🌊 Congress, Meet Ethics?

Plus: RedBox is officially dead

July 12, 2024

RIP, Shelley Duvall.

We’re just now seeing that Shelley Duvall — the Hollywood icon who played the tormented wife in The Shining — died this morning. Perhaps the most interesting thing about Duvall is that after decades of stardom she disappeared in 2002. She had long yearned to return to her Texas roots, so she retired from acting and moved to Texas Hill Country — probably a good place to hide from Jack Nicholson and his knife. She spent her final years in a one-stoplight town, living in obscurity and eating brisket. RIP, Shelley!

😕 Biden has a bad day

đŸ“Č Is this the next Instagram?

💰 Podcasting market still hot

–Max and Max

KEY STORY

The Next Instagram?

Chinese social media giant Xiaohongshu (also known as RED) was valued at $17B

  • RED is often referred to as the “Chinese Instagram.” Users post, follow, discover products, and share reviews. 70% of RED’s 450M users are female

  • After losing $200M on $2B of total revenue in 2022, RED made $500M on $3.7B of revenue in 2023

  • On Wednesday, venture firm DST invested in RED, valuing the company at $17B. The investment represents an unusual move: Investors have been reluctant to put money in Chinese tech companies given recent government crackdowns

Dig Deeper

  • RED also earned investments from Chinese internet giants Tencent and Alibaba, which is unusual: Typically, one or the other invests in a startup, not both

  • The investments come as investors seek to recreate the success of Temu, Bytedance, and other billion-dollar tech startups

KEY STORY

Ethics in Congress?

A bipartisan group of senators agreed to consider a law that would ban lawmakers from trading stocks

  • Since 2012, lawmakers, their spouses, and kids have had to disclose all stock trades above $1,000. Failure to comply typically results in fines worth $200 or less, though, and dozens of politicians have been accused of violating the rule

  • This week, a bipartisan group agreed to hold a formal discussion about a law banning lawmakers from buying and selling individual stocks. The agreement marks the furthest any such effort has made it in Congress

Dig Deeper

  • “Congress should not be here to make a buck,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said in announcing the deal

  • Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) said, “The fact that members of Congress do better than a generalized portfolio suggests that there’s privileged information that folks hear about“

  • “If you want to serve in Congress, don’t come here to serve your portfolio. Come here to serve the people,” he added

ROCA’S PARTNERS

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KEY STORY

RIP, Redbox

A judge ordered Redbox’s liquidation

  • Redbox operates 2,400 DVD-rental vending machines, often at gas stations, Walmarts, and other shopping outlets. In 2022, “Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment Inc.” took out $360M in debt to buy Redbox – an amount it could only pay off if DVD rentals surged

  • That failed, and last month, the company declared bankruptcy in order to reorganize itself. During those proceedings, though, it emerged that it had misused funds that should have paid employees

  • Because of that mismanagement, on Wednesday, a judge ordered the company to liquidate

Dig Deeper

  • In announcing the ruling, the judge said he found Chicken Soup’s behavior – particularly its treatment of its employees – “incredibly disturbing”

  • “I find it sickening, frankly,” he added

KEY STORY

Biden’s Bad Day

President Biden held a solo press conference after a day of NATO events

  • During the press conference, he mixed up VP Harris and Trump, saying, “Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president
”

  • Earlier in the day, he introduced Ukrainian president Zelensky as “President Putin”

  • Also earlier, Politico reported that George Clooney called Barack Obama before writing his New York Times op-ed, which urged Biden to step down

Dig Deeper

  • Also Thursday, it emerged that the Biden campaign had a Milwaukee radio host remove an unflattering excerpt from an interview with Biden

  • It had previously been reported that the Biden campaign gave the host a list of eight questions to ask the President

  • Now, it’s known that the Biden campaign had the host cut two sections of the interview, including one in which Biden said, “I have more blacks in my administration than any other president”

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

đŸ”„ A fire broke out at Rouen’s historical cathedral in northern France, famous for its Gothic architecture and Monet’s paintings. The spire was under renovation with scaffolding when “big flames” and “black smoke” erupted. Officials reported no injuries and are assessing the damage

đŸ„€ PepsiCo warned that consumers are cutting costs after its Frito-Lay North America division’s sales dropped 4% in the latest quarter. The company said the trend shows consumers are finally cutting back on snacks and soda after years of price hikes

📉 The Apple Vision Pro is selling poorly, Bloomberg reported. The $3,500 mixed-reality headset – launched in February – is yet to sell 100,000 units in a quarter and is expected to record a 75% drop in domestic sales this quarter

📊 A new ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll found that 67% of American voters believe President Biden should end his reelection campaign. Despite this, the poll found that Biden and Trump remain essentially tied: 46% of respondents wanted Biden to win and 47% preferred Trump 

🎧 Wondery signed an $80M deal with Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast, which had an exclusive deal with Spotify since 2021. The new deal reportedly includes plans to develop new podcasts, host live streams, launch video episodes, and sell merchandise

đŸ’” New data show that in the year through June, the US inflation rate dropped to 3%, the lowest since 2021, and below economists’ 3.1% expectations. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, was 3.3%, lower than economists’ 3.4% expectation

COMMUNITY

Question of the Day

🧠 Yesterday’s question: What is the most quintessentially American city?

