I Hope That Someone Makes a Movie About This

For various reasons, the water infrastructure in Osaka, Japan is relatively old, and as such is in need of maintenance.

Someone donated ¥560,000,000 ($3.6 million) to the city to support these repairs.\

Nice story, but the interesting bit was that this anonymous donation was made in the form of 21kg of gold bars.

I want to know the rest of the story.

Osaka has received a hefty gift of gold bars worth 560m yen (£2.7m) from an anonymous donor and a request for its specific use: to fix the Japanese city’s dilapidated water pipes.

The gold bars, weighing a total of 21kg (46lb), were given to the Osaka City Waterworks Bureau in November by the donor who wants to help improve ageing water pipes, the mayor, Hideyuki Yokoyama, told reporters on Thursday.

“It’s a staggering amount and I was speechless,” Yokoyama said. “Tackling ageing water pipes requires a huge investment, and I cannot thank enough for the donation.”

The mayor said the city –Japan’s third largest, with 2.8 million people – would respect the donor’s wishes and use the gift to improve waterworks projects.

Most of Japan’s main public infrastructure was built during the rapid postwar economic growth, but urban development in Osaka, a regional commercial hub, started earlier than many and its water pipes and other infrastructure are ageing earlier, the city’s waterworks official, Eiji Kotani, said.

Osaka needed to renew 160 miles (260km) of water pipes, he said. Renewing a 1.2 mile segment would cost about 500m yen, Kotani said.

If I had to venture a guess, I would think that this might be someone from the Yakusa, as making such a donation in gold does seem to imply that some sort of money laundering was involved, and doing this is very much a Yakusa sort of thing.

Remember Enron?

Remember how they used, "Special Purpose Vehicles," to conceal the extant of their debts? 

AI firms are using the same tactic to conceal their debt.

This ain't going to end well.

Tech companies have moved more than $120bn of data centre spending off their balance sheets using special purpose vehicles funded by Wall Street investors, adding to concerns about the financial risks of their huge bet on artificial intelligence.

Meta, Elon Musk’s xAI, Oracle and data centre operator CoreWeave have led the way on complex financing deals to shield their companies from the large borrowing needed to build AI data centres.

Financial institutions including Pimco, BlackRock, Apollo, Blue Owl Capital and US banks such as JPMorgan have supplied at least $120bn in debt and equity for these tech groups’ computing infrastructure, according to a Financial Times analysis.

That money is channelled through special purpose holding companies known as SPVs. The rush of financings, which do not show up on the tech companies’ balance sheets, may be obscuring the risks that these groups are running — and who will be on the hook if AI demand disappoints.

History is rhyming again.

Toilets, It's Always the Toilets

It appears that archeological excavations have revealed a toilet that indicates the exact location of Harold II's home.

It is where is he shown as partying on the Bayeaux Tapestry before losing the Battle of Hastings , and England, to William the Conqueror. 

The Bayeux Tapestry famously depicts the events leading up to the 1066 Norman Conquest of England, in which William the Conqueror defeated Harold II, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, at the Battle of Hastings. Two scenes in particular show King Harold feasting in an extravagant hall in a village called Bosham. Archaeologists think they have now located the site of that feast, concluding that it was the king's own home, according to a new paper published in The Antiquaries Journal.

“The Norman Conquest saw a new ruling class supplant an English aristocracy that has left little in the way of physical remains, which makes the discovery at Bosham hugely significant," said co-author Oliver Creighton of the University of Exeter. "We have found an Anglo-Saxon show-home.” The findings are part of an ongoing project called "Where Power Lies," intended to assess archaeological evidence for aristocratic centers across England from the pre-Norman period.

Scholars believe the Bayeux Tapestry dates back to the 11th century and was likely created just a few years after the Battle of Hastings, mostly likely commissioned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux (although there is still considerable debate over alternative theories). It's technically not a tapestry, since it's not woven but embroidered on linen using wool yarn of various colors. There are 58 individual scenes spanning 230 feet (nearly 70 meters) in length and 20 inches (50 cm) in height. Latin text provides context for the imagery. Among the historical events depicted is the appearance of what is now known as Halley's Comet, used here as a harbinger of the coming Norman invasion.

………

According to Creighton and his co-authors, there has been quite a lot of research on castles, which dominated aristocratic sites in England after the Norman Conquest. That event "persists as a deep schism that continues to be seen as the watershed moment after which elites finally tapped into the European mainstream of castle construction," they wrote. The study of residences (or "lordly enclaves") has been more peripheral, yet the authors argue that up until 1066, aristocrats and rulers like King Harold invested heavily in residences, often co-located with churches and chapels. 

