On Twitter, President Trump Tries -- and Fails -- To Target Comcast (cnn.com) 232
"President Trump on Saturday told his Twitter and Facebook followers to drop Comcast..." reports CNN -- adding that "For the most part, people just shrugged."
Comcast executives barely batted any eyelashes. The company didn't bother to comment. And Google searches for "Comcast customer service" trended lower than in recent days... Saturday's anti-Comcast post received fewer than 10,000 retweets in 10 hours. On Facebook, where it was reposted, it received fewer than 7,500 comments.
One of the comments with the most reactions said, "You spend way too much time on social media."
Strangely, his post was a reaction to a three-year-old tweet by former Arkansas governor and Fox News commentator Mike Huckabee, who wrote in 2017 that the mafia has "better service than Comcast. Sure they shoot you, but it's over with and they don't charge you for the bullet," Huckabee riffed. It was unclear how the old tweet suddenly grabbed the president's attention.
Though reaction to the tweet seemed muted, CNN still called it "an egregious use" of a presidential platform to hurt an American business...
One of the comments with the most reactions said, "You spend way too much time on social media."
Strangely, his post was a reaction to a three-year-old tweet by former Arkansas governor and Fox News commentator Mike Huckabee, who wrote in 2017 that the mafia has "better service than Comcast. Sure they shoot you, but it's over with and they don't charge you for the bullet," Huckabee riffed. It was unclear how the old tweet suddenly grabbed the president's attention.
Though reaction to the tweet seemed muted, CNN still called it "an egregious use" of a presidential platform to hurt an American business...
CNN? (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously??? We are posting CNN crap now? What the fuck???
Re: CNN? (Score:2)
Welcome to Slashdot; I love you.
Re:CNN? (Score:5, Insightful)
"Why is the President endorsing or insulting a cable company? Government shouldn't pick winners and losers in the marketplace." -- Trump supporters, speaking from an alternate reality where a Democrat is POTUS
"Uh, well, of course, that's different. It's OK when Republicans do it." -- Trump supporters, speaking from this sorry-ass excuse for a reality
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I dunno how many Trump supporters are really onboard with Comcast. That company is a darling of the Chamber of Commerce types, and some of those are closet Never Trumpers.
Meanwhile, anyone who can rub at least a few braincells together knows that Comcast is NBC and vice versa. How many Trump supporters fall in that category? Might be a few.
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Was that meant to be a reply to me? It has no relation to much of anything I said. I never said anything about anyone "quitting" or "quicking" or whatever it is you're going on about.
Re:CNN? (Score:4, Insightful)
Even the folks who go to his rallies don't take his tweets too seriously
Except when it suits them.
Re:CNN? (Score:5, Insightful)
Then again, that defense line drives me fucking insane. "Oh, relax, it's just THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES posted unhinged crazy shit on Twtter. Nothing to see here, move along."
I really wonder if Republicans plan to keep such a low presidential standard once a Democrat is back in the White House.
See also: deficit.
Re:CNN? (Score:5, Insightful)
"Why is the President endorsing or insulting a cable company? Government shouldn't pick winners and losers in the marketplace." -- Trump supporters, speaking from an alternate reality where a Democrat is POTUS
"Uh, well, of course, that's different. It's OK when Republicans do it." -- Trump supporters, speaking from this sorry-ass excuse for a reality
Not the Trump supporters I spend time with, anyway. This one just seemed like Trump being Trump, and yet another reason not to take his tweets too seriously. Which is why, of course, it had little effect. Even the folks who go to his rallies don't take his tweets too seriously.
It's not about whether or not we should take Trump seriously, it's about America being taken seriously. Americans tend to think that the Universe is America and that what happens outside their little pocket universe does not matter, but American products are exported and those exports create a shit-ton of jobs in America. Thus America's relations with other countries directly affect Trump voters however little they may want to think about it. With a man in charge of the country whose words, according to his own followers, cannot and should not be taken seriously, a man whose word can't be trusted, then America can't be taken seriously either nor can America's word be trusted. The actions and words of the president reflect on America and the American people. If the country is being run by an individual whose words cannot be trusted, whose tweets must be interpreted like those of an oracle, who gives promises and then welches on them and who tears up treaties at his own whim, then it makes it very hard for America to do business internationally. Trust that you will keep your word takes an awful lot longer to build up than it takes to flush that trust down the toilet. At the moment most countries are just waiting to see what happens in November in the hope they'll at least get somebody consistent in the White House to deal with. Biden may be a dotard and a perpetual gaffe machine (but then again, so was Roland Reagan) but at least Biden will be relatively consistent (like Reagan was). If November brings another four years of Trump then expect an interesting four years ahead of you as the world begins making arrangements that don't involve the US. One thing is for sure, in the future nobody will expect any commitment that the US makes to last beyond the end of the presidential term in which that commitment was made. Going forward this is going to be one of the most impactful aspects of the Trump Legacy.
