Japanese Wolf Robots on the Prowl

"Super Monster Wolf" in Kisarazu, Chiba prefecture

A Japanese company making ferocious-looking robot wolves is being swamped by orders after record numbers of fatal bear attacks on humans last year.  "Monster Wolf" is an animatoronic scarecrow with flashing red eyes that howls and growls menacingly to scare away wild animals.

Ohta Seiki, the Hokkaido-based firm that makes the devices, has already received around 50 orders this year, more than the usual volume for an entire year.  "We make them by hand. We cannot make them fast enough now. We are asking our customers to wait two to three months," company president Yuji Ohta told AFP.  "Awareness of bear safety and measures against wildlife damage (on farm products) improved. There was also a growing recognition that our product is effective in dealing with bears," Ohta said.

Orders come mostly from farmers, operators of golf courses and people working outside in rural areas such as in construction.  Bears killed 13 people across Japan in 2025-2026, more than twice the previous high.  More than 50,000 bear sightings were recorded nationwide, more than double the previous record set two years before.  The animals were seen entering homes, roaming near schools and rampaging through supermarkets and hot spring resorts on an almost daily basis.

The number of bears captured and then culled nearly tripled from a year earlier to 14,601, also marking an all-time high.  Last month, some northern regions also reported more than four times as many sightings as last year as the animals emerge from hibernation, local media said.

"Monster Wolf" features artificial fur draped over an assembled pipe frame, attached to speakers, topped with a menacing, open-mouthed face.  For prices starting from around $4,000 or higher, the system comes with a battery, solar panels, sensors, speakers and other apparatus.  It broadcasts more than 50 kinds of recorded sounds, including human voices and electronic noises, audible up to one kilometer away.  The device turns its head from side to side, flashes red LED eyes, while its tail is equipped with blue LEDs.

Ohta introduced the product in 2016 to prevent damage to agricultural products by deer, boars and bears, and it was initially derided as a gimmick.  The company is now upgrading the device by putting it on wheels to chase animals or patrol specific paths.  Ohta also plans to develop a hand-held version for hikers, anglers and schoolchildren, while also exploring artificial intelligence cameras for future models.   "We wanted to apply our manufacturing to do our part to deal with bears," he said.

 

The Trump Phone is Looking Like a Big Scam

The T1 Phone (a gold cell phone bearing President Donald Trump’s name) feels about as real as Bigfoot these days. It’s been close to a year since the flashy announcement that the Trump family was going to manufacture the very best, most American, most gold-plated phone ever. But there’s no phone in sight, and it’s increasingly looking like there never will be.

But if it never arrives, what happens to the $59 million that Trump Mobile raked in thanks to 590,000 suckers plopping down $100 each as a deposit?  By now, you should know how this works. Those folks are likely out of luck. Why would you ever give money to the Trump family on spec? They are just going to run away with it. 

After kicking the can down the road for months, Trump Mobile appears to have stealth-added some terms and conditions in April, intended to address the whole pre-order deposit problem. And if the Wayback Machine is accurate, these seem not to be updated terms but rather terms that may have never existed before April 6.

If you’re one of the people who gave away your $100, these terms will not engender confidence that you will ever get your gilded monstrosity of a phone. First, a pre-order deposit “does not guarantee that a Device will be produced or made available for purchase.” You should also know that the “deposit does not lock in pricing, promotions, service plans, taxes, fees, shipping costs, or other commercial terms.” However, that statement is just a few lines down from a banner urging people to “LOCK IN YOUR T1 PHONE PROMOTIONAL PRICING NOW,” with a link to the order page. 

The deposit also isn’t for a specific phone but for whatever phone Trump Mobile finally releases, if any: “Device specifications, features, software, hardware components, storage capacities, bundled accessories, colors, and configurations are subject to change prior to final sale. Images, prototypes, beta demonstrations, and marketing renderings are illustrative only and may not reflect final production units.”

They had to get that in there, given that the illustrations of the nonexistent phone keep changing. At first, the phone was going to be “All-American,” all the time. However, the mock-up image appeared to be Samsung’s Galaxy 25 Ultra in a case. Notably, Samsung’s phones are not made in America. But the company has walked back that whole part anyway.   If Trump Mobile cancels the phone, they say they will issue a full refund. Of course, if Trump Mobile never cancels the phone and instead pretends that it is a going concern, that route to a refund is seemingly closed off.

