Billionaire v Billionaire, Weekend Whats
I feel sorry for billionaires. Each election season, I donate to a handful of Democratic campaigns. From that moment, my phone number is passed around like a hat, criss-crossing the country, and I start getting text messages requesting contributions from candidates and causes from every nook and cranny of America. I spend much of my day hopelessly typing STOP to end the incoming messages. The first three words that are suggested in my iPhone messaging app’s predictive text are I, The, and Stop. I can’t imagine what it’s like for billionaires, who currently play an outsized and outlandish role in funding American elections. For their sakes, I hope there’s a threshold one can reach that gets one’s phone number removed from the donor list. You’re probably thinking that big money from big donors is nothing new in American politics. And you’re right. But the scope has changed dramatically. “In 2000, the country’s wealthiest 100 people donated about a quarter of 1 percent of the total cost of federal elections, according to a Post analysis of data from OpenSecrets. By 2024, they covered about 7.5 percent, even as the cost of such elections soared. In other words, roughly 1 in every 13 dollars spent in last year’s national elections was donated by a handful of the country’s richest people.” We’ve become a plutocracy in which elections basically boil down to our billionaires vs your billionaires. WaPo (Gift Article): How billionaires took over American politics. Last year, New York City billionaire John Catsimatidis donated millions to the Trump campaign. “‘If you’re a billionaire, you want to stay a billionaire,’ said Catsimatidis, whose net worth is estimated at $4.5 billion. It’s not just about his own wealth, he said, adding, ‘I worry about America and the way of life we have.'” Oh, please. STOP.
Sowing the Cede
“In exchange for giving up land and its ability to defend itself, Ukraine would be offered toothless security guarantees by the United States—much like the never-enforced guarantees that it received when it gave up nuclear weapons after gaining independence in the 1990s. The points in the deal appear to be so lopsided in Putin’s favor that they might as well have been dictated by Moscow.” (Maybe they were…) The Atlantic (Gift Article): Trump’s Devastating Plan for Ukraine. “If Trump forces Ukraine and its allies in Western Europe to accept a peace deal that ratifies Russia’s territorial gains—giving Putin even more than he was able to conquer, and requiring no real concessions of him at all—it will amount to a complete rehabilitation of the Russian president in the international sphere. It will be as if Russia had done nothing wrong at all by invading a sovereign state and seizing a large part of its territory—everyone slaps one another on the back and gets on with business.” (Within our lifetimes, America may forgive itself for Trump. The world won’t.)
+ Ukraine banned from Nato, Russia readmitted to the G8 and territory ceded: what’s in Trump’s draft plan.
+ Trump wants a decision from Ukraine and Europe by Thanksgiving. Here’s the latest from The Guardian.
Grok Full Of It
Elon Musk edges out LeBron James when it comes to holistic fitness, takes the crown over Jerry Seinfeld when it comes to being funny, rivals DaVinci and Newton when it comes to intelligence, could beat Mike Tyson in a boxing match, and (not that you asked) would dominate in a p-ss drinking contest. The Verge: Grok’s Elon Musk worship is getting weird. This all seems funny and ridiculous, and it is. But it’s also very serious, as these AI chat programs are the new search; the place where millions of people get their information. And the falsehoods aren’t limited to Elon’s ego. France will investigate Musk’s Grok chatbot after Holocaust denial claims. Suggesting Elon could beat up Mike Tyson? Funny. A widely used AI program run by the world’s richest heil-er indicating “that gas chambers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp were designed for ‘disinfection with Zyklon B against typhus’ rather than for mass murder.” Not funny.
+ And it’s not just Grok. Elon Musk’s Grokipedia cites a neo-Nazi website 42 times. “Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s online encyclopedia, Grokipedia, cites the neo-Nazi website Stormfront as a source 42 times and relies on other websites that experts have shunned as unreliable or hate-filled.”
+ “What’s undeniable is that we’re all living in a world where the whims and desires of wealthy and powerful men create uncertain, unstable conditions for everyone else. Although no other major chatbot has gone ballistic in the same ways as Grok, any one of them could be subtly tweaked to promote a given viewpoint over another, or to quietly manipulate users toward whatever purpose.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): Elon Musk Is Trying to Rewrite History. “Why did Grok say he’s better than Jesus?” (Probably just more antisemitism…)
Weekend Whats
What to Movie: “A college professor finds herself at a personal and professional crossroad when a star student levels an accusation against one of her colleagues, threatening to expose a dark secret from her own past.” Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, and Andrew Garfield star in the riveting drama from Luca Guadagnino, After the Hunt. It’s widely available to rent, and included free for Prime Members.
