One of my side projects is psyching myself out over the impending election, which means I will dive deeper into polling data on occasion to see what’s what. Much to my amusement, one of the bigger national polls decided to poll Tesla CEO Elon Musk. How’s he doing? Ehh…
I’m having a little fun with the headline of The Morning Dump this fine day because there’s a campaign video of Governor Tim Walz talking about his International Scout and there was some internal debate over whether we should cover it or not. Is it too political? We don’t want people turned off from this site because they have a specific political view.
But it would be a mistake to pretend as if politics doesn’t dramatically impact the way we enjoy our hobby. Rather than stick our heads under our hoods, it’s important to see what’s going on in the world. As we’ve seen lately, enthusiasts have won big concessions recently by actively engaging when necessary. So I’ll do a quick thing on the Musk/Walz.
Here’s something not political: The White House is touting its $1 billion fund to help suppliers make the transition to electric cars. Nope, not political at all. Neither is Italy seizing millions of dollars from the Chairman of Stellantis and his siblings over possible tax fraud. And, finally, Europe is freaking out over how far ahead China is on software and everything else as it confronts a future where they can’t just print money in Asia.
We Now Have Data Showing Tesla CEO Elon Musk Is Losing His Appeal
We have already established here that VP candidate and Democratic Governor of Minnesota Tim Walz is probably a car guy , and his new political ad’s brief explanation of how to keep your early cruise control running on an International Scout II is likely more proof (this appears to be a dealer-installed/Dana-designed system available for many similar vehicles like David’s old 1979 Jeep Cherokee). I’d like to interview Walz to know exactly what he did and what he had a shop do on his vehicle, but it seems reasonable to assume from all the evidence that he knows his way around a car and that he enjoys cars.
This may contribute to his overall likeability, which a recent poll from NBC News shows is quite high. In fact, if you dive into the crosstabs and details (Note: don’t become the person who dives into crosstabs if you treasure your sanity) then you’ll discover that Walz has the second-highest net positive score of anything polled, behind the concept of Capitalism and just ahead of Taylor Swift.
If you’re looking for actual information about how to work on your car in the short video you’ll be disappointed as it’s mostly a way for Walz to try and link former President Trump and Ohio Senator JD Vance to “Project 2025,” which is less popular than Socialism and, presumably, genital warts.
What struck me most, however, was that NBC News is still polling Tesla CEO Elon Musk. He is one of the richest and most influential men in the world, so it sort of makes sense, but he’s also the only automotive CEO (or ever, really) regularly polled. This particular poll has been intermittently looking at Musks’s popularity since August 2021, and he’s gone from a net positive (+5) to a net negative (-11). Last week I asked if there was any hard data to support the idea of Musk bleeding popularity and it looks like we have some.
It’s been previously shown that what Musk does is a turnoff to some buyers, though Tesla remains popular either because of or despite his views. It’s a strange time to live in, however, as they’re not polling Mary Barra’s favorable/unfavorable ratings and I assume GM shareholders are quite pleased they’re not. Though automotive companies and CEOs do give to campaigns, it’s extremely rare for car execs to make a big deal out of their views while actively being a part of the business. The risk just seems extremely high.
At some level, engaging in politics at all is going to drive people who were neutral about you to suddenly have strong opinions. Even Taylor Swift saw her “Very Negative” rating jump from 9% to 19% post-endorsement. As Musk has made his opinions more widely known his “Neutrals” have dropped from 33% to 18% as, via Twitter/X, he’s basically made people have to care about, or at least be aware of, his political opinions.
I don’t know the politics of most car execs and, frankly, I’m probably happier that way. To some extent, this also shows the power of people not knowing or caring too much about you. Part of the reason why Walz may have a net positive favorability is that a lot of people don’t know much about him.
After a few years working in politics, my advice for both Elon Musk and anyone entering into politics is the following:
- Don’t tweet everything you believe.
- Buy an old truck like an International Scout, vintage Bronco, or Dodge Raider.
- Rake in profits from people who love you and your cars
How The White House Will Raise $1 Billion To Help Suppliers Transition To The Future
It’s not possible to shift all of the auto industry in this country, or any country, without bringing along the many suppliers that make up a large percentage of the parts that make modern vehicles operate. To that end, the Biden Administration has tapped Monroe Capital to help raise a $1 billion fund to provide low-cost financing to suppliers who are trying to pivot from greasy bits to electrons.
From Crain’s Chicago Business via Automotive News:
The White House has chosen Chicago’s Monroe Capital to raise a $1 billion private credit fund devoted to funneling money into the U.S. automotive supply chain.
The Drive Forward Fund will raise money from institutional investors and receive additional capital from U.S. Small Business Administration loans, Monroe Capital’s chairman and CEO, Theodore Koenig, said.
“This is an underserved market from a financing standpoint,” Koenig told Crain’s in an interview. “There is a ton of demand. We have got the EV industry, autonomous driving. We have got batteries. We have got all kinds of software.”
Koenig said the automotive supply chain is a trillion-dollar industry, representing 5% of the U.S. GDP. He added the White House reached out to them when developing the program.
The timing is curious as electrification has slowed a bit, so the addition of autonomous driving and software is interesting.
Stellantis Chair Part Of $84 Million Tax Seizure
It’s been more than a year since I’ve written about the ongoing lawsuit over a huge inheritance from the Agnelli estate. Here’s how I explained it at the time:
This all goes back to Gianni Agnelli, the legendary head of Fiat who turned the company (and the country of Italy) around after WWII. His daughter Margherita inherited about $1.3 billion from the estate and agreed to split that up between three of her children. Margherita, though, had five other kids with her second husband, and she’s trying to make sure they’re not going to get cut out.
