Elon Musk slays California’s anti-business beast

California will allow Tesla to resume operations amid COVID crisis

Elon Musk
Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, speaks during the Satellite 2020 at the Washington Convention CenterMarch 9, 2020, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
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After a lengthy battle with public health officials in Alameda County, California, Elon Musk has emerged victorious. Tesla — the electric car manufacturer that Musk leads — will resume operations as soon as next week.

A Tuesday press release from Alameda County said that as long as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to lessen in severity, the state of California will not interfere with Tesla’s ability to reopen. Alameda County will be coordinating with police to ‘verify Tesla is adhering to physical distancing’ and other guidelines.

Cockburn’s ears perked up as he heard the low purr of Twitter…

After a lengthy battle with public health officials in Alameda County, California, Elon Musk has emerged victorious. Tesla — the electric car manufacturer that Musk leads — will resume operations as soon as next week.

A Tuesday press release from Alameda County said that as long as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to lessen in severity, the state of California will not interfere with Tesla’s ability to reopen. Alameda County will be coordinating with police to ‘verify Tesla is adhering to physical distancing’ and other guidelines.

Cockburn’s ears perked up as he heard the low purr of Twitter socialists across America sobbing themselves to sleep on Tuesday night. Musk — an evil billionaire capitalist pig — will once again be able to provide wages for the more than 10,000 Californians who work at Tesla’s factory in Fremont.

Musk has voiced his frustration over California’s excessive lockdowns for several weeks. On May 9, Musk announced that Tesla would be filing a lawsuit against Alameda County: ‘The unelected & ignorant “Interim Health Officer” of Alameda is acting contrary to the Governor, the President, our Constitutional freedoms & just plain common sense!”’

Musk dryly noted that Tesla is the last carmaker in California. He said that the lockdowns were ‘the final straw’.

On Tuesday, President Trump tweeted his enthusiastic approval for Tesla’s reopening, earning a ‘Thank you!’ from Musk. Earlier this year, Trump called Musk ‘one of our greatest geniuses’ at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

The President and Elon Musk have more in common than their fortunes. Both have experienced poor treatment by progressive state officials and, as a result, looked to more business-friendly states.

When Trump moved his permanent residence from New York to Florida in late 2019, Gov. Andrew Cuomo tweeted ‘good riddance’, adding ‘it’s not like [he] paid taxes here anyway’. When Musk pondered relocating Tesla to a more pro-business state like Texas, California Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez tweeted ‘F*ck Elon Musk’, to which Musk replied, ‘Message received’.

Trump and Musk are not alone. In recent years, there has been a mass exodus from leftist states among businesses and individual citizens alike. In 2018 alone, California experienced a net outmigration of over 140,000 residents — up 11 percent from 2015 — trailing behind only New York and New Jersey. After the 2020 Census, California is poised to lose a congressional seat due to a net loss of population.

Where are these Californians going? Like Mr Musk, they seem to be trading in their smart cars for F-350s and fixing their eyes on the Lone Star State.

A number of businesses have come to their senses and fled California in recent years. In 2016 alone, 1,800 major businesses and business units left California, with Texas as the most popular destination.

In the last few years, enormous firms like Toyota, Jacobs Engineering Group, Nissan and Chevron moved operations out of California and into pro-business states like Texas, Utah and Tennessee. Even Jamba Juice — possibly the most ‘California’ business imaginable — bolted from San Francisco to Frisco, Texas.

Cockburn can’t help but see a pattern emerging of leftist politicians worsening the lives of their constituents. Not merely through crushing tax burdens, attacks on fundamental liberties, and even the draconian closure of public amenities, but also through angrily chasing job creators out of their states with torches and pitchforks — which, like their straws, are presumably made with paper for environmental reasons.

Mr Musk’s victory over California marks a broader victory for federalism. Cockburn would offer a note of caution to anti-business leftists: job creators and private citizens will gladly pick up and move to business-friendly states. Or perhaps even to Mars.