Aside from the occasional tweet with a GIF of a man twirling in a cape, which precisely two people get, I have been quiet about the UFC case. Yesterday, the judge granted a preliminary approval of the settlement, and I wanted to mark the occasion by saying a few things. Short 🧵.

The libertarian governor of Texas insists asking who is to blame for the deaths is “the word choice of losers.” Understandable position if your anti-government philosophy contributed to human tragedy. But elections are designed to hold politicians accountable for their choices.

The market is not going to deliver a flood warning system. This market failure can only be corrected through a government-owned-and-operated flood warning system. For a well-functioning society, we need to ditch the libertarian mentality. Autopsy from the corporatist Economist 👇

RT @musharbash_b: A little late in sharing this, but I was recently delighted to join the wonderful @food_sleuth for a two-part conversatio….

RT @LeeHepner: Hoboken passed a ban on algorithmic rent-fixing. HOBOKEN. Give it up, RealPage.

RT @davidsirota: 🚨NEWS: Democratic leaders of the Abundance movement are trying to create new red tape to stall millionaire surtaxes that f….

RT @CapitolKVD: The SCORE Act doesn’t protect athletes or fix anything. It is a gift to the NCAA that will cement its power over college sp….

RT @LeeHepner: Earlier this year, Lina Khan warned that airlines would soon be able to charge a higher airfare to people needing to get hom….

Here's a piece I did in Jan 2024 arguing that mass firings after an acquisition was consistent with the exercise of buying power (and a merger-induced harm). The 1,900 cuts in its gaming division now seem modest in comparison to the full bloodshed.

For those not keeping score at home, Microsoft has fired ~36,000 workers since 2023--the year it acquired Activision--all while its gross profits have continued growing and its stock has outperformed the S&P. This is violation of the social compact. Will be writing more on this.

Errata:. Replace ". in exchange for commitments to advertise alongside Hitler grok". with "in exchange for commitments to advertise alongside Mecha-Hitler Grok". My bad. Ran out of space.

RT @danielahanley: Cramer is just saying the quiet part out loud. The FTC and DOJ have given many signals that they are deal makers, not la….

RT @DylanGyauchL: As @makosloff pointed out while moderating a panel last month featuring Thompson, parts of the book were meant as an oliv….

RT @lhfang: Lol when Biden was in power, the telecom and airlines literally used promises of DEI measures to justify corporate mergers. Now….

RT @SohrabAhmari: Woke was used to shield corporate power. Anti-woke is now used to shield corporate power. Heads they win, tails workers….

RT @danielahanley: @HalSinger I can see your assertion being correct. Nevertheless, Slater could easily make a public comment or resign in….

We're moving solidly back into Gangster Antitrust territory. Round two. Ding ding ding.

This comes on the heels of holding up a non-horizontal and innocuous acquisition of Paramount in exchange for a cash payout to Trump, and blessing a horizontal and potentially anticompetitive merger of two ad agencies in exchange for commitments to advertise alongside Hitler grok.

The actual statement from DOJ's antitrust chief seems to indicate the distinct possibility for anticompetitive coordinated effects owing to the merger. Yeesh.

Cool cool. We're now waving through anticompetitive mergers in exchange for ending commitments to hire minorities. So much winning!

RT @ByMikeBaker: We have been mapping and studying the known flood risks at Camp Mystic. It turns out that not only was the camp in a flo….