There’s no resolution, yet, but an Italian judge did seize a bunch of money from Stellantis Chair/Ferrari Chair John Elkann (pictured here with the Pope, Olivier Francois, and an unknown man) this week. The dispute seems to be over whether or not Elkann’s grandmother, Marella Caracciolo, lived in Switzerland or Italy:
Prosecutors in the northern city of Turin said in a statement that their investigation showed that Caracciolo was a resident in Italy from at least 2010 and not Switzerland, and that her inheritance therefore should have been taxed in Italy.
They said claims she had been based in Switzerland were part of “a criminal plan to hide her substantial assets and related income from Italian inheritance and tax laws”.
The Elkann/Agnelli family have been the country’s most important industrialists for at least the last half-century, though the Italian government has been a little less favorable to the family’s companies lately. I don’t have enough insight into Italian politics to know if this is related or not.
The Video That Freaked Out Mercedes
Chinese automaker Nio put out a short clip earlier this year (you can see it here if it doesn’t embed) of a Mercedes-Maybach S-Class, a LiXiang L9, and a Nio ET9 doing this test where they try to balance a set of champagne glasses on the hood of a car while driving over offset bumps.
This works because the ET9 has “Sky Ride,” which is its version of an active suspension system that uses independently controlled shock absorbers with hydraulic pumps at each corner. It’s an interesting trick and, according to Manager Magazine (Google Translated), it caused quite a concern for the folks back in Stuttgart.
“[T]he management reacted nervously to Nio’s attempt. The model’s business class version is longer than the long version of the S-Class, Nio offers it at a similar price but with more features, one of the top executives summarizes: “Why do I still need the S-Class?”
And – this is also what the video that went viral in China shows – in addition to Nio, other Chinese car manufacturers also want to be premium. Li Auto, Xiaomi , Aito, Zeekr: companies that didn’t even exist a few years ago or that didn’t build cars until recently and are now barely out of the prototype phase.
The speed of change has taken the Germans completely by surprise.
Almost half of S-Class models are sold in China, but so far those sales are down 9% for the year, causing the plant that makes the S-Class to drop to a single shift. Mercedes also warned of lower profits because of China.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
I usually try to do songs here because, I hope, I’ll continue to do TMD for a while and I don’t want to run out of artists or albums. Today will be an exception because I found a link to My Bloody Valentine’s full album “Loveless” on YouTube, like a sleeve of Oreos, once you start you just gotta finish the whole thing.
The Big Question
What would you like to see polled? I don’t particularly care how popular Taylor Swift is (and the less I hear about RFK Jr the better, apparently). Personally, I’d like to see the popularity of “Romantic Partners Who Can Drive Stick” polled.
I think this is a great missing of the point in regards to Scout ownership. Sure, ol’ Elon should own one. Hell, everybody should. The IH Scout should still be in production, as crude, rugged and agricultural as ever, providing Americans with their own version of the Lada Niva. This is the biggest hot-button sociopolitical issue of our time and you’re wrong if you disagree.
Damn, I guess this post was too political because we’re debating NBC News polling and people are skipping my great Carlos Tavares joke.
It definitely took an odd turn in the comments…
Also, I came back to look up something that was posted here in the comments. For every comment I remember being from Jeneane Garoffolo (probably not THE Jeneane Garoffolo) it now is showing up as being posted as Big Red Cadillac.
That is… strange?
Cadillac was french
HInt: If you log out and log back in, you can change your screen name.
Also, Janeane (whom I have met, and is lovely) is the most Luddite of Luddites. She owns no car and doesn’t even have a phone.
I’m no Rob Schneider or anything 😉
I don’t even understand anything anymore.
Neither am I.
Mh should ban him for switching is username that way
Ha, that was the joke.
I made a Carlos joke specifically at your expense! #ImDoingMyPart
What’d that International Scout do to deserve being ruined by Musk?
Leave the Scout alone!
Came here to say this; please leave my Scout alone.
Breaking Stellantis news:
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/stellantis-initiates-search-successor-ceo-carlos-tavares-bloomberg-news-reports-2024-09-23/
Shooting Braking News! Well done!
Good catch. And honestly, I’d prefer to see Stellantis’ new CEO being someone within the company promoted to that position.
I have a dislike for these company-hopping CEOs. I want Stellantis to have a CEO who has already been with the company for a while and also personally owns company stock that they bought with their own money.
LOL Capitalism and Tim Walz both poll highly. What a confused electorate!
And I bet a lot of the problems the same people would complain about are due to… Capitalism!
All the hospitals closing near you so you have to drive an hour to find one? Capitalism!
Mom’s nursing home takes horrible care of her? Capitalism!
Your hometown’s business district is derelict because the big box stores took all the customers? Capitalism!
The factory that had the good jobs closed to ship the jobs overseas? Capitalism!
Food, healthcare, rent, car insurance, all keep going up? Capitalism!
Oh, sure, now that all of my IH money is invested in a ’70 1200D pickup truck, it’s the Scout that’ll take off.
No, wait, that was already true.
You invested in a Holiday In last night?
If you own a scout in MN you are a car person. Only a car person would own a scout and work on a scout in a place that makes cars rust quickly and has so few working surviving scouts.
Discussing polls can only have one result. I immediately start thinking about Animaniacs. Do you eat beans? Do you watch George Wendt? Would you eat beans while watchging George Wendt? Would you eat beans with George Wendt? Would you eat beans while watching George Wendt with George Wendt?
Good times.
“Don’t tweet everything you believe.”
MH,
I (used to) follow you on Twitter. This is a highly disappointing TMD today. It’s one thing to have experience in the political spectrum and hold forth what you believe. In fact, that is admirable.
You can like Tim Watz for not changing his air filter and just putting it back on, if you like. I don’t actually care all that much, as a VP doesn’t really matter…until now, apparently.
However, I would caution against slanting your writings towards the “Democrats” because that particular branding isn’t all that wholesome. In fact, those politicians and donors directing the “narrative” for them are pretty gruesome.
All that said, and including the obvious disdain for Musk around here, why not do a breakdown of his companies and their intended goals? It’s not hard to do. In fact, I will start:
Tesla – reduce emissions and go green with transportation
SpaceX – Become a profitable option to NASA.
