The John Johnston Lounge

JJ’s Politics Unfiltered host JJ breaks down how the FIFA 2026 World Cup was expected to bring a huge tourism surge to the United States, as the majority of the events are being hosted in the United States. However, reports indicate that international visitors will be staying away, with hotel bookings so far much lower than expected. This is likely due to concerns and fears over ICE raids and hars...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down how a Reuters investigation of Tesla’s unsupervised Robotaxi rollout has found long wait times, bizarre routing, and close to zero robotaxi availability across Tesla’s three-city “Robotaxi” service. What look like convenience issue, could really be symptoms of a system that can’t scale safely.  New channel: JJ's Authentic New Zealand channel https://www.youtube.c...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down the latest developments in Elon Musk and Sam Altman’s court battle over the future of OpenAI. Sam Altman and Elon Musk are currently facing-off in a high-stakes courtroom trial that could impact the future of OpenAI.  New: JJ's Authentic New Zealand channel https://www.youtube.com/@jjsauthenticnz Related episodes: AI Bubble: Reckless Multi- $Trillion Data Center...

John Johnston (JJ) questions whether the expected multi-trillion dollar AI data center buildout will end in a bust, like the internet infrastructure buildout did in the early 2000s. Has the current AI data center buildout turned into a massive bubble that is financially unsustainable? New: JJ's Authentic New Zealand channel https://www.youtube.com/@jjsauthenticnz Related episodes: Elon Musk’s AI P...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down the news that Elon Musk’s AI empire appears to be unraveling in real time. The current trial of Elon Musk vs Sam Altman is exposing, under oath, that Musk’s AI ambitions were never about AI safety, open access, or benefiting humanity. They have been about power and control all along. New: JJ's Authentic New Zealand channel https://www.youtube.com/@jjsauthenticnz...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down how Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest says that the robotaxi market could hit a massive $34 Trillion by 2030, in just 4 years. JJ also surveys some critics of both ARK Invest and Elon Musk’s Tesla, in relation to robotaxis, including famed short seller Jim Chanos. Related episodes: THE TESLA STOCK CRASH WILL BE EPIC  https://open.spotify.com/episode/2RV8h4ioNb1wksarKXeIdH Tes...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down how Gen Z’s opinions of AI are reportedly hitting new lows. The more young people use AI, the more they dislike it, if recent surveys are to be believed. Gen Z is using AI of course, but many don’t feel great about it, and are even pushing back against its increasing use in workplaces and eduction institutions.  New JJ’s Authentic NZ vid-  From Ruins to Revival: Expl...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down how Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have a very different attitude towards free speech behind the scenes, that they do in public. JJ reacts to Taylor Lorenz, in relation to a text conversation between the two tech billionaires, in which they are more than willing to censor social media accounts. We also see how journalist Gil Duran has just been permanently banned from...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down how some of Palantir’s employees are concerned about the big tech company’s “descent into fascism”. Leaked Slack messages, and interviews with current and former Palantir employees have revealed as picture of a military contractor company in internal turmoil. New: JJ's Authentic New Zealand Channel  https://www.youtube.com/@jjsauthenticnz Related episodes: Peter Thie...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down how Elon Musk’s almost daily online rants about race are turning off more fans. Elon has posted over 850 times on the divisive topic in recent months, which is almost triple the previous two years. New: JJ's Authentic New Zealand Channel  https://www.youtube.com/@jjsauthenticnz Related episodes: Peter Thiel’s Palantir Just Posted A Neo-Fascist Manifesto  https://...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down how veteran investor George Noble is asserting that this will be the year Tesla fully implodes. After doing a sum of the parts valuation, Noble thinks Tesla stock is only worth a fraction of it’s current stock market price. Related episodes: Tesla Q1 Earnings: Elon Sort of Admitted the FSD Truth https://open.spotify.com/episode/2krI3rv5yJPfPePlE2hl61 There’s A Growin...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down how tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s company Palantir has published what seems to be some version of a neo-fascist manifesto online. It’s partially a summary of Palantir CEO Alex Karp’s recent book. JJ also reacts to journalist Gil Duran, one of the foremost authorities on the concerning move to the political far-right of many of Silicon Valley’s most prominent tech bi...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down Tesla Q1 2026 Earnings, including what Elon Musk said on the earnings call. The results seemed okay on the surface, be digging deeper revealed some uncomfortable  truths about the future, and about Tesla’s Self-Driving aims.  Related episodes: There’s A Growing Revolt Over Tesla Self-Driving Promises https://open.spotify.com/episode/07qdYLrT48oL4AIP8OTR7X Why Bank An...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down how Tesla car owners are in revolt over Tesla’s Full Self-Driving promises. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that an international backlash is growing, over outdated Tesla hardware that Elon previously said would work with Hardware 3 (HW3). Tesla owners allege that Elon Musk and Tesla have made repeated claims that were false about the self-driving capabilities o...

