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Francisco 2.0

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by Francisco 2.0

  1. 14 minutes ago, Underdog said:

    They were discussing on MSNBC of a fireworks shortage this year and next due to the tariffs. 

     

    It's all because Joe Biden took away the 4th of July.

    And then Trump will proclaim how he is going to restore it.

  2. 38 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

     

    Here's the non-paywalled story:

     

    Quote

    About a month ago, with Tesla’s stock sinking and some investors irritated about Elon Musk’s White House focus, Tesla’s board got serious about looking for Musk’s successor. 

    Board members reached out to several executive search firms to work on a formal process for finding Tesla’s next chief executive, according to people familiar with the discussions. 

    Tensions had been mounting at the company. Sales and profits were deteriorating rapidly. Musk was spending much of his time in Washington.

     

    Quote

    Around that time, Tesla’s board met with Musk for an update. Board members told him he needed to spend more time on Tesla, according to people familiar with the meeting. And he needed to say so publicly.

    Musk didn’t push back.

    Tesla has been on a losing streak in the months since Musk, its visionary chief executive, began spending much of his time helping President Trump slash federal spending. Last week, after the company said its first-quarter profit had plunged 71%, Musk told investors he would soon pivot back to his job at Tesla.

     

     

    Quote

    “Starting next month,” he said on a conference call about earnings, “I’ll be allocating far more of my time to Tesla.” 

    The board narrowed its focus to a major search firm, according to the people familiar with the discussions. The current status of the succession planning couldn’t be determined. It is also unclear if Musk, himself a Tesla board member, was aware of the effort, or if his pledge to spend more time at Tesla has affected succession planning. Musk didn’t respond to requests for comment.  

    During a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Trump thanked Musk for his government work. “You know you’re invited to stay as long as you want,” Trump said. “I guess he wants to get back home to his cars.”

     

    Spoiler

    Any change at the top would mark a major moment for Tesla: Musk has run the electric-vehicle maker for nearly 20 years, though he stepped aside as board chairman in 2018. Musk has been deeply involved in all of his businesses, even those in which other executives handle day-to-day management.

    The eight-person Tesla board has been looking to add an independent director, according to people familiar with the process. Some directors, including Tesla co-founder JB Straubel, have been meeting with major investors to reassure them the company is in good hands.

    Musk’s detour into government came at a difficult time for his biggest company. Sales of Tesla’s electric cars fell in 2024, the first annual decline in more than a decade. The company slashed prices, which ate into profit margins. Its high-profile Cybertruck, derided for its strange looks, became the butt of jokes by late-night comics. 

    Musk’s close ties to Trump tarnished Tesla’s brand for some consumers. Making matters worse, the president’s tariffs have complicated Tesla’s business in China, one of its biggest car markets, and a U.S. supply chain that relies heavily on vendors in Mexico and Canada.

    Musk’s proximity to the president proved no help on that front. He told investors last week he would “continue to advocate for lower tariffs rather than higher tariffs, but that’s all I can do.” The decision, he said, was the president’s.

    After Trump’s victory last year, Tesla’s shares surged at first, reflecting optimism that Musk’s close ties to the president would yield benefits for his businesses. Tesla’s market value hit a record high of $1.5 trillion in December. Since then, it has fallen to about $900 billion.

    Early last year, after some two decades of running Tesla, Musk confided to someone close to him, in late night texts, that he was frustrated to still be working nonstop at the company, especially after a Delaware judge had struck down his multibillion-dollar pay package. 

    Last spring, he told that person that he no longer wanted to be CEO of Tesla, but that he was worried that no one could replace him atop the company and sell the vision that Tesla isn’t just an automaker, but the future of robotics and automation as well. 

    Musk has complained both in public and private that despite owning roughly 13% of the company, he has been working without pay for the last seven years. The Tesla board recently formed a special compensation committee to address CEO compensation. 

