27 February—Not that it means anything, of course, so it must be merely coincidental that Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos paid a visit to the White House yesterday and shortly thereafter Netflix withdrew its offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery after Paramount Skydance—controlled by daisy-chaining Trump collaborators the evil Ellison father-son dynasty—raised its offer.

Apropos nothing, Netflix stands to get a $2.8 billion termination fee from Warner, likely to be covered by Paramount.

So we’re told that while David Ellison (the son) had actually met with Donald Trump earlier, Ted Sarandos didn’t actually get to grovel at Trump’s chronic venous insufficiency-compromised feet, but instead was harangued and harassed by Trump flunkies about whatever and more.

We know that Trump had promised not to get involved with the Warner Bros. Discovery-Netflix-Paramount Skydance machinations. But we also know that Trump’s word is as good as his morality and stability. It’s likely that Sarandos, an active liberal and Democrat, was reminded by Trump’s flunkies that their lord and master had publicly warned Netflix that unless it dumped Susan Rice from its board it would “face the consequences.”

Susan Rice, for those who forget, is the Oxford-educated (Rhodes Scholar) assistant secretary of state, national security advisor, United Nations ambassador, and more whom Trump calls a “political hack” with “no talent or skills” because she served the administrations of three Democrat presidents.

Back to the Paramount Skydance takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, then, outside of the usual corporate crap attendant to such deals, observers and commentators observe and comment that there are “significant” regulatory hurdles to be overcome before it can be finalized. These include making it through Trump’s Department of Justice (his personal shyster firm), Trump’s Federal Trade Commission, and Trump’s Federal Communications Commission.

Is there any doubt the takeover will make it over all those hurdles in no time, just like the Paramount-Skydance merger floated over last summer? There also are state and foreign regulatory hurdles, to be sure, but with Trump bullydozing the way for his extended despotic media control, it’s a done deal.

Something else we’ll have to live with. Until happy days are here again . . .