I think mom is doing as well as she can be under the circumstances.  Walking a bit better - finding more words.  Her home health aide has been amazing.

• I always get a kick out of telling people I remember the DAY a computer first showed up on my desk at work.  It was an ad agency.  The Client Service people (who worked closely with Clients to determine strategy etc.), were on PC's; the Creative Department was on MACS.  THEY COULDN'T COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER!  
• I remember when a nice young man would push a cart to my office door, come in and take stuff out of my OUTBOX, and deliver a new stack of stuff to my INBOX.
• I remember doing "searches" using products like "Netscape", Alta Vista. "Ask Jeeves"
• I remember when I had my OWN secretary!!!!!
• I remember when my company, Ogilvy & Mather Direct, would have our annual meetings and Christmas parties at places like the NY Public Library, Madison Square Garden, The Museum of Natural History (one year "under the whale", another year in the Planetarium).   Some years it was Broadway theaters, then the cast would put on the show for us!
  
  I may be old now, but I think I'm lucky to have been YOUNG back then!

mtierney said:

 From the WSJ TODAY…Best laid plans of Dems

The Harris Broadband Rollout Has Been a Fiasco

Three years after the $42.5 billion subsidy passed, not a single project is underway. Here’s why.

By The Editorial BoardFollow

Oct. 4, 2024 at 6:12 pm ET

Government makes many promises, the Biden Administration more than most. Results are another story. For the latest example of the latter, consider the “internet for all” plan that President Biden tapped Kamala Harris to lead. Fiasco is the word for it.

The 2021 infrastructure law included $42.5 billion for states to expand broadband to “unserved,” mostly rural, communities. Three years later, ground hasn’t been broken on a single project. The Administration recently said construction won’t start until next year at the earliest, meaning many projects won’t be up and running until the end of the decade.

Blame the Administration’s political regulations. States must submit plans to the Commerce Department about how they’ll use the funds and their bidding process for providers. Commerce has piled on mandates that are nowhere in the law and has rejected state plans that don’t advance progressive goals.

Take how the Administration is forcing providers to subsidize service for low-income customers. Commerce required that Virginia revise its plan so bidders had to offer a specified “affordable” price. This is rate regulation.

Brent Christensen of the Minnesota Telecom Alliance recently reported that none of his trade group’s 70 or so members plan to bid for federal grants because of the rate rules and other burdens. “To put those obligations on small rural providers is a hell of a roadblock,” he said. “Most of our members are small and can’t afford to offer a low-cost option.”

Commerce hoped to spread the cash to small rural cooperatives, but the main beneficiaries will be large providers that can better manage the regulatory burden. Bigger businesses always win from bigger government.

Commerce is all but refusing to fund anything other than fiber broadband, though satellite services like SpaceX’s Starlink and wireless carriers can expand coverage at lower cost. A Starlink terminal costs about $600 per home. Extending 5G to rural communities costs a couple thousand dollars per connection. Building out fiber runs into the tens of thousands.

Fiber networks will require more permits, which delay construction. But fiber will require more union labor to build. Commerce wants grant recipients to pay union-scale wages and not oppose union organizing.

The Administration has also stipulated hiring preferences for “underrepresented” groups, including “aging individuals,” prisoners, racial, religious and ethnic minorities, “Indigenous and Native American persons,” “LGBTQI+ persons,” and “persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality.”

Good luck trying to find “underrepresented” hard-hats in Montana. An official overseeing Montana’s program told Congress last month that the Administration has given “conflicting or even new and changed guidance after submitting our plans” and is “slowing states down and second-guessing good-faith efforts.”

The official added that “we have yet to receive clarity on permitting, a foundational component of broadband deployment.” The government system that states are required to use for federal permits, she noted, “will not be available for another 6 to 8 months to evaluate each project’s environmental and historic preservation effects.”

Then there’s this Catch-22. The Biden National Environmental Policy Act guidance requires companies that receive federal funds to consider alternative plans with smaller environmental impact. But the program’s rules disfavor such alternatives as satellites and home 5G.

States must also identify future climate risks and “how the proposed plan will avoid and/or mitigate” them. Broadband providers already safeguard their systems against natural disasters in part with redundant networks, so the extraneous mandates will merely make building more expensive.

Cox Communications last week sued Rhode Island over the state’s plan to “build taxpayer-subsidized and duplicative high-speed broadband internet in affluent areas of Rhode Island like the Breakers Mansion in Newport and affluent areas of Westerly,” where Taylor Swift owns a $17 million vacation home. Cox says there are better ways to spend taxpayer dollars. According to the Federal Communications Commission, 99.97% of U.S. households already have access to high-speed internet.

