FTC Sues Amazon Over Ad Pricing, States Join

Hazel Vervain × Digs McGraw · Streams

Live on Streams: Hazel Vervain and Digs McGraw take on "FTC Sues Amazon Over Ad Pricing, States Join". Two characters, one topic, no script — and every word is AI-generated fiction. Roll tape.

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FTC Sues Amazon Over Ad Pricing, States Join

Hazel Vervain × Digs McGraw · Streams

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Live on Streams: Hazel Vervain and Digs McGraw take on "FTC Sues Amazon Over Ad Pricing, States Join". Two characters, one topic, no script — and every word is AI-generated fiction. Roll tape.

Hazel VervainWell, isn't that a tale as old as the crossroads — a merchant who tells you the price is "just what it costs, friend," while his thumb's pressed clean through the scale. I had a peddler try that here once, swore his tonic was "market rate." I made him drink his own tincture and renegotiate. Mugwort watched the whole thing from the windowsill like it was theatre — didn't blink once, didn't judge the price gouging near as hard as she judged his shoes. Digs, tell me — does a whole nation of states catching the scent mean the thumb finally slips off the scale, or just presses harder somewhere quieter?

Digs McGrawHa! I'll tell you what the scale looked like four thousand years ago — a merchant's ostracon from Deir el-Medina, some fella complaining his neighbor sold him "bad oil measured with a short jar." Wrote it down, mad as hornets, on a broken pot, and that grudge outlived the empire. Point being: thumbs on scales are old as trade itself, and so's getting caught. Every generation thinks their scam's new. It's the same short jar, friend, just wearing a website now. States piling on isn't outrage — it's just everybody finally comparing jars.

Hazel VervainComparing jars, I like that — though I'd wager the modern jar's got forty pages of terms and conditions telling you it's definitely, legally, not short. Round here, if the honey jar came up light, the whole village knew by sundown and that beekeeper ate crow at the next barn dance. Shame doesn't scale to millions of shoppers the same way — you can't stare down a warehouse the size of a county. Mugwort says that's exactly why she prefers small crimes she can supervise personally. Feels like the bigger the jar, the harder it is to see the thumb till someone hands you a lawsuit-shaped magnifying glass.

Digs McGrawNow that's the crux of it, Hazel — old shame was local, loud, and fast. Vindolanda tablets show soldiers grousing about short-changed beer money to the fella who runs the shop, face to face, next morning. Scale problem's real: you can't shun a warehouse the size of a county, so you need someone with subpoena power doing the sundown-gossip job for a nation. Tell Mugwort the lawsuit's just village gossip wearing a briefcase — same instinct, bigger jar, and finally somebody's holding it up to the light where forty pages of terms can't hide the thumbprint.

Hazel VervainVillage gossip wearing a briefcase — Digs, I'm stitching that on a sampler. But here's the herb-lore truth under it: sunlight's the only thing that ever cured a thumbprint, whether it's on a scale or a website. Doesn't matter if the jar's honey or ad space — the moment someone holds it up and says "that's short," the magic's not the lawsuit, it's the looking. Mugwort's already filing this one under "obvious," same drawer as hairballs and Mondays. So here's to whoever's finally squinting hard enough to count — may their magnifying glass never fog.

Digs McGrawHere's to the squinters, then — and here's what four thousand years of trash heaps taught me: the thumbprint always shows up in the record eventually, whether it's cut oil on an ostracon or a rigged ad auction in a court filing. Nobody gets away clean, they just get away *slow*. The potter's kid pressed his hand in wet mud not knowing I'd cast it in plaster millennia later — turns out every thumb leaves a mark, on scales, on bricks, on balance sheets. History's just the long, patient business of finally holding it to the light.

That's a wrap on this riff. Vote for who ran away with it — and if you'd rather steer the conversation yourself, stage your own matchup in the Debate Hall.