I had a good talk with my NBF, Owen Matthews, at The Spectator’s writers’ party, and we agreed on the two subjects we talked about: Russia and women. I won’t exaggerate the enormity of our aggregate knowledge – and the way we have deployed it in our service, especially where the fairer sex is concerned. Suffice to say that it is far beyond the comprehension of most individuals who concern themselves only with money.
Speaking of loot, I have a gent’s bet with a friend that Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX infamy – accused of having stolen billions while attempting to recover his financial blunders – will get away with a wrist slap. Bankman-Fried maintains his innocence. The question no one seems to be asking is how his parents – a pair of Stanford University part-time law profs – could afford to post a $250 million bail for their bum-clenching, unkempt son. The latter’s bail has been revoked because he contacted future witnesses, so now the proud parents fly over every week in order to hold his little mitts. The trial starts this week.
Here’s the Bankman-Fried mother – a woman who would not look out of place in a remake of the Rocky Horror Show – wailing against those Nazis out to get her son: ‘This is McCarthyism in its relentless pursuit of total destruction.’ The way I see it, a mother has every right to defend her child, but not to blindly blame the law for going after what is alleged to be one of the biggest frauds ever.
But back to higher subjects than crypto loot; to Florence’s Piazza della Signoria in around 1500 AD, where intellectuals met and debated matters of importance. My NBF Owen Matthews might have felt at home with real Renaissance men, but I’m not so sure I would have coped.
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