    Musk has enormous demands on his time. Tesla is only one of five businesses he oversees. At Tesla alone, more than 20 executives report directly to him, according to an internal document. Since the election, he has spent most of his time in Washington, with weekends at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. When he met with Tesla employees and board members, he often did so remotely.  

    Some Tesla employees said that the first time they had heard from Musk in months was at an all-hands meeting in March, streamed to all X users, where he tried to reassure employees and persuade them not to sell their shares. 

    “If you read the news, it feels like Armageddon,” he told them. “I can’t walk past a TV without seeing a Tesla on fire,” he said, referring to vandalism at Tesla showrooms and charging stations. “There are times when there are rocky moments, a little bit of stormy weather, but I’m here to tell you the future is bright and exciting. What I’m saying is—hang on to your stock.”

    Musk spent more than $250 million on Trump’s re-election effort. He took the stage with Trump at rallies and even spent a chunk of time in Pennsylvania after identifying it as a state that Trump couldn’t afford to lose. On election night, he was in the ballroom at Mar-a-Lago. 

    The next morning, Nov. 6, he flew out of Palm Beach to attend a Tesla board meeting in Austin. Soon, he was back in Mar-a-Lago sitting in on meetings with world leaders and helping to vet candidates for cabinet positions. 

    Musk was given the job of running the Department of Government Efficiency, which eventually was staffed with government outsiders that included investors and employees from his companies. His status as a “special government employee” enables him to work at the White House for 130 days each year without filing the financial-disclosure forms required for regular employees. 

    Some employees said they were happy at first that Musk was busy in D.C. because his tendency to micromanage at Tesla could be a distraction. 

    As Musk drew closer to Trump, who has criticized EV mandates and vowed to reinvigorate the oil and gas industries, some employees sought assurances from management that Musk still supported Tesla’s mission to fight climate change and support sustainable-energy infrastructure. 

    Late last November, Tesla executive Mike Snyder tried to reassure his team that Musk’s political tilt wouldn’t distract him from the business. “It’s obviously been a turbulent and emotional season, I acknowledge that,” he said, according to a recording of the meeting reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. “I’d rather have Elon next to Trump than an enemy of Trump.”

    Snyder, whose team works on energy storage and solar power, told his team that Musk continued to answer texts. “People concerned that Elon is not engaged or interested, I can assure you that’s not true,” he said.

    By early this year, it was clear to some inside the company that Musk’s political foray was becoming a business liability. Tesla was losing brand appeal in markets such as California and Germany, and drivers had begun putting bumper stickers on their Teslas distancing themselves from Musk’s politics. Tesla also was losing ground in China to homegrown rivals such as BYD. 

    Eliah Gilfenbaum, a Tesla executive in California, told his team that it was getting more challenging to hire and retain talent, according to one person who was present. He told them Tesla would be better off if Musk resigned. That was unlikely to happen, he told them, and employees needed to reconcile the boss’s politics with the company’s mission. He advised them to try to compartmentalize and just keep going. 

    After two newspapers reported on Gilfenbaum’s remarks, Gilfenbaum was forced out of Tesla, the person said. Tesla hasn’t commented on the matter.

    Tesla executives have said the company is in a transition period. Its popular Model 3 car and Model Y crossover drove a first wave of growth. Now it is pivoting to artificial intelligence and robotics, heralded by new vehicles like its Cybercab, a gold two-seater sedan with no steering wheel or pedals, and by Optimus, a humanoid robot central to Musk’s vision for the company. Musk has posited that robotics could transform Tesla into a $30 trillion company, many times its current valuation.

    Meanwhile, though, its core EV business is faltering, and its newest vehicle, the Cybertruck, hasn’t provided much of a boost. Musk pitched the Cybertruck, unveiled in 2019, as a futuristic, bulletproof alternative to old school pickups like Ford’s F150. The first versions to reach customers, in late 2023, were priced around $100,000—2½ times the price Musk first announced. 

