Court Blocks FCC's Attempt To Take a Broadband Subsidy Away From Tribal Areas (bleepingcomputer.com) 79
Jon Brodkin reports via Ars Technica: The FCC decision, originally slated to take effect later this year, would have made it difficult or impossible for Tribal residents to obtain a $25-per-month Lifeline subsidy that reduces the cost of Internet or phone service for poor people. But on Friday, a court stayed the FCC decision pending appeal, saying that Tribal organizations and small wireless carriers are likely to win their case against the commission. "Petitioners have demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits of their arguments that the facilities-based and rural areas limitations contained in the Order are arbitrary and capricious," said the stay order issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. "In particular, petitioners contend that the Federal Communications Commission failed to account for a lack of alternative service providers for many tribal customers."
The tribes and small carriers that sued the FCC "have shown a substantial risk that tribal populations will suffer widespread loss of vital telecommunications services absent a stay," the court said. The FCC hasn't proven that its plan won't result in "mass disconnection," the court also said. The court ruling was welcomed by the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe and Oceti Sakowin Tribal Utility Authority, which are among the groups suing the FCC. Several small carriers and the non-profit National Lifeline Association are also plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
The tribes and small carriers that sued the FCC "have shown a substantial risk that tribal populations will suffer widespread loss of vital telecommunications services absent a stay," the court said. The FCC hasn't proven that its plan won't result in "mass disconnection," the court also said. The court ruling was welcomed by the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe and Oceti Sakowin Tribal Utility Authority, which are among the groups suing the FCC. Several small carriers and the non-profit National Lifeline Association are also plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
Smallpox, Measles, Influenza, Wampum (Score:4, Insightful)
We took their country. They least we can do is pay for their fucking broadband.
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If they want to become independent and successful, wonderful. I wish them the best of luck and we should do everything we can to make it happen. But, if they want to sit on their ass and do nothing on our dime, they fucking deserve it after what we did!
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Not even true. You can look north to Canada, and see that your entire point is moot. Natives are paid large amounts of money via treaty, and most live in abject poverty. There's only a couple of bands where this hasn't happened because they decided to actually improve things, instead of the corrupt band council and leaders pocketing all the money.
Guess what happened when the previous government passed a law requiring transparency and accounting of that money. The leftists screeched that it was racism. T
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Old enough to know the difference between right and wrong.
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Well 20th century diseases such as radiation plus heavy metal poisoning. The early uranium mining on Navajo land was pretty gruesome, what without realizing how bad radiation was yet and the 50's technology.
I know of tribes up here in Canada who's water is full of mercury (ex-pulp mill up stream) that most of the people have mercury poisoning.
The natives have been treated like shit. The American Constitution puts Treaties as the second highest law in the land but the history is lots of broken treaties, righ
Re: Smallpox, Measles, Influenza, Wampum (Score:1, Insightful)
Counterpoint, WW2. If you live in Europe, Asia, Russia, Canada, or pretty much anywhere you're enjoying the fruits of the USA.
And even ignoring that, the Europeans profited hugely from the slave trade, but I don't see any of them offering up reparations.
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Don't ask Europe what they may or may not 'owe' the United States of America. Such questions raise issues better left unspoken, ignored, and buried underfoot.
Truth is such a bitch.
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Step One is admitting you enjoy the fruits of genocide.
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Sorry, I don't feel any pity or remorse for what the UK, Spain, or France did ~500 years ago. And considering there's archilogical evidence pointing that the "natives" genocided another group of people living here, well I'm sure they can start the rounds of apology first.
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No, there's no historian around, so you're free to make the idiotic assertions that you made.
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I accept that America was settled by Europeans/etc., and the native population was nearly obliterated. I don't accept that it was right or just, but it happened. We can't undo that.
