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Communications

SpaceX Starlink Aids Native American Tribe: 'It Catapulted Us Into the 21st Century' (teslarati.com) 55

Just a week after news broke that SpaceX was gifting Starlink internet service to Washington State's Emergency Management department, the state has revealed SpaceX's satellites are also benefitting the Native American Hoh Tribe. Teslarati reports: Now, with SpaceX's help and encouraged by the Washington State Military's successes, the Washington State Department of Commerce's Broadband Office has deployed Starlink terminals at the Hoh Tribe's Reserve in Forks, WA. Remote and rural, Hoh Tribe Vice Chairman Melvinjohn Ashue described trying to work with the reservation's existing communications infrastructure like "paddling up-river with a spoon" until Starlink's introduction.

Ashue was at least as effusive as [Washington State Military Department emergency telecommunications leader Richard Hall], frankly stating that "it seemed like out of nowhere, SpaceX came up and just catapulted [the Hoh Tribe] into the 21st century." They added: "Our youth are able to do education online and participate in videos. Telehealth is no longer going to be an issue, as well as telemental health. The Hoh Tribe is not alone. Many people in rural parts of [Washington] don't have high-speed internet connectivity, but we're changing that. We're helping create partnerships and find resources so every community in our state can access this critical bridge to jobs, education, healthcare and so much more."

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SpaceX Starlink Aids Native American Tribe: 'It Catapulted Us Into the 21st Century'

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  • So Awful (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rtb61 ( 674572 ) on Friday October 09, 2020 @07:32PM (#60590148) Homepage

    SpaceX has to provide charity because face the reality, the US government is a venal greedy SPOS that only serves the richest and just absolutely screws over the poorest, not only excludes them but grinds their life into nothing but misery and suffering. Why the fucking hell does a corporation have to provide charity, what kind of cunts do you allow your government to be, the majority of Americans should be deeply ashamed.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      We are deeply ashamed, and some of us are trying to change the nature of the rigged system.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by saloomy ( 2817221 )
        America is BY FAR [wikipedia.org] the most charitable country on earth. There is no greater humanitarian organization than the US military. It carries more food, more medical supplies, established more essential services and provides for stability, without which, you'd have leftist authoritarian fascist crackpots like The Kims, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pots, and other dictators rise all over the world, than any other organization.

        Global Hegemony has been maintained ever since the fall of the socialists in charge of the USSR,
        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by peppepz ( 1311345 )

          There is no greater humanitarian organization than the US military. It carries more food, more medical supplies, established more essential services and provides for stability, without which, you'd have leftist authoritarian fascist crackpots like The Kims, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pots, and other dictators rise all over the world, than any other organization.

          Do you really believe this nonsense? The US military, like any other military, provide stability by murdering those who act against the interests of the gov

          • You have no idea clearly, how well the military does logistics. When third world famines, disease outbreaks, etc... happen, itâ(TM)s usually a logistics issue. Food or supplies arenâ(TM)t where they are needed. The US Military moves that material to where itâ(TM)s needed as itâ(TM)s missions demand. Not to mention, when there is strife, the mere presence of US military provides cover to many NGOs who provide medical assistance, food, and shelter to areas stricken with disaster or catastr
            • First our military bombs a country into the stone age. Then we rebuild the profitable parts and call ourselves heroes. Then rubes buy that bullshit and rub it all over themselves.

              • And in between, the US robs all, the gold and the easy moveable "valuables" from museums etc.
                There are papers that proof that the "Rumpsfeld construction companies" already had contracts to "rebuild" bridges etc. that were not even bombed yet, when they got bombed.

