Elizabeth "Theranos" Holmes' Boyfriend Sunny Balwani
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From WSJ reporter John Carreyou’s muckraking new book Bad Blood on the “female Steve Jobs” scandal:
https://twitter.com/alyssabereznak/status/1003378327258845184
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Pride goeth before a fall.
Given that this is an HBD blog and all, it might be interesting to do a study in the physiognomy of the relevant characters in the Theranos debacle to see if one can draw any general observations. Or would that be to gauche?
Of course (as remarked elsewhere in this blog?) physiognomy can sometimes lead you astray.
OT: This trending lamestream article about a 15-month decline in Chicago’s gun violence rate took me about 5 minutes to reconcile with the Ferguson effect theory.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/chicago-officials-laud-15th-consecutive-month-of-declining-gun-violence/ar-AAy9lqf?li=BBnbfcL&OCID=ansmsnnews11
In effect, the Microphone is arguing here that a decline in gun violence (since Trump took office) from the two-decade high Obama left us is proof that Trump is deluded about criminal justice. The doublethink is strong.
Are you sure about that, Rahm? Because from where I’m sitting it looks like Trump’s Justice Dept. is the main reason Chicago cops feel comfortable doing their jobs again.
http://faculty.washington.edu/matsueda/courses/371/Readings/
Rosenfeld%20Crime%20Decline.pdf
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/04/what-caused-the-crime-decline/477408/
http://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Fewer-Prisoners-Less-Crime-A-Tale-of-Three-States.pdf
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/30/5-facts-about-crime-in-the-u-s/
http://www.nber.org/digest/jan03/w9061.html (actually arresting those involved in crime as opposed to stopping every black male jogging in a hoodie.)
It would seem much is happening on the street.
You must sitting from afar in a stupor, because it would appear that it's the CPD's efforts, not Trump, that should take the credit. Has his administration even put any specific resources to combat Chicago's murder rate, other than make half-backed claims like this one?
"He backs Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ declaration in August that “New York City continues to see gang murder after gang murder, the predictable consequence of the city’s ‘soft on crime’ stance.” Actually the Big Apple continued to enjoy a quarter-century-long decline in violent crime, ending the year with fewer than 300 homicides, the fewest homicides (and most other violent crimes, except rape) that the city has seen since the 1950s."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/page/ct-perspec-page-trump-murder-rate-jeff-sessions-0103-20180102-story.html
Men with gold chains!!!
Here’s a picture of the very handsome “Balwani.” I bet he was dynamite with the ladies…..
https://twitter.com/JustinTweets4/status/1003384471834562560
According to what I’ve read, “Balwani” was a successful software entrepreneur/executive and helped his “girlfriend” raise more than $700 million for her company. Unfortunately, that money was raised on the basis of fraud. So the SEC is now charging him.
https://plus.google.com/photos/114530886129478879416/albums/profile/5786859415327016562?iso=falseReplies: @Steve Sailer, @JohnnyWalker123
I wonder if Elizabeth was what you might call an “adventuress.”
https://www.unz.com/isteve/jackie-and-the-return-of-the-adventuress/
Or maybe she was just an old fashioned gold-digger.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/chicago-officials-laud-15th-consecutive-month-of-declining-gun-violence/ar-AAy9lqf?li=BBnbfcL&OCID=ansmsnnews11
In effect, the Microphone is arguing here that a decline in gun violence (since Trump took office) from the two-decade high Obama left us is proof that Trump is deluded about criminal justice. The doublethink is strong.Are you sure about that, Rahm? Because from where I'm sitting it looks like Trump's Justice Dept. is the main reason Chicago cops feel comfortable doing their jobs again.Replies: @Steve Sailer, @Stan d Mute, @AndrewR, @Anonymous, @EliteCommInc., @Jim Christian, @Corvinus
Thanks.
Vidi, Vici, Veni.
That is the slogan of today’s vanguard.
Here's a picture of the very handsome "Balwani." I bet he was dynamite with the ladies.....
https://twitter.com/JustinTweets4/status/1003384471834562560
According to what I've read, "Balwani" was a successful software entrepreneur/executive and helped his "girlfriend" raise more than $700 million for her company. Unfortunately, that money was raised on the basis of fraud. So the SEC is now charging him.Replies: @BB753
Here’s the picture I got for Ramesh “Sunni” Balwani.
https://plus.google.com/photos/114530886129478879416/albums/profile/5786859415327016562?iso=false
This is what I found when I looked it up. The picture below is what he looks like now.
https://www.darkdaily.com/cms-notifies-theranos-of-clia-sanctions-that-include-revoking-clinical-laboratorys-clia-license-and-a-two-year-ban-on-holmes-balwani-and-dhawan-414/Replies: @Tony, @Brutusale
https://plus.google.com/photos/114530886129478879416/albums/profile/5786859415327016562?iso=falseReplies: @Steve Sailer, @JohnnyWalker123
Balwani looks oddly like Holmes in facial features.
https://www.dreshare.com/ramesh-sunny-balwani-wiki-bio-net-worth-age/Sunny has deleted LinkedIn account but somehow kept Twitter (no activity since 2015):
https://twitter.com/sunnybalwaniSeems like McCain was a major Theranos pusher.Replies: @BB753, @Dr. X, @Anonymous
So who is the better power couple? Elizabeth Holmes and this guy, or Ellen Pao and Buddy Fletcher?
So he was from Miami?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/chicago-officials-laud-15th-consecutive-month-of-declining-gun-violence/ar-AAy9lqf?li=BBnbfcL&OCID=ansmsnnews11
In effect, the Microphone is arguing here that a decline in gun violence (since Trump took office) from the two-decade high Obama left us is proof that Trump is deluded about criminal justice. The doublethink is strong.Are you sure about that, Rahm? Because from where I'm sitting it looks like Trump's Justice Dept. is the main reason Chicago cops feel comfortable doing their jobs again.Replies: @Steve Sailer, @Stan d Mute, @AndrewR, @Anonymous, @EliteCommInc., @Jim Christian, @Corvinus
I guess it depends on whether we can take as fact that there has been a decline. Rahm Emanuel and MSN are not, to my mind, credible sources. Nor do I find Sheriff Dart or Chicago PD credible when we’ve all seen so much evidence of pencil whipping crime numbers into shape.
" Sheriff Dart - Hypocrite
What a jackass this guy is:
It is not unusual for a sheriff to be carrying a gun. In fact, it would be expected in some places.
But when Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart recently started carrying one on his belt, it was a bit unusual. So WBBM [...] asked him about it.
Dart – a former state lawmaker known for policy as much as anything else — said he’s been getting some unwanted attention, unfortunately.
The sheriff has had his life threatened.
“It’s been impressed upon me that I have five little kids, and I need to be around a bit,” Dart says. “So, I can’t just cavalierly just blow everything off.”
“It’s a little bit of a wake-up call, unfortunately,” he added. “I have no delusions of my abilities.”
The gun goes with the job, he says.
Really? "...no delusions of [your] abilities"? So a gun is an equalizer? You're going to use it to protect yourself and your loved ones should some of these "threats" manifest themselves in some way, shape or form? But regular citizens shouldn't be able to have that same protection, many of whom don't have drivers or bodyguards and happen to work in/travel through/reside in neighborhoods that are far less safe than anything Dart has experienced. What makes you so special Tommy?
