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Elon Musk is planning to defy county officials as he battles to reopen Tesla's Fremont factory in the face of a continued shelter-in-place order in Alameda County, California, Musk announced on Twitter on Monday.
"Tesla is restarting production today against Alameda County rules," Musk tweeted. "I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me."
[...]
On May 7, California public health officer Sonia Angell issued a new order lifting some statewide restrictions. The order stated that "a local health jurisdiction may implement or continue more restrictive public health measures if the jurisdiction's Local Health Officer believes conditions in that jurisdiction warrant it."During a Monday press briefing, reporters peppered Newsom with questions about the dispute. Newsom answered like a politician, expressing admiration for both sides and confidence that they'd work out a deal. Speaking of Tesla, Newsom said he had "great reverence for their technology, for their innovative spirit, for their leadership."
But he also stressed that "it's county-led enforcement in these cases." He didn't endorse Tesla's view that Alameda County's order was inconsistent with Newsom's own order.
Tesla Fremont Factory: Alameda Deescalates Issue, Doesn’t Fall Into Elon Musk’s Martyr Trap:
May. 12th 2020 9:26 am ET
In [a] new comment, the Alameda county seems to have deescalated the issue around Tesla reopening its Fremont factory despite the county’s order as CEO Elon Musk set an obvious martyr trap.
As we reported yesterday, Tesla went ahead with the reopening of Fremont factory despite a local order from the Alameda County to wait until they approved a safe reopening plan.
CEO Elon Musk said that he would himself be on the production lines and he asked that if Alameda County were to enforce the rules and arrest anyone, it should be him:
“Tesla is restarting production today against Alameda County rules. I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.”
But the county didn’t fall for the martyr trap set by Musk and didn’t go into Fremont factory to put anyone in handcuffs.
County officials claim to have been in continuous contact with Tesla last week to approve the automaker’s plan to reopen the factory by May 18, but Musk apparently wanted to do it sooner – leading to Tesla filling a lawsuit and stalling the talks.
The Sheriff’s Office instead issued a statement stating that they are aware Tesla is breaking the order and they will take the same action that they do for other businesses who have been violating the order:
(Score: 2) by turgid on Wednesday May 13 2020, @08:59PM (3 children)
Elon Musk, possibly, and a lot of other very rich and greedy people (see Jacob Rees-Mogg). There's an epidemic of a new and often deadly virus going about. It would be sensible, and the likes of Musk could afford it, if people were given a few months off work so that the virus could burn itself out. The current policy in places like the UK, USA, Russia, Brazil etc. will see the virus continually circulate (and mutate) as it gets passed from host to host.
Some of us are very lucky. We can do our jobs entirely from home, and that's what I'm doing. I have underlying health conditions, which are none of your business, but which put me at increased risk of death from COVID-19 and my very understanding employer has been letting me work from home since March. Mrs Turgid too is at increased risk. We have a young son who needs to be brought up and provided for. There are millions of people like us around the world.
Some people's work is absolutely essential to the running of the country and they should be given proper protective equipment and if they are at particularly high personal risk due to underlying medical conditions, they should be allowed to stay at home until the risk passes, and be paid.
Mr Musk is very rich. There is no reason for him to be demanding that all of his staff return to work. He could afford to let many of them stay at home with pay for a few months. He'd be doing the whole world a favour in terms of reducing the spread and mutation of the virus. He can wait another 6 months or a year to get to Mars. Mars isn't going away.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 13 2020, @09:28PM
But can society afford it? For example, the US just increased its debt from 107% of GDP [tradingeconomics.com] at the end of 2019 to almost 118% of GDP [usdebtclock.org] now due to a combination of massive emergency spending and shrinkage of GDP. Where's it going to get the resources from to keep going a few more months in shut down mode.
This sort of thing is only sensible when you can do it and afford to do it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2020, @08:31PM (1 child)
AIDS of the ass.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 15 2020, @01:29AM
What does Runaway have to do with this?