TWIT: Does anyone care anymore?

How the mighty hath fallen...so to speak.

I don't watch TWIT much these days and when I do I'm frequently disappointed.  Which in itself is a surprise since I didn't think things could get any worse.  Looking at the holiday offerings this year for example was much like last year.  Just a bunch of "Best of's" which were compilations of anything but.  Where were the Holiday themed episodes?  The special round tables with the likes of John Hodgman and Jonanthan Coulton?  Where's the New Year's Special!

Oh yeah, Leo don't do that anymore...

Truth be told, the promise of the TWIT was always far more grand than the product delivered.  Big dreams, the resurgence of a 90's tech icon.  A network built on a small but vocal demographic of those for whom their mantra, their religion, their dearest wish was all things tech.

It wasn't a hard sell for devotees of the defunct TechTV ( formerly ZDTV) basic cable channel.  Leo Laporte was an affable "every-man" who just happened to have a silky smooth presentation and at least an idea of what he was talking about.  

You never saw him confuse a Hard Drive with a Video card.  He was someone you felt you could trust.  A family man, someone like you and me.  A trusted friend you drag along with you to CompUSA.

Yes, I'm dating myself but only in so much as the era where Laporte was relevant.


Now?

NotsoMuch...

A check of the current TWIT schedule reveals just how bad things really are.  Entire days of the calendar are blank with most having maybe 2 shows recording and of those only a few stalwart remnants of the near-glory of the network's past.

Nostalgia wasn't enough and even Laporte's attempt to rekindle the vibe of his TechTV days has fallen flat with the announced cancellation of "The New Screen Savers."  Gone as well are the Iyaz Akhtar created, Know How which in later years found itself increasingly squeezed to the margins and finally choked out of existence with the exit of replacement host Fr. Robert Ballacer.  

The good Father's charisma was the only thing keeping many shows afloat in the past few years as he played stand-in for Laporte and other popular (mostly departed) hosts.  His exit in June of 2018 might as well have been the death knell for the network with Laporte the only recognizable face left.  

Those that might have taken up the reigns and brought the network to the lofty heights envisioned by its founder like Sara Lane, Tom Merritt, Brian Brushwood and Shannon Morse now long since gone.  

Their content and audience driven programming replaced by bland, also-ran drivel only an advertiser could love.  

It's not unlike so many popular YouTube channels that now focus their content almost exclusively at the pleasure of their paid sponsorship.  Don't expect a sour word about a Geforce Card from a YouTuber with NVIDIA sponsorship for example. 

So it is with TWIT.  That which destroyed TECHTV has ultimately destroyed TWIT.  It is now an also-ran competing with YouTube channels produced in somebody's garage for the same advertiser dollars.  Laporte has admitted as much saying his reason for cancelling the New Screen Savers was he was trying to... 


"do a network television show on a podcaster’s budget."

And the now all too familiar excuse for any show's demise on TWIT....

“The New Screen Savers” just hasn’t developed a big enough audience to pay for itself.". (source)

Yes folks, that's an admission of what TWIT is today.  A lowly podcast channel with the overhead of a network broadcaster and every show under the gun to perform.  Or so we would be led to believe.

Yet by Laporte's own admission the network was pulling in 13 to 14 million a year (source) which far exceeds 99% of even the largest YouTube channel's revenue.  Apparently that's not enough as the studio moved to a smaller location in 2016 and has since axed or put on hiatus at least half a dozen shows.  

Still it seems there's never enough money for TWIT and every show has to carry it's own weight.  Yet inexplicably shows like Floss Weekly and Ham Nation continue unabated even though they cater to a subset of a niche at best.  

Meanwhile shows more in line with TWIT's general demographic like Coding 101, Know How, This Week In Law and Game On get the axe.

That pool of money is a lot more contentious than it used to be too.  In at least that much we can cut Laporte some slack for TWIT's failure.

