Corporate America—especially now that we’re in the 90-day life cycle—has a habit of being ruthless in the pursuit of profit and struggle for survival. When they miss their numbers, there’s hell to pay—usually for those at the lowest pay levels and occasionally in middle management or higher.
This week, Tesla missed their numbers badly even with the market expecting them to report a second quarter loss. Elon not only missed the reported target but the entire side of the barn; hence, all Musk’s recent media stories about dreams of a better future leading up to release of said report. Can you blame him? Who’d want his track record at Tesla?
Tesla plunged 10% in extended trading after posting a larger-than-expected loss on Wednesday in a second quarter earnings update.
Here’s what Tesla reported, versus what analysts expected based on average estimates compiled by Refinitiv: * Loss per share on an adjusted basis: $1.12 vs. 40 cents expected * Revenue: $6.35 billion versus $6.41 billion expected
In the wake of this report, some on Wall Street are saying that Musk needs to step down.
When asked if Tesla was worth buying after an ugly quarter, Paul Schatz, president and chief investment officer at Heritage Capital, told Yahoo Finance, “It has very idiosyncratic behavior, but no, [Musk] is not a future leader.”
“You’re going to have Mercedes and BMW and all the real car companies competing with them in the next five years, and I think they are much more well-positioned financially,” compared to Tesla.
Schatz pointed out that while Tesla may have had a head start out of the gate, the company is not taking full advantage of that position. Management is a major concern – the latest example in a series of departures is the company announcing on its earnings call that Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel was stepping down from his position and transitioning to an advisory role.
Schatz compared Musk to Microsoft founder Bill Gates – or at least suggested the Tesla leader should aspire to be like Gates in one particular way. “All great entrepreneurs eventually, like Bill Gates, all step back and say, ‘I’ve taken my company as far as I can go and need to bring in somebody that has a corporate backbone to it,’” he said. “The wrong guy is running the company.”
As for whether investors should bet on the car maker, “unless you’re a nimble trader, I think it’s lunacy to go near Tesla,” Schatz said, adding that he doesn’t see it “as a sustainable long-term business model.”
While firing Elon, might make sense in a saner world, given his volatility and the turnover of his executive staff, I don’t see that ever happening. Musk is his own worst enemy much of the time. I think it likely that he gets to ride Tesla to the bottom—which many define as a stock value south of $100 per share.
Tesla’s only hope for salvation is periodic infusions of government directed money. With the phasing-out of American tax credits and today’s economic reports about Germany’s manufacturing decline—something that will ripple thru Europe, the future cash expected from the EU and other places may be less than promised which will make Tesla’s finances even more dire. If the economy catches a cold, Tesla will suffer a severe case of pneumonia.
Editor’s Note: the following article by Troll discusses, in passing, Bill Clinton’s conduct while in the White House and therefore may be offensive to Liberals and is definitely inappropriate for small children.
House Judiciary Committee Chair and resident idiot, Jarrold Nadler–who honestly has nothing better to do with his pathetic existence on this earth–has decided Hope Hicks needs to return to Congress and testify yet again about hush money payments by “Trump” to Stormy Daniels.
Stormy Daniels
Allegedly Hicks was involved in a three way phone call with Michael Cohen and Donald Trump, regarding payments to Daniels, and Hicks may have “misled” Congress in her testimony. First of all, why is a women on a call when discussing payments to another women for…let’s call it “services rendered?” It literally makes no sense…that being said, is it a wonder Hicks forget or couldn’t remember what was being discussed? I mean really, what girl wants to know what you did with a stripper, and on top of that (pun intended) how much you paid for the deed? (Allegedly) Then I found out Stormy’s real name is Stephanie Clifford….and get this, she is not related to that big red dog from my childhood….big letdown!
In case you missed it, back in the Clinton era I’ve been told first-hand accounts there was more sex going on in the Oval Office than in some brothels. Guess what? Aside from Joe Lieberman nary a Democrat cared! What a difference a couple decades makes. Clinton stuck his pepperoni in all kinds of women’s tomato patches, got a blowie while on the phone with dignitaries, and no one in his party had an issue.
