People think "Hollywood" is rich and famous. The reality? Film and TV is a national industry. It's a blue collar industry. And it is an industry free fall. My latest for @newrepublic.com on how the Paramount merger would crush blue collar workers who can not afford it newrepublic.com/article/2136...

There’s a Blue-Collar Hollywood—and the Paramount Merger Will Kill It

Hollywood isn’t all glamour. It’s thousands of line workers. And a Paramount takeover of Warner will make their lives even more precarious.

newrepublic.com

Has anyone seen these posters in D.C. and recognize who's featured? I recognize Chris Lehane but not the other two.

“The famine is over! The curse be damned!! Hit the nuclear button! Mayo have won the All-Ireland!!” An all-time great sports commentary moment from Stephen Grealis and Martin McHugh on Mayo’s Midwest Radio. #gaa

New piece from our very own Natalia Renta, AFR's associate director for corporate governance & power!

Inequality.org@inequality.org · 2w ago

The SpaceX scam has delivered record profits for Wall St banks but big risks to everyday retirement savers. Natalia Renta of @ourfinancialsecurity.org explains what we can do about it.

@alexshultz.bsky.social talks to Aron D’Souza, a founder of the Enhanced Games and a friend of Peter Thiel’s, about what happened to his media “AI tribunal” Objection and about his new venture Primary, an IMDb for journalists. Watch the full interview here: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/an-intervi...

can't believe @alexshultz.bsky.social landed interview with one of the guys behind shutting down gawker. and yes the interview is exactly as you'd expect it to be www.hardresetmedia.com/p/an-intervi...

An Interview With the Billionaire Whisperer Who Wants to Rank and Score Journalists

Businessman Aron D’Souza, a founder of the Enhanced Games and a friend of Peter Thiel’s, spoke about his recent media-centric ventures: Objection and Primary.

hardresetmedia.com

Two weeks ago today, after Nasdaq willingly rigged the rules, somewhere btw $7-10 bil of passive money was forced to buy SpaceX at $160.42 Today, 10 trading days later, it closed at $119.85 It’s an unprecedented forced loss (at least $2b) for passive investors and our financial media is 🦗

"flexibility has become the lynchpin of a well-traveled myth that corporations have spun to their employees, policymakers, and the public." @profsheenalives.bsky.social prospect.org/2026/07/09/d...

The Dangerous Myth of Flexibility - The American Prospect

Uber and Lyft insist it benefits their drivers. In actuality, it benefits Uber and Lyft.

prospect.org

BREAKING States Prepare Lawsuit to Block Paramount’s Merger With Warner's If accurate, one of the most important developments yet in the fight to stop authoritarianism in the US We @democracydefendersaction.org have been proud to advocate for this incl helping lead the #BlockTheMerger movement

States Prepare Lawsuit to Block Paramount’s Merger With Warner Bros. (Gift Article)

State attorneys general are preparing to file a lawsuit as soon as this week to halt the $111 billion deal, a potential major obstacle.

nytimes.com

If bombing an elementary school full of children doesn’t cross your red lines, there’s something deeply wrong with your company. This morning, we took our message to the SF offices of xAI/Tesla, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Microsoft to call out their complicity in Trump's reckless violence.

"The bosses are stealing our game industry, and we aim to take it back" Microsoft fired 400+ unionized workers at Bethesda Game Studios. Unionized Microsoft workers across the country rallied outside of Xbox-owned studio offices in protest. www.rockpapershotgun.com/as-unionised...

As unionised Microsoft workers rally against Bethesda layoffs, Fallout 4's been filled with protest signs and OneBGS logoed vault suits by modders

Unionised Microsoft workers are rallying against layoffs at Bethesda, ZeniMax and id Software, with some Fallout 4 modders showing solidarity.

rockpapershotgun.com

26 Meta workers who recently "took, requested, or were approved" for medical leave allege they were part of mass layoffs because internal AI systems (one of which is called Metamate) dinged them for factors like lack of "productivity and output metrics" and not enough "AI-token consumption"

Complaint – #1 in Does 1 through 26 v. Meta Platforms, Inc. (N.D. Cal., 4:26-cv-07122) – CourtListener.com

COMPLAINT against Meta Platforms, Inc. ( Filing fee $ 405, receipt number ACANDC-22205934.). Filed by Does 1 through 26. (Attachments: # 1 Civil Cover Sheet)(Cowan, Barbara) (Filed on 7/13/2026) (Ente...

storage.courtlistener.com

Fascinating to see OpenAI employees knife fight with one of their own execs. "Tech billionaires, such as Greg Brockman, funded the super PAC Leading the Future to keep AI unregulated. I was very happy to learn that Guardrails Alliance is pushing back [...] my decision to donate to them was easy."

OpenAI Staffers Are Funding a Rival Super PAC to Take on Their Boss

OpenAI employees have donated more than $215,000 to a political effort opposing Leading the Future, a group backed by the company’s president, Greg Brockman.

wired.com

So proud to have worked on this campaign. When we started the smart people said this was a done deal. Remarkable what can be achieved if the right people come together and doggedly fight to win. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/12/b... #BlockTheMerger

States Prepare Lawsuit to Block Paramount’s Merger With Warner Bros.

