Pawel Popiel

"Iran succession: Asked who he would like to take over Iran, Mr. Trump gave a strikingly blunt answer. “Most of the people we had in mind are dead,” he said. “Now we have another group, they may be dead also, based on reports. So you have a third wave coming. Pretty soon we’re not going to know anybody.”"

www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03...

After Netflix Drops Warner Bros. Bid, GOP Senator Cancels Planned Antitrust Hearing; Top Democrat Vows To “Exercise Congress’ Oversight Authority” — Update Mike Lee dropped plans for a hearing next week.

😂 now that it's a trump allied billionaire owning massive swaths of media all the phony antitrust concerns magically disappear

Anthropic is the best, most peaceful, and most amazing tech company in the world. Discuss.

Radiohead is demanding that the Trump administration take down a pro-ICE promotional video featuring a version of its song “Let Down” without permission.

Full statement from the band:

Jesse Plemmons's character in "Civil War" asking "what kind of warner bro are you?"

Post-takeover Paramount-WBD's share of the $223B US tv, streaming & film industries will soar from ~10% to over 25%. It will control ~1/2 of the cable tv market. The takeover will nearly double Paramount’s share of the video streaming market, uniting HBO Max, Paramount+ and Discovery. 2/

Data underpinning this thread is from the @sshrc-crsh.canada.ca supported Global Media & Internet Concentration Project. Using our new dashboard, you can assess the impact of Paramount's bid for WBD on specific media sectors or various combinations in the US & internationally. gmicp.org/dashboard/

Paramount's take over of Warner Bros. Discovery is bad news for several reasons. It runs roughshod over the DOJ/FTC Merger Guidelines with respect to streaming, film and pay tv markets. 1/

Excited for Melania 2 (with Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan)

One family is about to control CBS, CNN, HBO, and TikTok. They’ll buy Warner Brothers with $24 billion from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi. To win over Trump, they canceled Colbert, blocked a 60 Minutes CECOT investigation, and blocked Talarico. Much more will follow. Block this rotten deal.

If this goes through what are the odds Bari Weiss runs CBS *and* CNN?

Also, here are the instructions on how to cancel your Paramount+ subscription from the horse's mouth, should you be so inclined: support.paramountplus.com/s/article/PI...

Paramount off to a good start after winning the bid for Warner Bros Discovery.
variety.com/2026/film/ne...

*won't kill and surveil you through the U.S. government!

Theoretically, antitrust authorities would stop this horizontal merger, but with Trump having a stake in an Ellison-controlled CBS and CNN, among other media properties, the US media system is about to undergo a massive transformation.

Here's an earlier discussion of the stakes now that Netflix is out.
theconversation.com/a-paramount-...

Looks like the fight's over and it'll now be up to antitrust regulators to stop (given the close alliance between Trump and the Ellisons, chances are slim). "Netflix, Inc. today announced that it has declined to raise its offer for Warner Bros."
ir.netflix.net/investor-new...

And two of them are dependent on the legacy tech oligopolists for infrastructure, data...

Hegseth gives Anthropic CEO until Friday to back down in AI safeguards fight "The only reason we're still talking to these people is we need them and we need them now."

The Trump regime is using AI for mass surveillance of Americans, and plans to integrate AI into their weapons systems. They are trying to extort Anthropic for refusing to go along.

The oligarchs and their would-be King want to make human beings like us obsolete.

Race to the top, bay-beeeeee

The Nexstar-Tegna Merger Will Raise Your Cable Bill, and Then Some - ProMarket The proposed merger of local broadcast television station owners Nexstar and Tegna will create a behemoth that threatens to raise consumer prices for multi-video programming subscriptions, increase ad...

"The resulting behemoth will control about 265 full-power TV stations. These stations operate in the vast majority of states and in over 60% of local markets. Its national audience reach will top over 80% of U.S. households."
www.promarket.org/2026/02/25/t...

Bari Weiss will be gone in five minutes if this doesn't go thru

Forget it, Shane. It's The Atlantic.

The Atlantic really is the pinnacle of American journalism

It's coming off as a horse race between Paramount and Netflix, but the focus should be on signals coming from the (Trump-controlled) DOJ. That's really all that stands in the way of a devastating media merger, no matter which of the two media giants wins the race for WBD.

The only other way is if you haven't asked AI to do a lit review and looked at the (devastating) results

The stories in here of what DHS officers are doing to children who are still making the journey to the southern border to seek protection is appalling. One teenager says he was threatened with "a dog and a stun gun" into signing away his right to seek protection in the United States

what even is the fucking point

Einstein - AI Homework Agent Einstein logs into Canvas and does your homework automatically. He has his own computer — he can watch lectures, read essays, write papers, and participate in discussions.

Is this bad