In my 2012 book Broken Web (see “books” in menu) I forecast that the USA would, shortly after our big economic break (just ahead, though possible this Fall) that we would replay the outbreak of federal regulatory powers that culminated in the Communications Act of 1934. This Act, I noted, effectively seized and controlled the public airwaves.
The opening couple of paragraphs of Wikipedia will “read you in” to the historical import of what’s coming as the Internet is likely to head down the same path:
“The Communications Act of 1934 is a United States federal law signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 19, 1934 and codified as Chapter 5 of Title 47 of the United States Code, 47 U.S.C. § 151 et seq. The Act replaced the Federal Radio Commission with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). It also transferred regulation of interstate telephone services from the Interstate Commerce Commission to the FCC.
The first section of the Act reads: “For the purpose of regulating interstate and foreign commerce in communication by wire and radio so as to make available, so far as possible, to all the people of the United States a rapid, efficient, nationwide, and worldwide wire and radio communication service with adequate facilities at reasonable charges, for the purpose of the national defense, and for the purpose of securing a more effective execution of this policy by centralizing authority theretofore granted by law to several agencies and by granting additional authority with respect to interstate and foreign commerce in wire and radio communication, there is hereby created a commission to be known as the ‘Federal Communications Commission’, which shall be constituted as hereinafter provided, and which shall execute and enforce the provisions of this Act.”
Non-technical historians will roll-over at such a simple rhyme off history. But consider that the modern web-based analog to “pirate” and “unlicensed” radio may be found across a wide spectrum of Internet technologies.
For example, we can look at the “dark web” and imagine that the US of the early 1930s – seeing the gather storm clouds of a World War ahead in Europe – acted in part to prevent spy stations in America from radioing critical intelligence to Germany.
Like routers made in what country today?
We anticipate the internet will be used in a similar manner in the SloGloWar (slow global war) which may kick-off in the next 120-150-days if historical rhymes of the War Cycle press India and Pakistan over the nuclear brink.
The regulatory problems of the Internet may be considered in much the same manner as the Communications Act took. “Commercial Stations” required a license and part of that was the requirement that stations submit an annual filing (community ascertainment report) demonstrating their serving the public need, necessity, and concerns.
I can’t tell you how many times as a “big city news director” I sat through almost a week per year of “active listening” to what people were all worked up about. It was then part of my job to ensure that our AM/FM major market combo was responsive and covered both sides of local issues.
There is no such equivalent in today’s media especially online. It’s a largely politically-driven slug-fest between corporations more interested in maximizing revenue streams than facilitating balanced public discussion with an eye toward evolving a local or regional consensus. Yet it worked.
Licensing the Internet, when it comes, will be wildly mis-characterized as an attack on our Freedom. And yes, oddly, requiring the public discussion to be balanced worked in radio and television and the country moved forward in much more unison than today.
While it’s amusing to see what Millennials are “worried about” in a story citing something like 3 out of 5 say life is “more stressful than ever” history says the snowflakes are totally out of touch.
It seems to more mature adults, who’ve lived through things like the Vietnam draft, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and several economic calamities, would beg to differ. Even then, we’d have to give an honest nod to those under even higher stress – those who fought and died in WW II putting down the scourge of Nazism and a century before, when American families turned-on, and killed one-another, to sort out slavery. Kids today are spoiled little poo-spots.
Yet today’s Millennials are being whipped into a chest-pounding frenzy about the Internet with shock headlines like “Jail for Online Insults in Russia...” and word of how “fake news” won’t be tolerated.
Russia is merely reacting in a measured way to external web-based warfare and it’s not nearly as “scary” are the Chinese Internet Monitoring System that issues everyone in the country a “social credit score which, in turn, defines what kind of life they get to live.
Here in America, runaway online cults, such as the AOC believers and the Sanctuary City movements, do not reflect the general moods of America. These are whipped up, and fanned, by ad-selling frenzies. Is Russia’s approach any less sane than playing a game of “Burn down the house”” which the Me-Too’ers run daily.
