Today in Bullsh%$

In response to complaints about the Paramont takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery about dodgy foreign funding, mass layoffs, and the destruction of journalism at the merged entity, chief legal officer Makan Delrahim is saying that this is all just antisemitism.

Way to minimize the credibility of any claims of antisemitism.

Paramount is clearly getting nervous about the growing opposition to its $111 billion merger with Warner Brothers, which is being intensely criticized for dodgy overseas funding, its dire impact on journalism, and the inevitable mass layoffs, consumer price hikes, and shittier overall product that always results from debt-fueled mega-media consolidation.

There’s a certain desperation creeping into their arguments as state regulators send signals that they’re considering filing an antitrust lawsuit. Top Paramount lawyer Makan Delrahim recently sat down for an interview with the billionaire-owned LA Times (non-paywalled alternative), and insisted that opposition to the company’s terrible merger spree is somehow antisemitic:

“Let’s be honest,” he told the Times. “There’s a lot of fear-mongering, particularly from people in Washington, D.C. They are running a political campaign. Some of these people are trying to inflict harm on this transaction, really because of their own antisemitic views. Regulators and law enforcement officials will see right through that.”

That is, of course, a whole lot of bullshit. Delrahim is trying to pretend that opposition to the deal stems from the fact that billionaire Trump-donor Larry Ellison, who has retooled CBS News to be more friendly to Benjamin Netanyahu, is Jewish. But if there’s any personal ire directed at Ellison as it pertains to the deal, it’s that he has a generational track record of being a foundationally terrible person.

The real-world concerns about the deal have focused on things like the fact it’s heavily financed by Saudi Arabia and China. And there’s fifty years of history showing that deals like this (especially deals involving Warner Brothers) routinely result in mass layoffs, higher prices, and both a shittier company and a less healthy film and television production market.

Way to give Nazis an excuse to Nazi.

Mind Officially Blown

Heinz Doofenshmirtz as a good parent who has turned aside his own trauma to be a loving father and family man?

He's right, and I am shocked. 

Dead Man Walking

While I enjoyed the original film with Donald Sutherland and Kristy Swanson, I have never seen a full episode of the TV spinoff of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

It never appealed to me.

That being said, I understand and appreciate the sincere intensity of the fans of the series.

That being said, when I heard the news that a Buffy reboot with (most) of the original cast was canceled, I could imagine heads exploding through the "Sklayerverse."  (Is that what it is called, I honestly do not know)

In a recent interview, Sarah Michelle Gellar, who played the eponymous said that there was one executive at Hulu who hated the show who killed the new series.

If this report is accurate,  the executive mentioned below is in for a world of (hopefully just social) hurt.

This past weekend’s shock news about the death of Buffy: New Sunnydale felt like it came out of nowhere for fans hopeful for a return of the Slayer. That shock similarly applies to returning star Sarah Michelle Gellar and director Chloé Zhao, who have spent the past days since reflecting on the show’s sudden staking. But while Zhao has erred on the side of mystery about what went on with the show, Gellar herself has been much more open—putting the show’s axing in the hands of a single man.

In a new interview with People, Gellar reflected on the way the news rolled out—suddenly over a weekend, with the actress herself breaking the news to the public on Instagram this past Saturday. She especially questioned the timing of that news, with Gellar claiming that the call to confirm the series wouldn’t be moving forward at Hulu came as she was attending the SXSW premiere of her return to horror cinema in Ready or Not 2: Here I Come for Searchlight, one of the studios involved in making New Sunnydale for Hulu, and while Zhao was preparing to attend events tied to Sunday’s Academy Awards, where she was nominated for Best Director for Hamnet.

………

But while Zhao took to the Oscars red carpet and described the cancellation as unsurprising, saying that she would “welcome the mystery” of whatever came next, Gellar wasn’t willing to be so vague.

“We had an executive on our show who was not only not a fan of the original, but was proud to constantly remind us that he had never seen the entirety of the series and how it wasn’t for him,” Gellar told People. “That’s very hard when you’re taking a property that is as beloved as Buffy, not just to the world, but to me and Chloé. So that tells you the uphill battle that we had been fighting since day one, when your executive is literally proud to tell you that he didn’t watch it.”

