Progressive Pilgrims’ Progress

February 2019
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Progressive Pilgrims’ Progress

11 February 2019

George Rebane

My pal, fellow blogger, and comrade-in-arms for community connectivity and STEM education, Russ Steele wrote the following in the 11feb19 Union (here).

As a proponent of rural broadband, I often read recently published books and articles on broadband technologies. I am currently reading Susan Crawford's book, "Fiber: The Coming Tech Revolution — and Why America Might Miss It." I was surprised by the depiction of Nevada City and Grass Valley as failed communities in their quest for broadband fiber networks with quotes like these:

"Laissez-faire is not working for rural America, particularly in areas like Nevada City/Grass Valley where the local authorities are uninterested in intervening to ensure that their people have communications capacity." "… one of the key reasons that both Greensboro and Grass Valley/Nevada City are making such slow progress toward any flavor of publicly oriented fiber is that there is no prominent public leader willing to stand behind it."

This is only two, there are more damaging quotes. After reading this book, it is highly unlikely Nevada City would be on anyone's list as a great place to live and work. Now that Race Communications will be building out the fiber network which Crawford used to illustrate a failed project, local authorities need to promote a more positive image. More at https://ruraleconomytechnology.com.

It’s not only that no “prominent public leader” in Nevada County has ever gone to bat for community broadband, instead it’s been exactly the opposite ever since progressives have become the dominant voice in this foothills community. They have brought their (San Francisco) values with them, and that includes a disdain for business and entrepreneurship, and a profound ignorance of science and technology (e.g. their stance on cell towers, vaccination, consensus science, …). So, for politicians hereabouts to get re/elected, they need to cater to the sentiments of the local liberals, more and more of whom lack any critical thinking skills, and that means to adopt ‘duck and cover’ when it comes to stepping up to promote any kind of growth that depends on the acquisition of modern broadband.

Our proregressives have now elevated to a nationally prominent level their opposition to growth – we are a modern luddite posterchild. But hey, that don’t make no never mind since we do have the ERC and various economic development meetings now and then to keep our spirits up.

Posted in Critical Thinking & Numeracy, Current Affairs, Nevada County

22 responses to “Progressive Pilgrims’ Progress”

Robert Cross

11 February 2019

You seem to blame every gripe you have about society and your life on progressives. What about polio or STD’s… also caused by progressives? What about bad hamberders with no pickle, also a progressive caused problem. Actually, a better approach would be — is there anything that is bad in your opinion, that isn’t caused or exacerbated by progressives?

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George Rebane

11 February 2019

RobertC 1006am – This could be a good discussion as soon as you convince me that you can tell the difference between “hamberders with no pickle” and public policies.
But to make headway, no matter how small – yes, libertarians’ insular foreign policy is bad; yes, capitalists succumbing to corporatism; yes, conservatives’ blind opposition to wealth redistribution; …
You would know all this should you take the trouble to read RR – I didn’t start this blog yesterday. But your main takeaway should be that the overwhelming share of societal problems are directly attributable to the various expressions of hubristic collectivism – and in the US today that happens to virulent progressivism. Next question.

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Todd Juvinall

11 February 2019

Actually in Florida a progressive turned violent and attacked McDonald’s employees because they ran out of quarter pounders with a pickle. So te we do point out these flagrant acts of idiocy on you libs. Conservatives would have helped them cook the burger.

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Mr. Rogers

11 February 2019

This post dovetails with the Estonian post. I looked into it a bit and see that
The NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence is located in Estonia.
Having big national and international financial and physical infrastructure support from NATO, the European Union, and the Estonian government probably went a long way toward helping Estonia achieve their goal of broadband saturation.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative_Cyber_Defence_Centre_of_Excellence
Government and private funded EstWin is now managing the current broadband rollout.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/EstWin
This post dovetails with the Estonian post. I looked into it a bit and see that
The NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence is located in Estonia.
Having big national and international financial and physical infrastructure support from NATO, the European Union, and the Estonian government probably helped Estonia achieve their goal of broadband saturation.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative_Cyber_Defence_Centre_of_Excellence
Government and private funded EstWin is now managing the current broadband rollout.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/EstWin

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George Rebane

11 February 2019

Rogers 249pm – Actually it was exactly the other way around. Estonia was already the leading internet country when it was cyber-attacked by Russia. Estonia’s ability to counter such a massive attack (that initially shut down its entire civil internet infrastructure), and its already established record/reputation as an internet high-tech developer convinced NATO to put its Cyber Defense Center in Estonia (of course, it also sent a message to Russia, so it was a twofer).

