Nikola Tesla was a 19th-century Croatian scientist who was instrumental in the development of alternating current, the form of electricity that now powers your house. He moved to America, became a citizen and started working for Thomas Edison. Edison advocated rival direct current and fought Tesla in the so-called current wars. Edison won that battle, even though he eventually lost the war. Edison tried to discredit Tesla, but Tesla’s ideas eventually succeeded.

With this background, I find it oxymoronic that the car manufacturer calls itself Tesla. Since Tesla vehicles are all powered using direct current. I guess that the name Edison was already too heavily trademarked to use. Once considered an environmental darling, the Tesla brand is fast becoming a pariah. Its European sales have fallen by 50% in the last year. In the US its products are routinely targeted for vandalism. The cause of this sea change is its owner, Elon Musk.

Musk, an immigrant who is ineligible to be president, has insinuated himself into American politics by financing Trump’s reelection campaign and now acts as if he is really in charge. His subsequent dodgy antics have wreaked havoc, laid off thousands of federal workers and is poised to kill Medicaid. Shadowing these real-world repercussions is Musk’s sometimes comic, sometimes tragic theater that includes pogoing up-and-down and Nazi saluting to his minions on stage.

MAGA controls all three branches of government, but that control is all so fragile. This week, by one vote the House barely passed a budget framework that would decimate the social safety net if it were ever enacted, all to finance tax cuts for the rich. People are fighting back now, in the courts and on the streets. This time, we’re quiet—from superstition, maybe, or from knowing how hope can plant a land mine in your heart. Today, the resistance has launched a 24-hour economic boycott. One day where everyone is asked not to spend any money. To send a message. In the 80s a boycott of South Africa was launched. A boycott that in ten years brought the end of apartheid. Remembering that boycott, can a new boycott be parried to bring down South Africa’s oligarch?