While Gellar did not go as far as to name the executive she believes is responsible for delivering the killing blow to New Sunnydale, a new report from Deadline alleges that Gellar was talking about Disney Television Group President Craig Erwich. According to the trade, New Sunnydale‘s pilot, written by Nora and Lilla Zuckerman, had already undergone a significant round of changes after an initial version was described as playing to too young an audience and aiming its scope too small, putting more focus on the new Slayer, played by Star Wars: Skeleton Crew‘s Ryan Kiera Armstrong. A rework of the pilot’s script to make the tone more adult, and to incorporate more of Gellar as Buffy Summers, was much more strongly received, sparking talks that a pickup for new Sunnydale would be imminent.

This is like f%$#ing with Corvidae (Ravens, Crows, etc.). 

Incredibly Petty Bullshit

As you may have heard, Donald Trump's stooges renamed the Kennedy Center to the Trump-Kennedy center on December 18, despite the fact that the name of the center is mandated by law, and this law prohibits putting anyone else's name on the building.

In response to this, there were a number of cancellations, including the touring show of Hamilton, but the most abrupt cancellation came from the annual Jazz Jams concert, which is typically on Christmas eve.

So Trump's stooges are threatening to sue the organizer, percussionist Chuck Redd for $1 million.

This response was foreseen and foreseeable. 

Maybe if you decide to violate the law, and are accused by multiple artists of not paying them in a timely manner, you should expect cancellations.

The president of the Kennedy Center has demanded $1m in damages and fiercely criticized a musician’s sudden decision to cancel a Christmas Eve performance at the venue days after the White House announced that Donald Trump’s name would be added to the facility.

“Your decision to withdraw at the last moment – explicitly in response to the Center’s recent renaming, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure – is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit Arts institution,” the venue’s president, Richard Grenell, wrote in a letter to musician Chuck Redd that was shared with the Associated Press.

In the letter, Grenell said he would seek $1m in damages “for this political stunt”.

………

A drummer and vibraphone player, Redd has presided over holiday Jazz Jams at the Kennedy Center since 2006, succeeding bassist William “Keter” Betts. In an email Wednesday to the Associated Press, Redd said he pulled out of the concert in the wake of the renaming.

“When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert,” Redd said. He added on Wednesday that the event has been a “very popular holiday tradition” and that he often featured at least one student musician.

I would suggest that Mr. Redd lawyers up, and that his lawyer be extremely during discovery.

While changing the name of the Center probably being unlawful (i.e. not a criminal infraction), making this decision could be prosecuted as a conspiracy, which is a criminal infraction.

Not Enough Bullets

Or Maybe a Guillotine 

After years of screwing up everything that he touched Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is going to walk away from the proposed merger with Netflix $567,000,000.00 richer.

It's kind of like Typhoid Mary selling a restaurant for a million dollars back in the door. 

I’ve written a lot about the AOL–>AT&T–>Time Warner–>Discovery mergers simply because I think they perfectly encapsulate the pointless, destructive incompetence at the heart of modern media consolidation, and the cannibalistic nature of Wall Street’s obsession with illusory quarterly growth propped up by smoke, mirrors, and complex accounting.

Ever since the original AOL Time Warner merger back in 2001, an endless wave of pointless mergers promised no limit of innovative “synergies,” but instead resulted in more than 50,000 layoffs, shittier product, higher prices, the death of a ton of well-loved brands and IPs, decades of chaos, a decline in quality journalism, and a bottomless well of shit.

At the heart of this enshittification (at least the more recent mergers involving AT&T and Discovery) has sat Warner Brothers CEO David Zaslav. Like the AT&T execs before him, Zaslav has seen absolutely zero accountability for this chaos, and, in fact, has been repeatedly rewarded with a series of massive compensation packages that in absolutely no way reflect his competency.

With Netflix and Paramount (CBS) now scrapping over the remnants of Warner Brothers’ carcass, Zaslav stands to cash out with a golden parachute for the ages. All told, it’s expected that Zaslav is set to see $567 million in cash and other buyout options:

“Zaslav will receive $30 million in “golden parachute” compensation, along with $537 million in equity, for a total of $567 million in a transaction-associated pay, per the Wednesday filing. Zaslav has led Warners since it formally merged with Discovery in 2022 following a $43 billion spinoff from then-owner AT&T.”

………

The endless chaos created by “growth for growth sake” mergers may provide temporary stock boosts and tax breaks, but it simultaneously has generated no limit of ill will among consumers (something Zaslav sometimes pretends to recognize), massive stock fluctuations, a huge talent drain, lots of wasted money and time, significant animosity among creatives, and significant harm to core brands (like HBO and CNN).

