Linky Links

 Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- GM to offer workers in the US voluntary separation packages (VSP) to help cut costs. "General Motors' South Korea division will offer a similar VSP package, but workers in Canada, Mexico, and China will not." Non-union Tesla not cutting any employment in their US plants.

- Matt Taibbi's statement to Congress. Today's must read if you haven't read it already. The First Amendment and free speech is a non-negotiable right.

-  Very clever

- Naval Ravikant's Life Formulas. Great life advice!

GM's $1 Billion EV Investment in Mexico

GM is investing $1 billion in a new Chevy Blazer EV plant in Mexico - not the United States. GM can do what they like but to me this is wrong. That investment should be made in the US for US jobs.

I agree with UAW Vice President Terry Dittes:

"At a a time when General Motors is asking for significant investment by the U.S. government in subsidizing electric vehicles, this is a slap in the face not only for UAW members and their families but also for U.S. taxpayers and the American workforce."

Tesla has shown that EV's can be made in the US. I hope the Tesla Cybertruck sales wipe the floor with the Chevy Blazer EV. And I'm sure it will.

Elon Musk's Taxes Were Just About Enough to Cover GM Bailout

Elon Musk's 2021 taxes were just about enough to pay back GM's government bailout.

If Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged were written today there's no doubt that a Musk-type character would be the hero and an Elizabeth Warren type character would be the villain. 

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Funny but often too true

- This is great news for the workers, the UAW, GM and for Ford. Wonder why this story has been underplayed in the media?

- China's manufacturing exodus set to continue in 2020, despite prospect of trade war deal. The de-coupling continues!

- Speaking of China - how they target liberal democracies

- Israel has developed a new laser based missile defense system.

- Steve McQueen's iconic 1968 Mustang from the movie Bullitt has sold at auction for $3.74 million

This Week in Musk World

Another busy week in Musk World.

Tesla has now achieved production rates of 1,000 Model 3's a day. If Tesla is able to keep this up then the $35,000 Model 3 could be a reality as soon as May of 2019.

1,000 Model 3's a day is impressive but that's nothing compared to the 3.5 million battery cells produced by the GigaFactory which as this video points out is Elon Musk's key to Tesla's future.

Solving production issues has allowed the Model 3 to become the 4th best selling car in the US by volume and the best selling passenger car by revenue. The success of the Model 3 has spelled doom for hybrid electric vehicles like the Chevy Volt. GM vows that they will be jumping into the all-electric car market with both feet in the coming years. But based upon the continued progress of Elon Musk and Tesla - they might be too late.

The cars Tesla is producing are getting used in the real world with the company announcing over 10 billion miles have been driven in Tesla cars already. With an amazing 1 billion miles being driven while under the autopilot feature. And Tesla keeps on rolling out improvements to its Navigate and Autopilot functions. 

It wasn't all roses this week in Musk World though. Elon was once again chastised for smoking pot on the Joe Rogan podcast. This time by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. As NASA starts launching new moon based initiatives it will be interesting to see if people like Mr. Bridenstine emerge as villains in Musk World as behind the scenes politics may require NASA strongly leaning toward established partners like Boeing and Lockheed Martin's ULA instead of SpaceX.  I wouldn't bet against Elon and SpaceX though. Their more nimble approach has already allowed SpaceX to become the world's most prolific launcher of rockets and they also have the backing of Wall Street and Google. Remember the government also invested heavily in GM and the Chevy Volt - how did that work out?

And now your very cool moment of the week - double sonic booms as the SpaceX Falcon performs its vertical landing.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Heh Heh - vintage ads that would be banned today.

- The argument that GM closing three plants and cutting 14,000 jobs is actually a good thing.

- Heh Heh

- George HW Bush 1924-2018

- Many reasons to be thankful

- Wow just wow. Marine meets his newborn son for the first time.

- Good advice - take your MEDS (I have to try meditation)

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Is that really the sound it makes? Awesome!

- All humans are descended from just two people. Scientists damn well better name those two Adam and Eve!

- Well this made me feel stupid. Jordan Peterson's list of his top 51 literature books. I've only read 14.

- Gross - half the DNA on the NYC subway matches no known organism

- Mitt Romney was right about the GM bailouts

- Very cool!

- Heh Heh

This Week in Musk World

The week started with Neil deGrasse Tyson explaining that Elon Musk is the most important person in tech. More important than Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. While I don't necessarily disagree with Neil - doesn't it seem like he's always "explaining" things? Part of me is bugged by the idea of Neil deGrasse Tyson hogging the science spotlight that rightfully should go to some Nobel Prize winning physicist or you know someone who has actually accomplished something. You know - someone like Elon Musk.

