How does he get away with it?
The simple answer is . . . the press lets him. Over and over and over again. Ludicrous claims that ought to trigger the raising of hands – if not questions about his sanity – are stenographed onto laptops and formatted into copy and clicked and sent all over the Internet as imminent, given, factual.
There will be space tourism to Mars by 2022; fleets of electrified long-haul big-rigs that don’t have to stop every 20 miles or so for recharge pit stops. A new supercar that doesn’t exist – but send me a huge check.
Remember Yul Brynner in The Ten Commandments?
So let it be written, so let it be done. Except pharaoh kept his promises.
Elon promises an electric pick-up truck that will tow 300,000 pounds.
For the record, this is roughly the weight of the statue of liberty.
And considerably more than the maximum tow-rating of the Ford F150 (13,200 lbs.) which has the highest tow-rating of any half-ton truck on the market and is the truck Elon says his truck will be “better than.”
It would take probably every F-150 Ford made last year to pull 300,000 lbs. – but Elon Musk has promised his pending electric half-ton truck will pull that load all by itself.
And no one laughed.
Even if you took a zero off his claim about the electric truck’s pulling power, the claim would still be ludicrous – and regardless of the mighty torque produced by electric motors, which isn’t a ludicrous claim. It is why EVs like the Model S are very quick – even if they can’t travel very far and take very long to travel again.
Because towing power is also a function of the capability of the vehicle’s frame and attachment points to handle the strain – something Elon would know if Elon knew anything about trucks. The same goes for the stenographers who “cover” what Elon has to say about trucks.
Even if the electric pick-up he says he’s developing (no one’s actually seen it and anyone who takes Musk at his word about anything is deserving of everything Elon gives him, or rather takes from him) has a mighty electric motor that develops let us say 1,500 ft.-lbs. of torque, which would about three times the torque of the strongest IC engine available in a current half-ton pickup, unless the truck’s frame can handle the torsional and other stresses, the power of the drivetrain – electric or IC – becomes functionally meaningless after a certain point.
People who know something about trucks know this. They know that even the heaviest duty non-commercial trucks you can buy – “super duty” 2500s and 3500s – max out around 35,000 lbs. of towing capacity despite having engines that produce almost 1,000 ft.-lbs. of torque – because the steel can only handle so much. 
You can get more pulling capacity, of course – by using more and heavier steel and going much bigger – but now you’re talking commercial/big rig stuff.
There are also brakes and other factors to consider – including the fact that towing costs energy- which will reduce the range of this electric truck, probably a lot. What good is it if you can tow 300,000 lbs… but only 300 yards?
Elon apparently hasn’t considered any of this.
It’s too bad someone in the assembled gang of stenographers didn’t bother to ask him why he hasn’t. And if he hasn’t, why he is talking out of his other orifice – again.
It gets worse.
Elon claims his fancied – just the right word – electric pick-up will be a better truck than the best-selling F-150 and other IC 1500s in spite of what he has in the works not being a truck at all.
Trucks – properly speaking – have four wheel drive or at least can be ordered with it. Elon’s “truck” will have all-wheel-drive.
The distinction is important – to people who buy trucks.
Four wheel drive involves a heavy-duty gear-reduction system to tackle severe terrain and push through deep snow. AWD just means all four wheels are powered. There is a reason why trucks and SUVs have – and tout – 4WD – while cars and light-duty “crossovers” that look like SUVs have AWD (some of them try to pirate the aura of 4WD by badging themselves as such, but truck people know the difference).
One’s mind inevitably wanders – or ought to – about the effect of immersion in deep standing water on electric motors and batteries. Trucks get bounced around a lot; dents and bends are mostly cosmetic threats when a truck is a mechanical thing. But what about a dented battery pack?
A water-logged electric motor?
Anyone?
The thing will have the juice to plug in 240V power tools – but of course, that will drain the batteries, which will reduce the range and mean the truck has to be be plugged in sooner. Entropy hands out no free lunches.
Speaking of which.
Elon claims – hold onto your wallet – that the electric pick-up will start around $50,000. “Around ” being operative – and even if accurate, it’s only about $20k more than the base price of the current F-150 ($28,155).
No worries – as no one Elon knows worries about money, since they have open access to other people’s.
Elon says his electric pick up will “look pretty sci fi,” which is the one non-ludicrous claim he makes. But he should have looked up what “sci fi” refers to, or stands for, before he used that choice term.
Science Fiction.
We are dealing with a fantasist here – which would be okay if he didn’t have enablers in the press and his hands in our pockets.
Nothing wrong with Big Dreams, however ludicrous.
But a lot wrong with making them come not-true at other people’s expense.
And with pretending they aren’t ludicrous.
Nothing is better than finding your items at cheap prices here.
…
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This would be hilarious if it weren’t so idiotic.
Musk-man thinks he can deliver a pick-up truck that can out-haul a Kenworth T-8000, the premier heavy-hauler commercial rig on the market.
It’s getting to the point where he’s about to eat the stuff that comes from the other end.
And I believe his “business” has secret government backing (apart from just the EPA credits). Looking at his company’s financial statements, they just don’t make sense. There is money flowing in there that isn’t accounted for in their financial statements, and which far exceeds the EPA credits the company is getting.
As they say: Figures don’t lie, but liars figure.
Ok Folks, this is silly. Diesel tugs the size of a large golf cart push and pull thousands of fully loaded jumbo jets in, out, and around the gateways at hundreds of airports all day, every day. It’s a matter of the tractive effort of the tug and the low-rolling resistance of the aircraft wheels. This is not a great big feat of enormous BHP and superhuman strength. Observe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoeR1CaAnFM
Many people don’t understand bearings. On flat ground my cars are easy to push around. Put a small bump in the way or a slight up hill incline and it quickly gets much more difficult.
Correction, I meant to say “This Tesla-pulling-a-Jumbo-Jet-Stunt is silly”. Sorry for leading off my rant, etc, with ambiguous pronouns
The planes are on wheels – the Statue of Liberty is not!
Virginia, at one time the statue of Liberty got so run down it was in worse shape than my barn. There was a big push to donate to it’s revival and get your name inscribed for giving to the fund. Being fools, the wife and I did so. They misspelled our names which was kind of a slight but now I’m glad. Probably they misspelled someone else’s names and we actually have our names spelled correctly on it. I hope not.
The Tesla might do this, maybe pull it for 3-4 feet before the battery overheats and explodes
https://youtu.be/WmM-635RR6o
There is nothing you can do. Submit to your retarded thieving voters and their political terrorists or they will kill you.
Give a group of terrorist psychopaths a money counterfeit racket they call a “Central Bank”, and they will eventually own everything and everyone.
Hi FTB,
Indeed. It is no accident that most of the abuses we suffer coincided in their appearance with the forced adoption of government schooling for most kids. In these “schools,” the critical faculty is stunted. The kid is conditioned to reflexively feel a certain way about each particular thing, without reference to a general principle that would integrate the particular into a conceptual whole. Thus, “taxes” are inculcated as something different than theft. That “slavery” only applies to blacks held as chattel. The concepts are suppressed – and the result is a kind of biological automaton easily programmed…
Public School is designed to turn men into women. That’s it’s purpose…To create idiot adult children who can be easily fooled and bribed…and OWNED!
Public schools are the “deliberate dumbing down of america” -Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt wrote about. The elitists want adults they can control. The Georgia Guidestones states that the elitists want to reduce the world’s population down to 500 million, a figure they feel they can control. Hence, all the toxic vaccines, etc.
“Feminists” realize that the top 50% of all men can out-compete 95% of all women in this modern world…In any endeavor. Women, other than baby making, are basically obsolete today. Women even suck at raising children into reasoning independent adults! Their only competitive solution is to turn men into women using political force – public school, television “programming”, low-fat/high carbohydrate vegan diets, and nanny censorship.
Hi FTB,
Yup. Among the various idiocies being peddled is the idea that women are paid less than men for the same work. Really? If so, then why hire men at all? What idiot would pay any employee more than the market rate, based on his sex equipment?
Women don’t earn less than men for the same work. They earn less because they do different work; or because they don’t work as much – or as hard. They take time off to have babies (nothing wrong with this – much that is laudable) and demand time off to deal with kids. Men work like mules.
Men also do work most women can’t; see Eight’s post regarding steel-framed skyscraper building.
On average, men work 200 hours MORE per year than women do. To put that in perspective, that’s five 40 hour work weeks worth of extra time! When it comes time for promotions and/or raises, who’s the employer going to give it to? The one who does more and brings more value to the firm, that’s who.
eric,
(Female, here) Glad you said it, so I didn’t have to. I haven’t heard this point so well yet articulated, and I 100% agree!!
eric, I was working on a pipeline a couple winters back and leaving the site for another load I saw a young woman headed to the portapotty that said “women”. Never saw another woman on site so I guess she wasn’t displeased having a personal toilet.
I was going to get out, go shake her hand and pat her on the back since she was the first(and last)woman I ever saw being a welder’s helper but she shut the door before I could. That’s not that physically tough but you are out in every sort of weather.
I’ve heard women complain about not making enough money. I have suggested to a couple of them a plethora of companies by name where they could get a job, all oilfield related. They look at me like I just pissed in their pocket. Hey, what’s the problem? There are few jobs these days that are really tough.
