Protest at Tesla Dealership - June 7, 2025

I've been enjoying protesting weekly at the Tesla dealership on Arden Blvd., in Sacramento. A lot of protests are arduous - even hopeless - with little to show for lots of work, but there is palpable movement with this one. Elon Musk has supposedly left DOGE's terrorism and returned to masterminding Tesla's collapse, due mostly to our pressure. Then this week, Musk's and Trump's feud became public. I see our protest goal as separating Musk entirely from Tesla. Even though that's a big ask, I think we've never been closer to success. 

It's fun to see people's reactions when they drive along and come upon our protest. Many honk their horns and wave in support. Others throw middle fingers in opposition. Some people get mixed up, and honk and throw middle fingers, which we pass off as support. Some of these people you have to worry about. Last week, someone let go of their steering wheel in order to throw both middle fingers in opposition. A little worrisome as they weaved along the boulevard. Also last week, a few people wagged their fingers at us, as if we were just being naughty. It made me want to stand in the corner somewhere. 

It's important to update the signs every couple of weeks, because the overall situation evolves with time. My new sign this week has two sides: "Captain Ketamine VS. TACO the Tyrant - PASS the POPCORN!!!" and "WOMP! WOMP! TESLA Batteries Obsolete - Sodium-Ion is the Future." It's too complicated, but whatever. You go to protests with the signs you have. Lithium-ion batteries for vehicles are likely to get decimated by the recent technical revolution in favor of sodium-ion batteries. Goodbye, the boom in rare-earth minerals. 

So, I put on my black Ukrainian Tryzub T-Shirt, festooned it with anti-Elon buttons, put on my orange "Impeach Both!" cap (from the Bush/Cheney days of 2005, and also noting that orange is a color of Ukrainian support, given the Ukrainian Orange Revolution of 2004) and headed over. 

The ketamine angle was unfamiliar to people, and it sparked conversation. A fellow approached in dress clothes and wearing a tie - evidently either a Tesla salesman or a man on a religious mission - or both! He asked about ketamine (an unfamiliar term) and asked why we were protesting. I mentioned, 1.) the attack on US AID that has killed so many refugee children around the world, 2.) the attack on Medicaid in order to fund billionaire tax cuts, and 3.) the attack on Ukraine. The man seemed mostly sympathetic to the battle for Ukraine. Then he started asking questions with a religious angle. He asked if I hated Elon Musk. I said no. Musk came out of Silicon Valley. He's basically a technical person and someone I could sympathize with, since I come from that background too. I want Musk to stop his attacks, but if he repented and relented, then my job would be complete. I wouldn't carry hatred of Elon in my heart. The fellow really liked this angle and cited Bible verses in support. 

Later, about 1 p.m., three women in a car stopped in order to turn onto Arden Blvd. There was something about their manner that made me think they were nightclub habitués just starting their day. The woman in the back seat rolled down her window and asked about the ketamine. I explained Captain Ketamine is Elon Musk and TACO the Tyrant is Donald Trump. "Ah, fuck Trump," she replied. "Yes," I replied. "I'm on ketamine," she said. Surprised, I asked "You're on ketamine? Do you like it?" "Yes," she replied. I guess I'm going to have to learn more about this ketamine. Right now, I know nothing about it. 

There's another fellow protester who is like me. He's a dead-ender, willing to be the last one standing when everyone else has gone home. We watched a teen girl and her mom shop for a Cybertruck, and poke at the finish of a vehicle. I repeated to them what one of the other protesters had said to me about Cybertrucks: "You can just peel the skin right off." (A bad glue job, apparently.) They looked at me with disdain, as if I had just crawled out of a manhole. A Good Humor truck drove by. The driver shouted, "Get a life!" Like, you call what you do a life? Then, a passing driver slowed for the traffic light and leaned on his horn for a full minute in support of our protest. Good times! 

After three hours in the sun, I went to the ice cream parlor, to order a treat. The clerk said, "I like your buttons!" I told her, "I took one off before I entered the parlor because I worried it might be offensive." I showed her the button (it said "Fuck Elon Musk.") She said, "That's the best one of all!" So, when I picked up the treat, I gave her the button. 

Now, it's time to rest the feet. Next week, we'll have the anti-Donald-Trump-military-parade-on-his-birthday "No Kings" protest at the California State Capitol building (with similar protests at many other places around the country).

Tesla dealership on Arden Blvd.

Captain Ketamine VS. TACO the Tyrant - PASS the POPCORN!!!

Resist! (Do Not Co-operate With Them!)

It's Musk Or Us!

Tesla Funds Fascists.  Fight!

