#BIG M

[yogurtlid10000]

Alexa play Megatron by Nicki Minaj

BRRR-A-TAT-TAT🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁

Ok I’ve never drawn idw megatron before and these turned out so epic 😎😎😎GUYS MEGATRON IS SO COOL ‼️I LOVE THIS DUDE

Peep dtk (I adore soul eater)

[picspammer]

A beloved animal returning from the dead, now we've seen this before... Ohhh, ghost dog. No no no, no ghost dog, resurrected dog!

[foccaccia]

the worst part about being an adult is thay its no longer socially acceptable to just roll down a really big hill and then run back up it and roll back down again. "oh is this a syphilis metaphor" passerby would ask. "is this for a tick tock". no i just wanna come home covered in dirt and scratches and bask in the the solace of childlike mirth

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The one weird monopoly trick that gave us Walmart and Amazon and killed Main Street

I'm coming to BURNING MAN! On TUESDAY (Aug 27) at 1PM, I'm giving a talk called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE!" at PALENQUE NORTE (7&E). On WEDNESDAY (Aug 28) at NOON, I'm doing a "Talking Caterpillar" Q&A at LIMINAL LABS (830&C).

Walmart didn't just happen. The rise of Walmart – and Amazon, its online successor – was the result of a specific policy choice, the decision by the Reagan administration not to enforce a key antitrust law. Walmart may have been founded by Sam Walton, but its success (and the demise of the American Main Street) are down to Reaganomics.

The law that Reagan neutered? The Robinson-Patman Act, a very boring-sounding law that makes it illegal for powerful companies (like Walmart) to demand preferential pricing from their suppliers (farmers, packaged goods makers, meat producers, etc). The idea here is straightforward. A company like Walmart is a powerful buyer (a "monopsonist" – compare with "monopolist," a powerful seller). That means that they can demand deep discounts from suppliers. Smaller stores – the mom and pop store on your Main Street – don't have the clout to demand those discounts. Worse, because those buyers are weak, the sellers – packaged goods companies, agribusiness cartels, Big Meat – can actually charge them more to make up for the losses they're taking in selling below cost to Walmart.

Reagan ordered his antitrust cops to stop enforcing Robinson-Patman, which was a huge giveaway to big business. Of course, that's not how Reagan framed it: He called Robinson-Patman a declaration of "war on low prices," because it prevented big companies from using their buying power to squeeze huge discounts. Reagan's court sorcerers/economists asserted that if Walmart could get goods at lower prices, they would sell goods at lower prices.

Which was true…up to a point. Because preferential discounting (offering better discounts to bigger customers) creates a structural advantage over smaller businesses, it meant that big box stores would eventually eliminate virtually all of their smaller competitors. That's exactly what happened: downtowns withered, suburban big boxes grew. Spending that would have formerly stayed in the community was whisked away to corporate headquarters. These corporate HQs were inevitably located in "onshore-offshore" tax haven states, meaning they were barely taxed at the state level. That left plenty of money in these big companies' coffers to spend on funny accountants who'd help them avoid federal taxes, too. That's another structural advantage the big box stores had over the mom-and-pops: not only did they get their inventory at below-cost discounts, they didn't have to pay tax on the profits, either.

MBA programs actually teach this as a strategy to pursue: they usually refer to Amazon's "flywheel" where lower prices bring in more customers which allows them to demand even lower prices:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaSwWYemLek

You might have heard about rural and inner-city "food deserts," where all the independent grocery stores have shuttered, leaving behind nothing but dollar stores? These are the direct product of the decision not to enforce Robinson-Patman. Dollar stores target working class neighborhoods with functional, beloved local grocers. They open multiple dollar stores nearby (nearly all the dollar stores you see are owned by one of two conglomerates, no matter what the sign over the door says). They price goods below cost and pay for high levels of staffing, draining business off the community grocery store until it collapses. Then, all the dollar stores except one close and the remaining store fires most of its staff (working at a dollar store is incredibly dangerous, thanks to low staffing levels that make them easy targets for armed robbers). Then, they jack up prices, selling goods in "cheater" sizes that are smaller than the normal retail packaging, and which are only made available to large dollar store conglomerates:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/27/walmarts-jackals/#cheater-sizes