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Robert Cross

11 February 2019

” But your main takeaway should be that the overwhelming share of societal problems are directly attributable to the various expressions of hubristic collectivism – and in the US today that happens to virulent progressivism.”
1). I don’t have the time or desire to read 12 years of your dissertations so we will have to go at this post by point.
2). As to the above quote: That is strictly your misguided opinion. I would posit that the “overwhelming share of societal problems” is due to the concentration of wealth and power among mostly trust fund children and grand children of robber barons and other greed infested oligarchs who have had to do nothing besides getting out of bed to acquire their vast amounts of wealth which they are now using to try and shape the country into their twisted image of how society should/does work.. with them at the top making the decisions via elected goons whom they have sponsored and canned legislation from ALEC and distorted information from think tanks they have also funded and staffed with like minded people.. all of which further cements their position of power. Especially with gullible people without critical thinking skills who are easily duped.
A new study from UCB called “Global Wealth Inequality” reports that .00025% of the population has more net worth than the bottom 60%. This is the greatest discrepancy since the 1920’s and we all know what happened after that. With corporations now considered human and money equals free speech (thanks to #1 above), in terms of electing like minded goons, this means that 400 people have way more free speech and, thus, political power than 150,000,000 American people. I would call that, next to climate e change, the most serious issue facing humanity. The two go hand in hand..wealthy people with large sums invested in fossil fuels are trying to make as much money as they can while they can, and piss on everyone else.
The problem, George, is not collectivism but GREED. The need for collectivism rises from the human need to feel that one has some control over one’s life. The power of the many will eventually beat the power of the few. That is what gives birth to revolution.. the desire of the many to get a fair shake. I think the 2018 midterm elections may have signaled the birth of the next American revolution…
The social problems you refer to are the direct result of the ruling class of wealthy families trying to maintain their power and wealth. What they miss from their gilded nests and greed is that all they would have to do is share the wealth just a little. Most people are more concerned with happiness than wealth unless they are hungry then all bets are off. They need to let the peasants have a little cake instead of wanting it all for themselves and most of those problems would simply go away.

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Bill Tozer

11 February 2019

About 10 or so years ago, after consulting with one of our region’s largest cable high speed internet providers (Comcast), a person asked me when I thought broadband would come to his area. Upon learning he lived on Cruzon grade, I replied, “Not in your lifetime.” There was no plans to expand after the fiber rebuilt. Another friend asked when fiber was coming to his area in the North Auburn area several miles off Hwy 49. I made some calls and told her “not for many moons. The FCC will not allow expansion into your area because that would give Comcast a continuous line of service from Sac to Nevada County, and thus a monopoly. No monopolies allowed.
I laughed when the news of Race Communitcations was finally going to service rural Nevada County. I laughed when a goat lady was talking about fiber to the door. I laughed because there are formulas of number of homes per quarter mile, distance from street to home, etc. Race may service homes along 174 from Chicago Park to the Y and down Brunswick to Burger Basin, but it is doubtful that folks living far down the roads off 174 will get service. Too sparsely populated. Dream on if you think fiber will be expanded to Purdon Crossing or up Willion Valley to Scott’s Flat or the 5 Mile House. Of course, it all depends what one calls broadband or what one considers high speed, not to mention bandwidth.
Horizon, Verizon, and others have tried fiber to the door. All in places like Roseville and cities where there are so many apartment building per block with tens of thousands of end user customers per square mile. Most were losing propositions. Too much capital expenditures for even a 20+ year return. 30 year return may not be worth it. Same with overbuilds. Like building a railroad. Think very high monthly bills.
True fiber broadband from the Rood Center to Downiville? Maybe someday, but I probably won’t live to see it. Maybe if the government lays the backbone trunk and smaller outfits pay to tap off with feeders., Maybe. No, I see wireless as the way of the future. Well, the nation did a huge expensive infrastructure push to run electricity to rural areas back before my time, so never say never.
Many moons ago, I was reading a report about an well known Asian country, a island country. The costs of running fiber trunk from Europe and wiring the country was laid out. A decision was made by their government to go wireless due to the costs and building the infrastructure…not to mention building out the whole country to reach the end user. In hindsight, a good decision.
A decade or so ago I was shocked to read projections that 90% of the world’s first computers will be hand held devices. The idea seemed so foreign in a time of computer desks and tables with big monitors and towers with floppy disc slots taking up so much space. That day has arrived. If not, it’s knocking on the door.
If one is lucky enough to live close to a highway or busy road with lots of neighbors around, then maybe one will get what I call high speed broadband. 120+ MBs down, 20 up at a minimum. 200-300 down is better. Soon 120 MB’s will be standand, if it is not already….a far cry from 4-6 mbs when it launched and paying extra for 10mbs, lol. Heck, I am out in the boonies and get 10 down off a tiny antenna. But, what do I know. No longer care. :). Sorry Russ.

