catherinedtoth

At today's People's Oversight Hearing, @tewheels.bsky.social on his time as FCC Chair: "The FCC is unique. It's an amphibian existing between the admin and Congress. And the leadership is appointed by the president. But it's administering a statute written by Congress..." (1)

Other folks have said it, but let me just note that:

(1) lots of talented, must-read journalists have been let go from their jobs over the last year

(2) millions of Americans are abandoning current media outlets and looking for new alternatives

Seems like a sure-fire business opportunity here?

Fight GIF ALT: Fight GIF

This wasn't efficiency

It wasn't sharper business practice

It is basically cutting out all the costs to prioritise long term cashflow into dividends and share returns

See also your mobile phone provider, energy supplies, pharmaceuticals and ha ha! Boeing, where customer safety was a Cost.

10/n

a video game character holding a sword with the words hey look a customer below him ALT: a video game character holding a sword with the words hey look a customer below him

Take your bank

It announces a merger

Cool

Share values soar, shareholders laughing all the way to... Well, their own bank

Branches were closed, customer service automated, everything stripped to the bare minimum

Why?

Customers

Don't make investors rich

Share value does

9/n

a man in a dark room with the words it 's merging time ALT: a man in a dark room with the words it 's merging time

But, What's easier, is to play off future expectations of larger returns

Sweetened with juicy up front dividends

From the 70s onwards firms found they could do this through gimmicks, mergers and acquisitions

Let's go M&A first

Step 1. Announce a merger, share price soars, dividends

6/n

a man looking out a window at a city ALT: a man looking out a window at a city

We then start to reach an incentive tipping point

Companies, particularly in competitive markets and oligopolistic markets with close large competitors, reach a point at which profits on success become marginal

Resulting in steady but slow returns

Shareholders no likey. They want Big Returns

4/n

a woman is wearing a headset while sitting at a desk . ALT: a woman is wearing a headset while sitting at a desk .

Shittification and shareholder return

A rehash of an old thread

Why is everything crap. Well, here we learn why Adam Smith was an early Marxist, in that though he had great faith in markets

He had zero faith in merchants

And the reason why, is why no one answers your helpline

1/n

My political hot take is that US voters should be able to recall elected representatives via petition - at any time.
No more hiding behind election terms.

Until we have replicators, we will need wealth redistribution.

The president will discuss the economy, but he will also provide important updates about Hannibal Lecter's dinner plans and Arnold Palmer's substantial penis. Additionally, his team of military physicians will reveal the record-setting results of his latest cognitive testing.

Want to make America healthy again? Stop fueling climate change From extreme heat to mosquito-borne illnesses, climate change is making people sicker and more vulnerable to disease. Health scientists explain what individuals and governments can do about it.

Want to make America healthy again? Stop fueling climate change
@us.theconversation.com
@jonlevybu.bsky.social
@howardfrumkin.bsky.social
@jonathanpatz.bsky.social
@vlimaye
theconversation.com/want-to-make...

Utah Judge Strikes Down GOP Gerrymander, Restores Voter-Approved Fair Map Read more here.

🚨BREAKING: In a sweeping victory for voters, a Utah court struck down the GOP-controlled legislature’s congressional gerrymander and a companion law designed to entrench partisan power — restoring a fair map for the 2026 elections. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

Tweet from @A_B_morgan: My seven-year-old asked for a dictionary this week. We went to the bookshop today to buy one. She walked home hugging it, pausing every so often to look up a word, grinning as though she had been given a book of spells, the key to wonders. Merriam-Webster QT: The kids are alright.

You had us at "a book of spells, the key to wonders."

Prove me wrong.

Good morning to everyone but especially to Lady Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, whose judgement against Rudy Giuliani for defaming them and turning their lives upside down cannot be pardoned away by the president

Federal Judge, Warning of ‘Existential Threat’ to Democracy, Resigns

Judge Mark L. Wolf, writing in The Atlantic, said he was stepping down to speak out against the “assault on the rule of law” by Trump, whom he accused of “targeting his adversaries.”

Standing up to a tyrant - who is willing to impose pain as leverage to compel loyalty or acquiescence - is hard. You can convince yourself that yielding stops the pain and brings you back to "normal".

But there is no "normal". Submission emboldens the tyrant. The threat grows.

Last night was a test vote. The real vote hasn’t happened yet. The test vote is working to confuse the public tho, bc we’ve stopped calling. Don’t stop; save healthcare. It only takes one vote. See: McCain.

💯. It wasn't about just the ACA subsides—it was about those and … everything else.

✔️✔️✔️

Brett Kavanaugh's behavior during today's second oral arguments has been incredibly obnoxious and rude. He is so eager to kill a service member's lawsuit against a negligent government contractor that he keeps interrupting other justices, raising his voice, and getting emotional. Weird and erratic.

If you’re seeing a surge of MAGA accounts commenting everywhere, take a closer look. Bot activity has spiked since Saturday evening the goal is to sway tomorrow’s elections. Click on their profiles and you’ll often find the same accounts posting identical comments across hundreds of posts.

@60minutes.bsky.social interview of trump by
@norahodonnell.bsky.social was a disaster, lies were allowed without question and she sanewashed the guy who is destroying American democracy. Nora and
@cbsnews.com kissed the ring. Ba Bye #DV1 #ProudBlue
newsletters.democracydocket.com/60-minutes-o...

Live updates: Trump administration says SNAP will be partially funded after judges’ rulings President Donald Trump’s administration said Monday that it will partially fund SNAP after a pair of judges’ rulings required it to keep the food aid program running.

The letter of the law is as plain as day. Trump should have paid SNAP benefits all along.

Just now paying the bare minimum to partially fund SNAP is not enough, and it is not acceptable.

Trump should immediately work to fully fund benefits under the law.

Why reduced??? They have the funds already allocated for the entire amount. #EvilTrumpAdministration

‘If it was anybody else, we’d arrest him tomorrow,' Justice Department aide said of Trump A handful of documents found by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago were so sensitive that even a senior Justice Department official didn’t have authorization to see them.

www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/t...

Cameras out, America. Get it all on video.

Mothers demand TSA follow its own breast milk and formula rules • Ohio Capital Journal Brinda Sen Gupta was traveling by plane for work last month without her infant but with gel packs she would need to keep her breast milk cool on the return flight. Knowing how hard it can be to get…

TSA policy expressly allows breast milk and formula cooling accessories like gel packs, and states a child does not have to be present for a parent to carry them. Despite the law, women continue to report issues with TSA in airports across the country ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/11/03/r...

"Don't Buy Where You Can't Work" | National Museum of African American History & Culture. <p>“Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work” campaigns of the 1930s used effective direct-action tactics, such as boycotts and picketing. </p>

I’m doing research for a project and found out about the “don’t buy where you can’t work” movement during the depression, where Black people boycotted and picketed places that wouldn’t hire us. Shout out to everyone who’s not going back to Target!