“Tesla outsold Volkswagen last year, giving it the sales crown for the first time in five years.”

With the federal government, it seems like the orange one had no plan (surprise!) to actually distribute the vaccines we have. Pres Biden is facing a steep uphill of shit that was left to him and the republicans ae ready to attack, conveniently forgetting it was them that got us into this.

1st Gear: Looking at the overall economic numbers, I find this excessively optimistic. We simply don’t know the scale of the damage yet and how, or if, it’s going to be mitigated, and to what extent.

I guess I should have worded that differently. If you HAVE to fly that is one thing. OTOH if you’re some ordinary shlub who decided to fly home for Thanksgiving even though the CDC practically begged everyone not to then that’s another

5th Gear: The Stock Market Continues To Make No Sense

Some of us really didn’t have much of a choice but to fly on planes last year.  Either that or be out of work.  So responsibility has nothing to do with it.

They really need to drop this whole “motorcycle” thing and focus on their core competencies - T shirts and window stickers for pickups.

Man this would really fuck the people who I see regularly paying only 5 dollars to try to get from A to B... I would probably start around 18-20mpg then ramp up from there in the coming years to allow for adjustment, but that’s just me.

Eh, I think it varies from person-to-person; some people just have that type of personality where they can only seem to find one person / idea / object that brings them joy, so it becomes everything to them.

You’re partially right, I think, but the real ubiquity of the internet didn’t take hold in the general population (read: older people) until the mid-00s, and at that point became something a large number of people spent hours on as entertainment. Remember, finding usenets and chat rooms took a hit of effort and…

Yes, we had the internet decades ago but we didn’t have algorithms that only feed users content they want to see.    

True - Tesla Stans are the new “I’d Like To Talk To You About Our Lord Saviour Elon Musk. Would You Like Some Literature From The Church Of Tesla?” *thrusts out Tesla sale brochure*

How long before they start knocking on doors like Jehovah's Witnesses?

Oh everybody dreams of themselves sometimes, I am sure.

Tesla is just a benefactor of what has, unfortunately, become now commonplace: a strong idolization and worship of culture icons that waivers on becoming a person’s whole identity. See also: our departing president, “mommy bloggers”, stance bros, ad infinitim.

Pointless arguing with such people. Anything short of “Hello Trump supporters, I am Donald Trump and I am directing you to storm the capitol, attack the cops, and stop the certification” will amount to him being innocent in their eyes.

“He didn’t incite insurrection.”

In the land of the blind, even the One Eyed Jack can be King. I don’t get this at all too. I have a former friend, emphasis on former, who is a Trumper too. See, everything that the he is for, the GOP is against. He likes recreational drugs, he is an atheist, he enjoys social programs like unemployment and Medi-Care…

It’s all been one long grift.  MAGA hat-wearers aren’t Trump supporters, they’re marks.  

But you still support him, despite the fact that he incited an insurrection? Despite the fact that he utterly botched the response tot he pandemic? Despite the fact that he saw the pandemic as a way to make money, not a real threat? Despite the fact that he tried to subvert democracy? Etc...