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Bill Tozer

11 February 2019

Darn, doesn’t Robert sound exactly like Brother Ben? I started closing my eyes and filling in the words to complete Robert’s sentences and when I opened my eyes, I was pretty much spot on, lol. Those trust fund babies! Shot in the ass with diamonds. Born with a silver spoon in their mouths. Greed! Greed! Greed! Kick down with those gold coins and fill my beggar’s cup…first.
Sure, income inequality is a recognized by all as a big problem and a big future headache. No doubt about that.
The problem with our current legal document governing our lives is it is the government’s job to protect the rights of the individual.
The problem with socialism is it is government’s job to protect the collective at the expense of the individual.
It’s not about letting them have a little cake. It’s about earning a little slice of cake. If professors at colleges would cut their salaries by 70% (for the little people), then maybe college tuitions would be less expensive. Lead by example.

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Scott O

11 February 2019

Bobby at 6:22 – “I would posit that the “overwhelming share of societal problems” is due to the concentration of wealth and power among mostly trust fund children and grand children of robber barons and other greed infested oligarchs who have had to do nothing besides getting out of bed to acquire their vast amounts of wealth which they are now using to try and shape the country into their twisted image of how society should/does work.”
Well – you would Bobby.
Unfortunately You can’t name a single one. Funny that.
Just who all comprises this right wing cabal of sinister hand-wringers and nose rubbers?
Most of the ‘idle rich’ I read about are totally left wing giving time and money to the folks Bobby loves.
Then –
“The need for collectivism rises from the human need to feel that one has some control over one’s life.”
Well, you have a lot of that right. The left are a bunch of inept bed-wetters that have enough emotional problems to keep a whole mental health dept busy forever. And the sad fact is that instead of dealing with their own problems, they expect the rest of us to soothe their brows and tell them that everything would be alright if reality would just adjust itself to their hallucinations.
Now Bobby – before you go off with your hair on fire, just calmly list out the vast numbers of the ‘idle’ rich that keep you from your own personal happiness.
Name them.
If you can’t, you are just BSing us and yourself.
Ball’s in your court.
Greed is a human failure of wanting more than what you have justly earned. It has absolutely nothing to do with income. It is vastly more prevalent among the poor than the wealthy, Bobby.

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George Rebane

11 February 2019

RobertC 622pm – Excellent! Thank you Mr Cross for that confirming clarification.

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Walt

11 February 2019

Lets make it easy for Babs.. Who stopped you from getting rich?
Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day.
Since Babs has a self esteem problem because people make more money that he,,, here’s and extra kick to the nuts.
https://due.com/blog/25-kids-made-1-million-graduating-high-school/
Here you are whining, and youngsters applied themselves and are now set for life.

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Russ

11 February 2019

Bill Toser@07:18 PM
There will be many more mobile devices with more capabilities than the 4G phones used today, with the emerging 5G technology. All will be huge bandwidth consumers, and the telcos and the cable companies have to provide that data throughput. The rub is the backhaul network. Every 5G mini-tower needs a backhaul connection. Today providers use a fiber network. Tomorrow it could be some other technology, such as AT&T’s AirGig or it could be SpaceX 14,000 LEO satellite cluster StarLink
Some AirGig details here: https://ruraleconomytechnology.com/2019/02/03/att-plans-to-test-5g-with-airgig/
Some SpaceX StarLink details here: https://ruraleconomytechnology.com/2019/01/19/video-of-spacex-simulations/
VAST has a fiber network in Nevada County: https://broadbandnow.com/Vast-Networks
A group of folks on Newtown Road formed a nonprofit corporation and contracted with VAST to provide a POP. They build a wireless network to distribute the bandwidth. I have a request into interview the President of the corporation and will have more details real soon now at https://ruraleconomytechnoogy.com

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Gregory

11 February 2019

Bobby 622pm
You mean mean-spirited hard leftie trust fund babies like Mikail Grahame?

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Mr. Rogers

12 February 2019

Russ@8:39 PM
It is my understanding that the former GV group Bitney Springs campus was provided a fiber connnection also.