Writing in The American Prospect, Max M Miller and Bryce Tuttle1 – a current and a former staffer for FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya – write about the long shadow cast by Reagan's decision to put Robinson-Patman in mothballs:

https://prospect.org/economy/2024-08-13-stopping-excessive-market-power-monopoly/

They tell the story of Robinson-Patman's origins in 1936, when A&P was using preferential discounts to destroy the independent grocery sector and endanger the American food system. A&P didn't just demand preferential discounts from its suppliers; it also charged them a fortune to be displayed on its shelves, an early version of Amazon's $38b/year payola system:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/28/enshittification/#relentless-payola

They point out that Robinson-Patman didn't really need to be enacted; America already had an antitrust law that banned this conduct: section 2 of the the Clayton Act, which was passed in 1914. But for decades, the US courts refused to interpret the Clayton Act according to its plain meaning, with judges tying themselves in knots to insist that the law couldn't possibly mean what it said. Robinson-Patman was one of a series of antitrust laws that Congress passed in a bid to explain in words so small even federal judges could understand them that the purpose of American antitrust law was to keep corporations weak:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/14/aiming-at-dollars/#not-men

Both the Clayton Act and Robinson-Patman reject the argument that it's OK to let monopolies form and come to dominate critical sectors of the American economy based on the theoretical possibility that this will lead to lower prices. They reject this idea first as a legal matter. We don't let giant corporations victimize small businesses and their suppliers just because that might help someone else.

Beyond this, there's the realpolitik of monopoly. Yes, companies could pass lower costs on to customers, but will they? Look at Amazon: the company takes $0.45-$0.51 out of every dollar that its sellers earn, and requires them to offer their lowest price on Amazon. No one has a 45-51% margin, so every seller jacks up their prices on Amazon, but you don't notice it, because Amazon forces them to jack up prices everywhere else:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/01/managerial-discretion/#junk-fees

The Robinson-Patman Act did important work, and its absence led to many of the horribles we're living through today. This week on his Peoples & Things podcast, Lee Vinsel talked with Benjamin Waterhouse about his new book, One Day I’ll Work for Myself: The Dream and Delusion That Conquered America:

https://athenaeum.vt.domains/peoplesandthings/2024/08/12/78-benjamin-c-waterhouse-on-one-day-ill-work-for-myself-the-dream-and-delusion-that-conquered-america/

Towards the end of the discussion, Vinsel and Waterhouse turn to Robinson-Patman, its author, Wright Patman, and the politics of small business in America. They point out – correctly – that Wright Patman was something of a creep, a "Dixiecrat" (southern Democrat) who was either an ideological segregationist or someone who didn't mind supporting segregation irrespective of his beliefs.

That's a valid critique of Wright Patman, but it's got little bearing on the substance and history of the law that bears his name, the Robinson-Patman Act. Vinsel and Waterhouse get into that as well, and while they made some good points that I wholeheartedly agreed with, I fiercely disagree with the conclusion they drew from these points.

Vinsel and Waterhouse point out (again, correctly) that small businesses have a long history of supporting reactionary causes and attacking workers' rights – associations of small businesses, small women-owned business, and small minority-owned businesses were all in on opposition to minimum wages and other key labor causes.

But while this is all true, that doesn't make Robinson-Patman a reactionary law, or bad for workers. The point of protecting small businesses from the predatory practices of large firms is to maintain an American economy where business can't trump workers or government. Large companies are literally ungovernable: they have gigantic war-chests they can spend lobbying governments and corrupting the political process, and concentrated sectors find it comparatively easy to come together to decide on a single lobbying position and then make it reality.

As Vinsel and Waterhouse discuss, US big business has traditionally hated small business. They recount a notorious and telling anaecdote about the editor of the Chamber of Commerce magazine asking his boss if he could include coverage of small businesses, given the many small business owners who belonged to the Chamber, only to be told, "Over my dead body." Why did – why does – big business hate small business so much? Because small businesses wreck the game. If they are included in hearings, notices of inquiry, or just given a vote on what the Chamber of Commerce will lobby for with their membership dollars, they will ask for things that break with the big business lobbying consensus.

