GovCo looks to get into wireless!
Because nothing conveys reliability, fantastic service, and cutting-edge technological advancement like government! According to Axios, the Trump administration has been working up a plan to nationalize 5G wireless service. Link
Trump national security officials are considering an unprecedented federal takeover of a portion of the nation’s mobile network to guard against China, according to sensitive documents obtained by Axios.
Why it matters: We’ve got our hands on a PowerPoint deck and a memo — both produced by a senior National Security Council official — which were presented recently to senior officials at other agencies in the Trump administration.
The main points: The documents say America needs a centralized nationwide 5G network within three years. There'll be a fierce debate inside the Trump administration — and an outcry from the industry — over the next 6-8 months over how such a network is built and paid for.
Axios reports there are two ways this could occur. Either the government builds it. Or the private sector could build it, although the report says that this is not really an option at all if we're going to protect our systems from the Chinese.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is opposed to the idea. Link
Will Democrats oppose the idea, as well?
BREAKING: The NC Teachers Union doesn't like the Republican Superintendent
In an announcement that will likely lead to the complete and utter collapse of the entire state of North Carolina... the NC Association of Educators (don't call it a union!) announced they would NOT be inviting the Superintendent of Public Instruction to their party. Link
One day after North Carolina Superintendent Mark Johnson sparked controversy by saying $35,000 is a good starting salary for some young teachers, the state's largest public school employee organization announced that it will not invite him to its annual convention this March.16
Mark Jewell, president of the North Carolina Association of Educators, shared the news on Facebook late Friday, noting that this marks the first time in 48 years that the group has not invited a sitting state superintendent to speak at its Annual NCAE Representative Assembly.
To be clear... Supt. Johnson statement was correct.
It is demonstrably true that $35,000 is a good starting salary for people in their 20s.
From the Superintendent's office:
"Johnson said that a $35,000 starting salary (NC’s starting teacher salary) is good money for a single 22-year old individual just out of college in many of our counties. Also keep in mind that $35,000 figure does not include local supplements or the value of the state employee benefits package," spokesman Graham Wilson said in an emailed statement.
Again, this is demonstrably true.
The hysterical outrage from the left and their media enablers is embarrassing and instructive about how irrational they are on the subject of teacher compensation.
Democrats worry they won't control every judgeship in Buncombe County
The Party Opposed To A Partisan Judiciary is very concerned that a Republican might become a judge in Buncombe County. Of course, that's not how they're arguing their case - because that would make them sound like hypocrites. They are, instead, arguing that redrawing the judicial districts is unfair. Link
The two Superior Court and seven District Court judges based in Buncombe County currently run in countywide elections and all are Democrats.
Countywide races in Buncombe favor Democratic candidates because the county as a whole tends to vote Democratically. Dividing it into districts can help Republican candidates, as happened when the legislature went to a district election system for most seats on the county Board of Commissioners.
What the Citizen-Times article ignores is WHY Buncombe County races favor Democratic candidates.
Do you know why?
Because of the concentration of Democratic voters in Asheville.
So, in other words, Asheville Democrats are picking everyone's judges.
This is, of course, not politicization of the judiciary. Democrats will be sure to tell us when that occurs.
In a completely unrelated story, Democrats on the NC Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Democratic Governor who wants to control the partisan make-up of the Board of Elections. Link
Asheville Councilwoman will never vote for pavement!
In this story about how Ingles Markets is planning to renovate one of it's oldest stores in West Asheville, we get this pearl of wisdom:
The council voted 6-1 Tuesday for zoning approval for the project, including the store that will employ 275-300 people. That compares to the 55-60 who work at the Ingles now on the site.
Ingles asked the council that it be allowed to eliminate one landscaping strip and pedestrian pathway that would normally be required for such a project.
For that reason, Councilwoman Julie Mayfield voted no, saying "I will always vote in favor of trees and people over asphalt and parking spaces."
I'd submit that approving a project employing an additional 250 people would be voting in favor of people. But that's based on my belief that there is virtue and dignity in work, and that people generally want to work to provide for themselves and their families.
Maybe I'm not putting enough weight on the trees in my Zoning Approval Formula.
Perhaps a single tree is worth more than any project that creates jobs. Link
Trump is to blame for how we talk ... or something
Progressive Whiz Kid Ezra Klein at Vox.com says President Trump is "making us more like him, and politics a little more like the tribal clash he says it is."
Of course, this ignores the conditions that propelled Trump to victory (namely that national politicians had weaponized language against large groups of Americans who reacted to that targeting).
This is the law by which Trump lives his life. Attention creates value, at least for him. Before Trump, every politician hewed to the same basic rule: You want as much positive coverage, and as little negative coverage, as possible. Trump upended that.
His rule, his realization, is that you want as much coverage as possible, full stop. If it’s positive coverage, great. If it’s negative coverage, so be it. The point is that it’s coverage — that you’re the story, that you’re squeezing out your competitors, that you’re on people’s minds.
This was Trump’s true political innovation: He realized that presidential campaigns — and particularly presidential primaries — had become reality shows, and the path to victory was to get the most attention, even if much of that attention was negative.
This part rings true and demonstrates the absurdity of news organizations giving then-candidate Donald Trump about $2 billion in free media coverage.
But there's this...
“It says so much about our current media moment that the president would announce plans to shame news organizations with his first-annual ‘Fake News Awards’ and every reporter would be praying to God they made the list,” wrote Kyle Pope, the editor of the Columbia Journalism Review.
Trump drives his opponents to respond in kind, to adopt just a little more of his tone and language and pitch.
Here's the thing that Klein misses (or pretends to, at least) -- these people haven't been driven to some place they weren't already familiar with. The reason that media folks (like Klein) respond as they do is because they already have these opinions. It's WHY they respond in ridiculously over-the-top hysterics. Trump just teases it out for all to see. Link