………

It has long been suspected that one particular manor house in Bosham (now a private residence) stands on the site of what was once King Harold's residence. Per the authors, the original residence was clearly connected with Holy Trinity Church just to the south, parts of which date back to the 11th century, as evidenced by the posthole remains of what was once a bridge or causeway. More evidence can be found in a structure known as the "garden ruin," little of which survives above ground—and even that was heavily overgrown. GPR data showed buried features that would have been the eastern wall of King Harold's lordly enclave.

The biggest clue was the discovery in 2006 of a latrine within the remains of a large timber building. Its significance was not recognized at the time, but archaeologists have since determined that high-status homes began integrating latrines in the 10th century, so the structure was most likely part of King Harold's residence. Co-author Duncan Wright of Newcastle University believes this "Anglo-Saxon en suite," along with all the other evidence, proves "beyond all reasonable doubt that we have here the location of Harold Godwinson's private power center, the one famously depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry."

DOI: The Antiquaries Journal, 2025. 10.1017/S0003581524000350 (About DOIs).

Reminds me of the quote from Monty Python and the Holy Grail:

Large Man with Dead Body: Who's that then?

The Dead Collector: I dunno, must be a king.

Large Man with Dead Body: Why?

The Dead Collector: He hasn't got sh%$ all over him.

He, "hasn't got sh%$ all over him," because of the fancy bathroom.

Whiplash

A Lesson from Mr. Baseball
So a few weeks ago, in response to Rebecca Tinucci, Tesla's head of "Supercharger" deployment having the temerity to disagree with him while being a woman regarding layoffs in her department, Elon Musk fired her and her whole department.

Now, Tesla is rehiring most of the staff, including the distressingly uppity Ms. Tinucci because charging infrastructure is about all that Tesla has to offer now:

Tesla may have gone overboard with its latest round of layoffs--and CEO Elon Musk is hitting reverse.

The electric vehicle-maker has begun rehiring some employees responsible for its Supercharger EV charging network after laying off almost all of the close to 500 employees on the team, including its head, Rebecca Tinucci. Bloomberg first reported that Max de Zegher, director of North American charging and one of the managers under Tinucci, was among those rehired. It isn't clear how many employees have been brought back.

If someone is going back to Tesla after that, I rather hope that they watch the attached clip of Uchiyama (Ken Takakura) and take a lesson from this.  ("It's gonna cost you, chief.)

Even after all of this, I expect the lickspittles on Tesla's board of directors to go ahead with his multi-billion dollar compensation package.

Why they continue to allow this drug-addled (more on that later) narcissist to continue running things when he is no longer even a PR asset is beyond stupid.

He is no longer useful.  Treat him like he treated his assistant, or his ex wife.

IDF Says That They Have Started Flooding Tunnels

No word yet on the number of locations or the volume of seawater being pumped, but an IDF spokesman has announced that Hamas tunnels in Gaza are being flooded.

I am actually surprised that it took so long.

The Egyptians have used this technique to destroy under-border tunnels for years:

The Israeli army announced on Tuesday that it has flooded tunnels in the Gaza Strip in an effort to destroy them.

Foreign media had reported on Israel's plans to flood tunnels in Gaza, but Israel hadn't confirmed that it was using the tactic until now.

According to the army, tunnels have been flooded only in locations suitable for this method, without impairing the use of groundwater. The IDF added that pumps and pipes were installed in the Gaza Strip for this purpose.

Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Israel had begun pumping seawater into tunnels, as a part of an operation called Sea of Atlantis. Three American sources who spoke to the newspaper at the time said the process is expected to last weeks and that Israel is using seven pumps.

According to the report, despite warnings that process could harm sewage infrastructure, buildings, and freshwater reservoirs, Israeli carried it out on a number of occasions, and even installed an additional pump in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip at the beginning of the month.

According to American officials, the operation turned out to be less effective than anticipated, largely due to obstructions and wall barriers which stopped the water flow. The Wall Street Journal reported that approximately 80 percent of Gaza's intricate network of tunnels remain intact despite weeks of Israeli attempts to destroy them.

I'm not sure what the final efficacy of the water pumping will be, but to quote the Doctor, "Water always wins."

Seriously though, I do not see a good end to this from the perspective of either Hamas or Israel, and once again the bulk of the Palestinian population is little more than a means to an end.