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in the future nobody will expect any commitment that the US makes to last beyond the end of the presidential term in which that commitment was made.
No one serious in politics believes in US commitments today. It's 4 or 8 years at a time. And the various evil dictators around the world count on it. Oh, some president might give them a hard time, but keep a low profile and the next one lets you get away with anything.
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Yeah, that's right. Comcast is supposed to be defended from Trump by MSNBC...
Re:CNN? (Score:5, Insightful)
The media isn't out to get Trump.
REALITY is out to get Trump.
And he's completely incapable of dealing with it, because in 70+ years, he's never had to.
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pathetic human garbage reduced to the saddest, most feeble defenses of his stupid, increasingly sundowning idiot leader. haha. you must have precisely zero self-respect left. i love it.
Re:CNN? (Score:4)
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You happened.
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Re:CNN? (Score:5, Insightful)
Slashdot during its peak was in the early 2000's where Indian outsourcing. Hit the Tech community very hard. If you looked at posts during the late 1990's on Slashdot you see people posting about how their 6 figure tech jobs. Then with the .COM bust followed up with heavy Indian outsourcing (Which was put into effect by Bill Clinton, reducing the restrictions on green cards, as there was a tech shortage in the U.S. Hence why the 6 figure job for people to use Microsoft Front Page) which made it even more difficult to get back on your feet.
A lot of tech workers changed careers. Others took a huge pay cut.
The tech job actually balanced to a level where it really should be, however many of the older tech workers are still bitter because their current 6 figure job, that took them over a decade to get too, is still less than their starting salary when they started working. Granted many businesses have began to turn back to local workers, because outsourced workers had a lot of hidden costs.
There is a lot of animosity towards outsourced work. This animosity help blow on the embers racist tenancies that we all have. This had made Trump (compared to actual conservatives) seem more appealing to the Slashdot Crowd, even compared to other tech sites, where most of the tech workers started working after the .COM bust.
So when Trump during the 2016 elections talked about getting rid of outsourcing, and improving infrastructure. It did strike some optimism even in a Never Trumper like me, that perhaps if he was president he could possible make things better. Having been elected despite my vote not for him, I had some expectations for some positive change. However this hope has degraded sharply over time, as Trump fails to tell the truth on things that doesn't make him seem like a grate person, will not listen to expert opinions, as he suppose to be ruling over a complex world, and keeps on attacking anything that hurts his ego.
Indian government knew enough to kiss up to him, so there is little to no restrictions on Indian outsourcing. Other than a few weeks where Trump got to play in some industrial equipment no major infrastructure has been passed. He then spends most of his time yelling a CNN and MSNBC (owned by Comcast) and those Democrats who are trying desperately to keep the interest of their own constituents in play.
While I understand why Slashdot has a big Trump following. It seems that they have been blind to how little has been done to actually help them.
Re: CNN? (Score:4, Insightful)
Since when did facts become Anti-Trump?
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Who cares if Trump sucks ass? Slashdot isn't a political news/commentary site.
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Trump being old doesn't make Biden lucid.
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And? How does that make Biden a good candidate? They're both trash.
Would if I could... (Score:5, Insightful)
I pretty sure if Comcast customers had an option they would have left on their own long ago.
As I understand it there aren't alternatives in a lot of areas.
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Many have other wired Internet options that are not Comcast, but are not any better. What Trump May not realize though is that unless people have cable, or use Sling, Fox News is not get the $2 socialist tribute From every cable subscribing American and will go out of business.
I know that a Fox is no longer the
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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Could be worse, here (BC) if you go over, it's 25-50 cents a MB.
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Most average people can switch to unlimited data mobile plans.
