Whenever reasonably possible, I avoid buying products made in China or manufactured by Chinese companies. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, doesn’t strike me as a guy who likes to yuk it up, and I’m confident he’s damn serious about wanting his country to become the dominant world power by 2050. Given the Xi government’s flawless execution achieving world domination of the EV market, China is a force to be feared.
Despite my aversion to China, if I were dying in a hospital ICU and the charge nurse advised me that the only intravenous pump available was made in China, I wouldn’t hesitate to stick out my arm and let the nurse do her thing. In fact, if the nurse told me that an American-made ICU pump was available but didn’t work as well as the one from China, I’d choose the latter.
Planet earth is dying, at least that’s what President Biden said when he was running the country. Think I’m exaggerating for effect? Here are portions of the 2022 keynote address Biden delivered in Massachusetts surrounded by John Kerry, Biden’s Presidential Envoy on Climate, and Gina McCarthy, his former national climate advisor.
I come here today with a message: As President, I have a responsibility to act with urgency and resolve when our nation faces clear and present danger. And that’s what climate change is about. It is literally, not figuratively, a clear and present danger.
The health of our citizens and our communities is literally at stake.
The U.N.’s leading international climate scientists called the latest climate report nothing less than, quote, “code red for humanity.” Let me say it again: “Code red for humanity.” It’s not a group of political official — elected officials. These are the scientists.
We see here in America, in red states and blue states, extreme weather events costing $145 billion — $145 billion in damages just last year — more powerful and destructive hurricanes and tornadoes.
Our national security is at stake as well. Extreme weather is already damaging our military installations here in the States. And our economy is at risk. So we have to act.
Extreme weather disrupts supply chains, causing delays and shortages for consumers and businesses.
Climate change is literally an existential threat to our nation and to the world.
The Biden Administration promoted electric vehicles as a major solution to climate change, and the corporate media amplified that claim. Untold billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars were spent to promote the manufacturing and sales of EVs, even for lesser quality electric vehicles that GM and Ford build in Mexico.
Like it or not, there would be virtually no EVs in the U.S. were it not for Elon Musk. Although he wasn’t the founder of Tesla nor responsible for the company’s pioneering battery architecture, he was responsible for proving that EV manufacturing could be immensely profitable, and that Americans would embrace battery-powered vehicles if they proved reliable and practical. Tesla had the wisdom to build a superb national charging network.
Market leader
Tesla in 2024 was responsible for nearly half of all EV sales in America, despite Elon Musk alienating a big swath of Tesla’s initial core constituency of concerned environmentalists. Tesla’s growth in recent years was no longer predicated on those who bought EVs because they are supposedly more climate-friendly but included people who also view the company’s vehicles as superior to the gas engine kind.
My Cousin Rob is one of those individuals. He got hooked on Tesla years ago test driving a Model Y and later upgraded to a Model S. He’s no fan of Elon Musk and likely wouldn’t buy another Tesla because of him, but Cousin Rob loves his Tesla and plans on keeping it for several years.
Tesla owners in the U.S., Canada, and France increasingly are the targets of violent incidents, including vandalism, arson, and shootings. The destruction supposedly is to protest Musk’s leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has implemented significant government spending cuts leading to widespread job losses. The violence has become so acute that the FBI has launched a task force to combat what the Trump administration is calling “domestic terrorism.”
The days of committing crimes without consequence have ended,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Let this be a warning: if you join this wave of domestic terrorism against Tesla properties, the Department of Justice will put you behind bars.”
If President Trump has his way, Tesla terrorists won’t enjoy the good life in a U.S. prison.
The violence has gone international, with 80 Tesla vehicles damaged in an attack in Hamilton, Ontario. A Tesla dealership in Montreal was vandalized in pink paint. A dozen Teslas were torched in France.
Broader agenda
Some of the Tesla protesters may be using Musk as an excuse to advance their broader agenda. Among the groups the New York Post reported are behind the protests is the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which backed the campaign of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
UAW President Shawn Fain knows this group well. One of his closest aides is Jonah Furman, who previously served as co-chair of the Metro DC arm of the Democratic Socialists of America Labor Working Group, an organization which “stands in unwavering solidarity” with pro-Palestinian encampments on U.S. university campuses and their “righteous message.”
Furman, who served as Bernie Sanders’ national labor organizer in 2020 and a political and labor organizer for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, reportedly boasted during 2023 contract talks that UAW negotiators were using bargaining sessions to inflict “recurring reputations damage and operational chaos” on the Detroit 3 automakers.