Well, This is Fucking Reassuring

What do you do when a crucial material for healthcare and technology is in short supply

What if the largest stockpile of this material is federally on an operated?

Why you privatize it, of course, so that a private entity, driven by private profit motives and the demands of Wall Street bankers,can it take control and manipulate the supply and price.

I am referring, of course, to the last of the national helium reserve, which is due to be auctioned off.

As an ironic side note, it should be noted that helium is the second most common substance in the universe.

Helium has a number of applications for which it is literally irreplaceable.

Most notably, it's use in super cooling objects such as superconducting magnets for things like MRI machines and in the manufacturer of microchips make it a crucial strategic material.

Of course, this didn't matter when President Bill Clinton got the Helium Privatization Act passed in 1996. 

Privatizing, and financializing, government assets and government functions was kind of his thing.

Well that, and putting Black and Brown people in jail in record numbers.

Well that, and repealing Glass-Steagall, leading to an orgy of largely unprosecuted fraud by the Wall Street banisters.

Well that, and sanctioning a decades long witch hunt against gays in the military with, "Don't ask, don't tell."

I'm beginning to don't like the Monty Python "Spanish Inquisition" sketch.

Posted via mobile.

Today in Limousine Liberals

California Governor Gavin Newsom rolled out a program to provide connectivity to everyone in California, but it's getting expensive, so he is rolling back programs in poorer neighborhoods while continuing to execute programs in richer neighborhoods.

I guess that people in Beverly Hills and Culver City are more important than those in South Central LA, because the former people are more likely to make a campaign donation.

More than two years ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom approved what was then the nation’s largest-ever investment in public broadband. The $6-billion spending plan was supposed to finally bridge the digital divide that has left too many households and businesses in low-income and rural communities without fast, reliable internet access.

But last month the Newsom administration cut projects in some of the neediest, most disconnected communities in the state, including South and Southeast Los Angeles and East Oakland, while adding projects in some of the most affluent, tech-connected communities, including Beverly Hills and Culver City.

………

The Middle Mile Broadband Initiative, which is part of the spending plan, taps $3.25 billion from the federal COVID-19 stimulus package to install high-capacity fiber optic cables in areas where the private sector hasn’t built broadband infrastructure — typically rural and low-income communities.

The middle-mile network connects the massive, high-speed lines that cross states and regions with the local “last-mile” service that delivers broadband service directly to homes and businesses. By installing publicly owned middle-mile fiber optic lines, California would make it easier and cheaper for cities, nonprofits and broadband companies to build the last-mile connections to homes and businesses. California set aside an additional $2.75 billion in federal aid to help underserved communities pay for last-mile projects. But without the middle-mile infrastructure, it becomes impossible or extremely expensive to build the last mile.

In 2021, Newsom announced 18 projects across the state that would build or acquire 10,000 miles of middle-mile network, mostly along highways to take advantage of the public right of way. The list included South and Southeast Los Angeles, with fiber installation planned along the 110, 105, 710 and 605 freeways, between downtown and Long Beach. The area includes communities with some of the highest rates of disconnected households in the state.

But when the final map was released last month, most of the South L.A. projects were gone and a new line was added next to Beverly Hills and Culver City, some of the best-connected communities in the state. There were similarly confounding changes in the Bay Area, with projects in low-income East Oakland cut while projects in wealthier suburbs, such as Walnut Creek and Livermore, will be funded.

This encapsulates everything that is wrong with the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) today.

At least when Republicans do this, they don't pretend to care about the poor and minorities.

Well, I'm Impressed

This morning Franklin the Dog, Phang, the Phillie Phanatic, Gritty, and Swoop were on the 2nd firetruck to cross the repaired I-95 bridge in Philadelphia.

12 days.  I'm impressed.

Philadelphia firefighters riding aboard Engine 38 sailed across a section of I-95 Friday, reopening the East Coast’s main expressway. The ride came just 12 days after a blazing gasoline tanker-truck crash destroyed a bridge over the northbound Cottman Avenue exit ramp.

Right after Engine 38, the first fire company at the scene of the June 11 collapse, came Gritty, standing atop a ladder truck beside Philadelphia’s other sports mascots and pumping his furry fists — an exclamation point on Gov. Josh Shapiro’s praise for the “grit” of the 200 union construction workers who got the highway open months ahead of initial estimates, all while being broadcast live online.

