America vs the World VI: Pope Idol

[Neon Ignition]

https://bsky.app/profile/junlper.beer/post/3lk3eos7ars2s

This latest post is glorious from Trump, there's so much to pick apart as he attempts to support Musk following the massive financial losses he's enduring

-It makes Musk look incredibly weak that he needs Trump to speak out for him
-It demonstrates the amazing levels of absence of self-awareness from Trump that his support in anyway will address boycotts of Tesla products
-It has Trump inadvertently suggest that "Radical, Left Lunatics" are the main buyers of Teslas which paints Musk as a business moron for ****ing over his own consumer audience
-Trump is stupid enough to claim that refusing to buy Tesla's is illegal
-He claims that the attempts are doomed to fail just as trying to stop his election win were, whilst also claiming that Musk is being punished... is it working or not?!
-He promises to buy a Tesla tomorrow in support... a single car... he can't be bothered to make any real effort to support Musk himself

Honestly... it makes the handwringing over Biden's mental acuity laughable.

[Nu-Eclipse]

I for one am shocked that Google's twerking for Trump 2.0 (paying money to his campaign, ending workplace DEI hiring to help enable Trump's culture war, etc ) hasn't worked. Who honestly knew?

https://www.theverge.com/news/626502/trump-doj-recommends-google-breakup-antitrust-search-chrome

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/mar/11/donald-trump-latest-us-politics-news-live?page=with%3Ablock-67d042cb8f087aea3a248e0d#block-67d042cb8f087aea3a248e0d

Following Canada placing a 25% tariff on Electricity supplied to America, Trump has announced a 50% tariff on aluminium and steel on Canadian goods starting from tomorrow.

Trump has also demanded that Canada drop its 250-300% anti-American tariffs on Farming goods - the rates he himself set in his first term

He has threatened to increase tariffs on cars also if his demands aren't met

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/mar/11/donald-trump-latest-us-politics-news-live?page=with%3Ablock-67d047f68f0879f772fe45a5#block-67d047f68f0879f772fe45a5

As a resault Wall Street continues its downward direction

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.axios.com/2025/03/07/egg-prices-easter-2025-usda-bird-flu

The price of eggs will no longer be reported on by USDA

I'm loving today - feels like the first day in all this time that everything has blown back in Trump and Musks faces

https://globalnews.ca/news/11074806/doug-ford-danielle-smith-oil-export-tax-trump-card/

https://www.yahoo.com/news/stock-market-opens-low-following-134224379.html

[Dogg Thang]

It kind of sucks that eggs have led to the rise of fascism and possible WW3.

[Neon Ignition]

Aged perfectly:

[Neon Ignition]

It's been another few hours so where are we at now?

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c51ypekv9xwt

Ukraine have said that they are willing to accept a 30 day ceasefire, as such America has agreed to immediately restore security information sharing. Rubio has said that it is now up to Russia alone to respond and establish if it has a genuine interest in ending the three plus year war.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-12/trump-rejects-australia-s-bid-for-tariff-exemptions/105039966

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/11/us/politics/japan-trump-tariffs-auto-steel-trade.html

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lk4n3ltaus2y

Trumps Press Secretary gets riled when corrected for claiming that tariffs are a tax cut for American consumers

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/mar/11/donald-trump-latest-us-politics-news-live

Having decimated another chunk of the US economy, Trump bottles it yet again in the 11th hour

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lk4uv7vyp52k

Trump now also says that anyone damaging a Tesla will be considered a domestic terrorist

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-checks-teslas-white-house-musks-auto-company/story?id=119683027

In a not at all cringe staged performance, Musk had three Tesla's delivered to the White House for Trump to choose from. Trump can't drive and says he bought a Cybertruck for his Granddaughter

Tesla has now lost $700bn in market value - hold on for the cool trillion!

[fishbowlhead]

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-checks-teslas-white-house-musks-auto-company/story?id=119683027

In a not at all cringe staged performance, Musk had three Tesla's delivered to the White House for Trump to choose from. Trump can't drive and says he bought a Cybertruck for his Granddaughter

Tesla has now lost $700bn in market value - hold on for the cool trillion!