But claims that various native populations struggle with poverty, disease, and failure are heard alongside the very similar reports from various big cities, who have no excuse of endemic oppression and a history of being conquered, massacred, and humiliated. Unless you consider Democrat government to be such, and the results may
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The smallpox blankets thing was neither an act of terrorism nor an attempted genocide because it didn't happen. The entire story is a fraud, perpetrated by a former "ethnic studies" professor named Ward Churchill. http://quod.lib.umich.edu/p/plag/5240451.0001.009/--did-the-us-army-distribute-smallpox-blankets-to-indians?rgn=main&view=fulltext [umich.edu]
The High Plains Smallpox Epidemic of 1837 was caused by personal contact with infected passengers from the riverboat St. Peter's, owned by a fur trading company.
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Nobody mentioned blankets. Why are you refuting something that no one here is asserting?
Re: Smallpox, Measles, Influenza, Wampum (Score:1)
It wasn't their country; it's pretty clear anthropologically that they took it from someone else.
They were a stagnant, Stone age culture. Any other culture they'd have run into would have overrun them like a lawn mower. There is no moral or ethical mandate that they must be preserved for all time as some sort of sacred object. Dissolve the farce of extra-legal tribal territories, and sweep them into the melting pot with everyone else. It would be better for everyone in the longer run anyway.
Two ideologies at battle (Score:5, Informative)
Dude I'm a Bernie Bro (Score:4, Insightful)
What I need is to get those folks who voted for Trump because of crap like this [google.com] and folks who wrongly blame the jews for the raw deal the 1%ers handed them to realize who's really pulling the strings and stop voting against their own interests. It's damn hard to do since the 1%ers own the mass media (mega corps bought everything up, re: Sinclair Media).
Ignoring the impact of racism on American politics isn't naive or foolish, it's deceitful. The Republicans do it so they can dog whistle. There's corportists Dems who do it so they can run on something besides economics since they're basically Republicans when it comes to money. You need to call both groups out because they're doing the same damn thing: Using race to distract from a bad economy. Bernie understands that. So does Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. That's why they never takes the bait. You shouldn't either. Even when you're trolling on
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But my voice doesn't count, because anyone who speaks against the Democrats is a racist and I believe we can all agree racists don't deserve to be heard...
If you speak out against "The Democrats" then you're painting them all with the same brush, and they're not all the same. That's really no different from speaking out against "Congress".
If you speak out against specific actions of specific Democrats, you might do a lot better.
too much already (Score:2)
What do you call... (Score:4, Insightful)
What do you call the useless bit of skin at the base of the penis? Ajit Pai's feet.
Re:Tribe's don't deserve subsidies (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm somewhat sympathetic to your argument, but the fact is that they're not treated as sovereign.
Look, I think they should be able to have high-rise casinos with hookers and blow on tap if they want, but the reality is they can't.
Free them economically *and* take away their subsidies, if they are to be sovereign. That's much better than repressing them and subsidizing them.
But don't make the mistake of assuming that their sovereignty is being more than respected as a token effort. Or that DC actually wants to treat them as sovereign and not a conquered people.
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It seems like a discount on their ISP bill is the least we can do in exchange for pinching about $25 Trillion worth of their land.
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Yes, it was pinched hundreds of years ago. You're enjoying trillions of dollars of booty because of it, so there's no need to be such a petty little bitch about a little ISP discount.
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I wish I had trillions of dollars but my pockets don't feel that full. Besides my family is not even from America.
Nevertheless, your family presumably felt that leaving whatever shithole they came from to take advantage of all the loot available here was a win.
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Irrelevant. Your logic is like a schoolyard bully swiping your lunchbox then saying: "I can hold onto this lunchbox better than you, so you don't deserve it."
Then he gives it to his buddy, who says "*I* didn't take this lunchbox from anybody, so it's 100% mine! By the way, you owe me rent on the lunch."
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You were the one who started a "moral argument" by claiming that these people were freeloading off your tax dollars, when in fact you should be paying them rent.
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You signed treaties for the land you're living on. The American Constitution puts treaties as the second highest law in the land and here you are wanting to renege.
Mobsters from New Jersey... (Score:2)
... already supply all the bandwidth needed... for those tribes that have casinos.
Give the rest broadband at no cost.
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broadband (Score:2)