It’s the extraction class abusing the rules of the game to pretend to be good at business. They’re not actually building anything useful, or remotely interested in the longevity of the company, its customers, the talent that powers it, or the people who work there. They’re playing with funny numbers to try and perpetually generate the illusion of impossible permanent growth at incredible scale, then cashing out when the check finally comes due for their complicated shell games.

As an FYI, Zaslav is the guy who canceled multiple projects, including finished movies, when he determined that the tax write-offs were more remunerative that releasing them to the public.

This Restores My Faith in Humanity

On Sunday at the Miss Universe competition in Chile, contestant Ignacia Fernández sang a song for the talent portion. 

That is not particularly unusual, what is unusual is that she is in a band, and she brought a band mate on stage to accompany her as she sang a song from the band's repertoire.

What is even more unusual is that her band is Decessus, a progressive Death Metal band.

Who’s to say you can’t be brutal and a beauty? Ignacia Fernández is a 27-year-old model, that much is clear, but what isn’t upon first look is how damn savage she is. While competing in the Miss World Chile 2025 (in Spanish, it’s Miss Mundo Chile) pageant semifinal last Sunday, November 2, Fernández stunned damn near everyone by performing a song from her progressive death metal band called Decessus. Yes, you read that right. Miss World Chile 2025 could be a headbanging guttural queen, and if I could vote for her, I definitely would.

Joined by her bandmate Carlos Palma, Fernández performed an original Decessus song while rocking a ball gown. She understandably garnered a standing ovation, with one of the judges saying he’s never seen anything like it in a beauty pageant before. We haven’t either, sir.

In an interview with the Chilean paper Las Últimas Noticias, Fernández said how she was nervous about her performance and the reactions it might receive. “Television lends itself to people making memes and making fun of you,” she said. The song I sang is by my band. It’s my job, my life.”

Fernández represents the Las Condes district, hoping to move on to represent Chile in Miss Universe. Her performance won her a spot in the pageant finals, which will take place this Sunday, November 9. Imagine how wonderful it’d be to have a death metal maven representing our universe. She’s even said: “I’m not trying to fit in. I’m trying to show myself as I am.” I couldn’t think of anyone better.

She made it to the next round of the pageant, because she was true to herself, and truth is power. 

He's Back!

I am referring, of course, to Jimmy Kimmel whose indefinite suspension ends tomorrow night.

Sinclair Broadcasting, whose right-wing Executive director David D. Smith was caught getting a blowjob from a prostitute in a company car, has announced that they will not carry the show.

This is par for the course for Sinclair Broadcasting, whose right-wing Executive director David D. Smith was caught getting a blowjob from a prostitute in a company car.

If you want to discuss Sinclair's actions, or perhaps put a comment into their file for a local station with the FCC, remember to mention that their right-wing Executive director David D. Smith was caught getting a blowjob from a prostitute in a company car. 

There Is Evil, and Then There Is

Ticketmaster.

In the latest case, we have the ticket selling website collaborating with scalpers to drive up prices and profits.

Why am I not surprised? 

The Federal Trade Commission sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster on Thursday, alleging that the companies tacitly worked with scalpers to profit from jacking up ticket prices on the secondary market.

As the FTC alleged in a press release, Ticketmaster's years of turning a blind eye to scalpers violated the FTC Act and the Better Online Ticket Sales Act, costing customers "billions in inflated prices and additional fees." Further, artists' efforts to keep event costs low were repeatedly frustrated by executives' greedy bid to drive Ticketmaster revenue by reaping as many additional fees as possible, the FTC alleged.

Rather than blocking scalping, Ticketmaster allegedly provided tech support to help so-called brokers exceed "fake" ticket limits that seemingly only applied to genuine customers buying tickets to see events.

The FTC's investigation revealed that five of the biggest brokers controlled thousands of fake or purchased Ticketmaster accounts buying hundreds of thousands of event tickets and making it impossible for fans to "have a shot at buying fair-priced tickets," FTC chair Andrew Ferguson said.

………

Ticketmaster controls about 80 percent of "major concert venues’ primary ticketing" and increasingly controls "a growing share of ticket resales in the secondary market," the FTC noted.

Seemingly, Ticketmaster uses this dominant position to "triple dip" on fees, maximizing gains from events by charging fees at initial purchase, then again from both sellers and buyers on the secondary market. Ticketmaster generates most of its revenue from these fees, the FTC said, raking in over $11 billion from 2019 through 2024—nearly $4 billion of which came from resale fees.

