(no subject)

[shadowkat]

1. Deja Vue.

At 12 Midnight on Wed, went to the bathroom. And I wondered, okay why is water dripping on me? Turned on the light, and guess what? Ceiling dripping again, in the same place. Found bucket, put it down, along with sponge. Dripping in two places.

Couldn't do a damn thing about it, because, hello, midnight.

Got up at 6. Took shower. Dressed. Dried Hair. Makeup. And took pics of dripping ceiling. Texted pics to super. Called Super. Left Message. Rushed to work. Tried not to worry about it.

Left work early, since company Holiday Party, which I skipped ($60, so not my thing). Super showed up (so happy came home early, because he popped up at 5PM. I showed him the ceiling. He had the same reaction I did. It's in the frigging same spot as the leak this summer. Damn it. He scraped the paint off, so it doesn't flake down on me in cascade of water. Then took off upstairs to see what was going on up there. Said couldn't fix it tonight. I informed him that I was leaving town on December 20, to see my parents in South Carolina. And would not be back until the 28th. But they have keys to my apartment -- and it's better if they work in it if I'm not here -- since I just get in the way.

On train ride to work, discovered Amtrack is doing Phase 2 of their track work, so once again, trains will be delayed on the way into Atlantic Terminal. Since to make up for less trains in Penn, they will be adding trains to Atlantic Terminal, with delays.

Ugh. The MTA is driving me nuts. The stupid Governor has decided to rehabilitate the entire system at the same time. So there are delays across the board. And they are doing weird things, like enhancements, art, etc -- as opposed to maintenance and making sure the trains run on time. So everything is delayed, it's crowded, and you never know when a train is out of service.

Next day? Didn't leak that night. Whew.

Went to work, and accomplished more than expected -- awarded huge multi-million dollar project. And, when I began the journey home -- it was snowing. Very pretty actually. Particularly against all the Christmas Lights. Christmas Lights actually look better in the snow. Ran into the Super's wife, who was out shoveling with the family -- and turns out that the plumber came today, fixed the leak (small one) and they don't need to open up my ceiling again. All they have to do is a quick paint job. So relieved! Feeling grateful.


2. Politics continues to be...well interesting is one word for it, I guess.

a. The Good news, Doug Jones Beat Roy Moore in Alabama Senate Race
Which is a big deal, since Alabama hasn't had a Democrat in the Senate since well Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Civil Right's Act/Voting Rights Act.

But, no thanks to the stupid white people. (Not surprising. See above.)

Black Voters are the Reason Mr. Jones Won.


You can go read those links for yourselves.

b. Not sure if this is good news or bad news or neither? Sort of on the fence to be honest, and not really caring all that much. Do however find it fascinating from various perspectives.

Disney purchased Fox for a cool $52.4 Billion

What does this mean?

On Whedonesque (the twitter account, the website is gone, but the twitter site still exists apparently) -- they said:

"Disney acquired Buffy the Vampire Slayer. So does this make Buffy a Disney Princess?
No, it makes the Disney Princesses slayers."

Cubicle mate was happy -- it meant a Fantastic Four movie and Marvel/Disney has now regained the movie rights to the X-men and Fantastic Four franchises. (Just in the nick of time, considering the Avenger's franchise is waning.)

According to the NY Times - Implications:


* Disney has already announced an ambitious plan to introduce two streaming services by 2019. With this deal and the wealth of movies, TV shows and sports programming it provides, the company will now have the muscle to challenge Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook in the fast-growing realm of online video.
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* At the same time, the agreement means that one of moviedom’s most celebrated studios, 20th Century Fox, will be downsized, with some operations folded into Walt Disney Studios or refocused to make films for online distribution. Founded in 1935, the Fox studio championed Marilyn Monroe, produced classics like “The Sound of Music,” released the first “Star Wars” movie and, more recently, turned “Avatar” into the biggest ticket-seller of all time.
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* Not included in the acquisition: Fox News, the Fox broadcast network and the FS1 sports cable channel. In the news release announcing the Disney deal, Mr. Murdoch said he would spin those businesses and a handful of other properties, including the 20th Century Fox lot in Century City, which Disney is not buying, into a newly listed company. Mr. Murdoch also still controls his newspaper-focused company, News Corporation, which has holdings that include The Wall Street Journal. [Dammit. Just in case you were hoping that this would spell the end of Fox News and Murdoch's yellow journalistic empire.]
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* Disney, which owns ABC and ESPN, hopes 21st Century Fox will supercharge its plans to introduce two Netflix-style streaming services. Disney’s first major streaming effort, ESPN Plus, will arrive in the spring. A second and still unnamed offering, built around the company’s Disney, Marvel, Lucasfilm and Pixar brands, will roll out late next year. Rounding out its streaming portfolio will be Hulu, an established service that focuses on older viewers with programming that includes ABC shows.

