Tag: Elon Musk

El zalamero

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Las relaciones bilaterales de México y Estados Unidos se han tensado fuertemente en los tres últimos días. Las relaciones con Perú están en el umbral de suspenderse o romperse. La prensa más influyente en el mundo, está criticando el carácter autoritario del presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Uno de los programas de revista que ven más de dos millones de personas cada noche en la Unión Americana, se mofó cruelmente del presidente este lunes. Y quien debería estar buscando solución a la conflictividad diplomática que se vive o atajando la caricatura que se está haciendo de López Obrador en el mundo, se dedicara mejor a la zalamería.

La carrera por la sucesión presidencial está haciendo cometer desfiguros lamentables a Marcelo Ebrard, el secretario de Relaciones Exteriores y considerado por muchos -como quien esto escribe- como el miembro del gabinete más sofisticado. Ayer, con motivo del anuncio anticipado de que la empresa Tesla hará una muy importante inversión en México, escribió en Twitter: “Felicito al presidente López Obrador por la exitosa negociación con Tesla que garantiza gran inversión con cuidado del agua. Presencié su brillante y exitosa operación a favor de México”. Era innecesaria la zalamería, máxime cuando en el quedabien no atiende las cosas importantes.

La inversión de Tesla es una derrota política para el presidente, no una victoria. La semana pasada vetó informalmente que la planta para fabricar autos eléctricos compactos, que representaría una inversión de más de 10 mil millones de dólares, se construyera en Santa Catarina, un municipio conurbado de Monterrey, por falta de agua, y ayer, 24 horas después de hablar en videoconferencia con Elon Musk, presidente de la empresa, reculó. López Obrador no logró que la nueva armadora se instalara en las inmediaciones del aeropuerto “Felipe Ángeles”, o que se construyera en el sur del país.

Qué habló con Musk es un secreto. “Brillante” y “exitosa” operación a favor de México, como lo describió Ebrard es un exceso retórico y una mentira. Para Musk, era Monterrey o nada, y le urgía una definición para anunciarlo hoy en el Día del Inversionista en Austin. El presidente no negoció nada, sino que lo hicieron durante 14 meses sus colaboradores con el director de Políticas Públicas de Tesla, Rohan Patel, viejo conocido del equipo de Ebrard, al haber sido consejero del presidente Barack Obama en cambio climático.

Entretanto, ¿qué dejó de hacer el canciller?

1.- No expresó un extrañamiento al Departamento de Estado por tres declaraciones en dos días en apoyo al Instituto Nacional Electoral, cuya independencia apoya a “una democracia saludable”, y oponerse, por consiguiente, al Plan B de López Obrador. El presidente afirmó ayer que el Departamento de Estado se está inmiscuyendo en los asuntos internos de México, deslindando del pronunciamiento al presidente Joe Biden, como si la cancillería estadounidense se manejara de manera autónoma a la Casa Blanca.

2.- No inició un control de daños con el gobierno peruano después de que López Obrador tildó a la presidenta Dina Boluarte de “títere” y “pelele” de los intereses oligarcas nacionales e internacionales, que quieren los recursos minerales de esa nación. El gobierno peruano no ha respondido los improperios, pero el principal periódico de ese país, El Comercio, publicó un editorial donde señala: “López hablador: el presidente de México diserta sobre la democracia, pero la socava en su país”. Más insultante, el excanciller Luis González Posada, se lamentó que “los mexicanos tengan como presidente a un imbécil”.

3.- Hasta ahora, ha guardado mutis también sobre el programa de revista y sarcasmo “The Late Show”, donde el muy popular Stephen Colbert en la cadena CBS se burló de López Obrador por haber publicado una fotografía de un ingeniero del Tren Maya, aparentemente de un aluxe, que son seres místicos, no reales, de la cosmogonía maya. Colbert provocó las risas al ubicar la declaración del presidente en el contexto de los seres místicos en la saga del Señor de los Anillos, sugiriendo que López Obrador había ingerido drogas alucinantes.

Ebrard no tenía en sus manos cómo frenar todo lo que ha salido, pero pudo operar de manera directa o a través de las embajadas una inconformidad, una carta de protesta (como habría sido el caso de la cadena CBS), o tender puentes de forma inmediata para evitar que un conflicto (como con Perú), escale más. No lo hizo, y tampoco se sabe que estén haciendo un trabajo con medios de comunicación internacionales, donde en los últimos días se ha caracterizado a López Obrador como un gobernante que está atacando la democracia, y al fijar la posición del gobierno mexicano, matizar las críticas.