I’m a small build guy middle 60s. I work in a warehouse moving large appliances and furniture. I also have been in several other warehouses like these, and never see women doing any of this work. The women get all the easy work that requires no physical exertion or stamina. Their bodies couldn’t take it. Hell I now have shoulder and elbow problems from overexertion.
My daughter is a Chemical Engineer and was offered $140K right out of college. She knows that 35% of that was the vagina-quota-filler bonus.
I also know many businessmen who, over the last 10 years or so, say they will never again hire a woman under 40 because they are a net liability. Maybe that is why woman unemployment remains high.
Hi FeelTheBern,
It’s tragic that women feel compelled to “build a career” – which for eight out of ten means, work a job – rather than build families, which is arguably a lot more meaningful than pushing papers or whatever for 30-plus years. But social – and economic – pressure keeps women and men working like gerbils in a spinning wheel the majority of their useful lives. Not – for many – to build something enduring but to buy ephemeral “stuff.”
Sad thing is guys [Or, rather, even sadder thing) is that men have bought into this paradigm; they now want that’ll earn their own way, and contribute a good deal of the money that keeps the household going.
My neighbor, who is a single dad with a small son (Wife bolted and left the kid) tells me about new women he’s dating…. In listing their assets, instead of saying things like “She can cook and keep house, and be a good mother”, he always beams “She’s a _____” [insert occupation], and she works a LOT of hours!” [Last one worked 7 days a week].
This whole society has been totally cleansed of every concept and value which enabled our forebears to create strong functional stable famblies.
Girlfriend of mine is in a high earning position and is the breadwinner of her household. I’ve witnessed her emasculate her “partner” with various feminazi comments on several occasions..
This man won’t even leave his room when I visit. Having been humiliated in front of me several times. So he’ll sit in the back and grow angry because he’s missing out on the fun and inevitably has an angry outburst after a few hours.
I don’t blame him (he’s actually a nice dude) but he’s being treated poorly and unnaturally, prompting poor and unnatural behavior.
She insults his chosen profession, stature, and mentality. She expects him to be a provider, knowing full well his earning power is no where near hers. It is abusive and downright ugly. He’s even told me that she hits him.
Disfunction brought on by role reversal. They’re both trying to be the man, and both end up being bitches. Tragic, and pretty common behavior these days. Good thing children aren’t involved in this pairing so against nature.
Some women are just like that. They don’t have to earn more, it is just the way they behave. They would appear in fiction from time to time. For instance, in the Twilight Zone episode “time enough at last”
When was the last time your visited the Clintons?
Seriously, this milquetoast has but himself to blame. This woman is nothing but a feminazi bully…it’s a wonder she doesn’t bring over a lesbian lover and make him watch as they munch each others’ carpets! No kids? WTF is this wimp DOING there? If they were married, or at least ‘registered domestic partners’, whatever that’s supposed to mean, he’d be in line for some ‘palimony’! I suspect that this pathetic excuse for a male (b/c he’s certainly not a ‘man’, he’s living with the ‘man’ that just happens to have indoor plumbing) subconsciously ENJOY being dominated. If so, that’s one sick fuck, and unless he’s willing to find his cajoines and get out of that sick relationship, and not settle for anything less than a woman that will respect him, then he’s brought his misery upon himself.
Women are HYPERGAMOUS; that means their biology COMPELS them to seek out a male who’s superior to them. The fact that she earns a lot more than he does is unnatural, so of course she disrespects her ‘man’.
Taxes got so plentiful and high that women were forced to go to work.
I wish someone would pull down the statue of “Liberty” – whose creator was a Masonic Jew. America wasn’t meant to be a nation of worthless immigrants. Maybe a ship could handle the job?
I was wondering when someone would start dumping on the Masons. (There were Masons among America’s founders including such notables as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.)
It used to be that immigrants had to fit into ethnic/cultural quotas, had to have a sponsor and a job, and needed to pass a health exam. You can thank the Catholics for changing this.
I dont know much about the masons except the weird eye on a pyramid thing on the back of the one dollar bill. Hitler banned them. Whats the purpose of their existence? Apparently Washington DC was planned around Masonic symbols. And yes the “founding fathers” belonged to them. It seems like a satanic cult.
To the best of my knowledge it is, though even lower members of their own order don’t seem to realize it (which makes for a pretty nice front, I gotta say).
Sadly enough, my home state (Alaska) even has Freemason license plates; whenever I see one, I make a point of not letting that driver be in front of me if I can help it.
I should think it’d be the other way around. The incentive to hire a female under age 40 should be obvious, though in no way will it help “workplace” productivity, though it may produce…something, or SOMEONE. As for ‘womyn’ over 40, though I’ve been long sentimental to my dear departed Momma, both Grandmothers, also departed, and me Aunty (still with us at age 84), I’ve met few that were worth the ammo to blow them to “Queendom Cum”. The rare old bat that gets stuff done is a gem and hard to lure away.
Yeah, Doug- these women today can’t hold a candle to our mamas or other older relatives- as far as being a lady/person, or getting stuff accomplished. They can’t even raise a kid to be a decent adult, or cook a decent meal, or keep a clean and tidy house anymore.
I couldn’t even imagine hiring one long-term. Have you seen the shape most of ’em are in, even when still young? Forget about when they’re 50- by which time even if they’re not hagged out, they’re consuming a fortune in medical services.
Half the GUYS these days are like that; I can only fathom the women!
A friend of mine hired a female summer intern from a local university. He owned an engineering services company. She was gorgeous…and office productivity plummeted 🙂 I really do feel sorry for rational women who are beautiful. They shouldn’t have to put up with monkey-brain/pop-culture-fucktard “men”.
Hi FeelTheBern,
I agree, but you can’t fight human nature. Introduce a very attractive female into a group of men and the men will jockey for her attention; will treat her differently.
Conversely, Eric, a friend of mine has a sister who’s somewhat retarded and so fugly that if she asked you for a match, you’d say “My ass and your face”. Put her in a room, and men will jockey for the door!
Rational and beautiful usually don’t go together in a female package any more so than does retarded and gorgeous go together in either gender.
Girls, from the time they are very young, are encouraged [often unintentionally] to use their looks and emotions to manipulate others and get what they want- and the better looking they are, the better that works, and faster it is learned- so by the time they are women, such behavior is just natural to them.
Probably ‘splains why you don’t often see gorgeous babes in positions of power…but rather, nasty dyke-ish gargoyles- ’cause the pretty ones can get what they want without having to devote their lives to serving some corp, and or aren’t interested in playing the power game; while the fugly plain-janes who can’t do that, take solace in wielding man-like power over others.
This is Pravda, Nunz… well-said (as usual)!
Thanks, Eric. Re-reading my post…it made me think of the TSA.
Rational babes are almost unicorns.
In my college engineering class there were 2 females. Not ugly but plain. They had job offers 3 weeks into our senior year. They were the first offered and with middling grades.
Hi Eric, Thanks for the laughs from this article.
I have to disagree with you on the matter of equal pay for women. During WWII, my mother was doing the job men normally would do – if they were here and not in a foreign country fighting to stay alive in a war that had nothing to do with our freedom. You’ve heard of “Rosie, the Riveter”? That’s what my mom was doing, however, when the war was over and the men came back, the women were told to go home to their kitchens – where they belong. These women did a magnificent job supporting the war effort and were paid less than the men, who were usually high school graduates.
Hi Virginia,
The war, of course, distorted everything – so it’s not really apples-apples. The men were – as you note – gone. So the factories could pay less – and with government connivance.
The main reason men tend to get paid more has to do with the fact that they don’t have children. They beget them, but that is a different thing. A man can beget – and work. A woman six months pregnant – or nursing a six month old – cannot work as a man can.
It is simply not possible. Especially if the work is physically demanding – but regardless.
She either takes time off – or she can’t work as hard, give the Full Commitment – because she’s too tired from her other job.
No one can do two full-time jobs well.
Also, women often take years off from their careers/work to care for kids (laudable) but that tends to retard career advancement. A man rarely interrupts his career to be a primary caregiver. This accounts for a great deal of the disparity.
Employers have to pay the going rate, is the bottom line. If an employer could pay women less to do the same work as men, they would not hire men. Th idea that they would pay more than they had to, just because they prefer a man over a woman seems to me absurd on its face as well as economically implausible given competitors who hired lower-cost women instead (to do the same work) would have a huge advantage over them.
Companies pay men more because the men do more/higher-value work to justify the higher pay.
Eric,
Exhibit A is men’s vs. women’s tennis. The men play 5 sets, while the women play only 3. They do less work, so they get paid less. Ah, but they’ll never bring THAT up when complaining that the male tennis players earn more…
Around here, we have women cops who do NOT work desk jobs.
My mother worked in an aircraft factory but she was sturdily built, and I used to get teased by my friends who worked there. They would tell me that they saw my mother holding up the wing of a F-102 while others were doing the riveting. Guys I dated were very respectful of my mother. But mom was unmarried and had to support us. And, even though we lived in government housing, we lived on a very tight budget. My school consisted of kids who also lived in government housing – even if their dads weren’t at war. So they had it better than I did.
Hi Virginia,
I will get in hot water for this, but:
I wish women cops did have desk jobs. The average women is vastly inferior to the average man in terms of physical strength – especially upper body strength; it is not even close. She is therefore far more likely to resort to a gun to control a man. Even an “in shape” woman is out of her depth when confronted with an in-shape man.