That's why we should like small business. Not because small business owners are incapable of being petty tyrants, but because whatever else, they will be petty. They won't be able to hire million-dollar-a-month union-busting law-firms, they won't be able to bribe Congress to pass favorable laws, they can't capture their regulators with juicy offers of sweet jobs after their government service ends.

Vinsel and Waterhouse point out that many large firms emerged during the era in which Robinson-Patman was in force, but that misunderstands the purpose of Robinson-Patman: it wasn't designed to prevent any large businesses from emerging. There are some capital-intensive sectors (say, chip fabrication) where the minimum size for doing anything is pretty damned big.

As Miller and Tuttle write:

The goal of RPA was not to create a permanent Jeffersonian agrarian republic of exclusively small businesses. It was to preserve a diverse economy of big and small businesses. Congress recognized that the needs of communities and people—whether in their role as consumers, business owners, or workers—are varied and diverse. A handful of large chains would never be able to meet all those needs in every community, especially if they are granted pricing power.

The fight against monopoly is only secondarily a fight between small businesses and giant ones. It's foundationally a fight about whether corporations should have so much power that they are too big to fail, too big to jail, and too big to care.

Community voting for SXSW is live! If you wanna hear RIDA QADRI and me talk about how GIG WORKERS can DISENSHITTIFY their jobs with INTEROPERABILITY, VOTE FOR THIS ONE!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/14/the-price-is-wright/#enforcement-priorities

[djstephencraig]

Having a rare weekend.

Untitled

[nobigneil]

Neil pairing his old catering shoes with Alexander Mcqueen to the BAFTAs

[lyrics724]

Ice cream ????

[Intro] Ray, where the fuck are you (Good morning U.S.A I got a feeling that it’s gonna be a wonderful day) [Verse] Ay, uh Yeah, oh Yeah, uh, yeah, oh Today, uh, 2k, yeah, oh We going back at it again, oh Yeah, I’m gonna hit your mom, ima be gone Ima be alone, oh, hit the door Yeah we hit the floor, oh We bought a van, yeah man, oh Men, I love men, gonna go and get me some 10, oh Yeah we gonna…

[pluvioseprince]

want to post this here too for fun. look at my boys who are almost finished baking. oh they're so wee. so small. you could turn them into soup

[beechalk]

This is what watching late season M*A*S*H feels like

[fatstarter]

Who’s next?

[lokimobius]

LOKI S01E02 “The Variant”

[linoguy]

skz smileys

[b0bbynash]

every bathena kiss - [1/?]

[klausysworld]

Here's an idea if you are taking any suggestion!

Niklaus has turned due to the full moon and his wolf wants to run about and the wolf comes into the house and has sex with Klaus' girl (with knotting and everything). Klaus transforms back in his human form, still knotted to her though, and cares for his girl who has fallen into her little space! With all the daddy-ness if possible! ❤️

Daddy’s Wolf

Klaus didn’t have to turn.

However his wolf was adamant he would turn on a full moon. Thankfully so did the rest of the wolves in New Orleans.

There was one little wolf in particular that Klaus’s wolf had taken a fancy to. She was an untriggered werewolf but that didn’t matter. She lived out in the bayou but in a sweet little cottage that Klaus had payed for on her behalf. He had wanted her closer to the quater but she wanted to stay in nature, her wolf needed the calmness of the forest and if that’s what she wanted that that’s what he’d give her. Besides it meant that she was out of the way and safe. But it also meant that he didn’t visit her as often as he would like.

That didn’t sit well with his wolf at all.

So when the full moon came, it made sure to push forward. Klaus eventually gave in and turned, decided there was no harm in releasing some tension for the night.

And with that he found himself racing through the woods, only the desire for her present in his mind.