Starlink – Provide reliable internet access to the whole world.
Neuralink – Enable the disabled to function, well, functionally.
Boring Co. – Eh, you can shit on them. Regardless, the idea is to alleviate congestion.
Twitter – It has certainly opened up avenues for unfettered thoughts. Which is a good thing! An important point for all of us.
I don’t know how anyone could be against those agendas. Shit, If I was that rich, I’d like to think that my goals would be as lofty. Flaws and all. No one else is even trying.
As per the comments earlier regarding Gen X, All I want is to not see my money wasted more (higher taxes), and to have a safe life for my family.
The agenda you are apparently side-loading into your post this morning, blatantly promoting one-sidedness, ignores this and substitutes surface level compliance to a flawed norm as a substitute for wholesome progress.
It’s not correct, nor the way forward.
There’s a lot going on in this comment, so I’m just gonna focus on your Elon adjacent company “breakdowns”
Tesla – Elon wants to move away from cars, the Cybertruck is a disaster, and “genius” moves like completely gutting your Supercharger network team are doing active harm.
SpaceX – Doing legitimately good things, I like SpaceX. But their “move fast & break things” method does not work outside of private companies. NASA themselves have stated that if they burned cash the way SpaceX does, they’d be shut down. They aren’t wrong.
Starlink – Does good things for access, unless you’re working against Elon’s interests *cough cough* Ukraine
Neuralink – Torturing apes isn’t on my “we’re a good company doing good things” bingo card
Boring Co. – This only exists to divert public funds from being invested in ACTUAL public transit. It accomplished that goal. It’s very existence is sinister
Twitter – Has become such a feral cesspool of unregulated hate, that advertisers have pulled out in droves and the company has lost more than 90% of it’s value. Savvy business there.
You can fluff up the abstract goals all you want, the reality is sobering. But that would require you to observe reality.
Oh boy, have you had a gulp! lol.
Tesla – Elon wants to move away from cars, the Cybertruck is a disaster, and “genius” moves like completely gutting your Supercharger network team are doing active harm.
-How is a halo “experiment” car/truck a disaster? It wasn’t supposed to be the new 150. It’s a fancy toy. Big whoop.
SpaceX – Doing legitimately good things, I like SpaceX. But their “move fast & break things” method does not work outside of private companies. NASA themselves have stated that if they burned cash the way SpaceX does, they’d be shut down. They aren’t wrong.
-Seems to be doing better that Boeing, Which isn’t saying much, but last I checked, SpaceX just did a private flight that took humans further into orbit than anything else in 50 years. That’s actually amazing.
Starlink – Does good things for access, unless you’re working against Elon’s interests *cough cough* Ukraine
-Starlink only shut down access when it was deemed illegal, and promoted it in places where allowed.
Neuralink – Torturing apes isn’t on my “we’re a good company doing good things” bingo card
-3 trillion mice are asking for your sympathy when you get your measles shot.
Boring Co. – This only exists to divert public funds from being invested in ACTUAL public transit. It accomplished that goal. It’s very existence is sinister
-Not sure about sinister, but it’s pretty dumb. Although those communities are flush with new cash. Either way, it’s pretty dumb. No qualms there.
Twitter – Has become such a feral cesspool of unregulated hate, that advertisers have pulled out in droves and the company has lost more than 90% of it’s value. Savvy business there.
-Interesting statistic of complete gibberish. The value of that company is impossible to know, as it is not public. With that said, if you can’t see the value in unfettered information flow from crowdsourced and unchecked (read: censored) sources, you shouldn’t spend time on me. You should be worried about yourself being lied to and accepting it. Compliance is not the only option 😉
Compliance to what? I’m not even American and have never consumed any of the products from any of these brands. I’ve been staunchly anti-Twitter since it launched back in ’06, back when I was still knee-deep in the computer engineering world.
IMO, out of all of them, Twitter has been watching a bad thing get worse. From the outside, anyways.
Are you Canadian?
Compliance to repeating the narrative of people who have different interests and competing products. Parroting the mundane, in fact.
Huh. Who knew Janeane Garafolo held the keys to all knowledge, wisdom, and truth. I must be getting my information from the wrong sources!
You should watch my HBO special circa 1994-5.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qr6BUNYQJE
“Starlink only shut down access when it was deemed illegal, and promoted it in places where allowed.”
Since when does Musk follow the law?
Brasil, for one.
“ With that said, if you can’t see the value in unfettered information flow “
It’s not unfettered. Musk is quite the censor. For the most petty reasons, too.
Also, he’s happy to collaborate with authoritarian governments against his users.
Such as….
Seriously, name them. Not platitudes you’ve read. Name them with proof.
Saudi Arabia (part-owners of Twitter), India, China, etc.
You do realize the Saudi’s are the backing for basically everything, right? Even the “good guys”….
https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/media-center/press-releases/2024/04/riyadh-polio-poverty
Rebuttal:
Tesla – The reason there is an EV market in the US in the first place. Current moves are indeed suspect and disappointing. However, you could write the same comment about Ford, GM, and Stellantis. Seems to be a systematic issue with the US EV market.
SpaceX –I’ve worked with them (note: not for them). They do not in fact “move fast and break things” in the sense that silicon valley uses it, they are quite methodical about their development and testing, especially compared with their competition *cough*Boeing*cough*Arienne. They break things in the sense that yes, they actually test hardware, and test hardware can break, that’s why it’s a test. “NASA themselves have stated that if they burned cash the way SpaceX does, they’d be shut down. They aren’t wrong.” Worked with NASA as well, and they are completely, hilariously wrong. NASA burns the kind of cash SpaceX can only dream about and there is virtually no accountability for it.
