The inimitable tale teller Mark Twain said:
“Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.”
I long ago paraphrased his assertion – into the headline you now see before you.
Only because the Left lives by it.
Depending upon how one decides to start the count – we are ostensibly in Week Five of the China Virus shutdown.
Governments nigh everywhere are mandating you spend nigh the entirety of your life barricaded in your homes.
Since this is the 21st Century, our far-and-away best lifeline out of our domiciles – is the Internet.
The Coronavirus Is Creating an ‘Enormous Stress Test’ of America’s Internet
At the outset, we predicted….
Coronavirus: Nation’s Internet Providers Have Made #SelfDistancing Telework a Piece of Cake
“In this telework ‘experiment’ – I have the utmost confidence.
“Because the nation’s ISPs – have spent more than a trillion dollars making us ready.
“We have ‘average’ Internet speeds – that are exponentially faster than 99% of us need to do what we do for work…away from work.”
And it has been about WAY more than just work.
We the Entrapped have been doing lots and LOTS of livestream video binge watching.
Netflix, YouTubeTV, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu, Roku, Tubi and even more – are all streaming video services at our disposal.
And the only reason this cornucopia of couch potato fodder exists?
Because the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have built an Internet fast and durable enough to simultaneously deal with all of them…and everything else we ask of the Internet.
We always lead with the streaming video example – because streaming video is far and away the biggest bandwidth devourer going.
Netflix, YouTube Combine for Over Half of Streaming Time on TVs
Netflix, YouTube Gobble Up Half of Internet Traffic
Our Internet has been handling the video crush just swimmingly.
Europe? Not so much.
China Virus Lockdown Proves US Internet is Better, Stronger and Faster Than Europe’s
Netflix and Youtube Stop HD Streaming in Europe So the Internet Doesn’t Crash:
“Netflix and YouTube are both stepping up to help make sure the internet doesn’t crash in Europe. Both companies have committed to limiting the streaming quality of content for at least 30 days amidst the growing server demand.
“Many people are working from home, and more people are streaming video as the coronavirus outbreak has left the country, much like the U.S., in a state of self-isolation with the masses practicing social distancing to help keep the virus in check.
“This comes after calls from the European Union for Netflix to switch to standard definition streaming, as opposed to high definition streaming, which uses a lot more bandwidth and, at a time when more people are streaming video, can strain internet providers.”
Our Big Media – is never our side.
COVID-19 Isn’t Crashing the Internet … Yet – March 17, 2020
More than a month later – it still hasn’t crashed ours.
It has debilitated Europe’s.
You may wonder why our Internet is so much better than theirs….
China Virus Breaks Europe’s Internet – Not the US’s. Why? Uber-Regs Like Net Neutrality
Europe has the massive-government, uber-stupid Network Neutrality imposed upon their networks.
And Europe generally is inclined to add more regulation to…everything. Including the Internet.
The sclerotic additive of government – is why Europe is now en masse watching video 1990s-style.
Our relative minimization of sclerotic government – is why the US is still streaming in style.
We had Barack Obama-imposed Net Neutrality for about a year.
The Donald Trump Administration rid us of it.
As always, the Left’s response was understated.
The Internet Is Dying. Repealing Net Neutrality Hastens That Death
Two-plus years later – in the midst of the global shutdown – it is our Internet that is kicking keister and taking names.
It is Europe’s Internet that is doddering around at government-addled sloth.
The Left – as always – remains steadfastly impervious to facts.
Tone Deaf: Using COVID-19 As a Prop to Celebrate the Death of Net Neutrality:
“So we’ve noted a few times now how the FCC’s decision to kill net neutrality did a hell of a lot more than just kill ‘net neutrality.’
“It obliterated much of the FCC’s consumer protection authority, making it harder than ever to hold U.S. telecom monopolies accountable for bad behavior like rampant privacy violations, ripping you off with b******t fees, or refusing to upgrade or repair long-neglected taxpayer subsidized networks.
“And this was a problem even before America began staring down the barrel of a brutal pandemic while stuck at home telecommuting.”
Not mentioned?
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has all along had ALL the “consumer protection authority” – this clown laments the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) redundantly lost.
And while reducing said redundancy – we were vastly improving our Internet.
What do I do when we remove an awful, crushing Internet policy?
And it proves to be precisely the right move – when the China Virus crushes Europe’s Net Neutrality-addled Internet and doesn’t cause the US’s to even blink?
I celebrate.
That the Left doesn’t celebrate – says a lot more about them than it does about me.
This first appeared in Red State.