America & World IV: Trump's Taxing Day

[Asura]

Consider Musk and all you know of him. Does this sound in any way likely?

Frankly I don't know, but I suspect you're right.

I've never been one of the army of weird "fans" of Musk; however, I've been really surprised to see how things have gone with him recently. Just because I remember years ago, he was demonstrating these roof tiles that would generate solar power, and I watched the video, and it was clear that he has absolutely zero charisma as a public speaker.

Now, this in itself isn't a criticism. Some of history's worst dictators have been skilled orators. But usually, when someone is a grifter, they tend to be quite good at working a crowd, speaking to people, getting their buy-in. Musk clearly lacks those skills. At the time, this made me wonder if he actually was some sort of genius in private, because it just seems so strange that someone could be so successful while lacking in those skills.

Though practically everything else I've seen since that moment has basically shown his success was down to a combination of luck, generational wealth, and probably some business expertise, but not on some sort of genius level.

[Dogg Thang]

Though practically everything else I've seen since that moment has basically shown his success was down to a combination of luck, generational wealth, and probably some business expertise, but not on some sort of genius level.

With generational wealth probably being at the core of it all.

[Neon Ignition]

I don't know if its got any truth to it but it was being knocked about last night that this played into theory that Musk was intentionally pushing it toward bankruptcy ahead of a tax write down and him stepping down was a precursor move.

[Asura]

I don't know if its got any truth to it but it was being knocked about last night that this played into theory that Musk was intentionally pushing it toward bankruptcy ahead of a tax write down and him stepping down was a precursor move.

These sorts of theories are attractive, because his stewardship has been so ****ing nuts that I think it's normal to want it to be part of some broader plan. But truly, looking at stuff over the last few days, I honestly think he's just playing with fire.

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2022/dec/19/elon-musk-polls-twitter-users-over-stepping-down-as-ceo-business-live?page=with:block-63a02a888f085e6820542f55#block-63a02a888f085e6820542f55

Two hours remaining and voting remains in favour of him stepping down

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2022/dec/19/elon-musk-polls-twitter-users-over-stepping-down-as-ceo-business-live?page=with:block-63a021478f0816e812ef2aa4#block-63a021478f0816e812ef2aa4

Tesla shares are now down 62% this year


Musk, when asked about having a CEO successor lined up for Twitter

Embedded Tweet

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2022/dec/19/elon-musk-polls-twitter-users-over-stepping-down-as-ceo-business-live?page=with:block-63a02d8d8f0834f3c057c2d5#block-63a02d8d8f0834f3c057c2d5

The more Musk gets closer to stepping down from Twitter, the more Tesla shares recover.

[wakka]

I don't know if its got any truth to it but it was being knocked about last night that this played into theory that Musk was intentionally pushing it toward bankruptcy ahead of a tax write down and him stepping down was a precursor move.

Yeah, I'm gonna give a hard 'nope' on that one.

Prior to this poll we had one of the funniest Musk policy changes yet. He banned people from mentioning Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram and a few other competitors in tweets or in their bio, or linking to them. Which, lol.

[Dogg Thang]

He banned people from mentioning Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram and a few other competitors in tweets or in their bio, or linking to them. Which, lol.

Yep. And now the tweets announcing this are gone and also the article it linked to is gone too. So they may have already reversed this. They really have no idea what they are doing.

[wakka]

Yeah he did reverse it.

All plan of the grand master plan I'm sure

[Mayhem]

Heard something about banning the links to other media sites is illegal in the EU hence why they've gone...

[fishbowlhead]

I've run out of popcorn on this one, a fascinating meltdown of epic proportions

[Wools]

I left Twitter a few weeks ago now because of Musk's actions combined with some other personal decisions around why I spend so long online talking ****e. As I'm sure most of you will know!

I do miss Twitter as when I have a random thought, see somethng cool or want to have a scroll and read some great pictures or articles I wouldn't otherwise had, there's nothing quite like Twitter. However, a lot of what I done was doom scrolling, reading people scream at others or just nonsense. But not in a Brasseye way, well, not all the time.

I'll be strange if Twitter does implode fully, although if it does, I wonder if Musk walks it off before his next horrifying start up / acquisition or if it really effects his ability to bring his own brand of western work ethics to another business.

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2022/dec/19/elon-musk-polls-twitter-users-over-stepping-down-as-ceo-business-live?page=with:block-63a0483f8f085e6820543064#block-63a0483f8f085e6820543064

And the poll has ended and Musk lost

[briareos_kerensky]

And now Musk will null the result by saying there were too many choices.