I can bench press 275 pounds; decent for a man – but no big deal for a man. Lots of men can do that. It would be an Olympic-level feat for a woman. I doubt even 1 percent are capable of such a thing.
And an average man can usually at least bench his own weight, if he works out a little bit. Very few women can bench press their own weight; almost none can bench press say 225 pounds no matter how hard they train – at least, not without steroids. But this is something just about any man in his 20s can do if he works out for a while.
It is absurd to put women in a role that requires them to physically handle men. Because it is dangerous for them both.
I read an article a couple years ago by a woman “lifer” in the military. She wasn’t by far of the lowest rank but had to participate in a boot camp.
She was dreading it, knowing well, even as a great athlete, what was in store for her. She said a few miles into a forced march with full equipment she knew the outcome long before it was over.
While she was in professional athletic shape for a woman, she knew deep in her heart she could never haul a male soldier the way they’re trained to do. By the time she got through the forced march, and ever single man had bested her and few of the women even finished, she was ready to turn in her striped and admit she was a liability in combat.
She had a lot of pics of women who’d never had a muscle in their life and most barely got started and had to be hauled, not just waited on to return, but hauled by the meds back to camp. They all looked like they were about to die.
I’ve known some pretty stout women but when the SHTF, they need to be doing something like driving a vehicle or medical help.
I liken it to other animals. Do I want to put myself up against a bear or a cow(I’ve been slung into near year by an old cow and lucky to get away from her). Does that little dog they show on Larson’s outside doors with dog doors want to get into it with Cholley Jack?
That little dog had qualities I’m sure that were great for a lot of things.
My nephew had a dog he brought to his parent’s house, a pit bull bitch, a small dog.
The parents had a dog of similar size but just a small bitch of no hardy breed. So what did they do? What fools do with dogs, set their food bowls side by side, never a good move with dogs of any sort.
The dog of the house tried to move in on the pit bull’s food and barely survived and wouldn’t have without a couple ineffective people doing the BS they did to separate the two.
This may not be the best comparison but they were of similar size but dissimilar abilities.
I’m 20 years older than you and it would be the height of foolishness for me to try to best you lifting weights, running or anything else…physically.
The military dumbed down their physical requirements just to let woman into combat. The men don’t support it. They can rescue the women but the women can’t rescue the men and that’s a bad thing in a fight force.
There were a FEW combat roles that women could do, notably the Soviet-era 588th Guards Taman Bomber Regiment, nicknamed by their German opponents, Nachthexen, or “Night Witches”. They flew rickety biplanes, usually at night, and dropped small bomb loads on German positions, mostly for purposes of harassment (i.e., keep’Fritz’ from getting a good night’s sleep). Flying a small aircraft is something a young woman can reliably do, but please don’t pretend that makes ’em “groundpounder” material.
My Navy has, unfortunately, decreed that our nuclear boats are open to be crewed by female officers and enlisted. A HUGE freaking mistake, IMO! It’s not that women can’t be nuclear engineers, or welders, or under how to navigate a submarine, etc. they can perform those functions. However, a nuclear boat leaves Puget Sound or Kings Bay and is under way for 75 to 85 days, typically without ever surfacing, depending upon its patrol mission. IMO, the dynamics of relations between the sexes will prove a severe detriment to crew safety and the ability of the boat with females aboard to perform its mission. This is an example of political correctness running roughshod over common sense!
I’ve seen dogs get along just fine eating next to each other. I’ve even seen them eat half their food each then trade bowls. (each had different food)
My 116 lb. dog will just hang back if one of the cats is eating his food! I have to chase the cat, so the dog can go eat his own food!
Eric,
you speak fact. Now, I think women cops serve an important role as prison guards for the women’s department. I can imagine having female AGWs in that
role would be very useful in keeping order. Feelings for one thing, and her lack of penis would probably be a good thing too in that situation. Other than that, I agree with ya!
Thanks, Anonymous!
I never understood why some take umbrage at pointing out that men and women differ; each can do some things better than the other. This is entirely natural and by no sane standard “unfair.” But to pretend that women and men are equal in terms of abilities and inclinations is as asinine as pretending a dachshund is the equal of a doberman.
Somehow, Igor, He-Wolf of the SS, doesn’t have the same appeal as his “sister”, Isla, the SS “She Wolf”.
In north korea, women are the political terrorist’s overseers (shockingly, women ninnies make great nannies) but call male cops in when they see someone commit a violation. Is that like a desk job? 🙂
Virginia,
Considering that in physical work, woman typically can only do about two-thirds of the work that a man can do (Much less in heavy physical work- the two-thirds is for lighter work; where they may be able to perform the work, but will get much less done in a given time) isn’t it fitting that they should be paid less for such work?
Even when it comes to non-physical work; women tend to need more ‘personal time’/time off (children, PMS, sick more often, etc.) than men doing the same job, and therefore work fewer hours and tend to be less productive.
Maybe compare women who work solely in commission- as in outside sales- to men doing the same thing, -where their salaries are dependent solely upon their time, skill and effort and see how they compare- as that would be a far more fair and telling comparison than merely bitching about someone not paying them appropriately because of their gender. (Although I suspect that women in outside sales are almost non-existent- not counting real estate- as it is a job that few women would want to do).
And by the way, I’ll bet a lot of those Rosie’s were happy to get back home to their kids and kitchens- which are infinitely more pleasant and fulfilling than some filthy ship yard or aircraft factory where they helped fashion instruments of death and destruction with which to further the military-industrial complex and kill the innocent. I’ll bet they were glad to get home and pop out some new conscienceless fodder for subsequent wars.
My maternal grandmother was a “Rosie” at Lockheed in Burbank during the War, indeed, she was a forelady and made her rounds on one of those big tricycles around the plant…until she was visibly pregnant with my uncle, which asn’t until she was almost six months along! In contravention of rules which at the time mandated her being laid off until after the baby was born, b/c she was so valuable, she worked well into her third trimester.
However, it was found that women were, in fact, better suited for many war industry jobs, as the assembles were far more intricate and in confined spaces, in which a woman, with a more ‘delicate’ touch, and being usually smaller, would routinely out-perform most men. Look, although there have been tailors and haberdashers since the dawn of time, most men can’t handle a needle and thread to save their souls, just as most women couldn’t fix a leaky faucet. Methinks that why Voltaire cited that the difference between the male and the female was “petit” (small), but…VIVE LA DIFFERENCE!
Back in the days when magnetic core memory was used in computers, oriental women were employed to weave the memory modules due to their fine fingers.
The Chief of the electric motor shop sought women for the same reasons. Their smaller, more delicate hands meant that they could do a better job repairing and rebuilding electric motors than guys could
Plus women can take tedium better than men. With massive automation doing the heavy lifting, the auto industry hires more women for assembly line jobs now.
Amen, Doug. Thank you for posting!
Women are psychologically and physically built for the one thing a man cant do – have kids. And in times past they excelled at that. No one has more patience with a crying toddler than a mom. No one. Yes women can be valuable employees ad I have plenty. But if they have a kid the only thing they really want is to be at home with it. Which is completely natural. Its a shame our society has devalued the stay -at-home mom by making a middle class lifestyle impossible without the woman working as well.
I will agree with that analysis M3. I had little patience with crying children. And now to hear them in the store drives me crazy.
My wife stayed home after our 2nd child, and I made an average income. But we paid off the first house in 4 years, bought a new car which we kept for 23 years, and still had several overseas trips and long holidays here in Australia, our home country. We rarely went to movies, and rarely ate out, and we didn’t buy nike shoes. Our 3 boys went to state schools but were home schooled a lot, and have grown up to have successful jobs, with the youngest now in business for himself with the assistance of his cousin.
Oh, man! Nothing gets on my nerves faster than a screaming baby! I’ve never wanted to have kids, and from the time I was a kid, I always said “If I had a wife and she had a baby, they’d have to live in the shed till the kid was at 4, ’cause I can’t tolerate no babies in my house!”.
It’s sad to see kids grow up without their mothers- which seems to be an increasingly common thing these days- as I know several single dads- and I don’t know very many people.
The woman bolts and leaves the kid to be raised by the father. Thank goodness these fathers do it….but really, only a good mommy can really provide the nurture and comfort that a kid needs.
I thank God that I had a good mother, and the stability and comfort of her always being there- as opposed to these poor kids today who get passed around from household to household and daycare like the proverbial doobie. It has made all the difference.
Trust me, Nunzio, you LEARN patience with children. If the ONLY downside to rug rats was them howling non-stop as infants…
It’s dealing with teenagers that will drive most folks bat-shit crazy…especially since you can’t beat the shit out of them when they need a ‘whooping’ anymore!
3, my oldest sister had a child and she was a wreck as was my mother. Both so screwed up they were in different hospitals so as to keep them apart.
I raised the child for months….at the ripe old age of 14, well, I turned 14 about 2 weeks into his life.
Even when they got out of horspital, all they could do was make the child scream. I’d take him and everything would suddenly be ok. It was an experience I’ll never forget. He fled to Mexico over 15 years ago. I went to see him once and took him money. Nobody I know has seen or heard from him since. His daddy beat shit out of him growing up, a swell guy. The kid was never happier than when he was with me. I was happy when he was with me. This is a sad tale to tell but true.
Mark3,
Well said, sir.
