What do the Atlantic, Business Insider, Vox, Salon, Slate, BuzzFeed, Washington Post, New York Times have in common? They've all knowingly published lies about me over the past four years. There's zero honesty or accountability in journalism. We're going to change that in 2021.

Everyone calm down. While we don’t know why witnesses weren’t called, we know that the Democrats didn’t “cave.” They’re not hapless idiots. They’re savvy fighters, and they must have had a damn good reason for this. Stop blindly attacking them and let this play out.

For insurance, the DC Attorney General let it be known last night that he’s looking to criminally charge Trump for the insurrection. That’s infinitely more important than impeachment. Perhaps he asked the Democrats not to screw up his prosecution by calling his witnesses.

It’s also possible that one or more of the witnesses changed their story, and therefore it would have backfired.

There are all kinds of plausible explanations for what just happened. “Democrats stupidly caved” is NOT one of them, because these Democrats are NOT stupid or cavers.

We really, really, really need to learn to avoid jumping straight into the “all hope is lost” and “Democrats just stupidly caved” routines. Neither of those things ever ends up being true. When we fatalistically yell that stuff, WE are the ones (unwittingly) causing harm.

We deserve answers as to what happened today, but we’ll get them soon enough.

I warned you from day one not to let the media suck you into the fictional notion that the impeachment trial was crucial, and that he’s “getting away with it all” if he’s not convicted in it.

Since everyone is still talking about how successful of an evil genius henchman Bill Barr was, let's catalog all the times he corruptly tried to help Trump but fell flat on his face:

Barr tried to get the case against Michael Flynn thrown out, but this effort failed entirely. Trump ended up having to pardon Flynn, to clean up Barr's failure.

Barr tried to get Roger Stone's prison sentence reduced to the minimum, but Stone ended up getting the multi-year sentence he was always going to get. Trump had to commute Stone's sentence, to clean up Barr's failure.

After Michael Cohen was let out on house arrest due to the pandemic, Barr tried throwing him back in prison to prevent him from publishing his anti-Trump book. But a judge quickly freed Cohen, who succeeded in publishing his book.

Barr tried to install his own guy as head of the SDNY, presumably to stop the arrest of Steve Bannon. But Barr blew it, the SDNY remained in proper hands, and Bannon ended up getting arrested.

1) If you want a better understanding of how to fight and win on the left, look no further than Rep. Bill Pascrell. He knows Speaker Pelosi can't just magically refuse to seat 126 House Republicans and pull it off – but that's the entire point. This is all about leverage.

2) There are no magic wand solutions in politics. There just aren't. Pascrell is a fearless flame thrower, but he understands that. He's calling for Pelosi to refuse to seat these Republicans, because it gets the discussion going about what should be done to these Republicans.

3) By calling for an extreme and impossible action (the 14th Amendment isn't a magic wand the Speaker can just wave), Pascrell is laying the groundwork to give Pelosi cover to be able to take some kind of more realistic action against the 126 House Republicans.

4) By the time Pelosi ends up taking whatever realistic action she was planning to take against them, it ends up looking reasonable in the eyes of voters in the middle, in comparison to the more extreme (and again, impossible) course of action that Pascrell put on the table.

5) So the Democratic Party will get a savvy win out of this. They'll ding the 126 House Republicans in some way, and it'll resonate with voters in the middle. But most liberal activists will end up throwing a fit about it, because they didn't get the magic wand solution.

No, Mike Pence can't magically do anything on January 6th. No, Louie Gohment can't force the courts to give Pence magic powers. Trump has literally zero chance of magically overturning the election. Stop panicking over imaginary things. This is getting incredibly boring.

There won’t be a civil war. No one will pull off a coup. There won’t be martial law. None of these things are real.

It’s over. But the more clear it becomes that it’s over, the fantasizers on Trump’s side, and the panickers on our side, become more hallucinatory about it.

We have a pandemic, people dying, an economic crisis, people starving, and a runoff election that’s for all the marbles. Yet you’re going to focus on IMAGINARY doomsday scenarios? None of what’s going on is real enough for you? You have to go invent more bad things? Come on.