Now because a very wealthy, non-politician and a crooked lawyer made couple hush money payments the world stops? Hardly the crime of the century…also why does the country suddenly believe a crooked lawyer who is in jail right now looking for a way to reduce his sentence?
The truth of the matter is that both Michaels–Cohen and Avenatti–both of whom are going to spend a while in jail–stayed true to form this entire time. Both were more than happy to collect retainers and high billable hours from their clients, but when the ship started taking on water it was too late for them to bail. Both thought for sure they knew where the skeletons were buried, however that didn’t work out so well. This is because the GOP insiders, the Democrats, and these two idiots under estimated Trump as a person. Trump may be morally bankrupt (allegedly) however he is very bright, and always kept an arm’s length between him and any wrong doing….sorry folks he is here to stay.
In closing, Nadler you grease ball, you’re so fat you should roll up a hill! Lay off the cold cuts you blowhard!
Jerrold Nadler Idiot–New York
And quit calling my girlfriend back so you can ogle her or ask about her dating life. She isn’t going to date you, she is attracted to people who actually have intellectual abilities. By the way scum bag, she is a model, the only thing you’re a model for is what not to aspire to be! She didn’t lie, or misspeak, maybe…just maybe, she like other women does not give a flying rip about other people’s sex lives or hush money.
Hope Hicks
Keep in mind, you idiots took control of the House due to Republicans not wanting to work with Trump, and you’re wasting everyone’s time on this. Look at the multitude of problems facing our country, we have high debt, student loans, cost of healthcare, tuition, homelessness, and I’m just naming a few, pick a couple, pass decent legislation, and brand yourselves the problem solvers. Go away you lard tub! So Trump did the dirty with someone and paid them off, look at those bolt-on’s Daniels bought herself? Talk about stimulating more than just the economy! But in the meantime I will continue to investigate Ms. Hicks and try to stay on top of her…I will update as necessary.
Hope Hicks
I wish I could have had a three way with Hope Hicks and Jennifer Aniston that woulda been great!
UPDATE: It has come to the attention of this blogger the “Broad Squad” (h/t Blog Father) is trying to get a primary challenge to Nadler for not being liberal enough…maybe you and Trump have something in common after all?
Troll
PS thoughts and prayers for “The Chief” as his Twitter account was suspended for 20 hours for engaging in a beef with OJ Simpson in regards to him finding the “real killer.” Also pray for the Blog Father, apparently there is a FBI Surveillance Van on his street, so says a potential Wi-Fi connection, did the Blog Father commit a heinous crime? Or did Karen England give the FBI the wrong address for Aaron Park?
We will update when info is passed along.
With two regular contributors to this blog potentially sidelined, we must plan for a future of just myself and that food blogger Johnnie Does being the only bloggers left here.
So I took a break from the chain restaurants and decided for a more regional sandwich chain that is fairly new to the area Jersey Mike’s. You guessed it, they are from Jersey and are embarking on a huge nationwide expansion. Here is my review.
Jersey Mike’s traces its history back to 1956 when a young Mike Cancro (17), on advice from his mother, decided to buy Mike’s Submarines. He rebranded it as Jersey Mike’s in 1987. And today there are more than 1,000 locations, with a bunch more to come.
Locally, Jersey Mike’s is located at the Elk Grove Mall, oh, I mean Delta Shores by I-5. Like many regional chains that go nationwide, you are always worried about expanding too fast or the concept not catching on, let’s see how they do.
Ambiance: Typical sub sandwich place, limited seating, you order at the counter. That being said, I really enjoyed the maps and pictures on the wall of New Jersey; they even had a surf board on the wall, pretty nice touch. It has a very relaxed vibe, think like Starbucks, but with quick serve sandwiches as opposed to coffee. You place your order with a server, he writes it on his pad, and hands you the ticket to take to the other end of the counter to pay. It’s similar to Subway as far as the order process goes, I will get into this later. 4.1/5 on the ambiance, had some nice touches.