There are none. So called "unlimited" plans inevitably have a small asterisk near them. In particular, you can't use unlimited data for tethering so forget watching Netflix on your TV and not on your phone.
There are some exceptions, AT&T has a true unlimited plan that they offer for fixed wireless in rural areas. But that's about it.
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I just installed the Comcast Home Pods. Nobody else is offering a WiFi/MoCA mixed device with Ethernet out.
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you have to rent the comcast gateway to use that.
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Yep... but it always has made sense for the router and the receiver to be from the same brand.
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MOCA? Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test? OK, on-topic for any discussion of Trump or Biden (can we please get a candidate under 70?), but what are you actually talking about?
Re: Would if I could... (Score:2)
Moca. Multimedia over Coax
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I just installed the Comcast Home Pods.
Be sure not to eat them.
Re: Would if I could... (Score:2)
They also cost ten times more than the global average for the same speed, and offer one tenth of the average speed of the top ten leading providers.
Their cable work is naff, too. Not surprising, given the conditions cable runners work under.
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There's a competitor to Comcast at this moment, it's FIOS. Too bad that's only in the areas it's easy to wire. There's also DirecTV and Dish, but they're mainly designed for rural areas.
Re:Would if I could... (Score:5, Insightful)
Too bad that's only in the areas it's easy to wire.
Not even in most of those.
Last I checked the stats, fully 80% of the U.S. has no real alternative to their ONE local cable company for broadband internet.
Even worse: the big cable companies, like Comcast and Spectrum, have those parts of the U.S. divided up into "non-compete zones", in which one company has pretty much exclusive domain over the whole area.
Which is illegal as hell. Anti-trust laws haven't been taken off the books. But far too often these days they have been ignored.
Re: Would if I could... (Score:2)
No, you donâ(TM)t get to blame this on anyone but your current ruling body. You voted them in and suffer the consequences.
I have a choice in my area, but not many do.
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As if. Local duopoly conditions exist in many communities dominated at the local/state level by Democrats. Center-leftist and Center-rightists have much in common. One of those things is that they love crony capitalism, so long as it benefits them somehow.
An interesting presidential debate (Score:4, Informative)
coming up.
Two candidates that have both lost the plot.
One might start babbling about great walls in China, the other about nothing in particular.
There are a lot of intelligent people in America. Some were even born there. So how did you end up with these two as candidates?
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So how did you end up with these two as candidates?
You end up with Trump because the elitist agenda of Free Trade and open borders ran on so long that the people were hungry for a Perot 2.0 to bring back manufacturing and the rule of law. Only an outsider like Trump could do it, because the insiders are dedicated to the aforementioned policies. Furthermore, the outsider had to be an anti-intellectual boor, because any sound formulation of policy that doesn't espouse the aforementioned policy is *ruthle
Re:An interesting presidential debate (Score:5, Insightful)
So how did you end up with these two as candidates?
What truly intelligent person would want anything to do with the shitshow that is being the President of the USA? Obama showed us just how far being intelligent and articulate and full of ideas gets you: no where. What little he managed to push through a hostile congress has been subsequently dismantled by a orange internet trolling bumblefuck.
What would be the incentive to become president?
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The name Obamacare was picked by his opponents but has ended up securing his legacy. That's a pretty big prize if you are into that kind of thing.
It's always a gamble. If you manage to get both houses on your side you can do stuff, if not you can do less stuff but as Obama demonstrated it can still be enough to build a legacy.
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The name Obamacare was picked by his opponents but has ended up securing his legacy.
The bitter irony of Obamacare is that Obamacare was nothing at all even remotely like what Obama proposed. It was a genius move from republicans. Fuck it up to the point of being barely functional, leaving all the systemic problems of the previous system in place, and then name it after a democrat.
Re:An interesting presidential debate (Score:4, Insightful)
Except that now people are desperate to hang on to their Obamacare and Trump has proven it's not easy to replace it.
I think a lot of people understand that it could have been even better had the Republicans not screwed with it.
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Watch Trump very carefully during the debate. He seems to be suffering from some kind of motor function problem that makes it difficult for him to drink or walk down a slope.
https://youtu.be/0tkyqjvMrnU [youtu.be]
https://youtu.be/wuD69ZkTpC0 [youtu.be]
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne... [dailymail.co.uk]
It could be a physical problem due to his age or obesity, but it's more likely neurological.
