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Succession creator Jesse Armstrong recently released his latest project, a movie called Mountainhead that follows four narcissistic, egomaniacal tech bros as they manipulate world affairs, chat petulantly with world leaders, and casually ponder the takeovers of each other's companies along with several countries around the globe that they're quite convinced (a lack of experience and expertise aside) they could run better than their existing governments. It's not a great movie, but in fairness to the filmmakers, they were attempting an impossible task. You can't parody the intersection between tech billionaires and geopolitics. No matter how ridiculous and offensive the scenarios you manage to conjure from even the darkest and most devilish recesses of your imagination, reality will blow it away.
Indeed, it took less than a week for our sadly non-fiction state of affairs to bring us an all too real fight between a criminal billionaire president and an evil super billionaire tech bro, each armed with their own social media platforms as they engaged in a flame war that shook governments, moved markets, gripped the media, and enraptured the world. Even though the devolution of the world's most world-damaging bromance was predictable (spoiler alert: no town is big enough for that much sociopathic malignant narcissism), its actual realization left me nostalgic for the quaint world depicted in parodies and satires, and even more so for the days when the worst thing you saw on social media was someone trying to make their family vacation look a little better than it actually was.
While the flame war was funny, its underlying meaning is anything but. It's a reflection of where we are in America, with way too much power and wealth in the hands of a few—and the wrong few at that. Does the future of America come down to an evil billionaire vs an evil dictator? Maybe we all need some ketamine. This is a lose-lose fight with the American people coming out as the biggest losers of all. The only interested parties who came out of yesterday's skirmish unscathed are CyberTruck drivers, and that’s only because they couldn’t look any worse than they already did...
+ "Musk had, it seems, kicked off an attentional spectacle without precedent. You have the world’s richest man, who is terminally online and whose brain has been addled by social media and, reportedly, other substances. He is one of the most prolific and erratic high-profile posters, so much so that he purchased his favorite social network to mold it in his image. He is squaring off against Trump, arguably the most consequential, off-the-cuff poster of all time and, one must note, the current president of the United States. If it weren’t for the other, both men would be peerless in their ability to troll, outrage, and command news cycles via their fragile, mercurial egos." Charlie Warzel in The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Super Bowl of Internet Beefs. (Except in this Super Bowl, you're rooting against both teams, you don't know when the game will end, and there's no way to turn it off.)
+ The fight-induced plunge in Tesla's stock is evidence of the level of corruption that has taken hold in America. The exchange of threats about SpaceX is evidence of the government-like power Elon Musk has amassed. The content of the fight is evidence that these guys don't really like each other and are both habitual liars and manipulators. And everything about 2025 so far is evidence that Trump and Musk are likely to patch things up and work together toward the common bad once more. After all, that's the worst possible outcome.
2
Premature Evisceration
NYT (Gift Article) with the stuff of nightmares. Doctors Were Preparing to Remove Their Organs. Then They Woke Up. "Four years ago, an unconscious Kentucky man began to awaken as he was about to be removed from life support so his organs could be donated. Even though the man cried, pulled his legs to his chest and shook his head, officials still tried to move forward." (Please don't forward this to RFK Jr. We don't want to give him any ideas.)
3
Get Back to Where You Once Belonged
"Early this spring, the Food and Drug Administration fired nearly 50 workers in the Office of Regulatory Policy — only to turn around and order them back to the office with one day’s notice. After dismissing thousands of probationary employees for fabricated 'performance' issues, the IRS reversed course and told them to show up to work in late May. And some staff at the U.S. Agency for International Development, dismantled in the first days of the Trump administration by a gleeful Elon Musk and his cost-cutting team at the U.S. DOGE Service, checked their inboxes this month to find an unexpected offer: Would you consider returning — to work for the State Department?" WaPo(Gift Article): Trump administration races to fix a big mistake: DOGE fired too many people.
4
Weekend Whats
What to Binge: Eddie Redmayne plays a highly-skilled assassin in the series The Day of the Jackal on Peacock. Like many similar shows, this one gets a progressively more unrealistic. But the show is entertaining and binge-able and it doubles as a European travel guide.
+ What to Watch: For a more cerebral crime-related series, check out Dept Q on Netflix. From the creator of Queen's Gambit, "a brash but brilliant cop becomes head of a new police department, where he leads an unlikely team of misfits in solving Edinburgh's cold cases."
5
Extra, Extra
The Container Horror: "Nearly a dozen immigration officers and eight deportees are sick and stranded in a metal shipping container in the searing-hot East African nation of Djibouti, where they face the constant threat of malaria and rocket attacks from nearby Yemen." WaPo: ICE officers stuck in Djibouti shipping container with deported migrants.
+ Vlad Handing: "A key provision in the legislation, backed by more than 80 senators, is the imposition of sanctions on key Russian officials and sectors, as well as penalties for countries that do business with Moscow. That, President Trump fears, could harm his goal of reviving relations between the U.S. and Russia." WSJ (Gift Article): White House Quietly Pressures Senate to Water Down Russia Sanctions.
+ But the Fighter Still Remains: "Damian Williams, the former top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, is leaving the law firm Paul Weiss to join Jenner & Block, defecting from a firm that struck a deal with the Trump administration to sign on with one that fought it in court."
+ Food Chain: "When someone working in a restaurant hears the words 'I need hands,' it’s a call to action, akin to the Bat-Signal being flashed into the sky summoning superhero help." Ever Wondered How Many Hands Touch Your Food at a Restaurant Before It Gets to You? (Actually, I try hard not to wonder about that.)
+ Ken Do Attitude: "Trivia, of all things, is a ray of hope in our moment of national crisis. Somehow, it’s still an arena where ideological projects are completely ignored and the thing that matters — the only thing that matters — is the right answer." (Or in some cases, the right question.) Ken Jennings in the NYT (Gift Article): Trivia and ‘Jeopardy!’ Could Save Our Republic. (It's either that or we stick with Let's Make a Deal.)
+ Helliburton: "I spit on your attempts to find explanations for this outcome in physical reality. Pwah! It is obvious to me now that reasons for the Pacers' success can only be found in the metaphysical realm, and that they are carried forward by an accord with forces beyond our limited understanding." Defector: We Must Consider Whether The Pacers Have A Pact With Beelzebub Himself.
6
Feel Good Friday
"They cleared roads. They checked on each other and dug through the ash. But members of the Pasadena Run Club know the work that comes next is less visible. The backbreaking labor of recovery is one thing. The difficult process of healing is something else entirely." After L.A. fires, a local run club helps pick up the pieces.
+ How a Los Angeles camp made space to let kids be kids after the wildfires.
+ "The nonprofit legal aid group Lambda Legal, which advocates for LGBTQ rights, has raised $285 million at a time when attacks on the rights of gay, intersex and transgender people have again intensified Lambda Legal CEO Kevin Jennings announced the results on Thursday, saying the group exceeded its original fundraising goal by $105 million."
+ "A cure for HIV could be a step closer after researchers found a new way to force the virus out of hiding inside human cells." Breakthrough in search for HIV cure leaves researchers overwhelmed. (And they're in Australia, so the funding won't get cut.)
+ WaPo: Bear cub rescued from woods is being raised by humans dressed as bears. (This makes me feel a lot less weird about my beagle costume.)
+ Colorado kayakers paddle to rescue a dog that tumbled over 60-foot waterfall in Mexico.
+ Feeling sorry for yourself? There's now an actual solution. Scientists create world's smallest violin.