231
Democratic Senator Mark Kelly to let go of his Tesla over Musk’s federal cuts
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
231 points (99.1% liked)
politics
21845 readers
4957 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
But he thought it was cool to have one in the first place.
Send him home.
EDIT: I will double-down for the downvoters. There was never, ever anything cool about owning a Tesla. Only superficial cunts bought them. If that's you, own it.
What a dumb take.
Thank you. I post often.
Like and follow, and don't forget to ring the bell to get my content first.
Uh... Maybe he thought it was cool to use an EV and not contribute to dooming the planet?
So he went with Musk, the biggest cancer we have, a known entity for at least a decade?
Mmm, 'kay.
Uhh, sorry, not sure what timeline you're referring to, but Musk was being compared to Tony Stark up until about 2022. He was a weird and eccentric douche, but hadn't gone right-wing MAGA evil yet. Tesla was on top and it was not controversial (to most centre-left) to have one. In fact it was a progressive statement until recently. Plus SpaceX was fucking rocking it and that would have been important to Mark Kelly.
This is Elon in 2018 showing his butt
His hyperloop bullshit started around 2012-2013 and he admitted to his biographer Ashlee Vance that the Hyperloop proposal was only intended to get legislators to cancel plans for high-speed rail in California.
He had no plans to develop it at the time, it was just a tool, like him
Yes, he was a douche, asshole, fucknut, etc. Sorry I thought I had mentioned the 2018 thing in my comment but must have forgotten. That, to me, was the point where he really started his downward slide. It's certainly an inflection point where people who thought he was a genius started to get the picture that he wasnt. But that didn't make him the biggest cancer we have. That was mid-Trump v1 for fuck's sake. Plus that was 7 years ago, not a decade.
And we only learned that he said that in 2021 or 2022 or something like that!
It was obvious. He never had a product, never had shit, and went after the high-speed rail contract specifically.
Here's a Bloomberg article from 2013 that shows many people back then knew exactly what Musk was doing.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-08-13/california-s-bullet-train-builders-to-elon-musk-and-his-hyperloop-best-of-luck
BUT, I'm done doing everyone's homework for them. Think what you like.
Lol, do your own homework and stop revising history based on what we know now. Your new link doesn't say shit about musk's intentions, just that some people said he was out-to-lunch. That does not show him being the biggest cancer. There have been plenty of times people said what he was trying to do was impossible, for example, landing rockets.
I didn't say and I'm not arguing that he had a product in the hyperloop and I'm certainly not defending him. He's done plenty of shitty shit we haven't even talked about (ahem, astrophotography). I'm defending Mark Kelly's latest action from your holier-than-thou bullshit. There are plenty of articles talking about the change in Musk in the last three years to become hateful and right-leaning.
Before that he was publicly calling out Trump and defending things like the Paris agreement. Tesla had pushed the all-electric vehicle to being what it is today and even if it wasn't all him, his backing/money certainly helped and he was the face of that. SpaceX changed spaceflight as we know it. Starlink was creating a whole new way for people to access the internet (again, not defending him, I know the other side of this one, but it was becoming and has become a very important thing to a lot of people). There was the big power reserve plant in Australia 2017/2018. I think it was around 2021 that things started to fall apart publicly for the solar roof stuff, but before that there was a lot of hope around it.
Just because you hated musk for however long you've hated him, it doesn't mean everyone could have predicted what's going on now. You want us to say you were right? Fine, assuming you've been saying for 10 years that he's the biggest cancer, good on ya. You got it right.
But if you had said that even four years ago (like when Mark Kelly bought his Tesla), there would have been a lot of people jumping on you with all the great things he's pushed forward, despite being a weird-ass douchebag who also did many shitty things.
So instead of focusing on calling out Mark Kelly for his mistake 4 years ago, how about saying, good, at least someone is taking an action, publicly, loudly, however small, against what's going on now. There are plenty of them that are just sitting back and watching, focus your ire on them. Stick together and give the ones who are fighting a boost instead of trying to kick them back down because of some perceived iniquity in the past.
Tesla was (and remained) a class signal, a tag for rich people.
It was never a Prius.
Hence all the self-driving technology and cyber truck and all that other bullshit, trying to make it seem "elite" and add value to a deeply flawed product. Let's not forget that the cyber truck trunk will cut your finger off easily, maybe your whole hand, and any Tesla will gladly seal you inside its compartment in an accident and wait for you to burn to a cinder. No government outcry, maybe because he's the world's richest man?
But hey, you defend Tesla all you like. I'll let the Tesla motors club talk about their own product. And I quote: "...if you’re the type that prefaces sentences and expectations with 'if I’m spending $100k on a car you damn well bet...' ... you’re less likely to be satisfied.'
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/fit-and-finish-issues.214005/
According to the article he's had it since at least 2021. If you're not paying attention to Musk (like, you know, the vast majority of people) you wouldn't think anything of Musk in 2021. And in the first place were there other strong players in the EV market in 2021?
Yes, Musk didn't go full Trumpet until roughly 2023, though signs of his shittery were apparent even in '21 if you paid any attention at all. The whole "pedoguy" thing happened in 2018. But yes, most people wouldn't have known about that in the torrent of news that came out in between 2018 and 2021.
I'm just glad that today, swastikars are a whole lot less desirable than Teslas were in '21. :)
Most people? We are talking about an active politician. He was aware. Musk bought Twitter in April 2022, but he was being a full-on turd way before that.
Sorry, I noticed it was the guy before you (@[email protected] ) who said that a Democratic Senator and astronaut wouldn't know Musk was a scumbag.
Riiiiiight.
Why the hell would an active politician care about 2021 Musk? The guy is a senator he likely had better things to worry about. And in the first place, why are you assuming he bought it in 2021? He had already bought it by 2021, but it could easily be from even before that. And again, were there any good alternatives in the EV market?
Do you hear yourself?
Whatever - Hey, you're completely right, you win the argument. He HAD to buy that Tesla. He was too busy engaging in politics to notice the world's richest man becoming a huge right-wing influencer!
I wish he was here right now so I could apologize to him personally for criticizing him buying that piece of shit fad car back in the day.
... Yikes. You do not handle having your preconceptions challenged at all gracefully, and it really damages the credibility of any support you lend to a movement when you behave like this.
Well you're right. I have terrible people skills. I become aggressive when I perceive myself (or my views) being attacked. I have a lot of problems making myself understood, online and in real life.
Your assessment of my personality is spot on. I am in therapy. Should I just hide away and never engage because sometimes I get wrapped around the axle? Shit, I don't know.
I'm sorry everyone. I know not what I do. I will not speak on this thread again.
In 21 you could have gotten some of the first Ford Mustang MachEs to come off the line, if you were lucky. Chevy was doing ok with the bolt, but I’ve never personally liked the style of the bolt. Leafs were another OK model specifically for commuting, but IIRC Kelly lives in Tucson and if he was making regular trips to Phoenix a leaf wouldn’t have cut it. Polestar was available, but relatively unknown. And I think a few luxury brands had EVs at that point. So yes there were other EV players, but “strong” is a subjective term, unless you were doing a fair amount of research you likely wouldn’t have known about them.
Only two of what you mentioned are American brands, which is probably pretty relevant for a Senator to consider.