TWIT is now competing for advertisers with those same YouTube channels (some led by former TWIT hosts) with far less lofty ideals but a far more consistent viewership. 

A quick peek at the ads you'll see on the average YouTube tech channel are also found on TWIT.  With most TWIT shows struggling to break into a 4 figure audience per episode no matter where you watch them (most are low 3 figure BTW) it's not TWIT dictating the terms anymore.  Advertisers can find far greener pastures elsewhere.

Let's also not forget that YouTube creators don't have the overhead of TWIT (maybe) and can survive on much thinner margins (definitely) while providing the same mediocre content. 

That said, none of the supposed financial strife at TWIT seems to have stopped Laporte and wife/[sic]CEO  from extravagances like month-long European vacations or purchases of luxury items like his Tesla Model X (source)

There was a time when Laporte chafed at the idea of TWIT as a podcast network.  Now, he clings to it for every bit of relevancy it can afford him.

And that aint much friends.

TWIT is now like a favorite TV series that over the years has replaced the entire cast and writing staff.  Nothing remains but the set pieces and it's just not enough.

TWIT isn't dead but it's been a slow roll down the slope to the graveyard and we're far closer than we've been before. 

Dow Jones, an index of shame

I happened to be channel surfing the other day when I stopped on a PBS station.  The Nightly Business Report was on and the hosts were putting their best spin on the latest "non-event" Apple announcement ( 2 new versions of the same old phones). 

Financial correspondents understand charts, trends and indicators.  None of which have any basis in reality.  Well,  at least not to anyone with a net worth of less than 7 figures.  They have their own reality and it doesn't involve keeping the lights on or the kids fed. 

That's why Wall Street is a farce.  That anyone treats it as an economic indicator is laughable.   That is, unless you consider1% of the population a reliable demographic.

I almost switched the channel after suffering clueless commentary about yet another tech bauble.  I stopped when I found that following story concerned 3 companies being dropped from the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA.) 

The DJIA supposedly reflects a cross section of American based companies publicly traded on the stock market. 

It's the "I" in the industrial average that's amusing.  The 3 companies that didn't make the cut were:

Alcoa     Bank of America     HP

No love lost for B of A but what replaced them were:

Nike      Goldman Sachs     Visa

The criteria for membership in the exclusive DJIA club is simple, share price.  The highest performing and generally most expensive stocks make the cut so long as they continue to "perform." Performance is measured in a consistently high share price.  Often brought about by ruthless worship of the bottom line; many of these companies reflect the worst in corporate pandering to shareholders.

Much has been made of the inequity of the index affecting the entire market with just a handful of "representative" stocks.  Regardless, the DJIA is still the daily number most reported and most relied on as the de facto indicator of the economy.

If that's true then perhaps a name change is in order.  Perhaps something more along the lines of the DJFI or Dow Jones Fantasy Index.  Think of it like fantasy football except you lose real money when you pick the wrong team...

God knows most people with 401K's see it that way...

When the DJIA first came about in 1896 there were only 12 companies that represented the nation's industrial sector.

They were:

General Electric, American Cotton Oil, American Sugar, Chicago Gas, Distilling & Cattle Feeding, Laclede Gas, National Lead, North American, Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad, U.S. Leather and United States Rubber.

What's the common thread?  They all actually made something tangible.

Let's look at 2013's class...

3M, American Express, At&T, Boeing, Caterpillar, Chevron, Cisco Systems, Coca-Cola, Dupont, ExxonMobil, GE, Goldman Sachs, Home Depot, Intel, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan Chase, McDonald's  Merck, Microsoft, Nike, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Travelers  United Health Group, United Technologies, Verizon, Wal-Mart, Walt-Disney

Look at that list closely.  Only a handful of the constituent parts of the DJIA are companies that actually produce any kind of tangible product and of those most of them produce their wares somewhere other than U.S. soil.

The rest is comprised of mostly banks, insurance companies, big pharma and other followers of the cult of  the bottom-line.   

