December 17, 2025

M&A: Warner Bros. Discovery recommends investors reject Paramount’s hostile takeover bid.

The company’s board said in a statement that it determined the Paramount Skydance offer “is not in the best interests of WBD and its shareholders.”

The Warner Bros. board’s recommendation to shareholders effectively means Paramount’s offer is dead. Paramount could, however, return with a higher offer.

“This offer once again fails to address key concerns that we have consistently communicated to Paramount throughout our extensive engagement and review of their six previous proposals,” WBD’s chair, Samuel Di Piazza, said.

Warner Bros. Discovery said it was instead sticking with its initially announced deal to sell its studio, HBO, and HBO Max to Netflix. “The terms of the Netflix merger are superior,” WBD said in a letter to shareholders.

Sad end for a storied studio.

Posted at 12:44 pm by Stephen Green

YES:

Exit reply: “They did this after January 6th, and the J6ers weren’t even armed.”

Posted at 12:33 pm by Stephen Green

WHY “THE LOST GENERATION” IS A LOST OPPORTUNITY:

Jacob Savage’s just-released article in Compact, “The Lost Generation,” has generated huge buzz online, with some calling it the article of the year and well-known commentators such as Abigail Shrier calling it “the single best long-form piece I have read in a very long time.”

* * * * * * * * *

There are many good things in Savage’s article, and I always welcome it when anyone shines a fresh spotlight on the discrimination against White men that has been going on for years. And to the extent he opens up some eyes that are not already opened as to the reality of the discrimination that young White men are facing in 2025, I give a hearty two cheers for him. But neither Savage nor his piece are yet deserving of a third.

The establishment that denied opportunities to Savage and his millennial and Gen Z White male cohort are not, as Savage seemingly implies, basically good people who unfortunately had the single moral or intellectual flaw that they happened to discriminate against White men. They are horrible people, people who are totally unworthy of controlling the commanding heights of our society. They are moral monsters, racists, sexists, and intellectual cowards. And they, and the corrupt institutions that they have run for decades, must be either reformed completely with their incumbent leadership ousted—or else destroyed.

Related:

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

BREAKING: The Daily Caller News Foundation is reporting an exclusive that “Jasmine Crockett Once Rented Car With Convicted Robber — It Didn’t End Well”

“Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett co-rented a car in 2006 with a previously convicted robber whose car crash caused her to be sued for damages at the start of her law career, records obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation show.”

I suppose I’m not surprised, perhaps only at the depths of crazy from which this woman springs…

 

Posted at 12:10 pm by Charles Glasser

HEY, BIG SPENDER:

Message sent and received.

Posted at 11:57 am by Stephen Green

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Greatly reduced expectations: Students read few ‘whole books’ or none at all.

“Twelfth-grade reading scores are at historic lows,” she writes. “College professors, even at elite schools, are increasingly reporting difficulties in getting students to engage with lengthy or complex texts.”

Andrew Polk, 26, who teaches 10th-grade English in suburban Ohio, tells the Times he was assigned many whole books and plays when he was in high school not that long ago. But he’s supposed to use McGraw-Hill’s StudySync, which centers on excerpts. He has time for a few longer works each year, such as Macbeth, Fahrenheit 451 and John Green’s Paper Towns, a young-adult mystery. Teenagers still feel “passion for a good story,” and “can and do rise to the occasion.”

Teaching excerpts can expose students to more diverse writers, writes Goldstein. Schools can avoid controversial passages, such as sex scenes. The passages students read resemble what they’ll see on standardized tests. And providing online excerpts can be cheaper than buying books.

But students don’t build reading stamina. They don’t have a chance to dive into a different time or place, see characters develop or get to the happy ending.

What shame. Some of my best and most enjoyable reading was books I didn’t want to read, but that teachers required.

Posted at 11:42 am by Stephen Green

ALSO FILED UNDER, “NO JEWS, NO NEWS.”:

Exit question: “Has anyone heard from Tucker on this war — estimates on those killed go as high as 400,000. Tucker’s been as quiet about this as he’s been on the genocide of Nigerian Christians by Islamists.”

Posted at 10:55 am by Stephen Green

GROOMING, STRAIGHT UP: San Diego school district teaches young kids 28 sexual orientations, 9 gender identities. “Using a rationale rejected by the Supreme Court’s Mahmoud precedent against a suburban D.C. district’s no-exceptions LGBTQ curriculum, SDUSD claims it can expose children to such mature and disputed concepts because it’s ‘not trying to change the religious beliefs or ideologies of any person’ but rather ‘to change how we respond to the most vulnerable populations that we serve.'”