Starlink – “*cough cough* Ukraine” *cough* Starlink has been geofenced in Crimea from the beginning, and Ukraine asking for it to be enabled for their attack on Sevastopol is equivalent to a private entity declaring war on a nuclear capable nation state with space capability. I don’t want Kessler syndrome, so this was a very, very good call on Musk’s part. Anyone suggesting otherwise gets lumped in with the crowd who wants the US to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
“They do not in fact “move fast and break things” in the sense that silicon valley uses it”
They trashed very nice vacant land that didn’t belong to them, owned by the Cards Against Humanity people.
As a SpaceX employee for nearly a decade who really should not make posts expressing viewpoints regarding company operations, thank you for saying this.
Starlink – don’t forget the effect on astronomy. And the contribution to the space junk problem.
Space junk?
Dude, we can’t even figure out recycling, I’m pretty sure space is doing just fine.
Eh, at this point Matt has become a partisan hack consumed by TDS/MDS. He will not ever have a nuanced take on either but he’s hardly unique in modern mainstream media which has gone into turbo-overdrive shill mode about it.
Wait, when did Matt get a Multi-Displacement System installed? Did Carlos Tavares get a hold of him and install it against his will like a Bond villain?!
I believe the patch was issued April 14, 2022 if I’m reading the update notes correctly. Certainly seems to be the case from operations.
Unfollowing me on Twitter is definitely a smart move!
I tried to, very specifically, not comment one way or another on whether one candidate was good or bad, or comment on their policies. I mostly just wanted to point out that Musk has become a political entity in a way that’s extremely rare in the automotive industry and, I think probably not in a way that’s helpful for his company.
Tesla: I like Tesla’s products, generally, and have recommended them many times to people. It’s also the most important and interesting car company of my life/career. I wish they’d introduce a refreshed Model Y is my biggest Tesla feeling.
SpaceX: Incredible company. What they are doing is both extremely important and super cool. Some of the environmental stuff is a little disappointing, but overall it’s very cool.
Starlink: Also incredible and very useful!
Boring Co: I mean…
Twitter: He didn’t invent Twitter, he just bought it and made it (IMHO) worse!
I’m just curious what I said above, specifically, that seemed so partisan.
I’m not gonna pick a fight here, lol….However, aside from the header for that point:
“We Now Have Data Showing Tesla CEO Elon Musk Is Losing His Appeal”
-Writing that as it were the absolute truth is kinda bonkers. Outside of echo chambers, Musk has become even more popular than ever (apparently), so far as to gain the appeal of the Heads Of State of Argentina, Spain, and El Salvador, just off the top of my head.
This may contribute to his overall likeability, which a recent poll from NBC News shows is quite high. In fact, if you dive into the crosstabs and details (Note: don’t become the person who dives into crosstabs if you treasure your sanity) then you’ll discover that Walz has the second-highest net positive score of anything polled, behind the concept of Capitalism and just ahead of Taylor Swift.
-Again, writing this as it is some sort of consensus of opinion that he is liked overall is poor journalism. I’d harken to say that there aren’t a whole fuck-ton of people who care about him one way or another, let alone enough to state (in fact) that he is likeable. It’s probably percentage-wise the same amount of people who care about Taylor Swift that either don’t have a teenage daughter, or a Chiefs jersey. Or, have the time to answer a spam phone call.
Both of these examples of what you wrote indicate that you believe you have a strong grasp on the opinion of the greatest majority of Americans, and confidently reassure those opinions with a subtle slap on the back stamp of approval.
End of the day, you injected personal snark and innuendo into what you claim to be non-partisan.
Not to pick a fight 😉
likeability/favorability is a thing that is measured, which is why I linked to the breakdown of the polling. You can say that the poll is wrong, but I’m not saying I think he’s likable or that people think he’s likable per se, rather, I’m saying that poling indicates that people are more favorable than unfavorable about him.
Fair. But, you are citing NBC. This is not wise. I’d assume you’d agree with that?
They may have a more liberal slant that you’d like, but you can see the data they collected right there in that linked document. Interpret it however you want.
See, that’s where the problem lies. NBC is not looking out for you, or me, or anyone else.
They are primarily focused on trying to recoup money foolishly spent on the Olympics propaganda, among other things like doubling down on ripping off senior citizens.
It would be insane to trust the same people that operate Comcast/Xfinity and outsource all of their labor.
They are no one’s friend or guardian.
Take a deep breath, have a drink, smoke dooby. Whatever tips your tophat.
Been there, done that.
Notice that no one is disputing it.
“NBC is not looking out for you, or me, or anyone else.”
Neither is Musk, so why are you wasting your time caping for a fascist?
“Neither is Musk…”
Capping? So you would agree that a “news” organization like NBC is also working to their own benefit above your own. Cool. At least we have that one dialed in.
Why would you “Cap” for NBC?
You wanna talk about shilling for a multimedia conglomerate that has zero interest in you? Sure. Have at you defending that.
“The essence of fascism is to make laws forbidding everything and then enforce them selectively against your enemies.”
John Lescroart
Just remember that your attitude and those like it are advocating the groundwork of “my way or the highway”.
This is way, way more dangerous than “allowing” the ability to think and have an opinion formed solely by your own soul.
Lescroat is a novelist. Not a historian.
Another way of accomplishing that is to take the existing set of laws and the constitution, and only enforce them against your enemies.
Correct, and correct. I never said different.
Historically, and today, the challenge has always been to find out who your enemies are.
Often times, they aren’t the usual suspects. Rather, they are your “friends.”
It doesn’t really matter the medium one uses, the most powerful message being displayed is, for sure, the wrong one.
annnnnnd ya lost it. Up till this point you may have had at least a plausible angle, but Matt literally brought the data to the party – you don’t even have to click through an NBC link to get there.
Have you even seen their front page?
https://hartresearch.com/about-us/why-hart/
I mean, your tap water should smell sour if you believe that. Other than it’s in the “Client’s best interest” of course.
Seriously. No one is that foolish. Right?