One could say that it’s New York, a melting pot of cultures, or LA where dreams are made. But it’s really a town like Terre Haute, Indiana. It was a farm town that grew with the rise of industry and fell hard as a victim of the rust belt. Yet, it survived and adapted, and it continues to rejuvenate itself. To many, it’s a reference in a movie or a gas stop on the interstate, but really, it’s America.

Ginger from Michigan

Buffalo, NY. It's got a history of old industry, like steel production and railroad commerce. These industries built much of modern America. It's near the Great Lakes and is the end of the Erie Canal, two waterways that helped move people and goods from the East Coast to the Midwest. Buffalo folks battle hard winter weather, which is an example of quintessential American fortitude. They're arguably the most supportive sports fan base in the country (Go Bills!), and according to a lot of people, some of the nicest fans. Generally, Buffalonians are hardworking, down to earth, hospitable people. Thus, Buffalo truly is The City of Good Neighbors.

Olenka from New York

I think the two extreme ends of the American spectrum would be New York and Nashville.

On the one hand, if we're going to talk about the identity of America, it's really in the multitude of different people of this country. Anyone who isn't an American Indian has ancestry from everywhere across the globe, from Tapachula to Timbuktu, and you really find that in NYC. Plus, I think it's still the first thing that pops into people's minds when they think of "An American City"

On the other hand, America came to build its own individual American identity rather than a collective one over the years, and I don't think that you can do any better to display that identity and culture than the country music capital of the world. I think my top pick would still be NYC though.

March from Florida

ASK AND TELL
20 Questions

What a week of news. Somehow the election went from being the most boring and dreaded in recent history to hotter must-watch TV than Love Island UK.

But today we have a more important voting matter: a ratings edition of 20 Questions. We list 20 random things and ask you to rate from 1 to 10. Next week, we'll average your responses.

No "I voted" stickers. Sorry


Last Week’s 20 Questions:

Part 2 of Roca’s summer playlist based on June 28’s 20 Questions results:

Africa by Toto
Take on My by A-ha
Take it Easy by The Eagles
We Didn’t Start the Fire by Billy Joel
Kokomo by The Beach Boys
Summer in the City by The Lovin’ Spoonful
Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles
Island in the Sun by Weezer
Under the Boardwalk by The Drifters
Celebration by Kool and the Gang
Jack and Diane by John Mellencamp
Surfin’ USA by The Beach Boys (most popular)
Mr. Blue Sky by Electric Light Orchestra
Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears

Missed the cut: Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus, Red Solo Cup by Toby Keith, All Summer Long by Kid Rock, I Love It by Icona Pop, and Levitating by Dua Lipa

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🙏 Praise the Gun: A church in Tennessee gave away an AR-15 as part of a Fourth of July raffle. The pastor noted that the winner had to pass a background check

⚟ Pulled Skenes: The Pittsburgh Pirates pulled rookie pitching sensation Paul Skenes after 7 hitless innings against the Brewers. The 22-year-old has a 1.91 ERA and 5–0 record through his first 11 career starts

The European mind cannot comprehend this GIF of Paul Skenes

🐍 Not that kinda trouser snake, sicko
: Chinese customs agents caught a man attempting to smuggle 104 live snakes in his pants through a “no declaration channel” at a border port

đŸ± Beware the gay furry hackers: A group of self-described “gay furry hackers” stole and released two gigabytes of data from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative American think tank

🛳 A real current event! The Japanese Coast Guard rescued a 21-year-old woman after 36 hours missing at sea. The woman was swimming with a friend and a rubber ring when she was swept out to sea

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

In yesterday’s Final Thoughts, we mentioned that Inside Out 2 just became the highest-grossing Pixar movie of all time. A reader — shoutout Joe from Florida — wrote in to ask if that would change if we adjusted for inflation. The answer is yes: Finding Nemo would come out on top by a healthy margin, in fact. Inside Out 2 still has a long way to go before catching up to the 2003 classic. Just keep swimming!

Now back to the voices in our own heads. Have a great weekend.

–Max and Max