Day: September 18, 2024

Have You ‘Cut The Cable’?

I have about 4 years ago, maybe longer. I dropped my cable service because it was expensive and I found that I could save a few bucks by using streaming basically because there was not much on ‘regular’ TV that I liked….I am not into food game shows or reality anything and I definitely could care less about any celeb.

Since I switched I have watched the streaming fees go up and up and the ads are just as irritating as those on ‘regular’ TV.

So why are my fees going sky high?

Remember when cutting the cable cord and switching to streaming services was supposed to save you money?

We’re quite a few years into the streaming revolution, in which big companies and Hollywood studios invested billions into new streaming services, many with a plus sign in their names. We’re talking about Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, Paramount+, Peacock, Max, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video, plus smaller niche brands like Shudder and Acorn TV. Traditional broadcast networks and some cable channels are still making new shows, but if you’re looking for the most Emmy-nominated, high-profile series with the biggest stars attached, you’ve got to start your internet connection.

It’s all well and good if you like binge-watching, but have you checked your monthly subscription bills lately? Because those charges for Peacock and Disney+ might be quite a bit higher than they were when you signed up.

When platforms like Disney+ and Apple TV+ first arrived, they offered bargain-basement prices for monthly subscriptions to lure consumers into the fold before increasing rates. Since paying for “Bluey” and “Ted Lasso” is already a line item on your budget, you may have missed that fees have been slowly (and sometimes quickly) increasing at almost every service. You want Hulu, and you want it without ads? Well, that will run you a steep $18.99 a month by October, after the latest hike on all Disney services takes effect. Back when ad-free Hulu was introduced in 2015, it cost only $11.99.

Just take a look at the current and upcoming prices of all the major streamers, bundles and new sports-only app Venu, expected this month.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2024/08/14/why-tv-streaming-prices-are-so-high/74734387007/

It is like everything else in our society….greed is driving the bus….

What to do?

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Conflict Of Interests

It is no secret the way I feel that there are too people making profits off of our total involvement in most of the world’s conflicts.

First there are all those lobbying firms from K Street but what about the Congress?

At least 50 U.S. lawmakers or members of their households are financially invested in companies that make military weapons and equipment—even as these firms “receive hundreds of billions of dollars annually from congressionally-crafted Pentagon appropriations legislation,” a report published Thursday revealed.

Sludge‘s David Moore analyzed 2023 financial disclosures and stock trades disclosed in other reports and found that “the total value of the federal lawmakers’ defense contractors stock holdings could be as much as $10.9 million.”

According to the report:

The spouse of Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the ranking member of the Defense Appropriations subcommittee, holds between $15,000 and $50,000 worth of shares in each of Boeing and RTX, as well as holdings in two other defense manufacturers. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), another Defense Appropriations subcommittee member, holds up to $50,000 in the stock of Boeing, which received nearly $33 billion in defense contracts last year. On the Democratic side of the aisle, Sen. John Hickenlooper (Colo.) holds up to a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of stock in RTX…

The most widely held defense contractor stock among senators and representatives is Honeywell, an American company that makes sensors and guiding devices that are being used by the Israeli military in its airstrikes in Gaza. The second most commonly held defense stock by Congress is RTX, formerly known as Raytheon, the company that makes missiles for Israel’s Iron Dome, among other weapons systems.

All 13 senators whose households disclosed military stock holdings voted for the most recent National Defense Authorization Act, which, as Common Dreams reported, allocated a record $886.3 billion for the U.S. military while many lawmakers’ constituents struggled to meet their basic needs.

“It is an obvious conflict of interest when a member of Congress owns significant stock investments in a company and then votes to award the same company lucrative federal contracts,” Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist at the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, told Sludge.

“Whether or not the official action is taken for actual self-enrichment purposes is beside the point. There is at least an appearance of self-enrichment and that appearance is just as damaging to the integrity of Congress,” Holman added. “This type of conflict of interest is already banned for executive branch officials and so should be for Congress as well. The ETHICS Act would justly avoid that conflict of interest by prohibiting members of Congress and their spouses from owning stock investments altogether.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/members-of-congress-who-own-defense-stock?

A definite conflict of interests and yet life goes on like they are just fulfilling their job.

No one should be surprised just look at others in Congress that have the inside tract to money making opportunities that the rest of us do not have….like Pelosi, et al.

But not to worry these people will not do much to rein in their corruption…so they can make the obscene profits from continuing our funding and supplying of conflicts around the world.

It is good to be in Congress.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”