Jake Swearingen

Inside the anti-'woke' revolt that has American troops in its crosshairs Trump vowed to banish 'woke.' Now, the culture wars are infiltrating the military and spreading paranoia among American troops

1/ Anti-'woke' veterans who wield leaked screenshots are thrusting cancel culture deep into the US military, adding to strains at an unprecedented moment. www.businessinsider.com/inside-anti-...

Elon Musk's xAI lays off hundreds of workers tasked with training Grok XAI laid off at least 500 of the workers on its data annotation team on Friday night.

Friday night massacre: Scoop from Grace Kay that Elon Musk's xAI just laid off hundreds of workers tasked with training Grok late today, after asking many to take tests Thursday evening www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-xa...

Tesla said xAI stands for "eXploratory Artificial Intelligence." It's not clear where it got that. In a recent proxy statement about Elon Musk's compensation package, Tesla said xAI's name stood for "eXploratory Artificial Intelligence." Huh?

Fun spot from @thenewsham.bsky.social while he was deep into looking thru Tesla's filings: In the proxy filing laying out Elon's trillion dollar comp, Tesla said xAI's name stood for "eXploratory Artificial Intelligence" which uhh, nobody has ever said before www.businessinsider.com/tesla-xai-ex...

Hey, this was great! Really enjoyed the atmosphere around it. Look forward to what you do next.

A founder said her $200 million newsletter empire had over a million subscribers. Her own records tell a different story. Daniella Pierson is a darling of the business press and made Forbes 30 Under 30. But do her company's subscription numbers add up?

Great story, showing yet again that many of the stars of the "news" business are, in fact, bullshitters. www.businessinsider.com/daniella-pie...

We sat with 350 lawyers as they strategized against Trump. Big Law was absent — but Smaller Law is itching to fight. Hundreds of lawyers brainstormed ways to stand up to Trump — and how to stiffen the spines of lawyers facing pressure from his administration.

We read -- and write -- a lot about the law firms that did deals with the Trump administration. This week, hundreds of lawyers met to talk about what they should -- and could -- do about the president's posture. @litaliano.bsky.social and @thenewsham.bsky.social report for @businessinsider.com.

It's a staid and stately room, the New York City Bar Association meeting hall in Midtown Manhattan. The century-old walls are trimmed with red velvet and high Corinthian columns, and famous alumni, including Thurgood Marshall and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, look down from their oil portraits. The hall was far from staid on Monday night, though, as Business Insider sat with 350 New York City lawyers for a program called "Defending Justice." Instead, there were calls for protests, op-ed writing, and lawsuits.

Loved editing this from @thenewsham.bsky.social and Laura Italiano where 350 NYC lawyers libbed out hard over Trump resistance and swapped Signal tips over passed apps. Small(er) Law rebellion was in full force — Big Law's capitulators mostly absent. www.businessinsider.com/new-york-cit...

Side-by-side comparison showing a Ford F-150 towing an Airstream trailer on a tree-lined road (top) and Tesla's Cybertruck towing a similar Airstream trailer on a desert road.

Comparison of truck beds showing a Ford F-150 carrying secured equipment including fencing and tools on a dirt road (top) and the Tesla Cybertruck bed carrying similar construction materials and equipment on rocky terrain (bottom)

Fun look at @businessinsider.com on Tesla's Cybertruck rebrand from space-age oddity to blue-collar work truck — including Tesla using almost 1:1 remakes of Ford F-150 glamour shots.

www.businessinsider.com/tesla-cybert...

The Treasury Department says IRS Direct File is a failed program. Its creators are worried DOGE is going to kill it. IRS Direct File is the nation's first free tax filing system. A Treasury Department official told BI it was a failed program with an uncertain future.

New from @julianakaplan.bsky.social and @thenewsham.bsky.social: DOGE may be coming for the system that lets you file your taxes for free, and Treasury tells us they consider it a "failed program." (Users, meanwhile, gave it almost universally high marks) www.businessinsider.com/irs-direct-f...

Great scoop from @thenewsham.bsky.social and @jayshams.bsky.social — Trump says Paul Weiss banned DEI. The firm's internal memo doesn't.

www.businessinsider.com/paul-weiss-t...

they made an ai game where you can talk to the patients but forgot to add in prompt safety controls

We found a DOGE guy at NASA because his Google Calendar was public DOGE staffer Riley Sennott's Google Calendar wasn't private, exposing his interactions with DOGE and firms like Tesla and Palantir.

New: I found a doge staffer whose google calendar was public, including an onboarding event with the GSA that included the names of other DOGE staff on the invite

www.businessinsider.com/doge-nasa-go...

