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Ajit Pai Loses in Court -- Judges Overturn Gutting of Tribal Broadband Program (arstechnica.com)
A federal appeals court has overturned Ajit Pai's attempt to take broadband subsidies away from tribal residents. From a report: The Pai-led Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 in November 2017 to make it much harder for tribal residents to obtain a $25-per-month Lifeline subsidy that reduces the cost of Internet or phone service. The change didn't take effect because in August 2018, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit stayed the FCC decision pending appeal. The same court followed that up on Friday last week with a ruling that reversed the FCC decision and remanded the matter back to the commission for a new rule-making proceeding. [...] The Pai FCC's 2017 decision would have limited the $25 subsidy to "facilities-based" carriers -- those that build their own networks -- making it impossible for tribal residents to use the $25 subsidy to buy telecom service from resellers. The move would have dramatically limited tribal residents' options for purchasing subsidized service, but the FCC claimed it was necessary in order to encourage carriers to build their own networks.
You are such a fucking idiot. Pai was presented to him as a required Republican appointment, Obama had zero say in the matter. And who promoted Pai?
But hey, don't let facts get in the way of the stuff bouncing around in your little echo chamber.
Indeed.
This move was designed to encourage build out, which even the hostile courts acknowledged. It was deliberately designed to stop paying middlemen from siphoning cash out of the reservations. But go ahead and slurp up the anti-Trump propaganda.
"You are such a fucking idiot. Pai was presented to him as a required Republican appointment, Obama had zero say in the matter."
False. He had to make a nomination, he could have nominated someone else for the Republican appointment. Not that I'm trying to make more of it than it was, he had to pick a Republican and asked Mitch McConnell who they wanted.
"And who promoted Pai?"
Trump did but it isn't like he handpicked Pai. He was elected under a republican ticket, had to appoint a chairman, and Pai had the Republican chair. It's unlikely Trump had ever heard of him, if he was smart he negotiated something from the Republicans for it since Trump isn't really a Republican and never was.
In truth, whatever they rubber stamped to put Ajit Pai where he is neither Trump nor Obama are the real reason for it. If anything it is the people who hold Mitch McConnell's strings who bought that appointment.
According to opensecrets.org in 2018:
Communications/Electronics $853,918
Lawyers & Lobbyists $1,625,946
Misc Business $2,100,106
Other $1,510,654
The generic categories can hide just about anything but that include money for "speaking engagements" and backend deals and agreements.
It helps to notice that nearly all the articles that show up in that search are hosted by conservative or conservative-leaning organizations. Or hype factories.
This one at Politifact describes how people paint all these defeats as Obama's failures.
TL;DR: 8 of the cases were started by the Bush administration and the Obama administration continued to defend them, which is apparently common. Only one case could be considered Obama "overstepping executive authority".
- The Sigless Wonder
I'm sick of the term "Obama Phones". People need to read some fucking history once in awhile, and crawl down off their high horses. Obama DID NOT start that program. Hell, neither did the bush's or Clinton. The evil republican Ronald Regan started it.
What president started the free phone giveaway? The Lifeline program is a legacy President Reagan could be proud of." Congress first enacted the Lifeline program in 1985, and the FCC expanded the program to cover cellphone service in 2005 during the George W. Bush administration. The program pays for phone service, not the phones themselves.Sep 12, 2013
https://www.google.com/search?...
This bull shit miss representation started when some African American lady was spouting off on TV about her Obama phones. If she only knew who actually started this goverment program, she would shit her pants.
Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time