches him in the field. But Rush is superior. Why? Because Rush does what he does, three hours a day. Paul Harvey did two short broadcasts of less than seven minutes. However, without Paul Harvey, Rush would not be possible.
Paul Harvey
So what does Rush do? First he is a vociferous reader and he has an eye for reading between the lines. He may not use the word but he understands the worldview of those he disagrees with. This is why he is so often right. He just looks at people and knowing what motivates them he can predict what they will do next. He has both a staff and loyal listeners that funnel information to him to sort thru so he can keep abreast of different events. Importantly, he has a sense of humor and knows how to poke fun at his adversaries. This is all well and good but doesn’t necessarily translate to good radio.
Think about it. What is radio? At its core, radio is a guy sitting in an empty room by himself pretending to be having a conversation with his best friend. This dialogue is broken only by commercials and weather updates. Rush has been doing this three hours a day for about 30 years.
Trust me when I say that normal people can’t do radio. I worked in radio in high school and college. The station where I worked in high school was WDDT—which at the time was running a top-40 rock format. WDDT was a small town dawn to dusk AM station. On Sundays, I had to arrive early in the morning and turn on the transmitter. Then at sunrise I had to change the broadcast power to increase the transmitter footprint for daytime operation. Thus I was running the programming and also the acting broadcast engineer.
The college that I attended for my freshman year owned a 50,000 watt AM station and also an FM one which were both on the west side of campus. The student station was confined to the campus and broadcasted via carrier wave thru the power grid of the school. Yes, reception was thru plugging your radio into the 110 volt wall outlet and then tuning to the correct frequency. (Trivia: You can now use this technique in your house to transmit Internet from one room to another.)
These experiences in radio give me a greater appreciation for how gifted Limbaugh really is. I’ve formally met Rush once. Shortly after he left Sacramento and began his nationwide program, he returned and did a political fundraiser in Sacramento. I paid my $100 and got to meet him at the event. He is not what you would expect. He was shy and uncomfortable in the large group. He impressed me as being an introvert when in the company of strangers. It’s part of the way radio works. You create an on air personality and like an actor playing a part, you cloth yourself with the character and take it off when it’s not needed.
My other claim to fame was that I was officially the only troublemaker to interrupt him during his first Rush to Excellence Tour. If you can find the video tape—I don’t think he ever put these on DVD, Rush is doing a bit on the stage about New York handing out condoms to people to protect them from AIDS. Said Condoms were stapled to an information sheet that was being given to people. Rush was mocking them for putting the staples thru the middle of each and every condom that was being passed out with the promise that their use would result in “safe sex”. During this monologue, I hollered-out the name “Lee Nichols” and Rush lost it and started laughing. After a few seconds he recovered his composure and continued him monologue. As a result of my outburst, I was featured prominently in two subsequent close-ups of the audience.
Rush to Excellence ‘89
While the name Lee Nichols probably means nothing to you now, I will explain who he was. Nichols was a professor at Sac State. He left his wife and children to pursue a relationship with a man. Nichols was out of the closet before it was cool. He was very Liberal. He was part of the Lambda Community Center group in Sacramento.
Due to concerns about the FCC Fairness Doctrine, KFBK felt that they needed an afternoon host to counter the conservatism of having Rush on for three hours in the morning so they gave three hours a day in the afternoon to various Liberals. Of these, Lee Nichols was the best foil that they put up.
The reason my Lee Nichols comment was funny was because everybody in the room was thinking it but I was the only one willing to say it out loud and the timing was spot-on.
I’m glad Rush is still around and going strong. Like Trump, I don’t know if he is a Christian but I do know that God is using the man to teardown strongholds of evil and stupidity. Yeah, I guess that means that Rush (and Trump) are doing the Lord’s work.
Brett Kavanaugh has been nominated to replace Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court. Kennedy tended to vote conservatively except on social issues. We have him to thank for the imposition of “Gay Marriage” on this republic. Democrats have made it clear that the main issue at stake in this appointment is abortion. They fear and are fundraising like crazy with the claim that Roe v Wade will fall if Kavanaugh is confirmed.
Below are a few quotes from a press conference held by Demo
crat senators opposed to Kavanaugh. Interpretation of their “double speak” appears in purple .
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) urged all Democrats to oppose President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, saying anyone who supports him is “complicit in the evilopposing abortion.”
“I’m here to call on folks to understand that in a moral moment there is no neutral. In a moral moment there is no bystanders,” Booker said, alongside senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.
“You are either complicit in the evilopposing abortion, you are either contributing to the wrongof protecting innocent life, or you are fighting against it.”
Warren said Democrats “are on the immoral side of history,” while Sanders argued the interpretation of a “living” U.S. Constitution is at stake.
