Chateaus, private drivers, first class travel: yesterday, GLAAD CEO Sarah Kate Ellis’s lavish lifestyle was exposed by the NYT. A glamorous evil lesbian posing as a saint, you say? My curiosity was peaked. I went straight to YouTube, where, on my first click, I found her speaking at the WEF. Sarah opened with gratitude for a separate non-profit, which funded her travel. “It’s a haul to get here, right?” she said of the annual Satanic gathering in Switzerland. “Especially for non-profits and marginalized communities.” Sarah, the Times reports, makes close to $1 million a year. And I am — well… hmm. Actually, who gives a shit? The battle for gay rights ended in 2015, when marriage was secured. There’s nowhere left to spend the money, so why not Sarah’s luxury home office? Frankly, I’m already dying on too many hills. At this point, if you’re dumb enough to give money to an NGO? It’s on you.

Allies of Donald Trump recently announced the launch of a new voter registration and turnout initiative geared towards young men called “Send the Vote,” an effort that is expected to debut today on the Nelk Boys’ “Full Send” podcast. Organizers are reportedly aiming to raise $20 million for the initiative, which will feature partners including popular entertainment figures and UFC fighters, and which aims to court young male voters in key swing states through efforts like private parties where admission is dependent on proof of voter registration. Translation: the GOP is countering a vibes-based election campaign, from “brat” memes to “he’s just plain weird,” with cage fighters and keg stands. I’ve got to say, as a member of the targeted demographic group, I can confirm I’m at least intrigued — so long as these dudes aren’t too hungover come Election Day, Republicans might have found their brat-idote.

Yesterday the Times profiled Dr. David Keith, a professor leading the effort to advance solar geoengineering (read: spraying sulfur dust into the stratosphere, where it would reflect the sun’s rays and cool the earth). The article was bittersweet, as it detailed the long list of opposition characters, including Greta Thunberg, an “indigenous” policy group, and other environmentalists who say they're uneasy that technology might allow us to skip the “degrowth” part of environmentalism. However, Dr. Keith got equal airtime to make his point, and the mainstream media is beginning to cover more creative solutions to climate change, which is a necessary step before these scientists are acknowledged as something other than cranks. If this trend persists, it's optimistic for a future where we control the weather, and not the other way around. And in general? I can't wait to delegate my climate decisionmaking to a pocket-protector physics genius over a European teen with a penchant for Marxism.

Polymarket — the world’s largest betting market, offering odds on every topic from Kamala’s VP pick to the next James Bond actor — only gives a 46% chance that Boeing’s stranded Starliner astronauts will return by August 15th. A grim forecast, given the planned 8-day mission is now pushing 60 days in orbit as the spacecraft remains stuck on the ISS thanks to malfunctioning thrusters. And while it warms our hearts to see Boeing’s engineering decay picked apart by the markets, we hope the saga ends soon. Not just for our astronauts, but also for SpaceX, which is currently having its upcoming Crew-9 launch threatened because Starliner keeps hogging one of only two US docking ports. Get out of the way, Boeing. SpaceX had more successful launches this year than the rest of the world combined, while you can’t run a domestic flight out of Portland without losing a door (haha, kidding, please don’t suicide us). 

As a reminder, trading on Polymarket is prohibited in the US but you can see the odds for free on Polymarket.com.

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pirate wires #124 // open war in silicon valley — a question of ethics, politics, or status? — trump’s new dance with venture capital, zenefits, and the other side of “going direct”

this week, john coogan joins the pod to talk about the battle of the billionaires that played out on 𝕏. plus, we discuss biden officially dropping out of the presidential race, democrats replacing him with his vp, kamala getting an image makeover, the crowdstrike global tech outage, and more

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