It’s a merry-go-round of Stupid.
Those of us in touch with Reality have to keep fending off the same dumb ideas – over and over and over again.
Because Leftists remain steadfastly impervious to facts. And possess the collective memory duration of your average “green” toilet flush – you know, the flash flush you have to repeat five or six times to accomplish the basic task.
Which means our first response to their yet again proposing the same stupidity – is usually “Don’t you remember when you tried this the last time?”
Nigh all of their proposals fit rather well under their blanket demand of collectivism – centralization in and under government. Call it what you will – Communism, Socialism, Fascism, whatever. Central planning and execution – for…everything.
The Left seems to have forgotten…we spent the entirety of the Twentieth Century trying this. Collectivism has murdered a hundred million people – and consigned hundreds of millions more to Hell on Earth.
So let’s give it yet another shot, shall we?
Most of what the Left proposes – is applying their collectivism and government-centralization to this or that portion of the private sector. Which is only screwed up to the point where government is already involved. And for which the Left’s “solution” is always…more government.
We’re facing an onslaught of this inanity right now – just in the Tech sector. Dumb ideas – re-treaded so often they’re as bald as Vladimir Lenin. But trotted out yet again by wide-eyed Leftists…as if they have never before been proposed – let alone failingly tried a thousand times.
Schumer Promises a Senate Vote on Overturning FCC’s Net Neutrality Repeal: “Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Friday that he intends to force a vote on a bill that would preserve Obama-era net neutrality rules, which the (Donald Trump Administration) Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decided to repeal….
“Democrats want to use the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to overturn the FCC’s decision. The CRA gives Congress the ability, with a majority in the House and Senate, to repeal agency rules. Republicans employed the tactic frequently during the first half of the year to roll back rules passed during the last days of the Obama administration.”
Ok – let’s begin with the fact that Schumer and his Democrats are using the CRA wrong. It was written and passed – to roll back regulations, as Republicans have done. Not to reimpose them.
That being said, Net Neutrality is Socialism for the Internet – it guarantees everyone equal amounts of nothing.
Don’t want to take my word for it? Fine, take avowed Marxist and media “reformer” Robert McChesney’s:
“There is no real answer but to remove brick by brick the capitalist system itself, rebuilding the entire society on socialist principles.”
“Any serious effort to reform the media system would have to necessarily be part of a revolutionary program to overthrow the capitalist system itself.”
“At the moment, the battle over network neutrality is not to completely eliminate the telephone and cable companies. We are not at that point yet. But the ultimate goal is to get rid of the media capitalists in the phone and cable companies and to divest them from control.”
McChesney’s not exactly obfuscating their intent, is he.
Net Neutrality forces Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to play “Mother May I” with the government before doing…just about anything new on the Internet. It is a massive, centralizing Internet power grab – that was executed unilaterally by the Barack Obama Administration.
The Trump Administration was absolutely correct in undoing it – and thereby restoring the Internet’s two-plus decades of deregulated-decentralization.
You know, the less-than regulatory system that led to more than $1 trillion in ISP investment. That took us from 14.4k dial-up – to 1GB+ speed. That took the Internet from “What’s that?” – to 1/6th of our entire $20 trillion economy.
But let’s ignore all of that uber-successful private sector history – and the planet-wide, century-plus-long failure of centralization – and give government control another go on the Web.
Schumer: Consumers May Need Internet Affordability Protections
Oh goody – Schumer wants to use Net Neutrality reimposition…to also impose government-central-planning price controls. An idea so stupid – even collectivist nightmare mess Venezuela is running the other way.
Venezuela Backs Away From Price Controls as Citizens Go Hungry: “President Nicolás Maduro’s government has begun dismantling price controls, a major policy shift that aims to ease widespread unrest by letting shops sell food at market prices….”
As with nigh all Leftist “solutions” – price controls exacerbate the problems they are supposed to solve.
If you can’t charge a market price for something – including therein a <GASP> profit – there is zero incentive to continue providing that something. So people stop providing that something. Presto: Supply dries up, you have massive scarcity – and prices skyrocket.
Whether it is food, or clothes – or Internet access.
Which is why we say Net Neutrality is Socialism for the Internet – guaranteeing everyone equal amounts of nothing. See (yet again, also): Venezuela.
But is Schumer the only stupid Democrat re-proposing the same stupidities over and over and over again?
Heavens no.
One Democrat’s Bold Plan to Win Back Rural Trump Voters: Cheap Internet: “Abdul El-Sayed, a candidate for governor in Michigan, wants to treat internet access like a public good for the entire state.”
Oh goody – government broadband. Let’s have government – pretend to be an ISP.
Get the adjective “bold” in this ridiculous headline. Let’s check in with Merriam Webster:
“(S)howing or requiring a fearless daring spirit – a bold plan.”
Bold indicates…new, avant garde, cutting edge. Is government broadband such a proposal?
Heavens no.
The Failure of Community Broadband
Municipal Broadband Efforts Have Produced Failures
Municipal Broadband: Many Promises, More Failures
Municipal Broadband: A Bad Deal For Taxpayers
Utah a Cautionary Tale for Municipal Broadband
What Other Cities Should Learn from Philly’s Failed Municipal Broadband Effort
Lake County Another Example of Failed Municipal Broadband
And, of course, the inevitable that follows the inevitable….
What Happens When Municipal Broadband Fails? You Pay
Merriam Webster offers an alternate “bold” definition:
“Obsolete.”
Which is exquisitely accurate when it comes to this Democrat’s tired, been-there-done-that, retreaded, bald-as-Lenin suggestion of government broadband.
Though I am fairly sure that particular “bold” definition is not what those cheerleading headline writers had in mind.
And round and round and round we go….
Those who don’t know their own dumb collectivist history – are doomed to repeat it. Over, and over, and over again….
Although I’m fairly sure many of these dumb collectivists know their dumb collectivist history – and insist on repeating it anyway.
Because they don’t care if they leave our economy a smoking, hulking wreckage.
So long as they are in charge and control of it.
This first appeared in Red State.