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Full Version: Bill Nye, the Sellout Guy (greenwashing) + What's going on with Elon Musk & Twitter?
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Bill Nye, the Sellout Guy
https://gizmodo.com/bill-nye-sells-out-s...1848763404

EXCERPT: [...] This week, Coca-Cola, one of the world’s biggest plastic polluters, teamed up with TV’s favorite scientist [Bill Nye] for a campaign to create a “world without waste,” a joke of a corporate greenwashing campaign.

In a video innocuously titled “The Coca-Cola Company and Bill Nye Demystify Recycling,” an animated version of Nye—with a head made out of a plastic bottle and his signature bow tie fashioned from a Coke label—walks viewers through the ways “the good people at the Coca-Cola company are dedicating themselves to addressing our global plastic waste problem.”

[...] The video is, on the surface, an accurate depiction of the process of recycling a beverage bottle. The problem lies in what recycling can actually do. Nye paints a rosy picture in the video of plastic Coke bottles being recycled “again and again”—but if everything worked like he’s said, we wouldn’t be facing plastic pollution that has grown fourfold over the past few decades. Thanks to concerted lobbying efforts, the public has been led to believe that recycling is the cure for our disastrous plastic addiction. What it does in actuality is place the burden of responsibility on the consumer and allow companies like Coca-Cola to get away with no repercussions for their waste.

Most of those plastics can only be reused once or twice before ending up in a landfill. Nye, for all his talk of science on TV, should know this. Over recycling’s 60-year history, less than 10% of plastic that has been produced has ever been recycled. And while in theory, PET—the type of plastic that makes bottles—can be recycled more times than other types of plastic, that’s not usually what happens...

[...] There’s also a particular irony in Coca-Cola using Nye to send this message. The company produces about 3.3 million U.S. tons of plastic packaging per year, and has been named one of the most polluting brands in the world by multiple different audits... Recruiting the public’s favorite Science Guy, who has been outspoken on climate change, isn’t an accident—it’s part of the company’s strategy to publicly cut ties with the oil industry while continuing to use oil products... (MORE - missing details)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HRadzzvQNY



What's going on with Elon Musk and Twitter? Will he buy it?
https://insideevs.com/news/578300/tesla-...er-future/

EXCERPTS: At this point, you're probably well aware of the fact that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk bought a huge stake in Twitter. [...] Now, Musk is going to be on the Twitter board, and while some people appear to be excited, others seem scared.

Some might say that fans of Tesla and Musk are likely to have positive thoughts on the CEO's Twitter ventures, while those who don't approve of the CEO may feel very differently, though it's not clear-cut. We've seen Tesla and Musk fans post on Twitter that they're uneasy about what the future of Twitter will hold with Musk on the board. At the same time, some folks who don't appear to be Tesla owners or fans are voicing their approval of potential changes that may lie ahead thanks to Musk's involvement.

To be clear, we have no idea what Musk plans to do regarding the future of Twitter. With that said, we aren't ready to form an opinion. Until some obvious changes to the social media platform appear, it honestly doesn't make much sense to "take sides." At this point, it's going to be a waiting game to see when and if anything major comes out of Musk's appointment to the Twitter board.

[...] Musk doesn't "own" Twitter by any means. Moreover, he's just one of a group of board members, so while his opinion will be considered, he's not in charge. Nonetheless, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives .... believes Musk will increase his stake. Ives said:

"This is just the appetizer. Ultimately, we believe he will have an active stake over the coming weeks or month. This is just a start. I think he will have a broader strategic focus on Twitter, whether it's changing the slate, changing the management team or ultimately a buyout. Just to be clear, this is just a start of what I believe is going to be a much more active role for Musk at Twitter.”

Ives' comment came ahead of more details about Musk's new role on the Twitter board. When Musk was asked to join the Twitter board, a rule was instated that he can't have a stake in Twitter that exceeds 14.9% while serving on the board. So, people who may be worried that Musk is going to "take over Twitter" or "buy Twitter outright" can probably relax a bit, at least for now... (MORE - missing details)
Twitter's problems don't just extend to its top management. They extend all the way down through its rank-and-file, almost all of which are hard-left and almost all of which approve Twitter's censorship of opinion that its employees don't like.

https://thepostmillennial.com/twitter-ce...aign=64487

So I don't think that there's a whole lot that Elon can do to change Twitter's corporate culture from the board of directors. He just won't have the critical mass to force major changes in how the company operates, particularly if the rest of the board like it as it is.

