Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi will also join the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum.
Musk's entire business model for his electric car depends on government subsidies ( read money taken from you and me and given to Musk's company). That gives Trump enormous leverage over him. Musk is young, savvy and an innovation leader, but I heard that initially he wasn't going to attend this meeting because he was "busy." I see he changed his mind at the last minute. Did I hear someone say, "Dance, puppet, if you'd like to keep that sweet, sweet government money coming?" Nevertheless, Musk is a good man to have on the team, as opposed to off of it.
The Uber man is another interesting choice. I see his inclusion as a shot across the bow of Progressive, anti capitalist cities who are trying to keep Uber out to protect the old tech taxi companies who pay in big bucks to maintain their ability to keep out most competitors. Uber is also a paradigm changing technology that is upending the business of getting people from here to there. That's cutting edge stuff is exactly the kind of thing Trump should be promoting. Double good there.
I got no idea why the Pepsi CEO is any advantage.
Anyway, again, a very positive development from a person we now know to be an agent of change. Tornado warning for the establishment! Change is coming! Get in the storm cellar or face the whirlwind.
The corrupt, elite media doesn't know whether to sh*t or go blind.
ReplyDeleteIndra Nooyi (Pepsi) is a pretty smart lady. She's a cast iron bitch who voted Hillary, but she is a smart cast iron bitch who has a lot of sense and whose advice I would take...or at least listen to and think about before rejecting.
ReplyDeleteNooyi was such a bitch and insulting to the Don. Don gonna make her squeak.
ReplyDeleteMusks recently unveiled electricity generating roof tiles really has me intrigued. This could be the first product made by Tesla I'd be willing to plunk down the money to install in about 10 years, when my current roof will need replacement. It doesn't look add-on, like many solar installs do...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.tesla.com/solar
Uber's value isn't as a taxi company, but in their back-end infrastructure that allows for the efficient delivery of anything to anyone. Kalanick's inclusion no only recognizes this changing dynamic in the distribution of goods and services and brings a seriously smart guy into the fold, but is also a direct shot across Bezo's bow. Win-win-win.
ReplyDeleteHave to take exception to your view o Tesla Motor Co... Musk has lost millions (maybe billions, I can't find the article) on this from the beginning. He may be taking $ from the .gov, but is sinking FAR more of his own into it. He is doing it because he thinks it will help get us off oil. You do know about the free recharge stations he's set up all over Cali, right? CRAP my google-fu just found me 751 free Tesla Superchargers nation wide! You gotta rethink your stance on Musk, bro.
ReplyDeleteHey, I'm not against him at all, just pointing out that he's happy to take the kings shilling to move his company along. I guess that's what a smart businessman does in this world, and certainly he's a super sharp businessman - exactly what Trump will admire. I see it as a mild criticism, but agree the man can see the future much clearer than almost anyone. I'd like that guy advising me if I were president.
ReplyDeleteMore specifically, my beef is with the government subsidizing a business that they like, and making those payments with our money, when nobody voted for that. Choosing companies in the green energy field to support has been a big loser so far, and I'd like that to stop.
DeleteI've told this story before, but I know what it's like to start a new company from scratch, and it's usually pretty ugly at the beginning. Several years ago, my work took me to San Jose, Ca, and I would drive by the Solyndra plant there next to the freeway. It was supposed to be a solar panel start up, but their facilities were top notch and top dollar, and located in about the highest rent area one could imagine. Not at all what a start up company would normally do. I was not surprised when they went under, and annoyed to think of all the public money that went into buying their gold plated facilities. A total waste, that has been repeated again and again in this administration.
That's what I worry about with Tesla being subsidized with our money, when no on told the politicians to spend it that way. Choosing winners, or losers, is not the government's business.
Further, This idea that electric cars are the future needs some careful thought. Most electricity in California is generated with natural gas, a fossil fuel. To convert that gas to electricity, and then use that energy to power a car, is less efficient than buying gas direct, which is why it won't work ( so far, anyway) in a free market. If electric cars got common, how would we produce enough juice to meet that need and everything else that uses electricity? I say this as someone who watched California suffer significant black outs several years ago, and who watches the same government kill new ways to generate power for political reasons. Seems like their motives are contradictory. I suspect the electric car thing only works when there are very few electric cars. Could be wrong, but doubt it.
DeleteAnd all this from a guy who has test driven Teslas twice, and I loved them! You haven't experienced true acceleration until you've driven electric!
DeleteI haven't had the pleasure of driving one yet... damn it! I totally agree you on my $ going to private companies, no matter how worthy they may be. Nukuler, my friend! Only way humanity will get off of fossil fuels. Until the gov gets out of the way on that issue, we will continue "doing the same thing, only harder!" (TM)
DeleteAnother objection to electric cars (which have plenty of good points, but some real deal-breaker bad ones, at least for me) is that the batteries used to store the energy are toxic and difficult to recycle. They are also largely made of rare earths and lithium, and cobalt mining for lithium costs many lives each year. Most of those lives lost are Chinese, who supply the rare earths and much of the lithium. I'd rather not use materials from countries who may not be our friends, and who work their own people to horrible deaths so that they can profit.
ReplyDeleteOf course the most toxic material in the world is the hot air that comes from a politican's mouth as he's saving the world. We have far too much of that here in CA already, and it's impossible to recycle!
I agree with you about the battery issue. We will need a much better storage medium for the E car thing to be worth doing. Until then, it's just a pretend solution.
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