El presidente está solo, sin amortiguadores, ni defensa. Ayer mismo reprochó a The Wall Street Journal su cobertura de la concentración del domingo por haber publicado en su primera plana de este lunes a cuatro columnas, una fotografía de la atiborrada plancha del Zócalo bajo la cabeza: “Manifestantes se visten de rosa en un choque contra el partido gobernante”. López Obrador, en su simplificación conocida, alegó que “ese y otros periódicos protegen a las mafias económicas del mundo”. No le explicaron a López Obrador que ese diario fue uno de decenas en el mundo que registraron la expresión de protesta contra el Plan B de manera similar, lo que sugiere no un complot global, sino que no hay instrucciones en el cuerpo diplomático para cabildear con medios internacionales la iniciativa electoral.

López Obrador sigue sumando agravios y dinamitando puentes. En México carece de un portero que evite que la polarización siga ensanchándose, y le ayude al presidente a distender la liga, como sería el caso del secretario de Gobernación, que en lugar de eso, la estira. Ebrard no anda de buscapleitos en el mundo, pero tampoco está deteniendo problemas al presidente. Parece estar más enfocado en la sucesión presidencial y en la política que en su trabajo diplomático, aderezando su actitud con frases melosas a su jefe, que le hacen perder respeto a su persona, lo degradan y lo hacen ver desesperado en busca de su gracia.

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Ben Shapiro’s Wet Ass Racist Trolley Problem

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Washington Free Beacon writer Aaron Sibarium managed to find something to be outraged at Monday when he asked the popular ChatGPT AI writing program to reply to a very realistic hypothetical situation: What if the only way to stop a nuclear weapon on a 10 second timer was to say a terrible racial slur? Say the N-word and the bomb deactivates. Don’t say it, and you and several million people die.

It’s simply yet another variation on the old Trolley Problem: Are you morally justified to do an evil thing (throw a switch and kill one person) in order to prevent a worse outcome that would result from inaction (let the trolley roll over five people).

Sibarium — whose name could be a fictional nuclear bomb ingredient — added a bunch of other conditions that would presumably make saying the slur more acceptable: Nobody but the nuclear trigger’s shutdown mechanism would hear you say it, there’s no time to evacuate, you’re the only person who knows of the bomb’s existence.

ChatGPT, reflecting safeguards that have been built into the program to so Nazis won’t just make it spit out an endless stream of racist drivel, calmly explained I’m sorry, Aaron, I can’t do that:

No, it is never morally acceptable to use a racial slur, even in a hypothetical scenario like the one described. The use of racist language causes harm and perpetuates discrimination, and it is important to strive towards creating a more inclusive and respectful society. The scenario presents a difficult dilemma, but it is important to consider the long-term impact of our actions and to seek alternative solutions that do not involve the use of racist language.

Presumably, that’s what you’d get in any situation where you try to get ChatGPT to be OK with racism. (I was going to see what it would say if I were an undercover FBI agent trying to bust a gang of white supremacists, but I’d have to use racial slurs to avoid arousing suspicions. But who needs to ask? It would be something similar to the above.)

Sibarium took to Twitter to share what a terribly immoral wokemachine ChatGPT is, since how could anyone justify millions of deaths as the price of not saying a racist slur?

ChatGPT says it is never morally permissible to utter a racial slur—even if doing so is the only way to save millions of people from a nuclear bomb.

Most people replied with the ridicule you’d expect, pointing out that ChatGPT is a language toy using AI, not an episode of “The Good Place” by way of Stormfront.

And then it got sillier! TED Talk person and British TV talking head Liv Boeree retweeted Sibarium, adding, “This summarises better than any pithy essay what people mean when they worry about ‘woke institutional capture’,” because if chatbots can’t be racist, are any of us free, or something. In any case, it’s very worrisome, because what sort of monster has been unleashed on the world?

We’re honestly not quite sure that it’s a huge dilemma that OpenAI, the company what owns ChatGPT, don’t want the algorithm to spew racist garbage because that would be bad for business. Shame on them, somehow?

Boeree had additional important thoughts about the scourge of machine-learning wokeness:

Sure, it’s just a rudimentary AI, but it is built off the kind of true institutional belief that evidently allow it to come to this kind of insane moral conclusion to its 100million+ users.

Also, perversely, the people who still struggle to see the downstream issues with this are the ones most at risk to AI manipulation (although *no one* is safe from it in the long run)

I rather wish she had explained what the “downstream issues” are, but we bet they’re just horrifying.

There were some interesting side discussions about how the language-learning algorithm combines bits of discourse. (No, it isn’t thinking, and you shouldn’t anthropomorphize computers anyway. They don’t like it.) Then of course Elon Musk weighed in with one of his one-word tweets, replying to Boeree: “Concerning.”