Food: Here is the biggest difference from Subway and Firehouse Subs, Jersey Mikes, takes the hunks of meat out deli-style and cuts them in front of you. They do this with the cheese as well, yup, right on the sub, directly in front of you. That is the definition of fresh. If you ordered a hot sub they place the meat on a hot grill and prepare separately and bring it out later. That being said the condiment choices are pretty standard, and you can order “Mike’s way” which is lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo, and “the juice” which is oil and red wine vinegar. You can add jalapeño, but I have grown to appreciate limited choices. I don’t know why but Jersey Mike’s gives off a fresher vibe. The bread choices were limited too; white, wheat, and rosemary parmesan, you also could have it gluten free. I ordered a chicken bacon ranch hot sub Mike’s way and it was fantastic. 4.7/5, very fresh and not skimpy at all on the meats, and toppings.
Chicken Bacon Ranch made Mike’s way.
Overall: This was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. The fresh cut meat and cheese was a great touch. Limiting the bread and toppings was a smart move also. They had a signature way of having your toppings, and a streamlined approach conducive to both freshness and speed. The key is that I never felt rushed, and found out later the very nice man at the front taking orders….that was the franchisee. It wasn’t an absentee owner collecting his money while leaving the shop to be minded by kids. The price point was perfect for a 9 inch hot sub about $9. Quality was great and again, I never felt rushed or hurried. As an added bonus, they had a nice selection of chips, your typical ones, but also some specialty one’s and had some special root beer options as well. This was a nice break from your typical limited selection. They also had Tastykake (pronounced “tasty cake”) as a dessert option which traces its roots to Jersey as well. 4.6 overall
Comparing to Firehouse Subs: Firehouse is more of a grab a bite and a seat with your co-workers, where Mikes is more of a grab n’ go about your day place. Firehouse has more sub options and more exotic ones, whereas Mike’s is more of an old school deli shop. Firehouse is made behind a counter out of site, Mikes is made right in front of you. I think both are great. You cannot go wrong ordering from or owning either, so much so if I had the $$$ I would become a franchisee because I love the product.
Back when he was first starting out, Rush Limbaugh used to joke that the perfect place to hold the Homeless Olympics would be in Rio Linda, California. Rio Linda was often described as a place with cars on blocks in the front yard, random televisions and shopping carts strewn about, along with other assorted debris. In short, the place was a mess. Rush wanted the people there to clear the place up and take some pride and ownership of their neighborhood. Rush offered to leave them alone if they renamed the place Rio Limbaugh which they never did.
Concerning the Homeless Olympics, Rush envisioned various events while taking well-earned shots at homeless advocate Mitch Snyder.
Mitch Snyder 1943 – 1990
Proposed events would be things like dumpster diving, races carrying a televisions (simulating their theft), relays pushing shopping carts, etc. Here’s an example from 1989.
“One of the things I want to do before I die is conduct the homeless Olympics,” he told his audience. Events would include “the 10-meter Shopping Cart Relay, the Dumpster Dig and the Hop, Skip and Trip,” he said as the audience erupted into laughter and applause.
This quote above was from Limbaugh’s Rush to Excellence Tour.
At the time, one person wrote the Los Angeles Times concerning the above article and said:
Making fun of homeless people is a “traditional value”? Well, excuse me, but where I come from, that is nothing more than nastiness and meanness–behavior befitting a bully.
If you thought this was nonsense, insensitive, and mocking the homeless, then guess what? You were wrong.
There really is a Homeless Olympics. However, it’s not called that lest Rush get some of the credit for the idea, the official name is the Homeless World Cup. It began in 2003 and represents 70 nations.
To be a player you must meet the following qualifications:
Be at least 16 years old at the time of the tournament
Have not taken part in previous Homeless World Cup tournaments
Also, must be any of the following:
Have been homeless at some point after the previous year’s tournament in accordance with the national definition of homelessness
Make their main living income as a streetpaper vendor
Be asylum seekers currently without positive asylum status or who were previously asylum seekers but obtained residency status a year before the event
Currently be in drug or alcohol rehabilitation and also have been homeless at some point in the past two years
California has one third of the homeless population in the United States due to its great weather and even better benefits. It’s no surprise to me that from the shadows of Rio Linda comes three athletes making the trip to England to compete in this year’s events.
