Year: 2017

By John Eggerton; Original article here

Various groups have taken the FCC to court, appealing its decision on speeding the transition to fiber and the retirement of legacy networks to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, generally thought to be a more friendly venue than the D.C. Circuit.

Asking the Ninth Circuit to reverse and vacate the November order were

• Public Knowledge,
• The Greenlining Institute,
• The Utility Reform Network, and the
• National Association of State Utility Advocates.

In another remake of a decision under his Democratic predecessor, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and the FCC’s Republican majority voted last month to make changes to the timetable for the copper-to-fiber-based IP network remakes, changes billed as "speeding the transition to modern broadband networks".

Public Knowledge et al. support the Wheeler approach in 2015, which put in various requirements to maintain those legacy networks and services during the transition. Pai said at the time those were needlessly slowing the transition.

“The protections the FCC previously adopted ensured that the retirement of legacy phone services would be an upgrade for everyone, not an upgrade for some and a downgrade for others," said Public Knowledge senior VP Harold Feld. "The FCC claims that removing these protection will encourage telephone companies to upgrade their networks more quickly. But it practically guarantees that these companies will continue to leave rural America behind.”

In their petition for review, the groups said that the decision was arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion, and otherwise illegal.

Bernie Sanders: TRUMP IS LYING!!!

. . . regarding the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act — read the full details here:All Actions & Bill Text

Trickle-down economics has never worked. Those who don’t read history are doomed to fall for this same trick tried every ten years or so, most recently in the failed trickle-down tax cut experiment in the State of Kansas.

• View 27:00 — vigorously oppose the Republican Tax Cut Bill, which attempts to create an American oligarchy: a government in which a small group exercises control for corrupt and selfish purposes. Any tax cuts for the middle class expire by 2025 – 2027. Corporate tax cuts are permanent.
• View 29:05 — overturn the disastrous Citizens United v. FEC Supreme Court decision, which allowed the Koch brothers, other billionaires and the Republican American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to buy and co-opt Congress.
• View 31:00 — to hear an alternative and progressive vision that is gaining momentum in America.
• View 34:25 — it is about time the billionaires and large corporations of the world, who are doing phenomenally well, start paying their fair share of taxes.
• View 40:15 — we are at a pivotal moment in American history; billionaires suffer from a serious, addictive problem: they are willing to step over the elderly, the children and the sick to amass more money for themselves.
• View 43:25 — the Republican Tax Cut Bill will next go into a Conference committee; we have just 2-4 weeks to rally Americans against this Bill. The 99% are the vast majority of the American people. Use your power. Call your Senators and Representatives daily until Christmas. Jam the lines.

Call your US Senators

Call your US Representatives

Tell them to VOTE NO on this Tax Bill.

Continue reading “Bernie Sanders Tells the Truth”

New York AG Schneiderman and FCC Commissioner Rosenworcel
On Faked FCC Comments Submitted on Net Neutrality

Key Video Clips:

• Go to http://ag.ny.gov/FakeComments to see if your identity was used to submit a fake comment on Net Neutrality.
• View at 4:14 — Fake comment made with NY AG staffer’s stolen identity.
• View at 5:07 — Hear the FCC’s response to Schneiderman’s 11/21/17 Open Letter, reproduced below.
• View at 8:18 — FCC Commissioner Rosenworcel introduced.
• View at 16:58 — "[The FCC] has to stop this vote, you cannot conduct a legitimate vote on a rulemaking proceeding if you have record that is in shambles, as this one is."
• View at 19:44 — Rosenworcel describes the Administrative Procedures Act, guaranteeing public participation in rulemaking.
• View at 21:42 — "Under Section 5 of the Communications Act [Chairman Pai] has the power to deal with this differently . . to make sure the integrity of our record is secure."

Continue reading “NY Attorney General: Stop Dec 14 Net Neutrality Vote”

By Bruce Kushnik 12/08/2017 03:31 am ET; Link to original article here.