The central bank/state-controlled money is just the economic branch of the tyranny- the real power of those psychopaths is their monopoly on the most powerful weapons…and the willingness of so many of our fellow peons to pick up those weapons in the service of the psychopaths; that, and the mind-control that those psychopaths exercise through the schools and the media- again, with the full cooperation of the victims.
A small number of pyschos would not normally be able to so effectively control hundreds of millions of people, without the complicity of the majority of those people; and that complicity exists because of the moral and cultural decay of the people.
Even now, when all this has become clear to many, and we are seeing the effects of it before our eyes, how many even among “the enlightened” still send their kids to pooblik skools- even though they fully realize that they are being corrupted there? How many still watch Hollywood movies and TV shows, though they know every one of them is chock full of deceptions and mind-control, even on an emotional level?
The central bank, which was created over 100 years ago now, evil as it is, is small potatoes compared to so much else that has transpired since. Taxes- which essentially make you a slave and prevent you from owning your own labor and your own property, are far worse. It is easy enough to avoid participation in the banking scheme….but the psychos use violence to force all to participate in the tax scheme (And yet there are those who think that people who manage to prosper are the problem, and who want to use the same government which exerts this control and violence over all, to to somehow “solve” the problem; the very problem that that government created; and who think that it is laudable to use the government to destroy the prosperous. Those people are just as much pyschos as are the elected variety.)
PS. Don’t go into debt, and don’t invest, and you’d be surprised how free you can be from the influences of the central bank.
An ILLUSION, Nunzio, that you’ll be “Free”. Of course, staying out of debt, as those of my faith (LDS) repeatedly advise, does keep one out of that pernicious form of bondage. However, by “don’t invest”, do you mean simply don’t play the ‘market’ (of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and related instruments), or do you mean keep your cash out of the banking system altogether? Simply keeping a stash of greenbacks poses its own very real hazards, not the least of which is, like owning precious metals, it’s value remains stagnant. The risk of loss due to damage (fire, flood, etc.) and theft (not merely by “free-lancing” criminals, Disney’s “Beagle Brothers” CAN be dealt with, but the WORST criminals of all, the police and/or the IRS) is real. Way too much risk that if your stash is discovered, and that can be done by merely assessing your “paper trail”, then it’s seized via Civil Asset Forfeiture as the alleged fruit of illicit activity. There’s an unwritten rule: Thou Shalt NOT “beat” the Banksters! Sure, I’d recommend holding land, farming implements and other tools, commodities, supplies, and items to barter, like collector cars or useful machinery, but again, all one needs to do is somehow draw attention to those in power that want to quash any notion of being “independent”, by labeling you as an “anti-Government, racist, Terrorist”. The only way to maintain any semblance of “independence” is to “fly under the radar”, maintaining few, if any trappings of wealth, and always looking over your shoulder. That doesn’t sound anything like “Freedom”, to always live in fear that what you have is subject to, at any time, being seized for arbitrary reasons, and your very freedom and or life hanging in the balance…just ask Julian Assange.
The only true safety is in “numbers”…not only to withdraw from the banking system, thereby “starving the beast”, but also to mount a credible force to fight it off in its death throes.
The political terrorists have near zero power without a counterfeit money system to create their retarded and dependent slaves. The fountainhead of all political terrorism (human ownership) is their “Central Bank”. The goal of all political terrorism is Communism, and Communism is death (starvation)…It’s by design. The political terrorist’s endgame is the feeling of POWER they receive from mass murder. Just study Stalin/Clintons/Maduro.
Just saw the new Volkswagen commercial this morning. Fellow listens to TV newscast about the “tampering” scandal, runs to the lab and designs an electric version of the old VW hippie van. (Wonder how many people it can hold after you install the needed batteries). All to the strains of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence”. I hadn’t thought of what would happen to an electric vehicle that splashed through a rain puddle. Bet Elon Musk and his government enablers haven’t either. Having spent the past few months watching the Missouri and Kansas Rivers doing a repeat of 1993, this is not to me a mere academic question. As for electric trains, I rode a few times on the old Chicago, South Shore and South Bend interurban. You could watch a car go by on the Indiana Turnpike while the train was standing in the station. A few minutes later you’d pass it and leave it behind. This was with 50 year old railcars. For all the insurmountable problems inherent in the electric car, we can at least be grateful that Elon Musk is not trying to revive the Stanley Steamer.
The old Stanley Steamer failed simply because it was a massive, dangerous PITA.
The Doble steam car, on the other hand, was very advanced for its time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUg_ukBwsyo
I was standing in a friend’s front yard in the 90’s, and lo and behold, a Stanley Steamer drove by. It was pretty darn cool- quiet, and just zipped on by.
Jay Leno’s is quiet and smooth except for when he hits the whistle….which is pretty neat….for an old trucker.
But for all the trouble that a Stanley took to keep running, it could haul ass for a car of its time!
Yeah it could, but was it more than the brakes, tires, and suspension could handle?
Most vehicles of the time would not be allowed on today’s highways. It’s only that so few survive at all, and most are too valuable to be anything but a “trailer queen” that this issue doesn’t crop up.
A steam engine generates peak torque from zero rpm…that’s simply because the only limit on Brake Mean Effective Pressure, which is the force that pushes down on the piston in the first place, is what pressure the steam engines components can handle. Typically the cylinder block, the head, and the piston are NOT the weakest components! So the operator can open to full throttle from a dead start…giving the maximum torque which is what you need to get any vehicle off the line.
In 1906, a Stanley roadster, not a specialized race car but a production vehicle, was clocked at Daytona Beach at 127 mph! And yes, I’d guess the driver was praying that the tires wouldn’t blow or he wouldn’t hit an obstacle! It was what was then referring to as a “feat of derring-do!”
Elon Musk is the foremost scammer in all history, rendering PT Barnum a pathetic amateur when it comes to swindle, duplicity, and conning the average man, who is in fact far below average. Eventually he’ll escape to someplace that has no extradition treaty with the US, wherein he can enjoy his ill-gotten gains, though it better not be Russia – I doubt that Vlad “The Impaler” Putin would welcome him or his ill-gotten gains. More likely Musk would end up in the present version of the Gulag Archipelago.
He gets away with it because our whole society has not only drunk the Kool-aid, but they clamor to drink that Kool-aid, lest they be labeled as “Luddites”. No matter how absurd the claims, as long as it’s ‘modern technology’ they will believe by blind faith; they WANT to believe.
Give ’em something simple and efficient and honest and durable, that works like a charm- and if it seems “old-fashioned”, they will crap all over it.
Talk about Pharaoh- these modern captains of the Silly-CON Valley are the magicians of Egypt- and like Pharaoh, their chariots will end up on the bottom of the sea…where they belong.
Boy, I sure hope not. Alaska’s fish don’t need lithium battery chemicals along with all the Fukushima radiation they’ve already absorbed.
Between the horrific consequences if things go wrong and the fact that NO nuclear reactor has been built WITHIN BUDGET, I’m no longer in favor of nuclear power. Sure, things don’t go wrong very often, but when they do, look out! Fukushima is Exhibit A of what you’re talking about.
“No matter how absurd the claims, as long as it’s ‘modern technology’ they will believe by blind faith; they WANT to believe.
CORRECTION: The sheep want future technology. The problem, however, is by the time said future tech becomes reality, it’s already considered “obsolete”. In other words, you will always be a “Luddite” for not adopting something that doesn’t exist.
“Give ’em something simple and efficient and honest and durable, that works like a charm- and if it seems “old-fashioned”, they will crap all over it.”
That’s because the sheep despise the idea of simple convenience (i.e. anything that requires even the slightest effort on their part); so they prefer “CON-venience” instead. (See what I did there? 😉)
Mr. Musk is not unlike the fictional Ray Zielinski, the “Auto Parts King” of the movie “Tommy Boy” (the “Holy Schneikes” version being worth the $$)…Mr. Zielinski posture himself as being in business for the “Working Man, because that’s what I am!”. However, as he confesses to Tommy Callahan, as he takes Tommy and Richard through his testing facility on the way to his corporate board room, to commence the deal with Tommy’s purported step mother (Bo Derek) that will sell her shares to Zielinski, as Tommy’s shares, along with the family mansion, being collateral to a defaulted bank loan, are gone, ending Callahan Auto (save for the name, which is all that Zielinski wants, he being a “corporate raider” w/o any intention of saving the Callahan factory in Sandusky, OH) and putting Tommy and Richard out on the street. Zielinski’s business acumen is due to being a slick salesman whom knows how to maintain an image in spite of his ruthlessness. Of course, once Beverly and her purported son (in reality, no relation, merely her ‘boy toy’ and accomplice) are discovered, it’s realized that she’s NOT the owner of ‘her’ half of what shares of Callahan Auto remain, but Tommy is, and he, having tricked Zielinski into consummating a huge deal for Callahan brake parts that will pay off the loans and save the factory, the “Auto Parts King” at first believing that in but a few minutes he’ll simply have made a deal with himself anyway, has “gotten one by him”, and manages to “savor the flavor”…with the lovely young lady dispatcher (Michelle Burke) on the rowboat at the lake.
Unfortunately, Mr Musk is nowhere near as funny as Dan Akkoryd, and I doubt even with his money he could bed Bo Derek anyway.
