Elon Musk

[Unagi]

Can he be kicked out of Tesla?
How do you make a threat like this and expect the company to maintain any faith in you? He's soiled his value to their stock - I would think.

[malchior]

Can he be kicked out of Tesla?
How do you make a threat like this and expect the company to maintain any faith in you? He's soiled his value to their stock - I would think.

The board can fire him. I've hoped for it for some time personally. As to his demand? It's ridiculous but he is an utterly silly person at this point. He is erratic at best and just the way he did it undermines the case (if it was a serious one). There is also the possibility he just did it so that he can bask in adoration as his moronic base showers his with praise.

[coopasonic]

There was probably a time firing him would have been bad for Tesla, or at least for shareholders. I have to imagine that time is long past.

[Blackhawk]

If he doesn’t get money, what is it that Tesla can and cannot do with AI.

It depends on whether they can ever perfect their energon batteries.

[Holman]

He's a petulant man child. His greatest value to Tesla is his personality cult and ability to bullshit fraudulently, seemingly without consequences. I'm sure the board would be overjoyed with him keeping himself occupied outside of Tesla. Is he getting bored with Twitter or something?

I think his invasion of social media has stressed his finances. Mostly in the sense that he can't do whatever he wants without limit at least. Increasing his stock in something actually valuable would offset some the of cash and net worth burn caused by owning the libs.

Social media has also probably persuaded Musk that Tesla's customer base is personally loyal to him.

This isn't true (bots don't buy automobiles), but narcissists gonna narcissist.

[coopasonic]

He's a petulant man child. His greatest value to Tesla is his personality cult and ability to bullshit fraudulently, seemingly without consequences. I'm sure the board would be overjoyed with him keeping himself occupied outside of Tesla. Is he getting bored with Twitter or something?

I think his invasion of social media has stressed his finances. Mostly in the sense that he can't do whatever he wants without limit at least. Increasing his stock in something actually valuable would offset some the of cash and net worth burn caused by owning the libs.

Social media has also probably persuaded Musk that Tesla's customer base is personally loyal to him.

This isn't true (bots don't buy automobiles), but narcissists gonna narcissist.

I bought the second Tesla with great hesitance. I love the car, but hate the man. Visionary leaders tend to also be massive assholes it seems, but some are much less in your face about it.

[GreenGoo]

I bought the second Tesla with great hesitance. I love the car, but hate the man. Visionary leaders tend to also be massive assholes it seems, but some are much less in your face about it.

This. I'm absolutely sure I support a large number of narcissistic assholes by buying products where the money goes directly into their pockets. Luckily for both of us, they hide their terrible personalities and keep them out of our business transactions.

It's not difficult. When you can own your own PR company, keep your mouth shut and let them do the talking for you.

Boggles the mind. Musk glories in it, no question.

[The Meal]

When you can own your own PR company, keep your mouth shut and let them do the talking for you.

”Can” doing a lot of work in that sentence.

[Holman]

Few things are more pleasurable than a longish, well-written bad review of a very bad book.

Here's one that skewers Walter Isaacson's fanboy biography of Elon Musk.

It also contains some significant points about Musk that I didn't know. (Spoiler: they don't make him look good.)

[Unagi]

Few things are more pleasurable than a longish, well-written bad review of a very bad book.

Here's one that skewers Walter Isaacson's fanboy biography of Elon Musk.

It also contains some significant points about Musk that I didn't know. (Spoiler: they don't make him look good.)

Thanks for sharing this. It’s a nice read. And I also learned a couple things.
And yes. He’s more horrible than I thought.

[Zaxxon]

[stessier]

I feel someone should create a Melon Husk account and reply tweet "This is a stupid idea." and see what happens.

[Holman]

I feel someone should create a Melon Husk account and reply tweet "This is a stupid idea." and see what happens.

He (briefly) banned a slew of critics just a few days ago.

Musk knows how Twitter works. By posting this message, because of his massive follower base, he's gaming search engines to bring up this tweet when someone searches for "Musk criticism" or something similar.

He did something similar way back when he was rumored to be doing cocaine. He tweeted something like "They should put the cocaine back in Coca-Cola," thus skewing search results.