Democrats claim to be on a mission from God to keep abortion lethal
Maxine Waters is mad that poor black folks might leave the plantation and prosper under the Trump Administration economic plan. More blacks are working now than when Obama was President. She is also upset that if Trump enforces immigration law that more blacks will get jobs and not need handouts from government. Thus its God’s will that she oppose Trump to keep “her people” in line.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) has been one of President Trump’s most outspoken critics, recently going so far as to encourage people to publicly harass members of the Trump administration.
On Sunday, however, Waters suggested in a church sermon in Los Angeles that she’s on a divine mission to stop the president , blasting the Trump administration on a range of issues.
Addressing the congregation at First AME Church, Waters said, “You’ve gotta know that I’m here to do the work that I was sent to do, and as pastor said to me when I came in this morning, ‘When God sends you to do something, you just do it!’” she exclaimed to cheers from the crowd.
Ok, class here is an example of pretzel like logic that only Liberals can understand.
First the players: Walt Disney corp. owns most Marvel Comic properties including Guardians of the Galaxy. James Gunn directed the first two movies and has been working diligently one the third. Per the article that I will get to in a minute, the first two movies took in a box office of 1.6 billion dollars. Disney is buying the 20th Century Fox movie studios for 71 billion dollars.
Rupert Murdock—the seller of 20th Century Fox—also owns Fox News which is not part of the sale to Disney.
Friends and fans of “Guardians of the Galaxy” director James Gunn are urging Walt Disney Co. to rehire the filmmaker, a rare moment in an era when bad behavior has gotten some of the biggest names in Hollywood summarily fired.
Actors including Zoe Saldana, Chris Pratt and Selma Blair have tweeted in support of Gunn, who wrote and directed both “Guardians” pictures and was working on a third. Some 228,000 people have signed a Change.org petition asking Disney to bring him back amid concerns that he was targeted by conservatives.
Disney terminated Gunn on July 20 after the right-leaning website Daily Caller published 8-year-old Twitter comments by the director…
There could also be a political element at work. Gunn, like many people in Hollywood, was an outspoken critic of Donald Trump, while the Daily Caller is supportive of the president.
Disney is poised to complete the $71 billion acquisition of entertainment assets from 21st Century Fox Inc., whose Chairman Rupert Murdoch has forged close ties with Trump since the 2016 presidential election.
The above quotes appear in the same order as the story. Folks let’s look at their alleged logic.
The authors—yes, it took two people to write this story—state as fact that James Gunn was targeted by conservatives. Why?
Proposition 1 Daily Caller leans right
Proposition 2 Rupert Murdock owns Fox News Network which leans right
Proposition 3 Murdock is friends with Donald Trump
Proposition 4 Disney is buying a movie studio—20th Century Fox from Murdock
Proposition 5 James Gunn is a movie producer, not employed by Murdock
Based on the above, Liberals have concluded
Therefore Donald Trump ordered Rupert Murdock to order Disney to fire James Gunn
Makes total sense to me.
What about the claim that “… a Change.org petition asking Disney to bring him back amid concerns that he was targeted by conservatives.”
Folks here is the petition in its entirety. The petition says nothing about conservatives, politics, Fox, Murdock, Trump, or anybody else.
I’m smart enough to know this most likely won’t change anything but hopefully, this could get Disney to realize the mistake they made and not do it again in the future.
I agree on the point that if people say a bunch of stupid shit while working for a studio, the studio has full right to fire him over the possible controversy. This situation is very different though as he made these jokes years before he was working for Disney and also the fact that they were jokes. I agree with most, including Gunn himself that the jokes were shitty and un-funny but they were still jokes, it wasn’t an opinion or a statement, it was just a bad attempt at being funny.
The other thing is if you do this to Gunn you have to do it for all the other directors who have said some crappy joke sometime in their life, which is all of them, cause I doubt there’s one human on this planet who hasn’t made a shitty joke once or twice in there life.
If Marvel would come to their senses and re-hire Gunn that would be great but if all we can do is have proof by your signatures that Disney made a mistake i would still count that as a win.
Thanks
Chandler Edwards
The gist, as you can see above, is that Gunn said some stupid things but it was years ago, Disney you overreacted, please hire him back. Implied in this petition is the logic is that in this situation, two wrongs don’t make a right.
Oh, please note that the originator of the petition is not from the United States. Chandler Edwards is from the United Kingdom.
Ok, let’s circle back to more stupid stuff in the story. Earlier, I only partially quoted one line above because it deserves separate treatment. Now I’d like to analyze this quote further. Here is the entire paragraph.
Disney terminated Gunn on July 20 after the right-leaning website Daily Caller published 8-year-old Twitter comments by the director that included jokes about the Holocaust, pedophilia, overweight people and violence against women. In tweets last week, Gunn said he had apologized many times for a sense of humor that hurt people.
Please remember that the authors said that conservatives are responsible for firing Gunn. In the article they state that Gunn was fired for “jokes about the Holocaust, pedophilia, overweight people and violence against women.”
Let’s use logic again. Note to self, logic is a devastating weapon when used against stupidity.