So far Musk has delivered, at least something. I am regularly seeing Teslas on the road and rockets being launched. Will Tesla or SpaceX eventually succeed? I don’t know. But right now Tesla is the category killer in sports sedans, and maybe sports cars. And maybe Tesla is a new category of car, consumer electronics. I fully expected Volvo and the Germans to destroy Tesla once they got serious, but they didn’t. Maybe Chinese BYD will beat Tesla? I don’t know or care to speculate why, but it seems to be true.
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/tesla-model-3-vin-tracker/
As far as the pick up, I have no idea who is going to buy it, but pickups are a high profit margin vehicle. Every Tesla sold adversely affects the profits for F and GM. How many F and GM cars are profitable? The only obvious reason to me for owning one of his pickups is you are operating it in a tail pipe pollution sensitive area like LA or where electricity is free, possibly near midwestern windmill farms.
TSLA loses money on every car sold, fyi, per their own earnings report.
Elon Musk is the foremost scammer in all history, rendering PT Barnum a pathetic amateur when it comes to swindle, duplicity, and conning the average man, who is in fact far below average. Eventually he’ll escape to someplace that has no extradition treaty with the US, wherein he can enjoy his ill-gotten gains, though it better not be Russia – I doubt that Vlad “The Impaler” Putin would welcome him or his ill-gotten gains. More likely Musk would end up in the present version of the Gulag Archipelago.
They do lose money on every car, but due to high-volume selling, they make up the difference and more or less break even. (From the latest annual report, 2016).
LOL, Nathan. Think about it: Losing money on the sale of one widget or ten widgets or 100 hundred widgets, somehow magically turns into breaking even if you sell 100,000 widgets? That’s what they call “creative accounting”- or what honest people call lying.
Just another facet of the con….that only Uncle’s favored players can get away with. If it were you or I, we’d be in jail for fraud.
So how do they break even when they lose hundreds of millions every year?
Sorry, I forgot *wink wink*to explain that this is an OLD joke- “We lose money on every sale but make it up on volume.”
I guess you are lucky to be much younger than I. ;-]
Phewwww! Thought you were serious for a minute- like a guy once, in all seriousness, said to me “….they make up for in volume”!
Hi Nathan,
Most if not all of Elon’s positive cash flow comes from the “sale” (read: extortion) of carbon credits to other car companies. It’s despicable.
If he had to make a profit on his cars, he’d have to sell the Model 3 at around $50,000 for the base model; $65k-plus for the one with the stronger battery. Which would mean selling a handful, at best. Because there are only so many people who can afford to spend $50k-plus on a car. Any car.
It’s just absurd – and not just Tesla.
EVs – as they are – are inherently low-volume toys for people who can afford to spend a lot of money on a toy. There is no sane case to be made for any of the extant models as economical alternatives to IC cars.
Not that there is anything wrong with a toy, either building or buying. Provided you use your own money.
First I am not trying to tout Tesla.
“TSLA loses money on every car sold”
Not only does TSLA lose money for every Tesla sold, but so do all the luxury car makers lose money for every Tesla sold. The Tesla is not exactly comparable to say a BMW, so it is likely people buy a Tesla who would never consider dropping $70k on a car. But many people who would have bought an IC luxury car are buying a Tesla instead. They might even be buying a Tesla instead of 2 cars, Daddy needs a BMW to keep up appearances at work but drives a Porsche on the weekend while mommy only needs a BMW, Daddy can replace both the BMW and the Porsche with a single Tesla, Mommy notices Tesla does not involve self serve gas pumping and there are reserved parking spots at the premium mall. Even worse, those people are probably young, high income, and not disappointed in their Tesla.
As to the pickup truck, IMO, many pickups are bought by men that want a luxury ride and the ‘red neck’ look. Those people make a pickup disproportionately profitable to Ford GM. So maybe TSLA will in fact self destruct, but I bet they take down other autos, the same way that eventually foreign competition brought down Chrysler and turned the Big 3 into the Detroit 3. This might be a result of cheap money supplied by the Fed, who in their right mind would give Musk all that money? Answer: Fed->Money Center Banks->Alternative investments private equity->Tesla. Let’s say the Fed gave you a few billion to start an auto business, what would you do with it? Musk’s puffery about tow capacity might be true in the sense of a perfectly balanced load on frictionless wheels. It is true that Teslas weigh much more than IC vehicles, so the proposed pickup might way like 2 F-150s. Issues like heat come into play. An IC engine might be harder to cool down than an EV engine, I don’t know. Maybe Musk plans to equip his pickups with liquified gas tanks for cooling.
As far as carbon credits go, Musk is not behind that scheme, he is just taking advantage of free money. He’s not the worst offender, didn’t Eisenhower eventually get fed up with the Military Industrial complex? Maybe the Pentagon should be forced to buy carbon credits from militaries that use horses for transportation, he he he. Most carbon neutral military in the world, the military wing of the Taliban.
Hi CloverG,
Your point about each Tesla sale costing luxury car brands a sale is true – but that’s just another reason to despise Tesla. Because it’s not a “sale.” It is a subsidized, rent-seeking give-away.
Imagine you own a grocery store. Next door, a government-subsidized store opens – and gives away food at a loss – paid for by others (via the government). Each “sale” costs you an actual sale.
If Musk had to sell his cars – at cost to manufacture, plus a reasonable profit – the base Model 3 with the best-case 150 mile range would start around $50k and virtually no one would buy the thing – and he’d be costing no one money, except himself and his investors. Which would last until they ran out of money. Which would not take long.
He and his company have lasted only because they are in a position to steal people’s money.
“another reason to despise Tesla”.
Once asked how he could love Wagner, Leonard Bernstein replied, “I hate Wagner — on my knees.”. https://jewishjournal.com/culture/music/78198/
Wagner was an important musical influence for Hitler and Nazi Germany.
Because towing power is also a function of the capability of the vehicle’s frame and attachment points to handle the strain – something Elon would know if Elon knew anything about trucks.
There’s something else that makes Elon’s claim ridiculous. How much weight is on the pickup truck’s drive wheels? Let’s say 3000 pounds. With a very generous coefficient of friction of 1.0 between the drive tires and the pavement, the highest possible horizontal thrust is 3000 pounds, before the tires start to spin. Hauling 300,000 pounds, that will result in a forward acceleration of a blazing 0.01 G’s, or about .32 feet/sec^2. To reach 60 miles/hour, 88 ft/sec, would take 275 seconds, more than four minutes. Braking? I’m guessing Elon is assuming the trailer has brakes.
Oh by the way, the acceleration limit translates into the maximum slope the thing could be towed up, which could be described as minuscule. All of this is completely independent of torque and body strength. Elon is full it it, but we already knew that.
This whole circus would be akin to having Evel Knievel promoting the Cold War in the 1970’s and 80’s, which he didn’t do, obviously. Musk has literally become a 3-ring circus propped up by our taxes and perpetuated by the techno-mythology of govt. sponsored Utopia. It is like watching a live version of “Time Bandits” where a mob of greedy midgets are galavanting through the galaxy, in pursuit of the “most fabulous thing in the universe”, with a conveniently “stolen” treasure map! I don’t think even Monty Python could have conceived of a more ridiculous reality than the one we are witnessing now with E-Loon!
When Musk speaks about his newest fantasy and tries to sell it all I see in my head is Lyle Lanley.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taJ4MFCxiuo
You know, a town with money’s a little like the mule with a spinning wheel. No one knows how he got it, and danged if he knows how to use it!” ―Lyle Lanley
Musk is just a clever, govt. sponsored fraud, a 21st Century “Wizard of OZ”. Look at the top photo of the huckster, again. He’s trying to imitate Steve Jobs with the black jeans, black t-shirt, black sports jacket motif. Unlike Steve Jobs, E-Loon is peddling a limited-use, over-priced product, un-profitable to the point of virtually being un-buildable and clearly not intended for common use. But it’s all just a freak show meant to dazzle and distract the circus crowd he attracts. “Real” innovators and inventors go largely ignored and unnoticed as their products are merely incorporated into products and services already in use in society. The only “revolution” going on here is the war our own govt. has declared on us, the general public, and using our own money to wage it. Musk is a “tool”, in the literal sense, as much as the metaphorical one; a ridiculously over-funded tool, but a tool nonetheless.
Well-said, Graves – thank you, sir!
“sponsored fraud, a 21st Century “Wizard of OZ”.” Fraud is not really fair. The cars and rockets exist and customers are happy if not ecstatic with them. Competitors fear they will not be able to compete, and the EVs from the Euros does not instill the confidence they can. Tesla and SpaceX might not survive as businesses, but Musk did create an auto company from nothing, the question is if in the future Tesla exists as an independent company. The rockets are hard to draw a bead on as he has not proven reusability or mars-ability for that matter.
In defense of the Wizard of Oz, following the logic of the movie the Emerald City seemed like a decent well-run place in the consumerist model. Those that were not content with consumerism could be placated with bogus military and academic honors and even a bogus soul for the Tin Man. Only Dorothy could not be placated. But she is the only one in the Emerald City that could not be placated. The Wiz would have won an election.
Hi George,
But it is fraud. Elon promised a “$35k” which he didn’t deliver for years – but took people’s money for. Anyone else would have been prosecuted.
And it is a fraud to tout EVs as “zero emissions.” They aren’t. Their emissions are simply emitted elsewhere.