[gbasden]

Few things are more pleasurable than a longish, well-written bad review of a very bad book.

Here's one that skewers Walter Isaacson's fanboy biography of Elon Musk.

It also contains some significant points about Musk that I didn't know. (Spoiler: they don't make him look good.)

Thanks for sharing this. It’s a nice read. And I also learned a couple things.
And yes. He’s more horrible than I thought.

I do not understand anyone doing anything that will make this asshole one more dime. He's so bad.

[Smoove_B]

Had to re-read this like 4 times to make sure I understood it. I am posting it on this side of the fence because of the issues associated with the lawsuit:

In an escalation of a standoff over her firing from The Mandalorian, Gina Carano is suing Disney and Lucasfilm for discrimination and wrongful termination in a lawsuit that opens another front in the battlefield for influence over Hollywood that has drawn in corporate America.

Carano, in a complaint filed Tuesday in California federal court, alleges she was fired for voicing right-wing opinions on social media and seeks a court order that would force Lucasfilm to recast her. Elon Musk, making good on a promise to foot the legal bill for users who claim they have been discriminated against due to their activity on his platform, is helping fund the suit through X.

What, and I mean this sincerely, in the actual fuck?

According to the complaint, Disney and Lucasfilm harassed and defamed Carano for refusing to conform with their viewpoints on issues relating to Black Lives Matter, preferred pronouns and disproven claims of election interference. While she was allegedly fired for her cultural and religious beliefs, Carano argues that the entertainment giant turned a blind eye to her male co-stars, who allegedly made offensive and denigrating posts directed toward Republicans. She points to Pedro Pascal’s 2017 post comparing former President Donald Trump to Hitler.

[Holman]

Lucasfilm should re-cast her as Clow-NE McFashisht, a half-human/half-droid fond of projecting images of the destruction of Alderaan.

She can laugh about the millions of Woke voices that "CRIED OUT IN TERROR AND WERE SUDDENLY CANCELLED, AMIRIGHT??"

[Exodor]

From what I understand they just didn't renew her contract.

Seems like a great way to separate Musk from his money, though.

[waitingtoconnect]

Had to re-read this like 4 times to make sure I understood it. I am posting it on this side of the fence because of the issues associated with the lawsuit:

In an escalation of a standoff over her firing from The Mandalorian, Gina Carano is suing Disney and Lucasfilm for discrimination and wrongful termination in a lawsuit that opens another front in the battlefield for influence over Hollywood that has drawn in corporate America.

Carano, in a complaint filed Tuesday in California federal court, alleges she was fired for voicing right-wing opinions on social media and seeks a court order that would force Lucasfilm to recast her. Elon Musk, making good on a promise to foot the legal bill for users who claim they have been discriminated against due to their activity on his platform, is helping fund the suit through X.

What, and I mean this sincerely, in the actual fuck?

According to the complaint, Disney and Lucasfilm harassed and defamed Carano for refusing to conform with their viewpoints on issues relating to Black Lives Matter, preferred pronouns and disproven claims of election interference. While she was allegedly fired for her cultural and religious beliefs, Carano argues that the entertainment giant turned a blind eye to her male co-stars, who allegedly made offensive and denigrating posts directed toward Republicans. She points to Pedro Pascal’s 2017 post comparing former President Donald Trump to Hitler.

It’s fashionable among tech bro billionaires to sue for things like this these days.

It’s also fashionable to cancel conservative celebrities. But her behaviour was beyond this.

Her case does highlight how little supporting actors get paid though. She was only paid $25,000 an episode and for a $5,000 bonus later.

Actor's get paid so little by streaming services now and residuals are non existent so most whom achieve fame need second jobs. Very common for an actor who’s prominent in a Netflix series to be working in a bar in LA most of the time.

[Daehawk]

For the record I dont like him..at all. I do like some of his stuff. Some.

[Holman]

Had to re-read this like 4 times to make sure I understood it. I am posting it on this side of the fence because of the issues associated with the lawsuit:

In an escalation of a standoff over her firing from The Mandalorian, Gina Carano is suing Disney and Lucasfilm for discrimination and wrongful termination in a lawsuit that opens another front in the battlefield for influence over Hollywood that has drawn in corporate America.

