|
 Happy Tuesday again, and happy holidays.
Welcome back to Puck, and my weekly reportage and analysis on the world of Silicon Valley wealth. The gifting season don't have to be over—you can buy a friend or an enemy a membership to Puck at this link or by emailing fritz@puck.news. And if this email was forwarded to you, you can sign up for previews of my columns here.
Discussed in today's piece: MacKenzie Scott, Lauren Sanchez, Elon Musk, David Sacks, Jack Dorsey and more. As always, my inbox is open for your thoughts and tips.
Thanks,
 Some deep thoughts and burning concerns about MacKenzie, Jack, Bezos and other card-carrying members of the new establishment. It’s been a quiet few weeks over the Christmas season, which makes it the perfect time to take stock of some of the biggest storylines in Silicon Valley politics and philanthropy. Today I’m chatting with my boss, Puck co-founder and editor-in-chief Jon Kelly, about what is to come.
Jon Kelly: Teddy, a big story of the holiday season has been the hyper-aggressive and absurdist back-and-forth between Elon Musk and a couple of America’s most prominent liberals, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, about everything from taxation to some more prurient elements. What’s your view on their holiday cheer?
Teddy Schleifer: It felt awfully unbecoming, Jon. Look, these are all big boys and girls—progressive politicians should have free rein to whack whatever rich guy they want, and the rich guys, in turn, are under no obligation to shush their lips and take it. But we’re not exactly getting a high-minded defense of capitalism and wealth accumulation from the world’s richest man. We’ve got Elon telling Bernie that he keeps “forgetting that you’re still alive”; calling Warren “Senator Karen”; and, in some ancient history from November that you probably forgot, reply-guying to Ron Wyden about whether he had just … ejaculated.
Does some of the lefty rhetoric about the evils of the ultra-wealthy veer into histrionics from time to time? Sure. Elon told none other than the satirical Babylon Bee the other day that his Karen tweet was essentially because, well, Warren started it. She and Bernie and Wyden have been raging about his lack of tax payments, casting him as a tax cheat. And that made him mad. I’m sure it did, but that’s a remarkable display of thin skin for a 50-year-old entrepreneur who has been in the public eye for two decades. Elon has at times made the more sophisticated defense of his tax record: That he is set to pay $11 billion in taxes this year, what he claims to be the largest single-year payment in American history (he elides the $0 he paid in 2018); and that he is a better capital allocator than the American bureaucracy (perhaps!).
That terra firma is what makes the tweets so childish...
FOUR STORIES WE'RE TALKING ABOUT  AMC's C.E.O. was given an extraordinary lifeline—which he used to benefit himself, mostly. MATT BELLONI  Joe Biden's staggering unpopularity among younger voters suggests that Democrats don't have any idea what matters to their kids. PETER HAMBY  Many of the hopes for a resurgent 2021 in the media business didn’t come to pass, but the year was hardly a disaster. BRIAN MORRISSEY  The Athletic has entered exclusive deal negotiations to sell to the Times. Should it? DYLAN BYERS
You received this message because you signed up to receive emails from Puck.
Was this email forwarded to you?
Sent to
Puck is published by Heat Media LLC.
For support, just reply to this e-mail. For brand partnerships, email ads@puck.news |
-
Join Puck
Directly Supporting Authors
A new economic model in which writers are also partners in the business.
Personalized Subscriptions
Customize your settings to receive the newsletters you want from the authors you follow.
Stay in the Know
Connect directly with Puck talent through email and exclusive events.
