The Daily Valet. - 7/29/20, Wednesday

✔️ In the Zoom Where It Happened

Wednesday, July 29th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

Should we expect Cousin Greg-level awkwardness today in Congress?

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s Big Story

Big Tech Goes to Washington

Bezos, Cook, Pichai and Zuck will all be in the Zoom where it happens

Some of the world’s most powerful CEOs are coming to Capitol Hill—virtually, of course—to answer one overarching question: Do the biggest technology companies use their reach and power to hurt competitors and help themselves?

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook and Google’s Sundar Pichai will answer lawmakers’ questions in the culmination of a year-long investigation by the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel into the tech giants’ power that spanned 1.3 million documents, along with hundreds of hours of hearings and closed-door briefings.

According to The Verge, the committee intends to publish a report in the coming months detailing how the companies have “avoided liability under current antitrust laws” because our competition rules “were never crafted with the tech industry’s behaviors in mind.”

Bezos is the only CEO that will be appearing before Congress for the first time Wednesday, reports The Hill. And his inaugural hearing is likely to be combative given that members of the committee have already threatened Amazon with a perjury referral. He’ll no doubt be questioned about Amazon’s role as both the operator of an online marketplace and a seller of goods on that market.

For Facebook, the company’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp are likely to feature heavily in Wednesday’s testimony. The company claims that concerns about dominating social media are overblown, emphasizing that the two platforms were not that big before being purchased by Facebook and that it still has to compete with apps like TikTok. (And Zuckerberg should point out that those purchases were approved by federal regulators at the time.)

So why does this matter? These companies shape how billions of people communicate, learn, work and shop. Plus, our reliance on these platforms has only intensified during the pandemic. And the conclusions by House lawmakers could reshape substantial parts of the tech industry.

↦ Dig Deeper: Read Jeff Bezos' written testimony in full, along with the prepared remarks of the other CEOs.

Attorney General William Barr Testifies

He defended the aggressive federal response to protests

Speaking of TV hearings, House Democrats clashed with Attorney General William Barr in a contentious four-hour hearing where they argued over the Justice Department's deployment of federal officers into U.S. cities (without the request of local officials), Barr's involvement in the prosecution of two allies of President Trump and a number of other issues, reports CNN.

Barr told lawmakers that the Trump administration had no choice but to send federal agents to Portland, Oregon, because “violent rioters and anarchists” are taking over Black Lives Matter protests. But he also said there was no systemic racism in law enforcement, so ...

Barr pushed back on characterizations that he has politicized the Department of Justice, reports Fox News. Addressing his involvement in the prosecutions of Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, he said it was necessary “to make sure people are treated the same.” He also doubled-down on his remarks about the dangers of mail-in voting.

The hearing marks Barr's first appearance before the committee after 18 months in office, but little new ground was uncovered. Fuming Democrats often used their five minutes to lay out their frustrations and cut Barr off as he attempted to answer questions.

↦ FYI: Last year, the House Judiciary Committee voted to hold Barr in contempt over efforts to obtain an unredacted version of the Mueller report.

The Emmy Noms Got a Lot Right This Year

Let’s take a moment to honor good TV

I'll admit that amidst the burning dumpster fire we seem to be navigating at the moment, award shows don't seem all that important. But good TV is what's gotten a lot of us through this mess and there's been a lot of good television lately.

Netflix dominated the 72nd Emmy Award nominations that were announced on Tuesday, breaking the record for the most nominations ever, and a newcomer to the streaming universe, Disney+, scored big for its baby (Yoda), The Mandalorian. So did Apple TV+ for its original, The Morning Show.

A longtime Emmy champion, HBO, remained a force: their show, Watchmen, led all shows with 26 nominations. According to Vulture, it's telling that the show, which grapples with systemic racism in ways that get more prescient as time goes on, was the most nominated program of the year

And let's just say, it feels good to be on the right side of history. We've been talking about Succession from day one and now the show has stepped into the void left by Game of Thrones and claimed their rightful 18 nominations. If they don't pick up at least five awards, a game of “Boar on the Floor” is due.

↦ FYI: The envelopes are scheduled to be unsealed on September 20th during a ceremony broadcast by ABC and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.

Peek Inside Virgin Galactic’s Spaceplane

Each passenger gets a tailored seat and a spectacular view

Start saving your money because Virgin Galactic is giving prospective customers a first look inside the cabin that will carry them to the edge of space and back, should you have a few hundred grand to spend.

For $250,000 a ticket passengers who have signed up for the suborbital flight aboard the VSS Unity will strap into six tailored, teal-colored seats and peer out of the cabin’s 12 circular windows as they ascend some 60 miles above Earth. The plane has five additional windows up front.

The cabin's design is the central piece of the company's product, reports CNBC, especially due to the variety of stages during a Virgin Galactic spaceflight. The trip will last just 90 minutes from takeoff to landing. But that will include taking off from a runway under the power of a jet-powered carrier aircraft, a brief free-fall after the spacecraft is released from under the aircraft at about 50,000 feet altitude, a rocket-powered burst of acceleration hitting more than three times the speed of sound and then a few minutes floating in micro-gravity at the edge of space.

According to the company, there's already a waitlist of more than 600 customers ready to fly and more than 400 more who have expressed interest.

↦ FYI: Virgin Galactic has not set a firm date for its first commercial space flight.

In Other News

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

Why we go to restaurants

The controversial drug I’ve been taking

The chicken-scented KFC x Crocs collab

Conditions Ripe for Major Hurricanes

Because ... of course they are

Get out your 2020 bingo cards. Did you have major hurricanes? Because apparently they're due to shake up the rest of this strange and deadly year.

“Things are unfortunately shaping up to be an active hurricane season in the Atlantic, which is probably not what people are wanting to hear,” meteorologist Phil Klotzbach tells National Geographic.

In an average year, around 12 named storms form—with anything from a tropical storm to a full-fledged hurricane earning an official moniker. This year, forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predict that anywhere from 13 to 19 large storms could spin up, with as many as six becoming major hurricanes.

Currently, the National Hurricane Center believes Isaias—the ninth named storm of 2020—will form in the Atlantic by the end of the day on Wednesday.

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