Oh, and here’s another fun little thing. Other terms of service on Trump Mobile explain that disputes are subject to arbitration and courts in Palm Beach County, Florida,  which have exclusive jurisdiction over enforcing arbitration decisions.  But the terms and conditions no longer have an arbitration provision, so your only relief would be to file a lawsuit in Palm Beach County, Florida.   An entire lawsuit to get your $100 back, and it can be filed only in the county where Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate lives?  Good luck on that.

 

As If You Needed Another Reason to Avoid Tesla

When Tom LoSavio bought hisTesla Model S in 2017, he thought he was buying a car that would one day drive itself.  LoSavio paid more than $100,000 for the luxury sedan, including $8,000 for lifetime access to its most advanced driver-assistance features. Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said that the hardware in the company’s cars would eventually allow all of its cars to drive themselves.  “My wife and I talked about what a great thing it would be if we could just get in a car and have it drive us places,” LoSavio told The Wall Street Journal.

In the nine years since, LoSavio said it has become clear that Tesla took him for a ride. He is the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit that alleges that Tesla charged customers thousands of dollars in pricey upgrades for a product that didn’t, and still doesn’t, exist.  LoSavio alleges that Musk and Tesla have made repeated claims that were false about the self-driving capabilities of these vehicles and misled consumers who paid extra because they believed the company’s marketing. His lawsuit is one of several ongoing efforts by Tesla owners looking to hold the company accountable for overpromising and under-delivering on its Full Self-Driving (FSD) product.

Tesla is facing mounting legal issues in Netherland and Australia, over charges that the company misled customers about the cars’ capabilities. The matter calls into question Musk’s decade-long marketing pitch that Tesla’s autonomous vehicles were just around the corner. That promise kept Tesla’s stock near all-time highs—and with a market cap that exceeds most other automakers combined—even as its share of the electric-vehicle market has eroded.

The lawsuits and European campaign represent just thousands of Tesla customers. Wall Street analysts, however, estimate that there are millions of Teslas on the road with the outdated hardware no longer capable of running the most sophisticated version of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software.  LoSavio won class-action status for his lawsuit in September. The class represents approximately 3,000 people in California, a figure that excludes the many Tesla owners who have signed arbitration agreements with the company that prevent them from suing. 

Tesla started including early versions of its self-driving tech in its vehicles in 2014. By 2015, Musk was publicly claiming that Tesla vehicles could drive themselves entirely within two years. Then in 2016, Tesla announced that all new cars built from then on had the hardware required for full self-driving. Musk told the press that a Tesla would drive itself from Los Angeles to New York City by the end of 2017.

But it was all bullshit.  Eventually Tesla’s plans required a more sophisticated computer and cameras than were installed in LoSavio’s car. In 2020 and 2021, it started offering customers upgrades to the third edition of its computer and camera set. Some customers like LoSavio, who paid upfront for lifetime access, got complimentary upgrades from Tesla. Others who wanted to use the FSD/self-driving technology but paid monthly could pay $1,000 for the upgrade.

Then in 2023, Tesla upgraded its hardware for the fourth time and started selling new cars with its latest chip. That meant that customers like LoSavio, who got updated to the third-edition computer a few years prior, once again had outdated equipment. The company hasn’t made any moves since January 2025, when Musk told investors that the company would have to do yet another computer upgrade for customers who bought the lifetime FSD (Full Self-Driving) package.

 

Chips With a Double-Dip of Cheese

On August 6, 2024, Trump promised: “We’ll be putting a tariff of approximately 100% on chips and semiconductors ... But if you’re building in the United States of America, there’s no charge.”

As you can guess, the sweeping 100% on computer chips has yet to go into effect. When announcing his plans to impose the levy back in August, Trump was not specific about the timing. And other details have remained scarce.

 

New Type of ATM Theft Getting Traction with Local Gangs

ATM "jackpotting" is the exploitation of physical and software vulnerabilities in ATM machines that result in the machines dispensing cash. These attacks can happen at any time and typically take very little time so culprits can quickly commit the crime.  ATM jackpotting uses the elements of both physical crime and cybercrime to get an ATM to dispense cash. The offenders use a portable device to physically connect to the ATM. This "rogue" device can be a laptop, a smartphone or a tablet PC. They also use malware to target the machine's cash dispenser and force it to dispense cash.

