Media
I’ve decided to combine more of my streaming services into bundles to save a little money. So I had to cancel Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Now HBO Max Max. Only Max was subscribed via Apple’s services and cancelling was, as promised, a simple two-click operation. The other services? I swear it was 5 clicks each along with pleas to stay and small buttons to click.
Of course, I have to wait for the billing cycles to complete in order to really set this all up properly, but here’s hoping!
Each week I read Mike Monteiro’s Good News newsletter. And each week I’m better off for it. I bet you’d like it, too.
Well, the rich got what they wanted, right? The NYTimes made this happen and the Washington Post was a super-close second.
I am willing to bet a lot of this “Joe Biden must drop out” nonsense if because of this: IRS reports collecting $1 billion from rich households’ back taxes.
The IRS reported Wednesday that it has collected $1 billion in taxes and penalties owed by hundreds of wealthy households who accumulated past-due tax debts for years while IRS enforcement dwindled.
“The tax bill wasn’t even in dispute — the taxes were clearly owed by these people,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a call with reporters. “But we didn’t have the people or the resources. … It takes time and staffing to work through these cases.” Get a curated selection of 10 of our best stories in your inbox every weekend.
The tax agency, boosted by $60 billion in additional funding from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, has hired hundreds of skilled accountants over the past year and a half after years of shrinking staffing.
Is Biden old? Yes. Really old? Yes. But Biden has been far better than I expected and he’s doing the job (gaffes and all). Should we have a younger person in there? Assuming as qualified, 100%. But it’s Joe. Dems need to push the DNC to embrace the younger folks rather than fight them.
The problem, I assume, is the youngs want it all to be better and that costs money which means higher taxes (for the rich). The rich do not want that. At all.
I’d love to see a Harris/AOC ticket. Or Whitmer/AOC ticket. I hope one day to be able to vote for AOC for president. By the way, it’s a damn shame the Dems aren’t not 100% backing her impeachment movement against Thomas and Alito.
Paul Waldman’s post on The New York Times is right on the money. The Times has an outsized amount of influence and I really wonder why it wields it the way it does.
Our media will be our downfall. Part whocankeeptrack?
A quick follow-up to a post I wrote about years ago: Joni Mitchell et al., return to Spotify. Ah, well.
The media will be our downfall part infinity.
As little as I have loved Republicans the past few years, coinciding with the rise of our own little autocrat, at least Donald Trump knows how to dress. I can’t imagine that even he would demean his office or his country by dressing down, as is now the “code” for senators. Clothes might not make the man or woman, but they do tell us a great deal about them.
Yeah, fuck those actions. It’s what you are wearing. The fact we* are talking about Fetterman’s dress means we aren’t paying attention (or don’t care) about what is going on. “Call me old fashioned,” says the old white lady. I’ll do you one better. You are a problem.
*We being our media.
As I’ve written in the past, if Earth was described in a science fiction story, it wouldn’t be believed.
Look at these pictures: The Earth is wonderful. And these photographers are so awesome at their jobs. Thanks, photographers!
I listen to the Apple New Today podcast every day. I find it to be the best of the <10 min morning news summaries. I have noticed that in the last few months ANT has been adding more and more sound bites from ESPN. With all the talk about Apple buying Disney, I wonder if Apple in particular wants ESPN.
I have no good feelings for Mitch McConnell. At all. On any level. That being said, when he froze up and then regained a bit of lucidity, his assistant asked reporters, “Any more questions?” 1) That’s incredibly callous, bordering on eldercare abuse and 2) How was the very next question not, “Are you going to call an ambulance, you fucking monster?”
Someone needs to make an app that makes it easy to subscribe and unsubscribe to streaming services. I think I could save a lot of money it was easier to turn these services on and off.
You know, kind of like how you can toggle off a subscription on an iPhone.
Our media will be our downfall: CNN edition. How how how are people surprised CNN is a POS? How?! The only time I go to CNN is to check my internet connection.
Did I mention that our media will be our downfall? Well, Our Media Will Be Our Downfall.
Reading
I am currently reading The Angel on the Roof by Russell Banks. This American Life recently included an old segment featuring Banks. I got the book from the library and they had to dig it out of the archives. That made me a bit sad. It’s slow reading for me, but I am enjoying the stories.
I somehow had missed the book Revolution in the Valley by Andy Hertfeld. Many of the stories, if not all, are available on his site, Folklore, but I am glad to have the stories in one collection to hold. And the pictures are bigger and that’s fun for me.
Watching
We’ve been watching Bad Sisters and that’s been a blast. How I can really, really like this family is something else. But I really do.
And because I am weak, and will watch anything sci-fi, I started watching The Ark. It’s buttocks. I watched the three available episodes (I know, I know, I can’t help myself).
Finally, raise a glass to Leiji Matsumoto who helped create Space Battleship Yamato, known in the U.S. as Star Blazers.
I know, I know. I complain on this blog (likely to a void… hello, no one!), but I try to get it out of my system so I don’t explode.
Anyway, in Edition 53,721 of Our Media Will Be Our Downfall is this article about how the new White House person is ineffective.
The more I think about it, the more rage-filled I become. I never, ever read anything like this when Angry Potato, Meal Interrupted, Blonde Mouth were doing the job. Never.