“For me this glass is already broken. I enjoy it; I drink out of it. It holds my water admirably, sometimes even reflecting the sun in beautiful patterns. If I should tap it, it has a lovely ring to it. But when I put this glass on the shelf and the wind knocks it over or my elbow brushes it off the table and it falls to the ground and shatters, I say, ‘Of course.’ When I understand that the glass is already broken, every moment with it is precious.”
Report: New York, California, and other U.S. states will file a lawsuit to block the planned Paramount Skydance/Warner Bros. Discovery merge
- REPORT: Paramount merger plans hit a major hurdle as California, New York, and other states prepare a lawsuit to block the deal.
- Reuters says the state challenge could arrive within days, threatening momentum for the Paramount Skydance-Warner deal.
- Paramount Skydance faces a ticking fee of $0.25 per share each quarter if the Warner Bros. Discovery deal slips past September.
- Paramount’s FCC filing says 49.5% of the merged company would be foreign-owned, raising fresh scrutiny around the merger.
Just when you thought David Ellison's Paramount Skydance and David Zaslav's Warner Bros. Discovery were going to have a pretty smooth sailing ahead of what they're expecting to be a blessing from the Trump Administration for the two multimedia companies to merge, there might be a bit of a speed bump on the way. On Friday, Reuters reported exclusively that California, New York, and several other U.S. states are preparing to file a lawsuit to block the $110 billion deal. The lawsuit is expected to be filed "in the coming week," and the report does not include a finalized list of states that would join the lawsuit.
At the time of this writing, shares of both Warner Bros, Discovery and Paramount were down anywhere between 3% and 6%. But what's more interesting about the move by the states is how it could impact Paramount Skydance financially. As part of the deal for Warner Bros. Discovery, Ellison's company agreed to pay a fee to shareholders beginning in October if the deal was not closed by the end of September. The "ticking fee" is $0.25 per share per quarter until the deal is officially done – or about $650 million per quarter.
Come on, stall until they run out of money! Do it!
Unless courts intervene, the Kennedy Center will shut down this July for two years, as part of a roughly $250 million renovation. In the lea
Ric Grenell -- to oversee, in his words, getting rid of the artworks in the Kennedy Center ahead of the renovations. This was a directive that he gave me in his office shortly after Donald Trump made his TRUTH Social post about the closure.
I was told that we, the Kennedy Center, wanted new art to replace the outgoing art for the reopening. And so what I was tasked with was contacting donors, and, in some cases, that's foreign nations that made donations to the American people by way of the Kennedy Center, and asked them to remove their work or in some cases paid to remove it if it was a statue that was installed outside that had to be dug up.
Without my knowledge, the African Room, which is again one of these lounges, that was something like 30, 32 African nations came together at the time the Kennedy Center opened to gift this lounge. And inside that room were beautiful handmade tapestries from different tribes throughout the continent of Africa.
There was a sculpture from Ghana that represented the collective Africans' grief at the assassination of President Kennedy. And there were ornate hand-carved wooden doors carved from 700-year-old wood that contained scenes of Yoruban village life. That room is now completely gutted and emptied. I was not told where those items went.
Well considering the current administration, the options are equal that Trump's cronies either looted the place (either for Trump or they stole things to sell privately) OR their racism won out over their greed and they ignorantly tossed it all in a skip somewhere not understanding the stuff's value.
DOJ will follow judge’s order that temporarily blocks ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ after major roadblocks in Congress and in court
Trump drops his $1.8B ‘slush fund’ after outrage over paying his allies
President Donald Trump is tabling his plans for a nearly $1.8 billion compensation fund designed to pay his allies and alleged “victims” of government “weaponization” after federal judges began firing back at a so-called “settlement” that got him off the hook for tax investigations in exchange for funneling millions of taxpayer dollars to his supporters.
The decision follows a federal court ruling that temporarily blocks the administration from funding or making any payments from what critics have called a “slush fund” to enrich the president’s aggrieved supporters.
The Department of Justice “will abide by the Court’s ruling,” the agency said in a statement Monday.
CBS News is taking another battering as a MAGA inclined outlet as 60 Minutes drops long time correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi & 100s of journos
Yeah, Paramount SAY that they intend for CNN to remain independent if the WBD deal completes, but considering how they're already punishing journalists working for CBS for publishing negative stories about the Trump administration (not firing, they've not renewed her contract for 60 Minutes and have ghosted her agent, effectively trying to force her to quit rather than proving her right by firing her) I doubt their claims will retain any truth to them.