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Robert Cross

12 February 2019

Greggy–10:15 I have no idea what you are talking about, nor do I think do you most of the time.

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Bill Tozer

12 February 2019

Russ @ 8:47 pm
Thanks. All the terminology can flooding back. Fiber is just light and the loss per 60 miles is minimal. Nodes solved much of the roll off problem. Heck, some bigger manufacturing warehouses and dorms on college campuses are nodes unto themselves. But, I always felt that fiber would someday be replaced with something even better than fiber, but what it is I had no idea. What could be better than light…all on the diameter of a human hair? Add thousands of hairs that can jump from one to another when their is a traffic jam and you don’t miss a beat.
Still, fiber is misunderstood by the public. Just cause fiber is turning down the road or highway, does not mean fiber is running down one’s particular street or neighborhood. That’s why I laughed when the goat lady said fiber to the house when referring to broadband coming. To the door? No doubt fiber was run to the Rood Center, but did they rewire the whole complex with fiber…or using existing CAT 6 or quad shield “coaxial cable” RG-60, RG-70, or fiber? Be that as it may (a non-issue for residences and practicality), thanks again.
Remember when Verizon cell service got knocked out locally for a few hours when a pole was hit by a car on 49 near Lime Kiln? Oh, boy, people were so upset they ran up to the BOS complaining and demanding answers? What can BOS do at that point? ROFLMAO. It
It was like the end of the world. They unhinged and inconvenienced could not wrap their heads around the fact that their cell phone and computer service did not really come directly from outer space directly into their devices. . People don’t need to know how it works, just make it work! :). Just fix the bigger and fix it now!
Have long long time friends (a married couple) who live overlooking the North Fork of the American River gorge up 80. Gorgeous stunning view as far as the eye can see overlooking 100s of thousands of acres and smaller communities in distance.
One day, a guy drove up and approached them with a deal they could not refuse. Free internet if he could put this smal box and small equipment on the corner of their deck. Did not require much electricity. Since they had no internet service, they agreed. Did not take up hardly any space, but they warned the small time enterprising man that they loose power, sometimes or over a week. The internet dude did not grasp in full what they were telling them. They lived at the end of the line for power and yes, it often takes days for their power to be restored after most everybody else’s juice is restored. Was out for two weeks plus one year.
Anyway, the last time I visited them recently, they showed me where internet provider had came back and placed a stacks of batteries in a nearby shed, lol. Stacks. My friends don’t care, they got free internet.
If it’s not one thing, it’s another.
I never did ask them what the name of the outfit is, but appears to be a one man operation…

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Russ

12 February 2019

According to the comments in The Union, Michael Anderson did not appreciate my broadband insight, blather he called it. He thought I was bashing the books author, rather than pointing out the lack of community broadband leadership which was the book author’s point. Always interesting to get another point of view.

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Bill Tozer

12 February 2019

‘Interesting’ is a nice way to put it. Russ, you are being too charitable.
Without leadership, the people perish.

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Bill Tozer

15 February 2019

Breaking news. High speed broadband coming to Grass Valley. Finally!
“Gammelgard noted the position meets a number of strategic goals for the city, including increasing technology in its parks with, for instance, video surveillance to increase security as well as working to establish high-speed broadband internet service in the city”
https://www.theunion.com/news/local-news/grass-valley-police-department-gets-ok-to-hire-tech-analyst/
.

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scenes

19 February 2019

“Remember when Verizon cell service got knocked out locally for a few hours when a pole was hit by a car on 49 near Lime Kiln?”
A funny thing really. Didn’t 911 go out too? It’s funny how an architecture that was built to be redundant ends up producing the opposite.
Maybe I’ll coin that Scene’s Third Law of Technology. “Due to reductions in cost, advancing technology results in monopoly and single points of failure”.

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scenes

19 February 2019

“rather than pointing out the lack of community broadband leadership which was the book author’s point. ”
I appreciate the problem…who pays? Of course, there’s always a hundred people that want to be part of the Nevada County Community Broadband Committee for the Children. It’s fun, and you can always invent a job for yourself. Starting a non-profit appears to be the most profitable thing ’round these parts.
Heck, reliable electricity and better fire suppression would be a good start if you are trying to lure companies.

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George Rebane

19 February 2019

scenes 1248pm – With your kind permission I’ll submit an edited coda to your 3rd law –
“Due to billions owed to unfunded govt employee pension plans, advancing technology results in procuring the cheapest systems and equipments configured to provide monopoly and single points of failure”

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