“Over the past 12 days, the eyes of the nation have been on Pennsylvania. We’ve shown them what our grit, our determination, are all about. We showed them good government in action,” Shapiro said at a news conference on the temporary six-lane roadway over I-95, moments before traffic once again began flowing.

………

State officials initially estimated it would take until early July to reopen the road to the public. But a cautious timeline, coupled with vigorous federal support, led to a quicker reopening.

PennDot decided to build a temporary roadway by filling in the gap with aggregate made of recycled glass and paving over the top of the massive pile. The approach allowed the highway to reopen sooner and, officials hope, will help relieve traffic congestion in the Northeast Corridor.

Six 11-foot-wide lanes — three in each direction — opened at noon. The first civilians to drive the northbound lanes honked their horns, and some waved at the workers in hard hats, public officials, and others on the southbound side, marking the occasion with a news conference.

So, why does it take 20 years and 12 billion dollars to at a subway line?

Damn!

In Philadelphia today, a tanker truck caught fire under an overpass for I-95, collapsing the span in one direction, and damaging it in the other direction.

It is expected that it will take months to restore the highway:

An elevated section of I-95 in Northeast Philadelphia collapsed early Sunday after a tanker truck carrying gasoline burst into flames beneath it, severing the main expressway on the East Coast and causing travel chaos in the region that will be felt for some time.

Four northbound lanes fell onto Cottman Avenue in the city’s Tacony neighborhood after steel girders supporting the roadway were weakened in the searing fire, officials said. The interstate was closed in both directions between Woodhaven Road and Aramingo Avenue.

………

Nobody thought it would be easy. Officials predicted it would take months for a complete repair. And at least for awhile, commuting in and around the city could be a world of pain, they said, though in the hybrid-work era Mondays and Fridays tend to have lighter traffic.

………

PennDot is recommending detours, and SEPTA planned to initially add cars to some already scheduled Regional Rail trains, and to suspend parking fees at stations and is preparing for more riders on the Market-Frankford Line and bus routes. Leslie S. Richards, CEO of the transit agency, asked for patience: “It is going to take longer than normal to get to work tomorrow.”

The Philadelphia Fire Department said it responded to the blaze beneath I-95 about 6:30 a.m. Sunday; crews declared it under control at 7:30 a.m. Authorities have not determined what caused the truck to catch fire — and have disclosed no information on the driver.

No injuries or deaths have been reported, though Kenney said Sunday night “we understand the situation remains fluid.” Shapiro said “at least one vehicle” remained trapped in the rubble.

Yeah, "fluid."

All things considered, I am glad that I am not in Philadelphia.

Again?

It appears that yet again, hundreds of thousands of people in Texas are without power because they had some cold weather.

Didn't this happen last year?

You would have thought that Greg Abbot and the Texas Republicans, who run the state, would have learned from last year and done something.

Damn.  I owe myself a screen wipe.

Of course they didn't do anything:

Hundreds of thousands of businesses and households across Central and East Texas remained without power Thursday as utility crews continued scrambling to fix power lines downed by freezing rain and fallen trees.

The epicenter of the crisis was Austin, where the city-owned power utility said it didn't know when it would be able to restore power to just under 150,000 households and businesses, many of which have lacked electricity since Wednesday morning. Austin Energy had previously said it would have power restored by 6 p.m. Friday.

………

Statewide, close to 325,000 customers didn’t have electricity as of Thursday evening. The utility and Austin officials were heavily criticized for fumbling warnings about the loss of power and a lack of clarity on when it would be restored. The outages persist as residents head into another day of closed college campuses and public schools and a paused Legislature.

………

The causes of electricity outages are unlike those from the infamous 2021 winter storm, when the state’s power grid nearly collapsed during a catastrophic freeze that killed hundreds of Texans. This year’s winter storm is not as cold, prolonged or widespread as the one two years ago. And the current outages are due mostly to localized issues like downed power lines, not a problem with the power grid.

Still, this week’s weather and outages offered a fresh reminder that city and state emergency officials historically have not prioritized preparations for severe winter weather, as Texas is warm during much of the year. Exposed overhead power lines, cheaper to build than buried ones, accumulate ice during intense cold, and frozen precipitation can weigh them down and snap them, spurring and prolonging power outages even when the power grid remains stable.

Can we give Texas back to Mexico?

 

You Misspelled Terrorism

Sorry, but if people are blowing up electrical infrastructure in order to disrupt speech that they don't like, this is not mere vandalism, so your headline, "Power Outage in Moore County, North Carolina, Caused by Vandalism," is woefully inadequate.