Furthermore, attackers will often use deception to limit risk, like dressing as service personnel to avoid scrutiny while selecting easier targets, such as ATMs in isolated locations or unprotected by human security guards.  With physical access to a machine, ATM jackpotting enables the theft of the machine's cash reserves, which are not tied to the balance of any one bank account. Successful thieves who remain undetected can potentially walk away with all the cash that was stored in the machine at that time.

China Played Trump Like a Chump (Again)

Convicted felon Donald Trump has been trying to claim victory in his ongoing trade tantrum with China, but look past the bravado and it’s clear that Chinese Premier Xi Jinping played the president—again. Even worse, it looks like Trump just surrendered some of the United States’ most advanced technology to our largest adversary for a literal hill of beans.

Trump’s new Chinese trade deal would see the U.S. selling its most advanced Blackwell artificial intelligence chips to China in exchange for a Chinese commitment to resume the country’s purchases of American soybeans, which ground to a halt during the latest trade unrest. Cybersecurity experts and U.S. business leaders now warn that giving China easy access to AI technology will make it even harder for American companies to compete in global markets while making it easier for Chinese operatives to compromise national security.  “The defining fight of the 21st century will be who controls artificial intelligence,” Delaware Sen. Chris Coons told CNN. “It would be a tragic mistake for President Trump, in order to get some soybean orders out of China, to sell them these critical cutting-edge AI chips.” 

Trump’s short-sighted soybean deal is just the most visible part of a trade deal that appears to benefit China on nearly every front. As The New York Times notes, Xi’s scheme to block American access to Chinese rare earth metals worked perfectly, bringing U.S. negotiators to the table without China actually needing to offer anything new. Xi’s team effectively offered Trump the chance to return to a deal the two nations already had in place, while American negotiators offered up a host of new concessions that will allow Xi to expand China’s growing tech dominance.

In addition to giving China access to the world’s most advanced AI chips, Trump also announced he would cut his more recent 20% tariff on Chinese goods by half, while also agreeing to remove export limits on key Chinese products. Those penalties were put in place earlier this year in an effort to stop the flow of fentanyl from Chinese ports, a fight Trump is now abandoning after only a few short months. It was a stinging defeat for a president who absolutely hates losing. 

The changing power dynamic was visible in Trump’s new and weaker language about Chinese fentanyl. Just months after threatening to shut down all trade with China unless they immediately halted the flow of fentanyl, Trump now seemed to acknowledge that it was China—not the United States—setting the terms of the negotiation.  “I believe that they’re going to help us with the fentanyl situation,” Trump told reporters. “They’re going to be doing what they can do.”

Trump’s sudden backtracking on everything from technology security to drug trafficking stunned Jeremy Mark, a nonresident senior fellow at the nonpartisan Atlantic Council.   “However the White House chooses to portray the agreement in the coming weeks, there is no avoiding the fact that Beijing has tremendous advantages in the ongoing negotiations,” Mark recently wrote.

So why did Trump fold so quickly on an issue as important to American national security as controlling the flow of highly advanced AI technology to foreign powers? One word: Nvidia. 

As If Anyone Needed Another Reason to Avoid Musk's Deathtraps

Max Walsh spotted the plume of smoke just as an emergency alert flashed on his smartwatch: Vehicle fire with entrapment.  Less than a minute later, the off-duty firefighter pulled up to a busy intersection in northern Virginia, where a Tesla Model Y lay crumpled and aflame against a utility pole. aving responded to electric vehicle fires before, Walsh knew what he was up against: electrically powered doors that may not function after a crash, manual releases that can be hard to find and battery cells that burn more intensely than gasoline. 

Every second mattered. He sprinted to the SUV. The driver’s door wouldn’t open, but the window was cracked. Walsh smashed it with his bare hands and reached inside, burning himself in the process. “I’m trying to open the door and it’s like, ‘What the hell, where is the backup thing?’”  Unable to find the mechanical release, he and a friend pulled the dazed driver, Venkateswara Pasumarti, up and out through the window frame. “Who else is in the car?”  Walsh yelled. Pasumarti managed one word: “wife.”

