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The Internet United States

Senate Approves Rubio-Scott Amendment To Provide Free Internet To Cuba (islandernews.com) 144

Posted by BeauHD from the information-is-power dept.
Tuesday evening, the U.S. Senate approved an amendment proposed by Cuban-American Senator Marco Rubio for the administration of President Joe Biden to provide free Internet to Cubans on the island. The Islander News reports: On a Twitter post, Senator Rubio said "Tonight the Senate unanimously passed my amendment to provide internet access to the people of #Cuba." The amendment creates a Deficit Neutral Reserve Fund (DNRF) in the next reconciliation bill that would be used to develop and deploy existing technology for the purpose of providing internet access to the island nation. Senator Rick Scott also joined Rubio in the proposal.

The amendment was passed without a recorded vote, meaning that no one opposed the plan. New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, a prominent supporter of the US-Cuba embargo, and Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, a longtime opponent of the embargo, said they supported the Rubio and Scott amendment.
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Senate Approves Rubio-Scott Amendment To Provide Free Internet To Cuba More

Senate Approves Rubio-Scott Amendment To Provide Free Internet To Cuba

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  • WTF What about providing internet for US citizens. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 12, 2021 @06:07PM (#61685683)

    There's many places in the US that can't even get proper internet. Perhaps the US should try fixing its own problems first, before focusing on other countries.

    • Re:WTF What about providing internet for US citize (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Coren22 ( 1625475 ) on Thursday August 12, 2021 @06:22PM (#61685717) Journal

      Por que no los dos?

    • I kind of laughed seeing the headline just above this one. Though its probably unrelated. :)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cas2000 ( 148703 )

      That would be "socialism" and therefore bad. Like killing your Mom and stealing her Apple Pie level of bad. Socialism is very naughty. Please repeat the lessons from your Brainwashing for Pre-schoolers classes.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by aitikin ( 909209 )

        That would be "socialism" and therefore bad. Like killing your Mom and stealing her Apple Pie level of bad. Socialism is very naughty. Please repeat the lessons from your Brainwashing for Pre-schoolers classes.

        Except where the socialism is the military*. In which case we want all of it! So much so that we even created another branch of it a year ago!

        *Yes, the US military is a perfect example of socialism at work [thenation.com]

    • Yeah, Starlink fixed that. Thanks, Elon.

    • The US is big - Cuba is small. The cost to cover all of Cuba with broadband would be miniscule compared to covering all of the US.

      Particularly since the only places really left without internet access in the US are the particularly difficult rural areas. Rural homes in Montana have a connection cost that likely exceeds dozens or even hundreds of homes within a metro area.

  • How (Score:3, Insightful)

    by fermion ( 181285 ) on Thursday August 12, 2021 @06:18PM (#61685705) Homepage Journal
    And if we provide free internet to an island 500 miles away from the mainland, all at no net cost, why canâ(TM)t we provide free internet to the US population. If we are going to violate international law by providing access and content, maybe we go further and provide free soft porn to teens

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by spitzak ( 4019 )

      I would hope anything developed for this would also be used to provide internet in the USA to underserved areas too.

      I am more mystified as to exactly what technology anybody thinks would work? I have my doubts that anything involving getting equipment into Cuba would work, as the government could interfere with that so much that it is prohibitively expensive, and it would always only give a privileged few access.

      • Why would this involve any technological development? It could and probably would all be existing technologies, especially since Cuba's cities are all coastal and the central mountain provides clear lines of sight to most of Cuba. They also don't have the problem of "NIMBY" lobbyists blocking construction: a Communist government has certain advantages in ignoring individual property rights to complete a public works project.

        • Well, that Communist government is more interested in preventing the people it tyrannizes from being able to talk to each other or the world then it is in helping the US help the Cuban people tear it down.
      • Like Starlink is already doing?

        How jammable are directional antennas? Do they have Pringles in Cuba?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by spitzak ( 4019 )

          The can antenna is not all of the device needed to receive starlink, did you know that?

          I am wondering if there is some way to broadcast in that can be picked up by devices the Cubans have (mostly cell phones). My best guess is cell towers on ships about 12 miles out, though this will only get the coasts which are in much better shape than the interior. But perhaps the hardware for StarLink receivers is lying around Cuba ready to be used, or can be smuggled in (this might have problems with too much loss fro

          • Those were separate ideas, not meant as "get starlink with a cantenna".

            I doubt the regime isn't already be jamming cell, which would be a reasonable option otherwise. Don't forget though that we also have the embassy and gitmo to broadcast from.