Carano, in a complaint filed Tuesday in California federal court, alleges she was fired for voicing right-wing opinions on social media and seeks a court order that would force Lucasfilm to recast her. Elon Musk, making good on a promise to foot the legal bill for users who claim they have been discriminated against due to their activity on his platform, is helping fund the suit through X.

What, and I mean this sincerely, in the actual fuck?

According to the complaint, Disney and Lucasfilm harassed and defamed Carano for refusing to conform with their viewpoints on issues relating to Black Lives Matter, preferred pronouns and disproven claims of election interference. While she was allegedly fired for her cultural and religious beliefs, Carano argues that the entertainment giant turned a blind eye to her male co-stars, who allegedly made offensive and denigrating posts directed toward Republicans. She points to Pedro Pascal’s 2017 post comparing former President Donald Trump to Hitler.

It’s fashionable among tech bro billionaires to sue for things like this these days.

It’s also fashionable to cancel conservative celebrities. But her behaviour was beyond this.

Her case does highlight how little supporting actors get paid though. She was only paid $25,000 an episode and for a $5,000 bonus later.

Actor's get paid so little by streaming services now and residuals are non existent so most whom achieve fame need second jobs. Very common for an actor who’s prominent in a Netflix series to be working in a bar in LA most of the time.

Well, she was in seven episodes, so that's $175,000 over two seasons, not counting the bonus. And that kind of work is not a full-time job by any means, so she's free to take other roles in other shows simultaneously. (Plus she's now part of the right-leaning media ecosystem, no doubt making money on appearances and events thereby.)

The truly low-paid actors are the ones whose names you never learn.

[waitingtoconnect]

Yea thats a fair call but my point is that the studio has massive power over her and in fairness her costars were not fired or disciplined for making comparisons between the holocaust and immigration detention thus exposing a double standard.

However her behaviour was unacceptable in my view. As a public figure she obviously needs more education on what to say in social media. Sometimes less is more.

And it’s a bit rich of Musk to protect her rights given his companies of workers and allegations of racism at Teslas factories. He has also sued to invalidate labor laws which would if angreed to by the Supreme Court largely invalidate Gina’s claims!

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-67878940
https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/sci ... harassment
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/ ... uit-spacex

[Max Peck]

in fairness her costars were not fired or disciplined for making comparisons between the holocaust and immigration detention thus exposing a double standard.

Was she actually disciplined for what she posted, or is she simply claiming that she was? There are plenty of valid reasons for not hiring someone other than finding their politics to be objectionable.

[waitingtoconnect]

It’s not 100% clear what happened. She appears at some points to have been pressured regarding her social media status by advocates of BLM and trans rights that she didn’t handle well and then on to of her other comments she made her job untenable.

and as she is effectively a contractor “at will” really plays an even bigger part in all this.

[Holman]

She brought negative attention to a high-profile creative project with huge amounts of money at stake. Unless you're the indispensable star, you're going to get canned (not "canceled") for that.

[Exodor]

Her suit demands that they cast her in the show - they should bring her back as a stormtrooper and kill her off immediately.

[ImLawBoy]

Yea thats a fair call but my point is that the studio has massive power over her and in fairness her costars were not fired or disciplined for making comparisons between the holocaust and immigration detention thus exposing a double standard.

It's only a double standard if the actions/comments were equivalent. They weren't, so this isn't really a "both sides" moment.

[Blackhawk]

I assume that there is a clause in every actor's/actress's contract these days stating that outside actions that cast a negative light on the production and/or studio are grounds for termination.

I suppose the argument then would be whether her comments were objectively negative.

[LawBeefaroni]

Yeah, OK. The guy who empowers actual Nazis is saying this shit?

[GreenGoo]

@realelonmusk How is my tesla stock doing? I don't care about your opinions on society, SJW.

[LawBeefaroni]

@realelonmusk How is my tesla stock doing? I don't care about your opinions on society, SJW.

Yeah, file under "get your own mouse in order."