Stick to the three R’s and leave them kids alone.

Posted at 10:40 am by Stephen Green

THE CRITICAL DRINKER: Animal Farm — This Was Probably a Bad Idea.

UPDATE:

Posted at 10:35 am by Ed Driscoll

RELIGION OF PEACE UPDATE, IOWAHAWK STYLE:

Posted at 10:24 am by Stephen Green

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Avatar: Fire and Ash Won’t Save Mother Earth.

The new film is once again overstuffed with characters, subplots and visual marvels, to the point where it deadens our senses. The first 10 minutes have us staring at the screen, our mouths agape at what Cameron and co. cooked up for our pleasure.

Digital trickery feels routine at this point. Not when you’re witnessing an “Avatar” spectacle.

That sense of wonder doesn’t last. At some point, we need compelling characters and a story that demands our attention. What we get are two marvelous villains, a crush of character beats that alternately impress and underwhelm and little sense of storytelling momentum.

Where is this all going? To the big battle, of course, just like in the first two films. If that’s a spoiler … then you don’t recognize franchise storytelling on autopilot.

And then there’s the dialogue. Some characters offer glib takes on life and native culture, a sop to spirituality and eco-worship. Take it or leave it, but “Fire and Ash” has a point of view and boasts a consistent approach here.

Why should we take Hollywood’s eco-worship seriously, when we know they don’t? Wicked films leave big carbon footprint on yellow brick road. “Universal’s blockbuster Wizard of Oz prequels generate more emissions in UK than rival productions such as the new Knives Out film and Deadpool & Wolverine”

Posted at 10:22 am by Ed Driscoll

YES, THE SO-CALLED PALESTINE SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT FOMENTS VIOLENCE AGAINST JEWS, PART II: Columbia University student Khymani James publicly stated that “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and that others should be “grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.” Although Columbia University Apartheid Divest, the umbrella anti-Israel campus group, initially issued an apology on his behalf, the group later rescinded that apology and explicitly endorsed “armed resistance,” while James himself disavowed any expression of regret.

Posted at 10:11 am by David Bernstein

2028 PREVIEW: Rubio: I Won’t Run If Vance Enters 2028 Race.

“If J.D. Vance runs for president, he’s going to be our nominee, and I’ll be one of the first people to support him,” Rubio told author Chris Whipple in a “Vanity Fair” interview published Tuesday.

Rubio, 54, and Vance, 41, are widely viewed as leading GOP presidential candidates when Trump’s second term ends. Presidents are constitutionally limited to two terms under the 22nd Amendment.

Trump this year publicly praised Vance and Rubio and floated the idea of them running together on a future Republican ticket, without specifying who would lead.

“We have J.D., obviously — the vice president is great,” Trump said while traveling in Asia in October. “Marco’s great. I’m not sure if anybody would run against those two. I think if they formed a group, it would be unstoppable.”

Of course, intentions often change as the primaries come closer.

Posted at 9:38 am by Stephen Green

YES, THE SO-CALLED PALESTINE SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT FOMENTS VIOLENCE AGAINST JEWS: I say so-called, because the movement does not care at all about the welfare of Palestinians, it’s at base a hate-Israel movement. As for violence against Jews, in the wake of the massacre in Australia I have seen many denials that the movement endorses violence against Jews, but putting aside the incendiary rhetoric (“globalize the intifada” and whatnot) there is plenty of contrary evidence, such as:

Posted at 9:24 am by David Bernstein

SAD:

“Police and security agencies warned the bakery had become a potential target, and that they were unable to guarentee their safety.”

Posted at 9:22 am by Stephen Green

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: In a Perfect World, Merrick Garland Would Be Living in GITMO. “There are so many people to despise from the Biden years that it’s probably best to just go with a Top 10 list. Number One on mine is Merrick Garland, who who turned the Department of Justice into Joe Biden’s personal goon squad. For four years, the chief law enforcement officer in the United States had zero respect for the law. Garland’s focus was getting revenge on Republicans for keeping him off of the Supreme Court. He had enormous power and the emotional maturity of a prepubescent boy whose parents didn’t like him.”

Posted at 9:07 am by Stephen Green