Not that we believe there has been a threat - this stinks of Ed Burke Disease. Have you ever carried one before Tommy? You disgust us - one set of rules for you, one for all the unconnected people.
http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/2013/12/sheriff-dart-hypocrite.html
https://www.unz.com/isteve/jackie-and-the-return-of-the-adventuress/Or maybe she was just an old fashioned gold-digger.Replies: @miss marple, @Truth
You’re reaching too far into the depths of a not very deep psyche. Holmes desperately needs to feel special after crashing and burning academically; Balwani exhibits the bad judgment of the bipolar. If the pretentious old farts on the board are lucky they’ll die before the scandal breaks. You, on the other hand, can thank your lucky stars or Vishnu.or God that you’re not any of these people.
Isn’t there an Indian porn star named Sunny something?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunny_Leone
Sunny Thomm.Replies: @Pericles
https://plus.google.com/photos/114530886129478879416/albums/profile/5786859415327016562?iso=falseReplies: @Steve Sailer, @JohnnyWalker123
Maybe that picture was from when he was much younger?
This is what I found when I looked it up. The picture below is what he looks like now.
https://www.darkdaily.com/cms-notifies-theranos-of-clia-sanctions-that-include-revoking-clinical-laboratorys-clia-license-and-a-two-year-ban-on-holmes-balwani-and-dhawan-414/
Oh, acid-washed jeans are supposed to be symbols of conspicuous consumption? Maybe only in the Balkans, Middle East and South Asia, but the crass spivs in those countries do love them.
It was my favourite commonality among Merkels Million. One guy is a young pale built 6’4 Albanian, one guy is a dark dumpy middle aged short Pathan, the other is a spry genuine Syrian. But all of them had gaudy watches, a smirk that signalled their joy at getting away with a con (The kind you only associate with total sociopaths in Western populations but which seems very common in disagreeable low trust societies) and those acid-washed jeans.
The Senator was wearing acid-washed jeans and leather driving moccasins.Replies: @Altai, @duncsbaby, @Lurker
Peterike’s Law strikes again.
This is what I found when I looked it up. The picture below is what he looks like now.
https://www.darkdaily.com/cms-notifies-theranos-of-clia-sanctions-that-include-revoking-clinical-laboratorys-clia-license-and-a-two-year-ban-on-holmes-balwani-and-dhawan-414/Replies: @Tony, @Brutusale
He got whiter looking as he aged. Also less wimpy looking. Doesnt even look like the same guy.
It’s probably not him.
There’s an Indian-funk-jazz fusion band out of Brooklyn called Red Baraat fronted by the son of Punjabi immigrants named Sunny Jain. No indication if that is his given name or nickname.
Dead bodies are hard to hide, even in Chicago.
Dart, Emmanuel, and all the rest are filthy when it comes to numbers massaging. Not saying the Trump DOJ hasn't has an effect but I wouldn't get wedded to the idea crime in Chicago is down or that CPD feels comfortable operating like it needs to.Replies: @Mike Tre, @Jim Christian
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/08/nyregion/coroner-reports-veterinarian-died-of-an-acute-barbituate-overdose.html
A friend has two brothers on the fire department in an extremely vibrant (Hispanic) Boston suburb. They claim that the "official" murder rate there is about 1/3 the actual number. As they say, illegal alien victims' families are busy flying under the radar and they aren't too big on fighting the official story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=CyEBXTL1Y3U
You retcon them into something else.
They met when she was in high school.
Bombastic, commie-hating, peacocking capitalist? Sounds familiar
Anti-gun IL Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, who’s always coming up with new gun control ideas to screw gun owners, is also a Concealed Carry Permit holder.
” Sheriff Dart – Hypocrite
What a jackass this guy is:
It is not unusual for a sheriff to be carrying a gun. In fact, it would be expected in some places.
But when Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart recently started carrying one on his belt, it was a bit unusual. So WBBM […] asked him about it.
Dart – a former state lawmaker known for policy as much as anything else — said he’s been getting some unwanted attention, unfortunately.
The sheriff has had his life threatened.
“It’s been impressed upon me that I have five little kids, and I need to be around a bit,” Dart says. “So, I can’t just cavalierly just blow everything off.”
“It’s a little bit of a wake-up call, unfortunately,” he added. “I have no delusions of my abilities.”
The gun goes with the job, he says.
Really? “…no delusions of [your] abilities”? So a gun is an equalizer? You’re going to use it to protect yourself and your loved ones should some of these “threats” manifest themselves in some way, shape or form? But regular citizens shouldn’t be able to have that same protection, many of whom don’t have drivers or bodyguards and happen to work in/travel through/reside in neighborhoods that are far less safe than anything Dart has experienced. What makes you so special Tommy?
Not that we believe there has been a threat – this stinks of Ed Burke Disease. Have you ever carried one before Tommy? You disgust us – one set of rules for you, one for all the unconnected people.
http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/2013/12/sheriff-dart-hypocrite.html
You are probably thinking of a (Sikh) woman:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunny_Leone
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/chicago-officials-laud-15th-consecutive-month-of-declining-gun-violence/ar-AAy9lqf?li=BBnbfcL&OCID=ansmsnnews11
In effect, the Microphone is arguing here that a decline in gun violence (since Trump took office) from the two-decade high Obama left us is proof that Trump is deluded about criminal justice. The doublethink is strong.Are you sure about that, Rahm? Because from where I'm sitting it looks like Trump's Justice Dept. is the main reason Chicago cops feel comfortable doing their jobs again.Replies: @Steve Sailer, @Stan d Mute, @AndrewR, @Anonymous, @EliteCommInc., @Jim Christian, @Corvinus
If the executive branch under Trump is not getting in the way of Chicago police policing Chicago the way they see fit, then Chicago truly is a “Trump-free zone.” Obama chose to meddle too much in local affairs (or at least he allowed his vile minions like Holder to do so), so the increase in crime towards the end of his presidency was due to there being too few Obama-free zones.
After all, BLM was calling on Emmanuel himself to resign at one point so his administration must have been doing something right.
There’s NEVER anything wrong with hating Commies. Where’ve you been?
Bodies are hard to hide, but how hard is it to change a “murder” into a “negligent homicide” or even a self inflicted? Your sometimes commenter and fellow blogger/journalist Nicholas Stix has documented this phenomenon extensively.
I encourage everyone here to read “Bad Blood” if you have not done so already. Carreyou is a superb writer, not just a journalist.
You will come away with great admiration for Tyler Shultz but not so much for his grandfather, (three cabinet posts) George Shultz (no fool like and old fool).
You will not have a particle of sympathy for either Ms. Holmes or her “boyfriend” Sunny Balwani.
I just started reading this book this morning, and on page 4, referring to Theranos's chief financial officer, is the sentence "Theranos was far from his first rodeo."