+ What to Binge: A famous author is pulled into a twisted mind game with her rich, powerful new neighbor — who might be a murderer. (I mean, basically, every character on every Netflix show might be a murderer.) Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys are both excellent in The Beast in Me on Netflix.
+ What to Watch: It took me a few episodes, but now I’m fully into Pluribus on AppleTV, which, at its core, seems to represent a battle between AI and humanity.
Extra, Extra
Mad Dash: “Things like user reviews, ads, loyalty programs, upsells, and partnerships would all go away — AI agents don’t care about those things, after all.” Nilay Patel with an interesting take on how AI could change the way we do everything on the internet, including ordering a sandwich. The DoorDash Problem: How AI browsers are a huge threat to Amazon.
+ Don’t Write Off This Loss: Can a company in any business other than tech and AI join the one trillion dollar club? Yes, one focused on weight loss. Bloomberg (Gift Article): Lilly Joins $1 Trillion Club in Weight-Loss Drug Fueled Climb.
+ When The Lies Get Real: Trump’s DoJ investigating unfounded claims Venezuela helped steal 2020 election. (I guess all those speed boats we’ve blown up were actually transporting ballots.)
+ Extremists in Our Midst: “It’s a sign of something happening nationwide: the mainstreaming of abolitionism, a movement that calls for conservatives to bring the law in line with scripture, and that identifies the punishment of women as necessary for guaranteeing ‘equality for the unborn.'” South Carolina Tried to Pass a Bill Jailing Women for Abortion. No Republican Voted Against It. “The law would have subjected women who have abortions to prison sentences of up to 30 years; criminalized the act of providing information about how to get an abortion, even in another state; allowed family members to sue women who had abortions; and eliminated exceptions for rape and incest.”
+ Crime Syndicator: “A New Jersey fraudster who was pardoned by President Trump in 2021 was sentenced to 37 years in prison this month for running a $44 million Ponzi scheme, one of a growing number of people granted clemency by Mr. Trump only to be charged with new crimes.”
+ Thank God It’s Frida: “An enigmatic self-portrait by Frida Kahlo set a public auction record for the Mexican artist when it sold for $55 million.” Meanwhile, a Superman comic found in attic sold for $9.12m to become most expensive ever sold.
+ Decorum Punch: “Dress ‘with respect.’ Help elderly people lift their bags. Keep your kids under control. Say please and thank you, especially to flight attendants. These are some of the things the Department of Transportation is urging air travelers to do as we head into what’s expected to be a record-setting holiday travel season. The department launched a new ‘civility campaign.'” Yes, the government that has threatened political opponents with hanging and scolded reporters, “Quiet, Piggy!” is now calling for more civility this holiday season.
Feel Good Friday
“Eleven years ago, Paul Lundy was dying a slow, workingman’s death under fluorescent light. … One Sunday morning in 2014, he opened The Seattle Times and found a feature story about Bob Montgomery, age 92, known to friends, customers and locals simply as Mr. Montgomery. The article read like an obituary for a vanishing trade — fixing typewriters — suggesting that when Mr. Montgomery went, seven decades of expertise would vanish into the digital ether.
Lundy read it once, then a second time. He had never given old typewriters much thought, but something stirred in him that he could not quite name.” NYT (Gift Article): How to Fix a Typewriter and Your Life.
+ The Cousin Walk: “The term is shorthand for the moment when certain younger members of the family quietly grab their coats, glance toward the door and—clutch those pearls—get stoned before rejoining the festivities with altered minds and ravenous hunger.” This Year’s Thanksgiving Surprise: Half of the Guests Are Stoned. (If you have to talk politics with anyone, choose someone from that half.)
+ California Solar Canals Could Save 63 Billion Gallons of Water Annually.
+ Heavy metal is healing teens on the Blackfeet Nation. “Teachers show students the power of headbanging at Fire in the Mountains festival.”
+ Two Harvard alums built a robot that can braid hair.
+ In a small town in northern Italy, there’s a barista who has been brewing espressos and serving coffees for more than 80 years. She’s still going strong as she turns 101 this weekend.
