A real Democracy…

Una verdadera Democracia…

(ENGLISH SUBTITLES) pic.twitter.com/9FTjRqy9fF

— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) February 8, 2024

Fresh from his huge election win this weekend, El Salvador’s newly re-elected President Nayib Bukele greeted thousands of his supporters from the presidential palace. The event sounded more like a football match than a political speech (the horn noises were reminiscent of the vuvuzelas from the 2014 South Africa world cup), but with 90% approval ratings, perhaps that’s no surprise. The only question is: just long will the honeymoon last?

Palantir earnings calls are like the Super Bowl for defense tech founders.

“They might not like my jokes or my habits. Doesn’t matter. It will protect your life.” – Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir. pic.twitter.com/CCLOBLRd44

— John Coogan (@johncoogan) February 7, 2024

“The reality of a disjointed violent world forces Pareto optimal conditions on institutions”. So began Palantir’s CEO Alex Karp on a recent earnings call in which he proudly defended the use of his company’s military technology on battlefields around the world (Ukraine, Israel and others). Karp was also extremely bullish about the future of America, but warned that this raised the stakes for war: “the rational consequence of [America’s strength] is that companies will have to prove that their software works on the battlefield”. At least the prospect of WWIII is looking good for some people…

First Elon, now Taylor. Jack Sweeney’s private jet tracker account on X has been ruffling the feathers of America’s gilded elite. Yesterday, the singer-songwriter sent a cease and desist letter to Sweeney for publishing the details of Taylor Swift’s private jet activity. Why so antsy? If Swift attends the Super Bowl to watch her boyfriend this weekend, she will be travelling from Tokyo, where she is on tour. That will mean more than 19,400 miles by private jet in just under two weeks. How much carbon dioxide will that be?