Author Archive: Glenn Reynolds

WELL, THIS HAS BEEN A CLOWN SHOW: Sam Altman Is Reinstated as OpenAI’s Chief Executive. “OpenAI’s revamped board of directors will include Bret Taylor, an early Facebook officer and former co-chief executive of Salesforce; Lawrence Summers, the former Treasury secretary; and Mr. D’Angelo, a current board member and chief executive of the question and answer site, Quora.”

Larry Summers was forced out at Harvard because he angered STEM women. Now he’s replaced two of them on OpenAI’s board, which is revenge of a sort, I suppose.

LOL, MORNING JOE: Morning Joe Crosses the Line, Big Time. “Donald Trump was president for 4 years, and exhibited not one of the traits that Mr. Morning Joe here accuses him of. In fact, many of the acts of lawlessness he claims Trump will commit are being committed right now under President Biden.”

That’s why they’re afraid.

“YOU DON’T NEED A GUN, THE POLICE WILL PROTECT YOU.” They don’t even protect each other, sometimes. “In New York City, a uniformed police officer in the Bronx was caught on video standing and watching as a fellow officer was beaten by two thugs on a subway, according to the New York Post. It didn’t take the NYPD long to figure out who the bad guys were. One of them was a cop. An officer who was caught on video watching as his brother-in-arms was ruthlessly beaten was put on desk duty and had his gun taken away until the incident can be sorted out, officials said.”

DAVID BROCK: THE NEXT ALEX JONES? Matt Taibbi: Media Matters and the Fake News Era Go to Court: The X/Twitter lawsuit against David Brock’s media arm could become a referendum on the fake news era. “MMfA is accused of creating a news story, reporting on it, then propagandizing it to willing partners in the mainstream press. Again, the X allegations need to hold up in an adversarial process, but the company claims to have fully captured a dollhouse version of a generation’s larger media frauds, making this a fascinating case to watch. This whole thing would be merely a petty spat between political antagonists, except Media Matters has been a major driver of this general type of story, in which an offense is first invented, then made the focus of ginned-up outrage, then massively propagandized via unscrupulous press partners.”

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Air cargo’s anemic peak season nothing to celebrate. “Moderate strengthening of demand since August has buoyed the sagging air cargo market, but the seasonal surge in retail shipments for the holidays appears to be a third the normal level and more industry players are resetting expectations for a real recovery until the fall of 2024, or later.”