I'm sorry Robyn, there was never any real chance for any other outcome. And yeah, the billionaires and (any minute now) trillionaires have captured everything - all the economic levers going back to the 1980's, much of the formerly public domain industries (like hospitals, schools and military) now all the media: entertainment, hard news and socials.
This is NOT like the Gilded Age robber barons. This is much worse. 10-12 narcissistic assholes control (or soon will control) every single aspect of our lives; flatlining wages, maximizing profits and making damn sure they never pay a tax that even accidentally bolsters the regular folk their kaiju-sized greed devoured. And sure, here and there some progressives may eke out a victory, including the occasional presidency. But those are like measuring weather and questioning the climate trends. The climate is trending toward oligarchical, right-wing domination. There may not be a way back from this. This may be as good as it gets in our lifetimes.
Really though: show of hands. Who is actually surprised by the aggressively rapid enshittification of american life? Who thinks it is within our power anymore to reverse it? That would take more optimism than I've seen in my life. If that's still you, take the wheel. I can't see the road anymore.
Yep that's to be expected. The corporate paymasters are on the same team as the pricktator. And how else could they get those tasty, tasty Republican tax cuts and regulatory capture otherwise?
Perfect for laundering the upcoming atrocities against Americans.
Maybe they'll give Weiss some kind of super-duper title like "director of news operations" so she can fuck up CNN right along with CBS. It would fit in with the rest of her career, which is an unbroken saga of failing upward.
There’s a big problem facing CBS and CNN. Which is that you don’t create your audience around what you want to say, you go to where the audience is and deliver what they want to hear. Nobody came forward with a marketing study to say, “We need to buy CBS/CNN and turn them right-wing, because there’s a huge unserved right-wing audience.” The MAGA audience is only so big, and it’s already captured by Fox. Who’s going to watch a right-wing CBS or CNN? Not their current viewership, if they wanted “Bari News” they’d have already gone to Fox. There are few folks available as an audience for the new CBS or CNN. Which means two things. One, the Ellisons are going to lose money. So sad (Larry may have to sell a MIG or two). Two, there’s an audience looking for a left-center news channel. Who’s going to step up and build a news channel for them?
I’ve also been thinking about all these Substacks - Contrarian and HCR and Krugman and Bulwark, et al. When do they start to combine forces? It makes sense for a bunch of them to join together (under a single subscription) to build the powerful new, “Substack WaPo”, out of the ashes of Bezos’ ruins. There’s a ton of talent there, with an audience that’s grown used to the Substack subscription model.
It’s not all media doom and gloom, there’s a chance a couple of Phoenixes will arise.
I'm getting a little worried about my Substack budget. I pay to subscribe to five or six of them, and it's getting expensive. As expensive as the NYT or the New Yorker (I will not pay for Apple news). Virtually all of my news comes from Substacks (including Wonkette) and the occasional link therein. Which is fine--but I know older people (even older than I am, or less educated) for whom TV is all. I despair.
I have gone to YT for my news. MeidasTouch, Rachel Maddow and a few others. The billionaires are going all in to control everything. When they complete their mission of making all news propaganda I don't know where we will end up.
Unfortunately google bought YT so its on the block to become more right wing and remove any left wing politics like most other social media outlets have done.
This is a narcissist cult we are dealing with and I honestly don't see how to stop this machine with its endless billionaires.
I've had all the doom and gloom I can stand. You all take care of yourselves. Peace out!
"Unfortunately google bought YT so its on the block to become more right wing and remove any left wing politics like most other social media outlets have done."
I've noticed they're doing their best to try to change the feed. I keep saying "at least this is sharpening peoples' critical thinking and inquiry skills" - I HOPE
First we expose as many of them as we can and freeze their assets
That's just to start
Also we have to not just vote to win these midterms -- which are going to be messy -- but also STOP SAYING THINGS LIKE "I want Jasmine Crockett to win but she won't because this is Texas and they won't vote for a Black woman."
Well - OF COURSE SHE WON'T WIN IF YOU KEEP TELLING YOUR FRIENDS NOT TO VOTE FOR HER.
And also -- two words: Barbara Jordan.
I'm so sick of people being racist racist closet racist and trying to pretend it's something else or they're something else. GREED AND RACISM are the twin pillars of destruction here.
And people don't even have to believe me when I say that. They can listen to Waj Ali and Heather Cox Richardson, who've done several full length pod discussions on the topic.
