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Blog Musk Says Fremont Factory Has Started Production Despite County Order

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Tesla started production Monday at its Fremont, Calif. factory, days after filing a lawsuit against county officials who ordered a pause in the manufacturing line to keep employees safe from COVID-19.

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, who has downplayed the virus and been critical of orders to keep the factory closed, announced the restart on Twitter.

Musk said he “will be on the line with everyone else” and asked that only he be arrested if officials decide to intervene.






Musk has been fighting with Alameda County for more than a month about the health order. Tesla initially kept the factory open despite the order, saying it qualified for an exemption as an automaker. Tesla finally suspended production on March 24 with a plan to return on May 4.

The county extended the stay-at-home order in late April, which prompted tweets from Musk such as “Free America Now.”

Bloomberg reported that Tesla had hoped to open the factory on Friday. Then, a report Monday from The Verge said that Tesla began making cars again over the weekend, bringing back enough workers to complete about 200 Model Y and Model 3 vehicles.

Musk said on Twitter Saturday that the company will move its headquarters and “future operations” out of California.

Tesla published Sunday a detailed ‘Getting Back to Work’ plan.

 
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Read Tesla's lawsuit in the link below, filed in a professional manner through normal legal channels. Musk is known for being highly principled and passionate about what he believes in (e.g. fighting all the media stories he deems false, often with personal lengthy, well thought out responses, rather then just "letting them go"). His response in this matter is in perfect step with other examples of how he handles perceived injustices in his personal and business life.
https://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/files/2020/05/09/Tesla v Alameda County Complaint copy.pdf

While I did not read the entire thing... Tesla wins on this alone.

"42. The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment provides that “[n]o State shall . . . deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” A State “violates this guarantee by taking away someone’s life, liberty, or property under a criminal law so vague that it fails to give ordinary people fair notice of the conduct it punishes, or so standardless that it invites arbitrary enforcement.” Johnson v. United States, 135 S. Ct. 2551, 2556 (2015)."
 
...

For the county to defy the state is odd indeed

In theory our country is configured so the power flows this way, top to bottom:

Individuals - guaranteed their ultimate power by a Bill of Rights and the Constitution.>
City governments>
County governments>
State governments>
Federal government>
International organizations are at the bottom.

People lately seem to be in love with federal or international control over every single aspect of your life, and advocate the removal of the Bill or Rights.
 
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Not OK. If he wants to break the law he can (personally) pay the consequences until a legal reopening is negotiated with the county. Some hefty daily fine would do nicely. He can afford it a whole lot better than his hourly employees.
Right now he's no different from the owner of Klassy Nails who insists she's reopening her salon whether the county allows it or not, because, well, she just knows better. (actual local case).
Robin
 
Can't wait to see them pull an "I'm Spartacus!"

Alameda Sheriff pulls up and says "Okay, I have a warrant for the arrest of Elon Musk. Which one's Elon Musk?"
As Elon gets up to turn himself in, a line worker says "I'm Elon Musk", then another "I'm Elon Musk". Then a cacophony of "I'm Elon Musk" shouts from all over the echoing factory.
*elon turns to an army of 299 employees*
“Tonight we dine in hell!”
 
...... I hope they arrest him so when it goes to trial it will get worldwide coverage. .....

You should not expect this to generate positive PR in Europe. Whatever your position on specific measures may be, for Musk to just ignore a shutdown order comes across as an arrogant tech billionaire d*** who believes to be above the law.
Trump like twitter rants about pandemic prevention measures being fascist also tend to go down like a lead balloon.
 
You should not expect this to generate positive PR in Europe. Whatever your position on specific measures may be, for Musk to just ignore a shutdown order comes across as an arrogant tech billionaire d*** who believes to be above the law.
Trump like twitter rants about pandemic prevention measures being fascist also tend to go down like a lead balloon.
Dude - Nobody cares what they think in Europe. If you are so pissed go buy a Mercedes or a BMW, or maybe a Siemens product? In this country there is a spirit of freedom and independence that none of us expect Europeans to understand - it's called Don't Tread on Me. It's why you and your neighbors don't live in Russian controlled territory.
 
Oh dear, your response really leaves me kind of shattered, you know?
Perhaps you should tell Tesla not to care about Europe, as they seem to be quite busy building a big factory there? Perhaps they should confine themselves to China and see how defying an official order will go down there?
MAGA sloganeering may appeal to the open carry folks in Hicksville, USA, but it doesn't really sell expensive consumer products abroad.
However, you contribution certainly goes some way in explaining how the USA ended up with a president who manages to make Silvio Berlusconi look like a distinguished elder statesman.
 
Toyota restarted Monday in the US.

So why is Tesla reopening a huge problem with so many on a Tesla Owner site? Is it an image thing? Do you have to have a certain life philosophy to buy a Tesla? Will they be giving Pre-Purchase psych evals to determine if you are Tesla-worthy?

