On Saturday morning, March 1st, over 100 people showed up at the intersection of Bridge Street and Pleasant Street near the Watertown Tesla Service Center to participate in a standout targeting Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk.
The standout was part of a national protest of Elon Musk and his unelected role in the current Trump administration. Known as the Take Down Tesla Campaign, www.teslatakedown.com, the campaign urges people to sell their Tesla cars and stock and to join the movement to protest Musk and the Department of Energy Efficiency (DOGE).
Many people who attended were from Watertown and adjacent communities: Brighton, Cambridge, Newton, and Waltham. But some came from as far away as Worcester. There was a lot of support for the protest from those who drove by as several different chants were called out, one that was particularly popular was “Hay, Hay, Ho, Ho, Elon Musk has got to go.” Protest signs referenced the parallels to the rise of Nazi Germany, the current threat to democracy, and the takeover of our federal government in the form of a soft or administrative coup. choosedemocracy.us/what-is-an-administrative-coup
A protest rally that was held later in the day at the Tesla dealership on Boylston Street in Boston drew over 300 participants. The Boston Tesla protests will continue on a weekly basis Starting on Sunday, March 9th, and continuing on Saturdays beginning on March 15th. Stay tuned for a possible future standout in Watertown.
Eileen Ryan of Watertown and Janet England of Brighton were the two organizers of the Watertown Standout on Saturday.
The next standout Tesla and Musk protest will be on Saturday, March 15th, from 10:00 – Noon, at the Watertown Tesla Service Center, corner of Bridge and Pleasant Streets.
Eileen Ryan
Watertown Resident
TDS now also stands for Tesla Derangement Syndrome. Their hate for Musk did not start with DOGE, but with his purchase of Twitter. Seeing that propaganda tool being taken away from them was just too much to handle. Safe room anyone?
So Elon Musk, white South African and DOGE leader, chose as his first cut, vital medical care for Black Africans that the loss of which will kill Black Africans.
Smells like musky racism.
I doubt very much Elon Musk seeks to exterminate the very market in which he’s investing millions. His Starlink business is bringing hi-speed internet to Africa at lower prices. (I found this by merely searching under Starlink and Africa.) This is his “philanthropy”: to give the underserved the means to build a better future for themselves. He’s also offered Starlink’s services for free in certain emergencies, such as after Hurricanes Milton and Helene and the LA wildfires. Traditional philanthropy has its place, but to ascribe the vilest motives to those whose work and money walk a different path only detracts from your own message, whatever that might be.
Josh, there are acceptable boundaries of civilized political discourse. The current dialogue is outside those boundaries. When folks begin to make arguments that are counter to a basic respect for other people’s humanity then those boundaries have been breached.
Starlink: I am so pleased that Africans will have cheap internet access while they are starving or dying of disease. That’s so important. (Are you kidding me?)
Cutting Medicaid or Veteran’s Services is vile.
I had dinner last week with two colleagues who grew up in Apartheid South Africa. One came to the US rather than serve a required stint in the South African military which typically involved shooting at black folks in the townships. The other’s family was expelled by the South African Police because his father, a Christian preacher, preached against Apartheid.
Both agreed that the political dynamic that we are witnessing now shared many characteristics with the fascism they grew up with. They also agreed that they never expected that this could happen in this country.
Tesla Derangement Syndrome, my posterior. The mental gymnastics in which some engage in order to justify anti-humanistic politics amazes and horrifies me. Over the course of history, we have witnessed the darkest side of human nature emerge from time to time. Now appears to be one of those times.
So I was right about TDS.
The posterior probability is a type of conditional probability that results from updating the prior probability with information summarized by the likelihood via an application of Bayes’ rule. From an epistemological perspective, the posterior probability contains everything there is to know about an uncertain proposition.
Thanks for bringing this up.
Sure, sure. And cutting $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia and $32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru would smell like homophobia to you. Right?
Actually I believe that both these assertions have been discredited.
There is much misinformation being used to justify the unjustifiable, which proves my point.
The anger parade marches on.
It’s more like a very joyful parade, unlike the angry display of puerile behavior we witnessed last night on one side of the aisle (yes, where expelled Rep. Al Green, D-TX was sitting). And listening to a President who can speak was particularly satisfying.
“Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are.” ~ Marianne Williamson
Misinformation? I went to the teslatakedown site posted in the letter above. This is what I found. So, are your friends to the left lying too?
Of note, nowhere in the site there is an acknowledgement as to who owns it. You know, like Staff, Team, Leadership. Why the hiding?
Does Ms. Ryan know?
WHAT DOGE HAS ALREADY DONE:
Cut the federal workforce
Terminated federal contracts
Sweeping cuts at USAID
Canceled DEI programs and grants
Terminated federal leases for office space
Accessing Treasury Department data
Paralyzing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Accessing Department of Education data
Accessing Federal Aviation Administration technology
Visiting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Accessing Medicare and Medicaid systems
Accessing Department of Energy systems Accessing Environmental Protection Agency contracts Accessing Federal Emergency Management Agency systems
Meddling with Veterans Affairs
Canceled media subscriptions
Anger mixed with willful ignorance. Trump talked about “transgender” mice in his speech last night. He was actually referring to transGENIC mice, which are genetically modified for use in medical research. He also cited a transgender child whose parents knew was transitioning but lied and said they didn’t know and tried to sue anyway! It’s truly endless with MAGA. And truth literally means nothing to them.
Paul , your claims on the transgenic mice are not correct. Multiple outlets have had to correct their reporting on this.
The studies Trump is cutting funding for were to test on mice the impacts of hormone therapy (the same that are given as gender affirming care to humans) on the effectiveness of HIV vaccines.
Another was to test breast cancer rates with mice that are given testosterone (again some thing given to transgender humans)
While the study was not to “make the mice transgender” they were set to observe what happens to vaccine effectiveness and cancer rates when mice are given the same hormone protocols as transgender humans
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/04/politics/fact-check-trump-address-congress/index.html
This protest is very stupid
Every president appoint someone
Remember your beloved Biden??
He appointed Tony Fauci and he shut everything down ?? No one protested how come ??
For clarification, the COVID shutdown was in March 2020 during the President Trump’s first term.
It is. Where were these protesters when Biden-appointed Mayorkas opened the border to millions of illegal aliens? Or when our illustrious Governess spends $1B of our tax dollars to provide shelter to the invaders. I’d like to know who organizes, pays and coordinates these TDS sufferers here and elsewhere. They are not ordinary people, and this ain’t grassroots.
Perhaps The Disruption Project and The National Lawyers Guild, among others, will own up to it eventually.
That happened under Trump. Again, facts do matter. And Fauci’s decades of leadership saved countless lives. Another fact.
“Verum esse ipsum factum”
Giovanni Battista Vico (1668–1744)
Yes, they do. Thanks to Mr. York above I could learn the truth about those hormone-laden rodents, unlike what you wrote.
As a resolute supporter of democracy, I salute those protesters who turned out. I just couldn’t disagree more with their every chant, sign, and costume. Polar bears are fine. Elon Musk has been a US citizen since 2002; he doesn’t have to go anywhere; an election is not a coup (though calling it one sounds vaguely insurrectionary). If it’s unelected members of government you oppose, where were you the previous four years? If it’s billionaires you oppose, same question. If it’s former Democrat billionaires, such as Musk, Bezos, et al you oppose—who may still be Democrats, just not crazy—who changed, them or you? Consider your liberal use of Hitler, Nazi, fascist, apartheid, and “Swasticar” before answering.
Take (the most?) popular e-cars off the market; shut down an innovative space exploration company; black out satellites that unite the globe: if that’s progressivism, since when? If saving a nation on the brink of bankruptcy (if we’re lucky) $60,000,000,000—and that’s just in the first month—is stealing… well, I still salute you, but I’ll cross the street first, if it’s all the same.
I agree with everything you said. I’m just dumbfounded that these people don’t want transparency in our government. Musk & his team are literally finding millions upon millions of wasteful money being spent on other countries. There are more important things to be protesting about!!
