💪 Dems Finally Flex Their Muscles
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Madoff investment scandal
17 min read
The article opens with the anniversary of Bernie Madoff's arrest. The full story of how he orchestrated the largest Ponzi scheme in history, evaded SEC detection for decades, and the aftermath of his exposure provides crucial context for understanding financial fraud at scale.
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Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States
13 min read
The article discusses CFIUS review of the Paramount/WBD merger and foreign investment concerns. Understanding how this interagency committee actually works, its history, and notable cases it has blocked illuminates the regulatory mechanisms at play in the media consolidation debate.
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Larry Ellison
16 min read
Central to the article's concerns about media consolidation, the Oracle co-founder's business history, wealth accumulation, and political connections provide essential background for understanding the stakes of his family's acquisitions of Paramount, TikTok, and potential WBD takeover.
💰 On this day in 2008, disgraced financier Bernie Madoff was arrested by the FBI at his Manhattan penthouse apartment for orchestrating the largest Ponzi scheme in history. He defrauded investors out of some $65 billion, a sum roughly equivalent to the GDP of Guatemala. If he were still alive, Trump would probably pardon him.
Good morning! Peter here, scrounging together a final few holiday presents for friends and family. What’s hot this year? LEGO? Labubus? I can’t keep track anymore. I do have a gift for you, though! Because this edition of ‘First Draft’ is sponsored by Ground News, there is no paywall! Enjoy, my friends!
In today’s ‘First Draft,’ House Democrats start to throw their weight around, Donald Trump inches ever closer to war with Venezuela, more movement in the Epstein files saga, Secretary of War Crimes Pete Hague-seth screws up yet again, and Tucker Carlson returns to reality for a brief moment…
Congressional Democrats Plot Their Political Comeback
The libs are out of the wilderness, and they want every institution that’s bowed before Trump to know they’ll soon be out for blood.
In Tuesday’s edition of ‘First Draft,’ I detailed how MAGA-friendly billionaire oligarchs are intent upon warping American reality by any means necessary.
The latest plot, hatched by father-and-son duo Larry and David Ellison, involves a mass consolidation of US media. In mere months, the Oracle co-founder and his Silicon Valley scion have seized control of Paramount and its library of subsidiaries, including Showtime, MTV, BET, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, and CBS News. They’ve managed to wrap their tentacles around TikTok, and now they’re trying to gobble up Warner Bros. Discovery – thereby planting a flag in HBO, CNN, and a host of other properties.
It seems Democrats on Capitol Hill (or perhaps a handful of their staffers) are fans of ‘First Draft.’
Yesterday, Semafor’s Max Tani first reported Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to the WBD board and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, warning them in no uncertain terms that when (not “if’!) Democrats return to power, they may very well go nuclear.
“Future Congresses… will review many of the decisions of the current Administration, and may recommend that regulators push for divestitures, which would undermine
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