I'm thinking that these guys, and not the public relations department of Sirius Cybernetics Corporation will be the, "Bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes."

Quote of the Day

The hover text was, "Achilles was a mighty warrior, but his Achilles’ heel was his heel."
Link to xkcd comic

Comic Book Nerds and Theologians Are the Same Animal

—JR on  the Stellar Parthenon BBS,

We were discussing this xkcd cartoon, and JR made this observation.

Mind officially blown, because it is Charles Dickens (Turnips and Taxes) true, and I never realized it before. 

How did I miss this for so many decades? 

Ewww!

It's a little thing, but this report about restaurants creating false identities on dating apps to boost sales.

The idea is that they would set up a false date, and when the victim was stood up, they would end up sitting there in the restaurant, and they would order something to eat or drink. 

Really skeevy:

This greasy spoon did her dirty.

In the concrete jungle — where taking a dip in the murky shallows of the dating pool often leaves wannabe lovebirds high and dry — an online dater claims she was catfished by an East Village eatery that posed as a potential suitor on an app in an effort to get her business. 

“I was at the restaurant, thinking I’d been stood up, and ordered a cocktail and a meal for about $45,” Taylor Paré, 33, a vintage fashion curator in Manhattan, told The Post, “only to eventually find out that the restaurant is likely scamming me and other women out of our hard-earned money.”

The singleton shared the disturbing details of her date-night nightmare to a stunned TikTok audience of more than 57,000 viewers.

………

“We’re all out here just trying to have a meal with a cute date, and the restaurants have caught on,” added the brunette. “They’re using it as a tactic to increase their business, which is kind of like as dystopian as it gets.”

………

But after primping for the ill-fated night on the town, Paré waited 15 minutes for her no-show beau to arrive at the joint. 

When she reached for her phone, preparing to message the guy about his tardiness via the dating site, the no-nonsense New Yorker discovered that he’d unmatched with her on the app.

Unfazed by the apparent snubbing, Paré enjoyed her dinner, paid the bill and headed home.

However, several days later, while scrolling through an “Are We Dating the Same Guy”-like Facebook forum — a virtual town square, where scorned whistleblowers share red flags about would-be playboys — she was thunderstruck by the notion that she’d been duped. 

“A girl in the Facebook group recently had a very similar experience at the same restaurant,” Paré said. “I just started putting two and two together, and it seems like way too much of a coincidence for [the restaurant not to be involved].” 

Assuming that this is true, this is nasty.

If it's not true, I feel compelled to quote Mason Williams, "Who needs truth if it's dull." 

I Get This

I generally do not give much thought to the proclamations of celebrities, but something Keira Knightly said really resonated with me.

She will not have any more children in addition to her current 2, not because of the work, and not because the pain of labor, or the inconvenience of pregnancy, but because she cannot deal with having to watch Peppa Pig with her kids any more.

Keira Knightley is over having kids but it's not because of any of the reasons you may think.

The British actress and star of Netflix's new spy-thriller series "Black Doves" spilled the real reason why two children are enough for her on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon."

“You know that thing where you’re like ‘Oh, you know they’re so nice. Should we have another one?’ ” Knightley said. “And you think, ‘Oh yeah, I could do the pregnancy. I could even do the birth but I cannot watch anymore Peppa Pig.’ So there's no more kids."

Knightley described her children, who are 5 and 9, as "very cool right now. They're into Studio Ghibli and just like beautiful things where you're just like 'oh, this is just lovely' after seven years of 'Peppa Pig.'"

 Thankfully, my kids were pre Peppa Pig.

The Studios Are Refusing to Distribute? Imagine That

The award-winning documentary about the successful union effort at Amazon's JFK 8 warehouse in Staten Island, Union has been unable to find a studio willing to distribute the film.

There could be a number of reasons for this, the increasing hostility of the studios towards unions generally, the fear of retribution from Jeff Bezos, etc. 

Basically, studio executives are being chicken-sh%$s:

To someone not completely enmeshed in the state of the entertainment business, the documentary Union might seem like it has the trappings of an attractive nonfiction sales title: a dramatic story arc culminating in a history-making news event, close access to key players, a charismatic central character, glowing reviews and a premiere at a prestigious film festival.

