Eleven questions this week. Answers at the bottom.
ANSWERS 🕺🎉🤸♀️
1. All of the above. The air traffic control system is an outdated mess, relying on some equipment that’s 60 years old. It appears that a software update implemented midday on November 13 caused part of the system to crash. Here’s a recent report on how antiquated the system is and what it will take to fix it.
2. Combating Democratic corruption. Trump said on social media November 12 that the Iran war wasn’t worth Vance’s time, and the VP should focus instead on rooting out corruption in blue states such as Minnesota and California. We think Vance would find more targets if he investigated Trump administration corruption.
[Check out The Weekly Matterboard: What Matters and What Doesn’t]
3. Trump told Huang to fight for his job. Of course he did. But unlike most of Trump’s businesses, Nvidia is a public company answerable to shareholders. The board had little choice but to axe Huang, especially when it learned he had an affair with a subordinate at the company.
Lauren Boebert is a punchline because she moved to a new Colorado House district in 2024 to boost her odds of getting reelected. Boebert is a far-right MAGA conspiracy theorist who nearly lost her 2022 reelection bid, and the new district was considered safely Republican. She lost anyway in this year’s blue tsunami and a Democrat will hold the seat next year.
4. More than 1,000,000%. Nvidia went public in 1999 at a market value of around $340 million. It’s now worth $3.92 trillion. That’s astonishing wealth creation.
5. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent blamed Lutnick publicly for apparently allowing Singaporean firm Megaspeed to divert Nvidia chips to China, which would violate US export-control rules. If Trump needs a fall guy, Lutnick is the one in the crosshairs.
6. Chatting at a cemetery. Hegseth, his wife, and several others attended a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on Veterans Day, November 11. After the ceremony, while they were chatting, laughing, and taking pictures, the sentinel on duty called out to them, “All visitors will maintain an atmosphere of silence and respect at all times.”
[Check out The Weekly WTF Quiz, Special Election Edition]
7. They got stuck in traffic. At least five of 11 Democrats who missed the vote said bad traffic in Washington, DC, held them up. The Hegseth impeachment effort was led by a Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, but no other Republicans publicly supported it. Hegseth probably would have survived even if the missing Democrats showed up. But the flub made Democrats look pretty dumb and late-night comedians roasted them. Expect Democrats to go after Hegseth next year, when they will control Congress with a large majority and a few no-shows won’t be a game-changer.
8. Flying to football games. The Washington Post reported that Rubio has flown on military jets to Gainesville, Florida, at least 23 times, at a cost of about $1.2 million. Gainesville is home to the University of Florida, where Rubio’s son is a walk-on running back on the football team. Rubio has been to at least five games, even though his son rarely plays. It’s not illegal for a Cabinet secretary to use costly government jets for personal travel. It’s just infuriating.
9. Biden said running in 2024 was the right decision. A review of his memoir by The New Yorker declared that “Joe Biden is still in denial.” A lot of younger Democratic candidates—some very talented—would have run for president in 2024 if Biden hadn’t vied for a second term. One of them could have beaten Trump and put a new generation in charge. Running for reelection was the wrong decision, not the right one.
10. Tesla will sell a car with no steering wheel. Self-driving cars don’t need them, because steering the front wheels is an electronic function, not a mechanical one. Tesla plans to start selling its robotaxi, called the Cybercab, to individuals in December. The base price will be about $30,000, plus $300 per month for the self-driving software. It’s not clear if the car meets federal safety standards that go back decades and generally require a steering wheel and other driver controls unnecessary in autonomous cars.
11. Anthropic said its AI could pose “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity.” That’s from the registration form it filed with the government in October. But no biggie! The IPO is looking like a winner, with strong demand likely to produce a pop in the stock price once shares start trading on November 19. What a time to be alive.
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