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false equivalence
Re: An interesting presidential debate (Score:2)
Intelligence is ability to think. Does not reflect the ability to understand, which comes from education. Something America isn't strong in.
Sadly, we also know that intelligence is reduced by water and air pollution, of which America is famed.
Indeed, the same toxins that drove poor Claudius mad are freely flowing with downgraded EPA protections.
Throw in the fact that you need 50%+1 of a population to be in a group for that group to be in control, and the nutters are on control.
Biden is doing well, mostly be
Still think Huckabee is Fox News? (Score:3, Funny)
Uhm, Mr. President. I've noticed a problem with your DVR. You're looking at a Huckabee episode from three years ago. The world has changed since then, and Huckabee is now a comedy show on TBN and Newsmax TV. Please watch the live streams of MSNBC and CNN once in a while.
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He needs to play more golf (Score:2)
Comparison data please (Score:3)
Totally uncalled-for, out of line, un-Presidential (Score:5, Insightful)
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but it's totally out of line for a sitting POTUS to do shit like this.
What are you talking about, it's not 2016 anymore. Get with the times, women can vote, black people can become president, you can't call your HDDs master/slave anymore, and the office of the POTUS exists to have childish twitter arguments with 16 year old girls.
We have a long 3 year history of a sitting POTUS doing shit like this. It's the "new normal".
Net Neutrality (Score:3)
The republicans were against net neutrality right? Maybe comcast should exercise that right and slow any Trump venom so it comes across really slow.
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I like that idea. Whenever a customer is looking at RealDonaldTrump, slow the speeds down to 1 character per second.
Trump's supporters don't have sufficient attention span to pay attention for long to read his tweets at that speed, so it'll soon become a contest to fit the most BS into just a couple of words.
Reminds me of Father Jack Hackett from "Father Ted" -
"FECK! ARSE! GIRLS! DRINK!"
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received fewer than 7,500 comments (Score:2)
So here's slashdot, trying to help him out a little. WTF?
You know, the less press this guy gets, the better off we all are.
This is all (Score:2)
I have to say about this "story" https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Lack of response explainabile (Score:2)
Maybe the lack of response is because the people who tried his suggestion now don't have Internet access because Comcast was the only provider in their area?
"an egregious use" (Score:2)
because it is - FULL STOP PERIOD - game over
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If Trump rally wants to target Comcast... (Score:2)
Someone enlighten Trump (Score:4, Insightful)
Dear. Trump -
If we actually had a CHOICE about who we can use in any given area vs the regional Monopolies you Government types refuse to dismantle, then we might actually take you up on that offer.
We don't stay with Comcast because ( sarcasm ) we like them, their low, low price or their amazing customer service. ( /sarcasm )
We do so because, thanks to you all turning a blind eye to the problem, we have no other choice in the matter if we want service at all.
So when you people finally get off your ass and see the problem for what it is, let us know because we would definitely appreciate even having a choice.
Re:OK, that's it. I'm out. (Score:5, Funny)
It's not even news when Trump makes a tweet that gets a strong reaction, but now I need to read stories about tweets that DON'T provoke a reaction too?
Fuck right off
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Re:OK, that's it. I'm out. (Score:4, Interesting)
Not even sure what the point of this story is.
Is everyone who loves Comcast supposed to be offended by the President's tweet? If so, that's going to be a mighty small group. Probably not even contain most of the people who work there, let alone their customers...
Re:OK, that's it. I'm out. (Score:5, Insightful)
Not even sure what the point of this story is.
well "the president of a country with over 300 million people is an internet troll, sorts out his grudges with some company by inciting a boycott bumping a 3 year old tweet, and fails miserably" would have made headlines all over the world a few years ago.
true, now it doesn't even surprise anybody anymore.
Re: OK, that's it. I'm out. (Score:2)
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Slashdot as a whole is Democratic. We've welcomed politicians of all types in the past. But Obama and Clinton were willing to freak out the Press Secretary to come down to the comments level. Then again, at times were were at the pulse of the issues in front of Congress.
President Trump... there's some tech issues that still exist, and the editors feel like talking your idiotic stories. I guess somebody in the Oval Office needs to get a keyboard out.
Re:OK, that's it. I'm out. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:OK, that's it. I'm out. (Score:5, Funny)
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Unfortunately, I keep getting email notices and I'm getting even more angry.
