David Ljungdahl illustration in 1910 Swedish edition of Jules Verne's "Captain Grant's Children, from Wikimedia Commons
Josh Marshall on why he keeps focusing on Musk's acquisition of Twitter, though that may annoy some of his readers:
Musk meanwhile embodies all the features of over-mighty wealth in the early 21st century. His whims can impact the conduct of the ongoing war in Ukraine. He has opaque but consequential negotiations with various governments around the globe. Indeed, he functions on the global stage more like a state than an individual or even a large corporation. ...
Musk is like Trump in the sense that his outsized wealth and power allow him to move freely in our normless era. His machinations are central to the global efforts to harness media as well as the rise of authoritarian governments around the globe.
Jeet Heer on what it portends for the world's richest man (by some measures) to control one of the world's most influential social media sites:
There is every reason to worry about the fact that the world’s richest man (by some measures) is now controlling one of the world’s most influential social media sites and using it to promote far-right conspiracy theories.
Alex Hern walks us through the first days of Musk's takeover of Twitter, noting, inter alia, the following:
Musk’s first act was to fire a slate of executives and bring in a brain trust of his pals to sketch out the future. Among the execs canned were the CEO, CFO and (tellingly) Vijaya Gadde, the legal chief and moderation pro seen as responsible for suspending Donald Trump.
