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Sheryl Crow and Elvira have each recently made playful videos showing off the sale of their Teslas. They were little acts of protest against Tesla owner President Elon Musk, and I enjoyed them so much that I wished for the trend to continue. And the universe has granted my wish! (I could be a little petty and quibble over why she’s listening to this request, as opposed to one I made, say, in November… that’s all.) So who just celebrated selling off their Tesla? Democratic Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, who posted two videos over the weekend, one in which he bids his Tesla a very fond f–k off, and a second where he welcomes his union-made-in-America Chevy. No, the senator didn’t really tell the Tesla to f–k off. What he actually said was, “I don’t want to be driving a car built and designed by an a–hole.” Words to live by.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) touted his new vehicle on Sunday after he announced last week he would ditch his Tesla amid an ongoing back-and-forth with Elon Musk, the CEO of the electric vehicle company.
In a video posted Sunday to the social platform X, which Musk owns, Kelly showed off what he called his “new ride” while standing next to a Chevy Tahoe SUV in Washington.
“Got one of these in Tucson as well. This one was made by union labor, United Auto Workers in Arlington, Texas. Always good to buy union cars, incredibly reliable,” Kelly said in the video. “And I’m looking forward to driving this for many, many years.”
It came just two days after he said he would look for a new ride since his Tesla was “built and designed by an a–hole.”
“Every time I get in this car in the last 60 days or so, it reminds me of just how much Elon Musk and Donald Trump is doing to our country,” he said in a video last Friday.
“Talking about slashing Social Security, cutting health care benefits for poor people, for seniors. It’s one bad thing after the next,” he said, in reference to Musk’s leadership of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts.
Kelly, a former U.S. Navy combat pilot, said Musk is also firing veterans.
“I’m a veteran. So, I have a really hard time driving around in this thing,” he said of his Tesla last week. “I think it’s time for an upgrade today.”
“Elon Musk kind of turned out to be an a–hole, and I don’t want to be driving a car built and designed by an a–hole. So, looking forward to my new ride,” he added.
Earlier this week, Musk called Kelly a “traitor” on social media in response to the Senate Democrat’s trip to Ukraine earlier this month.
Kelly slapped back at Musk, writing on social media, “Elon, if you don’t understand that defending freedom is a basic tenet of what makes America great and keeps us safe, maybe you should leave it to those of us who do.”
He later told MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show” that “the only oath I can think of that maybe Elon has sworn is an oath to his own checking account, to his pocketbook.”
Kudos to Senator Kelly for doing the right thing in ditching his Tesla, and for using the moment to tout American union auto workers. Elvira still gets extra points for style in my book, both for the term “Elon Sux Mobile,” and for the fact that it was printed on her car with Twitter/X’s logo. But it’s not a competition. I’m curious about what we think of Kelly posting his videos to Twitter/X, though? Is it trolling Musk on his turf, or not sticking the landing on Kelly’s part? To be fair he did post them on Bluesky too. And I could be a little incredulous and quibble over Kelly’s timeline of only feeling yucky about his Tesla over the last 60 days, as opposed to, say, the past 6+ months of Musk pouring his millions into backing Trump… that’s all. The important thing is, Tesla stock is still taking a nosedive upwards of 50%, even after they mounted that pop-up showroom on the White House lawn.
I bought a Tesla because it was fast like a rocket ship. But now every time I drive it, I feel like a rolling billboard for a man dismantling our government and hurting people. So Tesla, you’re fired!
New ride coming soon.
— Captain Mark Kelly (@captmarkkelly.bsky.social) March 14, 2025 at 11:48 AM
New ride is here. Built by union labor here in America thanks to @uaw.org!
— Captain Mark Kelly (@captmarkkelly.bsky.social) March 16, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Mark Kelly is a true American hero who just keeps giving. President Musk is a foreign national who holds contempt for democracy and everything America was supposed to stand for.
Amen! I hope Kelly runs for president. Buy union made cars if you really want to help the American labor movement!
I know I’m aging myself but does anyone remember when disco came out? There was a large group who took those albums and burned them together at a stadium? I think that all Tesla owners who want to protest should do the same thing. Gather together and have a very big Tesla burn and have a fire department on hand .
Yes, I remember! There is a great doc about the guy behind “Disco Demolition Night” at a late 70’s White Sox game that devolved into a riot. It’s super interesting – the guy has had a fascinating life and really changed sports entertainment with his insane promotions (which everyone does now). It’s called The Saint of Second Chances.
While I applaud the idea I’m afraid that would release a lot of toxic chemicals & put the firefighters on hand in danger. Because they’ve got to be there, too.
How about a demolition derby where very large steam rollers finish off the cars that don’t move anymore.
