I nearly spit my coffee on my laptop when I read Musk was suing OpenAI for abandoning its original mission of using artificial intelligence to benefit humanity and now churning out ChatGPT in the name of profit. At the same time, he jumped all over MacKenzie Bezos for "virtue signaling" in that she has given so much of her divorce settlement to charity. He thinks independent rich women will destroy Western civilization as we know it. What's with this guy?
Kara Swisher is supposed to elucidate us on the inner workings of Elon's addled mind and those of other Silicon Valley tech barons in her new Burn Book. She apparently admired most of these guys at one time but has since become repulsed by them in their search for virtual Valhalla. Seems like every week you learn about some new drug Musk has dipped into on Joe Rogan or some other chat show. There's a story that he got all the Tesla board members high before getting them to agree on a $55 billion pay package, which is now being challenged in a Delaware court. Kara says the only drug Musk is addicted to is sycophancy.
I guess that's why he didn't get along too well with Dotardly Don in Mar-a-Lago. Trump wasn't able to fully revel in his Super Tuesday victories when he found out he was deep in debt and needed someone to bail him out. He called on Elon. The two apparently sat across from each other and discussed the matter but they were unable to find the devotion they crave in each other. The next day Musk categorically stated he wasn't donating any money to anyone. I don't think this particularly bothered Biden, who has amassed an enormous war chest after sweeping the Democratic primaries, save the tiny territorial island of American Samoa.
That caucus went to venture capitalist Jason Palmer, who bills himself as a "conscious capitalist." He pulled off this tiny fete by managing to sway 51 of the 91 assembled caucus-goers to vote for him and thereby split the 6 delegates with Joe. In case you're counting, that's more delegates than Dean Phillips was able to amass in his now suspended run. Seems like Palmer knew better than Phillips where to put his money. It only cost Palmer half a million to score a primary win, and look at all the attention he has garnered. Jimmy McGill, aka Saul Goodman, would be proud.
"Uncommitted" remains Joe's biggest nemesis. A movement that has spread from Michigan to other states with disgruntled voters scoring their biggest victory in Minnesota, where they garnered almost 20% of the vote. Far more than native son Dean Phillips, who failed to score a delegate even in his home state. You would think Minnesota would at least give him one for trying.
No one is quite sure what this "uncommitted" vote represents. In Michigan it was supposed to be Arab-Americans upset with the way Biden has handled the Israel-Hamas war, but it seems more like a general sentiment that is catching hold in the Republican primaries as well. There's an estimated 30% of Republicans who can't bring themselves to vote for Trump. Most of them had coalesced around Nikki Haley but now that she has dropped out, one expects the number of "uncommitted" or "no preference" votes to rise in the GOP primaries.
It's too bad Elon wasn't born in the US. He might have run for President himself having failed to find a surrogate to his liking. Initially he was backing DeSantis, or at least let him announce his candidacy on Twitter when it was still Twitter. Musk seems to be adverse to strong women as he refused to switch his endorsement to Nikki when Governor Ron dropped out after Iowa. The same with all the tech bros who put their money behind other male Republican candidates.
Only Jack Dorsey still has a horse in the race in RFK Jr, who has been quietly amassing a sizeable war chest of his own since going independent. It comes mostly from disgruntled Republicans too. Initially they were hoping that the black sheep of the Kennedy clan would hobble Biden in the primaries but now it appears he is pulling more votes away from Trump, which has led to some consternation in Magaland. After all, Bobby Jr. and Dotardly Don appeal to the same conspiracy-minded kooks.
It doesn't seem the tech bros are ready to put their money behind Trump so all could be they flock to RFK Jr. unless No Labels puts up someone that attracts their attention.
It's an insular world in Silicon Valley. It has become the "Galt's Gulch" of the 21st century with most of these billionaires pulling their money out of the American economy and hoping to form a new cryptocurrency of their own. If you don't know what Galt's Gulch is read Atlas Shrugged, or rather a synopsis of it, as the book is over 1000 pages and riddled with John Galt's speeches. It is enough to test anyone's patience. I read it when I was in Peace Corps out of curiosity, only to be thoroughly disappointed with Ayn Rand's Objectivism.
The world is not going to be saved by these billionaires. Yet, Republican leaders still seem to think it will. I suppose that is why they willingly give themselves up as proxies to the filthy rich by cutting their taxes whenever they take control of Congress, and providing tax-free havens in conservative states like Texas and Florida.
Every once in a while a "conscious capitalist" comes along promising to give his money back to the community he grew up in, but it usually turns out to be a scam as Detroit found out when John Hantz bought up a lot of foreclosed land in the early 2010s and started a "tree farm," which he dubbed "Hantz Woodlands." Turns out he was just taking advantage of the cheap real estate which he hoped to turn over at a later date. In the meantime, kids had someplace inviting to play in. So, beware of billionaires with good intentions.
I'm half curious to read Kara Swisher's book. I remember years ago reading Douglas Coupland's Microserfs about the early days of Silicon Valley. I have to think it served as the inspiration for Mike Judge's hilarious comedy on life in this famous valley with a group of nerds trying to solve the IT storage problems, and how they unlocked the secret of compression.
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