Uh-0h, I thought, a cliche like that is not the sign of a superb writer. I fancy that Tom Wolfe would express the same idea in a fresh way that does not draw attention to itself. But let's not demand superb writing from Carreyrou; we can be grateful if he's just a good journalist.Replies: @PV van der Byl
A friend and I were watching “Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion” and it suddenly dawned on him that Holmes look and mannerisms are essentially the Mira Sorvino character when she is pretending to be a “businesswoman”. We did about ten minutes of imitations of her telling her high school pals that she invented a new way to do lab tests with a drop of blood (instead of post its as in the movie).
Go watch it and watch videos of Holmes and tell me I’m wrong
You should probably read more Second City Cop. They “hide” the dead bodies by listing them as something other than homicide (accidental death is a popular one apparently).
Dart, Emmanuel, and all the rest are filthy when it comes to numbers massaging. Not saying the Trump DOJ hasn’t has an effect but I wouldn’t get wedded to the idea crime in Chicago is down or that CPD feels comfortable operating like it needs to.
The story of Elizabeth Holmes is a fun tale of the elite getting got conned by one of their own. The only thing missing is dead bodies. Not apparent that Holms hurt anyone but her investors. Contrast her grift with Purdue Pharma’ issues with Oxycontin and Merck with Vioxx that each easily killed over 50K. If Holmes or her ex-boyfriend get any prison time that will be more time than anyone from Merck or Purdue received. The lesson is making the elite look like fools will get you in more trouble than piling up bodies.
http://uk.businessinsider.com/theranos-ceo-elizabeth-holmes-employee-death-2016-9
His suicide note literally read: 'It just doesn't work'
In 1987 I was invited for drinks at a friend’s parents’ house on Cape Cod. The other guests were their friend Sen. Ted Kennedy, his daughter Kara and Ted Kennedy’s aerobics-instructor girlfriend.
The Senator was wearing acid-washed jeans and leather driving moccasins.
This style seems to be only popular in clannish low trust societies where men act like conmen all the time and seek to aggressively display status with clothing. (Italy, Balkans, Middle East, India, sometimes Eastern Europe).
https://n3.sdlcdn.com/imgs/e/d/f/Pepe-Jeans-Grey-Slim-Jeans-SDL765641227-1-9146c.jpg
OT: U Mich has 100 people in its Diversity department including 26 who make $100k+.
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/diversity-staff-university-michigan-nearly-100-full-time-employees
When the mills were running it was a lot easier to get them put in a car trunk and cubed, then to the Basic Oxygen Furnace. Nonetheless, there were an awful lot of bodies buried under the lawns of row houses and in building foundations. And Lake Michigan with 600 feet bottoms took a few too.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/chicago-officials-laud-15th-consecutive-month-of-declining-gun-violence/ar-AAy9lqf?li=BBnbfcL&OCID=ansmsnnews11
In effect, the Microphone is arguing here that a decline in gun violence (since Trump took office) from the two-decade high Obama left us is proof that Trump is deluded about criminal justice. The doublethink is strong.Are you sure about that, Rahm? Because from where I'm sitting it looks like Trump's Justice Dept. is the main reason Chicago cops feel comfortable doing their jobs again.Replies: @Steve Sailer, @Stan d Mute, @AndrewR, @Anonymous, @EliteCommInc., @Jim Christian, @Corvinus
Rahm reminds one of a semi-competent SS-Sturmbannführer, the kind one doesn’t think of the SS allowing even to be commissioned, but like all militaries they had a few less than squared away people too.
“Isn’t there an Indian porn star named Sunny something?”
Sunny Thomm.
“Negligent homicide” is still “homicide.”
If the guys getting murdered in Chicago were, say, small business owners with major gambling problems who happened to go deep sea diving in Lake Michigan with concrete shoes, yeah, sure. But that’s not really what’s going on.
How many killings have to occur before that insanely-priced piece of real estate becomes just a stupidly-priced piece of real estate?
Dart, Emmanuel, and all the rest are filthy when it comes to numbers massaging. Not saying the Trump DOJ hasn't has an effect but I wouldn't get wedded to the idea crime in Chicago is down or that CPD feels comfortable operating like it needs to.Replies: @Mike Tre, @Jim Christian
They are known as “death investigations”.
Not him. Here it is, a reasonably good quality pic of the happy couple:
https://www.dreshare.com/ramesh-sunny-balwani-wiki-bio-net-worth-age/
Sunny has deleted LinkedIn account but somehow kept Twitter (no activity since 2015):
Tweets by sunnybalwani
Seems like McCain was a major Theranos pusher.
The page says that Balwani is 5'7", which if true, should've been the biggest red flag in this whole scam.Replies: @Anonymous, @Anonymous Human Intelligence Operative
John C. Reilly needs to play Balwani to Jennifer Lawrence’s Elizabeth Holmes.
Don’ be so hard on the guy. Who woild own a Lambo without vanity plates?
And I have it on good authority that acid wash is coming back. So is retro bush.
https://www.dreshare.com/ramesh-sunny-balwani-wiki-bio-net-worth-age/Sunny has deleted LinkedIn account but somehow kept Twitter (no activity since 2015):
https://twitter.com/sunnybalwaniSeems like McCain was a major Theranos pusher.Replies: @BB753, @Dr. X, @Anonymous
That man looks like Carlos Slim!
Same receding hairline pattern.
Same bushy brows, same spots on the nose bridge, under the left eye, same wart under the lips.
+ 10s other clues.
Indeed, seems it’s not so much that Jeff Sessions took over but that Eric Holder left.
After all, BLM was calling on Emmanuel himself to resign at one point so his administration must have been doing something right.
I wish more elites would dress and act like Sunny Balwani. We would see them for what they REALLY are.
https://www.dreshare.com/ramesh-sunny-balwani-wiki-bio-net-worth-age/Sunny has deleted LinkedIn account but somehow kept Twitter (no activity since 2015):
https://twitter.com/sunnybalwaniSeems like McCain was a major Theranos pusher.Replies: @BB753, @Dr. X, @Anonymous
Holmes looks like a Rubbery Rosie in that pic.
And I have it on good authority that acid wash is coming back. So is retro bush.Replies: @Anonymous
In Illinois vanity plates were free (of extra charge) as long as they ended in a number.
https://www.dreshare.com/ramesh-sunny-balwani-wiki-bio-net-worth-age/Sunny has deleted LinkedIn account but somehow kept Twitter (no activity since 2015):
https://twitter.com/sunnybalwaniSeems like McCain was a major Theranos pusher.Replies: @BB753, @Dr. X, @Anonymous
I don’t think that’s him. That looks like a picture of Carlos Slim, and under the pic you can see that the pic is attributed to “unz.com.”
The page says that Balwani is 5’7″, which if true, should’ve been the biggest red flag in this whole scam.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5753863/Elizabeth-Holmes-faked-baritone-voice-secretly-dated-COO-20-years-senior.htmlReplies: @Anon
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/chicago-officials-laud-15th-consecutive-month-of-declining-gun-violence/ar-AAy9lqf?li=BBnbfcL&OCID=ansmsnnews11
In effect, the Microphone is arguing here that a decline in gun violence (since Trump took office) from the two-decade high Obama left us is proof that Trump is deluded about criminal justice. The doublethink is strong.Are you sure about that, Rahm? Because from where I'm sitting it looks like Trump's Justice Dept. is the main reason Chicago cops feel comfortable doing their jobs again.Replies: @Steve Sailer, @Stan d Mute, @AndrewR, @Anonymous, @EliteCommInc., @Jim Christian, @Corvinus
Crime has been in decline for ten years —–
http://faculty.washington.edu/matsueda/courses/371/Readings/
Rosenfeld%20Crime%20Decline.pdf
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/04/what-caused-the-crime-decline/477408/
http://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Fewer-Prisoners-Less-Crime-A-Tale-of-Three-States.pdf
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/30/5-facts-about-crime-in-the-u-s/
http://www.nber.org/digest/jan03/w9061.html (actually arresting those involved in crime as opposed to stopping every black male jogging in a hoodie.)