Social Media is largely to blame. They have failed to prevent automated retweet, repost, auto-Like, and lots of other reality-distorting technology to creating a false patina that “Everything’s OK.”
No, it is NOT.
Social media is a disease that even presidents are not immune to. Just this morning we read how Kellyanne “…Conway’s husband suggests Trump has narcissistic personality disorder.”
While I can’t speak to the state of mind of the president, it’s readily apparent that perhaps 10-30 percent of America is already afflicted with what we refer to as “DPD” – digital personality disorder. It is not in the DSM-5, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see such an affliction make it into the DSM-6.
Our somewhat unplugged view of life from out in the woods aside, we see how denial is growing as a way of life. Here’s a 2016 story in The Guardian that was asking “Me! Me! Me! Are we living through a narcissism epidemic?”
As obvious as the warping of behavior is (to those standing off to the side of the fray) two years later headlines like “Are we developing Digital Narcissism?” You mean like there’s a chance we aren’t?
Digiholics, who can’t stop compulsively connecting, have the same problem as alcoholics. Everyone else has a problem but them.
There are three ways the modern analog to the Tower of Babel comes to an end. First, it’s regulated into submission. Just like the socialist (and nearly elected dictator for life) Franklin Roosevelt signed the Communications Act in 1934, the outcome of the presidential contest ahead should give us important clues to timing. We see no shortage of born-agains socialists any of which will fit the historical rhyme to a tee.
The second course is for mass media to pull back from the brink and self-impose some analog to “community ascertainment” and for the social media clown posse to kill automatic reposting and retweeting. Which will never happen, of course.
What is the third open? World War Web. That’s waged with foreign-actor controlled routers and – in the worst case – grid hacks and EMP to rein-in runaway American extremism that is wrecking the future for the whole planet.
Keep an eye out for it. Coming soon to an Internet near you.
Putin banning fake news? The Russians just got their first.
So did China. Are you still in denial about “social credits” and the Great Firewall of China? Then better brace yourself before reading up on the Chinese “Golden Shield Project” because the Great Firewall is only a small part of their web-control efforts.
The very real strategic problem for America is control of the information high ground. And the left-dominated press in cooperation with the left-leaning social media monetizers are doing a strategic disservice to America’s future. It verges on seditious.
Easy to get away with, however. We live in a country where traffic to porn.com is how many times larger than chess.com? We get what we click: screwed.
Screaming Upward Markets
Dow futures are up another 100 early which will be on top of the 65 points added on Tuesday.
Fed meeting is underway today – decision comes tomorrow afternoon.
Factory orders data is due out at 10 AM – will; it be a last splash of gas on the market move higher?
AWK (Also Worth Knowing…)
Today happens to be a “hot day” for followers of Q. Stu’s Age of Desolation website has a dandy short course on the high risks of “big events” to pop today.
The FBI may be posting unredacted details of the Michael Cohen arrests. Side bets on internal politics of the Bureau, anyone?
Historic floods are still impacting Nebraska today. 4,000 displaced and 74 cities with emergency declarations. Pales in comparison with the cyclone that just hit Mozambique, though.
Elizabeth Warren has come out against the Electoral College and says she would support eliminating it. Just one more reason I won’t vote for “pants on fire” Warren. The EC is a critical part of balancing of interests – and since the dems lost they’ve been itching to change the rules that have worked since the EC was set up in 1787…
Lemme see: No borders, no electoral college, what more will the socialists put on the free lunch menu?
Yee gads…talk about lunch already… Off to breakfast with moron ‘morrow…
George
“things like the Vietnam draft”.
In 1969 the Air Force recruiter called me at my work place and said ” your draft notice will hit your house today do you still want to join the Air Force?”.
I answered ABSOLUTELY YES!!