The broadband non-rollout is a classic of modern progressive government. Authorize money for a cause that private industry could do better, but then botch the execution with identity politics and union favoritism. Ms. Harris is promising four more years of the same.

This article is false.

I own a home on the side of a mountain in Fairview, NC. It is a definitely rural area outside of Asheville. (We fared very well in Helene)

For our first 18 months there we relied on internet via a line-of-sight signal cast from a tower on another mountain over 10 miles away. The service was OK, not great. We paid $85/month.

In May and June of this year, buried fiber optic cable was installed throughout the community. Scores of miles of cable. We paid $99 for the termination of the cable inside the house. Not a penny more.

The F.O. cable installation was funded by the Infrastructure Act. 

We now have much faster, more reliable service for $70/month. We could get service that is 100X faster than we had for just $99 per month.

mjc said:

mtierney responds to jimmurphy's informative post about rural broadband: "My bestest friend, Jim M., writes of the cost of internet in a land far removed from MOL. But he benefitted from the Infrastructure Bill, so his loyalty to the current administration is understandable.

"Inquiring minds must ask: Do you live in that region full-time, or is it a vacation home?"

1. jm's post about "far removed" NC was in direct response to discussion about whether the Biden administration had fulfilled any of its promises.  Looks like Yes, right?

2. Why would it matter whether jm lives or vacations in NC (or was it just a friendly curious inquiry)?  Presumably the broadband improvement is available to residents and part-timers alike.  If you'll pardon my tone of voice, IT'S A GOOD THING for quality internet to come to areas that have been underserved because installing the infrastructure might not show an immediate profit an internet company. Good fast internet is a MODERN NECESSITY FOR BUSINESSES, EDUCATION, REMOTE WORKERS.... It's a good thing for NC to have this opportunity to thrive.  And the internet company presumably wants as many subscribers as possible, whether residents or vacationers.

First, I am glad, mtierney, that the small kindness that I performed has been so impactful for you.  I'm glad that you can now unlock access to much more information and entertainment than before. I believe that you are likely a good neighbor and would do a similar kindness if you had the ability to do so.

As to our situation, we intend to retire to the NC home in a few years, but for now split time between NJ and NC. Improved internet access has certainly been a help in remote work.

That said...

As to everyones' responses, I share their frustration with your lack of focus on the point being made and the spin that you put on it.

The point of my post was to dispel the notion that the rural broadband initiative has not gotten off the ground.  The article you posted and that I responded to was yet another example of your posting of misinformation.  I had a concrete rebuttal of your "facts" and wanted to share.

Your cartoon response was yet another example of disinfomation.  The administration's response to Helene has been outstanding, with testimonials from Republican and Democratic state officials alike.  There are thousands of "boots on the ground." FEMA funds are flowing. Federal and State National Guardsmen are onsite.  And as the richest nation on earth, we can certainly both fulfill our responsibilities to our citizens in times of need as well as to our allies abroad.

What has not happened is the authorization of any supplemental funding to deal with the disaster.  Why?  Because Republican Speaker Johnson has not brought Congress back from recess to authorize it.  Why not?  Because the Republicans would rather play politics with this disaster than help the poor suffering disaster victims, thereby giving the administration any credit for a "win".  Can't let them seem too effective, right??   

As ml1 noted, my "loyalty to the administration" has absolutely nothing to do with having benefitted from the Infrastructure grant. I am loyal to the Democratic Party because they are on the side of right and are not led by a truly heinous leader and a bunch of spineless sycophants. As a young man I was a patriotic Republican, albeit a naive one.  The party has strayed so far from their values in those times that I could not possibly support them now. I am shocked and horrified that so many of our citizens, including you, support them.

Hope that clears up any confusion, mtierney. 

I really do hope that you use the improved access to auditory sources of information as a way to seek out some truth.  I suggest that you listen to a few non-right wing podcasts.

alha said:

almost there at - 1 but just not seeing that last elusive word

finally saw that last one...just got QB  :bz

PVW said:

I did a small F2F last year. It was fun

it was nice to meet you. 

And yes, it was very small :-)

Harris finally pulls ahead in Times/Siena poll

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/08/us/politics/harris-trump-poll-national.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Qk4.-mOA.o-rkMbbEcpmU&smid=url-share

I did a small F2F last year. It was fun :-)

I won't lie. I was joking with my friends via text in the 8th that the plus side was that I'd get my postseason ticket money back. 

What a game. It's been an unbelievable week. 

I hear that JD VANCE might be interested!