News Dump: Parlez Vous Kanye?
Welcome to my Substack! This newsletter is about politics, culture, and whatever else might be on my mind on any given day. This includes these periodic roundups of the things I am reading and watching.
If you want to read more please subscribe! For the time being, it’s completely free.
Today’s big story is the rapid-fire resignation of British prime minister Liz Truss. The Economist has a great, quick recap of the factors that led to her departure and what might come next. In just 45 days, Truss managed to shake the UK’s economy with what the magazine called a “blow-out budget” filled with unfunded tax cuts and energy price guarantees. Despite having the shortest tenure in history, with the long reign and recent death of Queen Elizabeth II, Truss managed to become the first prime minister since Winston Churchill to serve two monarchs. She did not, however, manage to outlast this head of lettuce.
On Monday, the conservative social media site Parler announced a proposed acquisition by “Ye (formerly known as Kanye West).” There was an avalanche of media coverage that largely ignored the fact the site is struggling and that it’s run by the husband of Candace Owens, a far right pundit and Kanye hanger on. In the days since, there have problems at Parler including reports of questionable traffic numbers and a data leak caused by forgetting to BCC. Parler is one of a few conservative digital upstarts that have been filled with far right views and anti-Semitism. In recent weeks, Kanye’s social media posts and interviews have also been filled with far right views and anti-Semitism. The controversy surrounding West hasn’t stopped Elon Musk, who is the world’s richest man and the potential owner of Twitter, from posting (and then quickly deleting) tweets embracing the rapper.
As Jared Kushner’s memoir climbed onto the bestseller list, a Trump fundraising committee reportedly spent $158,000 buying books.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) tried to honor the Confederacy … by visiting a memorial dedicated to Union troops.
As readers of this newsletter know, I have obtained the text message log President Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, provided to the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack. I have verified the log with multiple sources. On Monday, I highlighted an exchange between Meadows and Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), who is running for governor of New York with Trump’s endorsement. Zeldin suggested “2 ideas” for promoting baseless conspiracies and fighting Trump’s loss in the 2020 election. After I surfaced the messages, Zeldin’s Democratic Party rival, Gov. Kathy Hochul, said the exchange showed Zeldin “a threat to our democracy and too extreme for New York.” A spokesperson for Zeldin countered that Hochul was “obsess[ing] over a text message” because she is “desperate” due to recent poll numbers that show the pair are in a tight race. The statement from Zeldin’s team did not dispute that he sent the text message and seemingly confirmed its authenticity.
Japan’s oldest toilet was destroyed on Monday after a man accidentally backed his car into the Tokufuji temple in Kyoto. The man works for the Kyoto Heritage Preservation Association. Great job dude!
West pulls the same stunt every time, and people fall for it every time. He says or does something to capture the media cycle right before he releases an album, launches a clothing line, buys a media platform. Similar to Trump and Musk, he doesn't care about his reputation...it's media manipulation and dollars. His PR folks will throw around questions about his 'mental health', but West's actions are quite deliberate. I don't understand why the public can't see through West, Musk, Trump. They are all so predictable.