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How cable monopolists tricked conservatives into shooting themselves in the face
No matter how hard conservative culture-war cannon-fodder love big business, it will never love them back. Take network policy, where rural turkeys in Red State America keep on voting for Christmas, then profess outrage when Old Farmer Comcast gets to sharpening his ax.
For two years, the FCC has been hamstrung because MAGA Senators refuse to confirm Gigi Sohn, leaving the Commission with only four commissioners. What do the GOP have against Sohn? Well, to hear them tell of it, she’s some kind of radical Marxist who will undermine free enterprise and replace the internet with tin cans and string.
The reality is that Sohn favors policies that will specifically and substantially benefit the rural Americans whose senators who refuse to confirm her. For example, Sohn favors municipal fiber provision, which low-information conservatives have been trained to reflexively reject: “Get your government out of my internet!”
Boy, are they ever wrong. The private sector sucks at providing network connectivity, especially in rural places. The cable companies and phone companies have divided up the USA like the Pope dividing up the “New World,” setting out exclusive, non-competing territories that get worse service than anyone else in the wealthy world. Americans pay some of the highest prices for the lowest speeds of any OECD nation.
For ISPs, bad service is a feature, not a bug. When Frontier went bankrupt in 2020, we got to look at its books, which is how we discovered that the company booked the one rural customers with no alternative as “assets” because they could be charged more for slower, less reliable service:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/04/frontiers-bankruptcy-reveals-cynical-choice-deny-profitable-fiber-millions
We also learned that Frontier had calculated that it could make an extra billion in profit by bringing fiber to three million households, but chose not to, because it would take a decade to realize those profits, and during that time, executives’ stock options would decline in value as analysts punished them for making long-term bets.
We can bring fiber to rural America, and when we do, amazing things happen. McKee, Kentucky — one of the poorest places in America — used federal grants and its New Deal era rural electrification co-op to bring fiber to every household, using a mule called Ole Bub to run it over difficult mountain passes, and the result was an economic miracle:
https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-one-traffic-light-town-with-some-of-the-fastest-internet-in-the-us
The only Americans who consistently say they like their ISPs are people who live in the 700+ small towns that have run their own fiber, mostly in Red States:
https://muninetworks.org/communitymap
Small wonder that rural Americans prefer muni fiber to commercial ISPs’ offerings. When Trump’s FCC Chair Ajit Pai gave them billions in subsidies to improve rural connectivity, the monopolists spent it pulling new copper lines, not fiber — which would have been thousands of times faster.
Given all that, it takes a lot to convince rural Americans that municipal fiber is bad for them. Specifically, it takes disinformation. More specifically, it takes the lie that municipal fiber would result in “government interference” in users’ communications.
Boy, is this ever wrong. Private companies are free to set their own content moderation policies, and can discriminate against any viewpoint they wish. They can and do remove “lawful but awful” speech like racist diatribes, vaccine denial, election denial, and other conservative fever-dreams.
Contrast that with local governments, who are bound by the First Amendment, and prohibited from practicing “viewpoint discrimination.” This means that if a local government allows one viewpoint on a subject, they are generally required to allow all other viewpoints on that subject. This is how we get the Satanic Temple’s excellent stunts, like demanding that towns that display Christian icons on public lands also display statues of Baphomet right next to them.
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/17/639726472/satanic-temple-protests-ten-commandments-monument-with-goat-headed-statue
When your town government runs 100gb fiber into your basement or garage, it will have a much harder time blocking you from, say, running a Mastodon instance devoted to election denial or GhostGun production than your commercial ISP will. Convincing American conservatives to hate municipal broadband was a gigantic self-own:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/17/turner-diaries-fanfic/#1a-fiber
Even worse is what rural America has been sold instead of municipal fiber: Starlink, the My Pillow of broadband. Starlink sells itself as blazing-fast satellite broadband, but conspicuously fails to talk up the fact that every Starlink user in your neighborhood competes for the same wireless spectrum as you, so the service can only get slower and more expensive over time:
https://www.somebits.com/weblog/tech/bad/starlink-nov-2022-data-caps.html
There’s been a concerted smear campaign against Sohn, and one of the major talking points is that Sohn is anti-cop because she sits on EFF’s board, and EFF wants to place limits on police access to commercial surveillance data. Which is wild, because one of EFF’s demands is limits on geofenced reverse warrants, where cops ask Google to reveal the identity of everyone who was in a specific place at a specific time. If you’ve heard about geofenced warrants lately, it was probably in the context of conservative outrage at their use in rounding up the January 6 insurrectionists.