            Seriously though, a cantenna is directional (right?), and I figure anything that relies on line of sight instead of picking up noise willy-nilly is probably less jammable. A web of directional antennas might work. Or not, I'm just throwing ideas at a wall, b

    • 90 miles dude. Never been to the Caribbean? Its 90mi from cuba to key west. Why do you think so many refugees try lifeboats to reach the USA?
    • Satellites , perhaps help prepare for an invasion. Might need to hurry or China gets there first ( sarcasm) fear monger to rationalize.
    • "How" is definitely the real question. Especially since one would reasonably expect the dictatorship to jam cell and wifi.

      Maybe ask Musk to put some Starlink down their way? Cut a volume deal with Hughesnet? Directional antennas (how to distribute)?

  • Time to burn some Kharma (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Thursday August 12, 2021 @06:19PM (#61685709)
    Ok, how about lifting the blockade now. And no, I don't want to hear "but Cuba's run by dictators!". So is China, and they've got Most Favored Nation status since the 70s. Maybe if we could ship some middle class jobs to Cuba... [businessinsider.com]
    • We can't lift the blockade. That would cost votes in Florida, a swing state. It's the same dynamic that plays out with the US relationship with Israel and the Palestinians -- driven by domestic voting patterns.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by spitzak ( 4019 )

        Likely exactly. If the US had not blockaded Cuba long ago, the government there would have collapsed under pressure from people wanting to trade, and also have removed the ability of the USSR to control it, and it would probably be a huge tourist destination covered with casinos and another Disney park today. And they knew this back then so there is another reason the blockade was done, Your guess is the most likely.

        • Maybe, but look how that didn't work with China.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by spitzak ( 4019 )

            China has the largest casino city in the world, so I don't understand how you think this did not work for China.

            I didn't say the government would be nice, I do suspect that unless Cuba was incredibly lucky they would have ended up with a Fascist dictator or military rule, but it would be more in the USA's liking, and possibly better for the average Cuban than now.

            • It didn't work because the CCP still has an iron grip on the nation. That may still change, but the idea was it would happen faster. You know, before they could unleash a biological nightmare on the rest of the world. At least before they could present a real threat to the West. Tiananmen should have been the last straw for that approach.

              Maybe it would have worked differently in Cuba, but now it seems more likely that they would have done what China did - take the money and use it to be better at evi

      • You know Cuba is the worlds leading supplier of sugar cane. But we cannot buy from cuba. So Cuba sells it to Geneva, and the we buy from Geneva. Blockade indeed.
      • But Clinton blew it by being the worst possible candidate. She was so awful that Cuba didn't even factor into the 2016 election. I voted for her and followed the election closely and I still to this day couldn't tell you what her platform was besides "It's my turn to be president". Biden at least had the whole "Build Back Better" thing.

        • I still to this day couldn't tell you what her platform was besides "It's my turn to be president".

          I thought it was "pantsuits for all!"

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Uberbah ( 647458 )

          I voted for her and followed the election closely and I still to this day couldn't tell you what her platform was besides "It's my turn to be president". Biden at least had the whole "Build Back Better" thing.

          So you're a party line partisan tribalist, even though Trump used to be a democrat, and that both Hillary and Biden are far worse than Trump ever was, or ever could be.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Rhipf ( 525263 )

            Can you explain how Biden is worse than Trump ever was? Please keep in mind that you don't want to sound like a "party line partisan tribalist".
            You may not like Biden's policies but that alone doesn't make him any worse than Trump.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      The issue is not the blockade. Cuba reportedly has internet access. What we want to do is subvert control of a sovereign government and inject personal values.

    • Re:Time to burn some Kharma (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Whateverthisis ( 7004192 ) on Thursday August 12, 2021 @07:07PM (#61685897)
      People are spouting a lot of nonsense about Marxism and socialism and "why can't we give free internet to US citizens but we can to an island 500 miles away?" (And it's 90 miles from Key West to Havana). Frankly, even the blockade doesn't matter.

      The US has a major advantage. Some of the best arable land in the world is all easily connected by 3 major rivers, all emptying out at New Orleans. That means the wealth generation centers of the East Coast can be fed by the incredibly massive agricultural output of the midwest without having to build any transportation infrastructure, because a barge can get from the midwest to Savannah or Washington with massive amounts of food in about a week for virtually nothing. That frees New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Savannah, Washington, etc. to focus on wealth creation opportunities and makes the US economically powerful.