This is terrorism, and should be investigated, and prosecuted, as such:

A major power outage in North Carolina that left almost 40,000 people in the dark on Saturday night was caused by “intentional vandalism” at numerous substations, police said.

Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said in a statement that the blackout that began just after 7 p.m. was “being investigated as a criminal occurrence.”

Chief Mike Cameron of the Southern Pines Fire and Rescue Department told the local newspaper, The Pilot, that the substations had been damaged by gunfire.

A reporter from the paper who visited one substation smelled oil leaking from it and saw an access gate snapped off its pole. Workers were scouring the area for bullet casings.

The sheriff did not suggest what the motive might be, but a local conservative activist who organized a protest against a drag show said on Facebook that she was visited by deputies.

“I welcomed them to my home. Sorry they wasted their time,” Emily Grace Rainey wrote.

“I told them that God works in mysterious ways and is responsible for the outage. I used the opportunity to tell them about the immoral drag show and the blasphemies screamed by its supporters. I told them God is chastising Moore County, thanked them for coming and wished them a good night. Thankful for the LEOs service, as always.”

Two hours earlier, Rainey had posted the message: “The power is out in Moore County and I know why.” And around the same time, she posted a picture of the Sunrise Theater, which was putting on the sold-out drag show, with the caption “God will not be mocked.”

It should be noted that Rainey resigned her commission in the Army as a result of her involvement in the January 6 insurrection.  She was in PSYOPS.

Nothing to see here, move along.

Behold the Power of Beaver

A power and internet outage in British Columbia, Canada was caused by a particularly industrious beaver.

Officials have now identified a beaver as the cause of a June 7 outage which left many residents of northwestern B.C. without internet, landline and cellular service for more than eight hours.

The beaver gnawed its way through an aspen tree which then fell on both BC Hydro lines and a Telus fibre-optic cable line strung along BC Hydro poles between Topley and Houston.

The resulting power outage affected just 21 customers but the fibre optics damage affected Telus customers in Burns Lake, Granisle, Haida Gwaii, the Hazeltons, Kitimat, Prince George, Prince Rupert, Smithers, Terrace, Thornhill, Houston, Topley, Telkwa, Fraser Lake and Vanderhoof.

CityWest, the utilities company owned by the City of Prince Rupert, also had its customers affected because it uses the Telus fibre optics line.

BC Hydro official Bob Gammer said crews identified a beaver as the culprit because of chew marks at the bottom of the downed tree.

The lines are located in a swampy area and with the high water levels, there was some difficluty accessing the site, he added.

“It's unusual, but it does happen every once in a while,” Gammer said. “So I wouldn't be a rich man if I had a nickel for every beaver outage, but they do happen.”

I guess it's a Canada thing.

In the US, infrastructure damage of this sort is caused by right-wing terrorists and corporate neglect.

Crap

Data from sewer sampling indicates that Covid cases are on the upswing again, just after the CDC and the White House went all in on removing masks.

Covid is a bitch, and the Omicron BA.2 variant is a bastard:

A wastewater network that monitors for Covid-19 trends is warning that cases are once again rising in many parts of the U.S., according to an analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data by Bloomberg.

More than a third of the CDC’s wastewater sample sites across the U.S. showed rising Covid-19 trends in the period ending March 1 to March 10, though reported cases have stayed near a recent low. The number of sites with rising signals of Covid-19 cases is nearly twice what it was during the Feb. 1 to Feb. 10 period, when the wave of omicron-variant cases was fading rapidly.

………

Bloomberg reviewed data for more than 530 sewage monitoring sites, looking at the most recent data reported during the 10-day window from March 1 to March 10. Out of those sites, 59% showed falling Covid-19 trends, 5% were roughly stable, and 36% were increasing. Rises or declines are measured over a 15-day period.

Fewer sites had data during the Feb. 1 to Feb. 10 window. During that period, 80% of sites showed a decreasing trend, 5% were stable, and 15% were rising.

………

Wastewater samples can’t tell how many people have Covid-19. Instead, they measure how much of the virus is being found in sewer water. A high concentration in a sample can indicate a rising number of infections, often days before those cases show up in tests.

This is not good news.

AND THAT GOES FOR YOUR LITTLE DOG TOO!

