Elon Musk Buys Twitter

[Breccia]

Sigh...

Musk says Biden may try to ‘weaponize’ government against Twitter if Trump returns

Musk made the comment on Wednesday in a reply to a tweet from another user who reported that Trump is planning to do so after his account was restored in November.

“Will be interesting to see how the Biden administration reacts to this. They may try to weaponize Federal agencies against Twitter,” Musk posted.

Musk’s comment comes a week after House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) officially launched the GOP’s investigation of Biden family finances and allegations surrounding President Biden’s son Hunter Biden. Comer also has sent letters to former top executives at Twitter to request they testify about their role in how the platform handled news reporting about information allegedly found on Hunter Biden’s laptop.

He said these executives played a role in “suppressing” the public’s access to information about the Biden family on Twitter ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

[Shkar]

so someone explain this to me because i cant be bothered to google and one of you little nerds will know...

if tesla went under hypothetically would all the cars die?

i keep seeing stories about high tech stuff where the companies die and then the people who have to products no longer have any support/servicing so they product is a paperweight. (the worst example was the company that was doing eye impants that stopped working when the company went down leaving people with parts in their faces that didnt work anymore).

Like if honda died tommorow my motorbike would still work, but would a tesla if tesla died?

thanks in advance.

I'm not sure anyone outside of Tesla itself could give a guaranteed yes or no, but in theory it could go either way. Tesla is a big enough brand, and makes a solid enough product in an in-demand sector, that other investors would be fighting to buy them or their assest up. Most likely, the company gets purchased, reorganized, and people are still able to get their car serviced with difficulty. Status Quo is maintained.

It would not, however, be impossible (or even particularly out of character for Musk) for a deadhand patch to be sent out to the cars in the field, preventing them from operating, and making it as difficult as possible to repair. This would be a stupid idea that would piss off just about everyone, but Musk isn't exactly the stable genius he claims to be.

For the most part, for things like those eye implants, the product goes dark because the service is niche enough that nobody wants to take it over. From what I recall of the story, their implants didn't just go dead; people were just unable to get replacement parts and certified service. A few people were even able to get by replacing parts with those that still existed.

As I explained above, this is likely not the case for Tesla.

If I recall both Toyota and BMW are beginning to sell hydrogen powered cars. (The "exhaust" is water vapor) Pity there's not much infrastructure yet.

Unfortunately, while a useful technology, this won't be a revolution. Hydrogen is a pain to get, and the only production method in sight that would be a significant greenhouse gas davings would be using nuclear energy to break down water, and we all know the issues standing in Nuclear's way.

Also, the membrane technology used in Hydrogen fuel cells is reliant on platinum and iridium, two extremely rare and valuable metals

[Edge-]

Sigh...

Musk says Biden may try to ‘weaponize’ government against Twitter if Trump returns

Jesus christ man, why the fuck are conservatives so perpetually fucking terrified everyone is out to get them?

It's not just me saying this, it's Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw of TX - https://www.texastribune.org/2021/12...ters-backlash/

"We have grifters in our midst," Crenshaw said in the clip. "I mean in the conservative movement. Lie after lie after lie. Because they know something psychologically about the conservative heart. We’re worried about what people are gonna do to us, what they’re gonna infringe upon us."

I'm just repeating the words from a conservative, which are consistently validated by comments like Elom's.

Do I actually think he believes this? Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn. He's saying this dumbass shit publicly.

[SoulForge]

Jesus christ man, why the fuck are conservatives so perpetually fucking terrified everyone is out to get them?

It's not just me saying this, it's Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw of TX - https://www.texastribune.org/2021/12...ters-backlash/



I'm just repeating the words from a conservative, which are consistently validated by comments like Elom's.

Do I actually think he believes this? Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn. He's saying this dumbass shit publicly.

Conservatives have a constant need to be on both offense and defense against something. Politicians know this. They point towards the current FOTM and release bullshit statements about it.

The Democrats are coming to take your guns.
The Democrats are coming to take your gas stoves.
The Democrats are coming to take your rights.
The Democrats are destroying America and wants to turn it into Venezuela.
The Democrats are communist.
The Democrats are socialist.
The Democrats are trying to replace you with brown people.

Literally none of it ever pans out but people buy into it anyway and the politicians parade it around as a victory of their fight against $INSERTFEARMONGERINGTARGETHERE$. Many of their followers can't even correctly define what any of this means. When people say "It's a cult" this is seeming more and more literal.

[The Stormbringer]

Too bad, we had that technology, like 60 years ago in 65, they should have had those in full production by now. https://interplex.com/resources/the-...eated-in-1966/

We all know why that didn't happen. Two words: Big Oil. They weren't about to lose their booming market to some new up-and-comer that would be super cheap and effective.

[Forogil]

We all know why that didn't happen. Two words: Big Oil. They weren't about to lose their booming market to some new up-and-comer that would be super cheap and effective.

Unfortunately hydrogen is problematic for a number of reasons, and the involvement of Big Oil isn't what you think.

Some problems are how to generate it efficiently, how to store it (it seeps through most walls, and if you want it in a dense form there are additional problems) etc.

The easiest way to generate is to generate by cracking natural oil - which is good for "Big Oil" and not so good for the environment.

[Endus]

Jesus christ man, why the fuck are conservatives so perpetually fucking terrified everyone is out to get them?

It's not just me saying this, it's Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw of TX - https://www.texastribune.org/2021/12...ters-backlash/



I'm just repeating the words from a conservative, which are consistently validated by comments like Elom's.

Do I actually think he believes this? Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn. He's saying this dumbass shit publicly.

I see the buzzword of the month is "weaponize".

Republicans are just now realizing that law enforcement is inherently, always, violence. The government is always, inherently, "weaponized" against criminal actions. Their problem is they're chickenshit cowards, and uncomfortable with the idea that law enforcement's muzzle might aim their way, even if they're unwilling to stop engaging in criminal fucking action that's deserving of such targeting.

[The Stormbringer]

Unfortunately hydrogen is problematic for a number of reasons, and the involvement of Big Oil isn't what you think.

Some problems are how to generate it efficiently, how to store it (it seeps through most walls, and if you want it in a dense form there are additional problems) etc.

The easiest way to generate is to generate by cracking natural oil - which is good for "Big Oil" and not so good for the environment.

*blinks* I'm pretty sure the easiest way to get Hydrogen is... *waves at the ocean*

[Forogil]

*blinks* I'm pretty sure the easiest way to get Hydrogen is... *waves at the ocean*

And you'll be wrong; one benefit of hydrogen as a good fuel is that it releases a lot of energy when making water.

Reversing that obviously takes a lot of energy - so it wouldn't be an energy source in itself, and additionally it requires a lot of energy. (Same reason it produces a lot of energy.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_production gives that 95% of hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels; and even if you can take electricity and produce hydrogen using electrolysis the obvious question is: why not just charge a battery?

[The Stormbringer]

And you'll be wrong; one benefit of hydrogen as a good fuel is that it releases a lot of energy when making water.

Reversing that obviously takes a lot of energy - so it wouldn't be an energy source in itself, and additionally it requires a lot of energy. (Same reason it produces a lot of energy.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_production gives that 95% of hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels; and even if you can take electricity and produce hydrogen using electrolysis the obvious question is: why not just charge a battery?

Because batteries are less efficient than hydrogen? I'm pretty sure the ideal process is: Solar -> Electrolysis of Water -> Hydrogen for Fuel Cells

[Breccia]

Revenue at Twitter is massively down

Well, we have a statement about that from Musk himself.

VE RI TAS

Whoops, that's not about the revenue from Twitter at all! Maybe I missed some of it.

(double-checks the post)

No, that's literally the entire post. One word. Maybe he was replying to someone?

(checks post again)

Nope, stand-alone post. Just the word Veritas. No context. Not even a picture. I mean, at least later today he also posted

Twitter is arguably already the least wrong source of truth on the Internet, but we obviously still have a long way to go.

which...I mean, how do you even respond to that? That's like saying Donald Trump has the largest dick in Florida. Sure, everyone knows it's a lie, but everyone's so sure they don't even bother to cite a source. They just handwave it as the obvious lie it is and move on with their lives.

Well, nevermind then, I will just post this article about Musk and the interest he's due to pay.

TL:DR skip to the bolded blue line.

Spoiler alert: the author isn't convinced he will.

The billionaire and the microblogging platform must make the first interest payment on the $13 billion debt he took on to finance the $44 billion acquisition of the social network on Oct. 27.

