The only thing surprising here is that the two men should allow themselves to be so public in their recriminations. But that isn’t surprising given what everyone knows about their personalities. The real revelation, to my mind, is that Musk can publicly call it ‘ingratitude.’ We all knew that the practice of offering significant sums to political campaigns is done with the expectation of receiving favors. But the practice has always been to deny any such ignoble intentions and instead cite one’s enthusiasm for a politician’s political stances. Does this incident tell us that something has changed in our political and media culture? Does the fact that the media reports the battle but doesn’t react to the apparent hypocrisy reveal that the culture has accepted this kind of relationship as normal? Or does this public brawl make visible to the public for the first time the reality of endemic corruption? Might it provoke a reaction could conceivably lead to two opposed outcomes: the withering away of democracy as it is silently replaced by a new form of authoritarianism, or a popular revolt resulting in a quest for a new democratic order. How significant is this clash and what are the likely scenarios concerning democracy in the US?” I began with Gemini, who apparently found this either too sensitive or too contemporary to respond. Instead it explained to me how it was “thinking” before, hours later, canceling the attempt to respond. Here is what appeared on my screen: