'All Hell Is Going To Break Out' in Israel
Plus: OpenAI vs. Musk, Eric Adams corruption charges dropped, and more...
Trump talks tough on Israel/Hamas: If the terrorist group Hamas does not release all remaining Israeli hostages taken on October 7, 2023, by "12 o'clock on Saturday," said President Donald Trump yesterday, the ceasefire agreement between the two parties should be rendered invalid. "All hell is going to break out," added Trump.
Last week, when Trump fantasized about redeveloping the battered Gaza Strip into the "riviera of the Middle East" (featuring some Trump hotels) and moving Gazans to neighboring Jordan and Egypt while the, uh, infrastructure project takes place, it seemed like he was mostly just engaging in signature Trump bluster. But yesterday, he threatened to cut all U.S. aid to both Jordan and Egypt if they don't comply; interestingly, today he meets with King Abdullah II of Jordan.
"I do think he'll take, and I think other countries will take also," Trump said of Abdullah. "They have good hearts."
As all this was happening, Hamas "announced it would stop releasing Israeli hostages until further notice over what the Palestinian militant group called Israeli violations of a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, raising the risk of reigniting the conflict," reports Reuters. "Hamas has accused Israel of dragging its feet on allowing aid into Gaza, one of the conditions of the first phase of the agreement, a charge Israel has rejected as untrue. In turn, Israel has accused Hamas of not respecting the order in which the hostages were to be released and of orchestrating abusive public displays before large crowds when they have been handed over to the Red Cross."
Musk's latest scheme: "A consortium of investors led by Elon Musk is offering $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, raising the stakes in his battle with Sam Altman over the company behind ChatGPT," reports The Wall Street Journal. "The unsolicited offer adds a complication to Altman's carefully laid plans for OpenAI's future, including converting it to a for-profit company and spending up to $500 billion on AI infrastructure through a joint venture called Stargate. He and Musk are already fighting in court over the direction of OpenAI."
"It's time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was," said Musk, via a statement from his lawyer. "We will make sure that happens."
Never one to simply talk through lawyers, Musk also tweeted this:
Scam Altman
pic.twitter.com/j9EXIqBZ8u— Harry Bōlz (@elonmusk) February 10, 2025
For those just tuning in: OpenAI was originally structured as a nonprofit claiming that its sole goal was "to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return." At some unclear point, this changed; Altman is now pursuing structuring it as a for-profit. At various points, there have been high-drama exoduses of senior OpenAI employees; a group of engineers left to start Anthropic, which they claim is actually interested in AI safety above all. Co-founder/former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, co-founder and top researcher John Schulman, and top researcher Jan Leike all resigned last year. Another co-founder, Greg Brockman, took a leave of absence for a hefty chunk of last year but now appears to be back.
Musk, who co-founded the company with Altman and others in 2015 and was OpenAI's first investor, has sued the company, saying they misled him by switching it from a nonprofit to a for-profit. "Altman assured Musk that the nonprofit structure guaranteed neutrality and a focus on safety and openness for the benefit of humanity, not shareholder value," reads the complaint. "But as it turns out, this was all hot-air philanthropy—the hook for Altman's long con."
It's unclear where all this goes next, and how far Musk will take his grievances.
Shuffling the IRS cops around: The New York Times reports that soon a bunch of IRS agents (including the agency's pseudo-police force) might be reassigned to the Department of Homeland Security to temporarily help that agency round up and deport migrants—and that would mean a short-staffed IRS less capable of routine enforcement (whatever will we do). "That work could include auditing employers believed to have hired unauthorized migrants and investigating human trafficking," reports the Times. "Of its roughly 100,000 employees, the I.R.S. has more than 2,100 trained law enforcement officers who help investigate violations of tax law and other financial crimes."
Even if you favor crackdowns on illegal immigration, it's worth noting that auditing employers who run, say, fruit farms and meat processing plants is a strange way to go about it since these are some of the most industrious people, gainfully employed and actually contributing to the American economy. And if you do this at scale, whole communities reliant on these plants and farms will feel the impact.
"On Day 1 I immediately halted the hiring of any new I.R.S. agents," Trump said recently at a rally in Nevada, referring to his federal civilian employee hiring freeze. "We're in the process of developing a plan to either terminate all of them or maybe we'll move them to the border. I think we're going to move them to the border."
Of course, as a good scofflaw libertarian, the idea of fewer or more distracted IRS agents gets me all excited. I also appreciate people finally being able to see some of them for what they are: cops, armed with literal guns, who force people to fork over massive chunks of their paycheck and threaten prison time if you don't comply. But there's also a case to be made that failing to collect enough taxes (while also abdicating responsibility to go after, say, entitlement reform) will make it impossible for Trump and Musk to ever get the federal government's books in order.
Scenes from New York: A decent two-bedroom in the Bronx, listed at $1,250, has been sitting vacant on the market since September 2023, according to Gothamist. Why? Nobody registered in the city's lottery system wants it, when offered.
"City rules that require landlords to sift through long lists of people registered in the city's housing lottery system, instead of permitting owners to list them on the market or allowing would-be renters to apply directly," reads the report. "After an apartment enters the affordable housing program and the initial tenant moves out, it's classified as a 're-rental' and the unit must go to another applicant in the city's Housing Connect lottery system," explains Gothamist. "New Yorkers typically use the system to apply for a spot in brand-new high rises in Greenpoint, East New York, East Harlem and many other parts of the city. In the case of a 're-rental,' however, city rules require many owners to select a new tenant from a pool of existing housing lottery applicants who indicated that they were open to re-rental opportunities."
QUICK HITS
- The Justice Department has told prosecutors to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, proving that all Adams' Mar-a-Lago trips to curry favor with the current admin were well-spent.
- Google Maps has changed a certain body of water's name.
- "Then again, politics isn't only about enmity and payback," says none other than…Sohrab Ahmari, the guy who in 2019 prominently advocated for scorched-earth politics, for conservatives to "fight the culture war with the aim of defeating the enemy."
- Refugee resettlement groups suing Trump administration:
Refugee resettlement groups have filed the first lawsuit against President Trump's move to indefinitely pause the US refugee program, as well as his administration's suspension of federal funds to the organizations helping these legal immigrants.
They are seeking a quick block. pic.twitter.com/nTUpIIJUJY
— Camilo Montoya-Galvez (@camiloreports) February 10, 2025
- Weird:
From last night's @semafor media newsletter: Ro Khanna is going on the Adam Friedland show… pic.twitter.com/tIW7tOXaVp
— Max Tani (@maxwelltani) February 10, 2025
- We talked with economist John Cochrane on the most recent episode of Just Asking Questions:
