Highlights 9: CEO subservience; orgy of conflicts; regent intervenes at UM to get DEI admin fired; cypto White House; When you vote to deport your best friend; Trump for Dummies

 

Kings Cross, London on December 18, 2017

ANTICIPATORY OBEDIENCE IN AMERICA

‘Since Trump won re-election — this time with the popular vote — many of the most influential people in America seem to have lost any will to stand up to him as he goes about transforming America into the sort of authoritarian oligarchy he admires. Call it the Great Capitulation.

 

‘Following Jan. 6, Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook co-founder, suspended Trump’s account. But last month at Mar-a-Lago, The Wall Street Journal reported, Zuckerberg stood, hand on heart, as “the club played a rendition of the national anthem sung by imprisoned” Jan. 6 defendants. (It’s not clear if Zuckerberg knew what he was listening to.) He’s pledged a million-dollar donation to Trump’s inauguration, as did the OpenAI C.E.O. Sam Altman and Jeff Bezos’ company Amazon, which will also stream the inauguration on its video platform.

 

‘After Time magazine declared Trump “Person of the Year,” the publication’s owner, the Salesforce C.E.O. Marc Benioff, wrote on X, “This marks a time of great promise for our nation.” The owner of The L.A. Times, the billionaire pharmaceutical and biomedical entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong, killed an editorial criticizing Trump’s cabinet picks and urging the Senate not to allow recess appointments.

 

‘Most shocking of all, last week ABC News, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company, made the craven decision to settle a flimsy defamation case brought by Trump.

 

‘As you may remember, a jury last year found Trump civilly liable for sexually abusing the writer E. Jean Carroll. In a memorandum, the judge in the case explained that while a jury didn’t find that Trump had raped Carroll, it was operating under New York criminal law, which defines rape solely as “vaginal penetration by a penis.” It did find that he’d forcibly penetrated her with his fingers.

 

‘“The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape,’” wrote the judge. “Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.”

 

‘The ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos appeared to be using this broader definition when, in March, he said on-air that a jury had found Trump “liable for rape.” Trump, who regularly threatens, and sometimes files, defamation cases against his perceived enemies in the press, sued. And though his case seemed absurdly weak, ABC News decided to settle in exchange for a $15 million donation to Trump’s future presidential library or museum, $1 million in legal fees and a public statement of regret from Stephanopoulos and the network.’

…

 

'Different people have different reasons for falling in line. Some may simply lack the stomach for a fight or feel, not unreasonably, that it’s futile. Our tech overlords, however liberal they once appeared, seem to welcome the new order. Many hated wokeness, resented the demands of newly uppity employees and chafed at attempts by Joe Biden’s administration to regulate crypto and A.I., two industries with the potential to cause deep and lasting social harm. There are C.E.O.s who got where they are by riding the zeitgeist; they can pivot easily from mouthing platitudes about racial equity to slapping on a red MAGA hat.'

 

SOURCE: Michelle Goldberg, New York Times

 

ORGY OF CONFLICTS

 

‘Progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren challenged Donald Trump to set ethics guardrails to control a “massive conflict of interest” posed by Elon Musk’s unofficial role in the president-elect’s transition and incoming administration.

 

‘“Currently, the American public has no way of knowing whether the advice that he is whispering to you in secret is good for the country — or merely good for his own bottom line,” Warren said in a letter to Trump her office released Tuesday.

 

‘She pointed to contracts the US government has with Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla Inc. and said his companies have been subject to “at least 20 recent investigations or reviews” by federal regulatory agencies. She cited in the past week reports of developments in investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission of his company Neuralink Corp. and his purchase of Twitter Inc.

 

‘The Massachusetts Democrat said Musk has “already accrued” financial benefits from his relationship with the Trump transition, citing a CNBC calculation that the market capitalization of Tesla surged $70 billion in five days after Trump’s election. Expectations that Trump will streamline the rollout of self-driving cars and eliminate tax credits for electric vehicles that help the company’s competitors has helped buoy Tesla’s stock.