To really change twitter, Elon will have to accumulate a controlling interest in the company. And that would mean resigning from the board as long as the 14.9% rule remains in effect.

In my opinion it remains questionable whether Elon will do that. As of right now, Twitter's market cap is $37.38 billion. If Elon starts buying, that will push the price up. So even counting his current stake, he would have to shell out maybe $20 billion to get effective control of Twitter. That's less than 10% of his net worth, but since little of his net worth is in cash it would require that he sell a big chunk of his Tesla stock holding, which I doubt that he wants to do.

But if he did become majority owner, he could just announce that Twitter will no longer practice political censorship. That would probably trigger an employee revolt, but Elon could just tell them that nobody is forcing them to work for Twitter.

If Twitter was owned by Elon, its coolness factor would rise through the roof and people would be lined up to work there.
(Apr 8, 2022 08:31 PM)Yazata Wrote: [ -> ]Twitter's problems don't just extend to its top management. They extend all the way down through its rank-and-file, almost all of which are hard-left and almost all of which approve Twitter's censorship of opinion that its employees don't like.

https://thepostmillennial.com/twitter-ce...aign=64487

So I don't think that there's a whole lot that Elon can do to change Twitter's corporate culture from the board of directors. He just won't have the critical mass to force major changes in how the company operates, particularly if the rest of the board like it as it is.

To really change twitter, Elon will have to accumulate a controlling interest in the company. And that would mean resigning from the board as long as the 14.9% rule remains in effect.

And today Elon announced that he will not be taking a seat on Twitter's Board of Directors.

Rumors of an incoming hostile takeover are all over the internet. I'm still not 100% convinced of that, but it looks a lot more likely than it did a few days ago.
(Apr 11, 2022 04:44 PM)Yazata Wrote: [ -> ]And today Elon announced that he will not be taking a seat on Twitter's Board of Directors.

Rumors of an incoming hostile takeover are all over the internet. I'm still not 100% convinced of that, but it looks a lot more likely than it did a few days ago.

And here it is:

https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/elon...it-private

Elon says in his SEC filing --

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/...sc13da.htm

"I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.

However since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form.

As a result, I am offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter and a 38% premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced. My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.

Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.

Best and final:

a. I am not playing the back-and-forth game.
b. I have moved straight to the end.
c. It's a high price and your shareholders will love it.
d. If the deal doesn't work, given that I don't have confidence in management nor do I believe I can drive the necessary change in the public market, I will need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.
I. This is not a threat, it's simply not a good investment without the changes that need to be made.
II. And those changes won't happen without taking the company private."


Twitters's left-wing base isn't happy

https://thepostmillennial.com/liberals-t...aign=64487
Trump says he probably won’t tweet again even if Musk buys Twitter and reinstates his account
https://www.ntd.com/trump-says-he-probab...66578.html
Tucker Carlson's take on what's at stake:
https://video.foxnews.com/v/6303980391001#sp=show-clips
I'm amazed Carlson is still around to say such things. He must know he is also treading on thin ice. But, minus a bit too much party partisanship coloring, very well put imo.
After Twitter's board effectively rejected Elon's offer to buy the company, Elon has unveiled his 'Plan B' by informing the SEC that he is going to go directly to Twitter's shareholders by making them a tender offer. Depending on how much of Twitter's stock he can acquire this way, he might end up with enough voting shares to vote out the current board.

https://www.newsmax.com/finance/streetta...d/1066639/

Details in the SEC filing (dated yesterday) below. Elon lays out the source of funding for his $46.5 billion tender offer. He proposes to spend $21 billion of his own money (see more below), plus $25.5 billion of debt financing from Morgan Stanley.

Elon owns $176 billion in Tesla stock (17% of the company) and is only allowed (by Tesla internal rules) to borrow against 25% of his Tesla holdings ($44 billion). 51% of that is already tied up as collateral for other loans (used to help fund SpaceX?) which leaves Elon with the collateral to underwrite $21 billion more in loans against his Tesla stock. This will allow him to come up with the $21 billion without having to sell Tesla shares.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/...sc13da.htm
I’ve always hated twitter. The name is even irritating. Facebook wiped up Myspace. I would just start my own platform. I’d call it Heads-up.
And I would go with a blockchain. There’s no centralized authority. Users on these networks have more privacy. As a result, freedom of speech is preserved.
Trump's "Truth Social" platform was deemed a disaster before it's legit debut
https://www.scivillage.com/thread-12131-...l#pid50379
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