OK he said, be at the court house for 5pm. I’l pick you up and get you on your way to Boot Camp.
And so he did and my life took a big turn towards success. I expected to go to Nam but the Gov had different plans for me.
It was an exciting but also terrifying time to be a young man of draft age. Like many I married early hoping to have a taste of adult life if things went bad. Fortunately it went well but several of my high school class never came back.
I look at the young people today and want to scream at them WAKE UP YOU FOOLS!
69-70 were turning points for me, too. Job & classes & college fun (&skirts) almost overwhelmed me. So I dropped AFROTC, cut back on class load & skirt chasing, and got 2 jobs that were almost too much fun although minimum wage. Got me through to my BSEE!
Not really sure why most states would change from how they throw the votes in the mix. Certainly for all the smaller populated states their influence in a national election would be far reduced. Candidates would have 0 interest in issues for something like 2/3 of the states if a state changes their electoral process. http://worldpopulationreview.com/states/ . You could imagine the process on a close populous result and requiring recounts in all 50 states, vs just Florida.
“Like routers made in what country today?”
What a great post .. Like always it gets me thinking..
Consider not just the routers and where they are made.. Think number crunchers.. Where is almost all banking done.. Where’s the software and whose minding the store..
I personally quit using the financial software I was and had been using for decades.. The reason.. I noticed adding and subtraction errors.. Nothing major and would correct them.. Then all your number crunching is kept safe..where no longer at your fingertips but in the cloud vault handled by a firm in another country.. I got to know the kids in the accounting software’s company by name because I would have to call them daily to correct mistakes when it wouldn’t work with Windows ten. Shortly after that they decided my and your finances are safer with them at the helm.
When did you ever speak to a service rep from the USA.. Not lately is my guess..
Punch up a local store website..you’ll notice a flash then if your paying attention another set of language (chinese) then English..
After seeing the true scary side of the cloud not only is all of our life,actions and real life tracking stored there but.. That information in entirely editable.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4zgh5Y3GfEE
Rebranding..a favorite subject of mine. So, Russia wants to ban fake news huh? You know what they are doing? Rebranding State Run Media/Propoganda by calling the truth fake news. Clever.
Trump has been doing that for two plus years. Trump has gotten so bad…He wants to even investigate SNL because he doesn’t like the way they make fun of him. I wonder if Dana Carvey ever got a cease and desist from George H…Or Chevy Chase one from Gerald Ford, Or Dan Ackroyd one from Nixon, or Darrel Hammond one from Bill Clinton, Will Farrel one from George W, Fred Armisen one from Barrack Obama? NO! They were all normal Presidents that actually embraced their caricatures….with the possible exception of Nixon. The truth that doesn’t praise the almighty Trump is now fake…What a country we live in huh?
I just got back from Honduras on a diving expedition in Utila and Roatan with my son and we decided to go to take a side trip to Guatemala and the city of Anitigua and then to Lake Atitlán. While both countries are beautiful…They are also countries that are run by corrupt leaders. We stayed in the top resorts and hotels…which by the way are all about a third of the price of any US hotel or resort and were about 80% occupied by Americans and Canadians…I did not want to talk with them… I wanted to talk with the successful locals staying there and get their take on their government and the US.
Almost without fail, they all told me to watch the movie “American Made” with Tom Cruise to get a sense of the history surrounding their countries and their reputation that ensued with drugs.
Then, when Columbia decided it wanted out of the drug business…Venezuela took over…the cartels however needed a drug route in Central America and Venezuela with free oil as a carrot, convinced Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala to use their countries as the new route to America. Somewhere along the way, Cuba took control after Venezuela developed its own set of issues and cut off the free oil carrot. America not only knows the details, it in many ways still supports the routes…according to the locals.