      The ONLY thing that can threaten this absolutely incredible resource is Cuba. The US basically controls the entire Gulf of Mexico militarily, no one can ever threaten it or enter it without the US knowing about it. Only Cuba, as a massive island, can blockade what feeds the biggest part of the nation.

      Every interaction the US has with Cuba can be viewed in this lens. We dominated it in the 1900's. A marxist revolution took it over and threw out the US; ok, then we isolated it. They turned to Russia and Russia tried to install ballistic missiles, and the US risked a nuclear World War 3 to not let that happen. We embargoed it and isolated it. When the Soviet Union fell, we let them cool their heels until they starved, then opened up when the dictators died. now we're offering them "free services".

      Whatever sticks and carrots it takes so that Cuba cannot interfere with US dominance of the Gulf of Mexico. Every US interaction with Cuba can be understood in this perspective. Blockades, embargoes, free internet, Bay of Pigs. Those are just tools or efforts to ensure Cuba never can move against US interests in the Gulf.

      • ... because a barge can get from the midwest to Savannah or Washington with massive amounts of food in about a week for virtually nothing.

        Bwahahaha!... No. Barges are shallow water vessels. They also travel at about six mph (discounting river flow).

        There are a number of fine hiways that would suffice though.

        Only Cuba, as a massive island, can blockade what feeds the biggest part of the nation.

        In which dimension? Cuba couldn't even oppose the fully massed US Coast Guard.

        • Barges are used in deepwater all the time. However the shipping traffic I'm referring to in the Gulf is not deep water. Do you know what the littoral is? That is the coast line, which generally has shallow water. Barges float down the Mississippi, exit New Orleans, scoot along the Southern coast, round the tip of Florida, and come up the Atlantic coast.

          You can't look at what Cuba is and say it's no threat. You have to look at what Cuba could be, and realize that what Cuba is, as no threat, is a dir

      • That's a good point but I have two things I want to bring up. One is that Cuba was already talking the the USSR, and despite some initial propaganda, Castro never intended to be anything other than a Soviet-style and allied dictator.

        The other is that now, Cuba poses exactly no military threat without the Soviet Navy. They can't build or afford to buy warships, and even if they were able to acquire enough Russian or Chinese surface-to-surface missiles to pose a threat to regional shipping, it's unlikely

        • this is the thing. They don't pose a threat because of US actions.

          Geopolitics is blunt, rude, and unforgiving. Countries do things that seem out of whack, irrational and stupid, but it's because just the potential of a threat means that the country must act to knock it down. It's a lot easier to keep Cuba isolated, poor, and unable to stand on it's own or ally with any country opposed to US interests when they're already poor, than it is to let them grow to a point where they are a threat and then kn

    • Cuba is a very different beast. First, they kicked out our buddy Batista. You know, the guy who was first president, then when he lost the election he staged a coup (that we pretty much funded and backed) so he was our guy on the sugar island. And then that bearded fucker came along and kicked him out. One of the many, many CIA blunders of that time, we should've noticed that he's the new guy in town and should've backed him instead of that tinpot dictator, but we didn't notice the wind has changed. We thou

      • Castro was never going to be anything but a Soviet-aligned Communist Dictator. His initial outreach to the US was an outright sham intended solely to buy some time. He was already a hardline Communist, hostile to the US and the West generally, and friendly towards other Communist nations. There was never any realistic chance of a positive relationship.

        If someone's belief system has at it's core a directive that they must destroy you and everything you believe in, you cannot be friends. It would be ins

    • And there is considerable evidence which points to that relationship with China being a huge mistake. Covid 19 is a particularly good example, but that they can now afford to build islands with which to imperil the entire region is another. That they rob us blind is another. The entire point was to undermine their system while keeping them from re-establishing ties to the USSR. Last part worked, but the first backfired.
  • That's nice. I pay over $100/mo for shitty service from Charter

  • This won't go anywhere (Score:5, Interesting)

    by anoncoward69 ( 6496862 ) on Thursday August 12, 2021 @06:39PM (#61685779)
    How does the US plan to provide them "free" internet? They aren't going to be going on the ground to lay copper or fiber. Rogue cell towers off the coast? Sat internet? The cuban govt will just outlaw or jam the RF for the required hardware and make being caught using any "unapproved" phones/sat user terminals illegal with stiff fines/jail sentences. If they did it with rogue cell towers off the coast it would have to be from international waters, which means at best you'd have to be right on the coast to communicate with the towers and jamming a signal that has to travel that far would probably be trival at best. Sat terminals would be very hard to hide their usage of considering you need a good line of sight area to put it. Starlink dishes are a dead give away they look so unique and classic sat internet dishes are also easy to recognize because they usually have a large transmit power amp mounted on the dish/lnb itself.

