Drake & Kendrick, Draft Dodging, DEI, & Delivery Vehicles

November 27, 2024

Hello, readers – happy Wednesday! Today, we’ll be talking about Trump’s tariffs, the Drake-Kendrick beef, a ceasefire, binge eating, weight loss medications, Walmart’s DEI policies, and new mail trucks.

Here’s some good news: AppCharge, a platform for publishers to build their own sites for selling gaming currencies and other virtual goods directly to consumers, has raised $26 million to help gaming apps cut out Apple and Google from their revenues. Also, the Biden administration announced that the U.S. Department of Energy will make a $6.6 billion loan to Rivian Automotive to build a factory in Georgia in an attempt to continue the EV push before he hands the White House over to Trump.

Please note: There will not be a new edition of Daily Pnut tomorrow or Friday, and there will not be a Sunday edition this week either. We’ll be back in your inbox bright and early on Monday!

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero

Trump Tariffs Primed For Takeoff

President-elect Trump has unveiled his new tariff plan. The Don’s big idea? Imposing 25% duties on imports from the U.S.’s top three trade partners – Mexico, Canada, and China – with an extra 10% tax on Chinese imports. Trump claims he’ll sign the tariffs into law via executive order as soon as he takes office, saying they are part of a crackdown on illegal immigration and cross-border crime. The duties will remain in place, he said, “until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!”

Other countries have already responded to the threat – Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said that her country might impose its own tariffs on U.S. goods, adding that her country’s struggle with drug cartels has only been made worse by the free flow of U.S. weapons into Mexico. She also offered a neighborly suggestion on U.S. policy, saying, “If a percentage of what the United States spends on war were dedicated to peace and development, that would address the underlying causes of migration.” Across the pond, the British government is also figuring out how to respond to U.S. tariffs – initial plans include taxes on Harley Davidson motorbikes, Jack Daniel’s bourbon, and Levi’s jeans, which could be deployed instantly if the Trump White House targets imports from the U.K.

good kid, m.A.A.d. Fellow Rapper

After taking a beating from Kendrick Lamar in a headline-snatching rap beef earlier this year, Drake has shifted the battle to the courtroom. Earlier this week, the Canadian rapper/singer sued Universal Music Group (UMG) and Spotify, accusing the label and streaming service of conspiring to artificially push Lamar’s hit song “Not Like Us.” He followed up that suit with more legal action yesterday – he sued UMG for defamation citing the label’s role in releasing a song that calls him a “certified pedophile.”

On the surface, the funny part about these lawsuits is that both rappers release their music under UMG – Lamar’s music is distributed by Interscope Records, while Drake is signed to Republic Records. But if you read into Drake’s claims, things get even funnier.

He claims that UMG struck up custom deals with Spotify and Apple Music to artificially promote “Not Like Us.” In the first suit, Drake alleges that UMG had a secret deal with Apple Music to promote the song via Siri, citing some instances where the voice assistant would play “Not Like Us” when asked to play Drake’s album “Certified Lover Boy.” He also claims that UMG fired employees “with or perceived as having loyalty to Drake,” despite him being one of the company’s own artists. Tuesday’s suit alleged similar schemes, this time accusing UMG of setting up a “pay-to-play scheme” with radio stations across the country to promote the song. Honestly, it’s not unlikely that all these things happened – it’s just funny that all the macho posturing surrounding the beef has devolved into a courtroom drama.

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Sending Hezbollah Home For The Holidays

• The Biden White House won a surprise Thanksgiving victory yesterday, securing a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah. The deal will see Hezbollah cede control of Lebanon’s southern border regions to the U.S.-backed government of Lebanon in exchange for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon. 
• The peace deal took effect at 4 a.m. local time today – over the next 60 days, Israeli forces will slowly leave their positions within Lebanon, while Hezbollah will withdraw past the Litani River, about 20 miles north of the Lebanon-Israel border. “This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities,” said Biden in a statement. “What is left of Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations will not be allowed, I emphasize, will not be allowed, to threaten the security of Israel ever again.”

Draft-Dodging With A Double Cheeseburger

• “How badly do you want this?” That’s the question that one South Korean asked himself as he considered ways to avoid his country’s mandatory military service. The answer, apparently, was, “So badly that I will binge-eat until I am considered unfit to serve in a combat role.”
• Yesterday, a South Korean court found that anonymous man guilty of dodging national service – he’s been sentenced to serve one year in prison, though his time behind bars will be suspended for two years. According to the court, the man was physically fit to serve in a combat role when first tested in 2017. But when he underwent a second physical last year, he was so obese that he could only work in a non-combat role – one that allowed him to commute home at night.
• The man apparently doubled his daily food intake and took up binge eating in the lead-up to his second exam. Shortly before the physical, he also drank a large amount of water to further, erm, inflate his BMI. He claims to have gotten the idea from a friend, who was sentenced to six months in prison for his role in the scheme.