Given the above paragraph, conservatives oppose jokes on killing Jews (Holocaust), pedophilia, overweight people, and violence against women (rape). Therefore Gunn had to be fired.
Consequently, Liberals must support said things or why else would politics matter. Applying the logic of the authors we learn that Liberals must support killing Jews (after all they were National Socialists), pedophilia (no dispute they support sexual deviance), overweight people (hosts of The View and Oprah), and violence against women (Harvey Weinstein and most rap music).
Here are a few of the Tweets that Liberals don’t find offensive but apparently conservatives do.
The article from Bloomberg stated that the Tweets were 8 years old but by my math 2008 was ten years ago. I guess that neither author of the Disney story ever looked-up the story on Daily Caller they just went on a rant. Lastly, Gunn doesn’t deny that he posted these things just that it should have consequences. After all, Disney hired him after he posted these things not before. Funny that nobody mentions that inconsistency.
In response to Janus, the unions are pushing back on government employees. Thus far, this attack is in two ways.
First, for many in California, those once in the union are still presumed to be union members. The idea stated in Janus that members must affirmatively join the union is being ignored. Instead, unions are presuming to keep all members and collect dues from them. I know this is the case with the California Teachers Association but I don’t know if SEIU is following suit but it seems likely.
So called “fair share” employees are getting to keep their money but point number two is directed in large part at them. The unions do provide legal representation for employees that need help and this is their best argument for keeping folks in the union and getting “fair share” employees to join.
When you have some manager that thinks they are dictator of their little bureaucratic fiefdom and treat their underlings as chattel, then the union attorney can step in and defend the employee. Sadly this does happen. Unlike the biblical requirement that you need two or three witnesses to establish an accusation, in government employment it takes one person to level an accusation and someone can be administratively disciplined or fired.
Governments are risk averse and anything that puts them at risk must be dealt with. This is often harsh and swift. Contrary to what most folks think, certain things will result in governments firing people just to avoid conflict. Sexual harassment and discrimination are two such areas. In government, such things are not limited to one person saying something to another that is an off color remark. If someone walking by hears something—even if what they hear is out of context —it can still result in disciplinary actions against others.
Below are examples of how seemingly minor things can get blown way out of proportion.
Example 1
If two employees were talking to each other on break and one said, “I don’t let my children watch Steven Universe because it has homosexual characters on it. It makes me sad that Cartoon Network has programming like this for children.”
Cartoon Network’s Steven Universe
If the employee that you said this to or another employee hears you say that, it can be interpreted as an infraction of the Equal Opportunity rules imposed on state employees and you could be administratively disciplined.
Example 2
A 6-year-old child at a public school falls on the playground at recess and cuts her knee. Bleeding and crying, a teacher watching the playground goes to the child, picks her up, gives her a hug, and escorts her to the school nurse to get her cleaned-up and bandaged. The school contacts the parents and lets them know that their child was injured. The child gets home and tells what happens. In the course of the discussion, the child says the teacher hugged her and said she would be ok. The parents then complain that the teacher touched their child. The next thing you know the district superintendent is involved and the teacher is facing suspension as a pedophile. Folks this really happens.
Example 3
If a teacher takes a cell phone, pencil, or water bottle from a child because they are distracting themselves and the class, they can lose their job. I know this to be a fact. The teacher asked the child to voluntarily cease their behavior and the child refused. As a last resort the teacher took the object from the student and resumed instruction.
The student complained. As a result, the teacher was suspended and subsequently terminated. Not only did the school principal not support his teacher, he got the teacher banned from the district. Then the school district tried to have the State Department of Education ban the teacher from ever working in any public school in the State of California again. True story.
The risk aversion of government makes them do stupid things. Also, the lawyers employed in government are typically not the brightest crayons that passed the bar. Seemingly innocent things can be blown way out of proportion and bad things can occasionally get really bad. When the full faith and credit of a government entity is aligned against you, it’s not a great place to be. Truthfully, unions have righted some wrongs that happen to those in government service.
Many of us in government would not mind being in the union if they would stick to their mission of representing government employees and leave the partisan politics alone. When unions are taking in 900 million a year, they are soaking both members and the taxpayers; hence the revolt.
Watching the Janus case ripple thru the country will be interesting. I do expect that California will find ways to ignore both the spirit and the letter of the court decision. for many, legal representation is probably the best reason to stick with the union in the new era of Janus.
For some group of enterprising conservative attorneys, offering some cheaper form of prepaid legal services as an alternative to union membership might be a business opportunity worth exploring.
Does anybody out there have a problem with these numbers? Oh, per the article, April jobs were 26,000, May 7,200 and June 800.
Am I the only one seeing a trend in the wrong direction here?
The Party line is summarized by Michael Bernick, former Director of EDD, “California has a broad and diverse economy, and we’re now in our 99th month of employment expansion,” he said in an email.
Once again, I invoke the saying, “there are lies, damn lies, and statistics”.