Who will play the (rather cute) Elizabeth Holmes in the TV movie?
Melissa Rauch?
Sarah Chalke?
The page says that Balwani is 5'7", which if true, should've been the biggest red flag in this whole scam.Replies: @Anonymous, @Anonymous Human Intelligence Operative
Yes, I definitely screwed up. Daily Mail to the rescue with what looks like believable picture of Balwani:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5753863/Elizabeth-Holmes-faked-baritone-voice-secretly-dated-COO-20-years-senior.html
Maybe some Indian commenters can contribute caste data and so on.
They put Shkreli in the clink though.
Holmes "only" betrayed ordinary Americans by installing fake medical equipment and committing investment fraud.
Sunny Thomm.Replies: @Pericles
Lol!
And a high resolution picture in WSJ:
"This is the fastest lab test...in the world sir".Replies: @Moses
And a video of Balwani in 2014:
http://azleg.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?clip_id=13816
He has a strong Indian accent. No way he was born in the USA as some web sites state. A first generation immigrant for sure.
The page says that Balwani is 5'7", which if true, should've been the biggest red flag in this whole scam.Replies: @Anonymous, @Anonymous Human Intelligence Operative
Why?
You will come away with great admiration for Tyler Shultz but not so much for his grandfather, (three cabinet posts) George Shultz (no fool like and old fool).
You will not have a particle of sympathy for either Ms. Holmes or her "boyfriend" Sunny Balwani.Replies: @Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY)
PV van der Bly writes, “I encourage everyone here to read “Bad Blood” if you have not done so already. Carrey[r]ou is a superb writer, not just a journalist.”
I just started reading this book this morning, and on page 4, referring to Theranos’s chief financial officer, is the sentence “Theranos was far from his first rodeo.”
Uh-0h, I thought, a cliche like that is not the sign of a superb writer. I fancy that Tom Wolfe would express the same idea in a fresh way that does not draw attention to itself. But let’s not demand superb writing from Carreyrou; we can be grateful if he’s just a good journalist.
Of course you’re right. This IS Carlos Slim.
Same receding hairline pattern.
Same bushy brows, same spots on the nose bridge, under the left eye, same wart under the lips.
+ 10s other clues.
The Senator was wearing acid-washed jeans and leather driving moccasins.Replies: @Altai, @duncsbaby, @Lurker
I should say not the North American 80s style that have all of the jeans washed, more like this with large bright white ovals on the front where you sometimes get a very faint version of from stress from long-term use and also on the back of the jeans where you’d normally get none.
This style seems to be only popular in clannish low trust societies where men act like conmen all the time and seek to aggressively display status with clothing. (Italy, Balkans, Middle East, India, sometimes Eastern Europe).
Their chief scientist committed suicide from the stress knowing it couldn’t be done with existing technology. At the time the story was that he did it because Holmes was threatening his job and he had recently received a cancer diagnosis. (No word on how serious it was though) Now I suppose we could also add his professional reputation being destroyed for undoubtedly knowing about the fraud and possibly even legal ramifications for him personally ontop when it all inevitably came out.
http://uk.businessinsider.com/theranos-ceo-elizabeth-holmes-employee-death-2016-9
His suicide note literally read: ‘It just doesn’t work’
https://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/B3-AM104_SUNNY_M_20180517142424.jpgReplies: @Altai
He’s like a bizzaro world Indian Jeremy Clarkson.
“This is the fastest lab test…in the world sir”.
Holmes: Are my methods unsound?
Carreyrou: I don't see any method at all, sir.
At least Ms. Holmes & ole (& I do mean ole) Ramesh dared to share their love publicly in front of cameras. Has anyone ever seen a pic of Ellen Pao & Buddy Fletcher together? Btw, Holmes is one weird lookin’ chick. Her face looks like it’s made out of a plastic mold. She looks like a human ventriloquist’s dummy. She’s not unattractive, just off-putting.
Shkreli messed with organized gay interests by jacking up the price of AIDS drugs.
Holmes “only” betrayed ordinary Americans by installing fake medical equipment and committing investment fraud.
The Senator was wearing acid-washed jeans and leather driving moccasins.Replies: @Altai, @duncsbaby, @Lurker
I had a pair of acid-washed jeans back in ’87 too. Hell even The Housemartins wore them. They were still new & cool looking at that time. Although I’m sure the fact that fat, drunken, Ted was wearing them was the harbinger of hipster-doom for the acid-washed craze. I seriously did not know that people still wore them today. I kinda thought jeans w/elaborate stitching on the pockets was the hip, with-it & wow current thing. The fact that I think that though probably means that is not the case at all. I’m quite happy w/my $20 pair of Wranglers I bought from Walmart.
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/diversity-staff-university-michigan-nearly-100-full-time-employeesReplies: @duncsbaby
That ought to put the fear of death into any would-be poop-Swastika terrorists lurking in campus restroom stalls.
Melissa Rauch?
Sarah Chalke?Replies: @duncsbaby, @Mike Tre, @Truth
Sarah Chalke would’ve been a good choice about 10 years ago but she’s a bit older than Elizabeth Holmes now.
Melissa Rauch?
Sarah Chalke?Replies: @duncsbaby, @Mike Tre, @Truth
Katherine Heigl.
My all – time favorite dead body Chicago story.
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/08/nyregion/coroner-reports-veterinarian-died-of-an-acute-barbituate-overdose.html
So, this empowered modern woman slept with her older ugly boss? Same old, same old.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/chicago-officials-laud-15th-consecutive-month-of-declining-gun-violence/ar-AAy9lqf?li=BBnbfcL&OCID=ansmsnnews11
In effect, the Microphone is arguing here that a decline in gun violence (since Trump took office) from the two-decade high Obama left us is proof that Trump is deluded about criminal justice. The doublethink is strong.Are you sure about that, Rahm? Because from where I'm sitting it looks like Trump's Justice Dept. is the main reason Chicago cops feel comfortable doing their jobs again.Replies: @Steve Sailer, @Stan d Mute, @AndrewR, @Anonymous, @EliteCommInc., @Jim Christian, @Corvinus
“This is a Trump-free zone,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel told CNN this week. “We have facts. What matters … is what happens on the street.”
Stats in Baltimore and Chicago don’t agree: https://heyjackass.com/
It would seem much is happening on the street.