 

‘Musk didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Warren’s letter. The letter is unlikely to have much impact given that Republicans will control the Senate next year.’

 

...

 

‘Trump transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt dismissed the letter and mocked Warren as “Pocahontas,” a racist reference to Warren’s previous assertion of distant Native American heritage.

 

‘“Pocahontas can play political games and send toothless letters, but the Trump-Vance transition will continue to be held to the highest ethical and legal standards possible,” Leavitt said.’

 

SOURCE: Mike Dorning, Bloomberg

 

 INVESTORS BETTING ON FOSSIL REVIVAL

 

 

SOURCE: Isabella M. Weber, Twitter

 

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN REGENT INTERVENES TO GET DEI ADMINISTRATOR FIRED

 

‘The administrator, Rachel Dawson, was director of the university’s office of academic multicultural initiatives. She was accused of saying in a conversation at a conference in March that the university was “controlled by wealthy Jews,’” was investigated by the University, which recommended a reprimand and retraining.  After intervention by a UM regent, Mark Bernstein, who said he was “disgusted” with the University’s response and said she should be “terminated,” Dawson was fired.

 

‘I see three separate but related questions here:

 

‘(1) The evidentiary question of what the DEI administrator Rachel Dawson actually said.

 

‘(2) The substantive question of what the appropriate sanction should have been, given various assumptions about the content of (1).

 

‘(3) The meta-issue of UM regent Mark Bernstein intervening in the case after the fact, and convincing UM President Santa Ono to fire Dawson, after the the normal disciplinary process had run its course, and concluded that a formal reprimand and mandatory re-education/training were the warranted sanctions.

 

‘As to (1), I think we should be somewhat wary of drawing strong conclusions about what was actually said in this kind of situation, where there’s no recording or transcript, and just two witnesses other than the accused, both of whom are far from disinterested observers. . . .   It’s simply a fact that, all other things being equal, a black woman’s purported statements are going to be interpreted and treated more harshly than a white person’s statements would be under similar circumstances (This is Racism 101). That, of course, doesn’t mean Dawson didn’t make what could be correctly interpreted as anti-Semitic statements; it merely means some extra caution is in order from an evidentiary standpoint.

 

‘As to (2), depending on what conclusions one reaches about the substance of (1), it’s certainly arguable that strong sanctions, up to and including firing, might be warranted. That’s what the university’s investigative process is supposed to decide.

 

‘Which brings us to (3). Here, I don’t think there’s any room for reasonable debate. It was a grotesque abuse of economic, social, and institutional privilege for Mark Bernstein to intervene in this case in the way he did, and it’s a grim commentary on the money mania that has taken over our leading universities that the donor class can corrupt university decision making in this way.’

 

SOURCE, Paul Campos, Lawyers, Guns and Money

KNOWLEDGE CRISIS INTERNATIONAL

 

‘Does it often feel as if the world is getting stupider? Data released on December 10th by the oecd, a club of mostly rich countries, suggest this may not be all in your head. Roughly every ten years the organisation asks adults in dozens of places to sit tests in numeracy and literacy. The questions it poses are not abstract brainteasers, spelling tests or mental arithmetic. They aim to mimic problems people aged 16-65 face in daily life, whether they are working in a factory or an office, or simply trying to make sense of the news.

 

‘The latest tests were carried out in 31 rich countries, and their findings are unnerving. They suggest that a fifth of adults do no better in maths and reading than might be expected of a primary-school child. The direction of travel is even less encouraging. In maths, average scores have risen in a few places over the past ten years, but fallen in almost as many. In literacy, a lot more countries have seen scores decline than advance, despite the fact that adults hold more and higher educational qualifications than ever before.’

 

SOURCE: The Economist

 

DOWNGRADING HIGHER ED FOR 2025

 

‘The [Fitch] report noted that rising pressures, including “uneven” enrollment trends, growing costs and flat state funding, are likely to financially hurt U.S. higher ed institutions—especially those with already tight budgets that heavily depend on tuition dollars. Fitch predicted modest net tuition growth, between 2 percent and 4 percent, for most colleges and universities.

