The Playback: Democrats Sail and FTX Fails

Happy Monday, my guys. Thank you for joining me. Now, let’s kick off the inaugural edition of “The Playback” newsletter.

The 2022 Midterm Elections: The Red Wave that Turned into the Red Wedding

The stage was set for a monumental victory for the GOP. All the indicators were there:

• Historical data of congress flipping when the opposing party is in power

• President Biden’s plummeting approval rating

• The stresses of inflation and national security concerns

That, however, did not come to fruition. Not only did Democrats outperform their expected results, but they were also able to retain control of the house with a 50-49 majority. One senate race that is still up for grabs will be the Georgia seat between Ralphael Warnock and Herschel Walker. As neither candidate reached the 50% threshold, Georgia will host a runoff….yep, again.

Here’s a rundown of the bigger takeaways from the elections:

Fetterman outlasts Oz. In a race that had the entire country’s attention, John Fetterman defeated T.V personality Mehmet Oz in a race that allowed the Democrats to flip a senate seat. Many believed Fetterman’s condition from his recent stroke and former President Trump’s recent endorsement of Oz would be too much to overcome.

Diversity shines in the midterms. This year’s elections saw a series of first. Wes Moore will become Maryland’s first Black governor. Sarah Huckabee-Sanders has been elected as Arkansas’s first female Governor. Maura Healey is set to be the first openly lesbian governor of America after winning her race in Massachusetts. We also saw the first generation Z member apart of congress after Maxwell Frost was victorious in Florida’s 10th congressional district.

Abortion rights were on the ballot. Not only did the Democratic party’s strong abortion messaging help with voter turnout, but individual states who let their residents decide also made their stance clear. The states of California, Vermont, Michigan, and Kentucky all voted to protect the right to abortion.

Arizona’s governor race is still too close to call. Despite the senate race being called for incumbent senator Mark Kelly, the governor’s race between Kari Lake and Katie Hobbs is still up in the air.

FTX Bankruptcy: The Crypto Winter Just Got Colder

You may not know exactly what FTX is, but you have probably heard their name recently. They were able to sign Tom Brady in a sponsorship role. They made major headlines in the sports world when they signed a 19-year, $135 million deal with the Miami Heat for the naming rights of the arena.

This time, however, FTX is the news for the wrong reasons. FTX is a cryptocurrency exchange that allows users to buy, sell and hold various cryptos such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. At one point, the company was valued at $32 billion. In about a week of time, CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) announced that they were filing for bankruptcy.

On November 2nd, Coindesk published an article revealing how risky FTX has been operating with the cash in its possession. As this began to make waves, many exchange users began to withdraw their funds from the platform. While impending doom was looming, SBF pulled out all the stops to save the company, including a possible acquisition of FTX by their rival Binance. But alas, they had no choice but to declare bankruptcy. As time passed, more information began to come to light including a Wall Street Journal report stating FTX used customer money to gamble on bets.

While there are still more questions than answers, a few things are clear. VC firms and FTX customers will stand to lose huge amounts of money. There is now an investigation on a possible hacking that has led to over half a billion dollars missing. Many in the crypto industry feel as though this may have a lingering impact for quite some time. Not only have the losses of the crypto winter further increased on this news, but the calls for regulation have also only gotten stronger.

Adam Silver and the Path Forward for Kyrie Irving

In a recent interview with the New York Times NBA commissioner Adam Silver affirmed his belief that Kyrie Irving is not antisemitic. While Silver, who is Jewish, did condemn Irving’s actions, he also said, “He’s someone I’ve known for a decade, and I’ve never heard an antisemitic word from him or, frankly, hate directed at any group.”

When discussing the next steps for Kyrie (serving a suspension) to return to the court, Silver noted that the Brooklyn Nets will decide when that time comes. Like Silver, Nets owner Joe Tsai also spoke with Kyrie and shared his belief that Irving is not antisemitic.

According to Shams Charania, the Nets have presented Kyrie with a set of tasks that must be completed before he can rejoin the team.

• Apologize/condemn the movie (Hebrews to Negros: Wake Up Black America)

• $500K donation to anti-hate causes

• Sensitivity training

• Antisemitic training

• Meet with ADL, Jewish leaders

• Meet with Joe Tsai to demonstrate understanding

This has caused a variety of reactions from the public. While people have condemned Irving’s actions, may believe this list of tasks to be excessive, and some have called it an attempt to rid Kyrie of his dignity. At this time, there is no confirmation as to if Kyrie has completed these tasks or has been given a deadline.

Twitter Blue Ain’t Hitting Like Elon Thought it Would

From the moment Elon Musk acquired Twitter, he made it clear that the company would move in a direction of profit. One revenue stream presented was Twitter Blue. This would be an $8 monthly subscription that will recognize users as verified accounts. One of the main perks other than the illustrious blue check badge is the ability for Twitter Blue users to have their tweets and content prioritized.

This service has already been rolled out and has already seen a ton of problems. The biggest one has been parody accounts that can use the verification badge to impersonate celebrities and companies. For example, some verified users have impersonated NFL reporter Adam Schefter and have been dropping false breaking news. Someone pretended to be Pepsi and tweeted out, “Coke is better”

Perhaps one of the more costly ones was when an account pretended to be defense company Lockeed Martin. The account tweeted an announcement of haunting weapons sales to Saudi Arabia. This announcement led to the company’s stock falling and decreasing their market cap.

Elon’s response was to announce that all parody accounts must identify themselves as that in their Twitter bios or face a permanent ban.

As Twitter’s new regime continues to flush things out, its users have two options; leave the platform or stay for the ride.

Other Headlines

Brittney Griner has been transferred to Russia’s Penal Colony to serve her sentence for drug possession.

Jeff Saturday’s hiring once again brings up the topic of minority coaches to the forefront.

Drake and 21 Savage sell over 400k albums in the first week of dropping their collaboration ‘Her Loss.’

Dave Chapelle appeared on “Saturday Night Live” and dropped another polarizing monologue.