It’s the “Diversity, equity, and inclusion” part that you don’t like, right?
You’d prefer “We’re a proud white nationalist organization” followed by a quote from Himmler and the 14 words?
Oh, Jonathan Hendry. How quickly does one assume things about another, eh?
Slander away, though. That seems civil and progressive.
If you actually met me (I have fantastic smelling shampoo), you’d change your tune quite quickly.
I’m not your enemy, lol.
No, I think the NBC Poll is usually average/decent. I’d say the Fox News polls seem to be better, the NYT polls seem to be the worst.
I think it’s kinda foolish to rely on any poll. I mean, you were in the biz, they aren’t exactly accurate, right? They kinda choose the calls or whatever, right?
NBC means No Body Cares. Lol
yikes
You know when you’re driving and you get behind a car with some long manifesto written in mailbox letter stickers on the rear window/tailgate? And you discretely slow down and change lanes to put some distance between them and yourself? Yeah me too. What? Oh no reason, just something I was thinking about recently.
I see this stuff as the universe testing my self control . . . and the efficacy of modern therapy. Ultimately, there’s no sense arguing with some people, so avoiding is the best option. Of course, there’s knowing the path and then there’s walking the path and I have clumsy feet.
Yeah, I was feeling guilty for engaging when I damn well know better.
There are like a dozen people here who also participate in group think that agree. A whole dozen.
Others are afraid of actually recognizing the truth because it’s a tad scary.
Honey if you need your shot of Elon juice, you can go read the weekly blow piece from Lewin and David.
Honey?
Aaaaannnnnd here we go from the woodwork.
Maybe try
“Don’t believe everything he tweets”
As a middle class citizen, I look forward to paying more taxes so that those in lower income tax brackets can have a better or same chance at the life I do. I am more than willing to share my wealth with them through the democratically decided methods. I’m sorry you don’t share the same philosophies.
Oh man, so you agree that everyone should end up equal, regardless of merit? You bust your ass, and then I get the same (car?) while being a NER-do-well. That’s awfully generous of you!
Also, do you actually believe that your taxes directly influence public services? Because they don’t.
When the government needs money, they print it. All we are doing is bankrolling the hourly labor cost of their grift, and fancy signs by the roadway declaring some state is the home of some bird.
I’m not the only one in the community that know what it is like to work in the Public Sector. It’s real.
No, not everyone should be equal. But, it would be nice if all the kids could get at least 2 meals a day. It would be nice if healthcare didn’t bankrupt people for things they don’t control. Stuff like that. There is a spectrum of talent that needs to be rewarded accordingly.
I also agree with general platitudes.
I’m not gonna volunteer to shove in my pile first. Are you?
“I’m not gonna volunteer to shove in my pile first.”
Yeah, we could tell.
Tell “We” as a collective I said hello, eh?
Lots of poor people work their asses off in jobs that would have you crying for mommy after 3 hours.
I highly doubt that, pal. 🙂
Ever work in a slaughterhouse?
Does the MTA count?
Tax inheritances at 100% – then we can talk about merit.
So you think the public sector would magically prosper if there were no taxes, no state or federal goverment?
You are advocating for the government to tax the money that has already been taxed, to be taxed again? For what purpose?
The legacy of your family should be donated to the state for them to decide how to spend what your family built? With no say in the matter?
Cool. Might as well give me $2k off the jump.
So what your father built is somehow “earned” by you through merit?
I was not proposing a 100% inheritance tax, only pointing out the stupidity of pretending that “merit” is the deciding factor in who has wealth and who doesn’t.
“Tax inheritances at 100% – then we can talk about merit.” You weren’t?
I’m not sure what type of thought process you can come to that conclusion with. I genuinely don’t know.
And, yes, if your family busts ass and you learn to do the same, and do it, you deserve it.
If your family didn’t have that option, it’s up to you to create it and pass it along. That is how life works.
There are no handouts. Ever.
Epictetus says it best.” Be the greatest person you can be.”
No one is ever giving you anything unless you beg. Don’t beg.
“And, yes, if your family busts ass and you learn to do the same, and do it, you deserve it.”
What if you’re a moron and you’re no good at it. Trump’s father was good at business. Trump is terrible at business.
Who is talking about Trump? I don’t believe that anywhere in the above comments reference him.
This might be a You v. Common Sense issue.
You can’t understand my thought process because you don’t think.
So if your family busts ass, makes it big, and you are a lazy drug abusing trust fund baby, did you still earn your wealth through your own merit?
I wasn’t aware you were involved in this convo. But, since you asked…
You learn how to lead, and also how to fail, much quicker when you are in a position of some influence. It’s also just as easy to teach and learn as one who doesn’t have that jumpstart. One only has to want it and care.
It’s pretty simple. You create the life you want with desire. Not by standing on the sidelines.
JT and DT are two perfect examples of this. Beau (I don’t speak for him) certainly has fielded a question or two, I’m sure.
And all of that is great. Neither of our dudes woke up rich, but guess what? They can buy a tux once a year, now.
The grandest point of them all is that they/we shouldn’t bitch and moan. We make our lives what we decide them to be. Simple.
Remember that.
Also, the public sector is the government. They thrive because of the government, there is no correlation to the private sector. Which while it is super confusing to me, it must be mind-blowing to your argument.
That has nothing to do with my comment at all.
My reply was to Janeane Garafol… I’m not sure why it says it was to you?
Haha. Damn internet.
Oh look – the right wing troll is here to distort lie and gaslight.
Tell me when I get to insult you, please. I’ll check back after I look at hypocrite in the dictionary.
LOL – You insult people all the time.
And in your case troll is an accurate description not an insult.
Seriously, how many times have you posted this same ignorant nonsense?
It seems like we get your little whine show nearly everyday…
That’s probably why it need to change username so often
Thanks, RootWyrm. Missed ya, bud!
He is tacotruckdave, good catch.
Quote one insult once. If you do, I will apologize to the offended.