Dart, Emmanuel, and all the rest are filthy when it comes to numbers massaging. Not saying the Trump DOJ hasn't has an effect but I wouldn't get wedded to the idea crime in Chicago is down or that CPD feels comfortable operating like it needs to.Replies: @Mike Tre, @Jim Christian
Catching a bullet from a drive-by that wasn’t intended for you is probably listed as “accidental”, no? Such as baseball fans at Nationals games that catch a stray out of the deep Southeast DC ghetto? Bad place to have a baseball stadium you expect suburbanites to visit. Hell, even Baltimore played a couple of games to empty stadiums a couple of years back because the neighborhood wasn’t stable enough for the suburban-types to park and come to the game. The Inner Harbor down Charles Street from the Yard used to be a viable and attractive tourist area until West Baltimore Blacks discovered it was a happy hunting ground of tourists with money. Nowadays? Even the National Aquarium is deserted.
I read the book last weekend. Some details that give you a feel for Elizabeth Holmes’ character:
She dyed her hair blond and had an eating disorder in high school. A private school in the Houston area.
She spoke with an unnaturally deep voice that was intentionally faked so she would come across as more serious.
She met Sunny Balwani in a college study abroad program. Apparently, they became close when he protected her from a group of bullies in the study abroad program. Elizabeth was just a scared, insecure young woman.
A family friend, Richard Fuisz, was a doctor who patented and marketed several medical inventions and became wealthy off these inventions. Elizabeth’s parents suffered many financial setbacks and came to feel a great deal of hostility and envy towards this friend. They later targeted him with an abusive patent infringement lawsuit.
I speculate that the seed of Elizabeth’s delusional idea was planted in childhood or adolescence by her parents, inspired by the example of Dr. Fuisz.
The book describes the toxic work atmosphere at Theranos: lots of surveillance and intimidation. A distinguished research scientist in his late 60s was driven to suicide when his deposition in a lawsuit was coming up; he was afraid he would have to talk about what was happening at Theranos and would therefore lose his job. Sadly, I suspect that similar workplace environments are fairly typical in Silicon Valley.
The books is a case study in how incestuous and decrepit our academic, media, and financial elites are. Two vignettes on this theme:
1. Elizabeth Holmes would never sit down for an interview with WSJ reporter John Carreyrou, but did fly to New York to meet with Rupert Murdoch, the paper’s owner, to kill the story. Murdoch’s office was 3 floors above Mr. Carreyrou’s. Murdoch had invested over $100 million in Theranos, but said he would let WSJ editors handle decisions about the story. Had he chosen to intervene, Theranos might have continued its fraud for years.
2. Holmes met and beguiled nonagenariean former Secretary of State George Shultz, who recruited his aging friends at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University’s right-leaning “think tank” to be on her Board of Directors. (Steve Sailer hero and Hoover member Thomas Sowell was conspicuously not one of them.) Most of them had distinguished backgrounds in politics but no experience in medicine or biotechnology, and I suspect, very little grasp on reality.
Holmes clearly had a specialty for entrancing senile men. Her chief lawyer David Boies, who was paid in Theranos stock, is in his late 70s. Joe Biden and Bill Clinton did media appearances with her. She hosted a $2,700-a plate fundraiser for the Hillary campaign. Rupert Murdoch himself is well into his 80s.
In the closing chapter, Carreyrou describes driving around Palo Alto with a professor who knew Holmes before she dropped out of Stanford and “is struck by how small and insular Palo Alto was.” The Stanford profs and retired bureaucrats who propped up Holmes lived within blocks of one another.
https://work.qz.com/1285831/theranos-founder-elizabeth-holmes-may-be-our-first-true-feminist-anti-hero/
Feminism, Inc. to the rescue! See, you’re an awful chauvinist pig if you’d deny our daughters their own female anti-heroes like Tony Soprano, and Walter White, and that nerdy kid on THE SOCIAL NETWORK.. The female captain of industry heroes will be coming along any day now, we assure you, and the corners cut in our desperation to raise them up will not siphon more off into the antihero lane.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/chicago-officials-laud-15th-consecutive-month-of-declining-gun-violence/ar-AAy9lqf?li=BBnbfcL&OCID=ansmsnnews11
In effect, the Microphone is arguing here that a decline in gun violence (since Trump took office) from the two-decade high Obama left us is proof that Trump is deluded about criminal justice. The doublethink is strong.Are you sure about that, Rahm? Because from where I'm sitting it looks like Trump's Justice Dept. is the main reason Chicago cops feel comfortable doing their jobs again.Replies: @Steve Sailer, @Stan d Mute, @AndrewR, @Anonymous, @EliteCommInc., @Jim Christian, @Corvinus
“Because from where I’m sitting it looks like Trump’s Justice Dept. is the main reason Chicago cops feel comfortable doing their jobs again.”
You must sitting from afar in a stupor, because it would appear that it’s the CPD’s efforts, not Trump, that should take the credit. Has his administration even put any specific resources to combat Chicago’s murder rate, other than make half-backed claims like this one?
“He backs Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ declaration in August that “New York City continues to see gang murder after gang murder, the predictable consequence of the city’s ‘soft on crime’ stance.” Actually the Big Apple continued to enjoy a quarter-century-long decline in violent crime, ending the year with fewer than 300 homicides, the fewest homicides (and most other violent crimes, except rape) that the city has seen since the 1950s.”
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/page/ct-perspec-page-trump-murder-rate-jeff-sessions-0103-20180102-story.html
I just started reading this book this morning, and on page 4, referring to Theranos's chief financial officer, is the sentence "Theranos was far from his first rodeo."
Uh-0h, I thought, a cliche like that is not the sign of a superb writer. I fancy that Tom Wolfe would express the same idea in a fresh way that does not draw attention to itself. But let's not demand superb writing from Carreyrou; we can be grateful if he's just a good journalist.Replies: @PV van der Byl
Mark Spahn, I wasn’t really referring to Carreyou’s prose style but to the historical substance of what he wrote. The guy did his technical homework regarding blood tests and succeeded in getting some very scared former Theranos employees to describe what life at the company was actually like.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5753863/Elizabeth-Holmes-faked-baritone-voice-secretly-dated-COO-20-years-senior.htmlReplies: @Anon
Balwani is a Sindhi name. According to Google it derives from “balwaan” and means “powerful” in Hindi.
Maybe some Indian commenters can contribute caste data and so on.
This is what I found when I looked it up. The picture below is what he looks like now.
https://www.darkdaily.com/cms-notifies-theranos-of-clia-sanctions-that-include-revoking-clinical-laboratorys-clia-license-and-a-two-year-ban-on-holmes-balwani-and-dhawan-414/Replies: @Tony, @Brutusale
Two desis and a girl. Why would anyone think something was amiss?
Dead bodies are thick on the ground, but describing how they got that way is the crux of the matter.
A friend has two brothers on the fire department in an extremely vibrant (Hispanic) Boston suburb. They claim that the “official” murder rate there is about 1/3 the actual number. As they say, illegal alien victims’ families are busy flying under the radar and they aren’t too big on fighting the official story.
She dyed her hair blond and had an eating disorder in high school. A private school in the Houston area.
She spoke with an unnaturally deep voice that was intentionally faked so she would come across as more serious.
She met Sunny Balwani in a college study abroad program. Apparently, they became close when he protected her from a group of bullies in the study abroad program. Elizabeth was just a scared, insecure young woman.
