The awful California wildfires that have killed dozens of people and destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property – are absolutely atrocious. It is such an inconceivable loss.
What makes the devastation and destruction additionally awful – is the awful, wasteful non-necessity of the massive magnitude.
California Failed to Sufficiently Manage its Forests:
“From the Ventana Wilderness in Big Sur to Warner Valley on Mt. Lassen, trails are overgrown and bordered by rotting trunks and dry limbs. When trees fall, instead of the dead wood being cleared, it’s left to decompose along paths and roadways. Underbrush is left untouched as well, with forest floors blanketed in dry kindling. This hands-off approach creates a literal tinderbox, leaving our forests incredibly vulnerable. One practical solution…would be to clear the deadwood and dry brush.”
Such a simple solution – which California’s government chose not to implement. Choosing instead to side with the uber-regulatory environmentalists. So very, very sad.
What a massive frigging waste.
I loathe waste. Of life, time, money – anything. Each is so finite – we must guard vociferously each from squander.
Government – is squander incarnate. It is a bureaucratic blackhole. Where lives, time, money and energy go in – and nothing comes out.
California’s government has spent decades squandering the beauty and productivity of the Golden State. Including allowing exponentially larger wildfires than necessary to occur – over and over and over again.
The same sort of undergrowth clearing that should have been done in California – must be done…with government deadwood and dry brush.
To avoid these sorts of conflagration in our economy – government’s regulatory thickets need to be regularly thinned.
Regulations appear, grow and multiply – further and further choking our economy. And these thickets – periodically cause the entire economy to burn down. See: The Community Reinvestment Act, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae – and the 2008 global economic conflagration.
So frequent maintenance is necessary.
This regulatory underbrush removal – is exactly what the Donald Trump Administration has been doing.
Trump Cuts 22 Regs for Every New One
The results – have been extraordinary.
Sorry Obama, But It’s Trump’s Economic Boom, Not Yours
Included in Trump’s underbrush removal – were some particularly awful, wasteful clumps.
Trump’s (Federal Communicatons Commission) FCC Votes to Repeal Net Neutrality
Net Neutrality is a massive, all-encompassing imposition of government on the Internet – with absolutely no need whatsoever for it.
The pro-Net Neutrality claim is : Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will block your Internet access without it. Except: In a quarter century without Net Neutrality – no ISPs have ever blocked anyone.
(You know who blocks people all the time? Big Tech: The likes of Google, Facebook and Twitter. To whom Net Neutrality – didn’t apply.)
Did Trump ridding us of Net Neutrality help? Bien sur.
Building on the Broadband Investment Bump:
“In 2017, investment in broadband rose by $1.5 billion to $76.3 billion. This reversed a decline of approximately $3.2 billion in 2015-16.”
Thankfully, the Trump Administration can stride and masticate Bubble Yum at the same time. As they clear federal underbrush – they look to do the same down ballot.
New FCC Order Pushes 5G Momentum In Right Direction:
“(These) rules…streamline wireless infrastructure deployment….These advanced networks will be dependent on thousands of small cell antennas that discretely attach to local infrastructure, like light posts and buildings, to ensure strong and reliable connectivity. It will be an incredibly significant undertaking to retrofit existing infrastructure with these sensors in a timely, streamlined and cost-efficient manner. But current regulations on the books were designed for 100-foot wireless towers and don’t make sense for today’s modern wireless infrastructure.”
So the Trump Administration has cleared out much of the wireless Internet regulatory undergrowth.
The administration needs to do to the wired Internet regulatory underbrush – what they have so wisely done to the wireless.
Because first and foremost: You can’t have wireless – without wired. Every single thing everyone does on a cell phone – travels much of the way on wired networks.
So wired Internet needs a regulatory clean-out – the way wireless Internet did:
“Congress set limits on the amount of compensation that cable operators can be charged for this access, to be sure that cable operators will continue to invest in their networks and offer new products and services. Unfortunately, at the same time that cable operators are investing in their networks to expand the services they are offering consumers, some local franchises are also abusing the local and state franchising process by demanding that cable operators obtain extra authorizations or licenses and pay extra fees when they offer broadband and other services over the cable network, even though the operators have previously already paid them a fee for their network to be in the rights-of-way.”
Trump’s FCC limited the shakedowns state and local governments impose – upon wireless providers.
Trump’s FCC must do the exact same – for wired providers.
The sooner – the better.
Because when it comes to 5G – China is coming.
And we want as little government underbrush as possible – impeding anything we want our economy to do.
This first appeared in Red State.