Just like we saw his company’s founder (Bill Gates) with Common Core and ALL that resulting data to run through his servers and monetize it. Ditto here (reformatted, emphasis mine):
New York (CNN Business) Among the many types of inequality in the United States laid bare by the coronavirus pandemic is the digital divide between those who can access the internet at home and those who can’t. Especially in rural areas of the country, many lack access to broadband internet — and thus have struggled to participate in the remote learning, working and health care that have allowed others to adapt during the crisis.
A new initiative from Microsoft (MSFT) and farming cooperative Land O’Lakes aims to tackle that issue by bringing broadband and other services, such as free WiFi and digital skills training to rural communities in the 19 states where Land O’Lakes has farms. “If you think about the rural community today, they are going to thrive if the entire community is able to get the education, the upskilling, the health and … ecommerce and other facilities directly reaching them where they are,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in an interview with CNN’s Julia Chatterley on “First Move” Wednesday. “That’s why broadband is such a fundamental right.”
And to Progressive Socialists, if some has a “lack”, you can be sure that the rest of us are gonna pay for filling that lack. Hey, I have a “digital divide” that I don’t have the same server capabilities that Microsoft has – can I force YOU, CEO Satya Nadella, to give me one? Hey, Land O’Lakes (you who have now participated in helping to “disappear” American Indians from the Public Square), I’m low on your butter product – is having butter in my fridge a “fundamental Right”, too? After all, if I can’t cook without it, I’ll starve to death (/sarc).
Sorry, NEITHER are “fundamental Rights“. This is, yet again, a redefinition of our common language and in this kind of “hand out” politics, especially devious, divisive, and evil. All they are concerned with is their bottom line. For the now-American-Indian-less company, they want a better product for less cost from their suppliers (farmers) – they see this as one way to butter up their bottom line. For Microsoft, they see bits, data streams, software subscriptions, and cloud processing as far as the fields will go.
No, this grab is a selfish redefinition of Entitlement masked as a Right. A Right is something that is innate to you as a human being to which NO ONE ELSE needs to be part of. An Entitlement is forced charity (which is no charity at all) by which busybody activists and vote craving politicians, looking to pander and “give you something”, proving that Taxation is Theft.
Now, the rest of the piece (below) which doesn’t really mention getting Govt to pay for that broadband infrastructure overtly but it will come up as it has lots of other times. However, let me take this into another direction as I remember putting up a post back in 2007, Not Mine To Give, that should be read by all Progressives about the enumerated Powers of the Federal Government and then go back and think about Fundamental Rights and if Government is supposed to do anything it wants (and it wouldn’t hurt Conservatives to remember it as well.
Before going further, take a look at a part of a speech that Davy Crockett gave to his fellow Congressmen when presented with the chance to use taxpayer monies to pay for charity (emphasis mine):
Mr. Speaker – I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and as much sympathy for the suffering of the living, if suffering there be, as any man in this house, but we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for a part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity.
Every member upon this floor knows it. We have the right, as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of the public money. …
…”We have not the semblance of authority to appropriate it as a charity. Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much money of our own as we please. I am the poorest man on this floor. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week’s pay to the object, and, if every member of Congress will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks.
“He took his seat. Nobody replied. The bill was put upon its passage, and, instead of passing unanimously, as was generally supposed, and as, no doubt, it would, but for that speech, it received but few votes, and of course, was lost.
How FAR we have strayed from that! Go read the rest; it truly explains the context of the above. It is what brought forth my response. I make no bones about it – I am a Conservative. In fact, when the Democrats call me a far-right Conservative, I just smile broadly. Fiscally, politically, and socially; I am that person. I believe in the Founders vision of a limited government whose job was NOT to provide for the needs of its citizens; instead, they sought a form of government that would to protect a citizen’s Rights as enumerated in the Constitution.
This is in direct opposition to what Statists and Progressives would have you believe; their world view is all but indistinguishable from a purely Socialist agenda where Government is responsible for everything you need (with the current twist of “why own the cow when you order the owner what he can do with it?”) – and you will pay for their dream of Utopia with your taxes with the commiserate loss of individual liberty (both financially and the resulting regulatory environment).