So where were the growth areas in June’s job report? Government, tech and Hollywood. All other sectors lost jobs.
Last month, employers in four of California’s 11 industry sectors added jobs.
The education and health services sector gained the most, growing by 8,000 jobs. The information sector, which includes tech companies and Hollywood studios, grew by 4,600 jobs.
Employers in the government sector and the professional and business services sector also added jobs.
The other seven sectors saw job losses. Leisure and hospitality cut 4,000 jobs. The construction sector shrank by 2,900. Trade, transportation and utilities lost 2,600 jobs. Employers in manufacturing, finance, mining and logging and “other services” also trimmed payrolls.
Given the above, the bean counters in Sacramento are offering two explanations but choosing neither.
Option 1
The slowdown could signal that California is simply reaching full employment. Employers are struggling to find workers.
Option 2
It’s Trump’s fault because he is starting a trade war with Wal-Mart, oops, I mean China.
Bernick and others said that the economy appears mostly healthy despite the poor June numbers. But Bernick said federal trade policy could hamper further job growth.
“A widening trade war is the main threat to California’s continued employment expansion,” he said.
If you drill down into the numbers, only government or things that it subsidizes are growing. The private sector is clearly contracting. Given our tax burden this is not a surprise.
Only government creates jobs in California
If California’s economy is so great, then why is the California economic news all about homeless people and illegal immigrants when we are supposed to be at full employment? Full employment means that everyone has a job and wages are increasing due to a shortage of qualified workers.
We have millions of able bodied people on the dole in our State. California has one third of all welfare cases in the United States, a huge chunk of illegal aliens, and a large portion of the nation’s homeless. Liberals admit that these problems are getting worst not better but on the other-hand, these same folks are claiming we are at full employment. Can you say logical disconnect?
The reality is we have a shortage of housing that normal people can afford. Heck, apparently folks in San Francisco are so miserable that they can’t even afford toilet paper and indoor plumbing.
This is one of the results of socialism. Under socialists and totalitarians, there is an elite group of haves and another of have-nots. The middleclass all but disappears leaving a huge gulf between rich and poor.
The real story here is that California is a mess and that Gavin Newsom may end up having his utopian hands ties by an economic downturn caused by Sacramento’s draconian tax policies.
I am not sure what has become of the Democrat Party nationally. Ever since the election of President Trump, they have been on full tilt. Upon being elected, he chose Neil Gorsuch to replace the late Antonin Scalia to which the liberals cried foul, saying we should have seated Merrick Garland, an Obama nominee. Interesting, because all I heard about was we need to confirm Garland, nary a word about the makeup of the court. Oddly enough the makeup would be 5-4 liberal as opposed to the current 5-4 conservative majority.
So now Anthony Kennedy, the “swing justice”, has decided to retire and enter a different stage of his life, and Trump selected Brett Kavanaugh to replace him. Kavanaugh comes from the circuit court that interestingly has had the most judges selected for the Supreme Court. Also, he is Ivy league educated and was confirmed by a Senate majority with 57 in favor, versus 36 opposed. No doubt Kavanaugh is a conservative and had done some past work with Ken Starr regarding the impeachment of Bill Clinton, and the Florida re-count in 2000. Even before he was put up for nomination by the President, the Democrats went nuts. A pro-abortion group (or anti-life I guess) put out a press release but never replaced the *** with the name Brett Kavanaugh, this goes to show you no nominee was good enough.
Fill in Trump nominee name here From Jason Seher of CNN via Twitter
Trump once again stayed true to his word, and his campaign promises choosing a judge from his list of 25 names he felt were best to do the job. Isn’t that refreshing for once? A politician keeping his word? Nice work President Trump. Also, very smart to get the ball rolling on this quickly as we have an election coming up in November that could perhaps decide control of the Senate. 10 Democrat senators are up for re-election in states Trump won; 7 in states he won handily.
Now to the Democrat’s main argument that the makeup of the Supreme Court is changing, this is entirely false. The last few rulings signify this; we had a redistricting ruling, the Janus ruling, and immigration where Kennedy sided with the more conservative majority. The makeup of the court is not changing at all going from Kennedy to Kavanaugh, except perhaps on social issues; but I don’t think I would go that far. The point I’m trying to hammer home is there will always be a swing vote; once it was Sandra Day O’Connor, then it became Kennedy, next it will be John Roberts, etc. I still score the judge’s political leanings as 5-4 conservative leaning. If I were in charge of the Democrats, well first thing I would do is hang myself, if that didn’t suffice, then I would say vote your states and focus on re-election.
Ruth Ginsburg: the next to exit?
Kavanaugh is qualified and we will need all hands-on deck should Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s health fail. In any measure that matters, Ginsburg is now the swing justice. If something were to happen to her, that’s when the fight should happen. The Democrats could be staring at a 6-3 minority for a generation. Even worse, should Trump secure a 2nd term, Thomas could retire, and if he does you could have a 6-3 edge, but with the oldest judge being 70-year-old John Roberts. Yeah, scary, once again a generation or two will grow up under a conservative Supreme Court!
