that Comcast is trying to buy time warner cable
the Comcast number one cable provider in the country Time Warner Cable's number
two
air the merger would be gigantic they would have near monopoly power
I'll well I'll luckily they got the schumer boys on their site
who are they well the Charles Schumer is of course
a senator from New York and he has received more
campaign contributions from Time Warner Cable you're the ones involved in the
transaction obviously then any other member of congress during the 2010
election cycle
now let's find out later if that plays into whether he supports this merger or
not
I'll and no one other thing that helps is that his brother Robert schumer
just one the quote deal-maker above the week from them
American Lawyer why because he was the lead attorney
in the Comcast bid to buy time-warner cable
he made that deal happen sure boys had an open
you certainly know our how to make deals happen okay
whether they go back to church you really care what do you do in men you
said
you were in favor this deal your brother is
get whose declared and deal with the current be above the week because a bit
all I didn't know that you didn't know your brother was the
head attorney there and was the deal maker the week
for closing that Comcast Time Warner Cable the you didn't know that
game II you might not know the nitty-gritty of your
siblings live Scott a big deal right especially
where you're going to be at what are the people who gets to decide whether that
deal goes through or not
so what is for chuck schumer's conclusion
on the deal quote seems like a Time Warner Cable acquisition
will be a good deal for New York up
is that right ok but I figured
there is a joke she was in favor of it now after
he got criticize for saying that ahead a time
especially given his brothers connection who this deal he then said why I didn't
know about the brother thing and so yeah I'm sure all recused myself
yep they get caught I got caught them yeah I'll recused myself
sure okay now he's not the only one who's corrupt in this case
let me show you how all this works OK but the revolving door between
government an the cable industry in this case
cadence though it was chief of staff at NCTA you know what that is that is the
chief lobby
for the cable industry and what did he used to be in government will use to be
the chief of the FCC's come
consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau between 2001 and 2005 know why is that
relevant
as FCC is the one that's going to make a decision on whether to allow the merger
to happen or not
now hugh sorghum FCC now works for the Cable guy's
interesting and then James a Massey was is executive VP
at that same lobbying group for the cable companies and used to be the
senior Democrat councillor communications and media issues
for the committee chaired by US Senator Daniel Inouye was a democrat
and telecommunications Council for former US senator ernest hollings
also democrat so that's the relevant committee
so they buy of the FCC thereby of the committee's they buy of the people whose
or on those committees by giving campaign contributions they buy out
there
relatives by having them work on the deal and once you leave office early
leader government position than they buy you after that
and give you a whole helluva lotta money per services rendered
but those are the most interesting cases %uh the revolving door
the most interesting case is Michael POW now Michael Powell used to be
the head up the FCC what is he today he's the president and CEO
the national cable Telecommunications Association the chief lobbying group
for the cable industry that he use the regular
in fact back in 2002 he's the one that we classified
up the internet providers so that later it would become
far more difficult to do net neutrality he put them in that category
where net neutrality was eventually overturned by the courts
because the category that he put a bit and then he gets a huge paycheck from
the cable providers who make money off ok getting rid of net neutrality
Wow yet another coincidence
what amazing who could have bigger man this tennis ball of coincidences
now let's add to those questions you know how much
comcast has given to members of congress over all over the last 10 years
7 million dollars
K seven million dollars will buy you a lot of coincidences
and that his campaign contributions another bribes they get afterwards after
they get out of office and what's not working for those cable guys
and up where they decided come trade the
the lion's share their mind though place where they spent the most amount
what will look at this amazing causes a is the Subcommittee on communications
and technology the same group that is going to eventually decide
whether they get to do that merger or not and those guys a year over eight
hundred and fifty thousand dollars
in legalize bribes mmm
kinda makes all of congress the cable guys dozen
you know how much over the cable industry they're gonna have control over
if this deal is approved one
outta every three American homes would be served by Comcast
so not only does that give you could give them control over your home's
okay but it also gives them control over who goes on cable
because if you can do a new cable deal a new cable channel
Comcast gonna say hey if you do a deal with me you're not going to get into
a third of the homes in america in which case you got no chance
there the whole to meet gatekeepers they will become
the one company that will buy or have the most
Boyce in weather NP makes it on TV
or doesn't make it on TV if you're not credible 30 the homes
the finances probably won't even back you up even if the other two thirds took
you which would be
incredibly hard you probably couldn't get the financing
to be able to put that channel on TV so it wouldn't be the government would be
this private corporation that would get to decide what you see on television a
but funny enough it seems all the former regulators in the current senators et
cetera
seem like they're pretty excited about this deal
but it's okay contest tells us the impact on customer bills
is always hard to quantify we're certainly not promising the customer
bills
are going to go down or increase less rapidly
wait a min away when did you get that on the first day they were saying
this is gonna be better for customers today
when it looks like they feel a lot more comfortable about their political
position they say
how did we see your bill Michael on on on on on your bills like to go down
we won't even say that your bill will go up just as rapidly
or more rapidly then it's been going up
she I wonder if they think they got monopoly power
so easy to by congress man you think we have a real premark its concern is that
what you think
free markets could but this is growing gap was the 101
and the rubbing your base in it one more call from Comcast
frankly also the fact is that going to customer bills
are factors beyond our control I
here for the what designs the real you know what it is and how much
we pay Huckerby are your control who's deciding in Santa Claus
I mean they're insulting your intelligence they're basically spinnin
you're either
but they feel like what difference does it make you can't do a damn thing about
it
because we already bought congress their our guys
there the cable guys
welcome to America her
macchia don't wanna do you think we should get money out of politics
I can't quite tell for sure just let the company's key buying our
government one time after another after another and let them gain more and more
control
until we got nothing left until we got no voice of dissent
anywhere in the media they've already bought of all the national politicians
then they can shut down the median or perhaps we can fight back
we gonna do you gonna wait till after the merger
that's why we saw a while back man you get up
you get him now not be an anti-corporate
it's being pro free markets every corporation
every company should have a right to actually compete
and not have these guys by of politicians
and do crony capitalism if you agree with us whether you're liberal your
libertarian or your conservative
and honestly on principles on ideology I don't even see how you could disagree
grade the only way in this agrees if you've already been bought by these guys
if you agree with us join us wabash pack dot com
all trash bag dot com because if you're not doing anything
to get back our democracy then you could you know
said okay Comcast wins multinational corporations win
they will control everything and we will lose our democracy
and I won't do a damn thing about. Kate you at least
pick up a phone and make a call to your state legislators
mean doesn't take that much supply back
from the day the suffragist movement got into the streets
ended their 1st March I was a long process before that
from the day they started marching seven years later
they got 'em Amendment to the United States Constitution saying the woman can
book
every single person told them it was impossible how are you going to get the
right to vote
when you can't vote in the first place you know what they tell us when we say
we'll fight back tears multinational corporations
and this incredibly corrupt congress they say it's impossible
why has they don't want us to try
you never know what we can do retry when the middle of doing it now
we gotta 10 min and resolutions introduced
in states across the country we got volunteers in all fifty states we've got
over 10,000 volunteers
and their mounting up in saying we need an amendment
we don't have an amendment we lose the whole country so
what we gonna do pain to sit there and do nothing about it
and if you do don't you dare complain later okay
or you gonna say hey I'm a chip in how r right ken
weather is becoming a member words actually becoming a volunteer
were actually call my state legislator because you know what you put enough
pressure on the state legislators
actually do take action that's why we've got the 10 resolutions that our life
that's why we're closer passing several of them this year
you to take action to you don't do anything at all were in action bursts