Is Musk a Scientologist?
Hi Aljer,
Musk is incoherent! In addition to being a rent-seeker and general fraud, he’s not even articulate. He mumbles almost like a homeless person; his diction is that of a 14-year-old girl. Full of “likes” and such. I remain flabbergasted.
From what i’ve read recently the $35k model 3 has still not shipped. Those in the waiting line keep getting told to upgrade for a sooner delivery. You can bet the new model Y isn’t going to deliver either. I wish people would stop giving him carbon credit money and just partner with a real automotive manufacturer.
Hi Mooeing,
I wish the whole “carbon credit” scam would just go away! It’s legal extortion – nothing more. Musk isn’t a car maker. He is a criminal.
“We are dealing with a fantasist here – which would be okay if he didn’t have enablers in the press and his hands in our pockets”.
Absolutely 100% True.
I have a Nephew, who’s a Millennial, who spouts all the same “I’m going to do this, I’m going to do that, someday this, someday that” bullshit……….and doesn’t do any of it. But, he’s hooked the family’s attention – especially his Grandma – and they’ve put him on a golden pedestal. Fools.
Amen, Joe –
Musk is a like a little boy pretending to be a car mogul. The most obnoxious aspect here may be that he could afford to indulge his fantasies using his own money, rather than other people’s
Sorry to hear that your family is plagued with a young bullshit artist. Just call him out on his BS when he grifts at family gatherings. Betcha won’t hear THAT from “Dear Abby”!
Cold coffee at the end of the day, it’s 10 after 5 and I’m fadin’ away.
One more invoice and I’m calling it quits, I own every minute but this heat is the pits.
OK.
Anybody got a chorus for this one?
Hey gtc,
How about this.
“When you’re self employed, you’re boss is a prick
No shirking your duties or calling in sick
No guaranteed paycheck or three week vacation
Just a lifetime of work based on self motivation.”
Cheers,
Jeremy
Hey! I like that, Jeremy! Too bad E-Loon can’t get hip to that reality, lol!
Sing a song of E-Loon, a pocket full of cash, bet it on a Tesla, you’re bound to burn and crash.
When the dust has settled, you’ll go home in a box, your cash is safe with E-Loon, that crafty little fox.
Hey gtc,
Good one, here’s another.
“Sometimes I long for an easier path
Get with the system, fuck just do the math
Then I consider what I value most
And I will not survive off an unwilling host”
Cheers,
Jeremy
Musky had a little scam,
Little scam,
Little scam.
Musky had a little scam,
with which he fleeced the proles.
This kind of hype is not unprecedented in the advertising business. The Top Gear guys towed a 707 (I think) with a diesel Touareg, and there is lot’s of ways which are not practical to make some outlandish stunt possible.
I have a slightly different take on Tesla. The older Tesla roadsters are likely going to be collector’s items and will likely appreciate. They are impractical as hell, but pretty and impressively quick toys.
Where El Musk-o is missing the boat is trying to make these things mass market. As an overpriced toy they could be a strong player in the supercar market- in their own niche. But trying to make a mass market thing out of a $50k toy, is a matter of believing one’s own BS. And with a cold fusion power plant, electric will be mainstream. Of course, now we’re into sci-fi again.
I’ve met used car dealers that were exponentially more trustworthy than Musk is. Throwing his “visions” of the future aside, and just focusing on the quality of his present “achievements”, I have literally nothing remotely nice to say about him.
In spite of the dire warnings to the contrary, a friend of mine has wasted a lot of money on a Tesla Model 3. I have literally never seen such pathetic build quality in anything, and that includes having owned both a Grand Am and a Chevy Celebrity. I’ve been trying to get him to put a grand on the table to see if he can outrun the 70 year old flattie in the A-bone, but apparently the faith in the Musk religion only goes so far.
Amen, El Guapo…
As most here already gnoe, I have been a car journalist for a long goddamn time. And what Musk gets away with leaves me just speechless, almost. This includes the schlocky build quality you mention. If Toyota did similar, there would howling so loud you’d hear it at the bottom of the Marianna Trench…but when Elon does it, the courtier press is mum, addled by the musk of Elon…
@El Guapo @ eric As the owner of a well-abused 1993 Pontiac Sunbird, I can’t even find anything bad to say about GM build quality. GM’s reputation for poor build quality was mainly centered around goofy gaps (which there may be a few of) and “cheap” materials (I don’t care). The vehicles, even if they look poorly assembled, are actually very durable and GM went to great lengths to ensure this. All this garbage with pieces falling off and the car breaking in stupid ways that render the entire thing nonfunctional for stupid reasons is uniquely Tesla.
I wouldn’t say the GM cars I’ve owned have been built badly, just engineered poorly.
1992 Lumina Z-34: Chevy adapted their V6 to use ignition block instead of cap and rotor. Fine, except they plugged up the hole in the block with a gasketed cover. When the gasket perished the engine lost oil, about a quart every two weeks. Fix was to tear the entire engine apart and replace a 30 cent rubber gasket. Every time it rained the check engine light would come on. Pulling fuse to ECM would clear it until next time it rained. GM recommended changing transmission fluid every 15K miles, which seems a little excessive to me.
1990s era GMC van (work vehicle, don’t recall exact year): ABS problems. Check engine light in cold weather.
2004 Pontiac Grand Am. DEXCOOL coolant ate away at silicone head gasket. Plastic shaft on power steering pump broke. Undersized brakes again chewed up pads and warped rotors. Power window mechanism broke (actually just the cheap nylon strap, but the entire unit had to be replaced).
Early 2000s GMC 1500 extended cab pickup: Nice vehicle. Very few problems, but coming down from Eisenhower tunnel into Silverthorne the transfer case decided to destroy itself.
None of these issues had anything to do with build quality. But by making sure the accounting department had their say in design these vehicles had fatal flaws that made owning them a constant worry over what will fail next.
Sorry, that was a 2002 Grand Am. Coffee…
The powers that be let him get away with his many sins because they need someone to come in and look “disruptive” pushing their bletcherous EVs. Other car manufacturers build their EVs to the same standards they use for everything else (mainly because they actually have standards!), but they already have ICE-centric fanbases and product lines, so they aren’t as useful for being loud and obnoxious and generating empty hype.
Other automakers do FMEAs hence they cannot put dangerous “features” into their cars like self driving that can’t see stationary objects when the car is traveling at highway speeds.
Back in the early 1970’s, Chevy ran a TV commercial showing one of their K-20 pickups towing a 747 weighing about 500K pounds.
It was a gimmick of course, because any 4×4 with low range could have done the same, and it was only “towing” maybe 3-5 mph. Still, I did some crazy things with my pickup, like pulling a loaded fuel semi out of a snow bank, and dragging around a cabover Pete trying to get it started (to no effect; it was the damn Cummins fuel solenoid!).
Letourneau used to build Big Machines with electric wheel motors powered by diesel generators. CAT copied all his ideas except they used direct drive and hydraulics instead of electric motors. Might be a reason other than just patents ???
Hi Dread,
My buddy Tim (ace mechanic) and I were talking about towing the other day. It is one thing to get something moving – slowly – on a flat, relatively friction-free road. Think of a strong man pulling that 747. He might get it to budge, a little.
Now add a grade. And/or friction, such as overcoming large rocks/ruts.
That’s when push comes to shove… or doesn’t!
But Eric, that is exactly what he will do. Hook his “truck” up to an empty 777 on an airfield and pull it a couple hundred feet. The press will eat it up while his fandom clap like seals.
eric, I spoke to PACCAR. To paraphrase M. Gustave who said in Grand Budapest Hotel to his right hand man, Zero, “Management was shaking like a shitty dog”.
didjya know there is a manual override for the Cummins fuel solenoud? Its the small handscrew on the valve itself. Open that up fuel flows into the metering pump. I replaced my fuel valve on the road one time when it turned itself off. Hitchhiked to a truck shop, bought a new one (reman, actully, if memory serves) replaced it at the side of the road, and made my delivery on time. Six months later the stupid reman solenoid valve packed up again. LONG ways from parts, but as I studied the valve itself, I noticed that screw… turned it to open the fuel, and it lit right off. The funny part was when it came time to shut down at end of day. Fourth direct, slip the clutch worked… but was cumbersome. Then I remembered the compressioin release. Shutdown simply meant yanking on that tee handle until the engine finally drifted to a stop.
Why pay another hundred bucks for a stupid valve that would fail again in six months?
I know that NOW, but back then I was just a stupid kid trying to help out a stranded trucker on a 40 below Sunday morning. After he unhooked the trailer and backed off the spring brakes, I dragged him a mile out of town and back to no avail. Then we called a local trucker for help. By then the engine was loosened up enough that we could crank it off a big charger at the gas station. The local trucker says “look there’s no smoke” and either cranked open the valve like you say or just took the guts out. The driver could just put it in a high gear and let out the clutch to kill it (once he got to a lower altitude and warmer place, of course!).
Years later, I had a 666 skidder just shut itself off at idle in the shade while I was eating lunch. It wasn’t my machine to be taking apart, so I called the boss logger and he called out a field mechanic. Same thing, of course. He didn’t have the part with him so just left out the stopper so we could work. Funny thing, the Clark had a manual “pull to stop” handle so the switch was unnecessary to begin with. Another case of adding fancy parts just so they can fail.
