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Why we can't get enough of watching rich and terrible characters in TV series like 'The White Lotus'
CNN
Series like "The White Lotus" and "Succession" satirize wealthy, privileged people. The average viewer watches in awe, envy and, sometimes, even with admiration of their lifestyles.
The pilot sees the media magnate Roy family -- an amalgam of the Murdochs, the Hearsts and other dynasties -- decide to play an impromptu game of softball. A boy and his family watch nearby, and when youngest son Roman Roy notices them, he brokers a deal with the boy: If the kid can score a run, Roman will pay him $1 million. It's chump change for Roman -- he's got the nasty swagger of someone fully aware of their privilege and willing to wield it like a weapon -- but the funds could radically change the boy's family's life. The boy swings and sends the ball soaring. He darts around the bases and almost -- almost -- slides into $1 million when Roman's soon-to-be brother-in-law tags him out with disturbing zeal.
The retired Air Force general announced as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by President Donald Trump after the abrupt Friday night firing of his predecessor is a respected career F-16 pilot who is described by current and former officials who served with him as a professional with a “strong moral center.”
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Over the past 10 days, Vice President JD Vance put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on notice, rattled the confidence of century-old allies in Western Europe during his first foreign trip, decamped to Capitol Hill to help in delicate budget talks and delivered a spirited defense of the Trump administration’s first month to a gathering of conservatives outside the nation’s capital.