Susmita Maddi was pinned by air bags in the passenger seat, flames entering the cabin, the car’s electrical system dead, the doors not opening.  Bystanders pounded on the glass as the smoke thickened.  By the time rescuers arrived with hydraulic cutters, Maddi had inhaled enough fumes to do lasting damage to her lungs and suffered third-degree burns to her face.“It’s the most horrible thing, to see a human burning,” Walsh said in a recent interview recounting the December 2023 crash.  “If I was able to open the doors, I could have gotten them both out before the fire department even got there.”

Under Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, Tesla has built its reputation — and much of its trillion-dollar market value — on sleek design, engineering excellence and an exceptional safety record.  But whereas Teslas fare well in government-administered crash tests, certain hallmarks of its vehicles — flush door handles, electrical power, mechanical releases — are flummoxing occupants and first responders. This can turn moments after crashes into deadly races against time.

The Virginia crash is one of a string of incidents exposing this paradox.

Tesla Ordered to Pay $243M in Autopilot Car Crash

A Miami jury decided that Elon Musk’s car company Tesla was partly responsible for a deadly crash in Florida involving its Autopilot driver assist technology and must pay the victims more than $200 million in damages.

The federal jury held that Tesla bore significant responsibility because its technology failed and that not all the blame can be put on a reckless driver, even one who admitted he was distracted by his cell phone before hitting a young couple out gazing at the stars. The decision comes as Musk seeks to convince Americans his cars are safe enough to drive on their own as he plans to roll out a driverless taxi service in several cities in the coming months.

The decision ends a four-year long case remarkable not just in its outcome but that it even made it to trial. Many similar cases against Tesla have been dismissed and, when that didn’t happen, settled by the company to avoid the spotlight of a trial.  

 Tesla has previously faced criticism that it is slow to cough up crucial data by relatives of other victims in Tesla crashes, accusations that the car company has denied. In this case, the plaintiffs showed Tesla had the evidence all along, despite its repeated denials, by hiring a forensic data expert who dug it up. 

“This will open the floodgates,” said Miguel Custodio, a car crash lawyer not involved in the Tesla case. “It will embolden a lot of people to come to court.”

Data Centers Are Screwing Up the Water Supply

When Beverly Morris retired in 2016, she thought she had found her dream home - a peaceful stretch of rural Georgia, surrounded by trees and quiet.  Today, it's anything but.  Just 400 yards from her front porch in Fayette County sits a large, windowless building filled with servers, cables, and blinking lights.

It's a data center - one of many popping up across small-town America, and around the globe, to power everything from crypto currencies to artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT.  "I can't live in my home with half of my home functioning and no water," Ms Morris says. "I can't drink the water."

She believes the construction of the center, which is owned by Meta (the parent company of Facebook), disrupted her private well, causing an excessive build-up of sediment. Ms Morris now hauls water in buckets to flush her toilet.  She says she had to fix the plumbing in her kitchen to restore water pressure. But the water that comes of the tap still has residue in it.  "I'm afraid to drink the water, but I still cook with it, and brush my teeth with it," says Morris. "Am I worried about it? Yes."

Naturally, Meta claims the two aren't connected.  In a statement to the BBC, Meta said that "being a good neighbor is a priority."  Of course, nobody believes that.  The company commissioned a groundwater study to investigate Morris's concerns.  To no one's surprise, the report said Meta's data center operation did "not adversely affect groundwater conditions in the area".  In Ms Morris' estimation, there's no doubt, that the company has worn out its welcome as her neighbor.   "This was my perfect spot," she says. "But it isn't anymore."

Musk Bites the Dust

 

Musk's Memphis Supercomputer Facility Poisoning the Air of Black Communities

Local regulators should immediately stop Elon Musk’s supercomputer project from operating in South Memphis because it's out of compliance with environmental rules, the NAACP wrote in a letter sent Thursday to Shelby County officials.

The civil rights group addressed the request to Dr. Michelle Taylor, director of the Shelby County Health Department, and to the commissioners of Memphis Light Gas and Water. The health department is responsible for implementing federal air regulations in Shelby County, which encompasses Memphis.

