Department of Justice likely to block Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger
Thank you, based Obama.
good thread
>>47578856
Merge or not, it still doesn't really solve any of the core issues plaguing the market right now, considering the fact that we are still left with two monopolies.
But everybody is just gonna keep parroting "THE FREE MARKET WILL FIX IT" because everybody doesn't want their friend to think they suck cock and are a liberal.
See you guys in Canada or something.
>>47578919
Telecom monopolies are even worse in Canada.
>>47578919
"free market" parrots are people that don't want to admit that crony capitalism rules the country and a free market can never truly exist
>>47578933
Well shit.
>>47578934
I'm all for free markets, but it seems that every era we have to prove that the market needs intervention on a larger scale. Like how many more of these things do we have to break up before people realize that it is a very real issue?
>If you don't like Comcast, anon don't use it.
>Okay, well can you recommend me any in our area that offer the same speeds with less shit service?
>No, but I'm SURE they exist! It's a free market after all.
Makes me absolutely sick, I live in a pretty sizable area, too.
>>47578919
Its worse in canada, retard.
>>47578974
The market is the way it is because the government of both the US and Canada intervened and now refuse to provide the same level of help to new companies.
>>47579156
>the government of both the US and Canada intervened
at request of Comcast, Cox, Rogers, and Shaw
Anybody who thinks the merger was a good idea is a moron. Comcast and Time warner both already suck. Letting one company own 75% of the US cable market is NOT a good idea. They will use it to fuck consumers, content providers (both TV & internet), and generally be miserable son of a bitches.
>>47580270
Comcast has already bullied Netflix into paying extra fees in order to continue to deliver content to Comcast customers (on Internet connection their customers already paid for).
If the Comcast/TWC merger goes through, they will start doing the same shit to every fucking website.
>>47580330
Not to mention Comcast didn't adhere to things they promised during the NBCUniversal merger. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...
>>47580436
>Not to mention Comcast didn't adhere to things they promised during the NBCUniversal merger
I still can't believe that happened. I learned what vertical integration was in fucking middle school. Google get's shit on every year for being being both a content provider and a content creator and yet Comcast is allowed to own a fucking media company?
>>47580330
Not to mention that they block HBO Go access from vidja consoles
If a Republican was in the White House the merger would have been allowed to proceed, we would have troops in Iran, Syria, and Ukraine, DEA troops would be storming dispensaries in Colorado, instead of Sotomayer and Kagan on the Supreme Court we would have more losers like Thomas and Scalia, the estate tax would be repealed and the Bush tax cuts made permanent, social services would be gutted, social security would be privatized, Snowden would be disappeared, and huge swaths of public land would be sold on the cheap to petroleum corporations.
And all of the points that Obama is wrong on (e.g. the TPP fast track process and NSA spying) would be the same or (in all likelihood) even worse.
Unfortunately voting is largely meaningless now because of Citizens United but I will continue to vote Dem simply to keep wackjobs out of the Supreme Court. It's entirely likely that Ginsburg, Kennedy, and Breyer will retire in the next 4-8 years. Sucks we have to choose between a corporate hack like Clinton and another corporate hack like Rubio.
>>47580485
Senators and FCC commissioners got millions of bucks to rubber stamp the Comcast-NBC deal.
>>47578919
Here in CT we're getting municipal fiber optic cables. That is the way to fix the problem. The local gov't maintains the fiber optic lines, and the ISPs pay a fee to use them. That is what makes sense, and that is what works. Its good to see at least one thing good happening here after that fuckwit Malloy destroyed our economy and took away our guns.
>>47581001
Wait what
As a fellow Connecticutian, source? Because I'm ready to fucking blow up the startup that bought out UVerse.
>>47581001
Nvm, just found out that my town will not be participating.
Fuck.
>>47581312
Go to town hall meetings and complain about it. Bring friends and family, too.
I was an AT&T customer for a few years before they abandoned our market. Frontier was absolute ass for the time that I stuck with them, so much so that Comcast ended up being the preferable option.
>>47580489
When do the new Net Neutrality regs go into effect? I'm pretty sure HBO is going to get Comcast fined out the ass if they don't stop once the regs are in place, because that was the whole point of the new regs.
Seriously, the people who are attacking Net Neutrality are defending this kind of shit. They think Comcast should be allowed to block you from using HBO, and that this is a fair and just way for things to work. I can't stand those people.