Later in the week Elon tweeted out this list of every all-electric car available in the US. You wonder if he was honestly trying to be helpful or so cocky that he's actually saying "Here I'll save you some time - here's all the electric cars you can buy but Tesla is the best." I think it was probably a little bit of both.

And speaking of Tesla competitors, ex-GM Vice-Chair blasts Tesla, saying saying supporters "like members of religious cult."  The Motley Fool points out that GM's latest moves might be part of imitation being the sincerest form of flattery. Maybe that guy is an "ex" GM Vice-Chair because he didn't join the cult?

Meanwhile Bloomberg asks Did Elon Musk forget about Buffalo? The article is referencing the so-called GigaFactory 2 solar panel facility which received $750 million in NY State aid (before Tesla bought Solar City). One line from the article confused me. "It's a complete hoo-ha," says John Kaehny, executive director of Reinvent Albany. Wait isn't this a complement? In my world hoo-ha's are beautiful, beautiful things. 

Lastly the Wall Street Journal reports that Tesla is the hot spot for young job seekers. First you get the job, then you get the money, then you get the hoo-ha!

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Heh heh - the Illuminati is not a frivolous subject. Hey Charlie what do you think about Taco Bell maybe bringing back the Black Taco?

- This is an interesting story on many levels. Is Trump taking a shot at US newspapers? Canada? NAFTA? All at once? What do US newspapers have against buying American paper? Maybe this is in retaliation for the US media fawning so much over Trudeau winning the handshake battle?

- Interesting look at the Celtics' one-man European scouting department

- Heh heh

- Speaking of Trump and NAFTA. Have to hand it to Trump - he's really maximizing the US's leverage heading into talks.

- Am I a bad person for laughing at this?

- Have to wonder if this is not just a reaction to the Republican Tax reform but also partly because of the upcoming NAFTA talks.

A Modest Proposal

The City of Detroit is in ruins. They are $18 billion in debt and about to declare bankruptcy. Here's a modest two step proposal to help save the city.

First - much of the debt is caused by retiree benefits granted via overly generous union contracts. The City would like to cut these benefits. The union members obviously don't want these benefits cut. Simple solution - tell the retirees if they live within the City limits then their benefits stay the same. If they live outside the City limits then their benefits get cut by 33 percent. Simple. The City is hemorrhaging people - make the people the City has to pay anyway live there.

Secondly, the US government owns a big chunk of General Motors. We will never see full value for the money we pumped into them and if we try to sell our stock it will just force down the stock price. Here's what I suggest - the government forgives all debt in exchange GM gives us their beautiful headquarters.  We then tell the United Nations they have to move to Detroit. We give GM three years to move out and the UN three years to move in.

Bingo-bango! We then take the UN's upper Eastside property via eminent domain and sell it. The proceeds go directly to reducing the national debt (drop in the bucket but every little bit helps).

Government Motors

Mickey Kaus makes some good points. "GM's stock is in the basement for a reason" would make a good political bumper sticker or debate point. And just as a reminder what the GM bailout entailed - and how they really haven't paid the taxpayers back - here's a good minute and a half primer from Reason TV.

I'll make a prediction right here - during a Presidential Debate President Obama will say or claim something that will cause the stock of GM to sharply decline even further. Something like the government will be selling (dumping) its share in GM by the end of the year or something like that.

The Future of Automobiles in the USA

I didn't like the Government bailing out GM and Chrysler in the first place but what is done is done. That in mind I LOVE Lamar Alexander's of Tennessee and Bob Bennett's of Utah bill titled The Auto Stock for Every Taxpayer Act which would turn over the government's stake to GM and Chrysler by a distribution of shares to citizens. The bill would:

* Prohibit the Treasury from using any more TARP funds to bailout GM or Chrysler.
* So long as the government holds stock in these companies, require that the Secretary of the Treasury and his designee have a fiduciary responsibility to the American taxpayer to maximize the return on that investment.
* Not later than one year after each company emerges from bankruptcy, require that the Treasury distribute its common stock holdings in that company evenly to every American who paid taxes on April 15.

The Government has no business being in the car business. If we allow the government to have a say in how cars are built then we may very well end up with the following.



Thanks to Keith for the link. Funny stuff but keep in mind that many a truth has been said in jest. I'd much rather have a weakened General Motors over a taxpayer owned Government Motors.