Dem
47
GOP
53
Sometimes, people's faces turn red because they are embarrassed. Sometimes, it's because they are angry. Both are real possibilities for Elon Musk in the past week or so.
Let's start with a somewhat big embarrassment. The first deadline for the "bullet points" e-mails has passed, and so too has the second deadline, which was announced after some squabbling between Musk and the heads of certain agencies. The result of the DOGEy order was anemic; only about half of federal employees actually responded, and many of those were jokes or passive-aggressive or some version of malicious compliance. This despite the fact that there was buy-in from Donald Trump, who warned federal employees several times that they better respond. Since this "initiative" has clearly fallen flat, Musk had to announce that it wasn't really about firing anyone, and that it was just a "pulse check" to make sure the various federal staffers are still alive. Uh, huh.
Meanwhile, to supplement that, how about a small embarrassment? As we have written a couple of times, Musk is one of the several billionaires who has waded into the race for the open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which will determine if the current 4-3 Democratic majority holds, or if it becomes a 4-3 Republican majority. This means that Musk is trying to make sure that Dane County Judge Susan Crawford does not get elected. So, he has funded a number of ads for Crawford's opponent, Brad Schimel.
Unfortunately for Team Musk, they managed to screw up two different ads in two different ways. In one of the spots, meant to communicate (falsely) that Crawford was responsible for allowing a convicted rapist back on the streets, an AI-altered image of Crawford was utilized to make her look meaner and uglier. The problem is that the alterations were obvious, and use of AI in this manner is a violation of Wisconsin state law.
The other ad, meanwhile, was meant for social media platforms. It featured a different image of Susan Crawford, along with some quotes from Susan Crawford. In this case, the (presumable) intern who did the research for the ad did not realize that the judicial candidate is Susan Crawford, while the image and quotes were all Harvard Law Professor Emerita Susan P. Crawford. Oops! Needless to say, between the two advertising screw-ups, the Musk faction could hardly do more to communicate to folks in the Badger State that you should not trust ANY pro-Schimel ads you see.
And wait, there's more. The people of Canada are none-too-happy with the United States right now. And they are definitely not happy with the Co-Presidents. Donald Trump is somewhat beyond their reach, but Musk isn't, at least in one small way. He is, after all, a Canadian citizen. So, MP Charlie Angus, acting on the suggestion of author Qualia Reed, launched a petition calling for the Canadian government to strip Musk of his citizenship. Thus far, it has been signed by over 200,000 Canadians. We have no idea how likely it is that the government might act on this, particularly in the absence of a specific violation of Canadian law. But politicians can get very creative when there are political points to be scored.
And that's not the only anti-Musk activity in the Great White North. Various Tesla drivers' clubs, led by the Club Tesla Québec, are now distributing free-of-charge anti-Musk bumper stickers for people to display on their cars. Reportedly, the most popular messages are:
Even if one does not have access to free stickers, one or more of these might be a wise investment, just to keep a person from getting their car keyed.
Finally, the "mad" part of the equation. Musk definitely should be embarrassed by the above news items, and maybe he is. What's considerably more certain is that he loves money, and so is not happy when he loses money. And, at least in part due to his efforts in making the Tesla brand toxic, he's taking a pretty big hit in the wallet these days. Just this week, Tesla shares dropped by 8%. That's a $15 billion hit for Musk, which is certainly a chunk of change, even if he can afford it. The overall trendline is considerably worse. On December 17 of last year, when Tesla stock hit an all-time high, he was worth $464 billion. Since then, his net worth has dropped by almost $100 billion. And things don't figure to turn around anytime soon, if ever. Thanks to the various challenges facing Tesla (including, but not limited to, Musk's toxicity), every major analyst (except ARK Invest) is bearish on the stock. The South African is never going to go hungry, but he is going to feel some pain where it really hurts. (Z)