Rio Linda is on north side of Sacramento metro area
Three Sacramento women will soon be representing Team USA in this year’s Homeless World Cup.
Now, she and two other women will be representing the U.S. in the sporting spectacle known as the Homeless World Cup where 500 players will be representing 50 proud nations.
So thirty years after the prediction, Rio Linda folks are participating in a worldwide homeless competition to see who brings home (if they had one) the gold medal.
Elon Musk’s second quarter report card is due tomorrow (07/24/2019). As such, he dropped a few more nuggets for the faithful about what he might be able to do in the future, probably because the present is such a miserable place to be right now.
Future performance not indicated by past results
Elon is touting patents of technology that might become a reality at some future date, whether he’s the one still alive to do it or not is a debatable point. One involves automobile wiring harnesses and the other stamping body panels. Neither is anything other than a concept right now.
Elon Musk doesn’t want past performance to be used as indicator of Tesla’s future
Please note the tone of the opening paragraphs.
Elon Musk believes the way to usher in a new age of EVs is by going back to square one and tackling the fundamental issues with production.
Tesla just designed and patented revolutionary new wiring architecture, which will enable robots to build the upcoming Model Y.
Now another patent has revealed that Tesla is also moving to a new, full body aluminum casting design; rather than a series of stamped steel and aluminum pieces.
Oh, the headline is deceptive because Tesla has no such casting machine, only a patent on a concept for one which is a very different proposition. All that’s missing from the above article is Billy Crystal’s line from City Slickers that “Life is a do over.”
Apparently, Elon is signaling that he blew it with what he’s done at Tesla and needs another paradigm. Translation: give me yet more time. Like a stopped clock, the faithful hope that he eventually will get it right.
Next nugget, Apple hired Tesla’s VP in charge of design.
Apple Inc. has hired Steve MacManus, at least the third Tesla Inc. engineering executive to join the Cupertino, California-based technology giant in the last year.
MacManus, a Tesla vice president in charge of engineering for car interiors and exteriors, left the carmaker recently and has since joined Apple as a senior director, according to his LinkedIn profile. He worked at Tesla from 2015, after stints at Jaguar Land Rover, Bentley Motors and Aston Martin. His interior-design skills may be applicable at Apple beyond the development of a car.
This should fuel even more rumors about the mythical “Apple Car.”
Apple Car
Sales data sliding
The last nugget which is related to the previous one is that Tesla sales are tanking on their high end vehicles.
The luxury sedan that put Tesla Inc. on the map is starting to show its age, with new registrations of the company’s Model S plummeting 54 percent in the second quarter in California, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Similarly, new California registrations of the Tesla Model X fell by about 40 percent in the second quarter, the Journal reports, citing data from the Dominion Cross-Sell Report.
California is Tesla’s single largest market in the U.S., accounting for about 40 percent of Model S sales last year alone.
The Palo Alto-based automaker has shifted its focus to the Model 3, which is half the price of the Model S.
Meanwhile, the company itself says production and sales of the Model S and X have plummeted.
This time last year, Tesla built 24,761 Model S and X cars — a number that fell 41 percent to 14,517 cars in its most recent quarter.
Analysts say that’s partly due to Tesla’s decision not to update either car.
So the chief car designer for Tesla leaves and goes to Apple and then surprise; a story emerges that Tesla hasn’t updated their higher priced cars since they were introduced and as a result their sales are tanking. Sounds like Elon is lightening the payroll to me.
Maybe those rumors of Apple buying Tesla should be given another look. Tim Cook could do it with his lunch money and still have enough to buy Intel’s mobile chip business.
First they banned plastic bags, then straws, and now the environmental wackos want to ban toilet paper. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has declared war on toilet paper—at least if it is soft and squeezable—and especially if it is sold at Costco.
If you recall, under Islam, a thief will have his right hand amputated. Why? Because thru most of history, the right hand was used to eat and the left to wipe your butt.
