Basel Musharbash
@basel.bsky.social
Lawyer helping small towns build community wealth & fight monopoly power | Principal @ Antimonopoly Counsel | Hannah Arendt & John Dewey stan | views mine, no legal advice
Oh hey! Look who’s testifying at their first congressional hearing next week! 😄
September 6, 2025 at 3:35 AM
Oh hey! Look who’s testifying at their first congressional hearing next week! 😄
Oh hey, look what came in the mail today!
April 25, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Oh hey, look what came in the mail today!
The New York Times is quoting country lawyers out of Paris, Texas, now? Boy, they’ve really gone downhill, haven’t they? 😉
April 15, 2025 at 10:41 PM
The New York Times is quoting country lawyers out of Paris, Texas, now? Boy, they’ve really gone downhill, haven’t they? 😉
In the second installment to my series on the egg crisis for BIG, two European firms rolled up nearly every supplier of egg-laying hens to American egg producers—and they’re using their power to regiment our egg industry into a shortage-creating and -exploiting machine.
Have fun rage-reading!
Have fun rage-reading!
March 12, 2025 at 9:39 PM
In the second installment to my series on the egg crisis for BIG, two European firms rolled up nearly every supplier of egg-laying hens to American egg producers—and they’re using their power to regiment our egg industry into a shortage-creating and -exploiting machine.
Have fun rage-reading!
Have fun rage-reading!
I made a graph of what the hen deficit would’ve looked like on a leisurely 6-month replacement schedule that doesn’t take into account the continuous pipeline of pullets.
March 10, 2025 at 4:49 PM
I made a graph of what the hen deficit would’ve looked like on a leisurely 6-month replacement schedule that doesn’t take into account the continuous pipeline of pullets.
"We want no economic or political dictatorship imposed upon us either by the government or by big business. We want no system of detailed regulation of prices by the government nor price-fixing by private interests. We do not want bureaucracy or regimentation of any kind . . .”
February 7, 2025 at 12:58 AM
"We want no economic or political dictatorship imposed upon us either by the government or by big business. We want no system of detailed regulation of prices by the government nor price-fixing by private interests. We do not want bureaucracy or regimentation of any kind . . .”
the platonic ideal of a bagel
February 5, 2025 at 5:15 PM
the platonic ideal of a bagel
Hey! Question for ya:
February 1, 2025 at 2:51 AM
Hey! Question for ya:
This was one of the most appalling stories I’ve ever looked into: A private equity termite rolled up the fire-truck manufacturing industry between 2016 and 2020, and has spent the last 5 years cashing in—contributing to a crisis of preparedness at fire departments around the country.
January 25, 2025 at 6:13 PM
This was one of the most appalling stories I’ve ever looked into: A private equity termite rolled up the fire-truck manufacturing industry between 2016 and 2020, and has spent the last 5 years cashing in—contributing to a crisis of preparedness at fire departments around the country.
"In light of all this heads-I-win, tails-you-lose legal nonsense, it is hard to blame the millions upon millions of Americans who have given up on the system, and on legal institutions that increasingly pretend they are predicated on principle."
–– CFPB General Counsel Seth Frotman
–– CFPB General Counsel Seth Frotman
January 17, 2025 at 5:03 PM
"In light of all this heads-I-win, tails-you-lose legal nonsense, it is hard to blame the millions upon millions of Americans who have given up on the system, and on legal institutions that increasingly pretend they are predicated on principle."
–– CFPB General Counsel Seth Frotman
–– CFPB General Counsel Seth Frotman
2. "The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn’t; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.”
—G. K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday 189-90 (1908).
—G. K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday 189-90 (1908).
January 15, 2025 at 9:32 PM
2. "The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn’t; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.”
—G. K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday 189-90 (1908).
—G. K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday 189-90 (1908).
1. "You’ve got that eternal idiotic idea that if anarchy came it would come from the poor. Why should it? The poor have been rebels, but they have never been anarchists. They have more interest than anyone else in there being some decent government."
January 15, 2025 at 9:32 PM
1. "You’ve got that eternal idiotic idea that if anarchy came it would come from the poor. Why should it? The poor have been rebels, but they have never been anarchists. They have more interest than anyone else in there being some decent government."