Again, IF the deal completes, it looks shakier every day.
The ‘Citizenfour’ and ‘The Perfect Neighbor’ filmmakers cited concerns about the future of independent filmmaking at HBO and CNN as well as
Two respected documentary filmmakers are sounding the alarm over the prospect of Paramount Skydance merging with Warner Bros. Discovery, a corporate marriage that would combine CBS, CNN and HBO under one roof.
Oscar-winning director Laura Poitras and Oscar-nominated helmer Geeta Gandbhir raised concerns about the impact the merger would have on a weakened documentary ecosystem, editorial independence and access to archival materials during a press call organized by Freedom of the Press Foundation on Wednesday.
The assault would be devastating for minority voting rights—and for Democrats
OK. We've had a few days to process the horrible Callais decision. So now we need a roadmap for action. It's time to take a hard look, because this is the way we survive the blow to the VRA.
Not just survive, actually. This is how we build even more power than we have now.
First, take a look through this Bluesky thread, courtesy of Stephen Wolf of The Downballot.
Let's start with the numbers. If Republicans eliminate every majority-minority district they can with their current state government control, they could flip 12 blue seats. This analysis doesn't include Florida's pending new map, so the damage will actually be sixteen lost seats. And in almost all, if not all, cases, it'll involve a Black or Latino rep being replaced with a white one.
This is obviously terrible. But it only looks at one side of the coin. The other is that Democrats now have fewer restrictions on their power to draw new maps, too.
In the thread, Wolf lays out several realistic scenarios where Dems could pass new maps unilaterally, or with approval from the voters. If every one of those scenarios comes to pass, Democrats will flip a lot of red seats. How many?
Nineteen.
That's right. Dems could walk away from this with a net gain of three seats. And even better, Wolf's maps don't tear up any existing VRA districts! I see this as important, because this isn't purely a numbers game. We can't speak for all Americans if we push out all our Black and Latino reps. But as this shows, we don't have to.
So, want some practical steps? Here they are:
Colorado is working on a ballot measure that'll be on the ballot this November, and would result in a 7-1D map for 2028. Volunteer to help it pass.
Keep our trifecta in Illinois, and petition them to draw a new map with another blue district. Illinois' primaries are done so this won't happen for '26, but is very much an option for '28, in a state where Dems have shown that they're quite OK with creative map drawing.
Elect pro-redrawing Dems in Maryland so they can go from 7-1 to 8-0 after '26.
Help Minnesota Dems gain a trifecta, ideally one with some breathing room, so they can redraw their map to be 6-2 D.
New Jersey will have a ballot measure in '27 to allow for a 11-1 D map.
Get ready to vote in NY, where an amendment has to pass in both '26 and '27, followed by a referendum in '27. Lot of work, but the result would be 3-4 new Dem seats.
Help Oregon Dems get to a supermajority so they can avoid Republican quorum-busting and draw a 6-0 D map.
Help Washington Dems get to a supermajority so they'll have the authority to draw a 9-1 D map.
Lot of work? Of course. Do Republicans have it easier? Yep, since red state laws mean they can just show up, bang out new maps, and call it a day. But remember, we can finish ahead of the GOP in this scenario, all without sacrificing a single majority-minority district.
Those of you who are looking for a candidate to adopt, consider someone who can make this happen. I'm waiting for the Colorado ballot measure to get kicked off so I can adopt them. That's three flips in one campaign!
As always, we'll save the country through lots of work. We can do this.
The assault would be devastating for minority voting rights—and for Democrats
OK. We've had a few days to process the horrible Callais decision. So now we need a roadmap for action. It's time to take a hard look, because this is the way we survive the blow to the VRA.
Not just survive, actually. This is how we build even more power than we have now.
First, take a look through this Bluesky thread, courtesy of Stephen Wolf of The Downballot.
Let's start with the numbers. If Republicans eliminate every majority-minority district they can with their current state government control, they could flip 12 blue seats. This analysis doesn't include Florida's pending new map, so the damage will actually be sixteen lost seats. And in almost all, if not all, cases, it'll involve a Black or Latino rep being replaced with a white one.
This is obviously terrible. But it only looks at one side of the coin. The other is that Democrats now have fewer restrictions on their power to draw new maps, too.
In the thread, Wolf lays out several realistic scenarios where Dems could pass new maps unilaterally, or with approval from the voters. If every one of those scenarios comes to pass, Democrats will flip a lot of red seats. How many?
Nineteen.
