Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: A 28-Year-Old Democratic Giant Slayer:
“In a stunning upset Tuesday night that ignited the New York and national political worlds, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a Bronx-born community organizer, defeated Representative Joseph Crowley, a 19-year incumbent and Queens political stalwart who had not faced a primary challenger in 14 years.”
Link to National Toxicology Program: Peer & public review of cell phone radiation study reports
Scientific Advisory Board Updates of NTP Cell Phone Radiation Studies
The National Toxicology Program (NTP) cell phone radiation studies were discussed at the NTP’s Board of Scientific Counselors Meeting on June 20, 2018. Two scientists from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Drs. Chad Blystone and Michael Wyde, made presentations to the Board.
Dr. Blystone presented a summary of the peer review of the cell phone radiation studies conducted by the NTP.
“There was robust discussion by the Peer Review Panels on the exposure system and NTP’s draft scientific interpretations. The Panel recommended increasing the NTP’s level of evidence calls regarding the heart in male and female rats, adrenal gland in male rats (GSM only), and the brain (gliomas) in male rats of both modulations.
The Panel’s comments on the draft interpretations will be captured in the peer review report, which will be posted with other meeting materials when completed. NTP will carefully consider the Panel’s recommendations when finalizing these technical reports, which will be published on the NTP website in fall 2018 at https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/go/36144.”
Los Angeles is the second city Verizon has identified as part of its four market 5G deployment plans, Sacramento, CA was the first. Verizon is being coy about the other two 5G deployment markets for 2018, but I have made some educated guesses, below.
The following video June 25, 2018 C-NBC interview with Verizon Chairman and CEO, confirms the news from six weeks ago and confirms Verzon’s intention to deploy 5G to four markets in 2018:
In April, 2018, Verizon CFO Matthew Ellis reiterated the company’s previous announcements about launching 5G in three to five cities by the end of this year. Sacramento [at that time was] the only city that has been named for the initial rollout, of the 11 cities where the technology has been tested.
"5G mobility will be initially very much heavily focused on urban areas, and we have the assets in place there, and we will be ready to launch that as soon as the [original equipment manufacturers] have handsets available with 5G chipsets in them," Ellis said.
While AT&T and Verizon expand their Wireless footprints, they get to keep all the State Telecom Utility benefits, including access to the rights-of-way. They are charging all wired customers, and competitors for the Wireless build out and the majority of all Wireless expenses. The FCC’s plan to cede large chunks of the remaining wireless spectrum to AT&T and Verizon is tied to dismantling the State Telecom Utilities and handing over the publicly-funded Wireline copper and fiber-optic networks to their Wireless division for private use.
The Telecom companies plans to block all competition by denying access to the networks in multiple ways, is already underway. Verizon even has a deal with the cable companies to ‘collude’ by allowing them to rent the networks or bundle Verizon Wireless in areas Verizon never upgraded.
This is all made possible by the FCC and the State Telecom Utility Commissions erasing any pesky accounting rules, the state or city laws that might conflict with the plan, or blocking municipalities from upgrading in places the telcos should have upgraded years ago, but never did.
To smooth this takeover — they also had get rid of Net Neutrality so they can control the wires and give their own subsidiaries all of the advantages. With privacy gone, you sign away your rights to let them follow you, advertise to you, track you (and your friends) and then sell the data or give it to their own affiliate companies. Finally, they took away your ability to take them to court — you must arbitrate, which limits their risk.
In April 2016, Verizon told Boston it was going to be spending $300 million to deploy FiOS, their wireline Fiber-To-The-Premises (FTTP) service, to the entire city over the next six years. Unfortunately, what Verizon’s CEO told investors on September 13th, 2017, shows it has deceived the citizens of Boston and harmed Massachusetts.
Lowell McAdam, CEO Verizon Communications, speaking at the Goldman, Sachs 26th Communacopia Conference on September 13th, 2017 stated it will be substituting wireless for fiber-optic to the home (commonly called “the last mile”). And they are doing this throughout the East Coast.
