After all of the sketchy contracts that musk seems to be getting under this regime, the next administration should nationalize SpaceX. With their corrupt self dealing, perhaps give him a dollar or so for it.

His mind is already mush and in four years, it’d be a terrible Weekend at Bernie’s sequel.

That’s because Tesla’s stock valuation was always based on “revolutionary new shiny thing!” rather than “making and selling cars”.

musk has to constantly come out with a new reason why the stock justifies a valuation so insanely high (was worth more than all other car companies combined). “Full self driving!” “Robotaxies!” “Fully automated manufacturing!”, etc….

That’s also why musk can extort $50B payoffs from Tesla. So much of their value is based on his BS powered reality distortion field that they’re terrified of what might happen if he leaves.

Now, there’s huge risk inherent in banking everything on the very stable genius musk as they’re learning.

The EV1 was too far ahead of its time. The tech wasn’t there and to even accomplish what they did cost far more than they could hope to sell it for. An estimate that each EV1 cost GM around $100k to make in the early 90’s (so around $200k in today’s dollars).

Battery tech has progressed massively since then and makes all of this possible now (even if it’s still expensive).

Executive orders can’t make things illegal. They’re not royal proclamations, they’re just guidance to executive agencies.

F*cking idiots.

Don’t worry, I’m sure that he has concepts of a plan already.

…and they should do what?

They don’t have the votes in congress to do anything themselves, and their ability to block things is very limited. They could slow down confirmations more, I suppose, but they don’t have the votes to stop anyone. Democracy sucks sometimes.

If they’re using the platform available to them to call out horrible things and lawbreaking, then it’s something. The only thing that might change the current situation is if we can start convincing more of the general population to sour on the trump regime to put pressure on them. Eventually, that could be leverages to win elections which could put a brake on things (maybe).

Of course they are; they’d be stupid not to.

That said, given the total joke that operational security is to this administration, I’d imagine that they have most of the U.S secrets already. Heck, trump is probably having tulsi share and collaborate with russia.

I’m not arguing for it, I agree that it’s fine if it’s a free choice. I don’t think personally that it’s a good one, though.

My point is that many of the women pushing this on the republican side view all of this, including their own loss of rights, as a positive likely. It’s not like a “leopards eating faces” or “voting against their interests” situation where they might be reachable.

For the believers, I think that tmany would be fine with this. It reinforces their preferred structure of a patriarchy in which they have a well-defined place and role (head of the domestic household, subservient to the man). No worries about having to deal with a fickle job market or figuring out what you want to do with your life. Your life path is set (get married, raise kids, take care of family), and, for some, that well-defined role the status that it conveys is really comforting. It provides a sense of security.

It’s why, I expect, while there are many who fight it, there are plenty of women in Muslim societies who are fine with things as they are. We emphasize with those women who chafe at that and fight it since we’ve history valued the individual rights of self-determination and freedom, of course.

Thats a big allure of the American taliban to some folks. It provides structure and defined roles in a chaotic world.

Of course, republican men like it for the power, but more importantly, that women voters mostly vote against them. Stopping women from voting would cement them in power.

Because they think that he will hurt people that they’ve been led to hate.

Of course, but I don’t think that him as the VP candidate changes the odds of that much relative to the other contenders who don’t come with that risk.

VP candidates don’t usually matter much in an election unless they’re freaks with a couch fetish or something weird like that.

Assuming Harris wins, the first midterm federal election is usually ugly for the president’s party, so it’d be a risk. Especially coming off of this election where dems will have to be extremely lucky just to hold onto the majority (even with the vp tiebreaker).

Smart cars had to pass US crash test standards and have the appropriate safety equipment. The kei trucks that you can currently import and use are 25+ years old and wouldn’t have even passed US standards back then. Your legs are the crumple zone in these things.

I assume that new ones would have a chance, but it’d be expensive for a manufacturer to modify and certify for the US market. Small cars haven’t sold well here, and the profit margins are slim.

Maybe with the recent size and price increases in autos here, well see some movement. I’d love a modern Honda kei to go with my element.

They’re not silly at all, they’re thugs. They want to influence the next one by showing the cost of going against them.

Now, we’re lucky that they’re mostly grifting, incompetent, blustery cowards, so the risk isn’t what it could be.