That's right. Dems could walk away from this with a net gain of three seats. And even better, Wolf's maps don't tear up any existing VRA districts! I see this as important, because this isn't purely a numbers game. We can't speak for all Americans if we push out all our Black and Latino reps. But as this shows, we don't have to.
So, want some practical steps? Here they are:
Colorado is working on a ballot measure that'll be on the ballot this November, and would result in a 7-1D map for 2028. Volunteer to help it pass.
Keep our trifecta in Illinois, and petition them to draw a new map with another blue district. Illinois' primaries are done so this won't happen for '26, but is very much an option for '28, in a state where Dems have shown that they're quite OK with creative map drawing.
Elect pro-redrawing Dems in Maryland so they can go from 7-1 to 8-0 after '26.
Help Minnesota Dems gain a trifecta, ideally one with some breathing room, so they can redraw their map to be 6-2 D.
New Jersey will have a ballot measure in '27 to allow for a 11-1 D map.
Get ready to vote in NY, where an amendment has to pass in both '26 and '27, followed by a referendum in '27. Lot of work, but the result would be 3-4 new Dem seats.
Help Oregon Dems get to a supermajority so they can avoid Republican quorum-busting and draw a 6-0 D map.
Help Washington Dems get to a supermajority so they'll have the authority to draw a 9-1 D map.
Lot of work? Of course. Do Republicans have it easier? Yep, since red state laws mean they can just show up, bang out new maps, and call it a day. But remember, we can finish ahead of the GOP in this scenario, all without sacrificing a single majority-minority district.
Those of you who are looking for a candidate to adopt, consider someone who can make this happen. I'm waiting for the Colorado ballot measure to get kicked off so I can adopt them. That's three flips in one campaign!
As always, we'll save the country through lots of work. We can do this.
So. For those of you who didn't pay attention to the details of the legal spat between Krafton and Unknown Worlds, allow me to give you some details of the finest legal comedy of a generation.
Krafton CEO looks at the hype surrounding Subnautica 2, goes over the contract between Krafton and Unknown Worlds, realizes he'll have to pay out bonuses and freaks out because shelling out those bonuses will make him look like a pushover.
CEO goes to his legal department, asks them to come up with a plan to weasel out of paying bonuses. Legal tells him the contract is iron-clad and to accept the loss.
CEO refuses to take the loss, asks ChatGPT for a plan. ChatGPT says the exact same thing the legal department did.
CEO demands a plan from ChatGPT, which dutifully spits out a plan at this point because clearly the CEO is a goddamn idiot.
CEO deletes the chat logs, failing to understand that 'delete' doesn't permanently remove things.
CEO follows plan, and is surprised when Unknown Worlds sues for breach of contract despite being told by both humans and an LLM that is exactly what would happen.
Court does not go well for Krafton's legal department. It comes out that after ignoring the sound legal advice of human beings, the CEO went to ChatGPT and asked for a plan. When asked for the logs by the court, Krafton's legal team states they were deleted, thus that it's simply herersay. Judge goes "Oh, that's okay, we'll have our IT folks recover them." Krafton's legal team is astounded that's even possible.
The chat logs are recovered. It comes out that even ChatGPT was in agreement with Krafton's legal department, and only spat out a plan after being asked a second time.
The judge, now thoroughly done with the stupidity of Krafton's CEO at this point, rules in favor of Unknown Worlds. Her ruling doesn't simply undo the scheme, but effectively leaves all control over Subnautica 2's development in the hands of Unknown Worlds, including the early access release date, reducing Krafton to just publishing out of contractual obligation. Krafton must also return all social media platforms for Unknown Worlds and Subnautica 2 to Unknown Worlds' control. Financial damages will be determined at a later date.
Krafton proceeds to violate the court order in less than 72 hours by trying to set an early access release date before returning Unknown Worlds' social media platforms.
Summary: In trying not to look like a pushover, Krafton's CEO now looks like a complete idiot who's going to have to fork over bonuses, plus court-mandated damages, plus whatever comes out of violating the court's orders. Krafton's legal department may as well come to court dressed as clowns after this. I suspect Unknown Worlds might buy the rights to Subnautica back after all this and either relegate Krafton to just publishing or find a different publisher for future games altogether.
Thank-you to all of my new Internet stranger friends for being so gracious about having my post shoved onto your dashboards. I loved reading all of your kind tags and comments! Both Martin and Bosco have been gone for several years now but for 24 hours, they felt very present in my life. I greatly appreciate this gift. ❤️
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