I wish I was there because I love protesting Nazis. To be fair to Tesla though, Musk didn’t invent it. He just bought it, like he does with things and people, and ran it into to the ground while extracting wealth he never created. He is a rent extractor. Musk is a little boy running around doing the Nazi salute as if it were funny. People claiming it wasn’t a salute need to find a new optometrist pronto. You know what is funny, for someone who is so anti trans, he has more filler and botox than a drag queen or aging Hollywood actress. He fancies himself the Duke of Buckingham, James the I’s favorite, but he is more like a cross between Caligula and Nero. He lies more than the president but I guess he can since Musk bought him. I’d believe the WMD lie before I’d believe anything that comes out of Musk’s mouth. Do you really think the president would let someone take up the spotlight if he wasn’t in hock? He’d throw Musk over quicker than he downs big macs. Having read the 2006 biography of the president, this is out of character for him. That biographer is the primary reason no should have voted from him. He didn’t have to utter the Mexican phrase in 2015 for me. He’s a failed business man. He keeps money by not paying his bills, and luckily his father died in 89, the inheritance covered a lot of his debt. It is a real shame that 1/2 who voted selected him, but then again they sold our country out for a carton of eggs. What is sadder is that as many as 1/3 did not vote at all. This isn’t a left-right paradigm because there are plenty of Republicans and Independents also protesting, suing, email/call their elected officials or even threatening to run them out of town. People are angry across the political spectrum. To paraphrase an analyst from this weekend, “This is a coup. Musk and Putin have bought the president. It is a coup wrapped up in a mobster movie.” So carry on! More importantly vote in the every election!
“Protesting Nazis”: would that be the Tesla dealer or the customers? Or the mechanics? Or the custodial staff, delivery people, vending machine stockers, even the US Postal Service letter carriers in their strangely non-Nazi uniforms? I think you can protest all of them any and every day you like, though they won’t appreciate being called Nazis. (Who does?)
Or is Elon Musk your Nazi… and your Nero, Caligula, and the Duke of Buckingham? All of whom died by murder or suicide, which I hope is not your suggestion. I think that’s carrying protest too far.
Who are the Nazis? Is Musk a Nazi? Do you have proof to that effect? And no, the Musk salute was not a Nazi salute. Completely different motion. I am sorry that I cannot address the balance of your comments but I am just not adept at word salad.
If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck and salutes like a Nazi, then yes Musk is a Nazi. You cannot walk back a Nazi salute any more than you can walk back the N word or middle finger. You all know it when you see it. It’s not a wink or euphemism. Personally, I am more offended by that salute than by the middle finger. It’s beyond the pale. I am just learning about the Musks’ Apartheid background right now so I have catch up on that, but it explains a lot. I also do question if he hates the trans community because maybe he’s closeted but I have no proof to make that assertion outside of his appearance. The Nazi one though is plain as day.
Yup, if the brown shirt fits, ya gotta wear it!
“Musk is a Nazi.” Possibly a trans or gay Nazi (if that’s what you mean by closeted), as judged by his “appearance”. Also he’s some combination of Nero, Caligula, and the Duke of…what was it again…? Buckingham. He even has an “Apartheid background”, yet voted for Barack Obama twice—contributing $100,000 in 2012 (Washington Examiner, Oct 14 2012)—and Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden once each (Wikipedia). I don’t see a contradiction in an Apartheid Nazi voting Democrat in four straight elections—very much on brand—so we agree there. But most Nazis met the same end—execution or suicide—as the Roman emperors and English duke you cited earlier. Do I misunderstand you, or is that desired outcome for Musk the reason you cited them at all? I ask because I once chatted with a Secret Service agent, who told me part of his job was investigating online threats to public figures. You don’t have anything to worry about, however, as he was a charming fellow, and knew that most people were just blowing off steam. They had to be interviewed, of course, but most were harmless… well, just harmless.
Arson at Tesla dealerships in Mass; gunfire at Oregon’s; graffiti and other defacement all over. I hope I can coax you to denounce violent insurrection before someone gets hurt.
Trumpsters storming the Capitol, disrupting official proceedings, attacking Capitol and municipal police officers, vandalizing a building that symbolizes democracy. . .
Tiki-torch Nazis in Charlottesville chanting slogans about replacement theory. A sympathizer drives a car into a crowd, killing a young woman. . .