 

‘The report highlighted that while undergraduate enrollment over all has rebounded since the pandemic, freshman enrollment has significantly declined, particularly at four-year colleges and universities. International student enrollment has been flat for the past two years, and the report predicted that it will continue to be “fragile,” given that the group is “highly susceptible to unfavorable shifts in both geopolitical sentiment and policy.”’

 

...

‘“Variable enrollment, rising capital needs and continued operating pressures will continue to chip away at more vulnerable higher education institutions in 2025, even if inflationary pressures ease and interest rates fall,” Wadhwani said in the report. “A widening credit gap continues to prompt an elevated level of consolidation, thus far concentrated among smaller, less selective and more tuition-dependent institutions.”’

 

SOURCE: Sara Weissman, Inside Higher Ed

 

CRYPTOCURRENCY IN THE WHITE HOUSE

 

'In July, Howard Lutnick, the pugnacious boss of broker Cantor Fitzgerald, regaled an audience of crypto devotees in Nashville with tales of his early days exploring the world of digital currencies.

 

'“I met every criminal who’s now in prison,” the 63-year-old joked, referring to his encounters with various youthful crypto executives now serving lengthy jail sentences for fraud. “And then,” he said, “I met the people who owned Tether.”

 

'In contrast to other industry players, Lutnick said, Tether’s co-founder Giancarlo Devasini, an Italian-born former plastic surgeon, was able to prove he was running a legitimate business.

 

'Since then the business has boomed. Profits at Tether, which now administers the most traded cryptocurrency in the world, surged to $5.2bn in the first half of this year.

 

'Despite only having around 100 employees, those earnings put Tether on a similar scale to some of the world’s largest banks — a billion more than Barclays and a billion less than Morgan Stanley — largely derived from interest on its reserves accumulated by taking in dollars in exchange for tokens.

 

'But at the same time, according to enforcement officials, prosecutors and information from multiple current and recent indictments, Tether has cemented its place as the go-to cryptocurrency for international criminals.

 

'The eye-popping constellation of gangsters and sanctions evaders using Tether includes cocaine cartels, North Korean hackers, Iranian and Russian spies, and fentanyl smugglers.

 

'Lutnick, meanwhile, who over three decades built Cantor Fitzgerald into one of the biggest dealers of US government debt, is about to join the US government as one of Donald Trump’s top lieutenants.'

 

SOURCE: Joe Miller, et al., Financial Times

WHEN YOU VOTE TO DEPORT YOUR BEST FRIEND

 

‘“There’s nothing to stop them from rounding me up once he takes office,” Jaime said.

 

[His best friend] ‘Sky had spent much of his adulthood preparing to protect his family in a crisis. He’d learned survival tactics in the Army and had trained in hand-to-hand combat as a Georgia corrections officer. In the last few years, as he sensed the country becoming more polarized and volatile, he’d built up a small collection of firearms and a cache of emergency supplies. He’d been anticipating a moment when the government might rise up against his family, but this particular crisis was one he’d helped to create.

 

‘“I’m going to be straight with you,” he told Jaime. “I voted for Trump. I believe in a lot of what he says.”

 

‘“I figured as much,” Jaime said. “You and just about everyone else around here.”

 

‘“It’s about protecting our rights as a sovereign country,” Sky said. “We need to shut down the infiltration on the border. It’s not about you.”

 

‘“It is about me,” Jaime said. “That’s the thing I don’t understand.”

 

‘More than anger or even fear, what Jaime had experienced most in the last several weeks was a rising sense of disorientation about the people he loved and the place he considered home. ‘He’d lived all but the first year of his life in Rome, a riverside town of 40,000 in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. He was a customer service specialist at the local car dealership, a worship team volunteer at church and the host of family barbecues in his neighborhood cul-de-sac. But lately the trucks at his dealership were festooned with Trump flags, his church group was discussing the “sanctity of borders,” and his neighborhood was lined with political signs, including one that read: “Start shipping off illegals NOW!” More than 70 percent of voters in surrounding Floyd County had chosen Trump and his mass deportations, including many of Jaime’s friends and family members.