WOMP! WOMP! TESLA Batteries Obsolete - Sodium-Ion is the Future.

Pigeon Pall

I'm worried about the pigeons that gather to eat the bird seed I lay out. Over the last month I've collected five bodies. Something or someone is killing them - probably a hawk - but I haven't seen or heard the hawk; just the scavenging crows. Silent death from the skies above. 

Disease?  Poisoning? Something is happening....

Still, the birds entertain. There was a crow I hadn't seen before that was frantically trying to get my attention as it got dive-bombed repeatedly by an ill-tempered Northern Mockingbird. I could almost understand the crow as it cawed. "Hey! Remember me? I'm your favorite crow. *OW!* Do you have any of that prime bird seed? *OW!* Stupid lunatic bird! Any - anything for me?"

Posing as an AI

When there's a need, there's a way:

Builder.ai, once touted as a revolutionary AI startup backed by Microsoft, has collapsed into insolvency after revelations that its flagship no-code development platform was powered not by artificial intelligence—but by 700 human engineers in India. 

The company marketed its platform as being driven by an AI assistant named “Natasha,” which could supposedly assemble software applications like Lego bricks. But recent reports and commentary have revealed that behind the scenes, customer requests were manually fulfilled by developers, not machines. 

Commenting on the unraveling, Ebern Finance founder Bernhard Engelbrecht described it in a widely circulated post on X: “Customer requests were sent to the Indian office, where 700 Indians wrote code instead of AI,” adding that the end products were often buggy, dysfunctional, and difficult to maintain. “Everything was like real artificial intelligence — except that none of it was.”

Arkansas' Experience With Medicaid Cuts

Arkansas has experience making work requirements more stringent for Medicaid recipients. What happens is that eligible recipients are unable to figure out the complicated paperwork and online reporting process, and they get pushed completely out of Medicaid. As designed. 

And because billionaires insist that it must be so, that is what is coming for the rest of us:

Props to Meteorologist John Morales

Much respect to Florida meteorologist John Morales for calling attention on the air to how DOGE cuts degrade weather forecasts and will get people killed and cause needless economic damage, especially in Florida. 

Morales worries most about missing the phenomenon of rapid intensification, like what happened with Hurricane Otis in Acapulco. It’s a huge concern. 

I worry more about the missed balloon launches. The sub-tropical pressure gradient is sometimes so flat that distant events, like the presence or absence of thunderstorms in Venezuela, or the speed of storms coming out of the Canadian Rockies, can affect the paths of hurricanes. Implemented by DOGE morons, the balloon deficit is not evenly spread across the U.S., but is concentrated in the Great Plains. Missing those balloon launches means uncertainty. You poke yourself in the eye and you blow the hurricane path forecast, which costs money and lives:

"As you've grown accustomed to my presentations over my 34 years in South Florida newscast, confidently, I went on TV and told you, 'It's going to turn. You don't need to worry,'" Morales said on the air. 

Then he dropped the bombshell: "I'm here to tell you I'm not sure I can do that this year. Because of the cuts — the gutting, the sledgehammer attack on science, in general, and I could talk about that for a long, long time and how that's affecting the leadership and science over the years and how we're losing that leadership, and that is a multi-generation impact on science in this country."

Toilet Paper in the Trees

This must be the work of squirrels. No wonder Jasper gets so mad at them!

"Hetty Feather" - Green Valley Theater Company - May 31st

This was a really excellent show! Five actresses managed to capture the world of childhood - a feral childhood.

Line Dance Master Class At Step One With Nia and Marcia

I wasn't initially going to go, but I ran into Nia and she persuaded me to go. Learned how to deal with those big fans.

Pop Muzik Perfection!

Just a shoutout to Molly Long and her Project 21, and this team of dancers (ages 12-14), having the best year of their lives.  The dance life is rarely better than this!  

Multiple videos of this dance routine, as seen from all angles and at numerous venues by many different people, and as posted on TikTok, have enabled this 2025 dance phenomenon to rise to the pinnacle of visibility on the American competitive dance circuit.  Certain moments are wonderful.  "Talk About" at 0:50 is precious! (According to an interview with Molly Long and the dancers on TikTok, their faces when they face each other are evolving and becoming more expressive with time and multiple performances).

And, of course, "Pop Muzik" came out in 1979, just about the best year ever for dance music.

As bad as 2025 is for some people, for others, like these dancers, it's perfection!

 

People Being Supportive at the Weekly Tesla Demonstration (May 31st)

I'm Not Poor Yet

Today (June 2nd) Would Have Been My Father’s 100th Birthday