In a headline-making excerpt we published on Thursday, we learned just how Musk came to have such power in the Russia-Ukraine war — and what he did with it. Isaacson describes Musk’s initial enthusiasm about putting his powerful Starlink satellite system to work on behalf of the Ukrainian forces, allowing them to communicate. The move offered the business magnate a “center-stage opportunity to show his humanitarian instincts while playing superhero,” Isaacson writes.
Pretty soon, however, Musk realized it also meant he had the ability to abruptly cut power when Ukraine ventured an attack he didn’t think prudent. As Isaacson fielded increasingly jittery (and mind-blowing texts) from his biographical subject, he got to watch a Silicon Valley entrepreneur with no formal defense role single-handedly deciding the next turn in the war.
The excerpt makes for both fascinating and nauseating reading. Isaacson’s book is out Tuesday but, of course, with the war still on and Musk continuing to throw his weight around socially, economically and politically (not to mention maybe medically?), this story is far from over.
As parts of the Starlink-Ukraine story emerged last month, the Editorial Board wrote about why “Mr. Musk is the wrong person to be making these calls.”
Jennifer Rubin wrote in July about the site formerly known as Twitter and why “functional, regulated capitalism means that rotten owners such as Musk are going to fail.”
Contributing columnist Adam Lashinsky explored why we keep putting our faith in wealthy Silicon Valley business executives such as Musk to lead us, despite all the evidence toward, uh, not doing that.
Small potatoes compared with potential nuclear war, perhaps, but the Editorial Board explained why Musk killing Twitter’s small blue bird logo was such a bummer.
And in case you think we’re all bearish on Musk, Megan McArdle wrote as recently as February about how impressive it was that he could lay off so much of Twitter’s staff and still have it function. (These days? Hmm. Find me with the weirdos on Bluesky.)
A bipartisan agenda to support post-Roe parents
Alyssa Rosenberg and Marc Thiessen are both columnists for Post Opinions and parents. But in political worldviews, they diverge: “One of us is a pro-choice liberal who believes pregnancy and parenting are so momentous that no one should be forced to take them on. The other is a pro-life conservative who believes unborn life is sacred and that the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was a godsend.”
So where’s the common ground? Well, Alyssa and Marc agree that the women now unwillingly bearing children as a result of the end of Roe — not to mention all the other American parents — could use more help. And they have plenty of ideas that should really be bipartisan crowd-pleasers, from supporting marriage and adoption through the tax code to trying out longer school days to expanding Medicaid and WIC coverage. This week, they offered a slate of consensus ideas on supporting parents that should be an inspiration both to Congress and to governors, in red states and blue.
Speaking of improving the experience of childbearing: “More women die of pregnancy-related deaths in the United States than in any other high-income country, and mental health challenges are a leading cause of those lost lives,” writes Opinions writer/producer Kate Woodsome in her latest missive on mental health. Though a new drug for postpartum depression has just been approved, Kate says that’s just the beginning of what needs to be done to assist with the mental health of pregnant women and new moms in this country.
Let’s be honest: As a football know-nothing, I am not the audience for this over-the-top Rick Reilly screed about how coach Deion Sanders took over his beloved Colorado Buffaloes and transformed the team into a thing of glory, in part by attracting Black players to a town “whiter than Tucker Carlson eating a Wonder Bread mayonnaise sandwich at Cracker Barrel.” But I know passion — and a phenomenon — when I see it. Read this op-ed and you might fall down the same “Coach Prime” rabbit hole I did.
- Dana Milbank delves into two dark secrets the Republican National Committee has uncovered about President Biden: He is fond of both puppies and — brace yourself — ice cream. Time to impeach.
- As another government shutdown looms, Henry Olsen has an idea for Speaker Kevin McCarthy about how to stop getting rolled by the Freedom Caucus. It involves imagining that they are members of a different party altogether.
- The Editorial Board takes a look at China’s slowing economy and, between that and a floundering Russia, wonders whether the bloom is finally coming off the authoritarian rose.
It’s a goodbye. It’s a haiku. It’s … The Bye-Ku.
For Ukraine: all very well
Have your own newsy haiku? Email it to me, along with any questions/comments/compliments/complaints. Have a great weekend, and Drew Goins will see you on Monday!