The original point was a K-20 Chevy in low range can pull a Pete with a 350 Cummins in gear.
It was the winter of 73=74 and I was working hauling seed and cotton from a cotton gin. The weather had turned shitty and made the road really slick. My uncle’s truck with a big opentop van was loaded with cottonseed and when he went to leave, the clutch gave up.
His other nephew from NM was there in his brand new Chevy 3/4T 4WD pickup still with the new road tires and small factory rubber. All this dust had blown across the hiway and was covered in almost freezing drizzle. That guy chained up to that rig and pulled it 9 miles to the next town to get the clutch replaced. YOu could see the streaks where the tires had cleaned the pavement for months.
Once the clutch was replaced my uncle drove it to ADM 20 miles away. He pulled up on the scales and got the riot act read to him since the rig weighed 126,000 lbs and broke the scales where they banned him for life so I got to do all the seed hauling after that.
Once we knew what the truck weighed it made the feat that pickup did even more unbelievable. My uncle had just built that trailer and had no idea it would hold that much. Live and learn again I guess. He started hauling for another gin to another place like ADM. I think it was the second trip the trailer broke in half. It hadn’t been properly braced even though it was never meant to haul anything near what it did. That was a hand-built Cummins 335 that would blow 400 big cam trucks off the road. I’d drove it to the coast with a load of cotton and kinda took it easy on it. In east Texas I picked up a load of power poles that weighed about 56,000 lbs. That old Freightliner would do close to 90 before the light for the turbo overheat would come on. If that thing had had a 13 speed it would have easily been a triple digit truck.
The engineering differences between diesel-electric and direct drive are enough that Caterpillar could avoid patent infringement issues when marketing competing products vs. Letourneau or Komatsu. Also, each approach has advantages and disadvantages. There’s a reason that diesel-electric is not typically used in marine applications, but, in sheer irony, was the only viable means for submarine propulsion until Rickover, with the creative genius of Richard G. Scott (later a Mormon Apostle), pushed nuclear marine propulsion for the Navy. Hell, the “Old Man” nearly sold the Navy on doing a refit of the four existing Iowa-Class BBs with nukes and building the Montana-class as BBNs as well!
Nuke subs are just nuke-electric drive instead of diesel-electric drive.
??? Nuclear boats are STEAM propelled, ‘dread’! The nuke plant, usually a Babcock and Wilcox, Westinghouse, or General Electric pressurized water reactor, provides process heat to generate STEAM for the TURBINES that propel the submarine or aircraft carrier. There are electric generators, but they’re NOT the same as the motor-generators used on a diesel-electric boat by any stretch!
Obviously, “dread”, you know zilch about Marine Engineering.
I’m starting to wonder if elecktrek.co has paid commenters to boost their numbers. Some of the disqus comments there are low brain cell, awful grammar, and robot like responses if it detects your comment is not Pro-elon.
Hey Eric,
“It’s too bad someone in the assembled gang of stenographers didn’t bother to ask him why he hasn’t. And if he hasn’t why he is talking out of his other orifice – again.”
This tendency of industry “press” to be little more than propagandists, annoys me no end. The bike press is currently gaga over the latest attempt at a shaft drive bike.
https://mashable.com/video/chainless-bike-shaft-driven-ceramicspeed/
The hype surrounding this system is absurd, as it is a non-functional prototype. They claim it’s a “13 speed” but it has no mechanism that can shift through those gears, so it’s actually a 1 speed. I have searched for actual ride tests and have found none, which suggests that even the 1 speed prototype cannot tolerate actual drive loads.
I have not found a single press article asking any skeptical questions about the claims made by the designers of this system. They claim that it’s 49% more efficient than a chain driven bike. You’d think that someone would ask,”given that you don’t have a functional prototype, how did you test this?” Or, “given that in order to make shifting possible, the drive shaft will need to be a 2 piece, splined system, won’t this necessarily add weight and reduce efficiency?” Or, “given that a good quality, well maintained chain drive system can be at least 98% efficient, what does 49% more efficient even mean?” Or, “won’t lateral deflection of the pie plate be an issue in lower gears?”
There are many more questions that should be asked, but I have found no industry rag or website that has done anything except repeat the designers ridiculous claims.
Cheers,
Jeremy
The same people that subscribe to the religion that’s Global Warming are the followers of Elon. In a man made religion, ‘no proof’ or ‘common sense’ is required so even the most audacious theories abound. Governments will use anything, no matter how thin. to promote more control and taxes are their method of choice. It punishes the producers that manufacture useful products and rewards the snake oil salesmen with empty promises. The cartoon “Jetsons’ in my day that fantasized flying cars is a excellent analogy of Tesla today. The only difference is we of the time knew it to be fantasy whereas today Elon, like Tim Cook et all, is the wizard that represents a giant leap in human progress….. until one pulls back the curtain.
Another excellent over the target article Eric. One can only hope the bombs your dropping can reach enough people to change our present course.
He is speaking to a bunch of millennial in urban California… who are basically members of his cult…… how many of them do you think have ever driven a pickup, or towed anything with it…. forget being in or having driven a big-rig!!
The funny thing is that apparently the current model X can tow a respectable amount (5000 lb on top of the car itself which is 5500 lb)…. but the fact is (even according to members of his own cult) when towing the range is reduced by 60% (https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-x-range-impact-towing/)!!! Looking at the numbers in the teslarati for WH/mi for the change in weight…. towing 60 times more for a long range, one can assume that you will need a battery pack which will well be bigger than the pickup truck itself!!!!
And this is before cold or driving on inclines. But as you mentioned – why would the stenographers realise it….. and even if they do…. i guess as they say science is racist anyways so might as well not talk about it!!
The motors are not a problem at all. It’s very easy to build a high torque electric motor, Tesla (the man) did it in the 1800s. It’s always about the battery. That’s why light rail and subway systems all use a stationary power sources.
If we really cared about global warming we’d be electrifying the railroads. It’s fairly easy to do, just add catenary wires and pantographs to the existing lines. Modify engines to accept outside power. Supply power from stationary nuclear power plants spaced at regular intervals, and sell excess power into the grid.
But that’s not gonna happen. Instead of needing approval from one hidebound regulatory body, you’d need to get approval from two. And likely some new legislation.
Hey RK,
“Supply power from stationary nuclear power plants spaced at regular intervals, and sell excess power into the grid.”
The fact that almost all climate hysterics consider nuclear to be off the table is proof that they either don’t believe their own rhetoric or that they’re just useful idiots. The former is a much smaller group but they hold much more power. The latter is made up of mostly well meaning folks who have been cynically manipulated by the former.
I’m not advocating for or against nuclear power, I’m just pointing out the obvious. If the hysterics are correct, nuclear is the only viable power source that can achieve dramatic reductions in CO2 emissions. Wind, solar, geothermal, etc… can not even come close to providing the energy needs of modern society. The fact that it is off the table proves that the goal is energy rationing and control, at least among the elite class pushing climate hysteria.
Cheers,
Jeremy
I read a comprehensive assessment of nuclear energy something like 3 years ago. Nuclear energy requires so much upkeep it is actually the most polluting compared to natgas or coal. It’s a non-stop trucking parts, building and replacing parts, hauling off the nuclear spent material and storing it plus the labor involved in all the aspects it is not economically feasible except that our tax dollars support all the money spent by the companies that have them built and profit from them.
I’ve had a couple friends who have hauled spent fuel and other residue that has to be buried and dealt with in other ways that all end up polluting the water of the planet. They didn’t do it long because they couldn’t simply haul the stuff, deliver it and go on but all sorts of federal agents were tasked to tail them and keep a record of everything done during a hauled load. They probably tested what the driver’s left in urinals and commodes. It was maddening to do plus they were always going to family and anyone who knew them and grilling them about the driver. It got old really fast. In a small town….or maybe a large one too, everybody begins to wonder why men in black are wanting to know everything they can find out about a guy who simply drives a truck. Soon, so many rumors and such circulate they just get the hell out of the bidness. I reckon Republic goes through drivers like water. All this stuff adds to the expense that we, not the companies that own and profit from nuclear, have to pay. The more highly govt. regulated anything is the less competitive it will be simply because of the costs.
Stick to what you know, 8-South. You’re good, but you don’t know jack didldley squat about Nuclear power, especially civilian power production.
America’s problems with Nuclear energy would be largely solved if we (1) adopted the CANDU (CANadian DeUterium-Oxide) model, which the NRC refuses to license for power. It’s really telling what a bunch of idiots we’re putting in charge when the folks from Soviet Canuckistan make a better reactor than we do.
(2) Streamline the licensing process…it’s a racket for attorneys from the “anti-nuke” movement to earn exorbitant fees filing protest after protest, regardless of merit. Any other industry facing the various frivolities these shysters use to extort the nuclear industry would have had them dis-barred long ago.
(3) EDUCATE the public. Nuclear power is indeed dangerous..when handled by Communists or other CORRUPT regimes. The free market, even in the USA, has a far better safety record. Like so many other endeavors in life, it’s about RISK MANAGEMENT…and the problems with nuclear energy can be intelligently managed.
You seriously think I don’t understand the WHY we have these types of nuclear plants? I’m not speaking of what could/should be. I’m speaking of the dangerous things the deep state/military demands.