I have always been kind to everyone in this community. If you actually look at what I have written, you will see that what you write involves insults, not my words.Just because I plainly state what I feel, and do not parrot for clicks, doesn’t make my words less valid. Which, obtusely, some people think is against the protocol. Ironically, that’s kinda fascist. lol.
It’s not me. Thanks for your input, though 😉
Honestly, you are wrong. Cite one. I am very careful not to disrespect this site and it’s owners.
The thing with Loveless, for me anyways, is that I don’t know a single song title on it. Any time I listen to BMV, I just put it on and let it play. I don’t ever find myself wanting to hear one particular track. If that’s what I want to listen to, it’s gonna be, and has to be, the whole album. It’s just it’s own unique mood
I wonder if the kids listen to whole albums (in order) anymore; I feel like playlists and shuffle have anonymized music to where vibes rule.
The way we consume music has shaped how albums are built. Some artists, such as Weird Al, aren’t doing albums at all. The current trend of music consumption doesn’t favour building albums.
That being said, I LOVE albums as an experience. I save them for long drives and just enjoy the curated auditory journey laid out for me.
The best one in recent memory was a late-night return from selling a car, with Pink Floyd’s “The Division Bell” loaded up in FLAC on the F150 I owned at the time.
That was a sublime way to eat up some otherwise boring highway.
I’m too old to be properly young (28) but I do still like whole albums more, though I’m also a metal fan which I think tends to skew that way. Even most of the older guys where I work tend to listen on radio or shuffle now though.
I just realized I wrote BMV instead of MBV. Also, can we not edit anymore?
I thought you were cross referencing Bullet for My Valentine which is a different vibe entirely.
I think you can only edit within X minutes. We knew what you meant!
And now that I’ve thought about it, I guess the whole point of the album (at least the “album” in Album-Oriented Rock, as opposed to “a collection of singles”) WAS to create a vibe. So I guess I’m complaining about nothing, but very much enjoying the full Loveless stream…except the dumb youtube commercials popping in to ruin the flow.
I’m relatively ignorant when it comes to shoegaze, but I do know that Swervedriver’s Mescal Head is a great entry point (that I like very much); what else do you recommend?
On a completely unrelated topic…
Matt, I am no longer getting notifications when someone responds to my posts. Did you guys remove the bell indicator on the site? I know you’ve been making updates so wondering if something new is coming for those notifications?
If you log out, you will see a ghosted out shell of the notification bell. So it lives in a parallel universe where nothing works as intended, lol.
It is, indeed, a total bummer that notifications aren’t working. We are working on it! Apologies.
At least now I know why no one is responding to all of my supremely witty postings.
I like this. Well I like that they are asking someone to raise the funds, this is much better than the gov just throwing money that we don’t have at all the problems and hoping the national debt solves itself somehow.
They will also manage the funds, so that might be an extra win too.
I though private equity was a bad thing?
https://monroecap.com/
It is. Indisputably.
If there’s a formerly fixable company rapidly going out of business, an understaffed nursing home providing woefully inadequate care, a hospital closing, it’s probably due to private equity parasitism.
That said I don’t know if Monroe’s investments and activities are the noxious kind or if they just share a PE form of business structure.
Ohhh, so we aren’t eating the rich now? Laughable.
Just jump in to say things you admittedly know nothing about, whenever you want. 😉
If you want competent portfolio management, it’s probably not easy to find one who’s a Democratic Socialist.
The question is whether they are parasitic on invested companies or actually want them to thrive as a business in the long term. If, back in the 90s, Apple had been taken over by a PE asset stripper rather than by NeXT in a reverse-takeover, it would be gone and would not have created a vast amount of wealth over the last 30 years.
Have you literally just been sitting here refreshing this page for the last, like, 4 hours? Don’t you have anything better to do?
Well, I coulda changed my name to Csaba Csere…
Oh… Well I still like that idea better than more national debt
I’m riding on that train all day, no doubt!
Maybe instead of raising money to help suppliers transition to EV production the White House could figure out a way to improve the infrastructure for EVs to exist in the first place.
Hell, you likely don’t even have to raise any money. Just offer tax credits to businesses to build charging stations where it makes most sense. Especially apartment complex management companies and restaurants.
The additional income (and tax they pay on that income) that the companies that install the equipment would make would largely offset a lot of the “cost” associated with giving tax credits. Certainly not 100% but enough to make it a much better ROI than just giving cash to upper middle income families to buy a new car.
The suppliers will make the transition if there are people lining up to buy the cars. You don’t have to do anything! Figure out the reasons we don’t want these cars yet and address that. How is this that hard?
NEVI has entered the chat.
A big thing will be coming up with a good solution for street parking without reserved spaces. A charging port in front of your house won’t help if you only park there when you’re lucky.
I don’t find covering Walz’s car hobby to be political, or at least it’s politically inoffensive. I know he’s obviously a politician, but my (limited exposure) read on him is that he comes off more like a pastor who never talks about god. I think I also heard he’s a dog guy. Covering him makes my day happy instead of pissed off reading about another dumb Musk stunt.
Edit: Also wish to add that Musk is not a car guy. He’s a software guy.
Musk did buy a McLaren F1 at one point! Being a “car guy” doesn’t have to be specifically liking the cars that I like.
Because he’s a car guy or because it was expensive and “the best”? I’ve known far too many people that muskrat sounds just like and I’d go with the latter. With people like that, there is almost no true passion for anything unless they can use it to make other people think they’re special. They are incapable of higher emotional functioning. From my observations, it seems sort of like a person in survival mode where the desperation of the situation leaves them little room for empathy or non-reactionary thought beyond finding the next bit of food, water, shelter. People like muskrat have all that stuff, but their ego is starving and can never be satiated. They’re like black holes that suck energy from others.
