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from the do-not-pass-go,-do-not-collect-$200 dept.
Big Telecom Convinces Missouri Lawmakers To Block Funding For Broadband Competition:
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) set aside $42.5 billion to be spent by the states on expanding access to affordable broadband. But state by state, telecom lobbyists are working hard to ensure that this money only goes toward "unserved" locations, and can't be used to potentially create competition in markets they already serve.
Last month we noted how states like Illinois, at the direct demand of companies like AT&T, have been passing restrictions on who can or can't access these funds. That includes blocking some cooperatives or local governments from building broadband networks. Since that's expressly forbidden by the IIJA, these states are risking all broadband funding
In other instances it's a bit more subtle than that. Missouri, for example, just passed a bill (once again directly demanded by AT&T) stating that "no federal funds received by the state, political subdivision, city, town, or village shall be expended for the construction of retail broadband internet infrastructure unless the project to be constructed is located in an unserved area or underserved area."
On its face it doesn't seem controversial. But if you know how the U.S. telecom sector and policy actually works, its intention becomes more clear. The bill doesn't just block funding for areas that are already served, it blocks access to projects in areas incumbent ISPs claim they might serve someday:
the current version of the bill would allow incumbent ISPs to block federal funding to competitors if they vaguely indicate they have eventual interest in upgrading an area. Historically, state and federal regulators in fealty to regional monopolies aren't consistent about following up on fiber deployment promises, potentially perpetuating longstanding Internet access coverage gaps.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday May 01 2022, @02:32PM (19 children)
How many representatives are all that stupid, and how many are flat out corrupt? It's easy to imagine both classes of politicians sitting in a chamber, discussing a bill. Half the people on one side are just so stupid, they don't understand the bill at all. Half the people on the other side don't care what's in the bill, they only know that their masters at the telcos told them the bill must die, and another bill must go through. So, the two groups argue endlessly about nothing, thoroughly confusing any remaining members of the house or senate, so that no one understands WTF they are even voting on.
Meanwhile, the people have zero real representation on real life issues such as this.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 01 2022, @03:01PM (5 children)
I see another group that is sort of between the two. They hear from someone like AT&T about how good this will be for their constituents, or how the alternative will be bad for them (and/or businesses, children, whatever), and they don't hear anything from their constituents, most likely because they don't even know about it until after the fact.
There's a huge problem across the country where the small and/or local press is largely gone. There are very very few places that have beat reporters at the state houses reporting on bills being presented or questioning the representatives about their stances on them. I don't know how you fix that problem. We all decry paywalls and want our news free, but the small outlets can't survive that way, so they either close or are bought out by larger outlets who reassign the people working those issues to the parts that are deemed more worthwhile from a resource standpoint. As a result, there's nobody keeping an eye on the statehouses and holding them accountable.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Sunday May 01 2022, @04:37PM (4 children)
The Internet and the tremendous progress and growth in digital formats and storage capacity have completely upended publishing. It's been very confusing.
It's not that we "want our news to be free". We do want journalists and news organizations to be able to make a living, and perhaps a bit more, so they can do good work. But we also want the greatly increased access and savings that technology brings, and these old line publishers are doing much to stop that, including of course, constantly propagandizing us all about piracy. The old rules are no good. They cripple our use of technology. It's like being asked to never drive your car faster than a horse can run. And, like having to have a separate license for each vehicle you drive. There's no good reason for it. It is only to prop up copyright.
I really think various forms of patronage are the way forward. Crowdfunding, plain old donations, and public assistance. Publishers should stop crying about the tech genie being out of the bottle, and put more effort towards improving business models that might actually make sense. Legislative bills to require the collection of statistics on consumption of media, and the creation of the means to do so, and to set up and disperse funding, buy out copyright, prevent plagiarism, and so forth, this is what publishers should be working on. Would also be nice if ways to dampen the news' penchant for melodrama could be found and worked into the new system.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Sunday May 01 2022, @06:39PM (3 children)
Agreed. I read the news feeds, voraciously. This one wants $5/month, another is begging for $50, yet another wants $100 for a 1 year sub, and on and on it goes. If I subscribed to all of them, I could spend my entire income on news feeds.
Someone will pipe in here, "Well you only need 2 or 5 of the best!" And, my response would be "Nonsense! If I subscribe to the 'best five' today and drop all the others, how will I know when they are no longer the best?" Looking at you specifically here, CNN. God only knows how many CNN fans got trapped in the echo chamber, and never even realized their primary news source had changed so drastically from it's early days.
If there were some system whereby I could donate a nickle here, a dime there, three cents somewhere else - micropayments all over the place, I might make some micropayments. But, Wall Street Journal is most certainly not worth $8/month to me, nor are most of the other 'respected' news sources worth what they ask. Gimme micropayments, I can allocate maybe $20/month to the account, and spend it as I go, as I see fit. And, "micropayments" should start at micro levels. Some off-the-wall news site that no one ever heard of, and usually publishes crap, I might give a penny, because they published one good story, and I kinda feel sorry for them. Or, I might want to give them $0.005 or whatever. Micropayments is what I mean, LOL.