In the recent FCC ‘shut off the copper’ decision on 11/16/17, FCC Chairman Pai added a statement claiming that a fax machine — ancient technology — played a "critical" role in a movie called Back to the Future II. When I read this, I started laughing.

In Back to the Future II, the villain, Biff Tannen, was literally based on Donald Trump. This means that one of Chairman Pai’s favorite movies has a villain based on the very President that made him FCC chairman.

Continue reading “FCC: A$$-Backwards to the Future”

Read the 11/15/17 Crown Castle vs. City of Piedmont Complaint. Crown Castle filed this complaint within 30 days of the five cell tower denials in order to meet the FCC 30-day limitation on filing an appeal for decisions made on 10/16/17. This action was filed in Federal Court before the City made decisions on the remaining four so-called "Small Cell" cell towers in Piedmont (all were approved). Both Crown Castle and the City of Piedmont were aware of the lawsuit during meetings held between 11/16/17 and 11/30/17, but neither Crown Castle nor the City of Piedmont disclosed this to the public during these meetings.

Crown Castle wants the judge to overturn the five denials and the conditional approvals on three cell towers without having to meet the conditions. Crown Castle would then be free to install noisy, ugly towers of any shape or size and block the sidewalk however they wanted & such as they one they installed for the AT&T tower on lower Grand Ave.

Continue reading “Broadband Fail: Crown Castle Sues Piedmont”

Oppose This Unconstitutional Expansion of
Wireless into Residential Zones

Watch highly-educated, well-informed Palo Alto residents who oppose
so-called “Small Cell” cell towers in residential neighborhoods
(View from 1:03:53 to 1:10:25 in this video)

On 6/27/16, Verizon Wireless signed a Master License Agreement (“MLA”) with the City of Palo Alto allowing the attachment of antennas and other equipment (so-called “Small Cell” Cell Towers) on city owned poles in the public Right-of-Way for a paltry $260 per antenna per year.

• Ninety-three (93) such wireless communication facility (“WCF”) installations are currently planned to be co-located on wood utility poles and metal streetlights. – Approximately seventy-nine (79) of these small cells are proposed to be colocated on existing wood utility poles;
• Fourteen (14) small cells are proposed to be installed on existing city streetlights.
• The fifteen (15) cell towers shown in the image target the Midtown, Palo Verde, St. Claire Gardens, and South of Midtown neighborhoods.
• These proposed so-called “Small Cell” Cell Towers are purported to provide the City of Palo Alto with better Verizon network capacity and coverage, but are they really needed? Palo Alto already has full Verizon coverage and Verizon has not proven that there is a significant gap in coverage in these targeted neighborhoods.

Is This Wireless Expansion Needed or Even Legal?

Continue reading “New Set of Palo Alto Cell Towers Proposed for Residential Zones”

Read Nasa Engineer Peter Harvey’s 12/4/17 Letter to the Piedmont Post Editor

Dear Editor:

In last week’s letters to the editor, a letter entitled “A Calming Note” made erroneous claims about the dangers of RF Microwave radiation. In the note, the author says non-ionizing radiation cannot cause DNA damage and that we should trust the FCC to determine the health effects of RF Microwave radiation. He cites no research to back up his claims, and quotes the current World Health Organization erroneously.

In reality, since May, 2011, the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified RF Microwave radiation as a Group 2B carcinogen. In addition, the results from the May, 2016 National Toxicology program’s $25 million, 16-year animal study of Carcinogenesis of Cell Phone Radiation concluded statistically significant increases in brain cancer, heart cancer, pre-tumors and DNA damage in test animals vs. control animals.

These results mean that RF Microwave radiation is a known toxic agent. Importantly, the NTP study showed a dose-response relationship between this toxic agent, RF Microwave radiation, and these adverse biological effects. Further, these effects occurred at exposure levels that were not high enough to heat the animals’ tissue to any measurable degree. The NTP study shows that biological hazards from RF Microwave radiation exposures occur at levels far below that which would cause tissue heating and far below current FCC RF Microwave radiation exposure guidelines.