Paramount should enjoy its growing news monopoly while they have it because when Democrats win back power we are going to break up these anti-democratic information conglomerates. All of them.
As much as I agree with him -- and am always reminding people till they are sick of it that we need a Democratic supermajority in BOTH HOUSES, not the mess we had in 2018 where we barely had a majority and let Manchinema ruin everything including the John Lewis Voting Rights Act which would have STOPPED IN ITS TRACKS a whole lot of what we're seeing now
-- is anyone else wondering whether Democrats should just keep their mouths shut about their plans and let us figure out for ourselves how to "lift our spirits up" - and just lower the boom once they have the majority??
Because I feel like strategically a whole lot of Democratic "good for the country" plans get scotched because Republicans get hold of them so early they just go ahead and merrily obstruct .
In 1984, the chocolate they were rationed was real chocolate not whatever weird “chocolate” the corporate capital extraction machine has drummed up to stuff down our dumb gullets.
The grimly amusing part of this deal is that CNN has been the standard bearer for THU LIBRUL MEEDEEUH for wingnuts for so long that they still routinely refer to it as the Clinton News Network.
I would have put the odds of rightwing nutbags suddenly tuning in and citing it as the source of gospel truth as in the slim to none range... but I guess we'll see.
I mean, I've been laughing about their claims that CNN is radical lefty and all left-leaning people are glued to it all day and take our marching orders from it, especially since it's been such a centrist-to-right, both-sider, milquetoast outlet for years that I find it unwatchable.
"The grimly amusing part of this deal is that CNN has been the standard bearer for THU LIBRUL MEEDEEUH for wingnuts for so long that they still routinely refer to it as the Clinton News Network."
They do that crap for propagandistic reasons.
Anyone who's ever listened to Scott Jennings for five minutes couldn't possibly believe that (unless they'd already been literally brainwashed by the Fox machine; I've read that they did indeed use Russian propaganda books to learn how to do that AND they keep doing it by hiding behind "but but we're an ENTERTAINMENT network!" They even used it as a defense in a lawsuit once. And yet they weren't enjoined from using the label "Fox News", so they're permitted not just to fool people, but also to lie about doing it).
And Jeffrey what's his name (Lorde?) and frothy Rick Santorum were fired when they were spouting literal Nazi segments. But not UNTIL they were.
Must be because they still actually employ Black people. With brains.
Can't wait to see what Roy et al are going to say about it this weekend.
Assuming, of course, at this point they're allowed to say anything.
He’s brilliant, so I think he suspected the merger might be imminent — so I think the man who said “it’s not my job not to get us sued. It’s my job to make sure that WHEN we get sued, WE WIN” suspects his show might be at risk so if he has to go out, he’s going out in a blaze
Make sure you do not miss his segments on Twitter (this past week) and ICE + DHS (week before last).
I've got HBO (for now) - never miss his show (he's my seekrit boyfriend). He dunks on HBO regularly, so, yeah, I expect him to go scorched Earth if his show gets pulled.
Been there, worked for the bastards, watched the whole enterprise collapse under the weight of its’ debt and get sold off for parts. Corporate media was never your friend.
Wonkette is so great, so many posts like this where I instinctively want to "like" or whatnot at the end of every paragraph.
(Too much social media on my part, great work on Wonkette's)
Also, I wish Ted Turner was younger and raising cain about this (he's 87, that's a solid excuse).
It's OK, broadcast and cable are dead, most right thinking people agree The Wonkette is the fist, rough draft of history these days.
No mention of NPR, PBS?
I'm sorry Robyn, there was never any real chance for any other outcome. And yeah, the billionaires and (any minute now) trillionaires have captured everything - all the economic levers going back to the 1980's, much of the formerly public domain industries (like hospitals, schools and military) now all the media: entertainment, hard news and socials.
This is NOT like the Gilded Age robber barons. This is much worse. 10-12 narcissistic assholes control (or soon will control) every single aspect of our lives; flatlining wages, maximizing profits and making damn sure they never pay a tax that even accidentally bolsters the regular folk their kaiju-sized greed devoured. And sure, here and there some progressives may eke out a victory, including the occasional presidency. But those are like measuring weather and questioning the climate trends. The climate is trending toward oligarchical, right-wing domination. There may not be a way back from this. This may be as good as it gets in our lifetimes.