Those of us who have fought so hard for four years, deserve better than to have our agenda derailed by the doomsday panickers on our side. They don’t care about winning, they’re just addicted to the adrenaline rush of telling themselves they’re going to lose.

In fact the panickers on our side, and the fantasizers on Trump’s side, deserve each other. Both completely removed from reality. Neither interested in helping their own side. Just a shared interest in hallucinating over laugh out loud imaginary scenarios. And of no use to anyone

Please stop asking me what happens if Mike Pence calls for a "ten day window" or whatever. NOTHING happens. Nothing a fucking thing. He doesn't have that ability. It would be like me calling for giraffes to grow wings. Please stop asking me about obviously imaginary things.

Those of you who insist on fretting and panicking over imaginary bullshit are becoming a real liability to our side. You're ensuring that those of us who want to fight and win important battles, are instead stuck babysitting your panicky asses. PLEASE STOP. You're hurting us.

Some of you panickers have become such a gullible and pathetic joke, even Ted Cruz is laughing at you now. He knows he can't magically overturn the election with imaginary procedures. He's laughing his ass off at you for being gullible enough to fall for it. You're the joke now.

You fucking panickers are doing REAL HARM to our side. You make us weak. You hand the republicans leverage over us that they don't have. You derail our agenda. You make sure we get nowhere. You're my enemy. You always have been. Please go away, panickers, I detest you.

I do not want people in my audience who go around searching for imaginary things to panic over. I just don't. I never have. I never will. Sorry. That kind of shit makes me want to vomit. I will never be a babysitter for people who think it's cute to panic. Makes me nauseated.

Red Bull is a weird and fascinating company.

- $7.4 billion in 2020 revenue
- 43% energy drink market
- Makes nothing

Nope, not even the drinks they sell. Instead, they focus 100% on marketing.

Here's what's going on

1/

Before Red Bull there was Krating Daeng (KD).

Founded by pharmaceutical entrepreneur, Chaleo Yoovidhya, KD was created to serve Thailand's country's working class.

Yoovidhya chose the gaur, a member of the bovine family from the region, as the brand's symbol.

2/

Dietrich Mateschitz was a toothpaste marketer. On a business trip to Thailand he discovered KD and fell in love with the drink.

With Yoovidhya, he decided to bring it to Europe. He made changes:

- Name became "Red Bull"
- Added bubbles
- Used a thin can
- Targeted elites

3/

The deal Mateschitz and Yoovidhya struck outsourced production of the drink to the Thai entrepreneur's pharmaceutical company.

That fundamental structure has remained in place today: Red Bull outsources production and focuses on distribution (marketing).

4/

Mateschitz noticed the rise of extreme sports starting in the 1990s. He thought Red Bull should be a part of it.

The years since have seen the company amass an insane empire across sports, media, and apparel.

I’m a firm believer that more & more entrepreneurial ‘builders’ will evolve their operating company into a HoldCo

Scaling initial capital light successes (like a service co) & redeploying cash flow into concentrated bets leveraging existing know-how, infrastructure, & expertise

Why?

- lower barriers than ever to building asset light/capital light co's
- existing co infrastructure makes acquiring/building another co easy
- more non-dilutive funding options available
- talented operators/investors can use brand, capital, & know-how to scale meaningfully

But first… what is a HoldCo?

It’s fancy term for “holding company” which is an entity that owns/controls the assets of other different companies

Most HoldCo portfolio companies operate autonomously... with their own team, balance sheets, systems, processes etc.

Major capital allocation decisions are performed at the “TopCo” (ie, primary owners of the HoldCo)

Most HoldCo’s are C-Corps due to structural/tax advantages, but sometimes you see them operate as LLCs

Distributions to shareholders are less common, w/ free cash flow used instead for new acquisitions, spinning up new products/services, or using for existing portfolio co needs

"If you create it for yourself, it’s art.

If you create it for others, it’s business."

@naval