February 2025

tesla crashed

Shareholders Aren’t Powerless

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Tesla is in trouble in Europe.

Tesla sales are in free fall in Europe right now. Last month, Norway—where EVs overtook internal combustion vehicles in total market share in 2024—recorded a biting 37.9 percent slump. At the same time, Tesla sales in France fell by a thumping 63.4 percent. And it gets even worse: In Spain, Tesla sales plummeted by 75.4 percent.

…

“I went so far as to test drive a Tesla in 2023, but at that time, [Musk’s] purchase of Twitter was complete, and I saw what he was doing to the platform,” says [Matthew] Hiller [who sells anti-Tesla merch]. “Skewing the algorithm to favor alt-right voices, promoting disinformation, banning people he didn’t like. Using his influence to wade into politics really turned me off buying a Tesla—it’s a MAGA hat on wheels.”

On the other hand, there’s a lot more going on here, at least in Canada.

Nationwide sales of Teslas were down 70 per cent between December 2024 and January 2025. Meanwhile, sales of all zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs), which include both battery-powered and plug-in hybrids, were down even more — 79 per cent, according to S&P Global, which provided the Star with a preview of ZEV sales numbers that have not yet been made public. 

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tyranny

He’s Not Talking About Himself

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Well, I mean, he is, but.

“He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” Trump wrote on Truth Social after his early executive orders and budget-slashing work with Elon Musk’s questionably legal Department of Government Efficiency were called into court by a host of lawsuits. 

Every extremist with a gun who’s ever thought about committing violence for his political beliefs has just been given a Get Out of Jail Free card. That’s the intended audience.

Or if it’s not, then he’s a reckless idiot who should have thought about what he was saying.

ICE

This is a Public Service Announcement

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With guitar!

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is maybe “gonna be in trouble” for informing her constituents about their Constitutional rights, “Border Czar” Tom Homan said on Fox News.

I sent an email today to the deputy attorney general. At what level is that impediment? Is that impediment? I’m not an attorney; I’m not a prosecutor. Is that impediment? Is that impeding our law enforcement efforts? If so, what are we gonna do about it? Is she crossing the line? So, I’m working with the Department of Justice and finding out. Where is that line that they cross? So, maybe AOC’s gonna be in trouble now.

AOC held a webinar on how to respond if ICE comes to your door, part of a comprehensive collection of immigration resources for her constituents, centered on her website.

Several news sites that I won’t link are calling this informing “illegal migrants” how to avoid ICE. Now, ICE isn’t going to come to my door–this is an anonymous blog! And also I’m white–but some of AOC’s constituents who are American citizens should be just as interested in what their rights are if ICE comes knocking. Not that the intended audience matters in terms of whether this is all First Amendment 101 material.

Apparently, this particular issue is a problem for Homan.

The backstory here is that Homan has complained about such information sessions before. In a recent interview on CNN, he specifically decried “know your rights” efforts, saying that such campaigns have made enforcement of Trump’s immigration plans more difficult.

“They call it ‘know your rights’; I call it ‘how to escape arrest,’” Homan said.

Everybody should be keenly interested in how to avoid arrest. Shouldn’t they?

avowed

Avowed Looks Good

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There are plenty of reasons to be excited about Avowed, the new fantasy action role-playing game from Obsidian, the studio that brought you Fallout: New Vegas (I’ll play it! I have it installed on my Steam Deck!) and the grandly anti-capitalist The Outer Worlds.

(There are reasons not to be excited, as well. This is a magnificent opening to a review:

Avowed is almost good, but there’s something so resigned and workmanlike to its quest design and storytelling that it often feels like dog-eared chorelist of Obsidian must-haves, ticked off so aimlessly that the result is a bit like having an RPG described to you by someone late for a bus.

But no game is for everyone!)

One obvious reason to be excited about Avowed is that Obsidian is a well-regarded studio, and one false move these days can get your studio disbanded or gutted. It’s never safe to say it can’t happen, but Obsidian is in good shape, to go by the mostly glowing reviews. You like to see it, am I right? Development of The Outer Worlds 2 continues apace.

Avowed has had to tamp down comparisons to Skyrim, the most successful (and most ported) fantasy action RPG ever produced on planet Earth, but I haven’t heard “Avowed” and “Skyrim” in the same sentence in a while, so maybe they wriggled free of that. If it’s The Outer Worlds with magic and swords, that’ll be just fine.

Abiotic Factor

Sony’s State of Play

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Kotaku has a look at all the games featured in today’s Sony State of Play.

I split my video gaming between the PS5 and the Steam Deck. I prefer to play new games on the PS5, and old favorites that feel great handheld on the Deck. Sony’s State of Play events, or at least recaps of them, are always interesting to me. Here are some of the showcased games coming out soon on PS5.