Where has this nonsense number come from? A company is worth 3-4 times its annual turnover, maybe less if its net profit is poor, or even less if it’s making a loss.

Turnover in 2024 was $97.7b but with just 7.2% profit margins, I can’t find their actual net profits, which isn’t a good sign.

so $300-350b then, tops.

[QualityChimp]

Tesla stock rose after the election, but has continued to decline:

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/musk-says-juggling-doge-ceo-jobs-is-difficult-tesla-shares-slump-2025-03-10/

[Asura]

I have a Stocks & Shares ISA that lost ~£1000 in value these last two weeks due to these clowns.

[Neon Ignition]

I heard a business analyst on the radio yesterday be asked why this is happening and he literally responded it's because Musk is a "bloody idiot" and then went on to explain how Musk simply has the money from family to be in the right place with the right connections and is an absolutely useless human being who has achieved and invented nothing at all himself and by lying about playign Diablo has likely exposed he has zero working skills.

Nothing new there but it was great to finally hear someone state the truth about him on air finally.

[Asura]

I heard a business analyst on the radio yesterday be asked why this is happening and he literally responded it's because Musk is a "bloody idiot" and then went on to explain how Musk simply has the money from family to be in the right place with the right connections and is an absolutely useless human being who has achieved and invented nothing at all himself and by lying about playign Diablo has likely exposed he has zero working skills.

Nothing new there but it was great to finally hear someone state the truth about him on air finally.

It's been a real ride seeing his fall from grace.

I was never one of the weird culty Elon types, but at the same time, there was a time that I respected him a great deal. It was around when they were demonstrating those solar roof-slate tiles and the Tesla home batteries. I remember seeing him demo them at a big PR thing, and the main thing I came away thinking was how ineffective a public speaker he was. Like he had absolutely none of the inherent charisma of someone like Steve Jobs. He kept tripping over his words, pausing weirdly, clearly nervous.

But what got me at the time was that I (and perhaps many others?) incorrectly assumed he must be more of a Wozniak genius, because how else does he get to this point of wealth and influence? I figured that behind the scenes he must be pretty talented because he definitely wasn't some blow-hard, charismatic front-man.

What's weird then is that all signs suggest that his only real skill was more the Simon Cowell-type thing; like he started off wealthy, then was good at spotting nascent ideas and making good bets on what will go on to big success - such as apparently with Paypal, which he didn't invent but rather invested in, and Tesla, which supposedly was a similar story. And in practice he's always just been a bit of a prick.

[Dogg Thang]

in practice he's always just been a bit of a prick.

The rescue worker incident should have been the end of him.

[QualityChimp]

I've never liked Elon Musk.
Just knowing that from the start he's just using the money from his daddy's blood emerald mine business to buy businesses and demand you're called a founder never sat right.

That was fine, because he was just tinkering with his electric cars.

Now he's a genuine threat to democracy with his new DOGE job and petty tweets to world leaders.


It just reeks of Musk being out of his depth and thinking that everyone are yes men.
Sikorski is not only well-educated (Oxford, Harvard) and has a long career in journalism before politics, but he was a conflict journalist in the 80s, reporting on the soviet bombardment of Afghanistan:



He's not even a good businessman, because his antics are making people move away from his business purchases like Twitter, Tesla, Starlink and SpaceX.
(SpaceX shares have risen today as an Indian telecom service have announced they're using Starlink for their internet - nothing to do with their crashing spaceship division)

[Neon Ignition]

Greenland election: opposition Democrat party wins surprise victory amid spectre of Trump | Greenland | The Guardian

US aid deliveries to Ukraine back to previous levels, Polish foreign minister confirms, as Kyiv agrees to 30-day ceasefire – Europe live

Trump administration briefing: education department to be halved as Trump walks back Canada tariffs | Trump administration | The Guardian