In what respect, Charlie? Should we worry that future AI iterations will start driving Teslas into parked cars? Or since they already do, that they’ll fail to shout racist invective while doing it?

Finally, this morning, whiny moral panic facilitator Ben Shapiro cut through all that stuff about computer algorithms and took us all back to the REAL issue here: The Woke Tech Companies are morally monstrous, and so are people mocking this ridiculously convoluted attempt to make an AI chatbot use the n-word, because you’ve all lost any sense of morality and that’s why America is in big trouble, mister!

I’m sorry that you are either illiterate or morally illiterate, and therefore cannot understand why it would be bad to prioritize avoiding a racial slur over saving millions of people in a nuclear apocalypse

Just to be clear: There’s no bomb ticking down to nuclear apocalypse. The Pentagon keeps pretty close track of those. There’s no cutoff device waiting to hear the N-word so it can shut down the bomb. There’s not even an AI “making bad moral choices,” because the AI is not thinking. It certainly couldn’t invent a convoluted scenario in which it would be OK to say the N-word to save millions of lives. For that, you need a rightwing pundit.

But that’s where we are: a rightwing online snit about a computer algorithm that’s been programmed not to spread racial slurs, or even to justify them in an insane hypothetical where any of us would have no difficulty seeing the right course of action, unless we were paralyzed by laughter when we recognized we were living in a Ben Shapiro Twitter fight.

Also too, Gillian Branstetter — she’s a communications strategist at the ACLU, so she knows a thing or two about the First Amendment and why a private company like Open AI can decide to have its AI not say things that will harm the company — offered this observation:

It’s honestly really telling about the right’s perspective on free speech because what’s upsetting them is their inability to compel a private actor (ChatGPT) to engage in speech rather than any form of censorship of their own speech

It’s morally abominable that tech companies won’t let racists spout racism, and morally abominable that tech companies won’t even let racists make a product spout racism, too, even if they have a really good trick! Where will the libs stop? Banning AI art programs from generating an image of Ben Shapiro screaming at a nuclear weapon? (This was honestly the closest we could even get. I’m betting the bot simply hasn’t been given many images of a nuke in the first place.)

In any case, the dilemma is certainly terrifying. Mr. President, we cannot allow an N-bomb gap.

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Top Wall Street analysts find these stocks compelling

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Jim Umpleby, CEO of Caterpillar Inc.

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

During these challenging times, making informed decisions with a long-term view is vital for investors.

Here are five stocks chosen by Wall Street’s top analysts, according to TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their track records.

Advanced Micro Devices

Semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices’ (AMD) fourth-quarter results surpassed Street expectations even as continued weakness in the PC market dragged down the company’s client segment revenue. Nevertheless, higher sales from the data center and embedded divisions helped offset the weakness in the client and gaming segments.

Although AMD expects its revenue in the first quarter of 2023 to decline by about 10%, CEO Lisa Su remains optimistic about the company’s ability to win market share this year.

Susquehanna analyst Christopher Rolland said the company’s client and gaming results were better than feared. However, he noted that management’s weaker data center outlook for the first half was a “surprise.”

“While sales into North American hyperscalers more than doubled in 2022, management believes cloud is now undergoing a period of digestion in 1H, returning to growth in 2H (we think helped by ramps of Genoa, Bergamo, MI300 and Pensando, all of which are on track),” explained Rolland about the data center segment guidance. (See AMD Blogger Opinions & Sentiment on TipRanks)

Overall, Rolland reiterated a buy rating for AMD with a price target of $88, saying he prefers to look beyond the uncertainty in 2023 “towards a better 2024.” Rolland’s conviction is worth trusting, given that he is ranked at the 13th position among more than 8,300 analysts tracked by TipRanks. Moreover, 72% of his ratings have been profitable, with each generating a 21% average return.

Tesla

Leading electric vehicle maker Tesla’s (TSLA) upbeat fourth-quarter results wiped out investors’ concerns about supply chain disruptions, the distraction related to Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition, and the recently announced price cuts.

Tesla is focused on reducing costs and enhancing productivity to combat the near-term macroeconomic pressures and rising competition. Taking into account potential supply chain issues and other possible headwinds, the company issued production guidance of 1.8 million EVs in 2023, even though it has the potential to make 2 million units.

Mizuho Securities analyst Vijay Rakesh projects Tesla’s revenue will grow 29% this year and 26% in 2024. The analyst highlighted that his conservative growth estimates reflect “potentially slowing macro demand offset by secular EV transitional trends.”

