Free Republic

Broadband internet is essential, not a luxury. Thank you @GovHolcomb for prioritizing #Indiana students and schools in your $250M investment so they have equitable access to participate in a meaningful digital learning experience. @ExcelinEd https://t.co/iLlqVzOqXf— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) April 23, 2021

We live in very interesting times ladies and gents, and today there were 2 major news-related events, which made my skin crawl. And I am very serious about this, because both “happenings” are going to influence our lives in a significant way for the years to come. If nothing changes, the ‘interwebz’ as we know it will never be the same. And we’ll all be forced to go on the dark side of the web, where there are cookies and malware. First, it was that neo-communist structure, also known as the European Parliament, passing what has been mildly described as...

The head of the Federal Communications Commission is proposing that the government agency expand a phone subsidy program for the poor to include Internet access. The FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, has emphasized that Internet access is a critical component of modern life, key education, communication and finding a keeping a job. With the net neutrality rules released earlier this year, the agency redefined broadband as a public utility, like the telephone, giving it stricter oversight on how online content gets to consumers. That triggered lawsuits from Internet service providers. The proposal Thursday to expand the Lifeline phone program to Internet...

Secretary of State John Kerry says people around the world have a fundamental right to the Internet. He is denouncing authoritarian governments that place restrictions on web access and social media. Speaking from Washington to an online freedom forum in Estonia, Kerry said Monday that open and unrestricted communication helps make governments accountable. He said autocratic rulers therefore see a free, open and inclusive Internet as a threat to their power. …

Almost daily I continue to submit my requests to Congress, asking them to cut the federal funding of Common Core Standards, Race to the Top, and the national assessments. Besides the obvious — that CCS/RTTT is a federal takeover of the public schools and lies way outside the provisions of the U. S. Constitution — American taxpayers simply cannot afford it. Besides the cost of states’ dumping their own textbooks, standards, and tests in order to implement the Common Core Standards, the cost of the national assessments alone would be horrendous! An education technology expert whose name I shall keep...

President Obama declared to the world that Internet should be free in his speech at the United Nations: "We will promote new tools of communication so people are empowered to connect with one another and, in repressive societies, to do so with security. We will support a free and open Internet, so individuals have the information to make up their own minds." It is important for the President to clarify what he means by Free Internet. Uncensored Internet? Or free of charge? If he meant Free Internet as uncensored, what is the difference between ‘free Internet’ and ‘open Internet’?...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- When Microsoft Corp. delivers a mysterious prototype for government testing this coming week, it will mark a crucial juncture for a high-stakes bid to change the way consumers get their Internet access. That bid has cast Microsoft and a group of powerful allies from Silicon Valley in the relatively unfamiliar role of Washington policy players. Microsoft's prototype, delivered on behalf of the group, is a wireless device that could provide the public with free and more widespread access to the Web instead of relying on networks owned by big telecom and cable firms. That breakthrough,...

Technobarons of the 21st century BY FIONA MORGAN SNIPJohn D. Rockefeller realized that the way to control the oil market was to control the transport of oil. So in 1871, he colluded with the railroad industry to form a cartel called the South Improvement Company. The rate to ship oil doubled, but Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company would get rebates for every gallon of oil shipped, even those shipped by his competitors. South would also collect information on the destinations, costs and dates of competitors' oil shipments. Once word leaked, independent oil producers revolted and managed to stop South before it...