What’s in today’s issue
🔵 The DNC’s 2024 autopsy
🤑 $1.776 billion for Trump’s friends and allies?
🦈 Shark Tank host wants AI data center
Hi friends!
This is Chris Vazquez, your Friday newsletter writer. This week has seen a celebrity trying to develop an unpopular AI data center in Utah, politicians trying to establish slush funds to pay insurrectionists, and a whole lot more.
Here at LNI, we can’t promise you $1.776 billion. But we can offer you 50% off a membership to this newsletter and two others: Spitfire News and Garbage Day. I just finished reading some recent editions of both, and they do a phenomenal job of explaining big news stories and their impact on all our lives. By connecting dots between attention-grabbing headlines and broader themes, they help me make sense of our world and feel less overwhelmed. If you like this newsletter, you’ll love these, too.
What’s in the DNC autopsy?
After Vice President Kamala Harris lost the 2024 presidential election, the Democratic National Committee put together a report trying to figure out how and why they lost. Then, DNC chair Ken Martin upset a lot of Democrats by saying he wouldn’t release that report. Months later, he released the full report, apologized, and said that he thinks it sucks. The report is unredacted, but includes annotations saying it reflects the views of the author and not the DNC itself. Annotations also flag parts of the report that are inaccurate or have no evidence to back it.
Among the report’s findings: small margins of defeat show that Democrats should just tweak their strategy rather than overhaul it, President Joe Biden’s White House didn’t set Harris up for success, and there was no workable response to Trump’s attack ads against Harris’ stance on trans rights except for changing her stance on trans rights. As far as I can tell, the report makes no mention of the controversy surrounding the White House’s support for Israel amid its genocide in Gaza.
Other data shows that Democrats win when they meaningfully stand up for trans people and that their voters largely oppose economic and military support to Israel. Polling also shows Democrats feeling frustrated by their own party while Democratic leaders have failed to protect healthcare subsidies, remain divided on abolishing ICE, and continue to support aid to Israel.
$1.776 billion for who?
Years after Trump’s tax returns were leaked, Trump sued the IRS, alleging that former employees leaked the returns. Then, he settled the lawsuit. Now, the administration is using money from that settlement to establish a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund”.
What is an “Anti-Weaponization Fund”, you might ask? It’s a huge amount of money that will be used to pay people “who suffered weaponization and lawfare,” according to a Justice Department press release.
And who are these people who have suffered weaponization and lawfare, you might ask? A five-member commission will decide that, Trump’s former lawyer and current attorney general will pick who’s on the commission, and Trump himself can replace any of those commission members.
While a whole lot of people alleging government wrongdoing could technically apply, Democratic lawmakers say the fund is intended to pay off January 6 insurrectionists. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche didn’t rule that out in a Senate hearing about the fund. Legal experts also say the fund lacks transparency requirements.
This brings us to this week’s media literacy tip from our friends at MediaWise! Legal news can be tricky to understand, but news overviews and interviews with/content from legal experts can help.
Protesters work to shut down data center
Shark Tank host Kevin O’Leary wants to build a massive AI data center in rural Utah, where residents are largely protesting the plan. The planned data center will take up 40,000 acres across three different sites and one of those sites could reportedly generate up to 9 gigawatts of power, which is double what the entire state uses up.
County commissioners approved resolutions in support of the project, then stopped talking to the press. It still needs state and federal environmental permits, as well as approval on its master plan. Protesters have already successfully halted part of the data center’s development.
The data center will require a large amount of water, in a state where an extreme drought and large dying lake have already raised climate concerns. Dave’s video on this was sponsored by Ground News, which already has over 100 stories on this topic with information on the political leaning, factuality and funding sources behind each one.
You put so much work into these and I love it.
Each week, after running through the news Dave has covered in the past week, I turn things over to him for some analysis. Dave, take it away!
The circumstances around President Trump’s deal with the IRS are still blowing my mind. And that’s saying something these days. He sued an agency he oversees and somehow “settled” with himself(?) for a $1.8 billion fund. That money will very likely go to people close to him, or who, at the very least, have been loyal to him. It’s not too far-fetched to wonder if some of that money will find its way back to Trump’s pockets.
None of the “settled” lawsuits were serious. There’s his lawsuit against the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election (there was, and continues to be - just look at the r/conservative subreddit!) and another lawsuit about the raid on Mar-a-Lago in 2023 (Trump was keeping classified documents in his home!).
To cover this administration is to recognize that they believe they are above the law and can do anything they want. Reporting on that can be exhausting. We can keep yelling into the void, but do people even care about the blatant corruption? When my wheels stop spinning, and I take a moment after posting to think about it, I always go back to the same thing: we just have to keep reporting. The point is to exhaust everyone until they don’t care. I’m a red-blooded American Eagle Scout with a somewhat naively positive view of this country. So I’m always going to care.
As many of you know, one thing I do to relax is watch Survivor. I won’t spoil for those who haven’t seen it (though, hilariously Jeff Probst spoiled a major moment during the live finale right before they aired it) but the finale produced a satisfying winner. So here’s my broad thoughts without getting too specific.
I think the second-place person would have been just as deserving a winner, but this truly was a Lord of the Rings Oscar win. In other words, this winner was rewarded for their work over several years and appearances on Survivor. The fiftieth season was just the end of their run and the jury seems to have made their decision based on the collective seasons, not just this one. One jury member even said this on the red carpet.
We’re in a world where media moguls are vying over who owns what media company, which could one day have a direct effect on Survivor, a CBS show now under David Ellison’s watch. So, it was nice to see Survivor return to the live finale show with all its campy and awkward moments. I hope the show goes on forever. I also hope Jeff stops adding so many twists and just lets the players play. Are you a Survivor fan? What were your finale thoughts? Let me know at [email protected].
Thanks, Dave!
If you made it to the end of this newsletter, you get two rewards. The first is a pet photo from a loyal reader. This is Bricks!
Bricks is named after Lego bricks.
Your second reward is the reveal for this week’s link scavenger hunt, in which I hide a non-news link somewhere above and wait until we’re down here to tell you where it is. This week, in the blurb about the Shark Tank AI data center, I linked out to Ava from “Hacks” railing against the forced inevitability of AI! I’m finally caught up on the show and have no idea what I’m supposed to do with my time now.
Until next week,
Chris