    • The cuban govt will just outlaw or jam the RF for the required hardware and make being caught using any "unapproved" phones/sat user terminals illegal with stiff fines/jail sentences.

      As would other countries, including the US, if people were illegally hijacking RF frequencies.
      I don't see how the US can do this without basically breaking international law (not that that has traditionally stopped the US...)

    • ...offered underserved Americans free fiber optic connections, and you'll have your answer.

  • Can't find more information (Score:4, Interesting)

    by RobinH ( 124750 ) on Thursday August 12, 2021 @07:28PM (#61685957) Homepage
    I went to Google News and perused stories, even searched for Cuba stories and I can't find more information about this. In fact there's a real dearth of information about the protests in Cuba (there's a bit, but not much). It's weird, this is big news and it's not being covered much. Is it something to do with the Cuban electorate in Florida, not wanting to tick then off or something?

  • Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but don't Republicans believe giving people something for free is socialism? Like free healthcare or free education or free internet?

    • republicans love socialism as long as it's for the "right people"

      i.e., this socialism is really going into the pockets of all the contractors that will get billion dollar contracts to lay the cable

      • The right people are corporations that donate to them. Then companies can socialize the costs and privatize the gains.
        • And under Socialism there are no corporations that aren't already part of the government and under direct control of the Party. Yes, they do "privatize" the gains, in that the Party reaps all the benefits and the people bear all the costs.
      • If private contractors can exist, then Socialism doesn't. If "billion-dollar contracts" exist, then Socialism doesn't. Under Socialism, the government controls all means of production, so it makes the cable, it runs the cable, and it decides who can pass what over those cables. Which in the end tends to mean just the Party.

        • Why don't you go read some about what socialism is and stop parroting back what you hear on Fox News or other even more insanely right wing sources.

          Socialism does not and never has said that private business cannot exist at all.

          I mean just start with the fact that you're ignoring China which as you can see here has the second highest number of billionaires in the world https://www.forbes.com/sites/g... [forbes.com]

          Or the fact that the UK has socialized healthcare available for all, but private health insurance, private

    • No, because that is not what Socialism is. Socialism is not about public goods and services. It is the government controlling the means of production. That is, the entire supply side of the economy, which includes everything from farms and factories to labor - i.e., where you live, work, and are permitted to visit. This also means a Socialist state also implicitly controls the demand side of the economy, which I think is only explicit in Communism (which Cuba is).

      All Capitalist economies include publ

  • ...for Cuba. Fascinating. I wouldn't have expected that of a Trumper.

    • Except providing a good or service, domestically or as a tool of international relations, is not at all "Socialism". Socialism is when the government controls all the means of production. There is no private enterprise, wealth, property, or political agency, there is only the state. Nothing apart from the state, nothing against the state.
  • Son the US is now fine if other country meddle publicly and openly with their internal politics ? Just asking here , because it seemed a monstruousity to meddle with internal US politics and election back in November 2020. Or maybe this is another case of "we are strong , crush the other, dictate rule, but don't dare do the same to me" ?
    • You really need to check your spelling and grammar. That's a mess.

      But apparently, yes. There is considerable foreign influence in American politics. Foreign governments and corporations can even hire lobbyists to present and promote their interests to our lawmakers. That is perfectly legal, though there are very strict rules about it. Sometimes, those rules are even enforced! A lobbyist can even go to prison for failing to file all the paperwork (Democrats seem generally exempt).

  • They are taking better care of others than our own citizens.
    And ppl wonder why America is falling apart.

  • Which makes sense, every country exports what it has no use for at home...

  • ... that citizens in rural America should declare themselves communists to get better access?

  • Did anyone else wonder what the heck this DNRF is all about? I did....

    https://budgetcounsel.files.wo... [wordpress.com]

    So essentially, this is just some "fluff" they can toss into a request to spend more tax money on a bill that sounds good. Because technically, it places restrictions on whether or not the funding will be approved in a given year based on some metric like "showing it had a neutral outcome on the overall budget over an arbitrary 5 or 10 year window of time". And it's too complicated for someone to dispro

  • As soon as Cuba was made aware that the free Internet would be through Suddenlink, they took it as an act of war against the nation.

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