Bad decisions by billionaires // What's Good: Jan. 27, 2023
Taylor Swift, eggs, and Jeopardy.
Hello, good morning, happy Friday. This week I took a short trip to D.C. to bury my dad at Arlington National Cemetery. The service was lovely. Now it is absolutely snowing buckets outside my window. A proper blizzard. I can barely see the elementary school a block away! I love Chicago.
Representation matters
Not the biggest news of the week, but definitely heartwarming:
Taylor Swift's much-anticipated music video for "Lavender Haze" is now out, after premiering Friday at (when else?) midnight.
Laith Ashley, a trans model and activist, stars in the video as Swift's love interest. In a tweet announcing the video's premiere, Swift said she "absolutely adored working with" Ashley.
Stuff like this matters, really!
Death note
Sorry, this is the part where everything is terrible, here we go:
IN THE FINAL moments of Brandon Bernard’s life, before he was executed by lethal injection at a federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, on Dec. 10, 2020, President Donald Trump picked up the phone to entertain a final plea for mercy on Bernard’s behalf. The call was not with Bernard’s family or his attorneys. Nor was it with representatives from the Justice Department’s Pardon Attorney office, who had recommended just days earlier that Trump spare Bernard’s life.
Rather, the call was with Jamal Fincher Jones, better known as Polow da Don, a music producer responsible for hits like Ludacris’ “Pimpin’ All Over the World” and Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda.” Jones didn’t know Bernard, but he had publicly endorsed Trump for reelection — and that, Bernard’s advocates had correctly suspected, gave him the best chance of getting the president’s ear.
Trump took the call, but unfortunately for Bernard, it was too late. The president had days earlier spoken with the family of the victims in Bernard’s case — a young couple who’d been kidnapped and killed — and promised them the execution would go forward. “I’m sorry,” he told Jones. “I can’t do it.”
Inside the house
Yeah, I mean, this checks out:
On Thursday, the Supreme Court released a report on its investigation into the historic leak of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overruled Roe v. Wade. The draft leaked to Politico in May 2022, nearly two months before the court issued its final opinion in Dobbs. Now, more than eight months later, the report reveals that the court has still failed to identify the leaker. It does state that Michael Chertoff—a former federal judge and secretary of homeland security for George W. Bush—reviewed the court’s probe and found that it had exhausted all “useful investigative measures.”
Of course they don’t want to know. It was them! “We investigated ourselves and found nothing wrong,” sure of course you did.
All the jerks in a big circle
This one is fascinating but it may also make you want to tear your hair out:
Billionaires and multimillionaires alike gathered in Davos, Switzerland, this week for their annual confab in the land of their most cherished bank accounts. Back in full swing for the first time since the pandemic began, the World Economic Forum is where the global 1 percent go to mingle, make deals, and sit on panels to deliver conventional wisdom to one another. News outlets cover the major speeches and social dynamics, but because the event is exclusive and expensive—the cost of attendance can run upward of $250,000—for the rest of us, it’s hard to get a sense of what it’s like to be there.
Egging us on
Sorry, sorry, I couldn’t help it:
Nowhere is the ire over inflation more concentrated than in the price of a carton of eggs. According to the Bureau of Labor, a dozen eggs cost an average $4.25 last December compared to $1.78 a year ago. In some parts of the country, the average price is $9.73.
Most of the explanations thus far as to why eggs have increased in price assume the invisible hand of the market or blame “acts of god” like last year’s avian flu outbreak that took out 43 million birds. But in a letter to FTC chair Lina Khan, the advocacy group Farm Action points out that the math behind those explanations doesn’t add up. Rather, Farm Action’s legal counsel Basel Musharbash alleges “a collusive scheme among industry leaders to turn inflationary conditions and an avian flu outbreak into an opportunity to extract egregious profits reaching as high as 40 percent.”
Personally I think there should be consumer protections against this sort of thing, but the people who worship markets tell me that would be inefficient. Who can say what is good and right, maybe it’s morally good that eggs cost $9. Probably not, though. The Jewel-Osco grocery store near me - not a particularly nice one - is selling eggs for $7.49. Seems less than ideal.
For the sake of it
This is just fucking sad:
The Washington Post has closed its games reporting section Launcher, laying off five staffers as part of newsroom cuts announced by the company this week.
Why it matters: Mainstream news outlets’ commitment to reporting about video games has long been paltry, making the Post’s efforts with Launcher, which mixed game reviews with investigative reporting and daily news coverage, a notable sign of support.
…
No explanation has been given internally for why Launcher specifically was cut, they said: “Leadership communicated to Launcher that Launcher was succeeding in its mission, and this was solely a factor of: we were required to have layoffs.”
Launcher was tremendous content. I featured their work quite often in the newsletter, and deservedly so. I hope they all find new roles quickly, and I’m really going to miss their work as part of the gaming ecosystem. And, you know, maybe billionaires really aren’t that good at business. Just a thought.
Implosion
One morning in October 2017, Allison Guerriero noticed something unusual on the floor of her boyfriend's Park Slope, Brooklyn, apartment: a bag full of cash. There it was, lying next to his shoes, near the futon, the kind of bag that liquor stores give out. Inside were bundles of bills, big denominations bound up with rubber bands. It didn't seem like something he should be carrying around. After all, her boyfriend, Charles F. McGonigal, held one of the most senior and sensitive positions in the FBI.
"Where the fuck is this from?" she asked.
What is conflict?
This word refers to battles both small and large, usually extensive:
A three-time Jeopardy winner who went viral for criticizing the beloved show said the backlash to his posts misses the real reason he has beef with it.
“I have a master’s degree in film and television studies. I know how a television show works. It’s a business,” Yogesh Raut, a blogger, podcaster, and quizzing expert, told BuzzFeed News. “But … Jeopardy is not good for quizzing.”
Personally I think his criticism is reasonable! But this is wild discourse.
You deserve some good animal content
Have a good weekend.
Addendums
Defeating the Empire of Forms. Swifties Are Obsessed With The Fact That Taylor Keeps Posting Feet Pics For Free.1 There's no whiskey in mini bottles of Fireball, so customers are suing for fraud. St. Cloud Times' newsroom loses lone reporter. United States v. Google. Big Tech Is Really Bad at Firing People. The tap you drink from in your house says a lot about you. Flo Rida jamming out to his music in an $82.6 million lawsuit.
She did it again in the Lavender Haze video (which is very good). The internet is amazed. I don’t really get the whole feet thing, but I’m happy for the people who are excited, I guess.