'All of the Above': Dumb in Energy - Not Much Better in Internet
Old saws are old saws - because they ring true:
“Politics is just show business for ugly people.”
The two people to whom I most often see that attributed - are Jay Leno and Paul Begala.
I’m going to go with Leno - and Begala ripping him off. Methinks that a safer bet than the other way round.
I would add a new wrinkle:
Politics is sports for fat people.
The point is: Washington, DC is - like show business, like sports - fundamentally unserious. DC is just uglier and fatter doing it.
Most unfortunately, DC is dealing with things of far greater import than games and movies.
DC is currently 40+ days into a ridiculous government shutdown. Republicans and Democrats can not agree on how rapidly to continue spending the US into oblivion.
The BEST case scenario? Republicans win - and their “clean” Continuing Resolution (CR) becomes law. That CR? Will grow the national debt by $1 trillion every 100 days.
Hooray.
And we’re all supposed to mindlessly choose up sides, grab our pom poms - and root, root, root for our DC team.
Hooray.
The DC shutdown is yet another triumph of style over substance. It’s yet another superficial messaging war DC wages.
DC is GREAT at superficial messaging wars - with HORRENDOUS policy outcomes.
Remember the 2009 Obamacare debacle? Some serious spin messaging helped drag that dead horse across the finish line.
“If you like your insurance - you can keep your insurance.”
“If you like you doctor - you can keep your doctor.”
Except many tens of millions of people lost their insurance and their doctors.
The lying was so successful? Barack Obama’s speechwriters subsequently laughed uproariously about it with Charlie Rose on the latter’s television show.
Heck, Obamacare’s actual bill name itself was a titanic lie: The Affordable Care Act.
We the Reasonable were saying from the very beginning that it wasn’t affordable. Now a decade-plus later? Even the Obamacare cheerleaders are admitting it - albeit some only tacitly.
The Washington Post just recently conceded Obamacare “was never actually affordable.”
The Democrat side of the DC shutdown? Is them trying to get yet another $1+ trillion in government money to continue propping up Obamacare. Which is them admitting it’s a disaster - even if they refuse to overtly state the obvious.
Regardless? We’re all still stuck with Obamacare.
Would you like another DC messaging success - with subsequent policy disaster?
“All of the above” energy strategy.
This has been a decades-long DC message used by people promoting fake energy - and real energy proponents cowed by The Zeitgeist into playing along.
The fake energy proponents wanted to blur the lines between real and fake. To ensure they could keep their fake energy scams going.
Ok - let’s define terms:
By real energy? I mean coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear. Proven energy sources with proven outcomes and successes.
By fake energy? I mean wind, solar, geothermal,…. And, of course, fake transportation like electric cars.
Modes of energy and transportation that have time and again proven to be atrociously unsuccessful. And - like Obamacare - require trillions of government dollars to maintain even their very existences.
Trump Rollback on Clean Energy Subsidies Stalls Major Solar, Wind Projects and Manufacturing Plans
End of Electric Vehicle Subsidies Drives Down October Auto Sales
I know what some of you are saying:
“Oil companies get tax breaks.”
You can argue that shouldn’t happen. But you can not argue it’s the same thing.
Real energy gets to keep more of its own money. Fake energy gets handed other people’s money. That’s not the same thing.
If President Donald Trump’s fake energy subsidy rollbacks hold? The entire fake energy industry will completely implode. Which would be a GREAT thing.
And for those of you clutching your pearls about the planet?
‘Green Energy’ - Is Neither Green Nor Energy:
“It is all awful for the environment - and at producing energy.”
So if it FINALLY goes? Good riddance to bad rubbish.
What I don’t understand? Is DC reusing a now-proven messaging lie.
NCTA CEO Cory Gardner Urges ‘All-of-the-Above’ Approach to Spectrum Policy:
“NCTA President & CEO Cory Gardner…(called) for a balanced national approach to spectrum policy that supports innovation and ensures America’s continued leadership in connectivity.
“‘America needs it all - with multiple avenues of access to spectrum to meet demand.’”
How very fake energy of him.
“NCTA” stands for “The National Cable and Telecommunications Association.” The Wired Guys. The guys who dig trenches and lay cable to connect people to the Internet.
Which is immobile - and egregiously expensive. Which is why it is RAPIDLY becoming an antiquated way to connect.
Wireless connectivity goes nigh everywhere. And is tremendously fast, getting ever faster - and is WAY cheaper to build out.
The Wired Guys saw this writing on the wall a while ago. So they started lobbying DC for more and more UNLICENSED wireless spectrum.
The Wireless Guys need LICENSED spectrum - exclusively for them and their networks - because they can not exist without it.
The Wired Guys want more unlicensed spectrum - because they need it to increasingly subsidize their dinosaur wired business model.
The Wired Guys getting unlicensed spectrum? Is not unlike fake energy getting to tap into real energy’s resources.
Oh: And spectrum is a finite resource. There’s only so much to go around. So deciding who gets what is serious business.
Now please do not misunderstand me. I realize there is value in unlicensed spectrum. It is not entirely like fake energy.
But it’s the Internet. Just about ANYTHING done on the Internet via spectrum creates value - licensed or unlicensed.
The question is: Which creates the most value?
And by “value” - I mean way more than just money.
Unlicensed Spectrum Doesn’t Help With Our China Problem
Unfortunately, the retread “All of the Above” messaging The Wired Guys are using? Is working (again) in DC.
Why Is DC So One-Sided, Wrong-Sided and China-Sided In Its Spectrum Allocation?:
“The current turf battle in the DC Spectrum War is over what is known as the mid-band:
“‘Mid-band (also called Sub-6) is the most practical spectrum for wireless data transmission.’
“The government still holds about 60% of the mid-band spectrum (3,390 MHz). Of the remaining 40%? The government has allocated to unlicensed spectrum - the kind nigh utterly useless in the China-5G race - 33% (1,905 MHz). That means just 7% (450 MHz) has been licensed.”
And yet here’s NCTA President Gardner - the head Wired Guy - ridiculously asking for even more unlicensed spectrum.
A very DC request - using retread DC messaging.
All of which is wrong.
All of which is convincing DC.
Because DC is just that absurd.