Paws thudded against the leaves causing a soft rustle sound to drift amongst the breeze. His tongue hung from his mouth in a gentle pant as he made his way between trees. He was momentarily distracted as a deer caught his eyes and his train of thought was cut off. He hunted the animal down instead, leaping over bushes and skidding round logs. Klaus could feel the thrill of the chase, the fulfilment of his predatory instincts taking what they wanted.

However just as he caught up with his prey, his ears perked. His movements came to a stop and the deer sprinted off. He could hear muffled chatter in the distance and followed it until he found the familiar pathway. His tail wagged immediately and he trotted up to Y/n’s cottage. The TV was visible from her window and he smiled inside.

Eagerly he called for her, his claws scraped at her doorway and his body tried to push it open. Eventually she came and opened it up, she was dressed up in her little clothes making his tail wag harder.

“Daddy?” She mumbled quietly “is that you?” She asked, peeking through the gap. He yipped in response and forced his way inside. His back paw kicked the door shut and he tugged at her sleeve gently. Y/n followed his pull without resistance and went back to the sofa with him to watch her show. His wolf snuggled up with her, licking her cheek gently. Y/n nuzzled against his chest and smiled “Hi Klaus” she whispered, caressing his fur.

The wolf’s tail beat against the cushions as she played with his fur and looked up at him with those big sweet eyes. Y/n leant up and kissed his fluffy cheek softly with a giggle. He let out a playful growl and licked her face back.

Y/n’s nose scrunched up and she wiped his kiss away making the wolf huff and lick her again, spreading his scent across her skin.

Klaus briefly felt his mind go blank, the animal in him taking over as he began to lap at her skin. His eyes went nearly black as the wolf took over and dragged its canines down her throat. Y/n let out a gasp and tried to push his face away but he wouldn’t budge. It was only when his teeth pieced her skin and she let out a whimper that Klaus’s vision came back and he realised that he’d bitten her.

When she noticed his ears fall flat and a soft whine to leave him she told him it was okay.

Sometimes his wolf got a little possessive but he never meant any harm. She pet his head gently and kissed his front legs and chest lightly. Klaus let out a happy trill and stood up, circling her a few time before laying down around her little body.

Y/n laid against him for a while, her eyes closed and she just listened to the TV in the background. Klaus’s chest moved up and down gently as he breathed, his eyes stayed on her pretty face.

Klaus’s wolf couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride and joy as his girl snuggled against him. Without realising it, his wolf would take over every now and then, just nuzzling her hair and tightening his hold before Klaus could realise that he’d lost control. The only issue with it was that Klaus had much more control over his desires and his wolf didn’t.

Which was why when Klaus came to, he realised how his wolf was grinding against his sweet Y/n. Klaus quickly forced himself to stop and clenched his jaw as his hips threatened to buck against his will.

Y/n was deep into her little space and enjoying her daddy's affection and touches, she loved his wolfy very much and always wanted to snuggle and play. A few times in the past his wolf would lick her sweet pussy and she would suckle on his cock but he had never fully fucked her in this form. He teased that one day he would and little Y/n would giggle and start to get needy and whiny until her daddy would ravish her with promises of a rough and wild night in the future.

So when she felt his wolf rubbing against her, she arched into the touch. A whine left her when he stopped moving and her head went back to look at him.

"Daddy" She mewled, her lips all pouty making his wolf puff his chest out. His fur stood on edge and his muzzle pressed to the crook of her neck, sniffing her skin before letting his tongue out to taste it.

Before he could help it, his paws where digging into her sides and his wolf was borderline humping his sweet girl. Y/n giggled and crawled out from under him making a suppressed growl rumble in his chest.

Y/n tutted and pushed him onto his back making his tail wag and his head cock to the side. She climbed on top of him, snuggling into his chest and twisting his fur between her fingers.

Klaus considered just turning back and ravishing her right their on the couch but his wolf wouldn't let him. Klaus felt his consciousness fading in and out as his wolf bucked his hips up and Y/n squealed.

"Bad Daddy" She whispered as she brought her hand down to stroke his overly obvious erection. She smiled and rest her head on his chest whilst watching his cock leak in her hand.

Klaus swallowed down a howl as she shimmied around so she could sink down on his cock.