It's all about the money but it's not about reality unless you think that an economy driven by outsourcing, medication and interest charges reflects its "Industry."

McDonald's and Wal-Mart, low price leaders known for low wages and substandard products.  Often the butt of jokes from those concerned about a failing career. 

Visa and JPMorgan Chase known for questionable financial products and poor treatment of their customers. 

Intel and Microsoft, tech pioneers but respectively proponents of offshore labor and unfair business practices that harm consumers and workers alike.

Insurance companies whose bottom line is best served by denying coverage even if the result is death. 

Pharmaceutical companies who lobby congress to artificially inflate profit margins and force the elderly to choose between medication and food.

If this is a cross section of American industry we might as well give up.  Nothing is being produced but misery and to celebrate the practice is madness. 

You can't blame globalization for the decline in American industry.  We are where we are because of the lesser parts of our nature.  Avarice, ignorance and ego,  Global markets have just allowed us to nurture the darker sides of our ambition.  Worse, we aspire to dwell in some corner office atop the glistening skyscraper producing nothing but the wages of our own sins.

We value those whose success was built on exploitation and dismiss all others.

Change may have come to America but real change involves a change in values.  Hard to do when popular media continually drives home the edict, "Greed is Good."  Openly we reject  it but secretly we hold it to be true.

That's why we fail.  

Advertising to your affliction

Commercials annoy me.

"Yeah so what", you're likely saying to yourself right now...

If you have time on your hands like I do, you get to see a lot of ads pitching everything from luxury automobiles to breakfast cereal.  Of course the later the hour the more egregious the commercials become. 

Male enhancement and impotence cures show up the most frequently followed closely by well dressed lawyers pitching resolution via litigation.

All of those are the standard fare.  Even those products that promise to rectify men's...shortcomings. 

Most disgusting of all, however, are the ads from the pharmaceutical companies.  Regardless of how you feel about modern medicine, hawking prescription drugs like feminine hygiene products is something just short of criminal. 

"Ask your doctor" and "You don't have to suffer anymore" are common pitches.  Since when is it acceptable to create a demand for a controlled substance?  Is it wise to blithely wander into your doctor's office requesting medication without being sure of the affliction?  The commercials would make you think so.

How arrogant is that? The pharmaceuticals industry does the diagnosis making your doctor just another middleman.  I'd hope that rampant capitalism hasn't done the medical profession what it's done to our eating habits but I wouldn't hold your breath.  The practice of kickbacks and promotions given to physicians to favor one treatment option over another isn't as rare as we'd like it to be. 

With the advent of the Internet it seems self-diagnosis with a website as attending physician  has turned us all into hypochondriacs.  Every pain or discomfort is sure to have a miracle pill and all we have to do is make an appointment and ask for it.

Of course all the ads mention, "Ask your Doctor". 

Why?

If my doctor knows my physical condition and I don't have any medical training shouldn't he be the one prescribing treatments?  Who cares what a commercial says?  Why is it so important that I be aware of the names of prescription drugs and why do the drug companies feel the need to give them catchy names? 

So what's the point? 

Why does a company that makes drugs have a retail profit motive?  Need should dictate sales in medicine, not the other way around.  Commercials are explicitly designed to create a desire for a product.  In the case of prescription drugs that's a potentially unhealthy goal to say the least.

It's disgusting and highlights one of the primary flaws with the healthcare industry in the United States.  Personally, I don't believe healing should have a profit motive.  When you corrupt healthcare with greed both health and care are compromised.  There is no profit without sales and the ultimate goal of the salesman is to sell as much product as they can.  It's a goal inconsistent with medicine. 

Medicine should be more like the Red Cross than General Motors.  After all GM may charge you for antenna wax but the Red Cross will never charge you for a cot and a blanket when you need one. 

