Marc Andreessen's crypto SuperPAC spent $260 million in 2024 to successfully pressure politicians on crypto regulation, and now he's launching similarly massive AI-focused PACs that could dominate AI policy unless AI safety supporters organize their own political funding. Longer summary

Scott revisits his 2019 question about why there's so little money in politics relative to other industries, and reports that Marc Andreessen has essentially solved this puzzle by spending massively on crypto PACs in 2024 with overwhelming success. His Fairshake PAC raised $260 million (compared to AIPAC's $87 million), successfully pressured politicians into pro-crypto positions, and may have effectively purchased control over crypto regulation. Now Andreessen and others are launching AI-focused SuperPACs with $200+ million in funding, threatening to do the same for AI policy. Scott explains the mechanics of hard vs soft money, why the strategy worked, and ends by calling on AI safety supporters to organize their own political funding efforts to counter this influence. Shorter summary

Scott analyzes the projected drop in DC's high school graduation rates, exploring various explanations and comparing DC to other states, ultimately suggesting widespread inflation of graduation rates elsewhere. Longer summary

This post discusses the projected drop in high school graduation rates in Washington DC from 73% to 42%. Scott examines possible explanations, including incompetent administration, unique challenges due to demographics, and overcorrection from previous fraud. He analyzes test scores and compares DC to other states, finding that DC's scores, while low, don't justify such a low graduation rate. Scott suggests that many other cities might be using fraud and low standards to inflate their graduation rates, and that DC's projected rate might be an overcorrection that unfairly penalizes students. He hopes DC will find ways to graduate more students to align with national norms. Shorter summary