In response to Joe Manchin's constant nattering about, "How do we pay for this," in regards to the stimulus packages, Ron Wyden and Sherrod Brown have proposed taxes on stock buybacks, which literally take money from the rich corrupt executives which Manchin actually represents:

Senate Democrats are coalescing around imposing a new tax on corporations that buy back their stocks to boost share prices and tightening rules around business partnerships that have allowed rich companies to shield profits from taxation.

The plans, likely to be included in the Senate’s far-reaching budget bill to offset some of its $3.5 trillion in social policy spending, show how far Democrats are willing to go in using tax policy to reshape business behavior. Democrats say the tax changes would bring in about $270 billion over 10 years, while pushing companies to invest more in their workers and their businesses.

Their emergence is also a sign that Democratic leaders are still looking for fresh ways to pay for the spending as other proposals run into rank-and-file opposition. Senator Jon Tester, Democrat of Montana, expressed opposition on Friday to a plan to tax inherited assets based on the gain in value from when those assets were initially purchased, rather than what they are worth at the time of death.

………

Remember, Manchin and other Republicans (see what I did there) already killed increased funding for the IRS to go after rich people, but taxing stock buybacks is an idea will be phenomenally popular, and not it looks like the Dems will push a vote.

………

Taxing buybacks may be more unifying. Cash-rich firms like Apple, JPMorgan Chase and Exxon spend billions of dollars each year to buy back, then retire, shares in their own companies, a practice that can help drive up the company’s stock price. That has been lucrative not only for shareholders but for corporate executives whose compensation is often tightly tied to their firm’s stock performance.

The heavy use of buybacks has come under withering criticism, especially since former President Donald J. Trump’s huge corporate tax cut was enacted in 2017.

………

Senators Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, and Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon and the Finance Committee chairman, are proposing to tax the amount companies spend on such buybacks at 2 percent — enough, they say, to bring in revenue while making companies price in the financial risk and distortions that large-scale buybacks can pose to the economy.

The Finance Committee is also leaning toward changing the rules that large business partnerships have used to avoid taxation and evade Internal Revenue Service audits. Congress drafted the rules when partnerships were dominated by small businesses, like doctors’ offices. But increasingly, partnerships are large companies or subsidiaries of major corporations, arrayed in complex, overlapping configurations to allow their owners to shift profits, losses and deductions to evade taxes.

………

“The constant theme running through our tax code is, paying taxes is mandatory for working people, but optional for wealthy investors and mega corporations. That’s especially true when it comes to pass-through businesses and partnerships, the preferred tax avoidance tools for those at the top,” Mr. Wyden said.

………

Those changes, without any increase in tax rates, would raise $172 billion over 10 years, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’s official scorekeeper on tax matters.

Though it would raise less revenue, about $100 billion, the tax on buybacks could be the more far-reaching measure. Over the past decade, Apple has been the king of the stock buyback, spending $423 billion to retire its stock. Microsoft, in a distant second place, spent nearly $129 billion.

Some Democrats have favored setting the tax so high that buybacks would make no economic sense. But Democratic tax aides said on Thursday that they were trying to balance the desire to curtail stock buybacks with the need to raise revenue. At the very least, a 2 percent tax on buybacks could encourage companies to use excess cash to pay higher dividends, which shareholders pay taxes on.

Also, it diverts money from investment in new technology and innovation.

Stock buybacks are mostly a way of stealing from a company and giving to upper management, though stock options, and they should be ended.

It's a precisely calculated f%$# you to Manchin, and IMHO, it is a well deserved one.

How to Make Incumbent Telcos Lose Their Sh%$

California has proposed an infrastructure bill that will make the so-called "Middle Mile" network, which goes from the backbones to local connection points open access, which means that any network can access this infrastructure at the same price as any other.

This means that there can be far more competition, which is an anathema to the incumbent providers:

Back in 2009, the FCC funded a Harvard study that concluded (pdf) that open access broadband networks (letting multiple ISPs come in and compete over a central, core network) resulted in lower broadband prices and better service in numerous locations worldwide. Of course when the Obama FCC released its "National Broadband Plan" back in 2010, this realization (not to mention an honest accounting of the sector's limited competition) was nowhere to be found. Both parties ignored the data and instead doubled down on our existing national telecom policy plan: letting AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast do pretty much whatever they'd like. Something, of course, taken to ridiculous new heights during the Trump era.