The debt comes with interest payments of around $1.5 billion a year.

This debt was allocated to Twitter's balance sheet and had been contracted with a group of banks, led by Morgan Stanley and including Bank of America, Barclays, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, BNP Paribas, Mizuho Financial Group and Societe Generale.

As a result, Twitter has three large pieces of debt: $6.5 billion that was meant to be sold to leveraged-loan investors, and $6 billion of bridge loans, split equally between a secured and unsecured tranche, that banks had planned to sell in the form of junk bonds, according to Bloomberg News.

If you're wondering why I bolded that word, you'll find out soon enough.

All the debt appears to have quarterly interest payments, according to a debt commitment letter filed with the Security and Exchange Commission.

The first payment is due at the end of January. The amount is around $300 million according to Bloomberg News' calculations, which are based mainly on the commitment letter.

The billionaire, who owns a nearly 80% stake in Twitter 2.0, had raised the specter of bankruptcy. In doing so, he left on the table all options regarding repayment of the company's debt, including a possible default.

Then some stuff we know about Musk firing thousands and thousands more quitting.

This had caused general chaos, made worse by the decision of many advertisers to pause promoting their products and services on the platform. That occurred after the billionaire determined to reactivate most of the accounts that Twitter 1.0 had banned for violating its policies.

The tech tycoon's laissez-faire approach to content management caused an exodus of advertisers. Consequently, in early November, Musk reported that Twitter was losing $4 million a day.

Okay I feel the need to interrupt here. In the same Tweet in which Musk admitted he was losing $4 million a day, he also added

Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required.

First, I don't believe him. Based on the fact that he's selling a pizza oven on eBay, no way did he offer more than he was required. Also, I think the fact that the people he fired are suing him backs up the whole "he's lying" bit.

Second, "everyone exited was offered"? Did he also get his English lessons from “I Made It the Fuck Up” University? Or does Musk use "exit" as a verb like "I caught him in bed with my wife so I exited him through a window"?

Right, back to the article.

During Twitter Spaces, the billionaire also said that Twitter's costs were expected to be $5 billion this year, but adding the debt payments brought the figure to $6.5 billion. The firm's total costs and expenses amounted to $5.57 billion in 2021, the most recent year of full reporting, according to a SEC filing. Twitter lost $221.4 million that year.

He had estimated that his efforts to revamp the company would generate about $3 billion in revenue in 2022, down from the $5.1 billion generated in 2021.

But the Techno King showed cautious optimism, saying the company would have around $1 billion in cash on its balance sheet.

"I now think that Twitter will, in fact, be okay next year,” Musk said during the December Twitter Spaces. He added that the firm will "roughly” hit cash flow break-even. But “this will be difficult."

Another unknown is the performance of the Twitter Blue subscription service, the price of which Musk has hiked. Are subscriptions to Blue successful?

"Twitter isn’t secure yet, just not in the fast lane to bankruptcy," the serial entrepreneur said on Dec. 24 on Twitter. "Still much work to do."

Okay here's the new info.

Musk has three options. He simply can repay the $300 million interest by tapping into the cash flow he talked about back in December. He can also sell additional Tesla shares to pay that interest.

The banks were considering replacing some of the high-interest debt with new margin loans backed by Tesla stock that the billionaire would be personally responsible for repaying.

The final option the tech tycoon has is to file for corporate bankruptcy to force a restructuring of Twitter's debt.

Given Musk's unpredictable personality, it's hard to know which option he'll choose. Musk in December also announced his resignation as CEO of Twitter. He is currently seeking a successor to take the helm at the social-media company.

Now, since Musk publicly stated that Twitter was a bad company losing money before, during, and after the takeover, I don't see why banks would give him any credit at all. If neither Twitter nor Tesla are doing well, banks might simply stick to the original contract and demand the cash, rather than what even they, apparently, are calling "junk bonds".

Musk can choose to pay that cash. He's surely got it.

If Musk doesn't like that, he'll declare bankruptcy, and watch as the company he overpaid for dies within months of his takeover. I don't see a realistic or even unrealistic way Musk does anything other than lose a big pile of cash when this happens.