I hope I can coax you to denounce violent insurrection before someone gets hurt.
Ooops. . .
They never will. It’s part of the leftist agenda/handbook. It’s bound the get worse as their intolerance increases proportionally with their impotence. We’re talking Mother Jones’ fanatics here, which praised a zealous resistance that “sometimes goes beyond non-violent protest—including picking up arms.”
We don’t care. Let’s do what needs to be done to restore order to our Country. They can get on their bicycles, chew on their granola bars and listen to NPR in the interim.
“Good people on both sides” – it should have ended there.
No one should ever deface property or threaten or assault someone for their beliefs. But for you to pretend that this only or even primarily happens on the left is laughable. And so easily disproven. But then you’d have to get out of the echo chamber to hear the truth.
January 6th was an assault on democracy and human beings, including police officers. And yet MAGA literally never acknowledges what happened…despite the fact that we all saw it happen.
The difference is, Joe, I have denounced violence on the right; and I have never, directly or indirectly, called for it. It’s not too much to ask for reciprocity. Unless it is, and I mistake the honor and decency of the left. From Congress to Watertown, stop calling for violence, and stop excusing it.
The difference is, Josh, that you support folks who incite insurrection, like the Donald himself. I don’t.
Hey Josh:
CNN: “ NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have returned from space after their weeklong mission stretched to more than nine months.
• They splashed down off the coast of Florida aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule Tuesday around 5:57 p.m. ET.
To those Musk haters (who probably were wishing for this mission’s failure) put your hands together and say: Thank you, Mr. Musk!
Now, why wasn’t Musk allowed to do this during the prior administration?
And now await for the rancorous commentary from the usual crowd, who probably could not fly a kite.
Sure, sure. How about this: tonight is Shabbat. Why don’t you walk into a nice full synagogue and stand there for five minutes doing Musk’s “not at all fascist” “Roman salute.” Let us know how that goes.
You may be correct about the *denotation* of the gesture Musk made being a Roman salute. But any person who has the slightest bit of knowledge of the 20th century knows the *connotation* of that gesture is, “This person is a nazi.”
So are these individuals Nazis?
https://d.newsweek.com/en/full/2571222/kamala-harris.webp?w=790&f=d246e042286efb83e7ee4fa47062a409
https://d.newsweek.com/en/full/2571225/barack-obama.webp?w=790&f=5047d12c2e5f7199f726f644e61e0286
https://d.newsweek.com/en/full/2571229/elizabeth-warren.webp?w=790&f=65dc433bc4aa8d26f6a17956fb7e5c93
Sorry I didn’t see this comment before. If Musk is a Nazi for his gesture, so evidently is Bill Nye, The (Self-Styled) Science Guy, who made the same gesture. But I’m with the Anti-Defamation League, which wrote on X almost two months ago:
“It seems that
@elonmusk
made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge.
“In this moment, all sides should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a breath. This is a new beginning. Let’s hope for healing and work toward unity in the months and years ahead.”
A bit of grace: what a beautiful expression. What a wonderful idea.
I had to check that one out. Voila! You were right.
https://nilsenreport.ca/bill-nyes-gesture-at-stand-up-for-science-rally-sparks-controversy-and-online-firestorm/
Come on. Yes, everyone at some point has raised their right arm. Even Bill Nye, who is holding the microphone in his left hand and raises his right arm. But Musk slammed his fist to his chest and then gave a stiff arm salute. Then he did it again. There’s a difference. Now, I’d agree that we throw around the word “Nazi” too frequently and that an awkward guy like Musk probably merits a little “grace” in this instance. But he’s also referred to federal workers as “parasites,” which is a little too close to the “vermin” lingo used by those bad guys we fought a war against. And his recent move to make it harder for the elderly and disabled on Social Security to make changes to their benefits — don’t use the phone and get off your backsides to get to an office — seems a little too reminiscent of those guys in the well-tailored black suits and boots who didn’t much care for the enfeebled. https://youtu.be/-VfYjPzj1Xw?si=LocKzuE42xzacLR4
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If it walks like a duck and talks (Donald?) like a duck, chances are it is a duck, not a Nazi. And I have never, never seen a Mittelsäger give a Nazi salute. Have you?