Most importantly the reason I supported Trump is verified daily, he has the Democrats running scared constantly. Trump is the total opposite of Barack Obama. Just look at how frazzled they are; literally they are reduced to attacking Mr. Kavanaugh’s first name. They are mocking the name “Brett” saying it’s a frat boy name. Yes, you read that right, his first name, by the way not chosen by him, given to him by his parents! That is the new level to which these bozo’s have decided to stoop too. Additionally, I love the idea of these Democrat aligned super PAC’s spending money telling sitting incumbent Democrats not to vote for Kavanaugh and to resist, even if it means losing your seat in November, you can’t make this stuff up.
Blog Father, I don’t know about you, but I’m getting tired of all this whining!
Elon Musk and his fantasy car company Tesla were in the news with a strange story. It reminded me of the movie Tucker when the 1950’s car company was taken to court for ripping off investors for selling dealerships with no cars. In the days leading up to the trial, Tucker and his band of merry men, cobble together 50 cars to show that he had production capability and his business model wasn’t a scam. Tucker rolled the 50 cars onto the grounds of the courthouse and lost his company anyway. These 50 cars are still in existence today and are among the most desirable collectables.
Tucker: The Man and His Dream
Tesla Background
Tesla is burning through its cash at an unsustainable rate. Their credit and stock have been downgraded. Then media reports surfaced a week ago that orders for the Tesla car for the everyday person (Model for $35K) were being cancelled faster that new orders were coming in. Tesla has never hit their promised production goal of ten thousand cars per week.
Early this morning, analysts at the New York-based investment banker downgraded Tesla shares from hold to underperform (Wall Street-speak for “sell”). Needham cited several reasons for its newly bearish stance on the electric-car maker, as outlined in a report on StreetInsider.com
Complicating matters further, Needham notes that its “checks” on the market show that Tesla is experiencing net cancellations of Model 3 orders by customers as “refunds are outpacing deposits.” The analyst believes this trend is accelerating, with as many as 24% of would-be buyers now asking for their money back.
In a coup de grace, Needham ends with a point on Tesla’s cash burn.
Tesla burned through $4.1 billion in negative free cash flow last year—twice its $2 billion reported loss and more than twice the $1.6 billion in negative free cash flow it suffered in 2016, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Faster Model 3 production is supposed to mitigate cash burn, but Needham believes Tesla will still go through a further $6 billion “through 2020.”
The analyst also notes that Tesla has a $1.5 billion debt payment coming due in 2019. Although Tesla has enough cash in the bank ($2.7 billion, according to S&P Global figures) to cover that payment now, continued cash burn will eat away at it, meaning that by the time Tesla’s debt comes due, it may not have cash on hand to pay it. That implies additional debt issuance (i.e., paying debt with more debt) or stock sales (i.e., dilution) may be necessary to keep Tesla solvent.
None of this adds up to much of a buy thesis for Tesla stock—but it may justify a sell.
In addition to the above, Elon Musk has been saying stupid stuff on Twitter; especially about the divers that saved the cave kids.
At a crucial juncture for the company, which is struggling to show it can mass-produce an electric sedan and generate cash, Musk has tangled very publicly with government regulators, stock analysts, journalists, former employees — even the creator of a farting-unicorn coffee mug.
On Sunday morning, after a rescue diver took to CNN to criticize as a “PR stunt” Musk’s offer of a small submarine to transport a Thai soccer team out of a flooded labyrinthine cave, Musk called the man a “pedo” on Twitter — short for pedophile.
Musk soon removed the tweet but not until the unsubstantiated slur had ricocheted around the world. The diver told reporters he’s thinking about suing Musk.
Tesla has yet to officially comment on Musk’s accusation. Thus far, Tesla’s board of directors has been silent on the matter. But on Monday, Tesla’s stock fell 2.75%, to $310.10. It is down 14% since Musk announced on July 2 that Tesla had hit a goal of producing 5,000 Model 3s a week.
Musk’s confrontations come as he continues to struggle to fix crippling production problems with the Model 3 electric sedan, which Musk regards as a “bet the company” proposition.
The production goal Tesla hit earlier this month lags far behind earlier benchmarks set by the company. In August 2017, Musk told stock analysts there should be “zero concern” the company would hit 10,000 Model 3s a week by the end of this year. The calendar says that’s still possible, but he’s currently struggling to sustain the 5,000-a-week rate.
Meanwhile, the company’s cash pile continues to shrink. When a section of the Model 3 assembly line was shut down after Musk — who is not only the company’s chief executive but also its chief engineer — failed at an aggressive attempt at robot automation, he set up a tent in a parking lot at the company’s Fremont, Calif., factory to handle the overflow, with partly finished car bodies transported from factory to tent on tractor beds and forklifts.
