More Corporate Greed…TWC vs. CBS…
War of the Worlds: Time Warner vs. CBS, vs. Showtime
In case you live in the Twilight Zone and haven’t heard…
There is a battle raging for the past week pitting Time Warner Cable (TWC) against CBS and Showtime networks.
It is interesting that many of the media aren’t telling readers about the action of TWC against CBS and Showtime channels. TWC has dropped the two networks like a hot potato and it has to do with ending contracts and increasing costs to TWC and its subscribers. The two networks are blacked out on TWC and subscribers are madder than hell. Shows affected by the blackout are Dexter, Blue Bloods, various sports programs and others.
Apparently the issue has become like a three-headed beast fighting itself, where none of the heads will win or all of the heads will win. The entity that definitely will NOT win is the three million TWC subscribers who can’t watch their favorite shows. The blackouts also are affecting advertisers who may have to make urgent decisions.
Customers are angry, but may not know who to blame. I blame everyone involved: TWC, CBS and Showtime. All have become too greedy and don’t care who they hurt.
Many in the know are saying that the blackout may continue close to the 2013 football season. Football season is the highest rating time for TV watching.
Some believe that this war may cause TWC subscribers to move to Direct TV or Internet entities like Hulu, Google TV, etc. Advertisers may have to find other markets and may pay more during this urgency period.
TWC has promised refunds to its Showtime customers but none for CBS watchers. The battle is heating up and many customers don’t know who to blame. CBS wants to double (from $1 to $2) what is termed a “pre-transmission” fee… a charge per customer that TWC generally passes along to all subscribers, whether or not they may watch CBS, Showtime, sports or not.
The head of the FCC has requested that the warring entities “kiss and makeup” and to stop hurting their customers. That is about all the FCC can do as it has no real authority to demand anything from any of the parties involved.
So for now, the ones being hurt are the millions of customers who can’t watch their favorite shows and who most likely will get an increase for services no matter who wins.
Broken Arm, Broken Healthcare System
by jane stillwater http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2013/07/broken-arm-broken-healthcare-system-by.html
this report is gonna be short because i have to type it all with only one hand. hunt and peck. no capitalizations. that’s what happens when one breaks one’s arm.
and another thing that happens when one breaks one’s arm is that, after i had tripped and fallen over a piece of uplifted sidewalk in berkeley and got rushed to the hospital in a fire truck, i also quickly discovered how much our healthcare system has been looted and plundered by healthcare insurance company executives trying to score yet another million-dollar paycheck — at the expense of our hospitals, us patients and our hard-working doctors and nurses.
it took forever for me to get seen and treated.
ouch!
the doctors and nurses and technicians at my hospital were all angels of mercy and friendly and skilled and kind. but there were only a few of them and only so much they could do in the time allotted to each patient — they could only spread themselves so thin.
“and how do you feel about working for sutter health, that big conglomerate that has taken over your hospital?” i asked all of them http://www.sutterhealth.org/
“sutter health? i hate sutter health!” they all replied. hey, me too. and every single employee that i talked to said the same thing. and they didn’t just hate sutter health. they really really really hated sutter health. must be strange to have 100% of your employees hate you so much.
“there should be a law that says that when the salaries of executives of non-profit corporations reach over one million dollars a year, then that company’s non-profit status should be revoked.”
sutter’s greed is slowly eating our local hospital alive.
i would type more on this subject but gotta go take my pain medication and then try to figure out how i’m going to take a bath and drive a stick shift with only one arm. sigh. my total sympathy goes out to anyone who has ever permanently lost the use of an arm, a hand, a leg or any other appendage. don’t see how they can do it.
ps: between the heath insurance lobby, the nuclear-waste-creation lobby, the pharmaceutical lobby, the oil lobby, the coal lobby, the nra lobby, the bankster lobby, the gmo/agribusiness lobby, the war profiteer lobby, the tobacco lobby, the anti-regulations lobby, the aipac lobby, the pro-pollution lobby, the anti-education lobby, the offshore tax haven lobby, the anti-social-security lobby, the cia lobby, the hedge-fund lobby, the deforestation lobby, the anti-union lobby, the sell-off-our-post-offices lobby, the media-monopoly lobby, the food additive lobby, the strip-mining lobby, the keystone pipeline lobby, the pesticide lobby, the fracking lobby, etc., it’s a wonder that any of the rest of us americans are even still alive and functioning at all — and still even have all our arms and legs too.Special Sessions High Cost To Taxpayers
Rick Perry is demanding a third Special Session. Each of these cost taxpayers a minimum of $2 million. It’s amazing that we can’t find money to finance public education, reduce property taxes, or to build roadways, but Perry sure has enough money to piss it away on his not-so Special Sessions.
And it’s not the first time Perry has wasted our tax dollars on not-so Special Sessions. Maybe eight years ago he called for three Special Sessions to try to get a controversial redistricting map approved. It never happened and finally the courts determined a map that has been batted around in the legislature and the courts to this day.
In fact, Perry has wasted more of our tax dollars on not-so Special Sessions than any previous Texas Governor. We need to point that out to the American people when Perry begins his Presidential run, among all his other idiosyncrasies that could further destroy our nation.
A major issue that many people in Texas don’t seem to understand is that those in charge of the GOP here are NOT the majority of the party. They are extremists, not the core of the Party.
While I have been a Republican since the Eisenhower administration, back in the 1950s, I am not in synch with the current GOP in Texas. The Tea Party appears to be in charge here, at least for a short time, but I believe the majority of Republicans are not on the same platform.
Consequently, there is a schism in the GOP of its members and that is a big reason why the Party can’t pass bills, bonds, what have you, easily.
I believe that very soon there will be a coup within the Texas GOP. It has to happen because the GOP as it is today is useless. Most of what it tries to do is unconstitutional, so because of this, the Party then tries to add amendments to change the laws to permit its absurd direction.
At best, the Texas GOP is ineffective. At worst, it is a corrupt and cancerous tumor.