State attorneys general are said to be getting ready to file a lawsuit as soon as this week to halt the $111 billion deal, a potential major obstacle.

nytimes.com

What if the AI productivity boost has been vastly oversold? "...for each dollar that companies spend on AI coding tools, 44 cents goes towards fixing AI-generated bugs, 27 cents goes towards rewriting the code, and 11 cents is lost to other inefficiencies" www.hardresetmedia.com/p/are-we-bet...

Are We Betting the Economy on a Doomed Technology?

If generative AI turns out to be a dud, it could be our economy that goes up in flames.

hardresetmedia.com

In his first for Hard Reset, @matthewus.bsky.social compares the current AI moment to a little known technology from 75 years ago that was supposed to revolutionize the auto industry: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/are-we-bet...

Are We Betting the Economy on a Doomed Technology?

If generative AI turns out to be a dud, it could be our economy that goes up in flames.

hardresetmedia.com

You try to get your eight year old sport-averse son into football, and you end up writing the first ever literary book review of a sticker album. www.irishtimes.com/life-style/p...

My son’s frustrating World Cup sticker book is a perfect reflection of Fifa

My son’s World Cup sticker book offers an unmissable opportunity for me to deliver the first ever broadsheet book review of this most vaunted form of literature

irishtimes.com

Meta has hit pause on its plan to use its own workers computer use to train AI systems - but there are plenty of other examples of this happening around the world. My latest for @telegraph.co.uk www.telegraph.co.uk/education-an...

The humans training their AI replacements

A disturbing video has raised concerns about the way workers are being monitored to create better robots

telegraph.co.uk

📣 NEW CASE FILED AGAINST OPENAI Today, Tech Justice Law and the Social Media Victims Law Center filed a lawsuit in San Francisco County Superior Court against OpenAI on behalf of Michael Lines, who survived a suicide attempt that followed extensive and manipulative outputs from OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

the brilliant @matteowong.bsky.social lived in a hacker house in SF and the dispatch is about as batshit as you’d expect www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

“There was a time when Europe looked like the world’s answer to the worst excesses of big tech. Ireland has sabotaged that dream for a massive payoff.” - @johnnyryan.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Ireland is big tech’s lapdog – and that compromises its EU presidency | Johnny Ryan

The country is dependent on the global giants that call Dublin home. Irish ministers can’t be trusted to chair vital European digital sovereignty talks, says Irish civil liberties campaigner Johnny Ry...

theguardian.com

Killionaire

Raw Story@rawstory.com · last mo.

For over a week, #ElonMusk has demanded a "single name of someone" whose death was attributed to DOGE cuts to U.S. federal aid. When thousands of responses came in, Musk became notably silent. #DOGE

I spoke with workers about Elon Musk hitting the trillionaire mark and their struggles with inflation, affordability, and not be able to save or plan for the future www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

As billionaires’ wealth soars, US workers struggle: ‘The rich keep getting richer for no good reason’

Ultrarich face backlash as billionaire tax in California makes it to the ballot and Americans organize for higher wages

theguardian.com

is it now illegal to make jokes?

“The two of us swim together, talking about the quiet fear of not keeping up with the faster swimmers. It’s a conversation I didn’t know I needed.” www.kqed.org/perspectives...

Kate Farnady: In Search of Serendipity | KQED

Kate Farnady shares about the unexpected benefits of breaking out of her comfort zone. Most mornings, I drag myself out of bed and drive to the Albany Bulb. I know I’ll find sand, salt water and a mil...

kqed.org

“One of them gestured around the patio at the groups of people in engaged conversations, and observed, “There’s a founder’s mindset here.” 👏👏👏👏 Via @hardresetmedia.com substack.com/@jjlansing/n...

Tech Founders Walk Into A Bar.

The "Founder's Mindset" and Unique Networking in the Bay Area

substack.com

"For years, our city has wanted to be seen simultaneously as a climate leader and technology capital. It’s always been a difficult balance, but the AI boom is making it impossible to avoid choosing which should take priority." - Michael Redmond www.sfexaminer.com/forum/san-fr...

San Francisco can’t wash its hands of AI’s environmental damage

The City hosts the companies, capital and culture driving a national backlash against artificial-intelligence data centers, giving us both responsibility and leverage.

sfexaminer.com

Killionaire

web_rant@webrant.bsky.social · last mo.

"The richest man in the world took a chainsaw to the poorest people in the world. Laughing." bsky.app/profile/gild...

NEW: buried within the trove of hacked documents from Madison Square Garden, the folks @404media.co found the company was keeping files on activists that criticized their use of facial recognition. Including me. Here's @fightforthefuture.org's statement: www.fightforthefuture.org/news/2026-06...

Attendees at our New York event wanted to escape doom and gloom tech discourse and start new conversations about hope for workers—“how we navigate ambiguity, transformation, and AI insanity realistically without losing inspiration for the future.” Read the full story from @aristeinhorn.bsky.social:

We hosted an event for New Yorkers curious about AI. Here's who showed up.

From disillusioned tech workers to psychiatrists, people were searching for community and meaning outside of their jobs and the tech sector.

hardresetmedia.com