1/ Been thinking alot lately about what I thought was a very significant post by @Plainsite that seems to have escaped notice in all the post-earnings call froth. The post was shocking to me as it perfectly symbolized what Musk is all about, but I couldn’t put it in context.
3/ This is a giant PR exercise. Full disclosure: our short thesis never was much focused on an ability to raise. To the contrary, we want him to raise. Often. I’ll explain why later. But this PR effort, and the Potemkin village behind it, is central.
4/ It’s a dangerous game to play, shaping a narrative, because a narrative shouldn’t have to be shaped. It shapes itself. If EV penetration were happening naturally, not driven by subsidy abuse, Tesla would be a different story.
5/ On to @Plainsite. . . We all read the Musk Chronicles, the sordid details from the Musk family’s embarrassing depositions. Note the date: about a week AFTER the outrageous Third Miracle Quarter and before the details on the 10-Q dropped, blowing a hole in Muskie’s claims.
6/ Plainsite had them, Musk knew it, knew how bad the fallout would be, and rushed to get Alice-in-Wonderland financials into the public domain before the depositions dropped. TO CONTROL THE NARRATIVE.
7/ Has anyone at CNBC ever mentioned the details found in the depositions? Are the details shocking? Do they confirm everything one suspects about Musk and his sorry operations or his even worse management skill?
8/ Read this Plainsite post again. On 9/19 (a Wednesday) it requests the docs. Ten-day review period and subsequent release puts the depositions into the public domain in late September/early October, before the call. 
9/ Musk’s legal pit bulls shift into overdrive and ON A SUNDAY NIGHT (the 22nd), file a request to delay release. Aaron’s lawyers find out about the extension request on that Monday morning (23rd). At 6:16 am the following day (the 24th), TSLA’s request is granted.
10/ Ten days from the 24th is 10/24. Tesla then alights on 10/23 as the day for its earnings call and Zach and the boys hit the chemistry lab to massage the numbers. And do they ever.
11/ Between the end of the earnings call and before the details are out in the 10-Q, Omar, at Elon’s direction, goes more nuts than usual and starts going after Aaron in a hundred different ways.
12/ While we are all reading Kimball’s depositions and marveling how that functioning idiot has any responsibility at a public company, Aaron is in an epic battle over his reputation being waged by Musk’s proxies at Musk’s direction.
To. Deflect. Attention. From. The. Depos.
To. Deflect. Attention. From. The. Depos.
13/ Not sure why, given how @Jack and Twitter are in the tank for a sociopath, but miraculously Omar’s activities against Aaron attract notice and he gets flushed. Doesn’t change the point though.
Tesla is a giant, manipulated PR campaign and Musk is the puppet master.
Tesla is a giant, manipulated PR campaign and Musk is the puppet master.
14/ It has to be. If the details of his ops, as truly found in his public financials, were ever accurately commented upon and fairly reported by the financial press, the story would unwind in a heartbeat.
15/ There is a direct link between the details in the SCTY depositions and today’s 10-Q. The motivations are the same. Fake solar tiles are the same as inadequate disclosure and abusing deferred revenue accounting because they both are used as a means to an end.
16/ Companies that access capital markets in a non-stop manner prove their internal cash flow generation is inadequate. Please raise. Keep raising. Doing so proves part of the short thesis: this is a horrible business poorly run.
17/ Why is there no detail on the Shanghai factory? Because the detail would blow a hole in the narrative. Why is Buffalo an epic scandal? Because it is, and its detail does blow a hole in the narrative. So now we need more factories and more pumps.
18/ There is a reason he works so hard to shape the narrative. @Paul91701736 is 100% correct. The SCTY trial nears. The depos exposed Musk. Let's concoct an astroturf campaign to aid the cause. And we get this.
What the hell is the matter with @CNBC?
What the hell is the matter with @CNBC?
Finally, in my pantheon of $TSLAQ heros, @plainsite is in the Top 3. The work he/they have done and the high personal cost paid is breathtaking to behold. We should all have that kind of stamina and fortitude. I take my hat off to him.