 

‘Jaime and Jennifer had considered moving their family to Canada, or Spain, or even Mexico, but Jaime didn’t know anyone there, and his rusty Spanish came out in a thick southern drawl.

 

‘“I’ve never felt like a foreigner until now,” he told Sky.

 

‘“I’m not going to let anything happen that puts your family at risk,” Sky said.

 

‘“It already did,” Jaime said.

 

‘“All those criminals that Trump’s been talking about — the rapists, the gang members — that’s not you,” Sky said. He had heard Trump say that he would deport “the bad guys” first and possibly show leniency to immigrants who had been brought to the country as children.

 

‘“You deserve to be here,” Sky said. “To me, you’re basically American.”

 

‘“But I’m not,” Jaime said.’

 

SOURCE: Eli Saslow and Erin Schaff, New York Times

 

TRUMP FOR DEMMIES

 

‘Hello and welcome to the Donald J. Trump School of Politics and Public Policy! As you may know, we are the only graduate school accredited to teach the Trump Method (TM™) . . .’

 

‘Here we go:

 

‘Step 1: Identify a real problem.

 

‘Step 2: Hyperbolise the problem. It is not enough to spotlight a surge of illegal migration. Claim thousands of murderers and rapists are on the loose, foreign dungeons and insane asylums are spewing their contents across the border, dogs and cats are broiling together. Claim millions more migrants have crossed than the government has counted. How can anyone prove you wrong?

 

‘Step 3: Promise extreme measures. But do not be specific! For example, you might threaten the “largest deportation program of criminals in the history of America”, but do not say what you mean by “criminals”. Say you will deploy the military but do not say how.

 

‘Step 4: Count on Steps 2 and 3 to derange your opponents, including the left-leaning press. If you are for something, they will be against it—and they will be against it to the same degree you are for it. This is why your oratory must be extreme. Always bear in mind the key insight of Mr Trump’s mentor, the red-baiting lawyer Roy Cohn: “I bring out the worst in my enemies, and that’s how I get them to defeat themselves.” Mr Trump’s opponents forgot or ignored that the previous “largest deportation program of criminals” was carried out by President Barack Obama . . .’

...

‘This nursery-school dialectic accounts for Mr Trump’s greatest triumph with the Method: President Biden’s shocking neglect of illegal immigration until, politically, it was too late. Images of chaos at the border from his first two years in office let Mr Trump do what he couldn’t in 2020—run his 2016 campaign again. Sure, as the press did with Mr Trump, it will trumpet your strongest statements and publish “fact”-checks insisting migrants do not cause crime or lower wages. This will help you. If they are trying to explain the problem away, you are winning, because you got Step 1 right—the problem is real—and Americans know it.

 

‘Step 5: Scatter breadcrumbs. Hint that you favour more legal immigration; that as you crack down, you will “have the heart”, as Mr Trump put it. The press will downplay this talk, since it complicates the storyline, but centrists will be reassured, and such signals will preserve an asset Mr Trump prized: wriggle room.

 

‘Step 6: This is the fun part. Shortly after you win, claim you have solved much of the problem. Step 2 makes this easy, because the problem was never as bad as you said.”

...

 

‘Step 7: Set common-sense priorities. As Mr Obama did, focus first on deporting migrants who commit crimes, then on those who arrived most recently. Avoid dividing families or deporting the staff of farmers or Silicon-Valley plutocrats.

 

‘Step 8: Cherish your allies, and [co-opt] your opponents. . . .’

 

‘Step 9: Control your zealots. This is a hazard created by Steps 2 and 3, and Mr Trump struggled with it, along with his own instinct to divide Americans. The most scandalous treatment of migrants resulted from aides taking him literally. Even poor J.D. Vance, with his yen for building intellectual castles atop Mr Trump’s ever-shifting politics, had to revise his claims about immigration being responsible for everything that was wrong with America . . .’

 

‘Step 10: Pursue bipartisan immigration reform [in 2026].’

 

SOURCE: Lexington, The Economist