Press play to watch a guy go “old school” in Italy
Next time you read about Jesus judging mankind at the final judgment remember this. Verses like below have just a bit more meaning when you read:
When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
Matthew 25:31-34, 41
NRDC Truth Claim
Here’s the meat of the article against T.P. (Oh, can I say the word “meat” when talking about environmental wackos?)
The manufacture of bathroom tissue — particularly the soft, fluffy kind marketed for American bottoms — is one of the most “environmentally destructive” processes on the planet, according to the NRDC.
“Future generations are going to look at the way we make toilet paper as one of the greatest excesses of our age,” NRDC scientist Allen Hershkowitz told the Guardian in 2009. “Making toilet paper from virgin wood is a lot worse than driving Hummers in terms of global warming pollution.”
Folks saying anything is worse than a Hummer—especially since they succeeded in getting them outlawed—is really fighting words. It communicates just how serious these guys are to outlaw toilet paper.
Toilet Paper by the Numbers
The article then goes on to introduce the math portion of this article.
The boreal forest is a vast landscape of aspen, evergreen and birch trees covering more than half of Canada, but since 1996, 22 million acres — an area roughly the size of Indiana — have been cut down to produce virgin fiber pulp, the key ingredient in premium toilet paper and hand tissues. With the exception of China, no country uses more tissue products than the U.S. despite the latter having only about 4 percent of the world’s population.
From 1996 to 2019 is 23 years. Since they can’t have complied statistics for this year yet, it is safe to say that we are talking about 1 million acres per year going to toilet paper production for sale in the U.S. market.
And of course, loggers—not having any interest in the sustainability of the forest since they work for evil corporations—would never think to replant trees to replace the ones they harvested.
Per the Canadian government, their country has 347,069,000 hectares of forest land.
Using a conversion tool found on the Internet this equals 857,626,176 acres of forest land in Canada.
Microsoft Excel icon
Plugging these two numbers into my handy copy of Microsoft Excel yield a whopping 2.56522 percent of Canadian forest has been harvested in 22 years for toilet paper production.
Put another way, if 1milion acres a year is harvested for toilet paper and there are 857,626,176 acres of forest land then the forest will all be converted to toilet paper in a mere 857 years—assuming nothing is planted to replace the harvested trees!
Oh, the Hypocrisy
Please note that this article which is critical of Canadian forest management is from San Francisco. Yes, a California based environmentalist is criticizing folks in other countries that may actually know what they are doing.
Last year, 2018, California lost 1,893,913 acres —much of it forest land—to wildfires. I don’t know about you, but the thought of wiping my back side with smoldering ashes or Charmin is a stark and clear choice for me.
California has the worst managed forest land on the planet and they want to impose their values not only on other states but other countries. Oh the hubris.
But the article yields even more nuggets of wisdom.
The boreal forest is critically important because it serves as an effective check on climate change, according to the NRDC-Stand.earth study, dubbed “The Issue with Tissue.” Cutting down millions of trees each year erodes the forest’s ability to absorb man-made greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, logging releases immense quantities of carbon safely stored in forests’ soil and vegetation.
“Most Americans probably do not know that the toilet paper they flush away comes from ancient forests, but clear-cutting those forests is costing the planet a great deal,” Anthony Swift, director of the NRDC’s Canada Project, said in a news release. “Maintaining the Canadian boreal forest is vital to avoiding the worst impacts of climate change.”
Toilet paper creation caused the release of greenhouse gases while wildfires in California have no detrimental effect on the release of carbon.
Carbon by the way is an essential element of all life on the planet except maybe a few bacteria (Unless you believe in silicon based lifeforms as found in Danish brothels or movie characters named Commander Data, Terminator, or Alien.)
The Bottom Line
The American way of life is somehow destroying the planet just so our butts can be clean and fresh.
In 2012, CNBC reported that toilet paper was Costco’s top-selling product, its “crown jewel,” with more than a billion rolls sold per year.
The three companies with the largest market shares in the tissue business — Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark and Georgia-Pacific — use virgin pulp almost exclusively for at-home tissue brands. In 2017, those brands made up 80 percent of all toilet paper sales in the U.S, a study published in Statista found.