>>47580751
Someone remembered to take their medicine today!
I love how their argument for the merger is: "It's okay if we merge into a mega monopoly because we already have regional monopolies"
>>47581499
Reminder that republicans:
>initiated the war on drugs
>routinely deny climate change
>refuse to allow teenagers access to birth control
>have been trying to have USPS dismantled or privatized for years
>support TPP (the one thing they can side with obama on)
>refuse to repeal or amend the patriot act even post-snowden
>refuse to support medical marijuana and actively obstruct efforts to allow its use in their states
>want to repeal obamacare even though it has helped sick people get access to healthcare they couldn't have had previously AND refuse to propose an alternative
>actively opposite net neutrality, drafted a bill in congress to take the FCC's regulatory authority away because the FCC supports net neutrality
>>47581946
Half of those sound great and the other half are supported by democrats too.
>>47578856
GAS THE JEWS
I don't really see how it would have mattered anyway, cable companies all have local monopolies. It's not like having a wide variety of cable companies on a national level actually results in any competition on the local level, you're still stuck with the one franchised cable co in your area.
>>47581499
Meh, I pointed out that voting has been basically rendered obsolete by the massive amounts of bribery as a result of the Citizens decision. The amount of money going into political campaigns has exploded in the last 20 years. In 2012 Obama spent $1.1 billion and Romney spent $1.2 billion. How is a party like the Greens or Libertarians supposed to compete with that much cash?
I do not like Clinton. She is a neocon and I expect her to actually be worse than Obama in that regard. (E.g. she voted for the Iraq War while Obama did not.) However at least she has expressed interest in campaign finance reform, something the GOP will not even mention because they are completely dependent on billionaire donors. Also I trust her a lot more than say, Cruz or Rubio, to nominate sane Supreme Court justices. Every time a Republican takes the White House we get more fucking idiots on the Supreme Court. Every. Single. Time.
So if sucking it up and voting for the lesser of two evils makes me blue pill, I guess you are right. The alternative is not voting at all and watching some braindead fuck like Cruz start World War III over Iran. Third parties won't be a realistic option until campaign finance reform is addressed and the winner-take-all system we have right now is replaced with something more representative.
And before you say "there is no difference," then please check the vote talleys on things like the Iraq War, the estate tax repeal, the Patriot Act renewals, or the vote to end to the DEA's involvement in medical marijuana.
Generally when there is a horrible policy being implemented the only significant opposition comes from the Democrats. Sometimes a handful of libertarians in the GOP will join them. Unfortunately it has not been enough because the Republicans are full blown retarded, and the Democrats hardly ever have the same level of consensus in their party that the GOP has.
>>47578974
You know how to create a monopoly, anon? Ask the government to regulate the competition away. Bam, you've got a monopoly and nobody is going to challenge you as long as you can keep the government on your side.
Market intervention works both ways, faggot. And since you've got less money than big bad corporation, it's most likely going to end with them pounding your arse without mercy while the government cheers them on.
>>47582177
>I do not like Clinton. She is a neocon
neolib
FTFY
btw neo-anything in the political sphere actually means "I suck corporation cock"
>>47580751
>And all of the points that Obama is wrong on (e.g. the TPP fast track process and NSA spying) would be the same or (in all likelihood) even worse.
You literally can't get any worse on that shit. Obama is a fucking former constitutional law professor and he has shit on it just as much as Bush 43.
>mfw I live outside of Charlotte
>mfw TWC is giving everyone 2-6x bandwidth because Google Fiber
>mfw being bumped up 200mb/s in a few months
Don't even care about botnet bullshit
Google has brought me happiness
>>47582177
What about all the horrible policies that the democrat party has instuted since they gained power? I don't care how well intentioned Obamacare was, as a law it was a sloppy half-assed mess that has caused more harm than good, and it's so bad that democrats actually snuck in thousands of earmarks using deliberate typos so that they couldn't be detected using a word search. Every time they try to pass a "comprehensive reform" bill it always ends up full of garbage because no-one actually reads it before they vote on it.
As for the supreme court, what makes liberal judges so much better than conservative ones in your opinion? The supreme court should err on the side of maintaining the status quote, because if there is something wrong with the constitution, it's the legislature's job to fix it. It is not the supreme court's job to reinterperate what is supposed to be a simple, easy-to-understand set of fundamental laws that all laws thereafter must be compatible with. Judicial activism is one of the biggest threats to American liberty and it's almost always left-leaning judges to participate in it. Judges are supposed to enforce the constitution, not create new de-facto laws.
