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Welcome to the commentary magazine daily podcasts today is Tuesday, December 13, 2022.

I'm John Baudhor, it's the editor of commentary magazine asking you again to consider adding commentary to your list of year end giving opportunities.

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And by we, I mean executive editor, a greenwald high Abe. Hi John, media commentary columnist and American enterprise institute fellow Christine Rosenhykrstein,

hi John associate editor and author of the rise of the New Puritans, no, a Rothman high knowa hi John and joining us today tech commentary columnist Jim Megs. Hi, Jim.

James B Megs, I should say with your formal identity and Jim has like Christine has a monthly column in commentary the tech commentary column and his column is that was eerily prophetic last night and one of the reasons that side from the fact that we love having a mom whenever we have mom on a time on today.

I just will read to you the opening of Jim's column, which is called Twilight of the tech gods. If I can pull it up here one second.

Here is the opening of his column quote maybe a few years in the federal prison will be good for Sam Bankman free the high tech grifter went from billionaire to broken a matter of days when investors realized that his FTX cryptocurrency trading platform had vaporized their money FTX was a Ponzi screen purpose built to

snare investors like them people who thought they were smarter than everyone else. So Jim, congratulations on your we closed the magazine last Thursday.

I put it up yesterday and within hours of this being available online apparently authorities in the Bahamas and in the United States reddit and decided to indict to see the extradition of Sam Bankman free from the Bahamas and indictments are being unsealed today I guess both in the Southern District of New York and from the SEC of of this grift so you did it.

How did you see this coming you know it's just another example of the limitless reach and influence of commentary magazine I think John you know it's funny.

I learned a long time ago in journalism don't predict something that hasn't happened yet.

But it just seemed to me like a foregone conclusion that this guy had broken so many laws he's going to wind up in jail eventually and and only after I wrote it did I start seeing all these comments pop up on Twitter and elsewhere like from the right oh well Sam Bankman freeds never going to jail because he gave too much money to Democrats I'm sorry like I don't think there's enough.

You know I think that might help in the in the edge cases but this case was so blatant I think it was just a matter of time before the before the feds moved in but it was funny that he was supposed to testify but before Maxine Waters House Finance Committee today and you know that he agreed to come to testify and he had.

He had you know submitted some his testimony in advance and then at the last minute that got a sidetracked by the fact that the police in the Bahamas arrested him on behalf of the the federal prosecutor's other district of New York and he assumed he will be on a plane to to Manhattan very shortly.

Apparently he said yesterday in one of the many interviews that he chose to give after after FTX went when belly up he said I do not think that I will be arrested that was about four o'clock and I think it was arrested at seven so this this raises this interesting question about him as almost as a literary character is of which is.

Is he an evil genius or is he chance the gardener from being there is this all some kind of bizarre kind of you know vague it's like a holy moron who didn't understand what he was doing and ends up as president of the United States or.

You know was this all part of the scheme from the beginning and this weird innocent naive act that he's been playing since since FTX went belly up.

Is all part of the evil genius yeah or is he like a character from animal house or some eighties you know teen comedy he kind of reminds me I think I wrote in the column that he reminds me sort of of like they they.

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