Oh, let’s consider the so-called virgin forests. Words have meaning so I guess the virgin forests are raped by the evil corporations. The virgin forest is defenseless and thus needs to be protected by guilty Western Liberals that have benefitted from the progress afforded them by Christianity and its economic engine, Capitalism.
Oh, if nature is so superior, sacrosanct, and needing to be followed, why do us humans put out the fires that nature starts that burn her own forests? Aren’t forest fires part of the natural order? Why should we not bow at the power of nature? Who are we to interfere with this goddess? Isn’t this the lesson; nature knows, man interferes?
Conclusion
Most of the world does not enjoy the luxury of toilet paper and those that do rarely get as good a quality as we can buy. When I was in Europe many years ago, all you could buy was stuff that looked like the crape paper used here to decorate for parties and felt like sandpaper.
Russia paper
These attacks are yet another attempt to limit people’s freedom, take our way of life down a few notches, and give more power to the State. If people in California really cared about the forest they would allow timber to be harvested and properly managed. Much of what passes as old growth or virgin wilderness in various parts of the world really is not, but once cultivated land that has gone feral from neglect.
This issue is very much a religious one. If you believe the Bible then you can’t be a rabid environmentalist or statist. God commanded man to make the whole world into The Garden. This mandates us to manage the planet and its resources not neglect them and let them burn.
I’m tired hearing about kids in cages. Frankly, it’s a very American thing to do. It’s so commonplace that folks just accept it as normal. Here’s some examples:
We separate kids from their parents and keep them in cages every Monday thru Friday from about 8 AM to 3 PM about nine months out of the year. It’s called school. Oh, you think that’s being harsh to say that? Ok, how do said children or parents gain access to the facility? They enter thru gates and checkpoints and while doing so may be subject to random inspections and metal detectors too. During school times many campuses have police present or on call to protect the site and civilian safety monitors patrol the grounds—especially at recess—to prevent unauthorized crossing of perimeter fencing.
For many parents, school is often just a government provided babysitter that warehouses children while parents are otherwise occupied. Many parents rejoice that the government requires that they are separated from their children on a regular basis. Parents who don’t agree are often visited by government agents if they don’t comply with this separation.
At my son’s school, the gates are locked and signs directing me to his location are frequently wrong. I often joke (lament might be a better word) with other parents that the school needs an app to locate your child. I can’t tell you how many times it’s taken me 10 to 15 minutes of running around from place to place to locate my youngster and extract him from his campus.
Kid Cage #1
Other examples of forced separation abound. Heck even the local health club has gotten in on the action. They don’t allow children to be with their parents, instead forcing them not to follow their folks healthy example but sit in a separate, guarded area with, yep, a fence around it—completed with barbed wire.
Kid Cage #2
Please note that the barbed wire in photo is to keep kids from escaping not directed to keep people out of the children’s area.
Caging children and separating them from their folks is not always a bad thing. Depending on the circumstances, many folks just consider it part of daily life. I submit for your consideration that if it weren’t for lawyers and criminals running free on our streets that there would be a lot less fences separating people from each other.
If you haven’t been out of state much, it might surprise you that in many neighborhoods, houses are not separated by any type of fencing. Whole blocks have backyards as one contiguous grass area with nothing but swing sets and play structures as far as the eye can see. Children have whole subdivisions as their play area.
When folks enter our country in violation of the law, they have committed a crime. This is no secret. They know it is wrong but purposefully do it anyways. When they get caught there can be consequences. It seems that many are willing to take that risk. Those arresting them will segregate people as they see fit, often for health and safety reasons. If children are separated then I have to believe there is a good reason.