A family friend, Richard Fuisz, was a doctor who patented and marketed several medical inventions and became wealthy off these inventions. Elizabeth's parents suffered many financial setbacks and came to feel a great deal of hostility and envy towards this friend. They later targeted him with an abusive patent infringement lawsuit.
I speculate that the seed of Elizabeth's delusional idea was planted in childhood or adolescence by her parents, inspired by the example of Dr. Fuisz.
The book describes the toxic work atmosphere at Theranos: lots of surveillance and intimidation. A distinguished research scientist in his late 60s was driven to suicide when his deposition in a lawsuit was coming up; he was afraid he would have to talk about what was happening at Theranos and would therefore lose his job. Sadly, I suspect that similar workplace environments are fairly typical in Silicon Valley.
The books is a case study in how incestuous and decrepit our academic, media, and financial elites are. Two vignettes on this theme:
1. Elizabeth Holmes would never sit down for an interview with WSJ reporter John Carreyrou, but did fly to New York to meet with Rupert Murdoch, the paper's owner, to kill the story. Murdoch's office was 3 floors above Mr. Carreyrou's. Murdoch had invested over $100 million in Theranos, but said he would let WSJ editors handle decisions about the story. Had he chosen to intervene, Theranos might have continued its fraud for years.
2. Holmes met and beguiled nonagenariean former Secretary of State George Shultz, who recruited his aging friends at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University's right-leaning "think tank" to be on her Board of Directors. (Steve Sailer hero and Hoover member Thomas Sowell was conspicuously not one of them.) Most of them had distinguished backgrounds in politics but no experience in medicine or biotechnology, and I suspect, very little grasp on reality.
Holmes clearly had a specialty for entrancing senile men. Her chief lawyer David Boies, who was paid in Theranos stock, is in his late 70s. Joe Biden and Bill Clinton did media appearances with her. She hosted a $2,700-a plate fundraiser for the Hillary campaign. Rupert Murdoch himself is well into his 80s.
In the closing chapter, Carreyrou describes driving around Palo Alto with a professor who knew Holmes before she dropped out of Stanford and "is struck by how small and insular Palo Alto was." The Stanford profs and retired bureaucrats who propped up Holmes lived within blocks of one another.Replies: @DFH, @CJ, @Rosamond Vincy, @J.Ross, @ThirdWorldSteveReader
Nothing more repulsive than a lecherous old man, the Greeks were right to make fun of them.
When you have powerful groups of people with a vested interest in the violent crime rates being low, they’ll be low.
How many killings have to occur before that insanely-priced piece of real estate becomes just a stupidly-priced piece of real estate?
Strange she slept with this guy. Is it not possible that he was behind the whole fraud? While it was obvious the woman was a con, she at least appeared capable of being the mastermind of a fraud, which is, I guess, something. But now I’m having my doubts. It’s possible the mastermind was this guy, who used the woman. Far from an innocent girl, she was a willing accomplice, but she couldn’t have done this alone. She needed the guy to give her the ideas.
So the likely story is this.
1) Famous feminist icon, female entrepreneur hero, turns out to have been a fraud.
2) Not only that, but she turns out to have been merely a front for an old and ugly criminal mastermind who used her to con elderly men into investing hundreds of millions into his scheme.
3) The ugly old criminal mastermind also used her to sign most of the papers. (As CEO, Holmes is likely be legally more responsible than Balwani. Except maybe the usual sentencing double standards might give Balwani similar or even higher terms than Holmes.)
4) The ugly old criminal mastermind also had sex with her.
There is no feminist moral to this story, because apparently women are not only incapable of founding giant revolutionary corporations, but also of committing fraud on their own. Oh, and they are susceptible to be manipulated by powerful men, and sleep with them, even if they are ugly.
Tangentially related, but I had a former co-worker who tried to go out on his own and start his own company. Middle aged Indian guy with a decent idea/working product. Just couldn't get an audience with any of the VCs. He told me that a lot of the advice he got from other colleagues is to get himself a younger partner. That is usually the ticket.Replies: @Moses
Looks like she got herself an Indian mobster to run the shop. The result shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.
You were familiar with his military service, right?
https://www.unz.com/isteve/jackie-and-the-return-of-the-adventuress/Or maybe she was just an old fashioned gold-digger.Replies: @miss marple, @Truth
That would be, “adventurer”
Melissa Rauch?
Sarah Chalke?Replies: @duncsbaby, @Mike Tre, @Truth
…Chris Hemsworth…
She dyed her hair blond and had an eating disorder in high school. A private school in the Houston area.
She spoke with an unnaturally deep voice that was intentionally faked so she would come across as more serious.
She met Sunny Balwani in a college study abroad program. Apparently, they became close when he protected her from a group of bullies in the study abroad program. Elizabeth was just a scared, insecure young woman.
A family friend, Richard Fuisz, was a doctor who patented and marketed several medical inventions and became wealthy off these inventions. Elizabeth's parents suffered many financial setbacks and came to feel a great deal of hostility and envy towards this friend. They later targeted him with an abusive patent infringement lawsuit.
I speculate that the seed of Elizabeth's delusional idea was planted in childhood or adolescence by her parents, inspired by the example of Dr. Fuisz.
The book describes the toxic work atmosphere at Theranos: lots of surveillance and intimidation. A distinguished research scientist in his late 60s was driven to suicide when his deposition in a lawsuit was coming up; he was afraid he would have to talk about what was happening at Theranos and would therefore lose his job. Sadly, I suspect that similar workplace environments are fairly typical in Silicon Valley.
The books is a case study in how incestuous and decrepit our academic, media, and financial elites are. Two vignettes on this theme:
1. Elizabeth Holmes would never sit down for an interview with WSJ reporter John Carreyrou, but did fly to New York to meet with Rupert Murdoch, the paper's owner, to kill the story. Murdoch's office was 3 floors above Mr. Carreyrou's. Murdoch had invested over $100 million in Theranos, but said he would let WSJ editors handle decisions about the story. Had he chosen to intervene, Theranos might have continued its fraud for years.
2. Holmes met and beguiled nonagenariean former Secretary of State George Shultz, who recruited his aging friends at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University's right-leaning "think tank" to be on her Board of Directors. (Steve Sailer hero and Hoover member Thomas Sowell was conspicuously not one of them.) Most of them had distinguished backgrounds in politics but no experience in medicine or biotechnology, and I suspect, very little grasp on reality.
Holmes clearly had a specialty for entrancing senile men. Her chief lawyer David Boies, who was paid in Theranos stock, is in his late 70s. Joe Biden and Bill Clinton did media appearances with her. She hosted a $2,700-a plate fundraiser for the Hillary campaign. Rupert Murdoch himself is well into his 80s.
In the closing chapter, Carreyrou describes driving around Palo Alto with a professor who knew Holmes before she dropped out of Stanford and "is struck by how small and insular Palo Alto was." The Stanford profs and retired bureaucrats who propped up Holmes lived within blocks of one another.Replies: @DFH, @CJ, @Rosamond Vincy, @J.Ross, @ThirdWorldSteveReader
Not a huge Rupert Murdoch or WSJ fan, but credit where it is due. And AFAIK no other legacy media operation did anything on the Theranos file at all.
