Trump is forcing states to funnel grant money to Starlink, Senate Democrats say - Ars Technica

I remember about a year ago, people, even here on Lemmy, were defending Starlink (mostly related to its effect on ground based astronomy) and arguing that the pros of the service clearly outweighed the cons. Is that still something that people believe?

We should have been funneling that money into expanding municipal fiber instead. It would have cost less, had less emissions, much less latency and much more bandwidth. If we genuinely need satellite coverage for remote areas, why are we handing billions to private companies instead of building public satellite networks? Why are we trying to escape the problems of shitty private telecom by turning to shitty private telecom?

Of course, we don't live in a perfect world where our government is competent enough to not fall to corruption, and I don't deny that Starlink has helped some people get connected that otherwise would never have fiber access due to remoteness or geography. But I guess my point is that many more people in general would have much more reliable internet access if it weren't for the government funneling money to private companies for inferior service (such as Comcast and Starlink).

I'm lucky in the sense that it didn't prevent my county from continuing expansion, and my neighborhood now has cheap & reliable public fiber available. But many weren't so lucky, and instead have their taxes being sent to Musk for a slow service that they can't afford anyway.

So don't do that. Withhold the money. Don't process the transactions or payments.

they want to be able to control elections where republicans have seats in red districts(via the voting machines). they fear the 2026 elecitons.