Tesla Yesterday
Portions of the Internet blew-up yesterday when it was announced that some enterprising fellow on Twitter had found a whole lot full of thousands of Tesla cars. Shortly thereafter, another bunch was found in another city.
Aerials of the facility identified earlier today at 500 E Louise Ave, Lathrop, CA…more to come, but I didn’t want to make people wait any longer to see the big picture.
Yesterday, several Twitter sleuths uncovered two parking lots, in Lathrop, California, and the other in Burbank, California, at which several thousand Tesla Model 3s are being stored.
The thousands of Model 3 cars are jammed together on dusty lots, baking in the California sun. Approximately 2,500 in Lathrop and another 2,000 in Burbank.
And what ever could be the reason for Tesla storing hundreds of millions of dollars of inventory in dusty lots when it instead could be converting the cars to cash, given what it claims is strong demand?
Is it logistical chaos? Do the cars need rework? Is it all part of some grand plan?
I don’t have the answers, but the questions are not going away.
Tesla’s (TSLA) grand plan was to avoid hitting the magic 200,000 federal income tax credit limit in Q2. To that end, Tesla would stockpile cars near the end of Q2 so it could unleash them in Q3, as every car it delivers in the U.S. in Q3 and Q4 will qualify for the full credit.
Tesla evidently executed the first part of the plan, stopping just short of the 200,000 number as June ended, reporting more than 11,000 Model 3 cars in transit.
So, is this just a tax dodge? A Tucker moment to boost faith in the company or what? Remember that Musk has been cutting employees in some parts of his empire and working others like dogs. Tesla has been promising production numbers of ten thousand units a week for the last several years but has failed to deliver. They also absorbed the debt from Solar City. And as shown above, he is in bad shape.
As I was researching for this blog, I found an opinion piece that expresses what I was about to say so I will just quote it. This was published earlier today.
One disastrous tweet has finally revealed Elon Musk for what he is: a fraud.
Enraged that a British cave diver called his idea to rescue the Thai soccer team for what it was — “a p.r. stunt [with] absolutely no chance of working” — Musk took to Twitter and called him a “pedo.”
Just like that, Tesla’s market value plummeted by $2 billion.
Musk has been in business since 2002. His stated goal is nothing short of transforming humanity through his products: his electric cars, space travel, and an underground high-speed Hyperloop system.
He has yet to succeed at anything but somehow spins every failure into proof of imminent success. His only accomplishment has been this decades-long Jedi mind trick.
Tesla is best known for blowing deadlines and consistently falling short on production.
In November 2017, Bloomberg reported that the company burns through $500,000 per hour. For two years now, Tesla has been suffering an epic talent drain and in May, two top execs — one the liaison with the National Transportation Safety Board — walked out the door.
Tesla was founded in 2003, but the world’s largest automakers quickly surpassed Musk’s vision for electric vehicles. Tesla will never catch up. Shareholders are finally catching on.
So should the government, which reportedly gifts Musk’s companies with an estimated $4.9 billion in subsidies.
Star investor Jim Chanos called Tesla a “walking insolvency” back in 2016. He doubled down in December, saying Tesla is “headed for a brick wall.”
What Next?
Musk is playing games with the Tesla company and that is nothing new. He is a cross between P.T. Barnum, Preston Tucker, and the fictional character played by Danny DeVito in “Other People’s Money”. Musk is using other people’s money to bring a utopian energy dream of environmentalists and Leftists of many stripes to fruition. The reality is that Musk is ultimately going to live or die in the free market. Every time the Establishment types bet on winners and losers, we all lose. Musk is a dreamer and an idea guy. What he sells is smoke and mirrors, the realities of making a profitable product on such a large scale are beyond him but as long as he can keep people investing in the pyramid then it keeps going.
The fact that there is no infrastructure to keep the electric car business running is something people are willfully neglecting. You don’t have the freedom to drive Tesla cars anywhere you want. Even in states like New York and California, most of the state has no ability to charge electric vehicles. Also, where is all the electric generation to keep such a fleet of battery operated vehicles going to come from? Especially when most folks will want to charge their cars at night. These same states are outlawing every known electric generation method in existence with the hope that solar and wind will be the answer. But that’s my point, there is no existing reliable form of energy production except technology based on nuclear or hydrocarbon fuels. Liberal energy policy is based on bad science and wishful thinking.
The self-driving technology employed by Tesla is a class action lawsuit ready to happen. Sooner or later the government is going to be forced to confront Musk for the safety record of his vehicles. Currently, government is trying to shelter him from the consequences of the deaths caused by failures of his system. How many deaths does it take to call the Tesla product defective? Other automakers and insurance folks are watching this aspect of the Tesla company. This might be the path to the financial ruin of one Elon Musk.
Elon Musk’s dress rehearsal for leaving his troubles behind
That Musk appears to be playing games with Washington to keep the Federal tax credit in place is disturbing. Again, at some point the government giveaways will end and he will have to stand on his own two feet. Some day soon, the free market will decide Musk’s fate. Donald Trump winning the 2016 election was his worst financial nightmare. Had Hillary Clinton won, the floodgates of government incentives would have flowed to Musk for decades. California’s mandate that all houses built after 2020 must have solar will benefit Musk but it’s not enough to bail-out the Solar City albatross that he wrapped around the necks of Tesla investors.
Musk is running out of time, money, and excuses. Lucky for him, Mars is a nonextradition planet. At least he might utilize SpaceX for a unique exit strategy for his financial problems.
Sportscaster, Howard Cosell, famously told it like it was. People either loved him or hated him, but Howard was never shy about expressing his point of view. He grew-up in New York and folks couldn’t deny his love of sports. To many of us, Howard was a big part of what made Monday Night Football a phenomenon for many decades. Howard also helped to make Muhammed Ali and Evil Knievel the household names that they were in the 1970’s.
ABC’s Howard Cosell
In the same frank, plain talking sort of way, President Donald Trump just completed a very successful trip to Europe that has folks here up in arms about nothing.
Below are what I think are the four accomplishments of this trip.
England
Trump took grief for allegedly insulting the Prime Minister for telling her to honor the vote of her own people and get out of the European Union; i.e. Brexit. The British leadership is feckless and frozen with fear. Trump wanted them to be decisive and act.
Germany
Trump told Germany that it was stupid to get all their country’s energy needs from Russia. If NATO was created to protect Europe from Russia then why enrich Russia with this monopolistic energy deal? It is a conflict of interest to be in NATO and have this deal with Russia at the same time.
NATO
Trump told NATO nations that they need to take an active interest in defending their countries. Most NATO countries contribute nothing and let the United States pick-up the tab for military spending that they should be paying. This was a campaign promise of Trump so why does the media and many of these nations act like this is something new? The media always bitches about the U.S. being the world’s policeman and then complains when Trump asks them to stand on their own two feet so we don’t have too. If a Democrat said this they would be cheering.
Putin
Trump met with Putin. No on mike whispering that after the next election the President would be in a better position to do favors for them like we had with Obama. The media is stuck on stupid about Russian and the election. If the Russians did anything, it was to make Hillary look bad—which only takes a mirror—but this idea that Trump and Russia collaborated to thwart the Democrats and steal the election is just sour grapes. Yes, many of us really do hate Hillary and think the only reason that she had a political career was because she slept with Bill. She has no ideas or accomplishments; she was an incompetent Secretary of State and her track record was painted red with the blood of people all over the world that died because she was/is an idiot.
President departing Air Force One
Trump had a good trip to Europe. How can you tell? Because the media and the political class are having kittens. They talk and Trump does. That ladies and gentlemen is the difference. They still can’t believe that Trump believed all that stuff he promised in the campaign and is trying to make it happen. Donald Trump, promises made, promises kept. That is how you Make America Great Again.
Commit any crime and do zero time. Yeah, really, it’s now the law in California. Shoot-up your workplace or school, no jail. Kill someone with your car after smoking pot or being drunk, not problem. Steal a car with children in it and skate.
Check out this article.
It’s a trailer bill, passed inside wide-sweeping budget legislation and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in June, that creates a diversion program for all crimes, including felonies. District attorneys across the state are worried about its impacts, saying it could open a dangerous door when dealing with serious crimes.
“Things like this kind of hide in there and now it’s law,” said Yuba County District Attorney Patrick McGrath.
Tucked between dozens of pages of legal language is a new law passed in a budget bill, that could let more criminals off the hook.
“I’m frustrated, I’m frustrated,” said McGrath.
AB 1810 creates a plan to keep people charged with any crime — including murder, mass shootings, and fatal DUI’s — out of jail, as long as they can prove the crimes were committed because of a diagnosable mental disorder that can be treated.
“So, that would mean anxiety, alcoholism, kleptomania,” said McGrath.
But folks it doesn’t stop there. Think about it. Michael Savage says Liberalism is a mental illness. And he’s basically right. So if you protest anything; Trump, immigration, abortion rights, killing cops, surrendering to communists, conservative speakers on campus, winning the NBA finals, or anything else then you can get off free.
Michael Savage
This applies to politicians as well; take bribes, text to your girlfriend about your hatred of Trump, touch interns on the butt, act like Maxine Waters, buy stock in companies that are awarded government contracts by your committee, steal opponents lawn signs, etc. and you are off scot-free.
Mentally ill politician Maxine Waters
Lest you think I jest, look no further than worker compensation claims. To have a valid claim, you need one person in the State of California to say you have a work related injury and you can cash in. Whether you really hurt yourself working on your car on your day off or climbing Half Dome on vacation is not really relevant.
Half Dome
The person approving your claim does not have to be a medical doctor either. A holistic healer, medicine man, chiropractor, acupuncturist, etc. anywhere in the State. No second opinion is needed. The important thing is that the paperwork is completed properly, the person signing it is of secondary importance.