Tesla has probably saved more lives in the world than C19 has taken. But the lives Tesla saves are not worthy, that is our children's lives? Sick.
 
Oh dear, your response really leaves me kind of shattered, you know?
Perhaps you should tell Tesla not to care about Europe, as they seem to be quite busy building a big factory there? Perhaps they should confine themselves to China and see how defying an official order will go down there?
MAGA sloganeering may appeal to the open carry folks in Hicksville, USA, but it doesn't really sell expensive consumer products abroad.
However, you contribution certainly goes some way in explaining how the USA ended up with a president who manages to make Silvio Berlusconi look like a distinguished elder statesman.

Volkswagen restarted operations over one month ago. Start a protest against Merkel. Thanks in advance.
 
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You should not expect this to generate positive PR in Europe. Whatever your position on specific measures may be, for Musk to just ignore a shutdown order comes across as an arrogant tech billionaire d*** who believes to be above the law.
Trump like twitter rants about pandemic prevention measures being fascist also tend to go down like a lead balloon.

Shouldn't you get busy writing emissions defeat code? The last attempt was not worthy, try harder this time.
 
Shouldn't you get busy writing emissions defeat code? The last attempt was not worthy, try harder this time.

VW ignored the law in order to increase its profits, looks remarkably like what Musk is doing here. Musk channelling Rosa Parks in order to build some cars looks very much like an attempt to impress the gullible. As a company, if you believe that some official exceeds or abuses his authority, you instruct lawyers, you do not simply ignore an official order.
 
Sheriff shows up, Elon gets arrested,

Seems to me it would be more like. Public Utilities turns off the water on 24 hrs notice. Insurance Co. pulls policy until facility in compliance etc etc etc. Willful non-compliance of public health offers so many paths for the county. Thirty days or so later things start to ramp up at the facility but lawsuits and liability claims continue to mount. Or maybe not...

County I am in has a legal right to disconnect a commercial facility (including churches) from public water if a simple thing like a backflo preventer has not been _annually_ inspected BECAUSE it involves public health. There is no elected official involved or "rights".

EM is smart enough to get a good attorney to argue the law cause the facts aren't going to help much.

In the mean time, grab some popcorn. YMMV.
 
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VW ignored the law in order to increase its profits, looks remarkably like what Musk is doing here. Musk channelling Rosa Parks in order to build some cars looks very much like an attempt to impress the gullible. As a company, if you believe that some official exceeds or abuses his authority, you instruct lawyers, you do not simply ignore an official order.
VW did not ignore the law. They swore in writing they were obeying the law, but were in fact breaking that same law. How many lives did it shorten or take? They knew they were creating air pollution because they deliberated coded the ECM to make more emissions. When asked if they coded the cars to defeat the test cycle, they answered they did not.

Quite a bit different. VW has paid lip service to EVs. Like Toyota, they really don't want to deal with EV technology. They are being drug kicking and screaming every kWh of the way.
 
Dude - Nobody cares what they think in Europe.
Not a productive attitude if you want to remain a manufacturing powerhouse, and I doubt that Elon Musk "wouldn't care" about a sizeable portion of its addressable market.

In fact, the United States cared very much about what they thought in Europe after WWII, and even injected quite some funds in its economy, to everyone's benefit (including that of the United States).

If you are so pissed
Given your hostile responses in this thread, perhaps you should ask yourself what to do if you are so pissed...
 
Not a productive attitude if you want to remain a manufacturing powerhouse, and I doubt that Elon Musk "wouldn't care" about a sizeable portion of its addressable market.

In fact, the United States cared very much about what they thought in Europe after WWII, and even injected quite some funds in its economy, to everyone's benefit (including that of the United States).


Given your hostile responses in this thread, perhaps you should ask yourself what to do if you are so pissed...

Don't kid yourself by rewriting history. The US bolstered Germany after WWII in an attempt to control communist aggression. No other reason. FDR had sold out the US to Stalin, so we tried to repair that blunder.
 
VW ignored the law in order to increase its profits, looks remarkably like what Musk is doing here. Musk channelling Rosa Parks in order to build some cars looks very much like an attempt to impress the gullible. As a company, if you believe that some official exceeds or abuses his authority, you instruct lawyers, you do not simply ignore an official order.
Zero parallel. Zero. VW defeated the letter and intent of the law. Tesla established and published policies and procedures that exceeded all published laws, rules and regulations. Tesla built physical separation and protections in the plant and showed their work. Don’t even imagine that a company defeating the intent and letter of law in secret is in any way equivalent with one that exceeds the protections but is denied operations.

argue tone, argue histrionics if you care to. Don’t suggest Tesla IN ANY WAY failed to comply with the intent of established law.