Bold text gives SRoTU a boner.

@2-4: whatevrrrr. Ansel: why entire paragraphs in bold?

Internet access is a public utility... and should be viewed as such. Like electricity, gas, sewer, water,.. Internet/information-streams should be treated like a public utility.
Deliver digital service to everyone, and spread the cost... it will be cheap and fast for all. And it will increase actual democracy. We have historical proof of this.

Assuming we're not all spied into silence... ;>D

While a 'chilling effect' from NSA spying revelations has occurred, local democracy is more relevant and effective than federal-level attempts at (representative) democracy.

The NSA cares little about local political action. The cops do, however, but they are at the behest of the mayor, so.. .checks and balances. It's hard to stop people communicating and coordinating with each other, and that's the essence of democracy, so tweet on, good people. Tweet on.

And support municipal broadband.

I've studied the entire Puget Sound and you know what...almost no one has or uses a tablet in a public place.

You're a laptop, sit at the desk or table even in a coffee shop, plug it in to the wall socket kind of folk.

You don't Kindle anything either.

I do both, lots of places, and I never see same.

@8 - you probably don't get out as much as you think you do.

100 GB/s ...

@6: A fair and balanced description of my glib attempts at calling attention to myself.

Goldy spent a good deal of effort at The Stranger interrogating the reasons why we can’t seem to get to the point that other smaller municipalities have arrived at: high-speed internet as some form of public utility. [Because neoliberalism]. The comments on the article linked above are great.

Ansel inserted a link to Goldy’s article on Chattanooga. You can also read about it here and here.

As to Ansel's reference to a study that found that most citizens, "prefer to get civic information and notices from the city and community organizations via electronic means, chiefly e-mail"... that must be a function of age (older folks are more politically engaged than younger folks). FFS, if I NEVER get an email again, I wouldn't lose of minute of sleep.

News flash from Ansel: 1. Rich people have more stuff than poor people. 2. Everybody, rich and poor, wants more for less. 3. Ansel's target demographic are people who watch local government TV.

Neoliberalism instructs us that privately-held monopolies aren't monopolies like public utilities are monopolies.

Dear Unregistered Troll(s): Yes, government is renowned for being intrusive. But private corporations are equally --if not even more-- intrusive, and manipulative. The FBI took courses on 'direct marketing' from private industry bcz it was leading the pack on personal information acquisition, and still does today.

The critical factor is that: Private industry is not beholden to the public interest, and actively manipulates the public's interest. The government has at least the possibility of civic control. Corporations have none of that at all. They are beholden to only profit.

The middle class, consisting of tradespeople and petty business people, came into ascendance in approximately the 1400s; consequently the kings gradually lost power. We're now headed back the other way, with corporations being the new kings. In formally anointing those kings, the Supreme Court's bishops killed the form of American government we grew up with. They are standing over that dead body with ecclesiastical guns trained on us. We may get the technology we want but the content will be what the bishops and the kings allow. And we let that happen because we cared more about How than What.

@8: I see tablets and Kindles all the time on the (ahem) bus. They make a lot of sense there.

@8: You need to get out of Kent. Tablets are everywhere, particularly, as @20 noted, on public transit.