Really though: show of hands. Who is actually surprised by the aggressively rapid enshittification of american life? Who thinks it is within our power anymore to reverse it? That would take more optimism than I've seen in my life. If that's still you, take the wheel. I can't see the road anymore.
sadly I fear you are right. hope springs eternal though.
So Fox News, CNN, CBS, Sinclair local news, NewsNation, WaPo, and, most importantly, TikTok. It looks grim.
Yep that's to be expected. The corporate paymasters are on the same team as the pricktator. And how else could they get those tasty, tasty Republican tax cuts and regulatory capture otherwise?
Perfect for laundering the upcoming atrocities against Americans.
Yes indeed. Upcoming and ongoing.
Maybe they'll give Weiss some kind of super-duper title like "director of news operations" so she can fuck up CNN right along with CBS. It would fit in with the rest of her career, which is an unbroken saga of failing upward.
They should put Alex Jones and Joe Rogan in charge of CNN. It just seems right.
The pain cllinic is closed. I am pretty much fucked until Tuesday. While I have a prescription due for refill tomorrow paul is scheduled to work.
This is going to be REALLY bad. I'm out.
That really sucks, and I do hope you can hang in there. Our health care sucks.
Doesn't paul have sick days?
Oh I am so sorry.
I know what that's like, by proxy. My sister has chronic, undiagnosed pain, and maintaining her supply of pain meds is a constant nightmare for her.
Sorry.
There’s a big problem facing CBS and CNN. Which is that you don’t create your audience around what you want to say, you go to where the audience is and deliver what they want to hear. Nobody came forward with a marketing study to say, “We need to buy CBS/CNN and turn them right-wing, because there’s a huge unserved right-wing audience.” The MAGA audience is only so big, and it’s already captured by Fox. Who’s going to watch a right-wing CBS or CNN? Not their current viewership, if they wanted “Bari News” they’d have already gone to Fox. There are few folks available as an audience for the new CBS or CNN. Which means two things. One, the Ellisons are going to lose money. So sad (Larry may have to sell a MIG or two). Two, there’s an audience looking for a left-center news channel. Who’s going to step up and build a news channel for them?
I’ve also been thinking about all these Substacks - Contrarian and HCR and Krugman and Bulwark, et al. When do they start to combine forces? It makes sense for a bunch of them to join together (under a single subscription) to build the powerful new, “Substack WaPo”, out of the ashes of Bezos’ ruins. There’s a ton of talent there, with an audience that’s grown used to the Substack subscription model.
It’s not all media doom and gloom, there’s a chance a couple of Phoenixes will arise.
I'm getting a little worried about my Substack budget. I pay to subscribe to five or six of them, and it's getting expensive. As expensive as the NYT or the New Yorker (I will not pay for Apple news). Virtually all of my news comes from Substacks (including Wonkette) and the occasional link therein. Which is fine--but I know older people (even older than I am, or less educated) for whom TV is all. I despair.
sadly the Ellisons dgaf about turning a profit, they are just in it for the power.
Actually, the new CBS and CNN are aiming at an audience of one. Not sure how that pays the bills.
I have gone to YT for my news. MeidasTouch, Rachel Maddow and a few others. The billionaires are going all in to control everything. When they complete their mission of making all news propaganda I don't know where we will end up.
Unfortunately google bought YT so its on the block to become more right wing and remove any left wing politics like most other social media outlets have done.
This is a narcissist cult we are dealing with and I honestly don't see how to stop this machine with its endless billionaires.
I've had all the doom and gloom I can stand. You all take care of yourselves. Peace out!
I also go to reputable Substacks as well:)
"Unfortunately google bought YT so its on the block to become more right wing and remove any left wing politics like most other social media outlets have done."
I've noticed they're doing their best to try to change the feed. I keep saying "at least this is sharpening peoples' critical thinking and inquiry skills" - I HOPE
First we expose as many of them as we can and freeze their assets
That's just to start
Also we have to not just vote to win these midterms -- which are going to be messy -- but also STOP SAYING THINGS LIKE "I want Jasmine Crockett to win but she won't because this is Texas and they won't vote for a Black woman."
Well - OF COURSE SHE WON'T WIN IF YOU KEEP TELLING YOUR FRIENDS NOT TO VOTE FOR HER.
And also -- two words: Barbara Jordan.
