Well, no evidence of his claim was presented. And this has nothing to do with him being stupid. His purposes were served, regardless of the truth value of the statement. There's nothing stupid about that.
What I meant was that he would not be stupid enough to make untrue statements and risk his integrity like we have come to expect from certain politicians. I wonder how much you know about Musk. You know he gave away all his patents. Do conservatives see him as just another money grubbing crook?
Not reliably, no. The myth that you can is much the same as the lie detector belief: sometimes it works, but definitely not always, and there's really no way to tell when it will fail.
Well there is such a thing as "street smarts", and a person's track record, and all sorts of psychological tools, as far as ways to determine credibility.
Lie detectors are not admissible in court, but that doesn't mean that they don't work. They can be very useful in some situations.
Not to be critical, but this seems to be a shortcoming of the conservative philosophy or skill tool box. I see often overly suspicious right wing pundits, almost paranoid types finding conspiracies at every turn. Initial mistrust and the ability to rapidly size up one's opponent should be a survival strategy, but there have been quite a few notable lapses among the right in judging their enemies as well as their colleagues. I won't name them here, but I'm thinking of all these really crazy politicians that get elected and then backed up by those in power. The right seems not to be able to pick up on their disingenuous, unethical or incompetent nature.
By comparing their statements to their actions. Christie said he was OK with Tesla direct sales, provided it complied with state law. When the opportunity to change state law was presented to him, he signed the bill. Looks to me like he told the truth.
The appearance is that Christie got backed into a corner by someone smarter than he, and by public opinion, and had to back out of his deals with dealers. But I could be wrong.
You expect too much of politicians, then, and will be disappointed almost all the time.
I think this is the conservative way of looking at the world, and I don't doubt that you believe this.
As a progressive liberal, I expect much from my government and its representatives. I don't expect them to pray for rain, nor impose any other religious dogma on me, nor tell a woman what to do with her body. I expect greatness from my public school teachers, my police force, my sewage treatment plant, and my governmental meat inspectors. I generally get what I expect, and I am not often disappointed, unless the politician turns out to be a felon.
Well, what did you hope for? For Christie to make this a political priority? That was never going to happen, not with Christie or any other governor. What happened is as good an outcome as was possible.
I didn't hope for anything. I just saw a very brilliant and honest business man whom I happen to admire asking the governor to give the people what they overwhelmingly wanted, and a governor who waffled and sounded like he was trying to talk his way out of something in front of his constituents. Some of us notice stuff like that.
I would really love it if direct sales were legal for any and all cars. As a matter of principle, they really should be. But that's simply not going to happen unless the car manufacturers push the idea. Consumers themselves are too diffuse an interest group to compete against the concentrated interests of the dealers, so there would need to be a concentrated interest pushing for direct sales legalization. And other than bit players like Tesla, that's just not in the cards, at least not any time soon.
I basically agree, but Tesla is a different animal. They are not going to be a bit player for long. I'm not about to sell my stock in Tesla any time soon.