More Mixed Nuts

• Pakistani troops killed as protesters storm barricades demanding the release of jailed ex-PM Imran Khan (NBC)
• Hong Kong’s top court rules in favor of equal inheritance and housing benefits for same-sex couples (AP)
• TikTok CEO summoned to EU Parliament over role in shock Romania election (Politico)
• Over 18,000 register to run for Supreme Court seats and federal judges in Mexico’s new system (AP)
• France’s far right threatens to bring down the government over the planned budget (AP)

Another Round Of Weight Loss Shots

• The Biden administration introduced plans to require Medicare and Medicaid to offer coverage of weight loss medications like Ozempic and Wegovy (from Novo Nordisk), and Mounjaro and Zepbound (from Eli Lilly). States can decide whether to cover obesity drugs under Medicaid, but most don’t.
• By classifying obesity drugs as treatment for a “chronic disease,” rather than as weight loss medications, the administration can work around the rule that prevents Medicare from paying for weight loss drugs, unless they’re used to treat conditions like diabetes or to manage an increased risk of heart disease.

DEI Is On De Outs

• Walmart announced that they will be rolling back a series of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. The nation’s largest private employer will not renew a racial equity center it created following the 2020 murder of George Floyd and will no longer participate in an annual benchmark index from LGBTQ+ advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign.
• Robby Starbuck, a conservative activist who has pushed for this type of rollback at companies across the country, said that Walmart will also begin monitoring third-party items for “inappropriate sexual and/or transgender products marketed to children.” They’ll also be reviewing all Pride funding and no longer using the term LatinX in official communications. 

More Nuts In America

• How Trump Plans to Seize the Power of the Purse From Congress (ProPublica)
• Former ABC News anchor describes toxic environment of racism and bullying (Guardian)
• Judge in LA delays until January decision on resentencing Menendez brothers (AP)
• Why abortions rose after Roe was overturned (NBC)
• US universities warn foreign students on Trump immigration crackdown (BBC)
• Trump “border czar” Tom Homan to visit border with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (CBS)

New Car, Whose Duck Is This?

• The U.S. Postal Service is getting a sick new ride. Just kidding – this thing looks like it’s one step away from being a mechanized platypus – but postal workers are still excited about getting their first new mail trucks in decades. The vehicles, developed and produced by Oshkosh Defense (a Wisconsin-based defense contractor), can be powered by either gas or electricity and are designed with mail carriers’ comfort as their main goal.
• The Next Generation Delivery Vehicles are equipped with air-conditioning, a 360-degree camera, and a sliding cargo door to make it easier for workers to unload cargo directly onto the sidewalk. They also have giant windshields and extremely low-profile hoods, which will hopefully grant shorter mail carriers more visibility on the road. The last time postal workers got a car upgrade was in the 1980s – those trucks only have fans attached to their dashboards, and their cargo doors are so small that workers complain about having to crouch inside to reach their mail.
• You’ve really got to see the new design to believe it – one reviewer said the new truck “looks like a robot Beluga whale — built by the East German government” – but postal workers are still happy with it. “I know a lot of people say it looks funny,” said one of the first mail carriers to get one of the new vehicles. “It looks like a duck or a platypus. It does. But I tell them it gets the job done. It works for me.”

More Loose Nuts

• Social media influencer arrested after filming herself getting ready to steal from store using fake barcodes (ABC)
• World’s oldest man John Tinniswood dies in England at the age of 112 (CBS)
• Blast from the past: Researchers discover oldest US gun dating back almost 500 years (USA Today)
• Inside San Jose State’s polarizing volleyball season (ESPN)
• ‘Demure’ is Dictionary.com’s word of the year. If that’s news to you, here’s the backstory (NPR)
• Disney To Pay Out $43M In Pay Equity Class Action Deal, Will Bring Outside Consultants Onboard To Check Practices (Deadline)

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Team Thoughts

Kayli – Drake suing Kendrick has to be one of the most embarrassing things I’ve seen a rapper do. 

Marcus – I’ve always wanted to drive one of the old mail trucks, but from what I can tell from writing this article, it was a miserable experience. Oh well.