FILE – In this June 18, 2014 file photo, two female detainees sleep in a holding cell, as the children are separated by age group and gender, as hundreds of mostly Central American immigrant children are being processed and held at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Nogales Placement Center in Nogales, Ariz. President Donald Trump has seized on an error by liberal activists for tweeting photos of detainees at the U.S.-Mexico border in steel cages and blamed the current administration for separating immigrant children from their parents. The photos were taken by The Associated Press in 2014, when President Barack Obama was in office. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, Pool)
The bottom line is that the current controversy about kids in cages is a contrived, emotional argument. It was perfectly fine when a Democrat President was in charge. I know of no photos of this alleged phenomenon since Trump took office. Not to say that one may not exist but the ones recently put out by Congressional Democrats to publicize their hearings on this issue were all removed from their websites and Twitter accounts as each was proven to be photographed when Obama was President. Congressional Democrats have yet to put forward one photo created after the current Administration took over. Funny how that works.
OAC and the gang think they are the political version of Charlie’s Angels but those of us in the Heartland think they’re nuts (or something worse). President Trump nailed them on Twitter a few days ago. Trump’s stock with average Americans has risen sharply since then. OAC says her gang is “The Squad” but clearly the name is missing an adjective to describe them further.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.; and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., have collectively come to be known by that label since taking office in January. The four have found common cause on a number of issues, most recently by becoming the only Democrats to vote against the House version of a border funding bill that was backed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
You know there’s a dumpster fire in the Democrat Party when Donald Trump is defending Nancy Pelosi‘s character from these crazy chicks. But its been entertaining to watch.
While discussing these events at work earlier today, a female coworker made a suggestion that fits in so many ways. Her solution was to call them “The Broad Squad.”
I like Donald Trump and think he’s doing a good job despite encountering the strongest headwinds of any President in my lifetime. But the one thing he does that I fear will blow up in his face is taking credit for the great performance of the stock market. By taking credit for the highs in the market he also becomes the owner of the lows when they occur at some point in the future.
Trump doesn’t really get to decide how the market does. He can get the government out of the way of certain sectors by reducing regulation or imposing tariffs but that’s about it. He is more of a cheerleader for corporate growth but that’s about all he can do.
The good thing about this is at least Trump seems willing to own the things that happen while he is in office. In contrast, Obama blamed every bad thing on his predecessor, G.W. Bush, until after his reelection. Trump is a good man and I’m glad he is in our corner.
Elon Musk is in the news again with another distraction so it must be about time to report Tesla’s second quarter earning’s reports.
First, the distraction.
Neuralink, the secretive company bankrolled by Elon Musk to develop brain-computer interfaces, will provide its first public update later today in an event streamed over the internet.
“We’re having an event next Tuesday in San Francisco to share a bit about what we’ve been working on the last two years, and we’ve reserved a few seats for the internet.”
This could be the big reveal of what the mysterious company has been up to since Musk announced it two years ago, and hired a pack of leading university neuroscientists to pursue his goal of connecting human brains directly to artificial-intelligence software.
Elon wants to hook your brain to a computer for some unknown reason. MIT—authors of the above article—speculated that Elon would demo a monkey playing a video game. Based on what I know, it doesn’t take much brain power to play video games so Elon will have to do better than that to get my attention on this project.
Meanwhile, several pieces of Tesla news have surfaced in the last few days.
Sales
Tesla has been claiming that sales are up so of course to they announced another price cut. This is contrary to common sense but this is the company fathered by Elon Musk.
Tesla delivered more electric cars in the second quarter than any three-month period in its history, alleviating concerns that demand is waning for its stylish vehicles as tax incentives in its main U.S. market begin to phase out.
Despite the heartening news Tuesday, Tesla still hasn’t proven it can consistently make money despite repeated promises from CEO Elon Musk to reverse the company’s long history of losses.
Musk himself has already acknowledged Tesla will post a loss for the past quarter, but forecast profits after that—something he also did last year, only to be proven wrong. Analysts polled by FactSet are predicting the company will absorb a loss of about $228 million for the second quarter. If those projections hold true, Tesla will have lost nearly $1 billion during the first half of this year.
Tesla workers have told CNBC that, in order to meet Elon Musk and Tesla’s delivery quota for the second quarter, that they were subjected to unfathomably harsh conditions and took numerous manufacturing shortcuts.
This “bombshell” should come as no surprise anyone who has followed the Tesla story.