We found a DOGE guy at NASA because his Google Calendar was public DOGE staffer Riley Sennott's Google Calendar wasn't private, exposing his interactions with DOGE and firms like Tesla and Palantir.

When Jack slacked me this scoop, I laughed so hard

DOGE staffer found at NASA with public Google Calendar showing DOGE interviews and meetings with Palantir (went private after we contacted)

Read @thenewsham.bsky.social and @alicetecotzky.bsky.social scoop: www.businessinsider.com/doge-nasa-go...

Marko Elez, who left DOGE amid social media controversy, worked for xAI Internal documents reveal Elon Musk's xAI startup employed Marko Elez, who resigned from DOGE after being linked to inflammatory social media posts.

Grace Kay with a scoop: Internal documents reveal Marko Elez, who left DOGE after posts like "I was racist before it was cool" were found and then was rehired by Elon, was on the org chart at xAI, meaning Elez worked at 3 out of 6 of Musk's companies www.businessinsider.com/marko-elez-d...

We got a DOGE staff list. From a McKinsey alum to a former Clarence Thomas clerk, here are the workers powering Elon Musk's cost-cutting squad. A list showing White House DOGE staffers reveals around 30 young tech, finance and legal professionals remaking federal government.

We got a list of workers at the White House’s DOGE office, including some new names previously unreported. Among them, a McKinsey alum and a lawyer who clerked for Clarence Thomas www.businessinsider.com/doge-staff-l...

glad to see you here king

How rich musicians billed American taxpayers for luxury hotels, shopping sprees, and million-dollar bonuses Pop stars took advantage of the SVOG grant, using COVID relief funds for luxury spending. Lil Wayne bought Balenciaga and flew private.

Read more here: businessinsider.com/lil-wayne-chris-brown-covid-relief-funds-svog-grant-2024-12

We also found white collar folks like lawyers, managers, etc raking it in. Lil Wayne's grant paid $5.3M to managers, accountants & attorneys - 13 times what went to his drummer, sound techs & other contractors who actually put on his shows.

When we reached out to Lil Wayne for comment, he... made a sexually explicit overture to our reporter. Chuck Schumer, who championed this on Corden as helping "middle-class people" and "young artists," later got a Grammy award for creating the program, declined to comment.

Inside the SBA, employees who worked on the program were told "shut up, sit down, process the file." Only $43M of money has been recouped. That number hasn't budged since July.

David Walker, former US comptroller general, reviewed our findings and said, "At a minimum, it smells." One firm, NKSFB, helped clients get $207M(!) in grants. When staff called it "bullshit" internally & worried about perjury, leadership spun it as "outside-the-box thinking." Their cut: $7M

Alice in Chains members paid themselves $3.4M right after making $48M selling their catalog. Their longtime guitar tech Scott Dachroeden — exactly who this grant was meant to help — had to use GoFundMe when he got cancer. He died shortly after, uninsured.

Lil Wayne got $8.9M in taxpayer money and spent it on private jets ($1.3M), designer clothes ($460k), and luxury hotels. He even billed $88k for a NYE show he ghosted. Chris Brown used COVID funds to throw an $80k birthday party with "atmosphere models" and $29k in bottle service.

How rich musicians billed American taxpayers for luxury hotels, shopping sprees, and million-dollar bonuses Pop stars took advantage of the SVOG grant, using COVID relief funds for luxury spending. Lil Wayne bought Balenciaga and flew private.

Last year @thenewsham.bsky.social and @klong.bsky.social found a COVID relief fund meant for struggling arts venues gave $200M+ to rich musicians. We didn't know HOW they spent it—until now. After reviewing thousands of pages of receipts & internal accounting docs, oh boy... 🧵

Scoop: Refinery29 lays off staff, CEO exits Owner Sundial Media Group named Cory Haik as CEO in April.

Cork Haik now presided over death of 3 media companies — not many who can say that! www.axios.com/2024/12/17/r...

The ultra elite club is changing how much peanut butter you can buy at once — and letting you get a hot dog and fountain drink for $1.50 while you're at it

Mike Lindell says 'cash-strapped' MyPillow took $1.6 million loan from payday lender at 409% interest MyPillow and its owner Mike Lindell have sued a payday lender. It's at least the third lawsuit with other high-rate advance companies.

NEW: MyPillow is using high-interest merchant cash advances, essentially payday loans for businesses. And they're winding up in court.

www.businessinsider.com/cash-strappe...

my platform is simple: we screen 'smokey and the bandit' to all children and tell them 'this is what is good' and then follow it up with cannonball run

It's not 1:1 but the Gen Z cohort are largely products of parents who had kids around the time when Gini coefficient jumped like crazy

Grammarly you are cancelled