Elon is crying about liberals destroying his company but am pretty sure liberals were the majority of his customers to begin with. Did the company not do research on the kind of people that own their cars?
It will be interesting to see if Trumpers start buying Teslas. I’ll be shocked if I start seeing American and Confederate flags being flown on Cyber Trucks.
I’m in Tennessee and just this week I saw someone in a cybertruck with a confederate license plate.
I ask the same thing. I also question whether he considered the people who he was getting in bed or was he in a coma on January 6th because the January 6th people are the group of people firebombing his dealerships while he attempts to lay the blame on liberals. Musk has created a monster that he lost control of. The liberals are in their Namaste era enjoying WLM, boycotting Target and Walmart, enjoying their Costco memberships, and selling their Tesla stock while the world punishes him for his mean- spirited arrogance. That man is not a genius. He’s a man that built his reputation on taking over existing businesses, firing the original owners, and applying for government funding.
Muskrat is a lunatic with very little actual cashflow because his net worth was so tied to the stock market. He bought a president to steal our social security and goad military actions to enrich himself more through the miliary industrial complex. We have got to stop thinking any of this makes sense for anyone but the 1% and their greed. He doesn’t care if any of his businesses tank and take the stock market down with him. 99% of us go broke and he can buy our assets for pennies on the dollar and have actual hard assets. He has 3 trillion in social security assets at his fingertips to steal at will and a bunch of flunky cowardly magats egging him on.
For those who can afford it, I’m in favor of offloading the Teslas. So, nice move on Senator Kelly’s part there, though considering Twitter is more robust again, I wish he didn’t troll Musk on his own platform. Using X is helping that nazi out, too! And considering how many politicians have been moving to the right (sometimes they move far right), it’s good to see Kelly move left and appreciate unions! Nice callout to the UAW and union labor.
I see it as Kelly delivering his message to all his constituents, as a Senator should
The embedded posts are from Blue sky. Is he also posting on Twitter?
Also, where are all the Republicans who used to profess their support for unions & USA Made (Even though they buy/bought mostly things made in China and grown in Mexico through places like Walmart)?
Mark Kelly does fight with Elon on twitter, but it’s very revealing for the Elon fans to see. He and his astronaut twin brother ridicule Elon for not knowing his s–t about space and never having the guts to put on the space suit and go up there. They’re goading him to get under his skin and it does.
He has a standing taunt where he’s willing to show him around in space if he ever stops being coward about experiencing it for himself. His brother was captain of the space station for an entire year, we now know it changes your DNA bc of testing the Kelly identical twin brothers.
Elon just tweeted that he’s going up with astronauts on the next SpaceX flight. Looks like the Kelly brothers got under his very thin skin.
I think that Tesla owners are going to begin being frightened to drive their Elon-mobiles. I personally would honestly not take one as a gift. Also, that ridiculous “truck” Tesla has is the ugliest creation on wheels. May that entire company crash and take Elon with it.
The Freedom Dumpster?
Ahhh!! Thank you for this. I needed a name for them.
So he no longer cares about the environment and got a low mileage gas guzzler? Why not a non Tesla ev car?
Kudos to him for supporting unions. That’s all I’ll say.
I wish he’d gotten a Ford F150 Lightning or Ford Mustang Mach-E. Another American made electric car rather than a big gas-guzzling truck.
I’m old enough to remember when, growing up in the Midwest, you’d get huge shit for buying a Japanese car (foreign, non-union). I’m also old enough to have known families who refused to ever buy a German car.
Tesla is totally over-valued. Most car company stocks are in the $10-20 range per share, for companies that make MILLIONS of cars that don’t have pieces that fall off, that don’t lock their owners inside and BURN THEM TO DEATH. Tesla’s been inflated like an NFT for way too long.
If we can all collectively get the stock down to $114 they’ll call in muskrat’s loans, and he doesn’t have the cash to cover them.
I’m old enough to remember (and still live in the Detroit area and still feel this way) that buying a “foreign” car was anti-American and people *would* give you shit. The automobile plants still have separate parking lots for “foreign” cars. I’m not sure if I could ever buy a car that is not GM, Chrysler (or whatever the current name is) or Ford, even though I know sooooo many parts are not made in the US and they are just assembled here.
At least he DOING something and speaking out in some kind of way. We need all decent people to speakout and smart man to shout out unions. They better start knowing they are going to be hunted .
Technically it’s a great car and what American ingenuity can produce. It needs a new face and direction.
We toured the BMW museum with my family and its factory plant in Munich last year when we were living in Spain temporarily. During WW2 BMW was used for the Nazis as well, and they used concentration camps prisoners for labor for free. We don’t think about that now about BMW.