And yet the film, which documents how an unconventional grassroots group organized the first-ever U.S. union at an Amazon warehouse, is coming to select theaters on Friday without the backing of any major entertainment companies. Months after the Brett Story and Stephen Maing-directed film screened at the Sundance Film Festival and won a special jury award there, the filmmakers announced they had turned to theatrical self-distribution in the absence of any major studio or streamer deals. With the move, a press release in June noted, the team was “recognizing the difficulties faced by political documentaries in distribution of late.” 

Social-issue documentaries have had a rough time of it lately, with longtime impact-driven company Participant Media shutting down in the spring and consolidations reducing the number of buyers interested in this kind of fare in the space. But Union, with its detailed portrait of a consequential American labor story, is an especially salient example. The filmmakers’ current self-distribution plan may ultimately target their intended audience just as effectively, or even more, than a conventional, mainstream release. But their story also offers a glimpse into the bind that some nonfiction filmmakers are facing in a cost-cutting, risk-averse market. 

Naah, the executives are chicken-sh%$s, and they are still suffering from butt-hurt from the strike earlier this year.

This was never goping to make a lot of money for the studios, but it would have made money nonetheless, but they won't want their workers to get uppity, I guess.

Yet another reason why the big studios should be broken up.

Here's Johnny!

No, Johnny Carson is still dead, though it appears that dotard Donald Trump is not aware of this, seeing as how he wants Carson, who has been dead for almost 20 years, to replace Jimmy Kimmel on the Jimmy Kimmel Live!

So, he wants a dead man to replace a late night host, and he got the show wrong.  Carson was the host of The Tonight Show, currently hosted by Jimmy Fallon, and this is on a completely different network.

For all the talk about Joe Biden's neurological state, it's pretty clear that something is very wrong with Trump's brain, and it has gotten a lot worse recently:

Donald Trump is still sore at late night host Jimmy Kimmel for making him the laughingstock of the 2024 Academy Awards ("Isn't it past your jail time?") back in March. So much so that he thinks Johnny Carson should take over the show and make late night great again.

Trump told his worshipers at a Pennsylvania rally that the jokes Kimmel and Colbert tell aren't funny. "It's supposed to be comedy," he rued. "It's hatred."

"Where's Johnny Carson?" a dazed Trump queried the crowd. "Bring back Johnny."

No one in the bleachers had the heart to tell their leader — who is starting to look and behave like the embunkered Hitler in Downfall — that Carson retired from the show in 1992 and died in 2005. Or it just could be that his followers believe Trump has the power to raise Carson from the dead and put him back at his desk to interview fresh young talent like Angie Dickinson and Joey Bishop.

Even before the cognitive decline, Donald Trump was not right in the head.  This is not a surprise, he was the child of an abusive alcoholic father.

But his brain is beginning to resemble a slice of Swiss Cheese, or perhaps Stinking Bishop.

Good Policy and Good Politics

The DoJ  has filed a lawsuit against Live Nation/Ticketmaster calling for its breakup.

Given the state of public opinion regarding this company, they are arguably more loathed than cable companies, and the well documented abusive and anti-competitive behavior, this is a no brainer, even if this action just motivates Taylor Swift nation:

The US government today sued Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary in a complaint that seeks a breakup of the company that dominates the live music and events market.

The US Department of Justice is seeking "structural relief," including a breakup, "to stop the anticompetitive conduct arising from Live Nation's monopoly power." The DOJ complaint asked a federal court to "order the divestiture of, at minimum, Ticketmaster, along with any additional relief as needed to cure any anticompetitive harm."

The District of Columbia and 29 states joined the DOJ in the lawsuit filed in US District Court for the Southern District of New York. "One monopolist serves as the gatekeeper for the delivery of nearly all live music in America today: Live Nation, including its wholly owned subsidiary Ticketmaster," the complaint said.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland said during a press conference that "Live Nation relies on unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry in the United States... The result is that fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play concerts, smaller promoters get squeezed out, and venues have fewer real choices for ticketing services."

"It is time to break it up," Garland said.

………

The lawsuit seeks a judgment declaring that Live Nation and Ticketmaster violated antitrust law in various ways. "Live Nation has acted unlawfully to maintain its monopoly" in the ticketing market, for example, "by entering into long-term exclusive primary ticketing contracts with major concert venues that unreasonably restrain trade in the United States," the lawsuit said.