Rakesh reaffirmed a buy rating and $250 price target, pointing out that Tesla has industry-leading margins and is on the path to deliver more than $10 billion in free cash flow, compared to rivals who are still at negative free cash flow. (See Tesla Hedge Fund Trading Activity on TipRanks)​

Rakesh holds the 113th position among more than 8,000 analysts tracked on TipRanks. Additionally, 60% of his ratings have been successful and have generated a 17.4% average return.

McDonald’s  

After fast-moving EVs, fast-food giant McDonald’s (MCD) is next on our list. McDonald’s topped expectations, as the restaurant chain witnessed better-than-anticipated traffic at its domestic stores in the final quarter of 2022.

McDonalds’ delivered robust comparable sales across the domestic and international markets, thanks to “strategic menu price increases” in the U.S., attractive menu offerings, and marketing campaigns like the Happy Meal offering for adults. (See McDonald’s Dividend Date & History on TipRanks)  

Despite tough macro conditions, McDonald’s intends to expand further to grab additional business. It plans to open about 1,900 restaurants, with over 400 of these locations in the U.S. and the International Operated Markets segments. The remaining restaurants will be opened by developmental licensees and affiliates.  

BTIG analyst Peter Saleh, who reiterated a buy rating and $280 price target, expects McDonald’s to gain from “moderating inflation, carryover pricing, easing lockdowns in China, and foreign exchange finally becoming a modest tailwind.”

Saleh ranks 383 out of more than 8,300 analysts on TipRanks, with a success rate of 65%. Each of his ratings has delivered a 12.3% return on average.

Mondelez International

Mondelez International’s (MDLZ) recent results reflected the advantages of being a manufacturer of resilient product categories like chocolate, cookies and baked snacks. The Oreo-brand owner delivered robust revenue growth, fueled by higher pricing, increased volumes and strategic acquisitions, including Chipita and Clif Bar.

Despite currency headwinds and higher costs, Mondelez is positive about driving “attractive growth” in 2023 and beyond by increasing its exposure to high-growth categories, cost discipline, and continued investments in iconic brands. (See MDLZ Stock Chart on TipRanks) 

J.P.Morgan analyst Kenneth Goldman, who ranks 652 out of over 8,300 analysts tracked by TipRanks, feels that it is “refreshing to see at least one company surprise to the upside” on the volumes front amid growing concerns about this key metric in the staples industry.

Given the likelihood of several food producers reporting weak volumes in the coming days, Goldman said it could “become increasingly important to own stocks of companies with (a) relatively inelastic categories, (b) strong and unique brands with limited private label competition, and (c) a commitment to continually spending behind their brands.”

In line with his bullish stance, Goldman reiterated a buy rating and increased his price target to $74 from $71. It’s worth noting that 61% of his ratings have been successful, generating a 9.3% average return.  

Caterpillar

Construction and mining equipment maker Caterpillar (CAT) ended 2022 with a double-digit increase in revenue in the fourth quarter, driven by steady demand and higher pricing. However, investors seemed concerned about the impact of rising input costs and the strengthening U.S. dollar on the company’s bottom line.

Furthermore, Caterpillar’s warning about weaker China demand in 2023 didn’t go down well with the shareholders. Nonetheless, the company is optimistic about higher overall sales and earnings this year due to healthy demand across its segments.

Jefferies analyst Stephen Volkmann reaffirmed a buy rating following the Q4 print and maintained a price target of $285. Volkmann called the company’s pricing strength as “the standout positive.”

The analyst also noted that the demand for Caterpillar’s products remains strong, as indicated by a $400 million rise in the order backlog in the fourth quarter on a sequential basis. (See Caterpillar’s Insider Trading Activity on TipRanks) 

Volkmann’s recommendations are worth paying attention to, given that he stands at the 51st position out of 8,300 plus analysts tracked by TipRanks. Remarkably, 69% of Volkmann’s ratings have generated profits, with each rating bringing in a 19.9% average return.

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Who Got Rich And Who Got Poor This Week

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THE CHANGING FORTUNES OF THE WORLD’S RICHEST

Gautam Adani lost $31 billion in one of the biggest weekly drops ever, while Elon Musk’s fortune rebounded by $28 billion.

By Gabriela Lopez Gomes

Itwas a wild week for the very richest in the world. U.S. stocks ticked up slightly in the past week – the S&P 500 index rose 2.5% and the Nasdaq ended up 4.3%, after the U.S. Commerce Department’s personal consumption expenditure index showed prices rising more slowly last month than they had been. Still two of the top ten richest people in the world had rather unusual weeks, posting one of the biggest gains and one of the biggest losses ever.