But that bolded word above? Gosh, haven't we all learned a lot about how bankruptcy works from Trump, Alex Jones, and Tom Brady recently. When a company goes bankrupt, secured loans are typically paid first. That's why Alex Jones bought a bunch of fake drugs from himself.

Anyone on the low end of the Twitter debt totem pole right now should be very concerned. Musk is very clearly not having fun, and that's all this was for him -- fun. There was a negative five percent chance he was going to turn Twitter into a profitable company overnight. Musk tried to Fallout First his way out of Twitter debt and it's not working.

I have every faith in Musk's vanity that he will make the payments due at the end of this month. But I have no faith in his ability to, somehow, turn negative four million a day into positive anything in three months. I think he'll default in April.

But regardless on if I turn out to be right or wrong, the fact that people who actually know what they're talking about (i.e. not me) are saying bankruptcy is a pretty clear exit strategy Musk could and might take, that's not great news.

Twitter's losing money, Musk's losing money, and he can't stop it even if he tried. And that's the truth. Man, there should be a word for that.

[Shkar]

Because batteries are less efficient than hydrogen? I'm pretty sure the ideal process is: Solar -> Electrolysis of Water -> Hydrogen for Fuel Cells

Hydrogen is, indeed, a fairly good replacement for batteries for vehicles. Forogil is also correct that, based on our energy production options, pretty much every option except nuclear means that the greenhouse gas savings are minimal at best.

Add in the Platinum and Iridium membrane issue, and hydrogen is not the savior people are looking for.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Well, we have a statement about that from Musk himself.



Whoops, that's not about the revenue from Twitter at all! Maybe I missed some of it.

(double-checks the post)

No, that's literally the entire post. One word. Maybe he was replying to someone?

(checks post again)

Nope, stand-alone post. Just the word Veritas. No context. Not even a picture. I mean, at least later today he also posted

Something to keep in mind about Musk's Twitter:

In a somewhat unrelated story, Steven Crowder was offered 50m to make content for the Daily Wire. The Daily Wire does not make enough money to pay Crowder 50m over 4 years. So how could they offer to pay Crowder 50m a year to make social media/youtube content? Crowder is a big conservative personality along with Ben Shapiro who is the main personality at the Daily Wire.

The answer is pretty clear, there's money being funneled into these right wing propagandists behind the scenes. We know Elmo is taking money from the Saudis and very likely Russia as well.

I'd say the biggest war going on right now is the culture war. The "right wing" sphere which includes the right within the US as well as ultra conservative Islamic states and Russia which itself embraces hyper conservative values.

At this time in the world, the USA is at the middle of the world. English has basically become the de facto international language because of US trade. The dollar is universally revered. Right now, the US is the battle field of this culture war and most don't even know it, because most parts of the world either fall into the liberal sphere or the conservative sphere. The US is split down the middle, and both sides of vying for supremacy in the US.

So of course Elmo is having money funneled into his endeavors to make Twitter a right wing propaganda machine.

[Forogil]

Because batteries are less efficient than hydrogen?

You misspelled "more" as "less", and I don't see what this has got to do with Twitter.

To reiterate - hydrogen is primarily from fossil fuels, and there are a number of problems with storing and transporting (e.g., liquifying it) - both in terms of doing and in terms of efficiency. So, despite big oil actually benefiting more from hydrogen cars the electric cars are winning.

Even serious companies (like BMW) trying to sell hydrogen cars agree, but see other benefits (cold weather handling, refueling time).

[Endus]

And you'll be wrong; one benefit of hydrogen as a good fuel is that it releases a lot of energy when making water.

Reversing that obviously takes a lot of energy - so it wouldn't be an energy source in itself, and additionally it requires a lot of energy. (Same reason it produces a lot of energy.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_production gives that 95% of hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels; and even if you can take electricity and produce hydrogen using electrolysis the obvious question is: why not just charge a battery?

Theoretically, it is a battery. Set up conversion plants on the ocean that use local wind/tide/solar to convert seawater to hydrogen and oxygen which you can store in tanks for easy transport. Shuffle that wherever you need on-demand energy, and do the reverse to basically get the energy "back". You're essentially "banking" that energy in the chemical conversion and then extracting it on-demand where you need it.

You could do this anywhere you had a surplus of easy water supply and renewable implementation, the ocean's just a super-easy location that hits all those points, and there's essentially no near-term fear of using "too much water", since the ocean's fuckin' massive. By the time our draw becomes a factor, we're probably hydrofarming comets and such.