“Being the world’s richest man doesn’t give you the right to pollute Black communities and jeopardize the health of its residents,” NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson said in a statement to NBC News. “We urge the health department to step in immediately.”

xAI has come under scrutiny in recent months for operating methane gas turbines at its Memphis facility to meet the electricity needs of the supercomputer Colossus. The turbines emit pollutants, including nitrogen oxides and formaldehyde, according to their manufacturer. 

Environmental groups and the NAACP believe the turbines required permits under the Clean Air Act; the city’s health department, the mayor and the Chamber of Commerce have said permits were not required for the turbines’ first year of use. xAI, which is now seeking a permit for 15 permanent turbines, said those would be equipped with pollution controls and only be used as backup once other energy options are available.

Earlier this month, NBC News reported on a South Memphis neighborhood called Boxtown, about two miles from xAI’s facility, where residents are concerned that Musk’s project will harm the area’s already poor air quality. 

“They got money. And they can do what they want to do, you know, without consulting us,” said Easter Knox, who has lived in the area since 1977. Knox told NBC News she and her husband both struggle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which can be exacerbated by pollution. 

Colossus, which xAI calls the world’s largest supercomputer, came online in September 2024 to train Grok, the company’s chatbot. But critics say the project’s potential economic benefit to the community is outweighed by environmental concerns.  “While we applaud research and innovation,” the NAACP letter states, “there must be limits that ensure that communities are healthy and alive to enjoy the benefits of any potential innovation.”  Shelby County health officials are expected to make a decision on xAI’s application in the coming weeks.  Memphis Mayor Paul Young previously told NBC's "Nightly News" that the city plans to work with a researcher to implement air monitoring in the months ahead.

Musk's Starship Explodes in an Unintended Metaphor

Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship tumbled out of control during a test flight as the world’s richest man continues to grapple with a wider professional tailspin.

Musk has almost disappeared from the spotlight following a disastrous and ineffective DOGE rollout.  After weeks of appearing alongside the president, the 53-year-old has stepped back from government amid plummeting Tesla sales and sinking popularity ratings.

The latest disappointment came when a rocket launched from its Texas facility hit a snag about 30 minutes after liftoff, after initially reaching space intact. When the spacecraft attempted to release its payload into orbit, the door would not fully open, and the vessel started to spin out of control.  Footage streamed by SpaceX showed an intense light show as the spinning ship vented its propellant.

SpaceX later confirmed on X that the ship underwent a “rapid unscheduled disassembly”-- in other words, it blew up.  SpaceX used the same hilarious terminology back in January and March when SpaceX test flights also ended in explosions.

The latest fail follows a string of stumbles across Musk’s empire. His electric car company, Tesla, has reported sales slumps in several major markets. Tesla registrations in Europe halved year-on-year last month amid political backlash over his ties to President Donald Trump and rising sales for competitors. Musk’s popularity, meanwhile, plummeted to a net favorability -13.8 percent in April.

Musk has also bashed Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which passed the House last week, putting him on a collision course with the president. Musk said in an interview with CBS, set to air Sunday, that he was “disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.”

 

 

Watch Out-- China is Kicking Butt in Robotics

In recent weeks, many in the U.S. have been wondering if this century will be China’s. Podcaster Derek Thompson put it well: “Some people are still stuck in a mode of thinking about China as being a place that just makes things of little value and significance. But 'Made in China' means something different now."

China builds more than any other country; it produces 20 times more cement and 13 times more steel than the United States. The Asian giant is leading in key technologies for the future: it manufactures 66% of the world’s electric vehicles, 75% of batteries, and 90% of solar panels. And it is at the forefront of robotics.

New installations of industrial robots in 2022 (thousands) Source: International Federation of Robotics

 

In 2012, China installed around 25,000 industrial robots per year, on par with Germany, Japan, and the United States. What about 10 years later? Now China installs 10 times more robots than any of those countries individually. The leap is spectacular. 

Trump's Meme Coin is Blantant Corruption, Pure and Simple

Democratic Senators. Adam Schiff of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have called for an ethics probe to investigate an upcoming dinner between President Donald Trump and top investors in his meme coin, $TRUMP.  In a letter to Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who serves as acting director of the Office of Government Ethics, Schiff and Warren expressed concerns about clear conflicts of interest.

“This latest action raises grave ethics and legal concerns. Including the severe risk that President Trump and other officials may be engaging in ‘pay to play’ corruption by selling presidential access to individuals or entities, to include foreign nationals and corporate actors with vested interests in federal action, while personally enriching the President and his family,” the letter states.