Continue reading “Nasa Engineer’s Letter to the Editor”

FCC Wrote an OpEd in the Los Angeles Times on 11/22/17:

I’m on the FCC. Please Stop Us From Killing Net Neutrality.

11/22/17 Los Angeles Times OpEd by FCC Commissioner, Jessica Rosenworcel

Right now, you can go online and connect with friends, watch videos and read the news. There’s a good chance you are reading this online right now. We do much more on the internet than consume content, however. Increasingly, the internet is also where we create. We use online platforms and digital services to develop, share and spread ideas around the corner and around the globe.

This is the open internet experience we all know, and it’s a big part of why America’s internet economy is the envy of the world.

Continue reading “FCC Commissioner Rosenworcel: Save Net Neutrality”

On 12/4/17 @ 1:40 pm, CA Senator Kamala Harris sent the following email message

This weekend I left the Senate floor where the Republicans passed their tax plan after spending the entire day rewriting it in secret.

Now, the Republicans are taking a victory lap because they advanced a bill none of them have read. This plan will affect every single American: from our children and grandparents to teachers, first responders, and college students. And they haven’t even taken the time to hold a public hearing or read what this bill does, probably because they know it’ll harm millions of Americans.

This is no way to govern. It’s irresponsible, unfair, and disrespectful to the American people.

Now Republicans must reconcile the Senate version of this legislation with the one that passed the House last month. Both plans are outrageous — cutting taxes on the wealthy at the expense of everyday Americans — but this period of reconciliation gives us time to keep calling, writing, tweeting, and taking action to make our voices heard.

Add your name to my petition to pledge that you will do everything in your power — from calling your member of Congress to writing letters and attending rallies — to stop whatever tax scam Republicans in the House and Senate agree to in conference.

So many times during the health care fight it seemed hopeless. Yet you persisted — and because of your actions we saved our health care, and I believe we can do it again. Never forget you have a powerful voice that is capable of inspiring great change.

Thanks for all you do.

Kamala Harris
U.S. Senator, California

On 12/4/17 @ 6:00 pm, Scientists For Wired Technology Responded to Her

Continue reading “Senator Kamala Harris Communications”

Paul Thurrott: “I think of [Net Neutrality] as more of a fairness thing . . . What has happened . . . What have these companies done when they were unfettered by regulation? What have they done? There are so many stories. . . It’s also anti-innovation because what this does is it gives unfair advantage to companies that already happen to be really big and they can just control their monopolies.”

• https://www.battleforthenet.com/
• http://protectourinternet.org/
• https://popularresistance.org/
• https://popularresistance.org/how-the-fccs-net-neutrality-plan-breaks/
• https://popularresistance.org/chairman-pais-plan-to-end-net-neutrality-built-on-lies-that-will-crumble-in-court/
• https://popularresistance.org/massive-nationwide-protests-for-net-neutrality/

The 2017 FCC Actions are both Pro-Monopoly and Anti-Competition

12/2/17 Net Neutrality Discussion – What The Tech Ep. 378

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5/16/17 Net Neutrality – Daily Tech Show

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Bruce Kushnick has the full story and the data to back it up: criminal abuse of monopoly power and outright fraud by transferring billions of dollars collected from Grandma’s (public utility) landline phone bill to their unregulated Wireless entities to finance the buildout of 4G/LTE. No public benefits, just pure, criminal greed. Kushnick summarizes this in his latest revised article called the Wheel of Mis-Fortune, reproduced below. This is a must read.

The FCC Majority — Chairman Pai, Commissioner O’Rielly and Commissioner Carr — are fully captured, influenced and acting on behalf of the very industries they are supposed to regulate in order to protect public interests. Chairman Pai is a former Verizon attorney; Commissioner Carr worked with Verizon, AT&T, and the wireless and phone associations as a lawyer for Wiley Rein, and Commissioner O’Reilly is a friend of ALEC, which creates model legislation designed and funded, in large part, by Verizon and AT&T.

Continue reading “FCC Aims to End Net Neutrality”