Lowell McAdam, Verizon Communications CEO:
“Well, I think that’s where 5G and over-the-top come in because even in the markets where we have our FiOS footprint from Washington to Boston, the preferred method, the preferred architecture for us is going to be that last mile being 5G. So whether we offer a linear package or we offer an over-the-top package, look, the numbers all show that over-the-top is gaining ground and the 300 channel bundle is under a solitaire. (typo) So I may have been premature when I was up here a couple of years ago saying that but I still see it that way and I think the point for our investors is, we’re building the network that doesn’t care. If you can get broadband I don’t care whether the customer goes over-the-top or buys a linear package, and we’ll be able to provide either one to him."
Top 11 Facts About the Boston Boondoggle:
Verizon announced a FiOS FTTP upgrade of Boston in April 2016, not a wireless upgrade.
FiOS is FTTP, Fiber To The Premises, (i.e.; residential and small business locations)
Verizon’s testimony, including legal counsel, said fiber is directly connected to homes
Verizon claims it will be doing this in sections, starting with Dorchester.
Verizon already upgraded Dorchester to fiber in 2006, 11 years ago.
The franchise is for FTTP, not for wireless.
Verizon claims that this is an upgrade of the state utility existing wireline network, and “Title II”. Wireless is illegally being funded through this cross-subsidy.
Verizon claims wireless is cheaper to deploy.
Wireless is cheaper mainly because most of the expenses are paid for by the wireline utility—and local phone customers.
Verizon has been cross subsidizing their wireless business for years; almost $1 billion from 2010-2012 alone.
Verizon was supposed to have upgraded Boston to fiber in 1995, 22 years ago.
STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA UTILITIES COMMISSION, RALEIGH
DOCKET NO. E-7, SUB 1115
DOCKET NO. E-100, SUB 147
DOCKET NO. E-100, SUB 153
On June 22, 2018, the North Carolina Utilities Commission issued an "ORDER APPROVING MANUALLY READ METER RIDER WITH MODIFICATIONS…" stating those with a notarized statement from a medical physician can opt-out of using a DEC (Duke Energy Carolinas) radio frequency emitting meter without penalty, either a one time or monthly charge.
Page 14:
"While DEC’s smart meter technology meets current FCC standards, the Commission believes it is inappropriate to require customers who maintain that they need to avoid exposure to RF emissions to the extent possible to protect their health to pay DEC’s proposed smart meter opt-out charges. Therefore, the Commission will require DEC to amend its Rider MRM to remove the customer charges for those customers who provide the Company with a notarized statement from a medical physician licensed by the North Carolina Medical Board that the customer must avoid exposure to RF emissions to the extent possible to protect their health. Upon receipt of such statement, the Company shall waive both the one-time and the monthly fees under Rider MRM."
The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed a lawsuit against the FCC on May 14, 2018. NRDC is challenging the legality of the FCC’s March 30, 2018 order exempting "small wireless facilities" from environmental review.
In order for NRDC to have standing to challenging the FCC’s ruling, the NRDC needs statements from its members about the harm to them of densified 4G/5G technology. The NRDC lawyers have asked me to forward this request to my email lists:
"Please share the following email address to help us identify NRDC members who might be interested in providing a statement regarding the harm from 4G/5G technology and siting of the so-called small wireless cells needed to deploy it. Such statements are necessary to give us standing to sue the FCC in court and invalidate the Commission’s recent action. Ideally, the individuals will need to identify specific existing, proposed or reasonably foreseeable facilities that affect where they live, go to school or areas/ communities to which they have a regular connection."
By Bruce Kushnick | June 17, 2018 | Original article here.
I was asked to summarize the current communications situation in light of the Net Neutrality decision (being refreshed until the next challenge), and the “ridiculously bad” AT&T-Time Warner merger going through (decision here) — and what we should do about it.
This current FCC has created over 20 inter-locking proceedings, each designed to give the phone and cable companies more power, screw-by-screw— literally reducing our democracy, our freedoms and worse — giving us no serious competition; just crap service at continually increasing prices, among other harms.
