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Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of Grass (1st Ed., 1855)

"I think it's time to reconsider adding an amendment to the Bill of Rights, banning monopolies and protecting the American people from concentrated corporate power."

1/ "What are you hopeful about?" "Can you give me hope?" I get asked this a lot. For me, hope doesn't show up with a "HOPE" t-shirt and a blowhorn. It shows up in little moments. Here are some of those moments from a talk between Lance, an Iowa farmer, and Kirby, an Emmy-winning filmmaker.

At this stage, Americans know that Congress can be crooked. They certainly know that presidents can, too. Unfortunately it is time to recognize that, when it comes to corporate power, our Supreme Court is a billionaires' fan club.

"Populism is not an indictment, but an opportunity. Focusing on the conflict between the haves and the have-nots is not divisive; it’s a way to build coalitions with astonishing potential."

Today, the Supreme Court gave Wall Street bankers an above-the-fray independent regulator -- and stuck the rest of us shmucks with loyalists.

We're live talking about the Supreme Court's pro-billionaire decisions - including the one legitimizing my illegal firing as an FTC commissioner. www.youtube.com/live/9-EY0tY...

This Court said corporations are people and can buy our elections. They said corporations can hurt you and deny you your day in court. They said when CEOs bribe the President, he's immune to charges. And today they gave Wall Street an independent regulator and stuck the rest of us with loyalists.

Like I said before, this merger between Paramount and Warner Bros is doomed to fail from the start. #BlockTheMerger

When you take on $80 billion dollars in debt to buy a film & TV company (hi David Ellison!) you don't ask yourself "how can I make amazing film and TV?" You ask yourself "How the hell can I get these guys their money back?" Take it from the film and TV workers in Atlanta

One of the worst things about all this is that as people lose work they also lose their health insurance, right when they need it most Film & TV jobs aren’t just jobs, they’re our identities Usually happily by choice This contraction has been heartbreaking

The Ellisons are grifting their way to influencing Americans’ information diets: TikTok, Paramount, CBS, 60 Min, UFC, Colbert… are just the start! Powerful thread showing how & why the proposed Ellison takeover of Warner-Bros is harmful. We must #BlockTheMerger to #StopTheCorruptTakeover Share 👇

a very good thread that illustrates how media mergers destroys not just jobs, but people’s lives

It’s disgusting that people’s greed is allowed to rip peoples lives apart, and it’s seen as the cost of doing business. That’s so gross.

I have friends who work both above and below the line in film/TV and it’s devastating to see how people are being impacted. **I am going by vibes and not looking at employment stats by sector but** the scale of contraction makes me think of tech in 2002 more than the current tech layoffs do?

Mega mergers may arguably be good for shareholders but certainly are a raw deal for the USA

1/ Paramount's merger with WBD won't just cut jobs in LA and New York. It'll also decimate *Atlanta* where people have had their lives torn apart by merger after merger, and where they are on the chopping block due to overlap with Paramount operations. From our town hall last week🧵

Here's just one of the workers we talked to last Tuesday in Atlanta. The moment the Disney/Fox merger went through, Roger Thacher's job was shipped to Canada. People in Atlanta oppose the Paramount/WBD merger because they have lived through these mergers and know about the job losses that follow.

If the Paramount-WBD merger progresses, Atlanta is likely going to be first on the chopping block. That means even more middle class families losing paychecks, even fewer options for small businesses, and fewer voices like Oscar nominee Christalyn Hampton that tell the real American story.

The Walking Dead. Stranger Things. Black Panther. Ozark. The men and women who actually *made that for you* showed up at the Plaza Theater. And with one voice they said we have seen these mergers, they fired us, they forced us to sell our homes, we DO NOT WANT THIS. Video tomorrow.

There is growing evidence that the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger received special treatment from this administration. That matters because media consolidation does not stay contained to boardrooms. It shapes local economies, jobs, and who gets to tell stories in places like Atlanta.

Free speech, oligarch style: they get free speech, everyone else is silenced!

