DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES:

Only one billion over budget? No wonder it’s years behind schedule — they need extra time for the grift.

GREAT CLEANER: Affresh Washing Machine Cleaner. #CommissionEarned I use this between washes and it keeps the washer from getting stale.

THE EV BUBBLE DENIES DEFLATION RUMORS: Lucid dismisses report that it is weighing filing for bankruptcy or going private after shares plunge.

A site focused on electric vehicles called EV reported Tuesday Lucid was considering going private or filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. According to the site, the company asked AlixPartners to review those options and deliver its findings to Lucid’s board before its next meeting.

The report from EV also said AlixPartners had encouraged the board to further restructure in the U.S. and Europe and to focus on the Gravity SUV.

AlixPartners said it had no comment on the report. Lucid said in a statement that “the rumors are completely false.”

I guess we’ll see. But unlike Tesla or even Rivian, I never see any Lucid vehicles in EV-friendly Colorado.

THE MARKET HAS SPOKEN:

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: The Commie Call Is Coming From Inside the Democrats’ House. “Until President Trump upended the political tradition apple cart in 2016, the Democrats used to be better at playing a more subtle long game in politics. Since then, they’ve been singularly focused on being consumed by hatred for the man who denied their alcoholic Ice Queen the presidency that they felt she was entitled to.”

CHANGE: Warren Buffett stops Gates Foundation donations, will give $6 billion to family foundations. “Omaha billionaire Warren Buffett said Tuesday that he stopped donating money to the Gates Foundation after revelations about interactions between the Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.”

For a guy who spent a lifetime picking winners and dumping losers, he sure held on to Gates for a long time.

SHE’S SERVED HER PURPOSE, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, SHE KNOWS IT:

LET THE GAMES BEGIN:

READ THE WHOLE THING:

IT’S MY THURSDAY ESSAY FOR VIP SUBSCRIBERS: Our Love/Meh Relationship With AI.

“People wanted more than just text,” former CEO Eric Schmidt later said of the company’s moonshot effort to design, build, and launch the first image search engine as quickly as humanly possible. “Google Image Search was born” on July 12, 2001, Schmidt later recalled.

Google Image Search immediately became one of the company’s most-loved and most-used tools, and constant refinements over the last 25 years helped keep it that way. I moved on from Google years ago — mostly because I despise the company’s business practices — but when the copycats fail, I find myself back on GIS.

Then this week — on Image Search’s 25th birthday — Google just had to go and ruin it.

Say it with me now: “By adding AI nobody asked for.”

But this isn’t really about Google, Image Search, or even AI. It’s about tools.

Much more at the link.

WHAT IF: The laws of nature actually aren’t able in and of themselves to create life as we know it? Systems Engineer Steve Laufman, ably teamed with Dr. Howard Glicksman, examine the significance of the problem of increasing complexity in the search for solutions.

CCP TOOL: Trump blasts Hochul over data center moratorium.

Hochul imposed a one-year moratorium on new data centers this month as national backlash to their explosive growth has increased in recent months. Trump, for his part, expressed support for data centers and encouraged states to embrace them.

“One of the biggest Driving Forces in the Future for Jobs, are Data Centers. They are big, strong, bold, and Money Machines for the State in which they are built. Governor Kathy Hochul, for political reasons, has terminated all Data Centers being built, or to be built, in New York State,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

“These Companies are now being sought in Alabama, Florida, Texas, Arizona, and many other States. Both the Taxes and the Jobs amount to LIQUID GOLD!” he added. “New York State has made a terrible decision. All of this Income, and other Benefits, will be going to Red States, and some Blue, where Data Centers are sought as Cash Cows, with Lower Taxes and Record Setting Jobs.”

“They must pay for their own Water and Power, and any leftover goes back to the State and local Community. Data Centers are tremendous WINS for the States and Communities that are lucky enough to get them,” he added. “New York should change its Policy, IMMEDIATELY.”

But what would Comrade Xi say?

CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN: