shut in the nuthouse

🔗Trump’s Literal Gilded Age - The Atlantic

Let Them Eat Gold

In a New York Times op-ed published Tuesday, Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison is defending his company’s attempt to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, which would create one of the biggest media conglomerates in American history.

The proposed merger is opposed by a coalition of Democratic attorneys general representing 12 states. They argue that the combined media company would substantially reduce competition in the industry and is in violation of federal law against such mergers.

In his column, Ellison contends that much of the opposition comes from fears of how he would interfere with the content at CNN, which is owned by Warner. Ellison claims that despite the close ties between his family—his father is billionaire Larry Ellison—and the Republican Party, fears of editorial interference are overblown.

The concern that Ellison plans to give CNN a similar treatment were voiced by longtime CNN contributor Christiane Amanpour in May at a journalism conference.

“I’m concerned based on what’s happened to the other things that he has taken over already, like CBS News … hemorrhaging viewers, probably hemorrhaging money, this ideological realignment of CBS and the destruction—potentially—of ‘60 Minutes,” she said of Ellison.

President Donald Trump’s destruction of Washington, D.C., is so fast-moving and widespread that sometimes things get lost, so you’re forgiven if you’ve missed the new helipad on the White House lawn—which is now costing taxpayers double.

Let’s recap for the full flavor of stupidity here.

In May, Trump decided that he needs a new helipad for Marine One, which—unlike a lot of things he’s doing in Washington—wasn’t completely beyond the pale, as the existing arrangement poses a fire risk.

We found out about Trump’s plan for a new helipad only after he started digging in early July. But hey! No big deal—the thing was going to be fully funded by a “donation” from Lockheed Martin, which just happens to manufacture Marine One.

This is not, of course, how the government is supposed to work—though it is how bribes work.

Just one week later, Trump declared that everything had to speed up—way up, to the tune of working around the clock and costing an additional $875,000. We got no word on whether the Lockheed bribe was going to cover the extra bit, but Trump needed it for an “upcoming state visit,” so things had to accelerate.