I’m taking a much more pessimistic view on the tariffs. I’m going to put my tinfoil hat on for a second.

not since Trump was elected the first time.

Regarding Tesla wanting to move more operations to Texas. Remember when he moved Tesla’s R&D, only to move it back within months? He couldn’t get enough people to make that move, nor find enough qualified people outside of California.

It’s pretty clear he doesn’t care about the Tesla business beyond being able to pump the stock price.

EU sales down bigly as well: https://gizmodo.com/tesla-sales-in-europe-plummet-amidst-elons-stupid-meddling-2000558496.

I can only imagine things get worse with the talk of throwing tariffs on the EU by Musk’s…

The CEO of SpaceX, Tesla, Twitter, and Neuralink now has significant influence over the very government entities that regulate or contract with his businesses. Has a bigger conflict of interest ever existed?

Teslas product is very stale and outdated and the guy at the top is a creep. He bought the US government, among many other reasons, so he can use it to promote himself and his business and to use available regulatory tools to promote his interests and businesses and to shield them from competition.

So normally I would come on here and call conservatives a bunch of pejoratives, but I’ve had a number of social media interactions that make me think perhaps people legitimately don’t understand how economics and government budgets work. So this is going to be a rare, good-faith attempt from me to explain this stuff…

Don’t get this twisted: Trump’s scattershot tariffs have absolutely nothing to do with world trade. That’s the misdirection play. Trump’s tariffs make no sense in terms of international trade because that’s not the purpose of them.

I’m pretty sure there was a presidential candidate who specifically wanted to do something to stop companies from doing this kind of artificial price-gouging... but who’s to say. 

Man, I sure hope this happens. Inflation will go through the roof! Trump will blame it on DEI or immigrants or progressive cities or windmills or something. MAGA degens will believe him while they’re unable to afford to live.

And nobody - NOBODY - raises prices for nonsense corollary reasons like the oil industry. Tidal wave in Philippines? Gas gets more expensive. Russia invades Ukraine? Gas gets more expensive. Gas is too expensive? Gas gets more expensive.

Fun Fact: Tariffs cause non-impacted products to raise their price because they can raise them and still be cheaper.

I think folks have yet to realize that this is a full-flung venture/vulture capital takeover of the United States.

Calling Luigi!

Just the latest example of a F’d up health care system.

I work in aviation, and this is exactly what is going to happen. Or at least be pushed for - the last real push was probably 10+ years ago. But airlines want it, because they feel they are paying for services that support the GA fleet. It will result in a MUCH less safe system overall, but this is probably the tipping…

Probably unrelated: https://apnews.com/article/coast-guard-homeland-security-priorities-committees-trump-tsa-d3e4398c8871ada8d0590859442e092c

You joke, but literally a week ago Trump gutted a key airline safety committee.

DEI hire in Reagan ATC for sure. Or maybe the helicopter pilot’s second cousin is trans. Or maybe this is why we should re-designate them Sikorsky “White-Hawks.”

But seriously, this is horrible. My heart is with all the victims and their families. Accidents happen and that doesn’t make it okay, but the cynic in me is…

Will there be a similar story about Tesla in a year? They’re keeping production at full capacity despite decreased demand and they’re filling every empty parking lot they find.