As my wife has told me a thousand times – Nom de Dieu! Get up, get dressed, I’ve called the police. It’s not all about you… and try to remember that inside every over-educated semi-handsome white man lurks a moron just waiting to get out and ruin all the nice things in everyone else’s life.

Which brings us in a round about way to this.

Via Twitter

The Tesla boss and now largely bumbling Twitter owner, Elon Musk has apparently outright lost his – I’m going limb-wards to call it foolish – Tweet-poll-thing which asks Twitter users if Musk ought to just step on down as head of the company he bought with the money he made from tesla which he promised in April he wouldn’t use (like some magical, but perhaps ill-advised ATM).

The Netherlands says no

Recalling that time an over-educated, odd-looking UK PM decided to go to the British people on the EU, Musk’s democratic brain fart over his performance as Twitter boss went down, like most impulsive acts of public self-absorption, rather badly – only this time on a scale of humiliation which makes arriving at work pantless just a nether land giggle between colleagues. Why? Because 57.5% of Tweeters – 17.5 million of them – voted against him.

That’s exactly the entire population of The Netherlands, which not only makes my previous sentence worth the diversion – but also ties in loosely with the other EU reference. I’m not talking to my editor.

Also it’s likely many more of the respondents weren’t stoned.

Musk, unsatisfied with the giant hole he’s been digging since first making his play for the social media company in 1901, pledged to abide by whatever the people decided, saying

“The question is not finding a CEO, the question is finding a CEO who can keep Twitter alive.”

But this isn’t even about Twitter

Tesla’s stock, the rock upon which Musk and so much of the current fiscal philosophies driving the Nasdaq, the US (and int’l) auto future, the global energy transition is built has been draining like a lithium battery locked on a social media app.

By this time last week, the ionospheric value of Tesla shares had fallen some 29% since Musk got the Twitter he wanted. Tesla which famously enjoyed a market cap larger than all the others combined – one EV to rule them all – suddenly began lagging other carmakers.

Tesla stock is faring poorly since CEO Elon Musk bought Twitter. Musk sold billions of dollars’ worth of his Tesla holdings to finance the Twitter takeover and has been embroiled in controversy ever since.  But, after taking a massive hit in response to Musk’s Twitter takeover, the stock jumped almost 5% in premarket trade.

Probably just a storm in 280 words

The fact is Musk has been muddying the meaning of his missives and the issues they muddy in a fashion similar to the man he seems to be merging with, ex-Pres Donald Trump.

For example, he’s been dismissive of the value of corporate titles for ages. Over at Tesla he’s said the CEO title is “made up” and “doesn’t mean anything.”

In some official Tesla market filings he’s referred to himself as ‘Technoking.’

Three weeks after taking over Twitter Musk got himself sued by a frustrated Tesla shareholder over the size of his Tesla compensation package, concerned by the Technokers roaming eye.

More recently he assured the growing proportion of freaked out Tesla investors he planned to step down as Twitter’s head  at some stage.

Meanwhile, Musk is single-handedly tearing down parts of the ‘old Twitter’ infrastructure, banning at least half a dozen journalists late last week including reporters from both the New York Times and the Washington Post — with Musk claiming they violated the social media platform’s new “doxxing” policy.

Basically they retweeted the now banned account produced by an undergrad which tracked the publicly available – but not live – movements of Musk’s private jet.

Twitter’s headcount is shrinking, it’s internal structures are all-blown up and the company is facing  further criticism for saying it’ll ban accounts used to promote rival social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram and Mastodon.

Those posts – like other thought bubble’s Twitter is used for – have since vanished.

Shakespearean self-misunderstanding

This latest one is still here:

 

This would’ve been more appropriate, but not everything can be Shakespeare:

 

He would be crown’d:
How that might change his nature, there’s the question.
It is the bright day that brings forth the adder;
And that craves wary walking.
Crown him?–that;–
And then, I grant, we put a sting in him,
That at his will he may do danger with.
The abuse of greatness is, when it disjoins
Remorse from power…

Act II, Scene I

The Life and Death of Julius Caesar