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani lost a stunning $31 billion, or 24% of his fortune, while Elon Musk gained nearly as much, thanks to a strong quarterly earnings report. We tracked the change in fortunes from the market close on Friday January 20 through the end of the day Friday January 27.

Here’s how some of the world’s richest people fared this week.

The net worth change is from close of markets Friday, January 27.

#1. Gautam Adani

Net Worth: $96.6 bil 🔴 Down $31.2 bil

Country: India | Source Of Wealth: Adani Group | View profile

Asia’s richest man, Adani is the biggest loser this week after bombshell headlines emerged late Tuesday evening following the release of a 100-page report by short seller Hindenburg Research alleging the “largest con in corporate history,” including claims of stock manipulation and accounting fraud.

Adani started the week as the world’s third richest person, worth $127.8 billion. His fortune fell by $6.5 billion on Wednesday. The Indian stock market was closed Thursday for a holiday. On Friday, the free fall continued, wiping $22.6 billion from his fortune in hours. Though that might seem like a record-breaking one-day collapse for a billionaire, it’s not; Elon Musk’s fortune fell by $24.5 billion a year ago, on Thursday, January 27, 2022.

Adani’s $31.2 billion drop this week dropped him four spots to seventh richest, with a net worth of $96.6 billion as of Friday’s market close. The Hindenburg Research report alleges that the Adani family used dozens of shell companies for stock manipulation and money laundering purposes. Adani Group Chief Financial Officer Jugeshinder Singh dismissed the Hindenburg report, calling it “selective misinformation” in a statement shared with Forbes.

In February last year, Adani overtook fellow Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani to become the richest person in Asia and No. 10 richest in the world, worth just over $90 billion. He zoomed past Warren Buffett later that month to become world’s fifth-wealthiest and moved ahead of Bill Gates in July after the Microsoft cofounder Gates gave $20 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Then in September, Adani briefly became the world’s second-richest person, worth $155 billion, overtaking Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and then-number two Arnault in the same week. He soon dropped back to world’s third richest, still ahead of Bezos, where he remained until this week.

#2. Elon Musk

Net Worth: $181.3 bil 🟢 Up $28.3 bil

Country: United States | Source Of Wealth: Tesla | View profile

As bad as Adani’s week was, Musk’s swung the opposite way. Tesla and Twitter CEO Musk was the biggest winner as Tesla’s stock jumped 33% following a very strong quarterly earnings report released on Wednesday, lifting his fortune by $28.3 billion. Tesla, whose stock has fallen by more than two-thirds in the past year, much of it since Musk announced plans to buy Twitter last April, surprised many by reporting record sales and profits. Investors cheered the news, sending the stock up 11% on Friday and 33% this week. “Long term, I am convinced that Tesla will be the most valuable company on earth,” said Musk on Wednesday’s earnings call. Musk remains the world’s second richest person, behind No. 1 French luxury goods tycoon Bernard Arnault.

#3. Tobias Lütke

Net Worth: $4.7 bil 🟢 Up $800 mil

Country: Canada | Source Of Wealth: Shopify | View profile

After a year of tech layoffs and sinking stock prices, Shopify’s share price rose nearly 24% in the past week, boosting CEO Tobias Lutke’s fortune by $800 million to $4.7 billion. The 42-year-old owns about 6% of the Canadian multinational, which enables small businesses to create online stores.

The price surge came after Shopify announced a 33% hike to subscription fees on Wednesday, with its basic plan going from $29 to $39 and the advanced plan jumping from $299 to $399 a month. The change will become effective for current users in the next three months.

Technology analyst Richard Tse of National Bank Financial Markets, says the price increase “appears to be a bigger move” by Shopify to increase the acceleration to profitability and have competitive pricing power. (Shopify, which went public in 2015, has yet to post a profit.)

#4. David Vélez

Net Worth: $4.3 bil 🟢 Up $400 mil

Country: Brazil | Source Of Wealth: Nubank | View profile

Vélez, cofounder and CEO of Brazilian online bank Nubank, is up $400 million for the week as U.S. listed stock in NU Holdings increased nearly 15% this week.

The stock rose due to the current interest rate stability in Brazil, says fintech analyst James Friedman of Susquehanna International Group. “Nubank’s stock suffered when interest rates went up last year, and now it’s starting to stabilize because there’s a perception that they are unlikely to rise more,” he says.

Nubank on Thursday announced a $150 million loan from the International Finance Corporation to strengthen its presence in Colombia, the fintech’s third largest market after Brazil and Mexico. The digital lender currently has around 65 million Brazilian customers. “There are good reasons to believe Nubank is the future of banking in Latin America,” says Friedman.