    The truck has faced eight recalls, including on safety hardware such as the accelerator pedal and windshield wipers. In its first full year of sales, Tesla sold just 39,000 Cybertrucks in the U.S., according to Cox Automotive estimates—a fraction of the 250,000 in annual sales Musk said was the goal.

    While many investors held out hope that Tesla would release a new, low-cost model to invigorate sales in 2025, the company instead has focused on refreshing its existing lineup and lowering prices by changing out expensive parts like the material used on its seats. 

    In March, it unveiled a refresh of the Model Y, its bestselling car. In April, Tesla released a less expensive version of the Cybertruck, priced at $69,990.

    Musk and his lieutenants have redoubled their efforts to convince investors that Tesla’s long-planned autonomous vehicles are just around the corner. Tesla plans to open up its ride-hailing app to the public by the end of June, enabling customers in Austin, Texas, to take unsupervised robotaxi rides in Model Ys. That would put the company in competition with existing robotaxi services like Alphabet’s Waymo and Amazon’s Zoox.  

    In February, Tesla’s finance chief Vaibhav Taneja warned some investors that Tesla would have a “rough quarter.”

    In recent meetings with investors, board members told them that despite Musk’s government work, he was involved in Tesla meetings remotely. One board member told people that sometimes Musk wasn’t as well prepared and that he needed to be briefed more about what is happening with Tesla. The board members continued to say they believed Musk’s proximity to Trump and the White House would benefit the company over the long term. 

    Last week’s dismal earnings report showed quarterly revenue had declined 9%, including a 20% drop in automotive revenue after sales fell in important markets such as California, China and Germany. 

    Musk told investors the blowback against Tesla stemmed from his work with DOGE. “The real reason for the protests, the actual reason, is that is those receiving the waste and fraud wish to continue receiving it,” he said. “That is the real thing that’s going on here, obviously.”

    After announcing that he would spend less time in Washington and more time at Tesla, Musk defended the company’s performance and expressed optimism about its future. “We’re not on the ragged edge of death,” he said, “not even close.”

     

  3. So, after months of negotiation, Trump has told the GOP he wants more in any taxation and budget talks.  I'm sure this is going to go well.

    I was told they were not going to increase the deficit.

     

     

    https://www.axios.com/2025/04/30/trump-corporate-tax-cuts-expensing-factories

     

    Quote

    The Trump administration is pressing Congress to dramatically expand the number of business-friendly tax cuts in a budget bill that's already complicated and costly.

    Why it matters: New additions, such as full expensing to build new factories in the U.S., are leading to confusion among senators and staffers on what President Trump absolutely must have in his tax bill, and how much it will ultimately cost.

     

    Quote

    "Everything here comes down to, how do you pay for it and how does it fit into our other priorities?" Sen. Tom Tillis (R-N.C.) told Axios. 

    "When we're having such a difficult time getting 'pay fors' for the other policies in the bill. We've got to have that discussion about timing and priority."

    "Members are concerned about the price tag for new items," said a Senate official.

     

    Quote

    Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and White House National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett explained to House and Senate leaders — the Big Six — on Monday that Trump wanted the tax portions of the bill to focus on bringing manufacturing jobs back to the United States.

    The administration wants "deductibility for auto loans for American-made cars, and immediate expensing, 100% expensing for equipment," Bessent told reporters afterward.

    On Tuesday morning at the White House, Bessent doubled down. "Bring your factory back, you can fully expense the equipment and the building," he said.

     

    Spoiler

    Some of the provisions Bessent mentioned to senators — like auto loan deductions — have been raised by Trump before, but many senators didn't think they were part of his core goals.

    They assumed Trump's priority was on extending his 2017 bill and then making good on core campaign promises, like ending taxes on tips, overtime pay and Social Security benefits.

    Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told Axios he hasn't heard of the factory proposal, but said, "All this has a dollar impact. … Ultimately, we've got to get the president's signature. So we're going to have to accommodate what he wants."