Following the April 23 announcement of the dinner, which is set for May 22 at the Trump National Golf Club, the meme coin’s value increased by more than 50%, netting insiders $900,000 in trading fees in just two days.  Warren and Schiff’s letter is the latest effort by Democrats to expose what many experts believe is a transparent pay-to-play scheme being perpetrated by Trump within the shady world of cryptocurrency. 

Tesla Should Be Toxic to Anyone's Portfolio

Tesla’s quarterly results were a disaster by every metric. Net income plunged 71%, car sales dropped 13%, and automotive revenue fell 20%. Wall Street expected $21.3 billion in revenue and $0.41 earnings per share; Tesla delivered just $19.3 billion and $0.27. And that was only thanks to $595 million in carbon credits—government lifelines for a CEO who claims to loathe government intervention.

And that profit? It only exists thanks to $595 million in carbon credits—a government program that Elon Musk pretends to hate, but happily cashes in. Yet again, a Musk company would be deep underwater without public intervention.

And yet … Tesla’s stock jumped nearly 10% after the earnings report. Why? Because investors, like Donald Trump voters, keep believing Musk’s lies, ignoring collapsing fundamentals in favor of fantastical promises.

Things Are Literally Falling Apart for Musk

 Tesla, the electric car company owned by Elon Musk, is recalling most of its Cybertrucks due to an exterior panel that can fall off while driving ― posing a serious setback for a company whose shares already have been taking a major nosedive. Tesla announced the recall of more than 46,000 Cybertrucks built from November 2023 through Feb. 27 of this year ― accounting for nearly every Cybertruck in existence.

This is the eighth time Tesla has had to recall Cybertrucks, which have been on roads for less than a year and a half. Tesla already has seen its stock lose about half of its value this year, in part due to rising competition and in part due to outrage over Musk’s work for convicted felon Donald Trump-- overseeing massive cuts to federal funding, including money spent on school meals for kids, national parks and forests, programs combatting infectious disease and research to help sick and wounded veterans.  Demand for used Teslas also has been plummeting, according to a survey from Cars.com that found searches for used Teslas dropped 16% over the past month.

A bizarre plea (and likely ethics violation) from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick for people to buy stock in Musk’s company massively backfired. After Lutnick’s TV appearance, in which he promised viewers that the stock will “never be this cheap again,” the company’s shares dropped another 1.7% this morning. Lutnick’s sales pitch comes just over a week after Trump ― in an unprecedented and ethically dubious move ― shilled for Tesla by parading the company’s vehicles outside the White House in support of “great patriot” Musk.

This week, several families of victims who died or were injured in crashes involving Tesla’s self-driving technology wrote to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy expressing their concern that Musk’s influence in the Trump administration may weaken government oversight on automated vehicles, according to reporting in Politico.

 

Musk Is Starting to Take a Hit

Stocks for the electric vehicle company Tesla just wrapped its worst month since 2022, and it’s all because of its certifiably insane CEO, Elon Musk.  In February, Tesla shares plummeted 28%, signaling their worst month since a 37% drop in December 2022. The stock fell by an additional 3% on Monday alone. 

And after Trump announced he would enact his disastrous tariff policy, it could bottleneck Tesla’s manufacturing, fracturing it even more. “We note that potential tariffs on Mexico and Canada pose significant risk to our [North American] production estimates and could create a supply shock similar to COVID,” Bank of America analyst John Murphy said. 

Musk is also seemingly enriching himself through the government. Earlier this month, he reportedly hid the State Department’s plan to pay out $400 million to Tesla for armored vehicles—a contract the administration says it’s abandoning after it came to light.

This comes after the six weeks of Musk meddling in the federal government via his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which is gutting federal agencies, firing thousands of federal employees, and generally wreaking havoc on Americans.  In addition to Musk poisoning his brand’s supposed coolness, Bloomberg reported that the company’s sales in China have slowed by a staggering 49% in February compared with the previous year at that time.  “I don’t even want to drive it,” one Tesla owner told the Associated Press. “He’s destroying the brand with his politics.”

