David Dayen
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David Dayen
@ddayen.bsky.social
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Executive editor, The American Prospect. Author, Chain of Title and Monopolized. Tips at ddayen-at-prospect-dot-org or Signal at ddayen.90
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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 15d
You can see our entire series on The Business of Sports at
prospect.org/sports. More to come in the days ahead!
Sports - The American Prospect
prospect.org
ddayen.bsky.social
One constraint: Paramount and its advisor, former Trump antitrust enforcer Makan Delrahim, are trying to speedrun the acquisition and catch state enforcers flatfooted. All the more reason for them to come out now with a vow to challenge it. From me: prospect.org/2026/02/19/t...
There is one tactic that Paramount and its chief adviser on the merger, former Trump antitrust enforcer Makan Delrahim, are using to try to get the deal through before state AGs can react. According to Matt Stoller, Delrahim had Paramount file most of the paperwork for a merger with Warner Bros. before the two companies have even agreed to any terms. That could give state enforcers as little as 15 days to challenge the merger once it is announced. States often rely on the federal government to comb through the paperwork, but in this case the feds can be relied upon to offer no resistance. A quick-strike merger would allow Paramount and WBD to quickly combine assets and make any subsequent untangling difficult. But that is all the more reason for Democratic AGs to make their intentions known now, and for the best and brightest in Hollywood to urgently press the issue. There are options to prevent a kind of Viktor Orban-style shift into effectively state-run media that doesn’t question authoritarian power. And the sooner that state AGs announce their determination to use those options, the better the likelihood of success.
February 19, 2026 at 2:56 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
Lots of rumblings that the Trump administration will intervene to block the Netflix-Warner Bros merger, & pave the way for a Paramount takeover that would include CNN, a further corruption of broadcast news. But state AGs have the power to stop this, if they act fast.
prospect.org/2026/02/19/t...
The Wild Card in Trump’s Attempt to Control the News - The American Prospect
State attorneys general will have a say in whether Paramount ultimately succeeds in taking over CNN, HBO, and the rest of Warner Bros. Discovery.
prospect.org
February 19, 2026 at 2:53 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
I mean I think Norway is dominating the Winter Olympics because it's cold and icy there
February 19, 2026 at 2:36 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
What Blackstone is trying to do, as our reporter James Baratta reports, is vertical integration of the data center buildout. prospect.org/2026/02/19/b...
Blackstone has owned data center developer QTS since 2021. “While QTS does not have a presence in New Mexico today, historically QTS has developed a land bank in the service territories of [Blackstone Infrastructure Partners’] portfolio companies post-investment,” Blackstone stated in a redacted version of a May 2025 presentation it recently added to the docket. “The QTS team is interested in developing data centers in the [New Mexico] market,” the presentation explains. It also identifies “demonstrated hyperscaler interest,” “access to clean power at scale,” and “low-cost land availability” as compelling factors for expansion. It wouldn’t be the first time, either. Blackstone owns a roughly 20 percent stake in the Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO). Last year, the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission approved NIPSCO’s proposal to establish GenCo, which was launched with the goal of owning, building, and managing generation assets to meet the energy needs of large load customers like data centers. GenCo negotiates deals directly with data centers; Indiana’s Herald Bulletin described GenCo as a “nearly unregulated subsidiary” of NIPSCO. Meanwhile, in 2024, Blackstone acquired grid parts manufacturer MacLean Power Systems from private equity firm Genstar Capital. MacLean produces “mission-critical” grid components for transmission and distribution networks. Given that data center expansion by QTS and other developers is driving up demand for the very products MacLean manufactures, Blackstone’s acquisition of TXNM would effectively complete the trifecta.
February 19, 2026 at 2:35 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
This is a big uh-oh for Blackstone, the world's largest private equity firm, which is trying to buy a utility company in New Mexico. It bought the shares before getting approval for the acquisition. That could derail the whole thing—if regulators follow the law.
prospect.org/2026/02/19/b...
Consumer Advocates Could Derail Blackstone’s Utility Acquisition - The American Prospect
The private equity behemoth’s bid to acquire New Mexico’s largest electricity provider could be null and void. Will regulators be bold enough to apply the law?
prospect.org
February 19, 2026 at 2:24 PM
Reposted by David Dayen
7leaguebootdisk.bsky.social
This was very good. And very disturbing.
February 19, 2026 at 3:05 AM
ddayen.bsky.social
Youth sports have become so expensive, and Olympic training even more so, that it's quite likely you have to come from means to be the best, which is unfortunate.
prospect.org/2026/02/05/f...