    "It's one of the administration's best tax proposals," Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said about the expensing proposal.

    Between the lines: Bessent also told senators the administration wants to lower the corporate tax rate for U.S. manufacturers from 21% to 15%.

    Trump mentioned lowering the top rate during the campaign, but it wasn't a staple of his rallies. 

    Most recently, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president had not made a decision on whether he wanted to raise it.

    Many senators assumed it would stay at 21%. 

    Zoom out: In the House, the focus is on finding enough programs to cut $1.5 trillion in spending, with some House moderates drawing redlines on Medicaid cuts.

     

     

    • Haha 2
    • Fuck Around and Find Out 1
  4. But I was told Republicans were against taxes.

     

    https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/04/29/congress/house-transportation-reconciliation-text-gas-tax-00315222?nname=playbook-pm&nid=0000015a-dd3e-d536-a37b-dd7fd8af0000&nrid=0000014e-f0fd-dd93-ad7f-f8fde5bf0000

     

    Quote

    The House Transportation Committee early on Tuesday released draft text of its portion of the GOP’s sprawling domestic policy bill, which it plans to mark up Wednesday. The proposal includes $15 billion for upgrading various parts of the aviation system, as well as new fees on electric vehicles and a first-of-its-kind $20 annual fee on all other passenger vehicles.

     

     

    Quote

    The new fee is intended to move the country away from the 18.4 cents-per-gallon federal gasoline tax, which has not been raised since 1993 and has had its buying power steadily eroded even as infrastructure spending has increased. But raising it, at least on the federal level, has been a political non-starter.

    Lawmakers have toyed with the idea of moving instead to a system of charging people based on how many miles they drive, but that idea has privacy challenges and so far state-level pilot projects have not been nationalized.

     

    Quote

    Besides the broad $20 levy, the proposal would impose an annual vehicle registration fee of $200 for electric vehicles and $100 for hybrid vehicles. The new user fees are estimated to provide $50 billion over the next decade, according to the committee.

    The hybrid and EV registration fees would take effect immediately, and the fee on the other passenger vehicles would take effect in 2031, Transportation Chair Sam Graves (R-Mo.) said.

     

     

    • Like 1
  5. The Wall Street Journal posted this nifty vid explaining all the auto related tariffs that Trump is going to walk back (or greatly modify) today.  It's 8 minutes long, and everyone here is Mensa-level, so they already know the details, but it's still great to visualize just how fucked the auto industry was/is/could be:

     

     

     

     

    • Hook 'Em 4
  6. Tariffs. Working so great that now the government may subsidize automakers:

     

    https://www.theverge.com/cars/657736/trump-continues-his-tariff-retreat-with-a-new-deal-for-automakers

     

    Quote

    Trump continues his tariff retreat with a new deal for automakers.More incoming tariff flip-flopping from the White House, The Wall Street Journal reports today. Trump is expected to rollback some duties on automakers so they don’t end up paying for multiple tariffs on materials like on steel and aluminum. You know, they stuff they usually make cars out of. And here’s the kicker: Trump may end up actually reimbursing some car companies for their tariffs based on the value of the vehicle! Folks, this is what real leadership looks like. According to the Journal:

     

    Quote

    The administration will also modify its tariffs on foreign auto parts—slated to be 25% and effective May 3—allowing automakers to be reimbursed for those tariffs up to an amount equal to 3.75% of the value of a U.S.-made car for one year. The reimbursement would fall to 2.5% of the car’s value in a second year, and then be phased out altogether.

     

     

     

    • Rage+1 2
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  7. 12 minutes ago, Gap03 said:

    Congrats, Skadden and Kirkland & Ellis.  You're going to be providing free legal advice for the next 4yrs (or more) for the most vicious and unrepentant LEOs the country has ever seen.  

    played-yourself-dj-khaled.gif

     

    Somewhere, there are internal discussions ongoing on what the new hourly "rate" will be for this pro bono work.

     

     

    • Hook 'Em 3
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