Since then, "open access" has become somewhat of a dirty word in telecom policy, and even companies like Google Fiber -- which originally promised to adhere to the concept on its own network before quietly backpedaling -- are eager to pretend the idea doesn't exist. Why? Because having ISPs compete in layers over a centralized network may improve service, boost speeds, and reduce prices (see: this community-run network in Ammon, Idaho), but it would eat into the revenues of the regional monopolies bone-grafted to our intelligence gathering apparatus, and you simply can't have that.

Which is why it was surprising to see California recently pass a $6 billion broadband infrastructure bill that does something unique: it mandates the creation of a massive "middle mile" fiber network that will be open access, which should encourage increased competition. The original announcement breaks down the spending this way:

• $3.25 billion to build, operate and maintain an open access, state-owned middle mile network – high-capacity fiber lines that carry large amounts of data at higher speeds over longer distances between local networks.
• $2 billion to set up last-mile broadband connections that will connect homes and businesses with local networks. The legislation expedites project deployment and enables Tribes and local governments to access this funding.
• $750 million for a loan loss reserve fund to bolster the ability of local governments and nonprofits to secure financing for broadband infrastructure.

Here's hoping that this works, and California can be an example for the rest of the United States.

Tweet of the Day

tw//spiders

The lights draw in insects, so spiders have happily spun webs on every light. And the position of the lights means that the entire bridge casts ENORMOUS MOVING SPIDER SHADOWS along its entire length pic.twitter.com/HsOuGdblBc

— Rosemary Mosco (Bird And Moon Comics) (@RosemaryMosco) August 14, 2021

This makes me want to go to Toronto just to see this.

Bipartisan is a Synonym for Scam

Why am I not surprised that the "Bipartisan" Senate infrastructure plan is primarily about giveaways to politically connected operators through privatization.

Privatization is where private operators are paid to take ownership of public assets.  (Think Chicago parking meter deal fiasco)   

It's always about sacrificing the public weal to the altar of private profit:

………

But the really scary piece is labeled “Public private partnerships, private activity bonds, and asset recycling.” In the name of building world-class infrastructure, these lawmakers would sell it off in fire sales to private financiers. We have lots of experience with infrastructure privatization that strongly suggests it should be avoided.

There was a time when Democrats did oppose such schemes; it was during the Trump administration. To the extent that Trump had an infrastructure vision, it was rooted in privatization. Wilbur Ross and Peter Navarro, who would each take high-level jobs in the Trump administration, wrote a paper before the 2016 election outlining their vision: $1 trillion in investment provided by private bond buyers, who would be guaranteed a tax credit to buy the bonds, interest on the debt, and an equity stake with dividends (with up to a 10 percent profit margin). It adds the usual song and dance about how private enterprise is so much more efficient than the public sector, therefore saving money overall.

It takes about two seconds to recognize how ridiculous this is. The government doesn’t require a 10 percent margin on equity, tax credits, and interest payments. That’s a layer of profit that gets built into the expenditure. Governments usually contract out design and construction to private contractors, but there are only two ways for these companies to reduce ownership and operation costs below what the public sector would spend, while still being profitable. They can cut back, either on safety or labor or maintenance; or they can extract a lot of profit from users of the infrastructure (think toll roads). If the infrastructure isn’t inherently profitable, like a bridge in New York City or a toll road in southern California might be, the upgrade probably won’t get built.

Democrats rightly and loudly objected to giving up public assets to private investors at the time. The biggest money-makers would be favored, they said, and less lucrative projects in rural or impoverished areas shunned. Governments would not only lose ownership but democratic control over roads, water systems, electrical grids, and who knows what else. As companies manage costs, it could lead to less resilient, more dangerous infrastructure. And the public would have a high likelihood of being gouged.

Bipartisanship is most often a beard used to defraud the taxpayers,

Of Course They Did

A bipartisan group in the Senate has come up with a new infrastructure bill. 

Why am I not surprised that whenever you add Republicans to a group, their first move is to put the kibosh on any tax increases for the rich?

Basically, the Republicans in the group with the acquiescence of the corporate "Democrats" in the group, are determined to make their bill as meaningless as possible:

A bipartisan Senate group is taking tax increases off the table as lawmakers try to craft an infrastructure proposal after GOP talks with the White House collapsed Tuesday.

Raising taxes on high-income earners and corporations has been a key part of President Biden's infrastructure plan, making it nearly impossible to garner enough GOP support for legislation that can clear the Senate.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who is in the bipartisan group, said tax increases are not under consideration as senators attempt to reach consensus on how to pay for their plan.

………

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), another member of the bipartisan group, also told reporters on Wednesday that Republicans won't agree to tax increases as part of infrastructure talks.

