Yep! It's pretty much an iron law of media consolidation that once massive debts have been incurred, the same $ spent servicing that debt are not available to invest in, you know, new films and tv series, music, journalism, etc.
when Paramount execs talk about $6 billion in ”synergies” this is what they’re talking about
Mark Ruffalo: “It’s the crews. If you merge [Paramount and Warner Brothers] the first thing they’re going to do is start firing people and laying people off to service $78 billion in debt. They’re going to have to get rid of half the crews.”
Mabrey gets it
This quote: "Critical lessons follow from last week’s decisions. Enforcers — whether our government, our states, harmed business or individuals — should continue bringing antitrust cases to juries. Juries do not systematically favor plaintiffs or defendants. They favor credible evidence, clear explanation and conduct that passes the test of basic fairness. Juries have returned verdicts in favor of home sellers who were being overcharged in Missouri, young social media users who were harmed by addictive algorithms and a Texas steel company that was the victim of an illegal boycott. When government officials fail to stop corporate abuse, jury trials can be a key catalyst to force real change."
From @linamkhan.bsky.social and @dohamekki.bsky.social in the NYT today:
✅ state AGs fight corporate power when feds don't
✅ juries can stop it when the gov't or judges won't
✅ antitrust enforcement cannot be so expensive
✅ talk to actual small business owners & workers
What rally is this from?
In his first 100 days, Zohran Mamdani has:
-Delivered millions in restitution for workers cheated by gig companies
-Cracked down on predatory landlords
-Launched the first stage of a universal childcare program
-Fixed thousands of potholes in NYC streets
This is what leadership looks like.
headline: gen z doesn't want your full-time job. They want several part-time roles, and it's reshaping the entire workforce.
This is propaganda.
Franchise owners have become less like independent businessmen and more like a badly treated employee stripped of all their rights. Jarod Facundo reviews a new book on how franchisors put this legal regime in place.
prospect.org/2026/04/10/a...
I'd never seen this, amazing www.youtube.com/shorts/oLI0R...
Wikipedia: "Stephanie Cutter is an American communications and political consultant. She served as an advisor to President Barack Obama, President Clinton, First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Harris. She previously worked in campaign roles for Ted Kennedy and John Kerry."
If you think all of this is insane, join me and @maxmmiller.bsky.social this morning on @thefairfightpod.bsky.social at 8:45am ET / 7:45am CT live on YT www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaVk...
It also boggles my mind that the former Obama campaign manager, Stephanie Cutter, is joining Donald Trump Jr. as an "adviser" to Kalshi. When people say the system is rigged and both parties are corrupt, this is what they're taking about.
The idea that this is (allegedly) legal boggles my mind
I also did not know that people were betting on what the specific phrases the *announcers in a specific UFC fight* would say. If one of those guys says "what a fight," someone is going to make money
I knew people were betting on what Karoline Leavitt said in her press conferences... I did not know that people were betting on the specific words Mr. Beast would say in his next video
They absolutely did
It’s pretty hilarious that they managed to quote Mr. Burns unironically, and possibly inadvertently.
Max is burying the lede:-) He represented Iowa in 2019 when Live Nation/Ticketmaster repeatedly violated their commitments from 2010. Now, he'll walk us through the Trump administration's corporate pardon of execs who brag about "robbing them blind." We'll be live on YouTube at 8:45am ET / 7:45am CT
tomorrow at 8:45am ET we'll be live talking about the corporate pardon the DOJ just gave to Ticketmaster
When I toured an Amazon FC, I kept waiting to see the people in charge. The cliche bosses sitting in offices above everyone monitoring the work. It took a while for me to understand the scanners in everyone's hands were in charge, not people.
my running list of jobs that have been reverse centaur-ed (per Cory Doctorow's definition)
1. Amazon DSP driving
2. long-haul trucking
3. call center work (esp non-union)
4. food delivery
5. ____________
what could possibly go wrong
That sounds brutal.
oof
Excerpt from a recent speech by Cory Doctorow. It reads: Start with what a reverse centaur is. In automation theory, a “centaur” is a person who is assisted by a machine. You’re a human head being carried around on a tireless robot body. Driving a car makes you a centaur, and so does using autocomplete. And obviously, a reverse centaur is machine head on a human body, a person who is serving as a squishy meat appendage for an uncaring machine. Like an Amazon delivery driver, who sits in a cabin surrounded by AI cameras, that monitor the driver’s eyes and take points off if the driver looks in a proscribed direction, and monitors the driver’s mouth because singing isn’t allowed on the job, and rats the driver out to the boss if they don’t make quota. The driver is in that van because the van can’t drive itself and can’t get a parcel from the curb to your porch. The driver is a peripheral for a van, and the van drives the driver, at superhuman speed, demanding superhuman endurance. But the driver is human, so the van doesn’t just use the driver. The van uses the driver up. Obviously, it’s nice to be a centaur, and it’s horrible to be a reverse centaur
There are jobs where you use tech to do your job. In other jobs, tech uses *you* to do its job. Cory Doctorow calls these "reverse centaurs." Ever worked one of these jobs? Where? What was it like?
Say more?
With alt text:
@thefairfightpod.bsky.social is interviewing Cory later this week! Feel free to call in your questions or drop them in the comments above, details below