So he was from the 80s?
She dyed her hair blond and had an eating disorder in high school. A private school in the Houston area.
She spoke with an unnaturally deep voice that was intentionally faked so she would come across as more serious.
She met Sunny Balwani in a college study abroad program. Apparently, they became close when he protected her from a group of bullies in the study abroad program. Elizabeth was just a scared, insecure young woman.
A family friend, Richard Fuisz, was a doctor who patented and marketed several medical inventions and became wealthy off these inventions. Elizabeth's parents suffered many financial setbacks and came to feel a great deal of hostility and envy towards this friend. They later targeted him with an abusive patent infringement lawsuit.
I speculate that the seed of Elizabeth's delusional idea was planted in childhood or adolescence by her parents, inspired by the example of Dr. Fuisz.
The book describes the toxic work atmosphere at Theranos: lots of surveillance and intimidation. A distinguished research scientist in his late 60s was driven to suicide when his deposition in a lawsuit was coming up; he was afraid he would have to talk about what was happening at Theranos and would therefore lose his job. Sadly, I suspect that similar workplace environments are fairly typical in Silicon Valley.
The books is a case study in how incestuous and decrepit our academic, media, and financial elites are. Two vignettes on this theme:
1. Elizabeth Holmes would never sit down for an interview with WSJ reporter John Carreyrou, but did fly to New York to meet with Rupert Murdoch, the paper's owner, to kill the story. Murdoch's office was 3 floors above Mr. Carreyrou's. Murdoch had invested over $100 million in Theranos, but said he would let WSJ editors handle decisions about the story. Had he chosen to intervene, Theranos might have continued its fraud for years.
2. Holmes met and beguiled nonagenariean former Secretary of State George Shultz, who recruited his aging friends at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University's right-leaning "think tank" to be on her Board of Directors. (Steve Sailer hero and Hoover member Thomas Sowell was conspicuously not one of them.) Most of them had distinguished backgrounds in politics but no experience in medicine or biotechnology, and I suspect, very little grasp on reality.
Holmes clearly had a specialty for entrancing senile men. Her chief lawyer David Boies, who was paid in Theranos stock, is in his late 70s. Joe Biden and Bill Clinton did media appearances with her. She hosted a $2,700-a plate fundraiser for the Hillary campaign. Rupert Murdoch himself is well into his 80s.
In the closing chapter, Carreyrou describes driving around Palo Alto with a professor who knew Holmes before she dropped out of Stanford and "is struck by how small and insular Palo Alto was." The Stanford profs and retired bureaucrats who propped up Holmes lived within blocks of one another.Replies: @DFH, @CJ, @Rosamond Vincy, @J.Ross, @ThirdWorldSteveReader
It was awesome when Lauren Bacall did it.
She dyed her hair blond and had an eating disorder in high school. A private school in the Houston area.
She spoke with an unnaturally deep voice that was intentionally faked so she would come across as more serious.
She met Sunny Balwani in a college study abroad program. Apparently, they became close when he protected her from a group of bullies in the study abroad program. Elizabeth was just a scared, insecure young woman.
A family friend, Richard Fuisz, was a doctor who patented and marketed several medical inventions and became wealthy off these inventions. Elizabeth's parents suffered many financial setbacks and came to feel a great deal of hostility and envy towards this friend. They later targeted him with an abusive patent infringement lawsuit.
I speculate that the seed of Elizabeth's delusional idea was planted in childhood or adolescence by her parents, inspired by the example of Dr. Fuisz.
The book describes the toxic work atmosphere at Theranos: lots of surveillance and intimidation. A distinguished research scientist in his late 60s was driven to suicide when his deposition in a lawsuit was coming up; he was afraid he would have to talk about what was happening at Theranos and would therefore lose his job. Sadly, I suspect that similar workplace environments are fairly typical in Silicon Valley.
The books is a case study in how incestuous and decrepit our academic, media, and financial elites are. Two vignettes on this theme:
1. Elizabeth Holmes would never sit down for an interview with WSJ reporter John Carreyrou, but did fly to New York to meet with Rupert Murdoch, the paper's owner, to kill the story. Murdoch's office was 3 floors above Mr. Carreyrou's. Murdoch had invested over $100 million in Theranos, but said he would let WSJ editors handle decisions about the story. Had he chosen to intervene, Theranos might have continued its fraud for years.
2. Holmes met and beguiled nonagenariean former Secretary of State George Shultz, who recruited his aging friends at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University's right-leaning "think tank" to be on her Board of Directors. (Steve Sailer hero and Hoover member Thomas Sowell was conspicuously not one of them.) Most of them had distinguished backgrounds in politics but no experience in medicine or biotechnology, and I suspect, very little grasp on reality.
Holmes clearly had a specialty for entrancing senile men. Her chief lawyer David Boies, who was paid in Theranos stock, is in his late 70s. Joe Biden and Bill Clinton did media appearances with her. She hosted a $2,700-a plate fundraiser for the Hillary campaign. Rupert Murdoch himself is well into his 80s.
In the closing chapter, Carreyrou describes driving around Palo Alto with a professor who knew Holmes before she dropped out of Stanford and "is struck by how small and insular Palo Alto was." The Stanford profs and retired bureaucrats who propped up Holmes lived within blocks of one another.Replies: @DFH, @CJ, @Rosamond Vincy, @J.Ross, @ThirdWorldSteveReader
Interesting (and parallel to new credibility in judgment from physiognomy) that these people have a consistent pattern of behavior in public and in private.
We’ve seen this story before with every talented but grizzled music producer who sponsors a new pop-tart exploding onto the scene not only putting his masterful notes & lyrics into her mouth but also his hands into her pants.
We need a new term for this kind of telegenic straw man, because the ones with the most visual appeal to distract from their lack of substance are invariably female. Observe all the pundit cuties on social media with thousands or millions of followers. They’re exploiting their charismatic gifts masterfully and the fact that their faces are made for much more than radio.
Not new.
Some additional associations I made while reading the book:
1. “Catfish”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catfish_(film)
Theranos was never a medical company or a tech company, or any kind of business really. It was always first and foremost a social media production, a mirage on Instagram.
2. The Producers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Producers_(1967_film)
Not quite a perfect analogy, but Elizabeth Holmes followed Zero Mostel’s character’s basic fundraising strategy. Substitute old men for the old ladies.
3. Jessica Dubroff
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Dubroff
There are actually quite a few parallels (ambition, parental pressure, media frenzy, exploiting shortsighted loopholes in federal regulations) between this child’s sad story and Elizabeth.
3. “Best Imitation of Myself,” Ben Folds Five
To me, the most striking detail in Carreyrou’s reporting that Elizabeth spoke in a fake voice. Kind of like Michael Jackson, she was forced to skip some critical developmental stages in her life that everyone needs to go through to reach maturity. She was unable to find an identity or personality she was comfortable with.
Do you think I should take a class
To lose my southern accent
Did I make me up, or make the face till it stuck
I do the best imitation of myself
Think big. Think pig.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=CyEBXTL1Y3U
You don’t hide them, Steve.
You retcon them into something else.
So the likely story is this.