John Johnston (JJ) discusses how failing shoe brand Allbirds is “pivoting” to be an AI company, and how this is yet another sign of the AI boom turning into a bubble. Similar moves have been made during previous market bubbles, including the massive Dot Com Bubble.   Related episodes: Sam Altman: Silicon Valley’s Greatest Grift? (Ed Zitron Reaction) https://open.spotify.com/episode/7Aj85Hr7fc5I7vF...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down how Tesla is supposedly expanding it’s unsupervised robotaxis to two new cities in Texas (Dallas and Houston), and more in Austin, but is it mostly more smoke and mirrors ahead of Tesla Earnings? Related episodes:  Elon Musk’s Twitter Fraud Deposition Was A Trainwreck (Footage) https://open.spotify.com/episode/5W6cess0tRaAIXA1wwL246 Elon Musk's Double Blow: Chauf...

John Johnston (JJ) discusses the ramifications of the recent attacks on AI tech billionaire Sam Altman and others, and why AI is facing a growing public backlash. JJ also reacts to Ed Elson from Prof G Markets, and Ed Zitron from Better Offline and The Tech Report, on the subject of growing AI resistance and the “dangerous rhetoric” surrounding the AI boom. Related episodes: OpenAI Insiders: Sam A...

John Johnston (JJ) reacts to some video clips from Elon Musk’s revealing deposition from the Twitter fraud case, in which Elon was found by a jury to have misled investors ahead of the $44 billion acquisition.  Related episodes: Elon Musk’s $25B ‘Desperate’ Terafab, $2.6B Court Loss & FSD Crisis https://open.spotify.com/episode/78OQ3eeaWYqgpbNRqII50T Elon Musk Moves For Twitter Fraud Mistrial...

John Johnston (JJ) responds to an Atlantic article about the upcoming SpaceX IPO, that asserts that Elon Musk is banking on his “Elongelical fanboys” to make the SpaceX the most expensive big stock in the stock market. We also look at an article from Will Lockett, who details just how big of a leap Starship’s V3 needs to be to achieve what has been planned.  Related episodes: Biggest Money Grab Ev...

John Johnston (JJ) reacts to part of a Patrick Boyle video, in which he chronicles how  Mark Zuckerberg spent $88 Billion on Meta’s failed Metaverse. We also look at how Meta wants to build facial recognition into its Meta AI glasses, which many civil liberties groups oppose.  Related episodes: Mark Zuckerberg’s $379M Disaster: A Jury Just Broke Meta https://open.spotify.com/episode/00QVKKj3WjFo3x...

John Johnston (JJ) reacts to some of a recent interview with Ed Zitron, who thinks that OpenAI’s Sam Altman “is an historic con artist”, and the the AI boom is mostly inflated hype This follows a recent New Yorker expose about Altman, by respected investigative journalists Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz. Related episodes: Stop Believing AI Hype (Elon Taught Them Everything)  https://open.spotify....

John Johnston (JJ) reacts to authoritarian expert Anne Applebaum, who discusses with The Bulwark’s Tim Miller how the Trump administration has been copying the increasingly authoritarian playbook of Viktor Orbán in Hungary. Related episodes: What Authoritarians Have in Common & How to Build A Resistance https://youtu.be/5cnBHlXLkkU It's Time to Confront the Reality of Fascism in America ht...

John Johnston (JJ) reacts to a Bloomberg opinion piece, in which Max Chafkin asserts that the upcoming SpaceX IPO is Elon Musk’s most audacious product launch yet, with it’s $2 trillion valuation leaning heavily on current AI hype. Tesla investors are also already abuzz about a potential Tesla merger with SpaceX. Related episodes: They REALLY Want SpaceX Starship to be a War Machine https://open.s...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down how Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship could in the future be used to launch powerful munitions into orbit, to be deployed quickly against international adversaries in times of war. This is the suggestion of a visiting “geopolitics scholar” at Cambridge University, via the Wall Street Journal. Related episodes: Prediction: US Defeat in Iran War Will Pop AI Bubble https://op...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down the astonishing news that OpenAI has acquired TBPN tech podcast for “low hundreds of millions” of dollars, supposedly to “accelerate the global conversation around AI”.  Related episodes: AI Bubble: Is OpenAI Going Broke? https://open.spotify.com/episode/4xPM7mmWrmDHcRmdytpEoq Stop Believing AI Hype (Elon Taught Them Everything)  https://open.spotify.com/episode/7v9q...