So what’s my beef? That we, as a society, have so easily passed on our responsibilities and have shucked them off to others in our communities (Socialism via laziness?) – and in doing so, raising taxes for everyone. I keep getting told “times have changed” as if that is a good thing – I think not. Progress is not always forward; the only “progress” being made is in freedom from responsibility while forcing others to pay for it. Why don’t politicians consider the cost of making it “free from necessity” for some and a bigger burden on others?
For me, it is the height of hubris that a politician should force fellow taxpayers to pay for charities that they might not otherwise support. Charity by Government is simply taxes collected by force and given to others – a redistribution of wealth by politicians.
Which is to say, no charity at all.
****************
Rest of the CNN post:
It’s a major gap to fill. Nearly 15% of American households do not have a home internet subscription, according to US Census estimates from 2018. For low-income earners, that percentage is more than double the national average.
The effort is part of a larger partnership that also includes deploying Microsoft technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud and internet of things (IOT) on Land O’Lakes farms, which will give farmers access to real-time data to make key decisions and help them advance sustainable agriculture practices.
America’s surprising breeding ground for inequality: The internet
The new technology is expected to help farms better respond to disruptions such as climate change, trade issues and demand changes resulting from the pandemic, the companies say.
Land O’Lakes CEO Beth Ford said deploying such new innovations on farms — and ensuring that the benefits reach entire farming communities — is more than a matter of convenience.“Vibrancy of our rural communities in partnership with a safe, affordable food supply and then creating jobs is critical. It’s a national security issue,” Ford said. “Technology is an enabler, for example, to close the healthcare gap … It is critical for the stabilization and the vibrancy of these communities that are critical to the United States and to our farm system and our food system.”
‘The hard work ahead of us’
The executives also discussed workforce diversity, another topic of key importance to Corporate America right now.
The death of George Floyd at the hands of police set off a wave of demonstrations for racial justice across the country this summer. The movement has included calls on corporations to ensure that opportunities, including roles in top leadership positions, are available to Black people and other people of color.
For Land O’Lakes, which is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota — where Floyd was killed May 25— the issue hits especially close to home, Ford said.
“The disparate outcomes for the African American and the Black community in Minneapolis is just unacceptable,” Ford said. “We have to continue to make progress, and one of the things we have to do better is we have to listen, we have to listen to the fear, the issues … Until we really understand that and take action, we’re going to have this kind of issue.”Silicon Valley can no longer ‘tinker around the edges’ to fix its diversity problem
Ford said Land O’Lakes has implemented unconscious bias training for its employees and is working on “being transparent about our diverse populations within our organizations.”
Currently, two members of the Land O’Lakes 16-person executive team are Black, and 30% of the team are women. Land O’Lakes declined to provide information on the diversity of the company’s lower-level leadership.
At Microsoft, Nadella said his compensation is now tied, in part, to ensuring a diverse workforce.
”(Representation) needs to be reflected all the way to the top,” Nadella said. “So we now have commitments, whether it’s about race, and especially for the African American, Black and Latinx community, as well as gender … I, myself, am measured on it and paid on it.”
Microsoft’s 16-person executive team includes three people of color (including Nadella, who was born in India), no Black people and two women.
In the United States in 2019, 20% of the company’s director-level leadership team was women. Nearly 37% of director-level leadership was non-white, but Black people made up just 2.5% of directors. Similarly, women made up 25% of Microsoft’s manager level of leadership, non-white people represented 38% of managers and Black people made up 2.7% of managers.Both Nadella and Ford said they are working to ensure their efforts extend beyond just numbers.
”Representation can only be sustained if you have a culture of inclusion, so that’s an everyday practice where you have to work — every meeting, every promotion decision,” Nadella said.
Nadella also lauded the White House’s decision to rescind a rule that would have barred international students taking only online courses from staying in the United States. The policy could have had huge implications for the tech industry, which relies heavily on international talent.
“I’m a product of two great American things: American technology reaching me where I was growing up so that I could dream the American dream, and then the enlightened immigration policy that let me live that dream,” he said. “It’s in our self interest, quite frankly, to have an immigration policy that allows us to bring the best and the brightest, as well as show our humanity, because that is the soft power of this country.”
(H/T: CNN Business)