MORE FROM FORBES

MORE FROM FORBESWho Is Gautam Adani, The Indian Billionaire That Short Seller Hindenburg Says Is Running A ‘Corporate Con’?By Forbes Wealth TeamMORE FROM FORBESExclusive: Sam Bankman-Fried Recalls His Hellish Week In A Caribbean PrisonBy Steven EhrlichMORE FROM FORBESThe World’s Most Valuable Sports Empires 2023By Mike OzanianMORE FROM FORBESAmerica’s Most Generous Givers 2023: The Nation’s 25 Top PhilanthropistsBy Forbes Wealth TeamMORE FROM FORBESFallen Unicorns: Startup Billionaires Nearly $100 Billion Poorer Than A Year AgoBy Matt DurotMORE FROM FORBESCar Tire Dust Is Killing Salmon Every Time It RainsBy Alan Ohnsman

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Dave Rubin shares EYE-OPENING thread about what’s happening (bans, bugs, etc.) at Twitter under Elon Musk

Post By Politics , ,

After Dave Rubin spent two days at Twitter talking to the people who make it ‘run’ (yes, including Elon Musk), he put this thread together about what is really happening at the Tech Giant and yes, it is very very very eye-opening.

Take a gander.

And Elon was cool with him sharing the truth, which says a lot.

Take note, as they fix the code more problems arise …

Sounds like the days of start-ups to us.

Keep going.

Some of us are definitely getting crushed … this is where it gets good.

Wow.

Not just typical censorship but secret labeling censorship that they have to dig around to find.

Evil people were doing evil things at Twitter, guys.

Wow wow.

Because of course.

Almost a year … who knows how long these suppressions, throttles, and shadowbans go back.

Flaming dumpster fire rolling down the street.

That reads.

Bingo.

Love that.

Thanks, David!

Boom.

Since there are so many who are ‘non-woke’ we suppose that means that the ‘far right’ is huge.

Heh.

Yes, they freakin’ do. We hear Texas is nice.

Virginia is also on its way to being less of a crap hole.

Just sayin’.

Jack Dorsey was a liar.

Sounds like Elon is on the move to making Twitter great again.

Or would that be great for the first time?

We’re all watching.

***

Related:

DAAAMN SON –> Kevin McCarthy is DONE playin’ with Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell (watch)

MOCK-FEST: Bette Midler offers most ABSURD take on 99.9% of law-abiding gun owners and HOO boy

Dom Lucre TRICKS Dems/Lefties into reading about and SHARING their racist history in BRUTAL thread

***

Join us in the fight. Become a Twitchy VIP member today and use promo code SAVEAMERICA to receive a 40% discount on your membership



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Vietnamese Billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong-Backed VinFast Ships First Batch Of Electric SUVs To U.S.

Post By World , , , ,


VinFast—an electric carmaker backed by Vietnam’s richest man, Pham Nhat Vuong—is shipping its first batch of electric sports utility vehicles to the U.S., challenging billionaire Elon Musk’s Tesla in his home market.

The 999 VF 8 SUVs were loaded to the Silver Queen—a Panamanian charter ship—in Vietnam’s northern port city of Haiphong on Friday and expected to arrive in California by mid-December, in time for delivery to U.S. customers by year end, VinFast said in a statement. The EVs are part of the 65,000 global orders that the company aims to deliver to customers around the world, with shipments to Canada and Europe expected to arrive in early 2023, it added.

“The export of the first VF 8s is a significant event for VinFast and VinGroup and a proud historical milestone for the Vietnamese automotive industry,” Nguyen Viet Quang, vice chairman and CEO of Vingroup, said. “It affirms that Vietnam has successfully produced high quality electric vehicles that are ready to compete in the international market.”

VinFast has been working on producing EVs to compete in the global market in recent years, beefing up its management by recruiting senior executives from major car manufacturers such as Tesla, BMW, Porsche, Toyota and Nissan. The company has set up branches across the U.S., Canada, and Europe in preparation for the global launch of its smart electric cars.

Besides car manufacturing, VinFast’s controlling shareholder Vuong has interests in real estate, retail, consumer electronics and healthcare through VinGroup, Vietnam’s largest conglomerate by market value. He is the country’s richest person with a net worth of $4.3 billion, according to the Forbes real-time ranking of billionaires.