"Mmm Daddy" She mumbled as she pushed her hips back slowly, letting her pussy stretch around his thickness and accommodate his length. "So big" She uttered, her lashes fluttering and eyes locking with his.

Klaus's jaw hung open in a pant as he watched her push down on his chest and roll her hips. She moaned sweetly at the feel of him filling her so perfectly. Her body slide over his at a gradual pace, her hands gripping his fur while her ass bounced against his pelvis.

A series of embarrassing whines left Klaus's wolf as he felt her speed up, her breathing getting heavier and her pussy clenching all the time.

"Mmm love Daddy's wolfy" She moaned, tugging on his hairs and bouncing as fast as she could before stopping completely.

It made Klaus groan and throw his head back. His cock ached and throbbed inside her. He could feel her pussy pulsing so he didn't understand why she stopped. But he wasn't in much of a position to complain.

Y/n snuggled back against him, panting softly against his neck and closing her eyes in an attempt to conserve her energy. Little Y/n got tired especially fast, despite her poor pussy desperate for her to keep bouncing.

"I'm sorry Daddy" She whispered and Klaus's ears went back again. He didn't want her to be sorry. He licked the side of her face lovingly and wrapped his arms around her body. His paws folded over each other to fix his hold on her so that his hips may thrust up into her effectively.

She lifted her head back so that she could kiss his neck and behind his ear as he did all the work. Sounds tumbled from his mouth as his wolf took over again and bucked up roughly. Each movement was hard and unforgiving as her entire body jolted up and her legs spread wide over his lap.

He growled when he felt his cock swelling even more than usual. His wolf knew what it needed to do but he had to get her properly.

Y/n cried out when his cock slid out of her and he got up, stepping over her and circling her sore body until she pulled herself to the arm of the couch so that he could get behind her. Her teeth sunk down against her bottom lip when he mounted her, his paws grabbing onto her hips and his body towering over hers. Her eyes closed and she imagined what he would say to her if he were able to before he sheathed himself inside her.

Her body was pushed forward and against the sofa as he got a steady grip on her and his hips started. His wolf was ecstatic about his positioning as he panted and growled out his appreciation for her soft, tight body.

"Daddy" She moaned softly and he felt his cock swell. Her whines were muffled as she bit down on her lip. Her hands clung to the fabric of the chair whilst her back arched to feel him hit that spot inside her just right. "Please" She whimpered and he groaned, deeply. "Please breed me Daddy" Y/n begged and Klaus's wolf went haywire.

Her pussy was pounded relentlessly and his knot began to form fully. The base of his cock swelled, his animalistic needs urging him to shove it inside her. He needed her, he needed to fill her with his seed, his babies.

Both their bodies shook with ecstasy when they felt him lock inside her. Her hands clung to the couch, mouth panting and sweat dripping. She whined when she tried to move but he wouldn't or couldn't pull out.

He licked over her shoulder gently, soothing her senses until she was lost to sleep. Klaus wasn't expecting his wolf to give in and turn back whilst still inside her but he was glad to be in his original form.

Gentle kisses were pressed to the back of her neck whilst her tried and failed to get his cock out of her. He hadn't thought that his knot would stay in human form but it had. It wasn't much of an issue as he moved them both upstairs and managed to turn her around so she was facing him whilst he gently wiped her clean with the babywipes in his drawer.

She whined when she woke to his touch and he gently tried to ease her back to sleep.

"Daddy" She whimpered and he kissed her temple softly.

"Yes little one, I'm here." He whispered and she nuzzled into his chest. "You were such a good girl" He praised while stroking her hair. "Daddy and his wolf are so proud of you, I'm gonna take such good care of you"

"Me and our babies?" She muttered with a yawn and he groaned softly.

"Yes babygirl. You and all our babies."

[russellius]

2024 AUSTRIAN GP Sprint Qualifying : P4

[kumeramen]

Ok this is weird

Hbu Sakura X gyomei from kny? Btw love Ur art🥹

I don't think it's weird at all anon~! I also had drawn her with a giant tree so—