While batteries also serve a similar function, battery tech itself can be a bit problematic, given things like rare earth metals extraction processes and the like.

[Shkar]

Theoretically, it is a battery. Set up conversion plants on the ocean that use local wind/tide/solar to convert seawater to hydrogen and oxygen which you can store in tanks for easy transport. Shuffle that wherever you need on-demand energy, and do the reverse to basically get the energy "back". You're essentially "banking" that energy in the chemical conversion and then extracting it on-demand where you need it.

You could do this anywhere you had a surplus of easy water supply and renewable implementation, the ocean's just a super-easy location that hits all those points, and there's essentially no near-term fear of using "too much water", since the ocean's fuckin' massive. By the time our draw becomes a factor, we're probably hydrofarming comets and such.

While batteries also serve a similar function, battery tech itself can be a bit problematic, given things like rare earth metals extraction processes and the like.

Hydrogen has all the transport problems of LNG but worse, and also needs specialized containers to prevent the hydrogen from just slipping out of the tanks.

Ultimately, based on our current level of knowledge and expertise, hydrogen vehicles are basically a step up from things like solar roadways. The technology is worth more development, but its niche would be filled easier by using regular electric vehicles and throwing up some water towers to store energy that's then put back into the grid.

[Flarelaine]

Hydrogen does not belong in this thread. Try the one about global warming.

[Paranoid Android]

Elon claims he had side effects of vaccine.


Elon Musk Claims He Had ‘Major Side Effects’ From Covid Booster Shot: ‘Felt Like I Was Dying

Musk’s tweets came in response to Rasmussen Reports data claiming a minority of those who have taken the Covid vaccine reported facing “major side effects.” Dilbert creator and political pundit Scott Adams shared the content, asking how to “interpret” such data, and Musk revealed his own apparent experience.

“I had major side effects from my second booster shot. Felt like I was dying for several days. Hopefully, no permanent damage, but I dunno,” the Twitter CEO tweeted. “And my cousin, who is young & in peak health, had a serious case of myocarditis. Had to go to the hospital.”

So you want to elaborate Elon? What side effects?

Musk clarified in more messages that he was not referring to side effects from the actual vaccine, saying his Johnson & Johnson shot and a followup booster went over fine

.

I had OG C19 before vaccines came out and it was basically a mild cold.

Then had J&J vaccine with no bad effects, except my arm hurt briefly.

First mRNA booster was ok, but the second one crushed me.

So he didn't say any major side effects in fact none at all and his lil arm hurt. Poor Elon.

Musk said he did not get the booster by choice, but instead had to get it to visit a Tesla operation in Germany.

So all sudden the anti-vaxxers were going crazy on his timeline. He gave his reason why he had to.

[Edge-]

What a weak baby. I thought conservatives were all supposed to be manly, masculine alpha dogs that can handle anything, why's he crying about feeling like he has a cold for a few days?

Why hasn't he seen a doctor about this? I assume he can afford it?

Honestly, I'm sad that he hasn't gotten a wicked case of covid that leaves him in a hospital with a breathing tube shoved down his throat and an induced coma, yet. Due continues to be a fantastic candidate for the Herman Caine award.

[Paranoid Android]

What a weak baby. I thought conservatives were all supposed to be manly, masculine alpha dogs that can handle anything, why's he crying about feeling like he has a cold for a few days?

Why hasn't he seen a doctor about this? I assume he can afford it?

Honestly, I'm sad that he hasn't gotten a wicked case of covid that leaves him in a hospital with a breathing tube shoved down his throat and an induced coma, yet. Due continues to be a fantastic candidate for the Herman Caine award.

He doesn't give symptoms though. He states mild cold but what symptoms? Maybe I want to read too much into it but I think he is making it up. Plus mild cold symptoms are not serious once more to the reply of that dipshit who thinks .02% or whatever is a health crisis for major symptoms.

Also he cites his brother, but does his brother back this up? I mean if true wouldn't you come hard with some evidence.

Gawd Elon is such a effin conservative. Just do the "I heard" or "happened to me, but not telling you" shit. Always in their minds but can't share facts and data. Glad this asshole is running a social media platform.