UAW’s Fain frequently appeared at protests with Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who was named the 2023 Antisemite of the Year by an organization combating Jew hatred.
Montreal is a hotbed of Jewish hatred and pro-Hamas supporters, and I suspect the Tesla agitators in that city are one and the same. Perhaps I’m mistaken, but the women featured in the accompanying CBC News screenshot seem to be wearing Palestinian scarves around their necks. Regardless, the Canadian media referred to the women defacing an EV dealership as “climate activists.”
High-profile Democrats
Given that combating climate change is supposedly a signature Democratic initiative, it’s telling that those looking to fuel violence against Tesla owners are among the party’s most high profile figures and darlings of the corporate media.
One of them is Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who was national co-chair of the Harris/Walz campaign. Crockett is aggressively promoting the planned “Global Day of Action” against Tesla to pressure Tesla owners to sell their cars and stock. For the record, there are about a half dozen global days of action to combat climate change, including International Day of Climate Action, which will be observed on October 24.
Crockett is a vile woman who mocked Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for using a wheelchair.
“Y’all know we got Governor Hot Wheels down there, Come on now! And the only thing hot about him is that he is a hot ass mess, honey,” Crockett said at Human Rights Campaign dinner in Los Angeles. The Human Rights Campaign, which I profiled last September, was responsible for shaking down major corporations for donations to support its DEI agenda with the backing of the Biden Administration.
Republican Abbott, 67, has used a wheelchair since 1984, when he was paralyzed after an oak tree fell on him while he was out on a run.
Lost in space
Arizona Senator Mark Kelly is among the climate alarmists I would have expected more from.
“I have not seen in my time in the Senate many folks that deny that the climate is changing,” Kelly said in a 2023 CNN interview. “That was a thing of the past. Now is: What do we do about it? We passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which is a big down payment on reducing the amount of carbon we put up into the atmosphere. That will make a difference over time. We obviously have to do more.”
Kelly recently dumped his Tesla for a 2025 Chevy Tahoe Z71 SUV, an all-gas vehicle that gets an estimated 15 miles per gallon in the city. Although the EV market is supposedly more competitive than ever, it’s telling that Kelly opted for a gas guzzling SUV than another electric vehicle or at least a hybrid.
Electric vehicles appear poised to become more costly, as President Trump next week plans to slap 25% tariffs on all vehicles not manufactured in the U.S., including three of GM’s Mexican-made EVs and the electric Mustang, which Ford proudly manufactures in Mexico. Despite being problem plagued, GM’s Chevy brand is America’s fastest growing EV nameplate, and three of its comparatively more affordable EVs are made in Mexico.
Tesla’s investors
This likely is news to many of the virtue signalers seeking to destroy Tesla, but Musk isn’t the sole owner of Tesla. He doesn’t even own half the company, despite being Tesla’s biggest shareholder. Rather, he has a nearly 13% interest, while institutional asset managers Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street are Tesla’s next three biggest shareholders.
Many Americans have substantial portions of their net worth in Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street funds, so only a political leader who is clueless, a moron, and possibly both, would celebrate Tesla’s stock plummeting.
That would include Minnesota governor and Kamala Harris running mate Tim Walz, who said watching Tesla’s stock decline gave him great pleasure, perhaps unaware that the Minnesota State Board held 1.6 million shares of Tesla stock in its pension fund as of June of last year.
Hard as I tried, I can’t find any climate activist groups who have gone public warning that harming Tesla possibly will irreparably harm electric vehicle adoption and make Americans skeptical of climate change warnings. Not one. Given that EV adoption was a cornerstone of their administration’s agenda, I’d expect President Biden and Kamala Harris would step up to the plate and warn protestors that EV adoption is critical to saving the planet, even if Musk profits handsomely from the transformation.
I suspect this will also be news to Tesla protestors, but Musk would still be obscenely rich if Tesla went bankrupt. At this posting, Musk’s 42% stake in SpaceX is valued at $350 billion, while his Tesla holdings are valued at $112 billion. Musk’s X is valued at $44 billion, which is what he paid for the social media sewer in October 2022.
Perhaps Tesla protesters want to target SpaceX, a company overseen by a woman and its co-lead engineers are women as well. It wouldn’t surprise me if many of Musk’s haters would consider that a swell idea.