The group is expected to be looking at a proposal of around $900 billion, but they've been careful not to publicly release a number, saying the level of spending isn't yet locked in. Biden's initial infrastructure proposal exceeded $2.2 trillion.

This is why you don't waste your time trying to cut a deal with Republicans. 

They are never going to agree to raising taxes on the rich, one of the most popular policies in the United States right now, and they don't want the country to succeed, because it would hurt their electoral chances.

Negotiating in good faith is in opposition to core Republican values.

 

This is a Very Good Thing

Did you know that investors are pissed off because Biden's infrastructure plans do not include any public-private partnerships? (PPPs)

They want to see public private partnerships, where the private participants are guaranteed a profit, and then borrow money at inflated rates from Private Equity, and ding the taxpayers for decades for user fees for doing basically nothing at all.

I feel pretty good about this:

Finance executives are lamenting being frozen out of plans to bolster America’s dilapidated infrastructure, as the Biden administration pushes a tax-and-spend approach to building projects.

President Joe Biden’s “American jobs plan”, unveiled last month, calls for $2tn of investment in highways, electrical grids and other basic infrastructure.

At the same time, the White House put forward corporate tax reforms that it said would generate enough money to pay for the investment spree within 15 years.

That has disappointed some investors and asset managers who once expected public-private partnerships would be a lucrative financing opportunity.

“I would love to put money into infrastructure projects,” said Christopher Ailman, chief investment officer of Calstrs, the retirement system that pays the pensions of California teachers.

The $290bn fund has held sporadic talks with the US Treasury about investing in infrastructure projects since the Obama administration, Ailman said. “A lot of long-term investors . . . look at infrastructure as being a source of stable long-term returns,” he said.

They are upset that they won't have the opportunity to loot the taxpayers to buy another yacht. F%$# them with Cheney's Dick.

………

While Biden’s infrastructure proposal revives some of the unfulfilled ambitions of his predecessor, it does not envisage a role for the private investors who had once expected to be in the driving seat.

“This is a very traditional ‘the government is spending on infrastructure’ plan,” said a lobbyist who regularly represents private equity firms in Congress.

Just kill yourself, you bloody parasite, it will be the best thing you ever do for society. 

Some of the executives say that PPPs can, "Impose commercial discipline and generate savings elsewhere," only they never have, and they have to pay much higher interest rates on what they borrow than the government does, which means that they can't.

Instead they are efforts to get money today at the cost of tomorrow, as Richie Daley's incredibly corrupt parking meter deal in Chicago shows.

There never are any savings, just guaranteed profits with some of the vigorish skimmed off the top and returned to the politicians as bribes and campaign donations.

https://twitter.com/DanielaGabor/status/1381665203524415488

see full thwitter thread 

Today in Evil

After discovering that municipal broadband is better and cheaper than what you can get from the incumbent carriers, House Republicans introduce legislation banning the practice, because there is not enough opportunity for graft campaign donations the private sector when the government does the job better and cheaper.

Everyone hates their private ISP, the Dems should run on this, but the moderates want to continue to extract protection money campaign donations from the Baby Bells as well:

House Republicans this week proposed legislation that would ban the creation of municipal broadband networks at a federal level, and shutter networks in areas where some private competition exists – purportedly to improve internet access across the US.

Dubbed the CONNECT Act (Communities Overregulating Networks Need Economic Competition Today), the bill [PDF] says: "A State or political subdivision thereof may not provide or offer for sale to the public, a telecommunications provider, or to a commercial provider of broadband internet access service, retail or wholesale broadband internet access service."

The CONNECT Act would also ban states from operating municipal broadband networks in areas where two or more private operators exist. The language here is fairly vague, and it doesn't state how affected operators should dispose of their existing infrastructure. It's also fairly limited about what constitutes a "private operator", deferring only to the barebones definition in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).

………

Twenty-two states have passed laws that either prohibit municipal broadband entirely, or impose restrictions that make municipal broadband projects significantly harder to launch and operate. Minnesota, for example, requires municipalities to obtain a supermajority (65 per cent) of voters in a referendum before providing telecommunications services. Montana and Pennsylvania only permit projects if there is no private competition. Texas and Missouri have outright bans on municipal broadband.

The Democratic response should be to pass legislation preempting the state bans and offering subsidies (which would be smaller than those given to the likes of AT&T and Verizon) for the establishment of municipal broadband.

They should, but they won't.