The ‘car guy’ point was more about how Telsa “is not a car company, but an AI platform” or yadda yadda yadda they tell the world this week. Just because someone buys an expensive house, doesn’t make them a ‘house guy’ or architect or even someone who would fix a fence, change a lightbulb or vacuum the damn floor.
In addition to his Scout, he has a rescue black lab/boxer* mix that he also named Scout.
*probably actually a pit bull. Shelters love labeling pit mixes as “boxer” because of the undeserved reputation of pitties. I had a lab/pit mix that looked just like Scout. She was a beautiful, happy, loving, and loyal dog who was also labeled as a boxer mix.
I was told it’s an insurance thing, too. We had a “boxer-lab” rescue mix that was actually German shepherd-pitbull. She didn’t even look lab at all, she was like a GS with shorter legs and wider chest. Great dog—smart, protective, badass. First time I noticed animals can have senses of humor was when she played a trick on my aunt’s dumb toy poodle. Died young from damn bloat.
I am very disappointed in what humans have done to breed animals for their own uses and entertainment, but I don’t hold that against the individual creatures.
Musk is not a software guy, he’s a money guy. He is philanthropic for the opportunity to make more money.
I would like to see Gen X polled on anything! Nearly every polling article written mentions boomer, millenials, zoomers, and even alpha. Forgotten again…
As a gen X member I’d rather not be targeted in any manner. I think our generation is of the age that we are just trying to get through our work weeks and keep our families going and don’t have the time for anything additional.
You’re probably in luck. As a fellow Gen-X member, I’ve done quite a lot of reading on the subject since I find the cultural reasons for the generational differences fascinating.
But, in general Gen-X is highly distrustful of being tracked or marketed to. We all have an innate distrust of advertising (most commonly attributed to being blasted by ads during Saturday morning cartoons and being supremely disappointed by the reality of products being advertised). Because of our generational distrust, we are usually left alone so advertisers can focus on those that are more
gullible, I mean open to the message.Spot on. Me too!
Probably also harder to get a decent sized sample because there are fewer of us.
As a member of GenX, I feel I already have a pretty good sense of what my cohort thinks. I prefer to see the polls of all those other groups I barely understand.
I am Gen X and I am probably not going to answer your poll unless I get something in return. You are asking me to provide something of value and take my valuable time to do it. This is one reason I am highly suspect of political polling. I have read that polls from the last presidential election were the most inaccurate in history, and I bet it will be worse this time. I think there are a variety of reasons for this, but I think the Gen X attitude is probably one of them.
I always wonder how they poll anyone these days. I don’t answer the phone when I don’t know the number. I have a door bell camera and don’t answer the door when it looks like a solicitor. I throw out junk mail.
So how exactly do they get anyone to respond to polls? Hell my Boomer parents don’t answer the phone either.
Lonely drug addicts and hyper-sensitive internet swarmers. That’s who. It isn’t your neighbors or friends, that is for sure.
As Gen-X, I don’t care about what other people think and, if something is popular, it makes me suspicious. If it’s something I agreed with, I’m going to now question that belief further. Ad agencies don’t care, either, as we’re difficult to market to as obvious marketing turns us off* and I know the information gained by the polls are only going to be used for someone else’s agenda, not the betterment of anyone since those putting the polls together couldn’t give less of a shit if I (we) live or die horribly.
*Particularly in my case—and I can’t be alone in this even if I feel that way—because I don’t buy products unless really necessary or building them is too expensive or not possible. Targeted advertising online can be quite amusing and most algorithms seem to have pegged me as a manufacturer, but since I order metal, wood, electronics, odd tools, etc. and in small numbers and quantities, they can’t seem to determine what it is I manufacture.
I previously agreed with your statement until I’ve read that you’ve now the same thought.
My only reasonable reaction is that I should either conveniently ignore this or to latch onto something tighter so as to attempt to prove to myself this isn’t true.
He is damaging Tesla. I’ve been an investor since 2013. I bailed and sold all my stocks in 2022 because every time he tweeted obnoxious right wing talking points, the stock went down. It kept going down, and down, and he kept tweeting, and tweeting.
IMHO when he purchased twitter is the beginning of his downfall. He is no longer focused on Tesla, and instead just gets his rocks off on trolling the general public, and generally the very same group that bought Teslas in the first place.
He’s gotta be removed from Tesla to protect the brand.
I have genuinely no idea how the board and shareholders have not kicked him out yet. He has effectively tanked the brands product portfolio by pushing vanity projects instead of updating their volume sellers (Model Y refresh when?). He has actively sought to ruin Supercharging which is Tesla’s most compelling sales points, and has actively held the company hostage by demanding the most disproportionate and inflated compensation package the world has literally ever seen for any publicly traded company. All this while scaring off buyers by polarizing the brand, plunging it into federal lawsuits by outright lying to the public to pump the share price.
Not to mention continued to show less and less interest in the brand while actively focusing more of his time on side projects like SpaceX, X/Twitter, the Boring Company, and fighting is exes in court. And then there’s the genuinely concerning Grok AI project that is shown to have no guardrails that WILL result in copyright lawsuits the likes of which we have never seen.
Oh an now he’s cozying up to Trump to try to end up in the presidential cabinet to tear apart the US government from the inside out. I don’t mean to get political, simply to point out he has zero business being the CEO of Tesla as it continues to struggle.
Oh and he never founded Tesla, he just sued his way into the rights for the title.
I remember when I admired Elon and Tesla was just a plucky little car company that could lead us into the future. I think my opinion began to turn when he called the cave rescuer a “pedo guy”. It’s been all down hill from there.
Sadly, I admit to believing his BS story at the beginning, too, and I grew up with dark triad people, so I feel like I should have known better. I think I started to realize what he is around the same time you did.
This is exactly when I dropped Elon. Early on I was skeptical, yet somewhat hopeful, but the “pedo guy” scandal was eye-opening. He’s been doubling down on that sort of shit behavior ever since.
You forgot about the monkey torture brain implant hustle with his third baby mama.
