Newly Revealed Pictures Tar Tesla With The Epstein Brush

File this one below H for He Who Lives In a Glass Home. Just some weeks in the past Tesla CEO Elon Musk was busy hurling taunts at US President Donald Trump on social media over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal as an alternative of doing one thing — something — to cease his firm’s EV gross sales from tanking. Now it’s Musk who has some ‘splaining to do, as The New York Instances has gotten its arms on a cache of buddy-buddy pictures on show at Epstein’s lavish Manhattan townhouse, together with one that includes Musk himself.

Tesla Wants A New Scandal Like A Gap In The Head

To be clear, Musk is only one of quite a few celebs and different noteworthy individuals who’ve appeared with Epstein in images through the years, and one snapshot doesn’t make a relationship. Nonetheless, with its EV gross sales falling off a cliff within the US, Europe, and elsewhere, the very last thing Tesla wants is one other reminder of the steaming scorching Epstein scandal. The New York Instances broke the information about the Epstein picture assortment earlier this week, with CNN and MSNBC among the many information organizations producing video followups that name-check Musk.

Including to the damage, Musk himself has been identified to make use of the slangy “pedo man” insult every now and then, and now he surfaces in {a photograph} with a deceased however nonetheless infamous abuser of under-aged ladies.

One other Musk-related intercourse scandal of kinds additionally arose earlier this week, when tech reporters found that the “spicy” possibility on Musk’s new xAI Grok Think about function will fortunately create deepfake movies of feminine celebrities on command (unhealthy!), and take off their garments and not using a command (additionally unhealthy!). That’s on high of final month’s information, during which Musk introduced that new anime-style AI “companions” can be found to premium Grok subscribers. The lineup contains a waiflike feminine character who speaks within the hushed tones of an excited nine-year-old whereas rocking a black boudoir goth getup.

Biting The Hand That Feeds You

Tesla’s current misfortune within the gross sales division is a comparatively new growth that tracks intently with Musk transformation from a supporter of presidency handouts to a terrorist-level wrecker of public sources.

His firm’s rise to the #1 slot in international EV gross sales is effectively documented, however the history-making trajectory virtually didn’t occur. Tesla Motors was a newly launched California carmaker churning out a small quantity of dear two-seaters for luxurious sports activities automobile lovers when the 2008 monetary crash hit the worldwide auto business like a ton of bricks. US taxpayers sprang to the rescue, handing Musk a lifeline within the type of a $465 million mortgage assure, issued by the US Division of Power in 2009.

The phrases of the mortgage assure stipulated two issues: Make EVs extra inexpensive, and enhance manufacturing. It didn’t say something about stabbing US taxpayers within the again, however that’s what occurred earlier this yr when Trump designated Musk to put waste to the federal authorities, together with bodily buildings and different sources in addition to personnel. Based on minority stories and memos produced by the Everlasting Subcommittee on Investigations of the US Senate, Musk’s “DOGE” workplace has already value taxpayers $21.7 billion, and counting.

How Not To Cease The Bleeding

Flipping off US automobile consumers is just not regular conduct for the CEO of a number one US auto producer, however why cease on the US? Over and above rising competitors from different EV makers, Musk’s affiliation with Trump and his posture as a far proper international affairs influencer will also be credited with pushing Tesla gross sales down the drain in Europe, bigly.

Maybe the loud thump of falling numbers obtained by to Musk. Earlier this summer time he indicated that he want to separate himself and his automobiles from the Trump model. He even went as far as to drift the thought of launching new political occasion to problem each Republican and Democratic energy brokers below the identify “America Social gathering.”

These searching for a hidden that means behind the identify “America” won’t be dissatisfied. Phrase video games are a longrunning theme in Muskworld, from the EV fashions that spell out “S3XY” to the obsession with the letter X and the quantity mixture 420.

Writing for the Washington Month-to-month on August 7, constitutional scholar and regulation professor Paul Finkelman takes word of the apparent: The America Social gathering identify is the most recent iteration of an extended, constant thread of equally named third events and different political organizations within the US, all shaped with comparable intent.

“If Musk succeeds at making a political group on a bigger scale, he would be the sixth ‘American’ occasion with some nationwide visibility,” Finkelman notes, tracing the looks of the primary “American Social gathering” all the way in which again to 1842. A second part of the American Social gathering appeared within the 1850s with to higher impact, although it was additionally short-lived. The American Protecting Affiliation adopted within the Eighteen Eighties and the America First Committee got here alongside in 1940, solely to get replaced by the America First Social gathering in 1943.

The newest occasion bubbled up in 1968, when the unashamedly racist Governor of Alabama, George Wallace, made a run for the White Home below the banner of the American Unbiased Social gathering. Amongst different declarations, Wallace is thought for declaring “segregation now…segregation tomorrow…segregation endlessly” at his inauguration in 1963.

Wallace and AIP weren’t outliers among the many 5 America-themed events listed by Finkelman. “All of them have three issues in widespread. They have been all anti-immigrant and/or anti-Black events rooted in spiritual bigotry and racism. They have been all short-lived. They usually all didn’t have a lot affect on any elections,” he concludes.

Cybertrucks Used For Goal Observe

A lot for that. Musk’s America Social gathering stirred up little information after he first talked about it, and that’s simply as effectively. With the model repute of Tesla quickly approaching Humpty Dumpty standing, none aside from the US Air Pressure additionally chipped in its two cents this week. On August 7, Stars and Stripes reported that the Air Pressure is planning to purchase two Cybertrucks to make use of for goal observe.

“Federal contracting paperwork posted on-line present the vans as half of a bigger purchase of 33 autos that will likely be despatched to White Sands Missile Vary in New Mexico to assist U.S. Particular Operations Command,” Stars and Stripes reporter Lara Kote noticed.

Earlier than you level and chuckle, Cybertrucks are simply two of 33 autos slated for destruction by precision guided missiles for goal observe at White Sands. The concept is to mirror actual world circumstances, that means any autos that unhealthy actors would possibly simply get their arms on.

Oh, by no means thoughts. You would possibly as effectively level and chuckle. Everyone else is. Inside hours of Kote’s report, “Cybertruck goal observe” was everywhere in the Intertubes. Simply what Tesla wants…

Photograph: Tesla Cybertruck by way of CleanTechnica archive (credit score: Carolyn Fortuna).