The worst part comes when we see our friends in the legal industry show up on late night TV again.  This time, however, it's not an auto accident or denied disability claim.  It's a class action against the pharmaceutical companies for injuries caused by their wares. 

Medicine isn't M&M's and shouldn't be marketed as such.  Pharmaceutical companies rush products to market often with inadequate testing and lax safeguards.  Competition may be the core of capitalism but it can be lethal to the unlucky patient receiving a recalled prescription.  Profit motives in business is fine, profit motives in healthcare at any level is a perversion.

Ordinary Injustices

Thoughts on a leisurely weekend commute

Recently, as I've been going about my normal daily routine I've been paying more attention to the mechanisms of ordinary commerce.

Take that gallon of gas you're inevitably going to buy if you live in a State like I do with poor public transit.  Conventional wisdom says that the law of supply and demand shall always reign supreme but that isn't necessarily the case.

Pay attention to the financial news and you'll see a correlation between the nervous commodities traders and the yo-yo of gas prices.  Since everyone's afraid of the stock market, commodities are the newest darling of the financial markets. 

That means traders will react to any piece of information that threatens their profit margins.  If the leader of a middle eastern regime has a fit of flatulence it's cause enough to raise the price of a barrel of oil $5. 

You can bet before the business day is over the gas station owner will be out changing his signs to reflect the sudden threat to supply. 

Except there is no threat...

Remember that the fuel in your local gas station is already in the ground and all but paid for.  The price has very little to do with supply or demand.  Rather it has to do with oil companies investing in slick marketing instead of their own infrastructure.   And why not? It's easy money to do less and charge more, especially if you can get away with it.

Lest we forget all those oil speculators who never actually buy anything, they place a bet hoping for the big win.  Thing is, they can only win if you lose and it's in big oil's interest that they do.  After all, it's not ExxonMobil, Chevron or Shell's fault prices are high, it's just "the market"

Considering that speculation can be up to 40% of the cost of a barrel of oil and as much as $1 of the price of a gallon of gas there's good reason to be angry. 

The next time a politician gets on stage and defends record oil company profits with a gallon of gas at $4/gallon or more I'd really like someone to siphon all the gas out of his limousine.  If CNN covered that I might actually call them a news network again...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/11/opinion/ban-pure-speculators-of-oil-futures.html

Oh but friends I'm not stopping there, no sir (or ma'am)

Like many of you I've had to rely on credit more than I want to.  With prices inching ever higher, wages stagnant and the value of a dollar worth 1/2 of what it was just 10 years ago it's often the only way to fill the void. 

And just like your friendly neighborhood gas station they know a profit opportunity when they see it.  There was a time in this county when excessive interest rates were called usury.  Usury is defined as:

an unconscionable or exorbitant rate or amount of interest; specifically: interest in excess of a legal rate charged to a borrower for the use of money

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/usury

These days the credit card companies and the banks that back them get away with pretty much any interest rate they want.  They did get their hands slapped a few years back when congress passed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act.

http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/what-the-credit-card-act-means-for-you/

The effect was putting the brakes on surprise interest rate charges, raising your rates if you're late on a completely unrelated account (Universal Default),  yo-yoing fees and predatory practices against new customers.

That hasn't stopped the 29 % or more interest charged, however.  Congress stopped short of defining what constituted usury which means you pay whatever they want.  Yes, you could go find a better rate with another company but the days of 0% credit cards are over.  Expect no better than 11%.  which is almost amusing when you look at most state legislation (the only place usury is defined) can range from 8% to 45%.  So technically your capital 1 card at 34% is breaking the law in most states.  Good luck taking them to court though...

http://www.lectlaw.com/files/ban02.htm

Something's very wrong when monthly interest fees added to your balance are more than your minimum payment. 

Speaking of Interest the other dirty little secret of credit has to do with getting an education.  Most of us aren't fortunate enough to have a rich uncle or all the money we need to take advantage of higher education.  Scholarships and grants are nice but you can't count on them especially if you go to a private college. 

