A mere 10 days after Comcast agreed to buy Time-Warner Cable, the cable/internet giant has announced a multimillion-dollar deal with Netflix. Here’s how it works: Netflix pays Comcast several million dollars each year, and the 25% drop in streaming speed that has plagued Netflix subscribers who get their internet from Comcast will go away. It’s probably a coincidence that this unprecedented deal comes three months after a circuit court judge struck down the FCC’s authority to enforce net neutrality. Welcome to the new internet. Netflix, which accounts for as much of 30% of total internet traffic during peak hours, now has to pay to play.
Author: Dan Brooks
Friday links! The more things change edition
The more things change, the more they stay the same: a favorite among people whose concept of history is terrifyingly limited. As one such person, I can’t help but notice that a lot of old-timey things have been happening lately. We’re holding the Olympics in a country led by a charismatic strongman with a vexed human rights record. Rich people are more comparatively rich than they have been since the Gilded Age. And from Venezuela to Ukraine to Thailand, people are rioting in the streets re: democracy. Today is Friday, and the lamest aspects of the past are all set to kick in again. Won’t you stay the same with me?
Is this the best bad politics we can manage?
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HipMOZvONlM
Those of you who live in Montana have probably seen this ad one million times, give or take brief periods of internet outage. Produced by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, it attacks John Walsh, the lieutenant governor of Montana recently appointed to fill the senate seat vacated by Max Baucus. Montana’s next regular election for US Senate is in November, and the race is hotly contested. Walsh is by no means a flawless candidate; there’s plenty in his background to attack, but this ad pins its hopes on connecting him to Obama. That damned Obama! Merely saying his name is enough to send me into paroxysms, or it would be if I were an NRSC ad hack working on tight deadline. As it is, I am not shocked by Walsh’s connection to the leaders of his party, and I would like my negative politics to be a little sharper. You can read about in my latest column for the Missoula Independent. Or you can go pound sand. Either way, we’ll be back tomorrow with Friday links.
Stamey files “first of many” lawsuits
Last Friday, independent auditor James Woy filed a status report with Ravalli County Attorney Bill Fulbright on the first two weeks of his investigation into the county treasurer’s office as Valerie Stamey left it. Quote:
At this point, it is apparent the duties of the Ravalli County treasurer were not properly executed and the state of the treasurer’s office was in disarray.
What’s that word for when something happens that you expected all along? I can’t think of it right now, because I’m too busy trying to think of a word that describes Stamey’s announcement, made yesterday through her attorney, that she is suing Woy for libel. You didn’t think she was going to roll over, did you?
In victory for Big Envelope, feds will mail Social Security statements
The Social Security Administration has saved $72 million a year since it stopped mailing paper earnings statements, but it’s about to start mailing again. Under pressure from Consumers for Paper Options, Rep. Susan Davis (D-CA) inserted a line in last month’s budget deal to resume paper statements. A lobbying group dedicated to “closing the digital divide” for the elderly and those without internet access, Consumers for Paper Options just happens to be funded by the Envelope Manufacturers Association. Props to Jacek for the link.