The Roots of the Youth Sports Gold Rush
Steve Griffin got in on the ground floor with the John D. Rockefeller of youth sports. The climb out of the basement taught him that finance and kids’ sports are a toxic mix.
prospect.org
February 19, 2026 at 2:21 PM
Reposted by David Dayen
banditelli.org
The back of Tom Morello's guitar ahead of Bernie Sanders speaking in Los Angeles for the California Billionaires tax.
The back of an electric guitar that says chinga la Migra
February 19, 2026 at 2:41 AM
ddayen.bsky.social
Many news outlets watched speeches from Munich & obsessed over an AOC "gaffe" (i.e. accurately describing longstanding US policy in Taiwan). @prospect.org had someone in Munich (the excellent Jen Kirby) who saw a Democratic party struggling to articulate a foreign policy vision.
Do Democrats Have a Plan for the Post-Trump World Order? - The American Prospect
A party tries to figure it out in real time, on the world stage in Munich.
prospect.org
February 18, 2026 at 4:10 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
It's grim.
prospect.org/2026/02/18/v...
Among the departed is Dr. Matthew Miller, formerly the executive director for VA Suicide Prevention. Miller is himself a veteran whose work was deeply driven by his personal background. Miller lost his best friend to a firearm suicide during his last year in the Air Force, a tragedy that inspired him to carefully and credibly address what was long a third rail in the veteran suicide crisis: firearm access. On Miller’s watch, the VA formed pathbreaking partnerships with the firearms industry, and launched effective safe storage initiatives. Also gone is Dr. Marsden McGuire, the director of the Continuum of Care and General Mental Health in the VA’s Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention. Then there are hundreds of frontline mental health staff who have left, including clinicians like Dr. Melissa London, a psychologist in the San Francisco Bay Area who was celebrated as the 2024 hospital employee of the quarter. “I thought this would be my career forever,” she told the Prospect dejectedly. “Nobody wanted to leave.” A half dozen VA sources said many of the newly vacant positions within the department are not being backfilled or have been eliminated from the organizational chart entirely. “People are scrambling to cover responsibilities,” one source said. “Some are doing multiple jobs at once.”
February 18, 2026 at 4:07 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
There hasn't been enough of a look back at agencies that have seen significant attrition during Trump's assault on the federal workforce. Today we do that with a profile on those who departed the VA health care system, many of them vets themselves. The system is struggling to survive.
How Trump Put Veteran Care in Crisis - The American Prospect
Thousands of staff have left the health care side of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and those who remain are approaching burnout.
prospect.org
February 18, 2026 at 4:01 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
It's not confirmed that 314 is running the same AIPAC pass-through play that they did in 2024, but they are spending for Biss in IL-09, yes.
February 18, 2026 at 3:54 PM
Reposted by David Dayen
davidnir.com
How is this even possible? Rep. Haley Stevens, who is running for #MISen, "seemed generally impressed with the staff" at an ICE detention facility, per the @michiganadvance.com.

At the same event, Rep. Hillary Scholten spoke of a man "being kept in a freezing room where he couldn’t feel his toes."
Stevens also seemed generally impressed with the staff during the visit and their treatment of detainees. “Of note, there is female leadership here, and there are women who walked with us today and explained, on the intake process, how important it is to treat people with humanity,” Stevens said. “And that obviously really stuck out to me, because some of the things that we are witnessing before our eyes, in our neighborhoods, in our streets, is really a lack of humanity.” Both congresswomen did note, however, that at least one individual who they spoke to expressed a fear of punishment or retribution for sharing his concerns about the facility — though they attempted to speak with him privately, they were denied that opportunity. Stevens noted that she plans to remain in touch with that person’s family in Macomb County to ensure he is not punished for speaking with the congresswomen. “He was kept for several weeks in what everyone there refers to as ‘the hole,’ which is similar to a solitary confinement,” Scholten said of the same detainee. “He spoke of being kept in a freezing room where he couldn’t feel his toes and having his food just thrown into his cell. So these are things that we really need to take seriously.”
February 18, 2026 at 1:30 AM
ddayen.bsky.social
Except Trump unilaterally eliminated agencies and cut hundreds of billions of dollars of appropriated funds, forcing the judiciary to expend monumental effort to get things restored (which hasn't been fully successful).
This idea that Congress secretly vanquished Trump doesn't fit with these facts.
tonyromm.bsky.social tony romm @tonyromm.bsky.social · 2d
NEW: Returning to office, Trump sought massive budget cuts and the total elimination of some federal agencies and programs.

In the end, Congress quietly rejected that vision over a series of deals in recent months, our analysis shows.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/u...
Trump Sought Vast Budget Cuts. Congress Granted Few.
www.nytimes.com
February 18, 2026 at 12:31 AM
ddayen.bsky.social
There's been this endless, tedious discourse about the role of "the groups."