I'm so sick of people being racist racist closet racist and trying to pretend it's something else or they're something else. GREED AND RACISM are the twin pillars of destruction here.
And people don't even have to believe me when I say that. They can listen to Waj Ali and Heather Cox Richardson, who've done several full length pod discussions on the topic.
Chris Murphy
@chrismurphyct.bsky.social
· 3h
Paramount should enjoy its growing news monopoly while they have it because when Democrats win back power we are going to break up these anti-democratic information conglomerates. All of them.
I hope you are right.
As much as I agree with him -- and am always reminding people till they are sick of it that we need a Democratic supermajority in BOTH HOUSES, not the mess we had in 2018 where we barely had a majority and let Manchinema ruin everything including the John Lewis Voting Rights Act which would have STOPPED IN ITS TRACKS a whole lot of what we're seeing now
-- is anyone else wondering whether Democrats should just keep their mouths shut about their plans and let us figure out for ourselves how to "lift our spirits up" - and just lower the boom once they have the majority??
Because I feel like strategically a whole lot of Democratic "good for the country" plans get scotched because Republicans get hold of them so early they just go ahead and merrily obstruct .
Anyone?
What differentiates today's world from the novel 1984?
It's NOT fiction, however badly written, and it's much more complex.
In 1984, the chocolate they were rationed was real chocolate not whatever weird “chocolate” the corporate capital extraction machine has drummed up to stuff down our dumb gullets.
The person in charge of the country depicted in 1984 didn't paint themselves orange and shit their pants on live television.
Reality v fiction.
1984 was better written.
Considerably so.
Frivolity. We have lots of that.
Looks like Crave might need to find somewhere else for season 2 of Heated Rivalry's distributor
The grimly amusing part of this deal is that CNN has been the standard bearer for THU LIBRUL MEEDEEUH for wingnuts for so long that they still routinely refer to it as the Clinton News Network.
I would have put the odds of rightwing nutbags suddenly tuning in and citing it as the source of gospel truth as in the slim to none range... but I guess we'll see.
I mean, I've been laughing about their claims that CNN is radical lefty and all left-leaning people are glued to it all day and take our marching orders from it, especially since it's been such a centrist-to-right, both-sider, milquetoast outlet for years that I find it unwatchable.
it was last relevant in like 1982...
"The grimly amusing part of this deal is that CNN has been the standard bearer for THU LIBRUL MEEDEEUH for wingnuts for so long that they still routinely refer to it as the Clinton News Network."
They do that crap for propagandistic reasons.
Anyone who's ever listened to Scott Jennings for five minutes couldn't possibly believe that (unless they'd already been literally brainwashed by the Fox machine; I've read that they did indeed use Russian propaganda books to learn how to do that AND they keep doing it by hiding behind "but but we're an ENTERTAINMENT network!" They even used it as a defense in a lawsuit once. And yet they weren't enjoined from using the label "Fox News", so they're permitted not just to fool people, but also to lie about doing it).
And Jeffrey what's his name (Lorde?) and frothy Rick Santorum were fired when they were spouting literal Nazi segments. But not UNTIL they were.
Must be because they still actually employ Black people. With brains.
Can't wait to see what Roy et al are going to say about it this weekend.
Assuming, of course, at this point they're allowed to say anything.
Looking forward to Last Week Tonight on Sunday to see Oliver's take on it.
He’s brilliant, so I think he suspected the merger might be imminent — so I think the man who said “it’s not my job not to get us sued. It’s my job to make sure that WHEN we get sued, WE WIN” suspects his show might be at risk so if he has to go out, he’s going out in a blaze
Make sure you do not miss his segments on Twitter (this past week) and ICE + DHS (week before last).
Get ‘em while they last.
I've got HBO (for now) - never miss his show (he's my seekrit boyfriend). He dunks on HBO regularly, so, yeah, I expect him to go scorched Earth if his show gets pulled.
eat the rich
I am veggie these days, but let's tax the focke out the bazillionaires 'til they don't have all the money they can shake a stick at.
Too much Silicone...
Mmm, microplastics.
Not so micro- look at Mrs Bezos!
I can't. She frightens me.
Tres formidable plastique!
Plastique fantastique.
Guillotines it is
I'm still promoting my Harbor Freight partially assembled Tumbrels ...
Been there, worked for the bastards, watched the whole enterprise collapse under the weight of its’ debt and get sold off for parts. Corporate media was never your friend.