Go do some research, watch Third Reich documentaries and compare the salute with what you allege. And no, it has no Roman Empire origins, but rather from Il Duce, as the the Germans copied the salute from Italian Fascists, Ms. Colafella.
The details are unimportant in this case. What is important is that many folks are recognizing a constellation of behavior that speaks of fascism.
“Folks are recognizing a constellation of behavior that speaks of fascism”! Bad pivot. First, you do not seem to appreciate that if the new regime is fascist, it’s the first one in history that wants to shrink government. Second, every actual constellation that has ever been discerned is an arbitrary and fanciful construct, and this patterning of reduction of government into some kind of a fascist figure is undermined by use of the term constellation.
I stand by what I said. What is noticeable is that it is being done with force and without regard for consequences. It is being done without regard for Constitutional checks and balances also.
Right. Like Biden’s forgiveness of student loans?
No. The difference is thought and deliberation.
But why address a nagging problem though if you can continue to complain about it? Why think when you can just wreck things? That’s more fun.
“ The difference is thought and deliberation”? Oh, please. Like the deliberate planning to open our borders to every illegal alien in the world? Or funneling tax money to any and all DEI initiatives? Or hiding Biden’s pitiful condition throughout his tenure? Or trying to make gender transitioning compulsory? You know I could go on.
We are addressing the “nagging problems” right now. We are not complaining anymore, but taking action instead. You can call it wrecking, we call it a badly needed fixing and could not care less whether it is well received or not by the wreckers. Having fun doing so is just a bonus.
Having fun causing misery and suffering for other people is called sadism, I believe.
It’s hard to believe that Commissar Musk and his young wrecking crew are exercising any thought, analysis and discretion. Yeah, fire air traffic controllers when there is a shortage! Great idea!
And look what the financial market reactions to T-rump’s tariffs have been. Wonderful, no? We’re in for some real fun.
Sure. Pesky details are unimportant when inconvenient to you. Of course.
Behaviors such as these? Did the left complain about these arms being raised? Of course not. That’s why the current outrage about the Musk salute is hypocritical. Typical liberal tactic, but it isn’t working now, just like the silly signs displayed by the Democrats during Mr. President Trump’s speech to Congress. Keep at it, please.
https://d.newsweek.com/en/full/2571222/kamala-harris.webp?w=790&f=d246e042286efb83e7ee4fa47062a409
https://d.newsweek.com/en/full/2571225/barack-obama.webp?w=790&f=5047d12c2e5f7199f726f644e61e0286
https://d.newsweek.com/en/full/2571229/elizabeth-warren.webp?w=790&f=65dc433bc4aa8d26f6a17956fb7e5c93
Pesky details ARE unimportant when they are false or misleading; when they are presented in bad faith;. and when they are irrelevant to the issue at hand, or a combination of these. There has been quite a lot of that going around this board of late.
Indeed. It takes one to know one.
I haven’t heard that since playground days. Is that the best you can do?
Was that last week?
No sir. Wish it were.
For you? Oh, yeah.
These protests against Musk via his company are making the MAGA voices here insane for an excellent reason. They are working! Tesla stock prices are in freefall, not unlike the Trump stock market. Can’t handle all the winning, but it’s fun watching the usual suspects here flail about and try desperately to figure out how to convince people this is all Biden’s fault!
We are neither desperate nor insane. It is pitiful to see that, invariably, your opposing views have to include ad hominem attacks. I guess that’s all we can expect from this source, as we cannot see any evidence of rational discourse.
Thanks for all the comments. Some of the interactions are getting to personal and aggressive. Please stick to your point, and not focus on other commenters.
I’m no fan of Musk but protesting at the Tesla dealership only hurts the working staff at that location. Those workers are honest people who depend on a paycheck just like you and me. Take the protest to an appropriate public place.
It does. Good point. I hope the vandals get caught, prosecuted and jailed. We didn’t do these things when we opposed Bud Light commercials, or Gillette’s, for that matter. We just stopped buying said products. Not that these vandals were going to buy, much less afford, a Tesla.