Live Nation was accused of breaking the law "by tying artists' use of Live Nation owned, controlled, and exclusively booked large amphitheaters to their purchase of promotional services from Live Nation." The US and states also say that Live Nation has illegally maintained its "monopoly in the markets for the provision of concert booking and promotion services to major concert venues and the provision of promotion services to artists performing in major concert venues."

In addition to seeking a breakup of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, the US asked the court to order the "termination of Live Nation's ticketing agreement with Oak View Group." Oak View Group owns or manages over 200 venues and is "uniquely positioned to compete against Live Nation," but "now operates as an agent and a self-described 'pimp' and 'hammer' for Live Nation, often influencing venues and artists for the benefit of Live Nation," the lawsuit said.

Elections have consequences.

In this case, we all benefit.

(Insert random snark dissing Obama here for allowing the Live Nation — Ticketmaster merger in 2010)

Where I Want to Go on Vacation

Yoshida Village, Shimane Prefecture, Japan.

They have a vacation package where you spend a couple of days smelt steel, specifically tamahagane, the steel that is traditionally used in their swords.

I also want to hit Sri Lankha to participate in a wind driven "monsoon" furnaces recreation.

I am the dullest man on the face of the earth.

As a Doctor Who Fan, I am not Flattered

A cow-orker of mine finds that my "Mad SolidWorks Skilz" impressive enough that he has nicknamed me, "Master," and he occasionally calls me, "The Master."

As a Doctor Who fan, I find it a bit disconcerting.

There is only one, "The Master," and that is the late actor Roger Caesar Marius Bernard de Delgado Torres Castillo Roberto.

OK, I'll also grant that John Simms and  especially Michelle Gomez have done very well, but there is just no filling the shoes left by Roger Delgado.

In any case, if any of you out there are wondering, I am not a time traveling evil genius bent on taking over the earth.

I tend to think of myself as the sidekick, but not of The Master.

Rather I think of myself as being the sidekick of an evil genius whose proclivities are a bit less lethal to his assistants.

I wonder what sort of dental plan comes with being the minion of an evil genius.

Narf!

Ecch (Tweet) of the Day

If she wore one on tiktok and said “masking up is kindness”, Covid, flu, rsv and measles would disappear from schools and colleges.

— Fe. (@NoHealthNoFun) February 18, 2024

This is true.

What is also true is that the anti vax/anti mask MAGAt teabagging snow flakes would completely lose their sh%$ over this, which makes it a win-win.

Taylor Goes Full Elon

So, Taylor Swift's lawyer, one would assume with her approval, has sent a cease and desist letter to Jack Sweeney demanding that he stop publishing her flight data, as he has done with hundreds of celebrities.

This is public data, and he's reposting it on social media.

It's tail number, arrival, and departure, no information regarding who is on the plane, or where they are going after landing.

He also started doing this with Ron DeSantis after he signed a law concealing his flights on state aircraft.

I know that Taylor Swift has a real problem with stalkers, but this is public information, and naming and shaming over private jets is legitimate public interest:

Taylor Swift’s attorneys have threatened legal action against a Florida college student who runs social media accounts tracking the flights of her and other celebrities’ private jets.

Jack Sweeney, a junior at the University of Central Florida, has for years run accounts that log the takeoffs and landings of planes and helicopters owned by hundreds of billionaires, politicians, Russian oligarchs and other public figures, along with estimates of their planet-warming emissions. The accounts use publicly available data from the Federal Aviation Administration and volunteer hobbyists who can track the aircraft via the signals they broadcast.

Sweeney’s accounts fueled a free-speech debate in late 2022 when X, formerly Twitter, banned Sweeney for sharing what the platform’s owner, Elon Musk, said were his “assassination coordinates.” The accounts don’t say who travels on the aircraft or where they go once the planes land.

In December, Swift’s attorney at the Washington law firm Venable wrote Sweeney a cease-and-desist letter saying Swift would “have no choice but to pursue any and all legal remedies” if he did not stop his “stalking and harassing behavior.”

Let's be clear here:  Elon was embarrassed that he was caught making private jet hops hundreds of times a year spewing tons of CO2, when he was claiming to save the world.  He does not like to be shown to be a hypocrite.

………

Sweeney, 21, told The Post that he saw the letter as an attempt to scare him away from sharing public data. The accounts offer only an incomplete sketch of which cities Swift might be in, similar to the public schedules for her concerts or any NFL games she might attend, he said. And the letters, he added, were sent to him at a time when she faced criticism over her flights’ environmental effects.

“This information is already out there,” he said. “Her team thinks they can control the world.”