1) Famous feminist icon, female entrepreneur hero, turns out to have been a fraud.
2) Not only that, but she turns out to have been merely a front for an old and ugly criminal mastermind who used her to con elderly men into investing hundreds of millions into his scheme.
3) The ugly old criminal mastermind also used her to sign most of the papers. (As CEO, Holmes is likely be legally more responsible than Balwani. Except maybe the usual sentencing double standards might give Balwani similar or even higher terms than Holmes.)
4) The ugly old criminal mastermind also had sex with her.
There is no feminist moral to this story, because apparently women are not only incapable of founding giant revolutionary corporations, but also of committing fraud on their own. Oh, and they are susceptible to be manipulated by powerful men, and sleep with them, even if they are ugly.Replies: @joe_mama
Makes a lot of sense. In the valley, it’s much easier to get VC funding if you’re young. Extra (and I mean extra) bonus points if you’re female.
Tangentially related, but I had a former co-worker who tried to go out on his own and start his own company. Middle aged Indian guy with a decent idea/working product. Just couldn’t get an audience with any of the VCs. He told me that a lot of the advice he got from other colleagues is to get himself a younger partner. That is usually the ticket.
What military service?
IDF, I suppose.
"This is the fastest lab test...in the world sir".Replies: @Moses
Carreyrou: They told me that you had gone totally insane, and that your methods were unsound.
Holmes: Are my methods unsound?
Carreyrou: I don’t see any method at all, sir.
Tangentially related, but I had a former co-worker who tried to go out on his own and start his own company. Middle aged Indian guy with a decent idea/working product. Just couldn't get an audience with any of the VCs. He told me that a lot of the advice he got from other colleagues is to get himself a younger partner. That is usually the ticket.Replies: @Moses
Can confirm.
VCs look for media-friendly young faces and “world-changing” stories. Not that a middle aged man couldn’t get funded. But far less likely.
People get personally vested in a narrative. It’s hard to let go, especially to admit you were wrong so spectacularly and publicly. Easier to hallucinate, not see and double down. Fascinating psychology.
People got in their minds that the photogenic Holmes was some sort of second-coming female version of Jobs who would revolutionize healthcare and save countless lives. It was — and is — hard to let go and escape the cognitive dissonance. Such a great story, with awesome visuals.
Look what Tim Draper just said (from Wikipedia entry on Theranos):
I read “Bad Blood.” Evidence too plentiful and too damning. It was pure fraud what Holmes did. Lies upon lies.
Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt, Tim.
A cautionary tale. No one is immune.
No, the Indian mobster got himself a young woman to be the public face and “feminist entrepreneur” of his fraudulent company.
We need a new term for this kind of telegenic straw man, because the ones with the most visual appeal to distract from their lack of substance are invariably female. Observe all the pundit cuties on social media with thousands or millions of followers. They're exploiting their charismatic gifts masterfully and the fact that their faces are made for much more than radio.Replies: @Rosamond Vincy
Svengali?
Not new.
The Senator was wearing acid-washed jeans and leather driving moccasins.Replies: @Altai, @duncsbaby, @Lurker
I would have thought the late senator would have worn flippers for driving?
She dyed her hair blond and had an eating disorder in high school. A private school in the Houston area.
She spoke with an unnaturally deep voice that was intentionally faked so she would come across as more serious.
She met Sunny Balwani in a college study abroad program. Apparently, they became close when he protected her from a group of bullies in the study abroad program. Elizabeth was just a scared, insecure young woman.
A family friend, Richard Fuisz, was a doctor who patented and marketed several medical inventions and became wealthy off these inventions. Elizabeth's parents suffered many financial setbacks and came to feel a great deal of hostility and envy towards this friend. They later targeted him with an abusive patent infringement lawsuit.
I speculate that the seed of Elizabeth's delusional idea was planted in childhood or adolescence by her parents, inspired by the example of Dr. Fuisz.
The book describes the toxic work atmosphere at Theranos: lots of surveillance and intimidation. A distinguished research scientist in his late 60s was driven to suicide when his deposition in a lawsuit was coming up; he was afraid he would have to talk about what was happening at Theranos and would therefore lose his job. Sadly, I suspect that similar workplace environments are fairly typical in Silicon Valley.
The books is a case study in how incestuous and decrepit our academic, media, and financial elites are. Two vignettes on this theme:
1. Elizabeth Holmes would never sit down for an interview with WSJ reporter John Carreyrou, but did fly to New York to meet with Rupert Murdoch, the paper's owner, to kill the story. Murdoch's office was 3 floors above Mr. Carreyrou's. Murdoch had invested over $100 million in Theranos, but said he would let WSJ editors handle decisions about the story. Had he chosen to intervene, Theranos might have continued its fraud for years.
2. Holmes met and beguiled nonagenariean former Secretary of State George Shultz, who recruited his aging friends at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University's right-leaning "think tank" to be on her Board of Directors. (Steve Sailer hero and Hoover member Thomas Sowell was conspicuously not one of them.) Most of them had distinguished backgrounds in politics but no experience in medicine or biotechnology, and I suspect, very little grasp on reality.
Holmes clearly had a specialty for entrancing senile men. Her chief lawyer David Boies, who was paid in Theranos stock, is in his late 70s. Joe Biden and Bill Clinton did media appearances with her. She hosted a $2,700-a plate fundraiser for the Hillary campaign. Rupert Murdoch himself is well into his 80s.
In the closing chapter, Carreyrou describes driving around Palo Alto with a professor who knew Holmes before she dropped out of Stanford and "is struck by how small and insular Palo Alto was." The Stanford profs and retired bureaucrats who propped up Holmes lived within blocks of one another.Replies: @DFH, @CJ, @Rosamond Vincy, @J.Ross, @ThirdWorldSteveReader
Thanks a lot for the great review!
I’m still thinking if I am relieved that her disturbing deep voice might be fake or even more disturbed that a woman would fake such monstruosity.
Many women fake their voice in the business world or in Academia. It advances their careers by mimicking men’s voices.
Steve — you should really read the book. It’s fascinating, and buried within is an interesting immigration angle.
Holmes was allowing this guy — Sunny, her secret Pakistani boyfriend, whom her board didn’t know was her boyfriend! — to run the company. He was by all accounts a total lunatic with no scientific or managerial knowledge. He systematically browbeat and alienated all the staffers, many of whom were hyper-intelligent American engineers and chemists who were already feeling like something wasn’t right with the company and its tactics…knew the technology was nowhere near ready for rollout…etc. Lots of them quit or were fired by Sunny after raising valid concerns. He replaced them with a cadre of totally pliant yes-man Indians who did his bidding. This might have partly been for cultural reasons (and it was obviously for cultural reasons that he demanded utter loyalty and purged naysayers), but it was also because they were on H1-B visas and were in far less of a position to stand up to Sunny.
(Tangentially, their relationship seems bizarre. He met her when she was a high-school student studying abroad in Beijing. He was in his 40s at the time. He’s not terribly attractive and by all accounts his personality is the pits. On the other hand, it doesn’t seem like he Svengali-ed her. She sounds far more bright and appealing than him on multiple levels, and he wouldn’t have had the get-up-and-go to start this kind of company without her.)