However, Tesla operates its manufacturing business in what is called an “open-air tent factory,” and employees told CNBC that they were forced to work through freezing nighttime temperatures, excessively hot daytime temperatures, and even unhealthy air quality brought on by wildfire smoke.
Elon Musk doing his Captain Blith impersonation
Whereas most legitimate automobile manufacturers rely excessively on robots and other automatic means of production to meet delivery estimates, these employees said they themselves had to bypass the robots and put the cars and battery packs together themselves.
This included the use of electrical tape to fix some defects. Great. That should rival being able to trick an autopilot-enabled car with table salt.
The grander point about how Tesla is being run is a referendum on Elon Musk. If these same stories came out of any other legitimate car manufacturer, the entire industry would be in an uproar.
Managers would get fired, senior management would be forced to resign, the stock of that particular company would fall, and government regulators would be all over that company in less time than it takes a BMW to go from 0 to 60.
This isn’t even the first time we’ve heard about worker conditions. It’s been going on for two years.
But because this is Tesla and Elon Musk, everyone seems to turn a blind eye.
Mark my words: If vehicles were delivered in this quarter under the conditions that these employees describe, consumers should worry that they are going to suffer from higher-than-average mechanical and recall problems.
Autopilot claims scaled way back amidst programmer mutiny
A day after Elon Musk suggested that auto-driving Tesla cars might not be sold to the public and could instead be hawked as robotaxis, a report dropped revealing that in recent weeks nearly a dozen Tesla Autopilot engineers had already hit the eject button.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Tesla Engineers: We’ll Drive Ourselves Home As many as 11 individuals on Tesla’s software Autopilot team departed the company during the past few months, according to The Information, continuing a purge which began when Elon Musk booted the team’s leader in May.
The significance of these Autopilot departures cannot be overstated. One of the highest profile functions of future Tesla vehicles is its ability to drive itself.
While there are other competitors in this market, for 10% of this division’s workforce to get up and leave means that they do not believe the timeline that Elon Musk has set for the product is in any way realistic.
And that’s not the only problem: There has always been doubt regarding the safety of Tesla’s Autopilot system, not only in its supposed ability to reduce crashes, but also in the numerous crashes in which it has allegedly played a part.
The article above calls followers of Musk a “cult.”
This should tell investors and consumers a lot about company culture. It is a personality cult. The product itself has a cult-like following. Tesla is all about Elon Musk.
Musk certainly has cast a spell on the true believers of his utopian dreams. He has made an irrational and emotional connection with people that willingly follow where he leads. These folks are convinced that Musk is singlehandedly transforming the world and the cosmos. They can’t wait to follow him to Mars.
My problem with Musk is that he doesn’t risk his own money to do anything, he always manages to fund his ventures with tax dollars and gullible investors. He starts much and finishes nothing. He is the 21st Century P.T. Barnum.
P.T. Barnum
Musk claims economic miracle
Oh, if you thought Burger King and Bill Clinton had cornered the market on whoppers try this from Elon:
Tesla Inc.’s Elon Musk is standing by a claim that the company’s electric cars will be appreciating assets once they’re capable of driving themselves.
Musk, Tesla’s chief executive officer, first made the claim in a podcast interview in April that the company’s vehicles will gain in value because they’ll eventually be capable of fully autonomous driving. He stood by this in a reply to a follower who wrote Tuesday that he was unsure if the CEO was joking or making a “really dumb” statement.
Quinn Nelson, the owner of a media company that produces videos about tech products, kept engaging Musk in a debate over the claim, which Nelson said “makes no sense.” The CEO replied that Tesla is bundling full-self driving — or FSD — into all cars the company builds, and that Tesla will be unable to keep up with demand when the vehicles are capable of complete autonomy.
With the exception of collectors’ cars and other rare cases, depreciation has been a fact of life for automakers, dealers and rental-car companies for decades. While Kelley Blue Book has handed Tesla a best resale value award for its Model 3, for example, the car-shopping researcher estimates the sedan retains about 69% of its value after three years.
The wheels are falling off the Tesla dream. Musk would rather be doing other things than running this company and it shows. His attention and passion are elsewhere. He is a butterfly searching for the next colorful flower to pollinate.