DIS up 21.5% YTD.
TSLA down 23.5% YTD.

[LordMortis]

He won't care about TSLA unless investors give him another $60 billion in dilution of their of their shares. It's not worth it to him. Hasn't he been crystal clear through his magaphone on that?

[LawBeefaroni]

Still waiting for him to reincorporate TSLA in Texas. I mean he did a poll and X users picked Texas so...

[Pyperkub]

He won't care about TSLA unless investors give him another $60 billion in dilution of their of their shares. It's not worth it to him. Hasn't he been crystal clear through his magaphone on that?

False. His shares in tesla are about 90%of his wealth AFAIK. Even without the pay package increasing those.

[LordMortis]

He won't care about TSLA unless investors give him another $60 billion in dilution of their of their shares. It's not worth it to him. Hasn't he been crystal clear through his magaphone on that?

False. His shares in tesla are about 90%of his wealth AFAIK. Even without the pay package increasing those.

I'm not talking about the pay package (which I don't find as out there as others do, given what it was predicated on, even with an overly friendly board). I'm talking about:

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/16/elon-mu ... power.html

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who also owns the social network X (formerly known as Twitter), said Monday that he wants about 25% of voting control over his electric vehicle business.

Musk already owns around 13% of Tesla

, or approximately 411 million shares of the company’s 3.19 billion shares in common stock outstanding, as reported in the company’s last financial filing for the third quarter of 2023.

That’s a large stake, especially considering that Musk sold tens of billions of dollars worth of his shares in Tesla in 2022, largely to finance a $44 billion leveraged buyout of Twitter.

Now, Musk is angling for even more control over Tesla.

Specifically, Musk wrote on Monday, “I am uncomfortable growing Tesla to be a leader in AI & robotics without having ~25% voting control. Enough to be influential, but not so much that I can’t be overturned.”

“Unless that is the case, I would prefer to build products outside of Tesla,” the billionaire executive said on X.

[Holman]

I assume that there is a clause in every actor's/actress's contract these days stating that outside actions that cast a negative light on the production and/or studio are grounds for termination.

I suppose the argument then would be whether her comments were objectively negative.

I'm pretty sure they've always been able to terminate you for any reason, including "the writers are bored with your character."

It has always been a part of Soap Opera lore that if a character is written off the show in a permanent way (killed on screen, long illness and solemn funeral, etc), it's because the creative team was sick of the actor's shit. If they like you, they give you an ambiguous ending like "lost at sea" or "transferred to Australia" so that they can bring you back if necessary.

Obviously some actors find themselves in a position to write protection into their contracts, but you almost have to be the star for that. Jim Parsons had job security on The Big Bang Theory, but Neumann the mailman on Seinfeld probably didn't.

[waitingtoconnect]

Personally whatever you might think about Disney Musk is being totally hypocritical here. His companies have been accused of racism, he has sacked workers for unionising at Tesla, his companies have been accused of sacking people who raised sexual harassment complaints, and he has sacked people for critiquing him. He has even pushed the Supreme Court to cancel many federal protections in the workplace; including the one he is using to sue Disney with right now.

[Blackhawk]

Personally whatever you might think about Disney Musk is being totally hypocritical here. His companies have been accused of racism, he has sacked workers for unionising at Tesla, his companies have been accused of sacking people who raised sexual harassment complaints, and he has sacked people for critiquing him. He has even pushed the Supreme Court to cancel many federal protections in the workplace; including the one he is using to sue Disney with right now.

In his mind that isn't racism. To Musk, it's the protections that are racism.

I have no idea what logic brought him to that conclusion (discrimination against whites, maybe?), but it seems to be the angle he likes to take.

[Holman]

It turns out that in addition to his manic tweeting about various hot button issues, Elon Musk is involved in a lot of specific legal disputes with the federal government where he'll get a lot more money if Trump wins.

[Jaymann]

[LawBeefaroni]

It turns out that in addition to his manic tweeting about various hot button issues, Elon Musk is involved in a lot of specific legal disputes with the federal government where he'll get a lot more money if Trump wins.

This is a deep state smear against the future Transportation Secretary.