, December 2, 2015
Daily Bafflements
Behold, the man who will save the world! / Ludovic Toinel
• Today in billionaires: Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday that he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, will be donating 99 percent of their Facebook shares to charitable purposes within their lifetimes. The announcement came in the form of a “letter” to the couple’s newborn daughter—who, for the record, obviously can’t read and probably wouldn’t give a shit about her parents’ financial holdings if she could—and signals the formation of a limited liability corporation to manage the couple’s money, called the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. (No creativity points for that one, guys.) As an LLC, the initiative is, as Buzzfeed pointed out, not going to be exclusively involved in charitable activities—it also paves the way for private investment. With the vague mission of “personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities,” what can go wrong?! Hell, even Sheryl Sandberg called it “a beautiful letter and an incredible commitment to future generations.” We prefer Chris Lehmann’s thoughts on the matter.
• Did you know that Vermont Senator—and now presidential candidate (!)—Bernie Sanders helped record a folk album in 1987? Probably not. According to Rolling Stone, the format wasn’t dissimilar to Michael Jackson’s “We Are the World,” recorded by USA For Africa. As one Vermont musician pointed out, “Michael assembled a bunch of superstars—we assembled a bunch of Vermonters.”