            • By all means, explain to me how the US Military are keeping the shipping lanes open in the high seas around Cuba, or how they are deterring the dictators in Saudi Arabia.
              • The dictators of Saudi Arabia? They have a monarchy, not a dictatorship. Itâ(TM)s dictators like Saddam Hussein, like the Kimâ(TM)s, like Noriega, like Hitler that the US fights. The shipping lanes they keep open are around China and the Middle East.
                • Saudi Arabia is a brutal dictatorship. People living there lack basic human rights and in particular they have no freedom to choose their government. Saudi Arabia's regime is known for sponsoring international terrorism (15 out of 19 of the 9/11 perpetrators were from Saudi Arabia), and recently has been allowed to murder an American-resident journalist while he was inside of a NATO country. All of this while the US keep an important presence of their military on Saudi territory.

                  With regard to China, the

                • Saudi Arabia is a dictatorship AND a monarchy.
                  Just like China is communist, capitalist and: a dictatorship.

                  Seems you think lables are mutual exclusive.

                  No, they are not. As - see above - China is also a democracy. Oops.

                • The dictators of Saudi Arabia? They have a monarchy, not a dictatorship.

                  If Saudi Arabia isn't a dictatorship, why are elections so rare in their country [wikipedia.org]?

                  ItÃ(TM)s dictators like Saddam Hussein, like the KimÃ(TM)s, like Noriega, like Hitler that the US fights.

                  We sold arms to Hussein [nytimes.com] and assisted with chemical attacks [foreignpolicy.com], provided education, training and arms [nationalinterest.org] to Noriega, and we sold numerous war supplies to the Axis [foreignpolicy.com] including the aluminum the Mitsubishi Zero (kamikaze fighter) was made from, and fuel that Hitler needed to move his tanks around. The machines that managed the concentration camps were made by IBM [wikipedia.org], and the payments for the service contract were paid directly to Armonk, NY.

                  T

          • by icejai ( 214906 )

            I tend to agree with you more than the person you're responding to.

            For me, at the moment, the military (or any military) more abstractly resembles a tool.
            They can't (in most cases) act on their own because they need to follow orders. And this is where I think the problems start. Their orders come from their governments (or commander-in-chief, etc).

            For example. Canada's government prefers to send their military out into the world to aid in U.N. peace-keeping. The U.S.'s government has different ideas about w

          • You forgott:
            Sadam Hussein,
            Bin Laden

            And many others :P

            Was not even Gadafi on the payroll, before he was considered "rogue"?

        • You are an idiot.

          For starters: Pop Pot (if you do not know who that is, it was a 1950 - 1975 dictator in Cambodia who killed aprox. 2 million people), was evicted and put out of bussiness by the Peoples Liberation Army of Vietnam. Oh, a "commy lefties authoritan" states army.

          Then Pol Pot fled to Thailand, under American hegemony at that time.

          Seriously, if I had not so many friends in "america" I would hope you get hit by a meteor. You are a menace to the planet and YOU in particular want to sell us the "Hei

    • The Hoh tribe are 100 people [wikipedia.org] who live 100 miles from the nearest metro area across an expanse of national and state wilderness. What do you propose that the rest of us do to bring them broadband? Maybe you should mind your own business until you at least learn to use wikipedia.
      • by ghoul ( 157158 )
        PG&E has no problem running 100s of miles of wire through tinder dry national forest to serve a few reclusive millionaires multi acre compounds and then charging the rest of us for the damages when it predictably leads to forest fires and PGE has to pay damages. So its not like utilities are run as for profit companies , they are run to meet the special interests of the folks on the regulatory board so yes they can force Comcast to run cable into the wilderness and have the rest of us cross subsidize (i
        • by redback ( 15527 )

          This is the one good part about the NBN internet network the Australian Government designed. It was made to give good internet to EVERYONE. Fibre in towns, fixed wireless on the fringes, satellite for everyone else.

          The government changed and the fibre part got fucked over, but the satellite part works.

      • The rest of YOU?

        Nothing obviously.

        In Europe it is law that telecom companies have to connect even the most remotest areas.

        YOU are not able to connect 100ppl over a meaningless 100 miles distance? You live in a third world country, seriosly.