AT&T et al. maneuvered a bunch of patsies to be FCC Commissioners to do their bidding and follow their plans, which AT&T gave then-newly-appointed-Republican Commissioner, now Chairman (and former Verizon attorney) Ajit Pai, in 2012. Coincidentally, this same plan appears to have been developed at the American Legislative Exchange Council, “ALEC”, (the American Exchange Legislative Council, which is funded by both AT&T and Verizon), and it has been used as “model legislation” in state-after-state and updated regularly — to help just a few companies.
What’s In Store for You Online? Higher Prices, Fewer Voices.
By David Cay Johnston, DCReport Editor-in-Chief | June 14, 2018 | Original article here.
Two major developments this week promise to change the way you access and use the internet, both for the worse.
First, AT&T won approval Tuesday from a federal judge to purchase Time Warner, which owns CNN among other properties. Donald Trump had opposed the $85 billion deal, his comments laced with invective against CNN’s coverage of him. The deal cannot close for at least six days so the Justice Department has time to appeal if Trump so orders.
The ruling by Judge Richard Leon is likely to signal more mergers among telecom giants, something I wrote about four years ago as a major economic and political problem when Comcast tried to buy Time Warner. While there is reason to feel some sympathy for AT&T because of Trump’s personal grudge and its lack of news channels and movie studios like those owned by competitor Comcast, consumers benefit when we have more competition, not less.
The second adverse development came the day before with the end of net neutrality—treating equally all users of what we used to call the World Wide Web. In this action by the Federal Communications Commission, the Trump administration embraced what the cable companies know is good for them, but not what’s best for you. This major policy change is one more example of the bait-and-switch con artistry of Trump, who said he would drain the swamp and has since turned Washington into a profiteering paradise for swamp monsters.
By Bruce Kushnick; New Networks Institute | June 10, 2018 | Original Medium article here.
The Mergers that Created Verizon, AT&T and CenturyLink Were Failures
AT&T= SBC, Southwestern Bell, Pacific Telesis, SNET, Ameritech, BellSouth and the original AT&T.
Verizon = Bell Atlantic, NYNEX, GTE, Alltel, and MCI
CenturyLink = US West turned into Qwest
For the full story, read: The Book of Broken Promises; $400 Billion Broadband Scandal, now a free download.
In 1980, the original AT&T (“Ma Bell”) was the country’s major Telecom Utility and it held monopoly power over America’s telecommunications services and critical infrastructure: it controlled nearly 80% of US Wireline services as well as “long distance”, calls that cross state lines. Following a lengthy trial, in 1984, Ma Bell was broken up into seven Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), also called "Baby Bells" with the goal of providing increased competition, innovative services and lower prices — especially for long distance service.
GTE, SNET and Alltel were then independent, incumbent State Telecom Utilities that covered only about 20% of the United States.
After years of legal wranglings and cases, (one of which involved a long distance upstart, MCI) each RBOC controlled a group of states. Meanwhile, AT&T was spun off and it kept the long distance business and would later also offer internet and local phone service, as would MCI.
CBS-13, Sacramento, May 29, 2018 at 5:24 pm | Original article here.
Questions Raised About 5G Health Risks Months Before Sacramento Launches Service
According to the National Cancer Institute,
“A limited number of studies have shown some evidence of statistical association of cell phone use and brain tumor risks.”
The City of Sacramento partnered with Verizon to offer 5G. A spokesperson told CBS13 the City of Sacramento currently has six active 5G sites- all are on SMUD utility poles:
Print edition, Monterey Herald; Sunday, May 13, 2018
Watsonville, CA residents just dodged a bullet. Or did they?
With no quorum at their May 8th meeting, the City Council could not vote on a new ordinance that eliminates public hearings and Planning Commission review of “small cell” towers next to homes, schools, and businesses in Watsonville.
The same law firm that tried to con Monterey into believing that
“recent state and federal laws and regulations have preempted the city’s authority over permitting wireless communication facilities” is at it again in Watsonville.
Sadly, with small cell applications waiting for the new ordinance to be approved, the mayor, city attorney, and assistant city clerk have already signed onto the resolution to make the process a simple administrative permit.
By not showing up, the council created a problem:
There is an FCC deadline on these pending cell towers applications.
By letting the shot clock run out on applications deemed complete, these towers become approved.
Watsonville, please wake up. Your rights are in the process of being destroyed by your own city government.
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