>>47581257
What does Frontier do that's so shit? I know they're shady, but my speeds and prices are the same as they were under AT&T.
Of course, I've never had to talk to their customer support.
>>47582298
>Judicial activism is one of the biggest threats to American liberty and it's almost always left-leaning judges to participate in it.
Kek, those conservative faggot judges have been constantly trying to overturn roe v wade
The fuck are you talking about dude? Both sides have shitty activism
>>47582071
I don't see how any of those things are great. Maybe I'm just not a /pol/weenie
>>47582298
>as a law it was a sloppy half-assed mess
Agreed.
>that has caused more harm than good,
Disagreed. Most of the provisions in the ACA are perfectly reasonable. The only one that I personally despise is the individual mandate. There is no debate over the fact the ACA has increased coverage and has slowed healthcare cost inflation.
You can argue that the decrease in inflation has not been enough. Okay. So where is the GOP's alternative plan? They did not have one in 2008. They had one before that -- it was exactly the same as Obamacare. They suggested Tort reform but that's nothing more than a soundbite. If you actually study the figures, liability expenditures are responsible for about 2.5% of the annual growth in healthcare cost (which are about 3-5% right now.) 2.5% of 5% is not a serious solution. That's why no one takes them seriously.
So there is a misinformation campaign going on and it started with "death panels." When Americans are polled about the ACA they respond negatively. When polled about the provisions of the ACA, they respond overwhelmingly positively.
>As for the supreme court, what makes liberal judges so much better than conservative ones in your opinion?
I'm not particularly concerned about abortion rights or gun rights and so forth. I'm more concerned with the warrantless spying going on and money influencing our political system. Why? Because those actually trump democracy itself, so there's no point talking about details like gun control or abortion when political reformers can be wiretapped and billionaires can literally buy votes. Why even argue about details when the entire system is fucked?
So I look at the Citizens United decision and see that the only dissenting voices came from the more liberal judges (Stevens, Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayer.)
Thomas, Scalia, et. al. think billionaires pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into our political system is free speech. That's all I need to know about them.
>>47582349
For one, under AT&T we used to be able to bitch our way to slightly more acceptable rates. Under Frontier we now pay $260/mo for just 12/1.5 internet and cable TV at YouTube quality. The transition brought numerous bugs in the cable TV, most of which have been resolved but a few remain. Service has been really shoddy since the transition, with numerous dropouts which were rare under AT&T. This is not just me. It's been observed by every normie I've talked to in town.
>>47578974
>>47578934
>>47578919
>this is what liberal arts students actually believe
>>47581946
>initiated the war on drugs
who cares
>routinely deny climate change
only bad thing
>refuse to allow teenagers access to birth control
good
>have been trying to have USPS dismantled or privatized for years
very good
>support TPP (the one thing they can side with obama on)
ok
>refuse to repeal or amend the patriot act even post-snowden
who cares
>refuse to support medical marijuana and actively obstruct efforts to allow its use in their states
who cares
>want to repeal obamacare even though it has helped sick people get access to healthcare they couldn't have had previously AND refuse to propose an alternative
good
>actively opposite net neutrality, drafted a bill in congress to take the FCC's regulatory authority away because the FCC supports net neutrality
good
>>47583389
>being this retarded
NO NO NO
FUCKING MARXIST SHIT
THE FREE MARKET WILL FIX IT
>>47583420
giving a fuck about drug policy is a retarded person's issue.
the rest are basically just economic issues on which business-uneducated people have taken the expected business-uneducated person's stance.
>>47583494
Most of my views were descended from my father who got a business education from South Carolina, of all places, so your ad hominems are moot
>>47583517
>your generalizations are moot because my father got a business education and doesn't fit their mold
of course they're generalizations. but try finding someone who works at one of the banks, big 4 firms, or hft pools who believes otherwise-- it would be quite a task.
>>47583570
Okay, so let's ignore drugs, climate, and TPP (of which I'm not informed enough to decide).
>Retarded horny 14-year-olds without condoms
>No public option for shipment of small items/paper
>Blatant violation of citizens' fundamental rights as outlined by the Constitution
>Denying healthcare access to the unworthy
>Allowing Bell 2.0 to restrict the final and best outlet of information for pure profit
>>47583494
>giving a fuck about drug policy is a retarded person's issue.
