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The idiom Take the money and run has referred to everything from being satisfied with what one has achieved in some endeavor or negotiation, to grabbing a quick gain, to the more literal definition described in the Steve Miller Band song about two young lovers named Billy Joe and Bobbie Sue: Robbing someone and taking off with the loot. (They got the money, hey, you know they got away. They headed down south and they’re still running today, singing, go on, take the money and run. Hoo-hoo-hoo.) These days, a similarly titled story about Billy Joe and Bobby Sue could refer to the names on a political ticket, because there’s only one two-step process to seek public office in America: Take the money. And run.
It wasn’t always this way. As Danny Hakim explains in the NYT(Gift Article), “For a brief moment in American history, the rich didn’t control politics. Back in 1974, in the wake of the Watergate scandal, Congress passed new campaign finance restrictions that would have largely eliminated the ability of wealthy people to buy elections.” As we know, those restrictions were obliterated by the Citizens United case. But before that, there was another case that poked holes in the law. “A Supreme Court decision that most Americans probably never heard of. Fifty years ago, in a case called Buckley v. Valeo, the court upheld many aspects of the post-Watergate campaign finance law, clearing the way for public financing of presidential elections and empowering the new Federal Election Commission. But it eviscerated other parts of the law, leaving the rich with their own set of rules. The court ruled that wealthy Americans could spend unlimited amounts of money to independently support candidates and causes they favored.” A Look Inside the Case That Enshrined Political Power for Billionaires. “Flash forward to the 2024 presidential campaign. Six of the nation’s wealthiest billionaires spent more than $100 million apiece to help get another billionaire, Donald J. Trump, elected president.” (Giving life to another famous adage: Money talks, bullshit walks.)
Whether you’re hoping for a red wave or a blue wave, the truth is, a green wave is what you’re likely to get. Political strategy has been reduced to hoping your billionaires spend more than their billionaires. While we’re all focusing on Trump’s effort to build his ballroom, the real story is about the people who have already built several of their own, where, if you listen closely, you can hear them singing, Go on, take the money and run. Hoo-hoo-hoo...
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Press Forward
“At 6:05 a.m. on Jan. 14, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation converged at the door of Hannah Natanson, a reporter at The Washington Post. They had a search warrant and entered her home, seizing her iPhone and other devices ... The event put Ms. Natanson’s name among the targets of the Trump administration’s aggressive campaign against news organizations. There was no precedent for the Justice Department’s searching a reporter’s home in connection with a national security leak investigation, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. But on Monday, Ms. Natanson was recognized for something else: a Pulitzer Prize.” First, the F.B.I. Searched Her Home. Then, She Won a Pulitzer.
+ We need journalists to remain bold in their quest to unearth the truth, because the Trump administration is only becoming bolder in the way they’re using the tools of government to squelch it. “Nearly three weeks after The Atlantic reported that some government officials were alarmed by FBI Director Kash Patel’s behavior, including conspicuous inebriation and unexplained absences, MS NOW reported this morning that the bureau has ‘launched a criminal leak investigation’ that focuses on the Atlantic journalist who wrote the story, Sarah Fitzpatrick.” The FBI Is Reportedly Investigating a Leak to an Atlantic Writer.
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Renewed Hope
“At a time when oil and gas supply is faltering, the cost of wind and solar energy keeps declining. And, when paired with battery systems for storage, renewables can often provide steady electricity more cheaply than fossil fuels, even when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow.” NYT (Gift Article): The Global Oil Crisis Seems to Be Helping One Industry: Renewable Energy.
+ Trump says a deal is near and Trump also threatens more bombing. “The mixed messages came a day after Mr. Trump abruptly paused a U.S. military operation to escort commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, citing what he said was ‘great progress’ in talks. In public, there has been little sign that the weeks of diplomacy aimed at reaching a deal to reopen the vital waterway and end the war were bearing fruit.” Meanwhile, Israel has struck Beirut again and Netanyahu is talking about getting the nuclear material out of Iran. At this point, it sure seems like Trump wants this fight to end and Bibi wants it to continue. Here’s the latest from NYT and The Guardian.
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Stock Answer
From the WSJ (Gift Article): I Asked ChatGPT to Manage a Stock Portfolio. Here’s How It Did. “Andrew Lo, a professor of finance at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has been studying AI’s impact on investing ... recommends treating your AI investing companion similar to how he treated an exceptional teaching assistant. The TA was whipsmart, but there was one issue. He tended to smoke too much marijuana. As a result, Lo took everything he said with a grain of salt. That’s what you should do with AI, he says.” (I’m definitely on the right track, because I get high with AI all the time.)
+ AI outperforms doctors in Harvard trial of emergency triage diagnoses. (So don’t trust AI with your money, but go ahead and trust it with your life.)
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Extra, Extra
Still Top Banana in Indiana: “The threats weren’t just political. Leading up to the vote, state senators faced bomb scares. Police drew guns on one state senator in his home based on a false report. Days later, an officer showed up at Deery’s door after receiving a similar bogus report ... The primaries would test how much dissent Republican voters would tolerate. A victory by Trump’s side would send one of the strongest messages yet that even Republicans in the lower rungs of politics could face career-ending blows if they disobey a president who long ago remade their party.” WaPo (Gift Article): After defying Trump, a Republican lawmaker hangs on by a thread. And he’s doing better than his colleagues who defied the president’s Indiana redistricting efforts. The Indiana results show Trump’s continued hold on his party. The big question is how that will impact the general election.
+ Pro Shingles: “The withdrawal of the studies is the latest step by the administration to try to limit access to vaccines. It has sharply cut research funding for vaccine development, released unvetted information casting doubt on vaccines, and blocked other information supporting their safety, most recently a paper on Covid vaccine effectiveness by career scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” NYT (Gift Article): F.D.A. Blocked Publication of Research Finding Covid and Shingles Vaccines Were Safe. (This is exactly why, in yesterday’s lead item, I explained that, while a conversation about antidepressants is worthwhile, having one with this administration is worse than useless: Psychotropic Thunder.)
+Reality Deficiency: “Many of them are doing so out of a well-meaning but ill-informed abundance of caution. In the hopes of safeguarding their newborns from what they see as unnecessary medical intervention, they have shunned fundamental and scientifically sound pharmaceutical intervention. The trend is also fueled by a contradictory pairing: families’ fierce desire to protect their babies and a cascade of false information infused into their social media algorithms.” ProPublica: Babies Are Bleeding to Death as Parents Reject a Vitamin Shot Given at Birth.
+ Ted Talks: “I’m trying to set the all-time record for achievement by one person in one lifetime. And that puts you in pretty big company: Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Gandhi, Christ, Mohammed, Buddha, Washington, Roosevelt, Churchill.” He didn’t quite hit that level, but he did a lot. NYT (Gift Article): Ted Turner, Creator of CNN and the 24-Hour News Cycle, Dies at 87.
+ Room Where It Happened: “The money would go toward security improvements as part of an