|
Republicans are proposing a bill to extend Obamacare subsidies until 2017, so that if/when the Supreme Court destroys it the fallout won't affect their 2016 election chances. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/senate-republicans-obamacare-subsidies-ron-johnson
|
#
¿
Apr 23, 2015 18:27
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 16, 2024 04:19 |
|
|
ReidRansom posted:Football at major schools is supposedly self funding and often pays back into general revenues, or so they say, at least. How much of that is an accounting lie I have no idea. But with TV contacts and licensing deals and bowl payouts and of course ticket sales and concession contracts I could believe it. Nintendo Kid posted:A lot of schools that claim this like to pretend all of their alumni donations are directly attributable to sports to back it up. This has been explored in a number of reports and the general conclusion is that after you account for all of the accounting trickery, football is only profitable if you're one of the ~20 best schools in the nation. Everyone else loses huge amounts of money. Any non-football sport, except a couple specific basketball programs, also hemorrhage money. The problems they face is that, if they were to cut football entirely, many schools would (or think they would) lose huge amount of alumni donation dollars, and also potentially see a large drop in enrollment. I don't think anyone's been able to determine exactly what that loss would be, but the threat of it is enough that people are totally unwilling to touch the programs. http://www.ethosreview.org/intellectual-spaces/is-college-football-profitable/ http://www.acenet.edu/news-room/Pages/Myth-College-Sports-Are-a-Cash-Cow2.aspx http://thedailybanter.com/2014/10/upon-review-college-football-giant-waste-money-schools/ Also a fun reminder that the highest paid State employee in your home state is probably a football coach: http://deadspin.com/infographic-is-your-states-highest-paid-employee-a-co-489635228
|
|
#
¿
Apr 23, 2015 23:41
|
|
|
Samurai Sanders posted:If that's the standard of evidence for an antitrust case, how do antitrust cases ever happen? Isn't there an equivalent of the RICO law for antitrust? I've done antitrust work in other areas totally unrelated to cable, but the short answer is that everything in an antitrust case is incredibly difficult to prove, especially damages, and the system is rigged to make it as difficult as possible for the plaintiffs to actually accomplish anything. Like, for example, did you know that as a consumer, you have no legal right to actually bring an antitrust lawsuit against a company who's monopoly is screwing you over? http://www.robinskaplan.com/resources/articles/ninth-circuit-clarifies-scope-of-the-direct-purchaser-rule-in-federal-antitrust-claims The long and short of that ruling is that, for a consumer good, only direct purchasers (the stores that sell products to you) can sue for antitrust violations -- the actual consumer can not. Why is this bad? Because direct purchasers can almost never prove damages -- they still sell products and make a profit, no matter what the price is. They can try to argue that more people would buy the product if it was cheaper, but legally that's incredibly difficult to do and most stores aren't going to want to make that argument anyway because they have an incentive to not charge rock-bottom prices for things. It also means that if they DO succeed in an antitrust lawsuit, all of the judgment just goes straight into corporate pockets and the consumers don't see a cent. Almost always, everyone involved in an antitrust case is an enormous corporate entity, and the only time an antitrust case even gets filed is if a company thinks they can score a massive multi-billion dollar judgement that goes straight to their profits. There is zero incentive to do so otherwise, and consumer concerns are basically a non-factor in determining if an antitrust lawsuit is ever brought in the first place. Why are corporations the ones filing the lawsuit in the first place? Because the courts decided a long time ago that instead of burdening the government with enforcement, we should rely on private corporations to act as Private Attorneys General in bringing these cases. (I don't have a direct cite for this on hand at the moment, but just googling "Private Attorneys General" will return a lot of material on the concept.) Our legal system has a lot of problems, but antitrust law in particular is egregiously, egregiously broken. Aerox fucked around with this message at 18:17 on Apr 24, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Apr 24, 2015 18:15
|
|
|
A few months ago out here in West Los Angeles Time Warner did a 6x-8x speed upgrade at no cost for everyone, and I went from 30/5 to 215/20. I still have no idea what prompted it, because as far as I know no new provider has announced intentions to move in here, but I'll definitely take it. The only competing plan available in the building where I live is an incredibly lovely 15/2 Verizon plan.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 24, 2015 21:55
|
|
|
Boon posted:Apparently it's gotten pretty bad. Vice keeps popping updates on my screen and the Gov has declared a state of emergency. Supposedly a bunch of gangs have "banded together" to hunt down cops. Can't say I blame them for their sentiment, though it's going to suck if cops start getting shot. The Nation of Islam brokered a temporary peace deal between the Bloods and Crips, similar to what happened in Los Angeles during the Rodney King riots. The mayor applauded them for it. http://countercurrentnews.com/2015/04/baltimore-bloods-and-crips-call-truce/ The police reported it as a gang plot to team up and murder everyone.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 28, 2015 01:19
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 16, 2024 04:19 |
|
|
Mr Interweb posted:Ugh, that video. Cruz is a terrible speaker who thinks of himself as a great speaker. Well, he's smart enough to know that he can't just say "Not be black" out loud.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 30, 2015 21:30
|
|