With an ethereal presentation that promises a sword-swinging hero’s journey through some pretty spectacular-looking environments, Lost Soul Aside looks promising for fans of speedy and flashy third-person melee action. Hopefully it will be stylish enough for the more discerning fans of the genre among us. Lost Soul Aside launches on March 30, 2025.

Looks interesting. IGN reports that “Lost Soul Aside clearly channels inspirations from Devil May Cry and PlatinumGames-style action games, as well as Final Fantasy XV, which the developer has been upfront about.” I liked FFXV, I’m not sure how many other people did.

Today’s SoP showed off even more of the upcoming Split Fiction, the science fiction meets fantasy fusion co-op adventure from the makers of It Takes Two.

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john wick

Stop Calling Me

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Democrats are said to be upset that groups like MoveOn and Indivisible are encouraging followers to call Democratic Congresspersons.

“There were a lot of people who were like, ‘We’ve got to stop the groups from doing this.’ … People are concerned that they’re saying we’re not doing enough, but we’re not in the majority,” said one member.

Similarly, Hakeem Jeffries would like to remind you that this isn’t the Democrats’ problem so shut up.

“What leverage do we have?” says Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. “They control the House, the Senate, and the presidency; it’s their government.”

That’s why mommy had to lose her job at the CFPB, sweetie. Fighting the other party is too hard.

pennies

Don’t Stop Making Cents

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The President’s ADHD alighted on the penny after the Super Bowl. He posted on social media that he had directed the Secretary of the Treasury to stop minting pennies, because they cost too much to make.

Like many things Trump does, this is something that’s none of his business. The United States Mint derives its authority from Congress. If we’re to stop making pennies, Congress has to say so. In 2017, a bill was co-sponsored by John McCain that would have frozen penny minting for ten years while the Government Accountability Office studied whether the freeze should be made permanent. The bill failed to pass. Congress has considered getting rid of the penny and has declined to do so.

There are good reasons to keep making pennies. They do cost 3.69 cents to make, but if you get rid of them, you’ll need more nickels, and those cost 13.78 cents to make. Eliminate the penny, and everything will get rounded up to the next nickel. While that might not affect you much, poorer Americans use cash more often than you do. And won’t someone spare a thought for Abe Lincoln?

If he’s going to try to accomplish by fiat what Congress should be taking care of, how about a decree giving us daylight savings time permanently? Read the room, man.

terminator

Be Evil

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“Don’t be evil” hasn’t been an official part of Google’s corporate code of conduct since 2018. The motto had been around since 2000, even serving as the wifi password on the shuttles that the company uses to ferry its employees to its Mountain View headquarters. In 2018 it was removed, having been replaced by the less direct stricture, “do the right thing.” Android Central reports that Google has made a change reminiscent of the removal of “don’t be evil” to its AI principles statement.

The company has changed its promise of AI responsibility and no longer promises not to develop AI for use in dangerous tech. Prior versions of Google’s AI Principles promised the company wouldn’t develop AI for “weapons or other technologies whose principal purpose or implementation is to cause or directly facilitate injury to people” or “technologies that gather or use information for surveillance violating internationally accepted norms.” Those promises are now gone.

If you’re not great at deciphering technobabble public relations pseudo-languages, that means making AI for weapons and spy “stuff.” It suggests that Google is willing to develop or aid in the development of software that could be used for war. Instead of Gemini just drawing pictures of AI-powered death robots, it could essentially be used to help build them.

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a celebrity couple

I Don’t Care, Really

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A coworker said that if Kansas City wins the Super Bowl, Tom Brady is in danger of not being considered the greatest quarterback of all time. (Others are saying the same thing.) In that respect, go Chiefs! Also my daughter is a proud one-percenter Taylor Swift fan, and I don’t want her to be disappointed. Can you tell I’m struggling to find reasons to care about this game?

You don’t really want to give Philadelphia sports fans what they want, but you’re sick of the Chiefs (link from 2023–oh, author-man, I’m sorry) and their quarterback and their stupid celebrity couple and the way they keep beating your team every year. What do you do? I watch a movie.

the thing is though

I Don’t Know Where To Start

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I’ve posted a couple times about video games, because I don’t know where to start with the political stuff. It’s the 37th worst thing happening in the news right now, but how about Trump’s plan to fire most of the Kennedy Center board and install himself as chairman, huh? Petty and self-aggrandizing, in other words, essential Trump.

Does anybody think this isn’t a precursor to renaming the Center? If he doesn’t try to do it himself, Congress will almost certainly do it. They’ve tried to put Trump’s face on a $500 bill and name U.S. coastal waters after him. They’re currently trying to put his face on Mt. Rushmore (where it would be a perfect fit, abomination that the monument is) and rename Dulles airport after him.

Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., introduced a constitutional amendment to allow Trump to serve a third term. I would think the administration would want to rein that effort in. There is no doubt in my mind that the plan is to get the Supreme Court to say that the 22nd Amendment means no one can be elected more than two times in a row. Trying to amend the constitution could be seen as tacit admission that one would be needed.

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