No, it's an educated person's issue. Legal cannabis is the fastest growing industry in the United States, and is providing millions of dollar in additional tax revenue to Colorado and Washington. Retarded person's issues are banning abortion, repealing the estate tax, allowing businesses to discriminate against gay people. Those are the issues that matter to Republicans, because almost all of them are Bible thumpers, with a world view straight from the 1800s.
The more educated a person is, the more likely they are to identify as a Democrat or a liberal. Only 5% of scientists identify as Republicans -- over half identify as Democrats. States which vote blue have higher average IQs, stronger performing schools, and more people with secondary degrees. In other words: Republicans are dumb.
>As people do better, they start voting like Republicans...unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing.
Karl Rove, 2001
>the rest are basically just economic issues on which business-uneducated people have taken the expected business-uneducated person's stance.
Red states are more likely to have subpar economies, more people on welfare, and consistently take more from the federal government than they pay back in taxes. This country's economy is powered by liberal states like California and New York, not Republican shit holes like South Carolina and Idaho. Texas is the only Republican state with a reliably strong economy -- the rest are performing dismally. The states which have raised the minimum wage have had the fastest job growth -- Walker's Wisconsin comes in near last in job growth (48th.)
Republican economic policies have dismal results. The economy has consistently grown faster with Democrats in the White House. This trend has held strong since the days of FDR -- the only aberration being Carter.
>>47582356
Roe V Wade is a textbook example of judicial activism. There is nothing in the constitution that requires abortion to be legal, and there is a strong case to be made that abortion itself violates the bill of rights. The abortion issue should have been decided by congress but instead of was decided by a panel of unelected judges, with the American people's will completely removed from the discussion.
>>47582674
I lost my insurance because of the ACA and I'm still uninsured, so it did not do me any good.
>>47584766
I think you are misdirecting the blame. ACA didn't affect private insurance in a way as to cause people to lose coverage. There are just some companies that dropped plans and switched because it was cheaper.
>>47584898
>ACA didn't affect private insurance in a way as to cause people to lose coverage
Yeah like I haven't heard that before.
I lost my coverage because my plan didn't cover all the bullshit that the ACA says that I have to pay for. I am young and healthy and I don't need half of what the ACA says I need, but the ACA says I either need to have everything covered or I don't get to have health insurance.
>south Florida
>I can choose from century link or Comcast
>I can choose from unreliable garbage 20/5 for $50
>or semi reliable 50/10 for a decent price for the first 6 months that jumps up by $20 after that from a company that hates me as much as I hate it
Coop fiber internet option when?
>>47584898
>ACA didn't affect private insurance in a way as to cause people to lose coverage
your right, it just helped perpetuate a scam industry by giving them a guaranteed consumer base now.
fuck you.
>>47584766
>>47584929
Sorry that happened, but you should keep in mind:
1. Your plan, in all likelihood, was crap, and wouldn't have protected you if something genuinely terrible happened. The requirements set by the ACA (minimum essential coverage) are, for the most part, sane:
>By law, the plan must offer minimum value which is defined as satisfying a 60% actuarial value test – this means that a plan would pay for at least 60% of medical expenses on average for a standard population.
That is reasonable. The purpose of the legislation was to prevent healthcare-cost induced bankruptcies. If your plan would not have prevented bankruptcy if you say, wound up paralyzed in a car accident, it was a crap plan to begin with. It wasn't real insurance. It insured you against nothing.
Guess what happens to people when they wind up unable to work because of a health problem? They file for bankruptcy and go on welfare. Guess what happens to be the number one cause of bankruptcies in the United States? Medical expenditures amongst uninsured people -- and people with bogus plans.
2. If you are legitimately poor enough that you cannot afford a real plan, you can get an exemption. You are not required to buy health insurance if you cannot find any that costs more than 8% of your income. If that's the case, file for the exemption.
>>47585104
Single payer would have been a better system, but that was not politically realistic. The ACA is mostly a smorgasbord of regulations and reforms to the existing system. I said I don't like the individual mandate, but the alternatives were to implement a single payer system (impossible because of the GOP,) or leave approximately 1/5 of the country uninsured and at risk of catastrophe (the GOP's plan.)
If you want to know why we can't have an affordable system like Western Europe or Canada, look at the Republicans who call anything funded by the public "socialist" and evil, no matter how sensical it may be.