Now, the primary use of these is to target Black Lives Matter demonstrators and other protestors, and EFF advocates for the normal Fourth Amendment rights that everyone is guaranteed in the Constitution. Conservative pundits didn’t give a damn about geofenced warrants until the J6 affair, and now they do — but they still insist that Sohn should be disqualified from sitting on the FCC because she shares their outrage at the abuse of private surveillance data by law enforcement.
All this raises the question: why have all these Red State senators made it their mission in life to block the appointment of an FCC commissioner who would deliver so many benefits to their constituents? It’s hard to say, of course, but Luke Goldstein has a suggestion in today’s American Prospect:
https://prospect.org/politics/democratic-majority-at-the-fcc-still-blocked/
“A torrent of lobbying money from the telecom industry has flooded Washington to block Sohn’s arrival at the FCC. AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, and T-Mobile doled out over $23 million lobbying Washington this year.”
And why would these companies spend millions to block Sohn from sitting on the Commission? Because she would help the Democratic majority pass policies that make broadband cheaper and faster for America, especially rural America where costs are highest and service is worst, and this will limit the telco monopolists’ profits.
There’s a new Democratic senate majority that’ll sit in 2023, so perhaps Sohn will finally be seated and start delivering relief to all Americans, even the turkeys who can’t stop voting for Christmas.
[Image ID: A hunter in camo firing a rifle whose barrel has been bent back to point at his own face. A muzzle flash emerges from the barrel. The hunter wears a MAGA hat. Behind the hunter is a telephone pole with many radiating lines. In the bottom left corner of the image is a 1950s-style illustration of a broadly smiling salesman, pointing at a box that is emblazoned with the logo for ALEC.]
#pluralistic#ripoffs#skylink#frontier#monopoly#dark money#january 6#geofenced warrants#first amendment#1a#municipal fiber#alec#useful idiots#self-owning .#net neutrality#culture wars#gigi sohn#fcc#turkeys voting for christmas#starlink
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There is nothing more uncanny and horrifying than seeing Elon Musk’s Skylink for the first time and having no clue what it is but feeling like the world is ending
#i hate elon musk so fucking much#it’s one of the most uncanny things I’ve seen in my life#it feels so so unnatural#elon musk#skylink#my rambles#just so so so wrong#wake up and smell the dystopia babes
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#nature #instagood #instaphoto ##instaflower #summer #travel #instadaily #pic #picoftheday #portrait #portraitphotography #trip #green #canon #sky #skylink #sunset #sun #fotografia #foto #landscape #focus #flowerstagram (at Otty) https://www.instagram.com/p/CnUz6hZSNmt/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
#nature#instagood#instaphoto#instaflower#summer#travel#instadaily#pic#picoftheday#portrait#portraitphotography#trip#green#canon#sky#skylink#sunset#sun#fotografia#foto#landscape#focus#flowerstagram
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Skylink Shuttle is PROVIDing SAFE, ECONOMICAL, AND RELIABLE 24/7 SERVICE FOR TRAVELERS TO AND FROM RALEIGH-DURHAM INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (RDU)
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Executive transportation service in hartsfield jackson airport
Skylink transportation
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#Executive transportation service in hartsfield jackson airport#Executive transportation service#Skylink Transportation#hartsfield jackson airport
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Merge Master Elden Warrior
Merge Master Elden Warrior
Merge Master Elden Warrior is an arcade game offered by Skylink Studio. It is set in the medieval era and has a lot of military-themed characters and weapons.
The game is built on the concept of ‘merging’ two similar objects to create a more powerful one. For instance, you can merge two warriors to create a more powerful fighter, or merge two shields to create a sturdier barrier.
There are…
View On WordPress
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Gigi Yam (任霜霜) is a TV personality and Event MC in Los Angeles. She hosts several shows on Chinese broadcasting television station SkyLink TV. Gigi started her career as a model and show host with TVB and AM1430.
Besides working on TV and events, Gig enjoys her time doing volunteer work. She is the Vice President of Morning Light Foundation and President for the Hong Kong School Alumni Federation, both educational foundations helping scholars with financial need.
Gigi also hosts for many international and community organizations throughout California as well as politicians’ fundraising events. Gigi is a strong supporter for many charitable organizations and hosts many of their events including the Chinese American Museum, Chinese Parents Association for the Disabled and Chinese Christian Herald Crusades annually.