These are the fucking groups!
These 3 PACs have nearly half a billion dollars to spend on elections. Slightly more power than a goddamn questionnaire.
ddayen.bsky.social David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 1d
So you can keep the Super PACs straight:
IL-02: AIPAC (pro-Donna Miller), AI (pro-Jesse Jackson Jr.), crypto (anti-Robert Peters)
IL-07: AIPAC (pro-Melissa Conyears-Ervin), crypto (anti-LaShawn Ford)
IL-08: AIPAC (pro-Melissa Bean), AI (pro-Bean)
IL-09: AIPAC (pro-Laura Fine)
February 18, 2026 at 12:19 AM
Reposted by David Dayen
templedrake.bsky.social
If you're a Democratic voter who wants to save our democracy you need to be reading The American Prospect.
ddayen.bsky.social David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 2d
Guys I found the best Epstein Files email. The one that illuminates an elite class that's cocooned themselves into an unaccountable shell of wealth and privilege, fighting to protect their secrets and offenses.
I could write a novel about this email.
prospect.org/2026/02/17/e...
The Quintessential Epstein Files Email - The American Prospect
Jeffrey Epstein and his friends standing up for Mary Jo White against Elizabeth Warren tells you everything about the class war at the heart of the files.
prospect.org
February 17, 2026 at 11:26 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
So you can keep the Super PACs straight:
IL-02: AIPAC (pro-Donna Miller), AI (pro-Jesse Jackson Jr.), crypto (anti-Robert Peters)
IL-07: AIPAC (pro-Melissa Conyears-Ervin), crypto (anti-LaShawn Ford)
IL-08: AIPAC (pro-Melissa Bean), AI (pro-Bean)
IL-09: AIPAC (pro-Laura Fine)
February 17, 2026 at 11:32 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
We've been waiting for the crypto money to drop this election cycle. Now it has, in attack ads against two state senators in Illinois who voted to regulate digital assets.
www.politico.com/news/2026/02...
Crypto super PAC wades into Illinois House primaries
The seven-figure ad buys provide an early view into how the crypto industry will deploy a $190 million war chest to defeat candidates deemed hostile to its policy interests.
www.politico.com
February 17, 2026 at 11:30 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
I mean a lot of people are reading it at @prospect.org!
Glad we figured out the iPad issue.
February 17, 2026 at 10:23 PM
Reposted by David Dayen
minakimes.bsky.social
Go birds
“Something inside of me said, ‘Go up there and stand with these people,’ ” said Zobel, a 36-year-old school coach who said he’s never been to a protest before in his life. “I wanted to stand for what is right.” As he dashed out, Zobel also grabbed one thing — the American flag he flies in front of his house most of the time (except during football season when an Eagles flag replaces it).
February 17, 2026 at 10:14 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
this is what that says, it's a browser problem of yours.
The date—June 5, 2015—is the first important bit. Three days earlier, Sen. Warren had sent MJ (Mary Jo) White, who was then chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, one of the most withering documents I have ever seen in politics. The 13-page letter details the utter failure of White to police financial markets at the SEC, noting the inability to finalize long-delayed regulations on the sector and continued leniency in the enforcement of the securities laws.
February 17, 2026 at 10:21 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
OK this is a problem with what you're viewing the piece on. This is what that passage actually looks like. I think you're not seeing embedded links for some reason.
About a month later, White unveiled her response to Warren, defending the SEC’s work. That one email isn’t confirmation that the SEC chair enlisted an outside corporate lawyer to do crisis communications on a political attack, but that’s certainly what Ruemmler and Epstein were bantering about.
February 17, 2026 at 10:20 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
I feel like Tom Gores and the Pistons should be included here, his private equity firm owns the prison phone monopoly, it's at least adjacent to the DHS concentration camp industrial complex.
nkalamb.bsky.social Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 1d
Minority owners of FOUR NBA teams are profiting directly from business deals with the DHS concentration camp industrial complex.

Those teams are Atlanta, Sacramento, Charlotte, and Minnesota.

www.readeyeblack.com/p/an-nba-inv...
But Roski wasn’t the only NBA stakeholder warehouse linked to eventual migrant detention centers. eyeblack identified four NBA teams — the Atlanta Hawks, Sacramento Kings, Charlotte Hornets, and Minnesota Timberwolves — with minority ownership directly linked to profiting from the federal government’s ICE-run mega jail shopping spree.
February 17, 2026 at 10:18 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
I'm reading through it now, in fact, and I don't see any problems.
February 17, 2026 at 9:17 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
Tell me exactly what you think is missing. Give examples. This went through our normal process with a full copyedit and no AI use whatsoever.
February 17, 2026 at 8:41 PM