Of course, $0.005 by itself is just about nothing. But, if 6,000 other readers pay a similar amount, then it means a little bit. It could mean the difference between 'Jim Bob's Hometown News' making ends meet for another month, or going out of business.
As things stand today, I either read my news for free, or I just skip over the site that won't load for me.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Sunday May 01 2022, @10:47PM (1 child)
I used to visit the green site every day. Then they started ramming ads into the news feed.
What, I wonder, does SoylentNews plan to do? Hopefully not what the green site did! But the other options, I don't know. Keep laboring out of love, for the next several decades? Increase the automation to the point the site can run itself, no need for admin work more often than once a month? What's SN's most labor intensive need? I'd guess picking out the stories to post.
But on the larger picture of resolving the issues tech has brought to publication, is there any thought of, say, SN trying to form an alliance with other independent websites? Maybe join the Pirate Party? The alliance could decide upon policies, craft legislation, endorse candidates, fight legal battles, and all that.
One other thing I believe SN desperately needs is more users. Lots more users. Might be worth advertising the site itself. Mention SN on tech oriented subs, such as the reddit ones. Maybe mention SN on Linux distro forums, science sites, and so on.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Freeman on Monday May 02 2022, @02:18PM
If I had to guess, SoylentNews plans on staying up as long as they can. Assuming, they end up not funded, then it will be time to move on. The power over the site are in the hands of a few people and some unsavory deals could be made. I doubt it would survive that, though.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Informative) by Booga1 on Sunday May 01 2022, @10:56PM
The major hurdle to this is the banking systems are set up to skim money on transactions. The bank wants their $0.25+3% on every single transaction. There's no point in setting up a system to pay pennies when the bank keeps it all.
On the plus side, there are companies trying to implement your idea. Check out https://flattr.com [flattr.com] They basically queue up the transactions to do them in bulk so the fees don't siphon off all the money. The premise is that you set aside $X/month to split between all your chosen "subscriptions." One transaction for you, then they handle the splitting and payout. Of course, you can do single transactions too. If you find someone's blog that just saved you a ton of time, if they've got a Flattr button you can "buy them a beer" or whatever you feel fits the occasion.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 01 2022, @04:15PM (1 child)
>> Half the people on one side are just so stupid, they don't understand the bill at all. Half the people on the other side don't care what's in the bill, they only know that their masters at the telcos told them the bill must die, and another bill must go through
I tried to Venn diagram this but it did work since Democrats fit both descriptions but they only have 50% of the seats.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 01 2022, @04:20PM
That's funny, I tried to make a Venn diagram too but the republicans fit both descriptions to a tee. It's almost like party doesn't matter and something more fundamental than that is broken, isn't it?
Well, I lied, I didn't diagram anything. I was just trying to be funny.
And we all know damn well, so did you, and so were you.
Cut the party bullshit, and lets have an actual discussion on the submission at hand, shall we?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 01 2022, @06:33PM (6 children)
Oh please, we've heard this old crap a million times. All this stupid complaining is just silly while reelection rates remain over 90%. Primaries haven't started yet. Now is the time to clean House.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 01 2022, @06:41PM (1 child)
Izzat you, Fusty? Hmmmm . . . Fusty doesn't post anonymous, generally speaking. Must be a Fusty convert!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 01 2022, @06:58PM
Clock is ticking... You either fix it, or you don't. Your endless pissing and moaning makes your butt look big
(Score: 2) by sjames on Monday May 02 2022, @09:07AM (3 children)
When the election is between the old crooked idiot and this rabid mutant raccoon we found in the dumpster, what do you expect?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @11:45PM (2 children)
Peoples choice. Voters are responsible for picking old crooked rabid mutant raccoons in the first place.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday May 03 2022, @12:02PM (1 child)
Sounds like you have Stockholm syndrome.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2022, @05:28PM
Heh, on the contrary, the people that reelect these abusers for 40 years are exhibiting that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 01 2022, @07:19PM
Yes yes, the head cheetos would've jumped right on this matter and fixed it for good /sarcasm
(Score: 4, Interesting) by mcgrew on Sunday May 01 2022, @07:22PM
How many representatives are all that stupid, and how many are flat out corrupt?
It isn't an either/or proposition, they're both. It's MISSOURI we're talking about, home of the original village idiot. Missourians believe all politicians are corrupt, so guess who gets elected?
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 01 2022, @09:18PM (1 child)
Then again, we really do not want Missouri and Arkansas to have internet access, because they will just plough their way into RWNJ bubbles, and create more Runaways who have "done their own research.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 01 2022, @09:38PM
Plowing yo mama was a terrible mistake. She should have been left to lie fallow.