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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.

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  1. Re:Cruility the default Trump Administration stanc by penandpaper · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Reading your comment, I am reminded of a Haidt looking into basically "liberals do not understand conservative positions".

    You ascribe another position as "tries to be cruel to people" or "out of touch with reality". Have you actually tried to understand the different position? Or is you opinion based on what others say their position is?

    It's one thing to understand a position and disagree. It's quite another to not even able to articulate the motivations or justifications beyond "They are evil that hate poor brown people!".

    Do you really think the reason for this action from Pai/FCC was to "be cruel to people"? Did you actually read their reasoning for why they did this? Again, disagree is fine but FFS get their position and justification correct before you assign some moral judgement.

    Or they just want to be actively cruel to anyone who just doesn't fully support and love them.
     

    You can say this about democrats. Don't toe the line you're a racist sexist blah blah blah blah. Or you get assaulted for wearing a hat.