    • Our government is set up to promote citizens helping themselves and other citizens through free enterprise and personal charity, without a role for the government in every little thing that someone may deem to be a problem. "Rugged individualism" is the basis of the capitalist society. We all take care of ourselves first, and then each other, by personal charity, rather than having the government come and take our money at the point of a gun and give it so someone else. Of course, the gov't is doing that

      • by ghoul ( 157158 )
        You do know that there are no property rights in nature. The only reason yoou own anything is because the govt protects it through laws, cops and courts. Else in your rugged capitalism model whatever you produced, someone could point a gun and take it from you. The only rugged capitalist economy is Somalia. There the govt dos not provide any services and levies no taxes.
        • by kanweg ( 771128 )

          Never heard of territorial animals? Birds fighting over nesting area?

          • by ghoul ( 157158 )
            Territorial animals dont get much achived as most of their energy goes on protecting their stuff. A govt allows you to concentrate on creating new stuff
    • by schwit1 ( 797399 )

      The US is a vast country. Why is it the federal government's responsibility to bring internet to anyone and everyone where ever they might want to be?

      Maybe these folks could live closer to an internet source or have the states do it if THEY choose.

      Not everything is a federal problem to solve? The US constitution actually says very little is a federal responsibility.

      • Re:So Awful (Score:5, Informative)

        by Knightman ( 142928 ) on Friday October 09, 2020 @09:22PM (#60590420)

        Ask yourself why the tribe lives where they do.

        Then go look up the Quinault Treaty.

      • by Tailhook ( 98486 )

        Why is it the federal government's responsibility to bring internet to anyone and everyone where ever they might want to be?

        That's a good question. I think the answer is the same as the reason the founders built the postal service into the US Constitution. Similarly, there are the reasons the Federal government drove nearly universal electrification and POTS in the US in the early 20th century. The people behind policies could have provided you with the answer; because these things are necessary for the US to function and they make the US a stronger country.

        A strong, productive, sovereign country is a conservative value. T

      • Why is it the federal government's responsibility to bring internet to anyone and everyone where ever they might want to be?
        Because that is what governments are for.

        You americans have a super retarded idea what a government is and what it is supposed to do, or what its supposed job is.

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Just a slightly off-topic thought, the gov't wouldn't be "stealing" the money they give to someone else if it totally abolished all forms of income taxation and repealed the 16th Amendment. Then, the special variety of consumption tax known as the FairTax, which is basically a luxury tax, could be used to run the country without stealing anything from anyone. People CHOOSE to pay the FairTax by buying the luxury item or service at retail. Only new items for sale at retail, and
    • When the US government screwed over the natives the natives owned most of the land so they were rich. They became poor AFTER signing treaties with the US govt.
    • by idji ( 984038 )
      Because American Capitalism says that if you are poor then you deserve it and so do all your descendants forever. The entire plot and point of Charles Dickens' book "David Copperfield" from 1849 was that poverty is not deserved and given help, people can fight their way out. Dickens realized this when his father was thrown into debtors' jail and he had to work as a child to help his father out, all the while the Tories were decrying the immorality and laziness of the poor, for their own political gain. For
  • by h33t l4x0r ( 4107715 ) on Friday October 09, 2020 @08:40PM (#60590316)
    Feels like a mixed metaphor. How about Wheel-barrowed us into the Agricultural Revolution?
  • "Catapulted into the 21st century" sounds like a hard landing on the other side but SpaceX knows how to do soft landings so lets keep fingers crossed
  • "We're helping create partnerships and find resources so every community in our state can access this critical bridge to jobs, education, healthcare and so much more."

    He means porn.

  • Once upon a time, cable companies offered a good service to the society by establishing connections to remote areas not served by public airwaves. They also carried many networks not possible over-the-air, and were financed by subscription fees. Those channels did not run ads.

    Over time things have deteriorated. I mean pretty much became rotten.

    Those cable companies became local monopolies actively restricting any competition. They divvied up the zipcodes among themselves, and made enough political contribut

  • So we going to see Hohs with the 'hos'?

Waste not, get your budget cut next year.

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