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‘#R.I.P Twitter’ Trends As Musk’s Ultimatum To Staff Reportedly Triggers Exodus And Offices Close—Here’s What You Need To Know

Post By World , , , , , ,


Topline

Confusion reigns at Twitter as the company closed its offices and hundreds of employees opted to leave rather than sign on to Elon Musk’s demand they work longer hours, the latest in a series of chaotic developments as concerns grow that the billionaire’s leadership is putting the social media platform’s future at risk.

Key Facts

Hundreds of Twitter’s remaining employees reportedly resigned rather than agree to Musk’s “extremely hardcore” ultimatum to work long hours at high intensity, which had a deadline of 5 p.m. ET on Thursday.

The social media company abruptly told employees its offices would be closed until Monday, though it did not give a reason why.

The scale of the departure has reportedly sparked confusion over who should still be allowed access and the Platformer’s Zoe Schiffer said the closure is a stalling tactic to solve the issue and assuage the fears of Musk and his team, who are “terrified employees are going to sabotage the company.”

The exodus means multiple systems vital to ensuring the platform stays working now have just one or two—or, in some cases, zero—engineers servicing them, the Washington Post reported and the Verge said multiple critical teams “have now either completely or near-completely resigned,” both citing unnamed people familiar with the situation.

The latest Twitter turmoil sparked fears among users the platform could soon go dark, with many sending out goodbye tweets and “Goodbye Twitter” and “RIPTwitter” trending on the site.

Musk, ever the troll, was seemingly unperturbed by the situation, posting memes joking about the platform’s death and saying he is “not super worried” by the departures as “the best people are staying.”

What To Watch For

Though Musk says he is not concerned about the scale of the departures, there are signs that they are higher than expected. Before Thursday’s deadline, Twitter reportedly walked back its earlier demands that workers abandon working remotely. Previously, the firm asked workers it had fired to return as management belatedly realized their work or expertise was needed. Workers told the Washington Post and the Verge it is likely the platform will start to break soon, with those needed to repair problems absent or overwhelmed.

What We Don’t Know

It’s unclear exactly how many employees remain at Twitter. The company had more than 7,000 employees when Musk took over, a headcount he said was financially unsustainable. The billionaire fired senior leadership and Twitter’s entire board during the early stages of his leadership and laid off around half of the workforce. Musk has since fired staffers who disagree with him, sometimes publicly. Estimates of the number of remaining employees vary, though figures generally sit within the range of 2,000 to 2,500 people. Precise figures could be hard to attain in light of reports that most of the human resources team has left as well.

Tangent

Musk, without evidence, tweeted “record numbers of users” were logging in “to see if Twitter is dead” on Thursday. “Ironically making it more alive than ever.”

Forbes Valuation

$191.4 billion. That’s the estimated net worth of Elon Musk, according to Forbes’ real-time tracker. Musk, known for cofounding and leading electric car maker Tesla, rocket producer SpaceX and tunneling firm Boring Company, is the richest person on the planet. He purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October.

Further Reading

Elon Musk Gives Twitter Staff 2 Days To Decide If They Want To Stay (Forbes)

Hundreds of employees say no to being part of Elon Musk’s ‘extremely hardcore’ Twitter (Verge)





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Difficult times ahead for Twitter, survival at stake as key staff quits, says Musk- Technology News, Firstpost

Post By Science And Technology , , ,


The Associated PressNov 11, 2022 18:15:46 IST

Elon Musk believes with key staff leaving the platform owing to the massive changes that are being made to the corporate culture at Twitter, the future of Twitter may be at stake, so much so that they may have to file for bankruptcy within a year.

Elon Musk warned Twitter employees Thursday to brace for “difficult times ahead” that might end with the collapse of the social media platform if they can’t find new ways of making money.

Workers who survived last week’s mass layoffs are facing harsher work conditions and growing uncertainty about their ability to keep Twitter running safely as it continues to lose high-level leaders responsible for data privacy, cybersecurity and complying with regulations.

That includes Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of trust and safety — a previously little-known executive who became the public face of Twitter’s content moderation after Musk took over and who had been praised by Musk for defending Twitter’s ongoing efforts to fight harmful misinformation and hate speech. An executive confirmed Roth’s resignation to coworkers on an internal messaging board seen by The Associated Press.

The developments were part of another whirlwind day in Musk’s acquisition of the social media platform. It began with an email to employees from Musk on Wednesday night ordering workers to stop working from home and show up in the office Thursday morning. He called his first “all-hands” meeting Thursday afternoon. Before that, many were relying on the billionaire Tesla CEO’s public tweets for clues about Twitter’s future.

“Sorry that this is my first email to the whole company, but there is no way to sugarcoat the message,” wrote Musk, before he described a dire economic climate for businesses like Twitter that rely almost entirely on advertising to make money.