Tesla sales are dropping all across Europe. The decline in Tesla sales has largely tracked with Musk’s entrance into politics last year.  Americans are angry over Musk’s hand in the government and have taken to protesting nationwide at Tesla dealerships or allegedly setting Tesla charging stations on fire. And those who were thinking about purchasing Teslas have gone on a “buyers strike,” while many of those who have already bought them are communicating their buyer's remorse with bumper stickers, such as one reading, “We bought this car before we knew.”  People are pissed at Musk’s corruption, and they are telling him in the only way he understands: money.

 

Musk Hates Govt $$$-- Unless it Goes to Him

Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency have attacked multiple government agencies, claiming to find waste and fraud. But those claims continue to quickly collapse under independent scrutiny, with “billions” in so-called savings turning out to be fraudulent.

At the same time, the real cuts that DOGE has put in place have hurt ordinary people in the United States and around the world. Cuts to agencies like the United States Agency for International Development have reduced vital funding for American farmers, and multiple contracts canceled by DOGE are undermining services for military veterans.

Musk has repeatedly claimed these actions are saving taxpayers money and recently wrote, “There are millions of minor savings that add up to billions of dollars cumulatively.”  But years before he was gutting vital services and claiming to be in favor of saving tax dollars, Musk built his multi-billion-dollar empire on government handouts.

A Washington Post examination of Musk’s business affairs found that his companies received over $38 billion in government payments, from loans to contracts to tax credits, over the years. The Musk companies that benefited from this taxpayer financing include Tesla and SpaceX.    Musk has been on the government dole for over 20 years and had crucial support at both the federal and state levels. In fact, as he was spending millions to help elect Trump in the 2024 election—crusading against government spending in the process—Musk took in at least $6.3 billion from the government in that year alone.

Both Tesla and SpaceX have been the subject of complaints about safety, alleged discrimination, and other issues during that time. Since Trump took office the federal government has curtailed oversight and investigations related to the companies.  Yet despite this history, the Trump-led Federal Aviation Administration recently handed out a contract to Starlink, another Musk company. Starlink will be used in systems managing airline safety and was given the contract just weeks after Trump gutted the agency’s investment in diversity hiring, even as a shortage of air traffic controllers continues.

The contracts raise serious concerns about conflict of interest for Musk, but Trump recently told Fox News that the multi-billionaire had been given a green light to profit from the government even as he purportedly works for it.  Musk has portrayed himself as a self-made entrepreneur, but that isn’t true. He is a beneficiary of government handouts on a scale vastly outweighing what the average middle-class American receives. Empowered by Trump, Musk is undermining the safety net for those Americans while championing policies that will cut benefits for people without the gigantic fortune that he has access to.

IT Staff Assigned to Help Musk Tells Him to Fuck Off

Nearly two dozen federal technology workers just walked out the door rather than bow to billionaire Elon Musk, who they say is set on running the government into the ground with chaos and cronyism.  21 engineers, data scientists, and product managers who worked for what was once known as the United States Digital Service submitted a mass resignation letter in response to Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency interloping in federal jobs and agencies.

In the joint letter, obtained by the Associated Press, staffers from the USDS wrote, “We will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans’ sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services. We will not lend our expertise to carry out or legitimize DOGE’s actions.”   They also alluded to nameless DOGE bros wearing White House visitor badges infiltrating their office and grilling the nonpartisan staffers. The staffers told reporters these young men were rife with technological inefficiency, fandom for Musk, and ideological partisanship.

“Several of these interviewers refused to identify themselves, asked questions about political loyalty, attempted to pit colleagues against each other, and demonstrated limited technical ability,” the staffers wrote. “This process created significant security risks.”

This follows the layoffs of 40 USDS staffers earlier in February. After Musk's initial layoffs, 65 USDS employees remained—a third of whom just resigned.  Meanwhile, the White House is covering for Musk, claiming that he has nothing to do with the DOGE firings. When he isn’t sending micromanaging emails threatening federal workers to list five things they did that week or be fired, he’s brandishing bedazzled chainsaws at CPAC conference, shouting, “This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy.”

Since being sworn in, Trump has given Musk full reign to use DOGE to illegally access sensitive data on private citizens. He has also dismantled federal agencies like the United States Agency for International Development and laid off thousands of federal employees in the name of “efficiency.”  “We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations,” the USDS employees wrote. “However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments.”

The Muskers Are Up to No Good