The New York Times has decided to try to rehabilitate the image of Elizabeth "Call me Liz now; I'm a totally different person, really" Holmes and, right on cue, the political right his having a hissy fit.
Friends, this is precisely the wrong reaction. I love every last tiny bit of the spectacle that is Elizabeth "Call me Liz now; I'm a totally different person, really" Holmes. Theranos was a COVID-level fraud of COVID-level stupidity. Theranos "succeeded" (at least from a funding standpoint) for one simple reason: Elizabeth "Call me Liz now; I'm a totally different person, really" Holmes. She did this by branding herself as Steve Jobs, but a woman, back when the wokists could define what a woman is. Maybe it's just that there were a lot of biologists around and they were feeling a bit cocky. She dressed like Steve Jobs, and by many accounts was just as awful to her employees as Steve Jobs.
The problem was that Elizabeth "Call me Liz now; I'm a totally different person, really" Holmes wasn't actually Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs was genuinely brilliant. As a friend of mine who worked for Apple in the early days noted, "we put up with his bullshit because he was the one guy in the Valley that actually was as smart as he thought he was." Elizabeth "Call me Liz now; I'm a totally different person, really" Holmes wasn't and still isn't brilliant. She was a bullshit artist with a bullshit product, but wokism in general and the Corporate Press in particular wanted the success of their new penis-less Steve Jobs so badly that they blindfolded themselves thoroughly and marched proudly through an entire field full of red flags believing that their heroic negligence would carry Theranos across the finish line to success.
No such luck.
This was the best possible outcome. Mountains of "woke capital" money were wasted and lost. Some of the worst people on the planet got their financial asses handed to them because of this woman. Go look at the list of Theranos's major investors. It's a compendium of human garbage. I don't want Elizabeth "Call me Liz now; I'm a totally different person, really" Holmes to go away into obscurity. I want her to burn up piles of their money again, and again, and again. I want a whole army of Elizabeth "Call me Liz now; I'm a totally different person, really" Holmeses to "help" make Woke Capitalism a "success," for industrial-sized flaming dumpster fire values of "success."
Of course the political right is upset about NYT's slobbering love letter to her. After all, the only group better and tripping over their own feet and scoring own goals than the woke capitalists is the conservatives. They'd rather be angry than win. Me, I say let a million Elizabeth "Call me Liz now; I'm a totally different person, really" Holmes flowers bloom, and may their poisonous fruits destroy everything around them.
Don’t worry!
His “very smart people” are totally right about things this time when it comes to trade.
There is zero - I repeat, zero - moral difference between the people who pushed for "experimenting" with lockdowns because "we have to do something!" and the people who push for "experimenting" with trade wars because "we have to do something!"
Musk is out.
Musk put himself in a corner where he can't rip into Trump and he has to play nice probably at least through the midterms, but just look at the guy's face and watch him refuse to give a straight answer here. He put a lot on the line with endorsing Trump and starting DOGE, and Trump absolutely stabbed him in the back. Trump's supporters will blame congress, but Trump has very openly and loudly endorsed all of the DOGE-defying moves that congress has made, and has viciously attacked the one congressman (Thomas Massie) who has stood against it.
The reason is simple: Trump cares about trophies. Cutting the budget is not a trophy. DOGE trying to take a chainsaw to government was a trophy, but as soon as DOGE became more of Musk's than Trump's trophy, Trump stopped caring about it because congress offered him a Big, Beautiful Bill as a trophy instead. Just like the FBI offered the opportunity to build a Big, Beautiful new headquarters building for them (Trump loves buildings!). ...
As comedy slowly slides into unfunny wokeness hell, the last comedian standing (assuming he doesn't drop dead first, I mean just look at the guy; he's a trainwreck) will be Doug Stanhope. He closed out his recent special "The Dying of the Last Breed" with this bit on how important it is that we be able to make fun of anything. Because making fun.
Language warning, duh.
Preliminary Q2 numbers for Argentina are in. This is still subject to adjustment but so far their preliminaries have been pretty accurate under the Milei administration.
Slashing spending works. Trump and Bessent are very optimistically projecting economic growth of 3% doing the opposite of what Milei is doing to deliver 7.6% - and climbing!