* Mr. Iger is buying 21st Century Fox’s minority stake in Hulu, resulting in majority control of the streaming service by Disney, which previously owned 30 percent. Comcast and Time Warner also have stakes in Hulu.

[In other words, now Disney owns controlling interest in Hulu.]

* The Disney-Fox merger is happening as the Justice Department fights AT&T’s $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner in court. Mr. Iger acknowledged that antitrust regulators would heavily scrutinize Disney’s purchase but expressed confidence about winning their approval. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said Thursday that President Trump had spoken with Rupert Murdoch and “congratulated him” on the deal.

It was a striking contrast to Mr. Trump’s negative view of the AT&T deal, which some have interpreted as an attempt to punish CNN, the Time Warner-owned network that is often the focus of Mr. Trump’s ire. AT&T and Time Warner are not direct competitors, however, and some antitrust experts have said the Disney-Fox deal should receive similar scrutiny. Should it not, the Justice Department could face criticism regarding its political independence. [Hmm...]

Disney is buying the Fox television studio, which has 36 series in production, including “The Simpsons,” “Homeland,” “This Is Us” and “Modern Family.” Disney’s significantly smaller TV factory, ABC Studios, has delivered series of inconsistent quality and lost its biggest hitmaker in August when the “Grey’s Anatomy” producer Shonda Rhimes decamped for Netflix.

To augment ESPN Plus, Disney is adding 21st Century Fox’s chain of 22 regional cable networks dedicated to sports, including the YES Network, which carries New York Yankees games.

As part of the deal, Disney will also get the FX and National Geographic cable networks, and stakes in two behemoth overseas television-service providers, Sky of Britain and Star of India. That component of the deal would seem to contradict Disney’s push to lessen its reliance on traditional television, a business built on third-party cable subscriptions that is now in decline as people turn to streaming services for home entertainment.

“The antitrust concerns raised by this deal are obvious and significant,” the screenwriters’ union, the Writers Guild of America West, said in a statement on Monday, calling media consolidation a “relentless drive to eliminate competition.”


Media content included in the deal?

* Well, all of Joss Whedon's television shows and most of his film properties will be under one studio now -- Disney. (Buffy, Angel, Dollhouse, Firefly, Marvel Agents of Shield, Avengers, all Disney.)

* All the Star Wars films are now Disney Properties.

* Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, Lucifer, Gotham, The Gifted, Legion, X-Files, The Americans,
American Horror Story, Glee - all Disney.


Disney Buying Fox Film TV Units for 52 billion in digital push

This article talks about Sky and who will own it. (Note - I don't think they know. Could be Disney, could be Fox, could be neither.)

c. The Bad News, well depending on one's point of view, really. I see it as bad news, the head of the FCC believes he's furthering the cause of Free Market Capitalism around the world.

* FCC Repeals Net Neutrality

* What's Next After the Repeal of Net Neutrality

The Federal Communications Commission voted Thursday to discard so-called net neutrality rules that prevented broadband providers from slowing sites or demanding payments from them for fast delivery. The decision opens the door for very different consumer experiences on the internet. The rules will go into effect in the coming weeks.

Here is a guide to what will happen next:
Is my Netflix going to start sputtering? Will my internet service bill go up?

Consumers will probably not encounter immediate changes to their internet service. The biggest broadband companies, like Comcast and AT&T, have promised that consumers will not see a change in how they experience the web. And with such a big spotlight on them, the companies will probably be careful about changing service plans, partly to avoid angering customers and attracting lawmakers’ attention.

Broadband companies are “likely to proceed cautiously pending final resolution of these legal challenges,” said John Beahn, a regulatory lawyer at Skadden, Arps, who does not have clients with interests in net neutrality. “They recognize the ultimate fate of the regulations is still far from certain at this point.”

But significant changes could come over time. For instance, AT&T could decide to charge a company like Etsy or Netflix more to deliver traffic from the website’s servers around the internet. Internet service providers, many of which are also media companies, could create faster lanes of delivery for their own sites, which would make it harder for the content of their rivals to show up in front of consumers. In the past, some providers have even blocked sites, as when AT&T prevented Apple’s FaceTime service from working for some customers of its wireless networks in 2012.