If this a problem in your life it sounds like you relish the taste of your anger. If it helps I can off you dessert by signing off with an "Ok boomer"
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Re:OK, that's it. I'm out. (Score:4, Funny)
[X] Doubt [slashdot.org]
Re:OK, that's it. I'm out. (Score:4, Interesting)
We'll really miss your insightful comments. Whatever shall we do?
Which part of this story do you dispute? Go tell your boy Trump to force slashdot, a private company, to put stories you like - that's what he loves doing isn't it?
Re:OK, that's it. I'm out. (Score:4, Insightful)
Who is kidding who. It's like what the fuck, are geeks and nerds been to be shrooms, hid in the dark from the reality that impacts their lives and fed bullshit. What ever the news, if it impacts nerds and geeks, it should be discussed by nerds and geeks, pulled apart, dissected and Frankenstein like recreated. Transferred from the liberal arts side of the university to the STEM side of the university. What some nerds and geeks like to dive into, is up to them and not up to you.
Why the fuck are you even reading a political thread if you do not like it. Fucking ignore it and move on to one of the others, you want to piss yourself off for no reason at all or just a bit of an anal retentive control freak, wanting to control what others discuss. Don't like the politics, avoid those threads, too fucking easy (some for the modding clowns that joined you).
That the President highlighted a corporation that provides bad service is interesting especially one that impacts geeks an nerds and slashdot itself a lot, telecommunications, the more you shift data around, the more you can do with it. Of course Trump being far right, can not just take the easy out of, pushing a government funded fibre optic network to cover those places not properly provisioned, too anti unlimited profit for him, kind of funny. Stuck by his own greed.
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Yeah but this story has 126 comments on it, the closest technical one is about a Chrome feature which has 19. Maybe Slashdot is just pandering to its audience?
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Frankly, it is kinda scary that you find a US President openly attacking a ISP "political". How the times have changed around here...
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Comment removed (Score:4)
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To be fair, Slashdot's reader base has shifted pretty considerably to the right on the political spectrum since then, and that has changed the tone of the political posts. I've got no idea how a place that used to be a gathering spot for liberal hippies who hated The Man turned into a right-wing think tank, but here we are.
Age. Old people come down with hardening of the attitude. They justify it as 'wisdom', but it's merely fear of change. A somewhat justified fear of change, for the successful ones. If the rules change, they may not be successful under the new rules.
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You have friends here? Will it just be you leaving or all your sock puppet accounts too, comrade?
Re: OK, that's it. I'm out. (Score:3)
Intriguing. A six digit UID. I took my time creating an account, preferring to just manually enter the username on posts, so have a four digit.
I'm certain if you were using it that far back, you either gave up on it or were just reading.
You've a neutral karma, which is also odd. How high did it go when Slashdot used a score value? That was around 2000, so long after it had started. I think mine was a few thousand, averaging +20 a day. (Four +5s.)
I'm sure you're being honest and not exaggerating, just want t
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Re: Comcast (Score:5, Insightful)
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The Prez hates pay-TV... time to complete the cycle and attack DirecTV.
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If Orange Man Bad hates it then it is good.
This is what TDS looks like.
And the precisely zero people saying comcast is good should tell you everything you need to know about using the term "TDS".
Re:The President is Right this time (Score:5, Funny)
If Trump wanted his core supporters to ditch Comcast, he should have included in his tweet that one of Comcast's senior executives is both female and black.
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If Trump wanted his core supporters to ditch Comcast, he should have included in his tweet that one of Comcast's senior executives is both female and black.
If Comcast users (of whatever political persuasion) had any good alternative to Comcast they'd already have switched. So not even that would have any impact.
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ROFL. Well, the fact that nothing changed seems like solid proof that (contrary to the FCC's assertions) they really are a monopoly. After all, with that many people who hang on every word from the mouth of The Donald, if nobody changed providers, it must mean that there aren't any viable alternatives. Glad to see our president finally noticed.
Nope. (Score:2)
Comcast is bad but getting better... I'd still ditch them in a second if something better was available... Monopoly in many areas or lacking serious competition. I have the phone company at similar speeds now but they were actually WORSE than comcast and I thought that would be impossible!
Trumps moron's should cancel immediately and go offline... oh, stopping Fox News (cable tv) could save the country!
We should help Trump in getting his people off comcast...
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