Warner Bros. declined to air our ad during UFC Freedom 250 about what David Ellison's proposed takeover of CNN, HBO, and other outlets would mean for press freedom. "Instead, it censored it," FPF's Seth Stern said. Read more from @jeremymbarr.bsky.social:

if you think film and TV are from LA or New York, take a look at this poster for a while

YES

For all the film workers in Atlanta and surrounding areas you should definitely join this conversation and have your voices heard. You know better than anyone what these consolidations mean to our business. Come and speak and listen. Together we are strong.

ATLANTA. If this pisses you off and you want to go on record about what a Paramount/WBD merger would mean for YOU and YOUR family, join Rep. @hankjohnson.house.gov and me TODAY from 1-3pm at The Plaza Theater for the last stop of the Main Street vs. The Merger tour. Just register at the link below.

“That is so disturbing. And I’m so angry I didn’t know this.” Sen. @booker.senate.gov finds out in real-time that Paramount’s takeover of WBD would move half of the country’s TV news archive into the editorial control of one family.

The career DOJ lawyers who had spent months investigating the Paramount/WBD merger thought it was illegal and wanted to sue to block it

www.iccr.org/reports/iccr... People are waking up to the level of corruption and graft happening all around them and are getting sick of it.

$20 per hour in Los Angeles is insanity for the job that this person is describing. That job should feed a family. The wealth scales are so tipped askew that we might not even have a scale at all at this point. Tax the rich into oblivion. Make unions a default. For the future of our society.

WSJ reporting making clear that DOJ decision to clear Paramount/WBD merger had nothing to do with the facts or the law and everything to do with corruption. www.wsj.com/business/med...

Shocked but not surprised Why would Trump DOJ not wait for or respect views of career staff? Hmm 🤔

A television writer on the Paramount-WBD merger: "I want to be able to have the conversation on censorship and the types stories we get to tell, but my worry is that we won't have the people to tell them."

You must do everything possible to block this horror show @agrobbonta.oag.ca.gov

A Paramount-WBD merger would hit Atlanta *hard*: - 6K in predicted layoffs will hit ATL heavy due to overlapping back-end ops - Turner/WBD’s Techwood campus may be sold - Fewer films = less work for Trilith, Assembly, Shadowspace - This comes AFTER huge cuts at TCM, Adult Swim & Cartoon Network

The Justice Department has approved the $111 billion mega-merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery. "This has been one of the most shallow and corrupt merger review processes we've ever seen," says @notaaroncraig.bsky.social of @freepress.bsky.social.

You probably know the DoJ waved through the Warnermount merger yesterday. Our guest, Alvaro Bedoya, a former FTC commissioner (fired by Trump), explains in clear words how he thinks the deal can and will be stopped. Plus @mattbelloni.bsky.social and I bring the banter. www.kcrw.com/shows/the-bu...

I went to a two-year-old’s birthday party today and their parents booked an LA Waste Management trash truck to come park out front and the way these kids RAN to see this thing up close!!! The WM reps also had party favors and coloring books. Lowkey want to book it for my own birthday

people who work and invest in AI frequently ask me why their work polls so badly

Turns out that if you gut CBS news, gut 60 Minutes, promise to gut CNN, cancel Colbert, get $29B in Saudi, Qatari & UAE money, and hold a weird lavish banquet for the President and acting AG in a federal building… you can get your illegal merger approved by DOJ

Literally, a canary in the coal mine... As a lifelong movie lover and TV kid of the 60's & 70's, this is utterly distressing.

Controlling the archives is about controlling our access to information, how we understand the world and each other.

A Paramount Skydance/Warner Bros. Discovery merger is bad for workers and consumers. It will result in job losses and fewer opportunities for creatives, and fewer choices and higher prices for consumers.

David Ellison's Skydance bought Viacom and removed the public Comedy Central video archive including Steve Colbert's interview of me

Paramount says that its merger with Warner Brothers Discovery will somehow result in *more* content. So why is it already hitting the breaks on projects *currently under development*?

Agustin Rossi to @jorgeramosnews: Ignore the idea that AI will control us or take over the world. Listen to Pope Leo: Don't let AI divide us, make sure AI *augments* workers rather than replacing them, and make sure it doesn't steal content from creators.

Cool so the civil rights footage will be destroyed so then it never happened.