One Republican commissioner, Mike O’Rielly, said he supported some forms of paid prioritization, which could open the door for an internet model more like cable television, with different price tiers for certain websites.

Are there benefits for consumers?

To be sure, there are programs that consumers may like. AT&T already offers its customers free streaming of DirecTV, which it owns. Other carriers like T-Mobile offer free streaming of apps like YouTube and Netflix, a practice known as “zero-rating,” which at one time was viewed as a potential net neutrality violation. More programs like that could come along.

But it’s hard to see prices going down for internet service because of the end of net neutrality. Many economists say the only way prices could fall is through more competition in the broadband industry, which is now dominated by a handful of companies.

What protections do consumers have?

The net neutrality rules, passed in 2015 during the Obama administration, were intended to be a protective measure for consumers as more Americans migrated to the internet for communications. The regulations were also meant to make sure new and small companies, as well as media companies, could sell their goods and distribute information without restrictions from broadband companies.

Ajit Pai, the current chairman of the F.C.C., said transparency would act as the primary measure against wrongdoing. The agency will require broadband companies to disclose if they are blocking or throttling or setting up fast lanes for certain traffic. Mr. Pai, a Republican nominated to the chairmanship by President Trump, said that the disclosure would give consumers full knowledge of what they would be getting into and that if they didn’t like the practices, they could switch providers.
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As part of the changes approved on Thursday, the F.C.C. handed oversight duties for the broadband carriers to the Federal Trade Commission. The F.C.C. said the F.T.C.’s broad antitrust and consumer protection laws were best suited to stop any harmful business practices. The F.T.C. has to monitor nearly every sector of the economy and is most likely to go after alleged bad actors when they are brought forward in a complaint, a costly and time-consuming process.

What have the internet service providers said?

Comcast, AT&T and the major trade groups for broadband and cable providers say they don’t and will not block or throttle sites. They say they won’t engage in most forms of paid prioritization, the practice of charging sites more for faster delivery of streams and downloads.

With legal challenges against the F.C.C. expected, many telecom experts say that the companies will largely to stick to those promises for at least the next year and that any changes to service will be subtle.


It is being fought by the way. Several states are suing the Federal Government to have it overturned. And Democrats are fighting it in the Senate. So, it will most likely go through the courts.

Lawsuits will most likely claim, perhaps among other things, that the F.C.C. acted hastily and capriciously by abandoning the rules just two years after they were created. For instance, Eric Schneiderman, the New York attorney general, has said the F.C.C. should have delayed its vote on the ground that the law enforcement office found many public comments on net neutrality were fraudulent.


What we are seeing happening right now in the US is a fight between scary free-market capitalists who believe there should be no government regulations on any big businesses or corporations (individuals yes, business no. Which is why you can have fascism under free-market capitalism. See China.) and everyone else. It's scary as hell. And sometimes, I wish I was living elsewhere. But oh well.

Comments

Disney owns Buffy

[cactuswatcher]

Gee, I can't wait till Once More With Feeling is redone into a cartoon suitable for five -year-olds. Hey, it's got fire trucks and singing and dancing.

Don't be surprised if someday, when the Democrats are back in power, Disney will have to be broken up.

Re: Disney owns Buffy

[shadowkat]

Don't be surprised if someday, when the Democrats are back in power, Disney will have to be broken up.

LOL!

I honestly wouldn't hold my breath. The government tends to leave things alone after they've happened. They might however prevent Disney from acquiring other properties.

Although -- it hasn't gone through yet, so it could still be stopped by Congress or the Justice Dept. But I doubt it will be.

Gee, I can't wait till Once More With Feeling is redone into a cartoon suitable for five -year-olds. Hey, it's got fire trucks and singing and dancing.


Or a Broadway musical, which can later be adapted into a film. They've been into doing that lately with a lot of their properties.

[yourlibrarian]

Ran into the Super's wife, who was out shoveling with the family -- and turns out that the plumber came today, fixed the leak (small one) and they don't need to open up my ceiling again. All they have to do is a quick paint job. So relieved! Feeling grateful.

Oh that is good news. I was going to post something re: the proposed merger as well.

[shadowkat]

Still on the fence regarding what I think about the merger.

But hey, at least my bathroom isn't leaking.