Many of them are True Believers and the rest look at how Tesla’s valued compared to how GM and especially Ford are and conclude that having an iconoclastic, techbro “Founder” is critical to making sure it remains valued as a tech company because they’ll take a huge bath if and when Wall Street wakes up to the fact it’s a car company.
A appreciate the absence of politics on The Autopian.
Coming out politically in either direction is a sure way to alienate 45% of the general public. When you’re rich enough, I guess that doesn’t matter anymore. But good for the right in getting Elon. All they had before was Ted Nugent and Kid Rock.
Disagree. America is not split 50/50. There is a very loud, very ignorant, very uneducated minority that are obnoxious people who have replaced their personalities with licking the boots of those with power.
I think you’ll find most people in the real world fall generally in the middle of both parties, because the two party system is designed to divide the working class over things that really aren’t significantly important on a day to day basis.
Hilariously, I can think of at least three separate and politically distinct groups this comment could refer to.
Yep, and none of it is an original thought. It’s just regurgitating the phrases meant to make the general populace compliant. The crazy part is that people are willing to participate and propagate the fallacy of a pretend hierarchy of values.
Joy.
I don’t know if the two party system is the problem per se, but the way we do primary elections almost guarantees extreme candidates. I suspect we would have very different (and almost certainly better) candidates if as many people voted in primary elections as general elections. Eliminating closed primaries and allowing voters to vote in primaries for both parties would go a long way to having less extreme candidates.
My wife can totally drive stick, in fact she had one when we were married. She learned on her mom’s early 80’s RX-7.
Same. My wife had only ever driven a manual transmission when we got married. She learned on her dad’s truck, and her first (and only) car for the decade after she had her license was a stick. She still occasionally laments that our minivan wasn’t available with a stick…
It would be inconvenient to own a manual transmission vehicle that one half of the relationship couldn’t actually drive.
Thoughts that really come to mind once you’ve got kids: What if you’re in an emergency situation where it’s the only immediately available vehicle?
Welcome to my world; I have a stickshift car (Subaru Crosstrek) that my wife can’t drive and isn’t interested in trying, despite my offers to teach over the past 20+ years. Generally hasn’t been a problem, but there have been a few times we needed to make extra trips or adjust plans because she also doesn’t feel comfortable pulling our camper and she has the vehicle that can do that. I figured this was my likely my last chance to buy a new stickshift car so I deal with the challenges.
“The Video That Freaked Out Mercedes” Once again, you need to clarify which Mercedes you’re talking about…/s
“Did someone here order a pizza?”
Did you not see the triple turbocharged W9 in the engine bay? The six different modes of AWD? (BTW ‘Sidewalk Recovery” is my favourite.) The hydraulic suspension that needs regular topping up of extra virgin olive oil? The electronics that are just lights and miles of wiring, but don’t actually do anything? I’m sure Mercedes is now saving up to buy a used and spent example in 15-20 years.
“needs regular topping up of extra virgin olive oil”
Yeah but in the new Ferrari it’s the same, except the oil has to be blessed by the Pope.
This may be nitpicky, but that’s actually John Elkann, not Lapo, who is in trouble for tax evasion, although the picture with the pope is of John. Tangentially related, as an F1 fan who is tired of the endless Ferrari Turmoil being caused by Elkanns impatience and childish behavior when it comes to the F1 team, good.
Reuters link for reference
Pretty sure John Elkann is the chairman of Stellantis (and the bulk of the Agnelli/Elkann family’s companies, Exor, G. Agnelli & Cia, and Ferrari )
Lapo is his younger brother, he’s held some management roles at Fiat/FCA in Italy, he runs the Italia Independent eyewear company, and is on the board at Stellantis and Ferrari, but not chair
john is chair of Stellantis BOD and of ferrari.
lapo is on ferrari BOD and has a marketing role at stellantis – not on BOD tho.
Did you say polled or poled, because that will affect my answer?
It would be interesting to see polls about Tesla vehicles compared to Musk. I bet there are a bunch of people who like the vehicles themselves but don’t like Musk.
I would be interested in seeing that as well.
Anecdotally, almost every Tesla (or former Tesla owner) I know, except one, have been struggling with reconciling Tesla and the behavior of Musk. Several decided to replace their older Teslas with another make, while the rest are considering it when the time comes. I’m certain that my small sample group is not broadly representative of Tesla owners as a whole, but if it is even a bit indicative, Tesla may be headed for even rockier waters than they are already in.
Always said, I hit the lotto I’m just gonna disappear. I have no desire to be rich and famous. I just wanna be rich and invisible. If you know, you know.
This 100%. I worked with a guy that grew up in a public, insanely wealthy family. I didn’t really interact with the guy on a normal basis, but he always seemed really, really lonely. Everyone wanted to be his friend because everyone wanted something from him, or more specifically his wealth or family, and from a young age he had bodyguards and zero privacy instead of playdates with friends. I think I could live with extreme wealth, but I don’t think I could live with even moderate fame.
Also I would need to find an architect who builds grand homes for misanthropic loners with hobbies, rather than social creatures who hold parties and balls and such.
Awareness of The Autopian feels like a good poll, and the polling would be likely to increase awareness.
We need a poll to determine the popularity of polls and how it ranks amongst other polling data.
Cat or Dogs?
Which goes better with Hamburger Helper?
What? Too soon again?
Working off guess work and one anecdote, since “fragrant meat” is a term for dog meat and a guy I knew said he had cat in Korea, which was stringy and not very good, my guess would be dog.
PISH. We don’t need no prolls anymore. We have AI!
Because you see that a salad has all the potential of all the ingredients working together. And that is what makes a salad…working together. If we just work together, we can be the cucumbers that allow us to work together. We are all cucumbers in this Cobb Salad of life, so my plan is to unite the ham and the eggs, and make sure that they are all seen like cucumbers,
Ain’t life grand 🙂
Cucumbers give me instant indigestion. I’m out.