Hedge fund giant Bill Ackman targeted the legacy of civil rights legend Martin Luther King. He did so weeks after downing Harvard University President Claudine Gay and placing a bullseye on Business Insider and MIT faculty for violating an unwritten rule.
BI applied Ackman's plagiarism standard to Mrs. Ackman and she came up wanting. The Mr. blamed MIT faculty and set up a plagiarism howitzer to take the turncoats down. Fortunately, the Mrs. did not have to resign from her marriage.
Ackman and fellow billionaires crafted a world where they have numerous advantages, courtesy of elected officials. Politicians Red and Blue repeatedly ignored public will in keeping preferred "carried interest" taxation for the uber-rich class (hedge funds and private equity).
Ackman recently posted his support for Blue Team Presidential hopeful Dean Phillips in a lengthy X post that compares the U.S. Presidency to a corporate CEO. He wrote:
Dean has meaningful skin in the game as he has invested $5 million of his own capital in his run. This is how democracy happens.
I didn't realize having millions was a requirement of representative government.
The Daily Beast reported:
It’s difficult to get a full and clear understanding of (Dean) Phillips’ financial picture, but real estate records provide a glimpse into his lifestyle and other personal financial choices. Despite his advocacy for accountability and reform, those records reflect an innate duality—an inescapable reality that Phillips manages a rarefied financial life, with complexities and curiosities that defy transparency and create an opacity of their own.
Phillips serves the second-wealthiest district in Minnesota (which has the third-largest racial wealth gap in the country). Ackman is giving a Phillips dedicated PAC $1 million to kick start his campaign and is working hard to elevate Phillips public profile.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk joined Ackman and Phillips in the conversation on Ex-Twitter.
Musk threatened Tesla's board with taking artificial intelligence outside the company unless he received a much greater share of the company's stock. No conflict of interest there.
These guys blaze right through conflicts of interest as if they don't exist. Many run multiple large scale enterprises. Isn't the CEO position considered a full time job?
Ackman's take on Rev. Martin Luther King's famous speech is not supported by King's daughter Bernice.
Bernice King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter, has previously refuted this (Ackman's) interpretation. She underscores that her father’s dream was not about neglecting racism but annihilating it. DEI efforts, according to her, are in alignment with her father’s vision, challenging Ackman’s stance that DEI practices contradict King’s teachings.Stuffing too much white bread into one's piehole can be difficult to swallow. I'm afraid I'll need a lot more water to wash down what Dean, Musk and Ackman are selling.
How about a Teddy Roosevelt like character for President? We need someone from within the class that knows the games they play and has the courage to dismantle the gross excesses of PEU society.
Update 1-17-24: Experts panned Ackman's claims about Dr. King's meaning.
Update 1-19-24: Slate reported:
Now that Vivek Ramaswamy is out of the presidential race, billionaire tech bros are suddenly lining up behind a new candidate—Dean Phillips, who’s making a long-shot bid to challenge Biden for the Democratic nomination.
Update 1-21-24: Ackman continued throwing his weight around (leverage) on behalf of Dean Phillips. Harvard is trying hard to reestablish VC and PEU ties.
Update 1-22-24: Larry Summers joined Bill Ackman in raking Harvard over the antisemitism coals.
Update 1-23-24: The Atlantic characterized Ackman as a classic fictional villain. Author Kurt Anderson once worked for a KKR owned magazine and experienced the same "we don't like what you are writing" arm twisting from Henry Kravis. The PEU boys are consistent in their image optimization insistence.
Update 1-25-24: Four TED fellows resigned after the organization booked Bill Ackman for an upcoming conference. One said:
“The whole setup of the conferences just has no capacity to really interrogate ideas. It’s a celebration of the individual. It’s not a space for free debate at all.”That person described Elon Musk's talk at a previous TED conference as a "puff piece."