The point is…when they hear the rhetoric of Trump…they say he sounds like their own politicians. Brash…threatening…twisting facts…never wrong…denouncing and trying to control the media…touting fake successes…And totally ineffective! That’s the kicker. The word down there is that they feel the management of the US is such a SH*#T Show and that Trump is so inept, that there is no better time for them to try to get into the US. I found that very interesting. It’s moms and their kids that are trying to escape the drug gangs and corruption the the poor neighborhoods that are the main part of the caravans. They all want to seek asylum and the contentiousness of our government with judges knocking down most of Trumps executive orders, they feel they have a Better chance to get in. Trumps nasty approach to immigration is actually having the opposite affect. The art of the dumba*#.
On another topic…The big book that the wealth of Honduras and Guatemala have read is one that I have touted before…Michael Lewis’s the Fifth Risk. A few locals saw me one morning with that book…I brought it with me for morning Cacao/coffee to finish the last 100 pages. That book details the transition of the Trump Presidency and the mess and total dysfunction that ensued. It is of interest to them because it is something they have had to deal with with every regime change their entire lives. They can’t believe that the U.S is doing a mind blowing 180 degree turn in the management of their government affairs. From the unfulfilled appointees in the DOE, USDA, Department of Agriculture to Education etc…to them, it seems America has lost it’s focus and that concerns them and their business with America.
As a result, they are seeing more Russians and Saudi’s taking an interest in their countries…Trumps Pals…Coincidence? Places like the wealthy Zone 14 in Guatemala City relies on American investment to help build their infrastructure and invest in their condos and high rises. Instead, Russia is Butting in. While they will do business with anyone to keep their own businesses running, they would rather trade and do business with America. They see the same autocratic symptoms in Trump that they see from their own leaders. That scares them…because the health of America affects their own health and wealth.
“So, Russia wants to ban fake news huh?”
I think that law was made to put a damper on actions happening similar to what is happening to DJT …
Putin and Ping in my eyes are men of honor..they are Intelligent and tough as nails their objective are to lead their country for the betterment of their citizens.
To sit back and watch the openly public humiliation of DJT and his administration and the realization that the same ones openly humiliating him also have a pretty firm hand on the steering wheels of their countries as well.
You won’t see the instigators try that in Arabic countries or NK. To try and undercut those countries leaders is not a good idea. They don’t care what you own or how much power you would world wide.. Kim will be the first one to tell them and has..make my day..I may be the little guy but I’ll bring your mess to your back yard
So realizing that I am assuming that Putin and Ping realizing this. Decided to impose laws to discourage an event similar to what is being played on DJT.. And keep a firm grip on their leadership capabilities.
Mark! So that’s where you were. You must have left about the same time Andy emerged from his four month experiment in living like a gangsta. He said something about confronting The Mark and winning or some such. Realized I hadn’t seen any posts from you lately. Guess you are not ‘The’ Mark then…
George,
-No. Actually, in point of fact, the FBI is very right leaning. Obviously. All the top guys are R’s. And a majority of the rank and file too. The nature of the profession draws conservatives. But thank goodness they are very professional too.
-Why else would Comey torpedo Clinton by PUBLICLY and with great FANFARE re-opening the email investigation less than two weeks before the election???
-While sitting quietly on the investigation into Trump’s far, far more egregious conspiracy with Russia?
-The problem, it turns out, is that Trump is such a crook, and so egregious, that even they couldn’t look the other way.
-The other problem it turns out, like the O.J. case, is that they’ve got Trump so strongly, that his best defense is to try to slime law enforcement. Best, Mike.
“Why else would Comey torpedo Clinton by PUBLICLY and with great FANFARE re-opening the email investigation less than two weeks before the election???”
My question is why did they wait all that time then decide to release a report after there was a great deal of suspicion that she would loose as the best time to disclose it.. this issue wasn’t something new..
You have noticed that as soon as that came out and it was obvious that that DJT was going to win the constant attacks saying its all russia’s fault began and haven’t stopped..
and nothing has come up about this issue since. and my guess is nothing will ever become of it..