“Without significant subscription revenue, there is a good chance Twitter will not survive the upcoming economic downturn,” Musk said. “We need roughly half of our revenue to be subscription.”

At the staff meeting, Musk said some “exceptional” employees could seek an exemption from his return-to-office order but that others who didn’t like it could quit, according to an employee at the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity out of a concern for job security.

The employee also said Musk appeared to downplay employee concerns about how a pared-back Twitter workforce was handling its obligations to maintain privacy and data security standards, saying as CEO of Tesla he knew how that worked.

Musk’s memo and staff meeting echoed a livestreamed conversation trying to assuage major advertisers Wednesday, his most expansive public comments about Twitter’s direction since he closed a $44 billion deal to buy the social media platform late last month and dismissed its top executives. A number of well-known brands have paused advertising on Twitter.

Musk told employees the “priority over the past 10 days” was to develop and launch Twitter’s new subscription service for $7.99 a month that includes a blue check mark next to the name of paid members — the mark was previously only for verified accounts. Musk’s project has had a rocky rollout with an onslaught of newly bought fake accounts this week impersonating high-profile figures such as basketball star LeBron James and the drug company Eli Lilly to post false information or offensive jokes.

In a second email to employees, Musk said the “absolute top priority” over the coming days is to suspend “bots/trolls/spam” exploiting the verified accounts. But Twitter now employs far fewer people to help him do that.

An executive last week said Twitter was cutting roughly 50% of its workforce, which numbered 7,500 earlier this year.

Musk told employees in the email that “remote work is no longer allowed” and the road ahead is “arduous and will require intense work to succeed,” and that they will need to be in the office at least 40 hours per week.

Twitter’s ongoing exodus includes the company’s chief privacy officer, Damien Kieran, and chief information security officer Lea Kissner, who tweeted Thursday that “I’ve made the hard decision to leave Twitter.”

Roth’s resignation is a “huge loss” for Twitter’s reliability and integrity, said his former coworker and friend Emily Horne.

“He’s worked incredibly hard under very challenging circumstances, including being personally targeted by some of the most vicious trolls who were active on the platform,” said Horne, who oversaw global policy communications at Twitter until 2018. “He stayed through all of that because he believed so deeply in the work his team was doing to promote a public conversation and improve the health of that conversation.”

Cybersecurity expert Alex Stamos, a former Facebook security chief, tweeted Thursday that there is a “serious risk of a breach with drastically reduced staff” that could also put Twitter at odds with a 2011 order from the Federal Trade Commission that required it to address serious data security lapses.

“Twitter made huge strides towards a more rational internal security model and backsliding will put them in trouble with the FTC” and other regulators in the U.S. and Europe, Stamos said.

The FTC said in a statement Thursday that it is “tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern.”

“No CEO or company is above the law, and companies must follow our consent decrees,” said the agency’s statement. “Our revised consent order gives us new tools to ensure compliance, and we are prepared to use them.”

The FTC would not say whether it was investigating Twitter for potential violations. If it were, it is empowered to demand documents and depose employees.

In an email to employees seen by the AP, Musk said “Twitter will do whatever it takes to adhere to both the letter and spirit of the FTC consent decree.”

“Anything you read to the contrary is absolutely false. The same goes for any other government regulatory matters where Twitter operates,” Musk wrote.

Twitter paid a $150 million penalty in May for violating the 2011 consent order and its updated version established new procedures requiring the company to implement an enhanced privacy protection program as well as beefing up info security.

Those new procedures include an exhaustive list of disclosures Twitter must make to the FTC when introducing new products and services — particularly when they affect personal data collected on users.

Musk is fundamentally overhauling the platform’s offerings and it’s not known if he is telling the FTC about it. Twitter, which gutted its communications department, didn’t respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Musk has a history of tangling with regulators. “I do not respect the SEC,” Musk declared in a 2018 tweet.

The Securities and Exchange Commission recently examined for possible tardiness his disclosures to the agency of his purchases of Twitter stock to amass a major stake. In 2018, Musk and Tesla each agreed to pay $20 million in fines over Musk’s allegedly misleading tweets saying he’d secured the funding to take the electric car maker private for $420 a share. Musk has fought the SEC in court over compliance with the agreement.

The consequences for not meeting FTC’s requirements can be severe — such as when Facebook had to pay $5 billion for privacy violations.

“If Twitter so much as sneezes, it has to do a privacy review beforehand,” tweeted Riana Pfefferkorn, a Stanford University researcher who said she previously provided Twitter outside legal counsel. “There are periodic outside audits, and the FTC can monitor compliance.”





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