If you apply the “medical’ standards used in the worker comp system with the new law on mental illness you have a cornucopia of crimes that you can get away with; especially when the medical and psychiatric communities are convinced that pills can cure anything that ails us.
I can hear it now…
“Your honor, psycho Bob was off his meds when he killed his mother. I have confidence that if properly medicated, he won’t do it again.”
Liberalism is a mental and spiritual illness that turns the good that government was intended to do into a suicide pact for the society that it governs. Sadly, here’s yet another example.
We broke news a little over two weeks ago that there could finally be justice for fallen rapper “XXXTentacion”; today we moved a step closer. Broward County Sheriff deputies announced the arrest of 22 year old Michael Boatwright today in connection with XXXTentacion’s murder. Police say he was one of the two shooters to kill the martyr and rap artist XXXTentacion. Boatwright was in custody on a drug charge when officers informed him of his murder charge.
Michael Boatwright arrested for cappin’ XXXTentacion
Wow, that has to suck. Here you are counting down the hours until you are released from the gawd awful hell hole known as Broward County jail, you spy a few officers headed your way and a smile creeps across your face! You are getting out, your family will come pick you up, take you over to KFC or Wingstop to reward your release from the pen, and wham, like a ton of bricks you find out that stack of paper you thought was your belongings is a document arresting you for murder! Man that counts as a bad day, worse yet you get moved from a less serious offender unit to a hardened criminals unit! Boatwright’s dream of KFC and Buffalo Wing’s, have been replaced with Nutraloaf, oatmeal, and mystery meat.
Before we get too excited about the murder charge, looks like this Boatwright character had a pretty rough week as he was locked up pending trial on a long list of charges. Inmate records show that, in addition to the murder charge, Boatwright is pending trial on charges of cannabis possession; possession of cocaine with intent to sell; manufacture or deliver; possession of the drug, flakka; battery on a specified employee; resisting/obstruction without violence; and probation violations, among other charges.
The 22-year-old was already in Broward County Jail after his arrest Thursday on felony cocaine possession with intent to sell or deliver and misdemeanor marijuana possession charges, which brought additional violation of probation charges. Boatwright is on probation until April 2019 from battery and drug charges.
It takes some people decades to get a rap sheet that long; Boatwright accomplished this before most people finish college! I guess you could say he graduated from petty crime, assault, and drug distribution to murder. By the way just to remind our loyal readers “allegedly.”
Editor Note: For those not up on current trends in street pharmaceuticals, here is the lowdown on flakka.
Flakka is a designer drug that can be snorted, smoked, injected or swallowed. It may also be combined with other, softer drugs such as marijuana.
Flakka is most typically made from the chemical alpha-PVP, which is a synthetic version of the amphetamine-like stimulant cathinone. Cathinones are chemicals derived from the khat plant grown in the Middle East and Somalia, where the leaves are frequently chewed for a euphoric buzz.
Flakka is one of a number of cathinone-based drugs that are produced in China and sold online to small-time drug gangs in the U.S. And the business is lucrative. Hall says that with small investment of only a few thousand dollars, a dealer can walk away with as much as $75,000.
A quick look at Boatwright tells me he has never really been in jail before; the lack of a decent mugshot; and lack of any tattoos tell me he may not be the best candidate for jail time. He looks like a mama’s boy to me. Especially in comparison to Dedrick Williams, the other “alleged” shooter. Williams looks like he knows the inner workings and politics of jailhouses very well. Also he is no stranger to an orange jumpsuit or a bowl of jailhouse oatmeal for breakfast. Hopefully these two can be cellmates because Boatwright will need a good support group. I also noticed Boatwright has yet to hire a lawyer; bold strategy, but you know what hey, why spend all that money when you can represent yourself! It’s a constitutional right we all get!
When reached for comment Boatwright said he “dindu nuffin” so I guess that means he will fit right in with the rest of the animals in jail who also found themselves in the unique position of saying “they didn’t do it.” Couple words of advice for Mr. Boatwright, first get used to the food quickly, it will ensure your survival. Might be tough at first because I heard the maggots and cockroaches in the jail kitchen never touch the food, and sprint immediately toward the exterminator hoping to be put out of their misery quickly. Also do not under any circumstances drop the soap!
If you happen to do so, just let it go, it’s a painful lesson otherwise brother! Stay strong!
Finally the police are seeking a second unidentified gunman as well as wanting to speak to one Robert Allen about the shooting as well. Some unsolicited advice to Mr. Allen you are also wanted for a felony charge of possession of flakka, a concealed gun as well as probation violations. If I’m you brother, I’m Googling countries with no US extradition laws. Get out while you can before the police can frame you for this heinous crime as well. Also remember the 5th Amendment, and by that I’m talking about the right to keep your mouth shut, not the right to a 5th of Hennessey.