Get Fox, CBS, CNN to publish what you have to say and then a great deal more many people will understand we don’t need these dangerous things. I’ll back you all the way and encourage everyone I know to watch the “special” the MSM does on this.
My guess is the success of this will be about the same as a snowball’s chance in hell.
Just watch “Chernobyl” on HBO and see why nuclear power ought NOT to be trusted to any Government. The peoples of the erstwhile Soviet Union, especially the Ukraine, owe a debt of gratitude to those firemen that gave their lives to try to put out that reactor fire. IMO, Yelstin should have put Gorby and his whole cabal on trial for negligent homicide over the whole sordid affair.
Nunz,
As you know, I’m from NJ. I used to hear about the Oyster Creek nuclear plant on the news all the time. Every other week or month, I’d hear about how it was being shut down for this or that. Shoot, even wind was more regular and reliable than OC was, and that was 2-3 decades ago! Now, it’s older, which means more parts will break and they’ll break more often. Shoot, it’s original owner sold it to someone else!
I used to be very much in favor of nuclear power, but not so much anymore. One, though things don’t go wrong with nuke plants very often, when they do, look out! Exhibit A would be Fukushima. Secondly, not ONE nuke plant has ever been constructed on budget, let alone under budget. The question isn’t if a nuke plant will have cost overruns; the only question is by how much.
Can nuclear power be safe? Yeah, the Navy’s been using it for decades. France has a good safety record too. The thing is this: you can either have cheap nuclear power, or you can have safe nuclear power; the problem is you can’t have both at the same time.
Since we have natural gas coming out of our ears; since it burns cleanly; and since natural gas power plants are easier and cheaper to build (relatively speaking anyway); natural gas is the way we should go. We still have plenty of coal too, so might as well use it too.
You don’t have to convince me, MM! I think anyone who advocates for nukular power should have one of the power plants (or a waste facility) in their own backyard. It’s insanity- the death and destruction that it causes WHEN (not IF) something goes wrong.
And between the cost of mining; handling; construction; waste; clean-up, etc. it’s really not even feasible without government subsidy- like electric cars themselves. All us commoners still end up paying through the nose- only instead of voluntarily and proportionally via the gas we put in our tanks, instead by yet more government and corporate extortion.
Corporations are a creation of government; a legal fiction to absolve some of liability. Without corps there would be no nukular power; and without government (which is our ultimate desire), no corps- so I find it very hypocritical when Libertarians and Anarchists advocate for nukular power.
Besides, without all of the regulations and mandates of government, simple, natural forms of energy would be cheap and plentiful, so who would need nukular, with it’s potential to destroy humanity and it’s very real threat of really destroying the environment (as opposed to their phony-baloney CO2/Climate Change BS).
I lived a few miles from a training facility for about a decade.
https://onwardstate.com/2014/10/29/hidden-on-campus-penn-states-historic-nuclear-reactor/
Now that I live in Colorado I’m exposed to more radiation than I was then. Depending on who’s standard you want to use, everyone in Colorado receives a dose above safe levels. Yet Colorado continues to have a lower cancer rate than the rest of the country.
…probably because Colorado has had a huge influx of people from other states and countries for quite some time now, and the radiation is likely high in only certain areas- like where there are waste dumps.
“It would take probably every F-150 Ford made last year to pull 300,000 lbs. – but Elon Musk has promised his pending electric half-ton truck will pull that load all by itself.”
Considering they’re cranking out a new f-150 on average every 29 seconds, we’re talking about 11 minutes worth of F-150 production to tow that much.
Well, they’d still need one hell of a Gooseneck!
Just fire up an M88 Armored Recovery Vehicle (based on a surplus M48 MBT chassis with an upgraded Teledyne V12 supercharged diesel engine, that puts out 1,050 hp) if you need a 747 or 787 (or that Airbus, Frog-made POS, the A380) towed up an incline. There’s numerous Guard armories with one lying in the back which probably goes out twice a year to play in the mud.
Apparently he is banking on NO ONE from the rail industry debunking or even whispering what a crock of shit he is peddling. A modern diesel locomotive, whose wheels are powered by MULTIPLE, very large, electric motors, has a “tractive effort”, or actual pulling power of 100,000 to 140,000 lbs. Which is why you will still see four to six of them hauling a 100 car consist. According to the media, this guy is the finger of God, and all he claims is true, even all his claims that defy physics.
This shyster can’t even produce ONE competitive, profitable, piece of transportation, even with the money he robs from every investor, including taxpayers! This is something literally hundreds of small companies worldwide have been doing for over 100 years! All we hear from the media, and apparently people who have more money than brains, is how everything this huckster touches turns to gold. Really? 100 years ago this snake-oil peddlar would have been strung up by any number of lynch-mobs and been long forgotten. I guess Steve Martin was right when he said 30 years ago he “found a way to turn dog-shit into gold”! Apparently he shared his secret with E-Loon!
Goddamn, Graves!
You made me smile… and that made my day. A King Hell rant, ol’ buddy… thank you!
Thanks Eric! Funny thing is, I learned most of this at the ages of 10-14 years, just from my model train hobby. I can’t imagine how deprived or downright uninformed the consumer has become, primarily from a lack of DOING simple things you and I grew up doing all the time, day in and out! Hobbies used to be something that sparked curiosity, and built one’s knowledge base from the ground up. Now most people just believe they can “research”, or purchase knowledge and experience, boy what a load of delusional hogwash. Anyway, I sent you a piece of “inspiration” in the mail, and I’m sure you’ll let me know about that as well, lol!
Graves
And there in a nutshell is why so many people are so easily conned. But why don’t they learn as children? After reading Gatto’s works it becomes evident that the schools were deliberately designed to kill self learning.
Don’t believe everything you read. My nephews are constantly building things. I got them a 3D printer for Christmas. They use it all the time. The youngest is into robotics and the older one designs and builds models of buildings, when he’s not pitching for the baseball team.
I didn’t argue no one is. Only a significant percentage. I encounter these people everywhere. They don’t the basics of anything and never bothered. Even in engineering school I was astounded at the numbers of students who never bothered taking anything apart to fix it or built anything.
Hi Brent,
I am in need of some therapy… mechanical therapy. I haven’t built an engine since the year before my divorce, so about five years now. A record for me. But keeping the Titanic afloat took all my time and effort; hell, I barely have time to ride my bikes and the TA goes out maybe once a month for half an hour or so.
If I can just make a little progress, I’d like to go through the TA’s engine and up the ante a little. A more aggressive roller cam and different heads (iron Pontiac, but earlier castings, to get higher CR). I’d like to get the horsepower up from the current appx. 320-ish to a solid 400. Plus it would make me feel better.
But instead, I just bought two cans of paint to deal with the peeling sun-facing side of my house. That’s what I’ll be doing this weekend, after borrowing my buddy’s pressure washer to clean off the peeling paint. Lots of fun…
Yeah. Work leaves me drained and the house keeps needing. Then it’s been raining enough the last few months to probably float the Titanic down the little calumet river. So many things to do car wise that aren’t getting done.
I bought a pressure washer a few years ago because I kept borrowing one.
I’m sure you’re aware a set of aluminum heads would not only let you run a higher CR but do so with more power than any iron head. You could paint them if that’s a consideration. It would give you a reason to change intakes too and a less aggressive cam wouldn’t be needed for mo’ power.
Of course, once I start I never know where to stop. I was just considering building an engine, old style with evenly spaced exhaust ports on aluminum heads just to get away from all the bs on the LS engine. I know they make a lot of power but they have a ton of little bs stuff to go bad and screw them up. I just don’t see the need in variable everything including the oil pump. I haven’t found anyone to ride under the hood and pull spark plug wires and fuel injectors to make shut off those non-needed cylinders. That should sort the men from the boys who say they’ll just take any job to stay in this country.
One doesn’t even learn how to do stuff; all one needs to remember this simple adage: if it sounds to good to be true, it probably IS…
At least Steve Martin was funny most of the time, and he probably got to bang Bernadette Peters some 40-odd years ago when they made “Pennies from Heaven” and “The Jerk” together (and her goofiness notwithstanding, she was one damned FINE broad!).
Musk reminds me of that annoying distant relative who’s always finding someone to put the bite on for money or favors at every family gathering.
gtc,
“A modern diesel locomotive, whose wheels are powered by MULTIPLE, very large, electric motors, has a “tractive effort”, or actual pulling power of 100,000 to 140,000 lbs. Which is why you will still see four to six of them hauling a 100 car consist. ”
In the flatlands I only see 6 locomotives on a pig train.
Those double stack shipping container trains have two at the front, two in the middle, and two at the end.
A 100 plus car grain or coal train will generally only have two locomotives on the front and only telemetry or FRED on the ass end. (FRED is the “fucking rear end device.)
I used to drive the NS and CN/IC crews (and FRED) in Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Kentucky. The most cars I’ve seen on a single train was 213 going from Paducah to Markum. Only had 3 locomotives at the front end.
I’d laugh, but knowing how many people are invested in this company (what’s in your 401(k)?) the crater left when Tesla blows up will be enormous. I think a lot of people know this and so they continue to play his game, too afraid to write down the loss and all the while hoping someone (Apple? FCA? Panasonic?) steps in with a merger offer. But because of Elon’s horrible business decisions, the only thing that Tesla has that’s worth anything is/was their patent portfolio and he basically gave that away. So aside from carbon credit income and good marketing there’s no acquisition target either.