💬 The Rubin Recap: The Sunday return to normalcy

Normal man running for mayor in L.A.

I talked a little bit about Spencer Pratt in last Friday’s edition of The Rubin Recap. And I want to dive a little deeper this week, because what he’s doing in the L.A. mayor’s race is an intense reaction to government officials who have let the city stray way too far from what is normal in recent years.

A great illustration of this comes from what Pratt said his first three weeks in office will look like if he’s elected. He said he plans to put “signs up across the city” that will read, “No more nakedness, no more drug use, no more robbing. No more dog abuse. We're going to warn everybody … ‘Hey, you’ve got three more weeks of this. Clock's ticking … so the people are aware, there's a new mayor in town.”

I believe him when he says he’s going to do things. And what exactly are those things?

They’re a return to normalcy. Just basic normalcy that has been long gone in L.A. for many years now. And for those of you who don’t live in L.A., you might think he’s joking about one of his top priorities being no more public nakedness. He’s not.

When I was in L.A. about 3 years ago, walking into the hotel — a Marriott Courtyard — I saw two guys who were naked (apart from the dog masks they were wearing). And one was walking the other one on a leash. I was just there this week, and I saw plenty of homeless people all over the place, the streets smelled. Pratt is just trying to bring back the normal.

Pratt is an embodiment of the angry righteous indignation felt by so many in L.A. and around the country, a guy who is not inherently political. But then his house burned down. His parents’ house burned down. The neighbor across the street literally died in the fire. Plus, he is a stark contrast to the two ridiculous people — Karen Bass and the Zorhan Mamdani wannabe — flanking him in the polls right now.

The other thing I like about Pratt is that he, in ways, is similar to Trump. Reality TV star. A guy who’s just fed up with the status quo of the elite political class. Someone who just rolls up his sleeves and assigns himself the job of fixing things.

His A.I. campaign videos remind me of some of the early content Trump tweeted or retweeted back in 2016 and 2017. Remember how everyone on the left lost their mind about the gif Trump retweeted showing him hitting a golf ball, with the ball then hitting Hillary Clinton in the back? 😂

Or how about the video of “Trump” bodyslamming CNN? Ahhh, the good old days. Pratt has amplified a number of great A.I. videos over just the last few weeks, but I thought the one below was really excellent.

It’s worth noting that that those videos are made by a supporter, Charles Curran. Like Trump, he amplifies the groundswell of support gathering underneath him. I’m not sure these types of videos would exist today had Trump not blazed that trail. The return to normalcy always leads back to Trump.

Joe Lonsdale on the future of A.I. — and a bunch of other topics

No hate for billionaires here at The Rubin Report. AOC has been on a tirade against billionaires lately, but here at Rubin HQ, we treat billionaires like normal people, because they are normal people, too. Had the pleasure this week of sitting down with Joe Lonsdale, one of the co-founders of Palantir, sipping a little Copal with him and diving in on the future of tech and A.I. If anyone knows about A.I., it’s Joe — he’s a Silicon Valley veteran, and he’s an optimist about how A.I. is going to shape American life. “We’re in the early innings of an industrial revolution,” he told me.

Joe’s a complex guy, so we hit on a number of other topics also, including Kevin Warsh, who was approved by the Senate this week to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve. We talked about the decline seen in cities like L.A. and New York, how “mind virus politics” hurt innovation, Thomas Jefferson’s view of public education, and why Florida and Texas have become magnets for entrepreneurs. This was Joe’s third visit to the show — he’s a veteran now. Super informative discussion, don’t miss it ⬇️