Lynn Paris
Writer, commercial and residential real estate partner
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Well, I had a scare tonight. Ha ha.
I’ve never seen the Skylink before. I thought it was just a normal satellite or something. So with everything going on in the world today, when I noticed a line of dead-silent lights going across the sky from the ocean over the land - I freaked out.
Local helpful guy willing to answer a phone, happily informed my mom and I that it was just the Skylink.
Oh.
So, if you see a line of faint drone-like lights in single file crossing over the entire sky - It’s probably Skylink.
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I have had LOTS OF TIME to think about Tron headcanons today
Because, as previously mentioned, airport
Going back to my home state to spend a few months with family
And the Universe does Not Want This to Happen
(remember when Alan was like "can it send me to Hawaii" and Lora was like "yeah but you have to purchase your program in advance" and then no one ever again even attempted to explore the avenues opened by the technology to digitize people into a computer and send them anywhere at the speed of internet connection)
(would be VERY nice right now)
(I'd tolerate airport security much better if it was just Tron running a virus check on my digitized luggage)
as of now I'm still alive, in Dallas
Finally
Halfway there (sorta)
"We've made it.... This far."
just a little asterisk
traveling solo in the Lone Star state
my wildcard self
in the wild wild west
About to get on a VASTLY delayed flight
I HOPE
the gate for this flight has changed at LEAST 5 times (although I'm pretty sure there's at least one more I didn't get the notification for)
(I feel like the travelers in the airport at the end of "Airplane " lol)
and I had to take a tram called "Skylink" to get to the new one
But then it CHANGED BACK to one in the section I took the tram from
so I had to go back
(Skylink functions like a pretty decent Solar Sailer, it's just that Skynet is apparently running the flight schedules)
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Traveling through the Dallas Forth Worth airport in a wheelchair was so traumatizing that I had nightmares afterwards. DFW is huge. The terminals are connected by a train called the skylink. This train is NOT safe for wheelchair users. Half my wheels were fully off the ground multiple times. If my gf hadn't been holding onto the chair with a death grip, I 100% would have fallen over and out of my chair.
I traveled through DFW on the way to my destination and on the way back. I will never go through this airport again. On the way there, they lost my wheelchair. Because of a whole other clusterfuck I had to leave my wheelchair behind at our destination, so I had to have assistance to and from the gates on the way back. The person to assist me never showed up.
My girlfriend had to carry all our bags, including my medical equipment, AND push me across this huge airport. Then. We got to the gate after a terrifying skylink ride, only to have them change the gate to the terminal we had just come from. At that point, I was tired, I was in a massive amount of pain (and their transport chairs are also the most uncomfortable chairs I've ever experienced), and I was so overwhelmed at the thought of riding the skylink again that I broke down crying at the gate. Other people on our flight said it was the fifth gate change for our flight. If we had gotten there sooner, my gf would have had to pointlessly push me around that airport multiple times.
It was so awful that when I finally got home, I had nightmares about being trapped in a failing space station in a wheelchair and being unable to escape because no one would help me. In my dream, I had to send my family away to escape without me and I remembered being so terrified that I would never see them again. It was awful and I woke up crying.
I am never going back to that airport.
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youtube
😱☠️🔥skylinks and darksteel prime🔥☠️😱
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Tier List: Link from TLOZ ranked by hot/cuteness
SkyLink is perfect in every way. TwiLink follows very close but lacks that special something. BreaLink depends but stays solid. CartLink is handsome and yall know it.
Toon Link is adorable. The rest really sucks.
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Monstrous machine 😎 F-BPPA Airbus Skylink Boeing 377SGT-201 Super Guppy at Paris Le Bourget by Heathrow Junkie
Via Flickr:
Airbus Industries used two Super Guppies in the 1970s to transport Airbus components between production facilities across Europe to the final assembly plant in Toulouse. The Super Guppies were converted from Boeing 377 Stratocruisers specifically for this task. F-BPPA was airframe 002, with F-BTGV being the companion airframe 001. Super Guppy Turbine F-BPPA (formerly N212AS), serial number 0002, is on static display in the Musée Aeronautique Aeroscopia near the Airbus facility, Toulouse–Blagnac Airport, France. [More info here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_Spacelines_Super_Guppy Taken with a Soviet made Zenith TTL camera. You can see a random selection of my aviation memories here: www.flickriver.com/photos/heathrowjunkie/random/
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