I will not offend your eyeballs or your ears with a picture or a mention of that vehicle. Suffice it to say that today I saw two on the brief stretch of interstate I use between my library branch and home. It still is ugly to my eyes, even if one owner painted theirs all black and another painted theirs with a black roof and olive green sides. I kept an eye out for flying side panels.

This is the tank I’m talking about–the tumble in stock price of Elon Musk’s central business, one that has lost 48% of its value from its peak in mid-December till now. (Although this is a concern for Musk, it does not mean his house of financial cards is about to fall. Note that today’s price is the same as it was in October.)

Around the world, Tesla has lost its cachet. 94% of Germans say they would never consider buying a Tesla. Sales are down across the globe. In America, Tesla owners are desperately trying to shed their vehicles, but Trump’s supporters are all-in on gasoline, not electric-fueled vehicles.

Not to mention the competitive challenge Tesla faces as Chinese EVs (Electric vehicles) overtake it. Tesla is the overpriced Macbook to Chinese Windows-running computers. But the snob appeal is gone as Musk has become in only two months a toxic personality that consumers loathe.

It’s so bad that the huckster-in-chief, the con of cons, the man who wrote the book on how to build and then ruin a brand, the man whose picture is on the page when you look up grifter in the dictionary, had to promote someone other than himself and staged a Tesla sell-a-thon in the driveway at the White House.

Why, it’s almost like parents CHOOSING to abandon their public school for one of the many options now available. Why are people who push hard for school CHOICE upset now that automobile owners are CHOOSING to abandon their Teslas for a different vehicle? Isn’t that their CHOICE?

Just as the Muskrat wielded a chainsaw on stage, one gifted to him by Argentine’s current president, Javier Milei, and said he would use it on the federal bureaucracy, including the Education Department, investors took a look at the stock price and rebelled. It seems Elon has become toxic and Tesla’s Board of Directors is concerned to the point of discussing his continuing involvement with the company. They also are looking out for themselves as they sell off their stock in the business.

Not even the best oligarchs can save this mess. Their expertise lies in monopolizing markets and taking choice away from consumers. Then, they can charge whatever they want, which is probably their end game. I used to think that they wanted parents to have to bear the full cost of educating their children, thereby eliminating public schools and school taxes. But the profit motive is strong–strong enough for them to want to eliminate public schooling as the most cost-efficient and effective means of delivering education to children so parents have no choice but to pick a profit-generating alternative.

Then again, I don’t think this is a universal plan among the ‘garchs. Some of them must be planning to replace their wage-busted undocumented workers, now deported or soon to be, with children. After all, if their parents can’t afford to send them to school, they are available to work. Isn’t this why states are weakening child labor laws?

What a dream! It’s as if the Gilded Age has returned in all its ugliness and fury as a few ‘garchs gather control of the entire economy into their hands. Vanderbilt, Morgan (JP), Gould, Carnegie, Rockefeller et al. approve.

We used to think Connect-The-Dots was a children’s game as we adults try to figure out what the ‘garchs and their stooge in the White House are really up to. Maybe it still is, but the children no longer hold the pencil. They are the dots.