I think things like that are published so that if the question ever comes up why they never did anything that they can come back but we told you all about it and then give some third rate reason why they stopped.. well there were ardvarks in kansas and that was more important than an email …. which could have and why I think some of the attacks are a miss direction.. don’t pay any attention to this.. because DJT and Russians. The attention has been changed it has essentially vanished from the public eyes so no one will ever address this issue ever again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slLCjLcgqbc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP0G4vJ5OMw
.
“Why else would Comey torpedo Clinton by PUBLICLY and with great FANFARE re-opening the email investigation less than two weeks before the election???”
Because he had no choice. FBI Agents in Southern New York went public with their E-Mail findings (Thank you, Anthony Weiner!) Comey was then forced to re-open the investigation, or be revealed at that time, as a dirty cop. He “re-closed” the investigation as soon as his posterior was covered.
just for humor: what qualifies to run for pres.?
beto: ” I am so like Barack”
biden: ” i had so many lunches with Barack”
booker: ” I thought that I Am supposed to be like Barack”
warren: ” I am 1/16th black like Barack”
harris and all others: ” we all had at least of a dinner with Barack”
trump: ” I am so unlike Barack”
barack: ” i am Barack”
Eileen…..
“just for humor: what qualifies to run for pres.?”
If you go according to the candidates from the last few elections..I think that you have to have an IQ of forty and below and be able to say yes sir what ever you want..may I have another sir…
Anyone with an IQ higher is dragged through the mud and endless amounts of slime
A hacked, compromised router (or switch or server) is a hacked, compromised communication component regardless of where it was made, or what corporate brand is on the case. It is the proliferation and standarization of the communication hardware across many industries and functions where the real danger lies. That one goverment has been in the lead in applied spycraft doesn’t mean that others aren’t catching up, as malicious stooges continue to leak the sovereign state hacking tools to any sociopath looking for an advantage. You are starting to see the broad picture, G—-.
Ima not to speak eingalish very to good Iam try to pick somebodies to vote for pertty soon a help me tochoose thank u very muchs
Ernie Slanders from Valamont
Lizabeth Wornout from Messyourshoesit
Jon Chickenpooper from Coranodo
Bedto O Dork from Taxus
Jay Inslee Washaton
Amy Klobuchar Minnesorta
Cory Hooker, No Jewies
Chlamydia Harris from Mexiforina
Kirsten Killagrand from NewYuck
.Tulsi Grabalot from Howareya,
Done forgetta da Chump frum NewYuck
Networking, net working, Net-war King. Test test test, hello hello helloooooooo is this thing on? Lol
Im greatful for the internet because it has given relarionships with countless Marvelous and gifted people i woud have never met otherwise. Along with vast resources and books i would have never hear of otherwise.
It also can be quite the distraction.
A statisical fact,
According to the WHO there is 40-50 million abortions annually world wide.
Comparatively there is 39.56 million residents in the entire state of California.
Let that sink in for a minute.
IF that is a barometer, of World Health, a gage if you will of the Moral and Ethical deficiencies of Humanity as a whole? We are well on the path of self destruction.
Have a good day. Im off to meditate. See what i SEE.
“Lemme see: No borders, no electoral college, what more will the socialists put on the free lunch menu?”
Latest is they want to do what FDR unsuccessfully attempted: To pack the USSC…
The internet regs are coming – just not in the US based on the title of: A Century Ago We Killed The Radio Commons; Don’t Let The EU Do That To The Internet
Findable here:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190320/17593641837/century-ago-we-killed-radio-commons-dont-let-eu-do-that-to-internet.shtml
Funny = This is a central thesis of my 2012 book Broken Web and now newcomers claim the insight. fmtt
Mr. Ure – its why I posted the link. No idea if you had any influence on their POV but the citizens of the US of A has other nations to look at to see their future. The use of iPads and databases to track people as done for ’round a decade in Afghanistan. China with the private-public social credit system. And now this in the EU.