Tyler turned me onto Rancho Gordo early last year -- life changing stuff lol
January 15, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Tyler turned me onto Rancho Gordo early last year -- life changing stuff lol
Government of the bankers, by the bankers, and for the bankers
November 30, 2024 at 5:44 PM
Government of the bankers, by the bankers, and for the bankers
Burn this party to the ground
November 27, 2024 at 4:49 AM
Burn this party to the ground
1. I should start by saying what I should've said above: Great article! This history is important, and I'm eternally grateful that you're digging it up :)
With respect to PSA enforcement: Everything. The USDA could've stopped the exclusive contracting for cattle and chicken. It could've . . .
With respect to PSA enforcement: Everything. The USDA could've stopped the exclusive contracting for cattle and chicken. It could've . . .
November 26, 2024 at 6:25 PM
1. I should start by saying what I should've said above: Great article! This history is important, and I'm eternally grateful that you're digging it up :)
With respect to PSA enforcement: Everything. The USDA could've stopped the exclusive contracting for cattle and chicken. It could've . . .
With respect to PSA enforcement: Everything. The USDA could've stopped the exclusive contracting for cattle and chicken. It could've . . .
And when you put all of this in the context of real wheat bushel prices –– holy shit
November 25, 2024 at 5:10 PM
And when you put all of this in the context of real wheat bushel prices –– holy shit
Dear Anti-Juristocracy Left: Y’all should check out this banger quote from Justice Harlan’s dissent in Standard Oil v. United States (and the whole dissent, which is a glorious jeremiad against judicial overreach on behalf of reactionaries and malefactors of great wealth)
November 23, 2024 at 5:58 PM
Dear Anti-Juristocracy Left: Y’all should check out this banger quote from Justice Harlan’s dissent in Standard Oil v. United States (and the whole dissent, which is a glorious jeremiad against judicial overreach on behalf of reactionaries and malefactors of great wealth)
8. If you're wondering what I mean by Sonny Perdue was evil, I mean he was a corrupt shill for Big Ag who used the USDA's power to actively undermine family farmers and independent food processors –– and give dominant meatpackers and grain conglomerates every advantage.
November 22, 2024 at 11:13 PM
8. If you're wondering what I mean by Sonny Perdue was evil, I mean he was a corrupt shill for Big Ag who used the USDA's power to actively undermine family farmers and independent food processors –– and give dominant meatpackers and grain conglomerates every advantage.
2. Kelly Loeffler was a U.S. Senator from 2019 to 2021. Y'all wanna know what her claim to fame from that short stint in the greatest deliberative body in the world was? Insider trading, of course!
November 22, 2024 at 11:13 PM
2. Kelly Loeffler was a U.S. Senator from 2019 to 2021. Y'all wanna know what her claim to fame from that short stint in the greatest deliberative body in the world was? Insider trading, of course!
1. Trump just announced he's nominating a banker and commodity trader who is married to the CEO of the global conglomerate that runs the world's biggest commodity and financial exchanges (including the New York Stock Exchange) to lead the USDA. Populism!
November 22, 2024 at 11:13 PM
1. Trump just announced he's nominating a banker and commodity trader who is married to the CEO of the global conglomerate that runs the world's biggest commodity and financial exchanges (including the New York Stock Exchange) to lead the USDA. Populism!
Jonathan Kanter is the first chief of the DOJ Antitrust Division in six decades to believe—truly—in protecting the heritage and livelihood of America’s family farmers. If Trump is serious about overthrowing the establishment that has bled rural America dry, he’ll keep Jonathan right where he is.
November 16, 2024 at 4:57 AM
Jonathan Kanter is the first chief of the DOJ Antitrust Division in six decades to believe—truly—in protecting the heritage and livelihood of America’s family farmers. If Trump is serious about overthrowing the establishment that has bled rural America dry, he’ll keep Jonathan right where he is.
Yes, this is just what we need: More loopholes in the federal securities laws, as if they’re not essentially unenforceable such as it is.
A rule of major-question lenity!
A rule of major-question lenity!
November 14, 2024 at 2:22 PM
Yes, this is just what we need: More loopholes in the federal securities laws, as if they’re not essentially unenforceable such as it is.
A rule of major-question lenity!
A rule of major-question lenity!
Today, in a truly profound example of American democracy in action, a jury of 9 ordinary people found that Google—one of the largest, most powerful corporations in the world—had monopolized our commerce in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, and must face the consequences.
December 12, 2023 at 4:07 AM
Today, in a truly profound example of American democracy in action, a jury of 9 ordinary people found that Google—one of the largest, most powerful corporations in the world—had monopolized our commerce in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, and must face the consequences.