Such is the case for many in the working world who aren't able to upend their lives to attend a regular public college or university.  Many private colleges try to address the problem by scheduling classes outside of a normal work schedule.  They can offer the same financial aid as a public university and often have private lending available when traditional sources aren't enough. 

Look out for those private sources though.  If usury is alive and well anywhere in the financial world it's in education finance. 

There's a wonderful opportunity in education funding for banks and other lenders to make ridiculous profits with virtually no risk. 

The opportunity comes from government secured education loans like the Stafford.  Lenders who participate in the program lend money at lower rates than private loans not unlike government backed housing loans. 

Understand this, to the lenders of these education loans there is NO RISK.  If the student defaults on the loan the lender is repaid leaving the government to collect on the debt. 

With a sour economy these loans are often the only option to pay for an education.  Worse, with increasing tuition costs student indebtedness can become overwhelming even with low interest rates.  That's where the options of deferment and forbearance come in.   With these options a borrower can buy time (literally) when they are unable to pay their monthly payment but don't want to default on their loans. 

The catch?

It's called capitalized interest.  Capitalized interest is the practice of taking the interest that would normally be paid during deferment and adding it to the principle balance of the loan.  In some cases it can swell the principal balance to 15 to 20% of the original amount borrowed. 

In effect, you pay the interest twice on the same money with this option.  Once for the original payment and again for the interest on the payments you defer when  it's added to the principal payment.  Combine this with loan consolidation which is often used to bring payments to a reasonable level. (Mine were almost $1000/mo. without it) and you have an inescapable money machine that only a winning lottery ticket could fix.

Again, any politician that stands up on a podium and blames the borrower for this legalized graft should be strung up by his toenails. 

We're told education is the road to success but soon find that road a financial minefield.  There should never be a profit motive in education outside of personal growth but we all know that's just an idealistic pipe dream.

So it seems we can't even drive to work or get an education without being subject to someone else's profit motive.  So imagine the depths of depravity when someone tries to convince you a luxury rises to the same level of a necessity.

Ah the price of convenience.  That gallon of milk or pack of cigarettes may always be available but you'll pay more because of it.  So it is with our modern toys. 

After all, who could live without being in constant contact with friends and loved ones or without the Internet at your fingertips wherever you go.  It's all so very... convenient, isn't it.

When does a convenience become a necessity?  When your work requires it? Maybe when you can't always be in the same room with those you care about?

Sometimes I think I'm a bit of a troglodyte and I've been called as much.  I'd like to think that I'm eminently practical.  I could care less how many processors your phone has or how great it takes pictures all I care about is if it rings.

Seems your choices to avoid the hysteria are ever dwindling.  Phones that don't have all those gee-whiz features are called amusingly enough, feature phones.   If you reject the Smartphone revolution these are your only option.  Mobile carriers would try to convince you that all these extras are critical to your survival at any cost. 

Of course that's a viewpoint subject to interpretation.  Along the way with clever marketing and peer pressure the public has been led to believe that paying hundreds of dollars a month for mobile phone service is no longer a luxury but a necessity. 

Carriers will always claim infrastructure costs, taxation and overhead to justify their rates but in the end it's really just about reaping the benefits of a good con.

Look at even the most basic of Smartphone plans and you see mandatory service charges even if you don't use the service.  Even if you don't surf the Internet or send a single text message you'll find yourself paying for the privilege anyway.

So it seems that even the most frugal among us can't escape the fleecing.  Even if we shun the Smartphone,  remain uneducated or never carry a credit card we can't escape being taken advantage of.   It's woven into the culture and reinforced with peer pressure and social marketing telling us all is as it should be and right.

It's not right, however, it never has been but as our lives get ever more comfortable we willingly suffer because we've accepted the programming to our own detriment.  Still so long as we have the trappings of our gilded cage built with institutionalized extortion no one will complain.