Americans can’t touch this story because we lack the infrastructure. We lack the infrastructure because the Bells and cable operators are hoarding the bits. They are hoarding the bits because they are monopolists, and our political leaders don’t see that monopoly is not capitalist, but fascist.
There is a simple solution to the current Political Thesis and all the Evils that attend to Bush-ism. 2%. That is the rise in long-term interest rates sufficient to cause a housing crash and an economic meltdown. The current "recovery" is based on housing, on real estate, on construction. We are becoming extravagantly over-housed, compared […]
If you have been following my series on American political history you know that that America works in generational cycles. Each generation is dominated by a Thesis, consisting of a myth and values that deliver power. This story in time is challenged by an Anti-Thesis, a counter-story that leans against it — in time unsuccessfully. […]
The most (politically) compelling argument the phone companies have against Voice Over IP is 911 service. The heart of 911 is that your phone number travels with your call, so emergency services can reach you even if you hang up. Thus, the phone companies are forcing E911 capability onto mobile companies, subsidizing the (welcome) addition […]
With Yahoo part of AT&T, and with network neutrality dead, the networks have to treat with AT&T. It's now the main way for them to reach their viewers.
Donald Graham is chairman of The Washington Post Co. Donald Graham is a Republican. This is apparently a big secret to a lot of people. It is a big secret to liberal bloggers like Glenn Greenwald, who constantly whine about individual Post stories or editorials. It is certainly a secret to the right, which treats […]
We all know Dick Cheney is no Hubert Humphrey. He never was in the mix to follow George W. Bush, our era's LBJ. So who gets the Humphrey role now?
The following, part of my free weekly e-mail newsletter, A-Clue.Com, is being reprinted at Always On next week as a guest column. Enjoy. Given that we have successfully built a bridge to the 19th century it’s time to rediscover Frederick Law Olmsted (right and below). Olmsted had one of the great lives of the 19th […]
By offering bits wholesale, municipalities break the bottleneck and ultimately (I hope) move the Bells and cable guys to start wholesaling again as well. If they do, then it doesn't matter what their terms of service are in their own retail operations.
It’s because their own spam filtering system is broken. It doesn’t work and it costs money. Goodmail promised to turn it into a profit center. Proof lies in how AOL itself treated a flood of e-mail about DearAOL.Com a site set up to protest the proposed Goodmail e-mail tax. Apparently it banned all e-mail mentioning […]