When is the US government going to stop going after boogeymen and start addressing actual important issues with our internet infrastructure?
>>47584929
>I am young and healthy and I don't need half of what the ACA says I need
Yeah you're half the reason why something like the ACA is needed in the first place.
If you get cancer your insurance would drop you like a fucking rock and you'd be stuck with millions in debt and probably die anyway. Then the state would have to pay for it and the hospitals would have to raise their fees and you'd fuck over other people.
I don't even support the ACA because it's stupid, but when it's literally financially and emotionally more viable for an oncologist to shoot you in the face instead of treating you for cancer then something needs to change.
Ok. I fucking hate Comcast. And I really mean hate. But let's be honest with how they're shitty (because it's not like there's a shortage in that department).
>>47580330
The Netflix thing was shady on both sides. Netflix was using Cogent which is pretty much the cheapest network provider on the planet, and Cogent and Comcast were fighting about interconnects. Since this was obviously effecting Netflix customers, Netflix jumped on the opportunity because everyone already thinks Comcast is the bad guy so who's going to question Netflix (which was using a bargain bin provider for their ISP)
>>47580489
They only block it on the PS4 because HBO/Sony basically wanted them to write custom code for authentication for the HBO app for free. Blame HBO/Sony for being god damned retarded about how DRM has to work on that console. XBox and PC don't have a problem.
That being said, this merger progbably not happening is the best news I've heard today. Fuck Comcast.
>>47585303
Even without pointing out money in government, corruption, or any sort of conspiracy shit, it's not ever gonna happen.
Because people don't know, and they don't care. They think America has the greatest internet on the planet, because why wouldn't America have the greatest internet on the planet? In theory we should be on the cutting edge since the internet was a giant collaboration of the American government and various universities and companies.
Like you could just get on TV and say "yeah America has the best internet in the world, we can't let the government change it" and people will believe it because they have no idea how the internet works.
>muh free markets
The only reason why telecom monopolies exist in the first place is because the government created them by adding so much regulation and outright restricting competing companies from serving an area.
Infrastructure is expensive, sure, but it's not half as bad as they cry about.
>>47584766
Then I can promise you the policy you used to have didn't cover you in any meaningful way. Companies had to do away with their bottom barrel liability offerings under the ACA, which suckered people out of a shit ton of cash every year.
>insurance anon
>>47585272
I had a catastrophic coverage plan. The entire point was that it would protect me from a serious medical emergency. I am sick of Obama care shills telling me "you lost your health care plan because it wasn't good enough."
Where the hell do they get TVs like that?
>>47585272
>>47586235
>>47586235
If you're a low income employee working for a shit company Obamacare insurance is two to three times more expensive than what coverage would cost with a decent company's coverage. It's still just a tax on poor people, the marketplace just makes it easier to get.
>>47585272
The catastrophic plans and requisite coverage aren't helping anyone but the hospitals.
Covering 60% of an ER Room visit for more than an XRay can quickly bankrupt you when a CT scan is $4,000 and a couple of stitches is $2,000 with a bullshit deductible of $4,500.
>2. If you are legitimately poor enough that you cannot afford a real plan, you can get an exemption. You are not required to buy health insurance if you cannot find any that costs more than 8% of your income. If that's the case, file for the exemption.
Defeating the purpose.
>>47578856
FUCK COMCAST IT LITERALLY MADE TIME WARNER SLOW AS FUCK
When I see discussion about american internet I remember about some third world shitholes lol
Why is american internet SO shit?
>>47586435
>Why is american internet SO shit?
Comcast.
Time-Warner.
AT&T.
Verizon.
>>47586540
Why are they keeping the standards so low?
>>47586577
Bottom line kept high by little to no reinvestment.
>>47586577
Partly because they can, partly because there's just no interest in people having faster internet. I mean I do a lot of P2P so having a 1 Gbps up/down would be fucking awesome. However for most people the most downloading they do is Netflix, and the most uploading they do is pictures to Facebook. So a 20 Mbps up/ 1 Mbps down just werks.
Unfortunately telecom companies also know this. Even without their monopoly status they just don't have the incentives to provide better service because no one would really care. So they keep prices high and speeds that are barely "broadband" because people will buy it and be like WOW NETFLIX LOADS SO FAST!!
That's the whole reason Google did Google Fiber, people need to be seen that what they're being spoonfed is actually shit, and not at all good in terms of pricing and service.