Private-jet flights are routinely criticized for their “disproportionately high” impact on climate change, and Sweeney’s accounts have often been used to name and shame their most famous passengers. In 2022, the accounts were cited in an analysis that estimated that Swift was the “biggest celebrity [carbon dioxide] polluter” of the year.

Her publicist told The Post then that the analysis was flawed because her jet was often loaned out to other people. Paine told The Post on Monday that Swift bought more than double the “carbon credits” needed to offset her travel before her recent tour kicked off.

That bit from her publicist is 6 lbs of sh%$ in a 5 lb bag.

Taylor Swift is a sharp cookie. When offered a chance to endorse cryptocurrency for a fee, she declined, responding that they were unregistered securities.

She knows that carbon offsets are a scam.

If she does not want to be shamed over her carbon emissions, take a tour bus, like the other bands do.

Meh

Comedy Central has announced that Jon Stewart will be returning to host The Daily Show on Mondays.

I am not particularly impressed.

First, it is clearly temporary, and at one day a week, it will not mean much.

Second, there is a legion of Daily Show alums who could host.  (I favor Roy Wood, Jr., and dream of Larry Wilmore)

Third, and most importantly, Jon Stewart is too meta.

He comes from the, "View from nowhere," where there is sort a, "Pox on both of your houses," attitude, and that time is long past.

Jon Stewart is returning to “The Daily Show.” The comedian who transformed Comedy Central’s satirical news show into a serious force in politics will now serve as a part-time host and full-time producer through this year’s presidential election cycle.

Starting Feb. 12, Stewart will host “The Daily Show” each Monday night while also steering the series as an executive producer, Comedy Central announced Wednesday. Stewart’s return comes as “The Daily Show” gears up to cover a fraught rematch looming between Joe Biden and Donald  Trump. The show’s cast of correspondents will take turns hosting on other nights.

Want Some Cheese With that Whine?

It appears that Meghan "My Dad was John McCain" McCain is suffering from major butthurt after one of her former co-hosts on The View declared that some of the people on that show had been nepo babies.

Meghan "My Dad was John McCain" McCain is threatening to sue, which is a problem because:

• No one said that it was her except for Meghan "My Dad was John McCain" McCain.  When one examines the hosts of that show, the right wing ones at least, we have:
• Meghan "My Dad was John McCain" McCain
• Alyssa Farah Griffin, whose dad founded World Net Daily.
• Elisabeth Hasselbeck , wife of NFL quarterback Tim Hasselbeck.
• Abby Huntsman, daughter of former Utah Governor John Huntsman.
• And she is a nepo baby.
• The truth is always a defense against defamation or libel in the United States.
  

So, she got some shade thrown at her, and she decided to remove all doubt:

Nobody mentioned Meghan McCain’s name on Thursday morning’s episode of The View. But the former co-host clearly felt seen.

“I don’t understand why my former colleagues @TheView @ABC bring me up and slander me on an almost weekly basis,” McCain tweeted a few hours after the show aired. “It has been years - move on, I have.”

“I have never been accused of a crime in my life and am a patriotic American - I would never and have never ‘influenced peddled’ in my life, let alone with foreign adversaries,” she added. “Not all politicians children are the same - and I am no Hunter Biden. All accusations are absurd, defamatory and slanderous. I will be consulting my lawyers regarding what was libeled against me on The View this morning.”

McCain was referring to comments made by current co-host Ana Navarro during a segment about the Republican Party’s relentless campaign to smear President Joe Biden with the actions of his son Hunter.

I should mention here that Ana Navarro never worked with McCain, and Ana Navarro is a Republican, but whatever, I guess.

“Did Hunter Biden influence peddle on his last name? Yes he did! So did half of Washington,” Navarro said. She then appeared to catch her co-hosts off guard when she added, “People at this table did it!”

Oh, snap!

Asked for clarification by McCain’s de facto replacement Alyssa Farah Griffin, Navarro explained, “I’m not talking about currently.”

At that moment, the reaction around the table made it clear they knew which U.S. senator’s daughter Navarro was talking about—even if they declined to make it explicit for the audience.

That means McCain was the first to directly connect the comments made on the show to herself, which could complicate her proposed attempt to claim libel.

Gee, ya think?

I do not know why, nor do I care why, McCain and her former cow-orkers seem to have parted on unfriendly terms.

But this level of unaware self-owning is both amusing and not a surprise.