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“It was actually far more complicated than what Klein describes”

Shocked, Shocked! That Ezra Klein doesn't know what he's talking about.

Honestly fuck Ezra Klein

They were talking mainly about the amount of time the overlapping processes take. Yes, there were clearly reasons for safeguards - but (for example) the broadband map process could have been running in parallel, not sequentially as a later part of the application process…

Okah - so maybe Jon Stewart or Ezra Klein can have you on one of their podcasts to help explain what would be a better solution.

Fundamentally, I think that a strong argument can be made that the complexity of our regulatory state comes from 2 places: Capitalism and our chosen form of regulation. We use lawsuits and incentives in lieu of real regulation because we hate telling businesses what to do directly.

Ezra did a long interview with Phillip Mirowski - the best thinker regarding neoliberalism in my opinion. And he understands Modern Monetary Theory He’s just a salesman for neoliberalism

It's a good point Kind of personality you need to become one of these elite commenters is not the best kind of personality for crafting political outcomes.

bsky.app/profile/igno...

Jon's the worst Daily Show host now and Ezra's been a BS artist for a long time imo

Ezra/Derek pointed out that excessive bureaucracy is a problem but not the only problem. You can disagree on the specifics but their overall point still stands. America does not build things fast enough. The party that believes in the government should want the government to deliver results faster.

The straw-manning of "Abundance" has been epic.

Anyway, Klein and Stewart's portrayal of BEAD as a COMPLETELY worthless boondoggle was quickly picked up by right wing media, which has been trying to make this same case for years in part because they want to redirect the money to elon musk. So nice job there, I guess.

Good to know! I didn't know this, until now.

isn't this incompatible with the explanation that nothing could be done until there had been more mapping? this fiber rollout clearly could be done without an extensive survey first, no? it did get done and they didn't wait for such a survey.

Yes, my rural part of Vermont just got broadband through state ARPA funds. It's a real game changer for places that had DSL or nothing!

GOP lies to give the money to Musk

bsky.app/profile/rilk...

Dem messaging sucks and the media doesn't care about infrastructure, you say?

infrastructure is so vital to everything

yeah most of these companies have no idea where they actually offer service I see that constantly, still

The whole point is we’re barely looking at the end goals at all. If we want people to believe in governments ability to do stuff we actually need to achieve some of them.

This!! E.g. in my town there were several areas that showed up on maps as being served by broadband where locals know for a fact there is no actual service!! Very frustrating

As a Philly guy, I was proud to see the destroyed part of I95 rebuilt in 12 days. Great ideas must be measured by outcomes. The $42B broadband funding was a GREAT idea... that's nowhere near completion. It wasn't a "useless boondoggle", but it is despiriting. Dems need more GSDers! #getshitdone

I'm so sick of the superiority of Ezra Klein.

This funding laid cable in the far north woods of Wisconsin allowing small businesses and individuals to flourish; enabling people up there to connect when they had no access previously. It was / is profound benefit for those remote communities.

Two more disingenuous people you won’t find on “the left”

I can speak to telecom since I've covered it for two decades and yes, our state and federal governance is significantly more corrupt. Worse than Europe. shitty monopolies like AT&T and Comcast literally directly write.self serving legislation in most U.S. states

That's for rational people who actually want to understand something. 😒

Jon Stewart.

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This book makes sense if you consider that they likely wrote it with the expectation that Biden or Harris would win. In that context, it's a rebranding of neoliberalism and Clinton's third way. Trump/Musk winning changes everything, but books don't sell themselves I guess.

So fwiw being anti-Trump is enough for *me*. But it wasn’t enough for others to win in 2024.

Yeah, and I guess @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social & @jonstewartdaily.bsky.social were thrilled about Elite Elon & Don the Con 2025 doing all this & more with No Red Tape (a.k.a. Regulations) required, eh? bsky.app/profile/zimm...

Listened to @jonfavs.bsky.social interview with @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social who lauded @johnfetterman.com for rising PA approval ratings as a centrist. DIDN'T MENTION increase is from rising Rs approval, but falling Ds approval.

Jon Stewart wore out his welcome years ago. When he gets called on his politics, he's "just a comedian" and when he's called on his comedy, he's a truth teller to power.

I’m a fan of Stewart overall but man when he’s off he can be really off and he doesn’t always recognize this…

Because as we’ve seen, ruling by fiat is much better…

stewart is not a great political mind, he's a hack comedienne, and not a really funny one any more, think bill maher, and Klein is a wolf in sheep's clothing, one that is very concerned with his clothing, little substance just wants to appear smart, imho

as far as waste goes it's probably pretty far down the list but ranting about military entitlements won't sell books to right wingers, so

Of goddamn course the "sensible wonks" had to find some angle to shit on BEAD. We finally had rolling FTTH deployment across the US and it's going to be talked as a boondoggle rather than valuable infra deployment by people who have no clue what a DSLAM or CMTS is.

lol I work in community broadband and I want to pull that guys underpants so far over his head the elastic holds his mouth shut.

Ezra Klein please go away

I'm happy to see them getting an appropriate amount of criticism though. I was getting pretty tired of Stewart being treated like this messiah for liberalism. He shouldn't run for president and to his credit, he doesn't want to.

I always enjoy how this sort of commentary elides the commentariates responsibility for that problem. Why wouldn't regular people reward Democrats for good stuff that has tangible long-term benefits? Maybe because the journalists and commentators who regular people listen to don't tell them to.

All the money in media right now is in telling right wingers what they want to hear

"Jon Stewart left speechless..." Oh how I wish.

No because ARPA drove $25 billion in broadband subsidies and was launched the same year, they just ignore the example because it doesn't support his book thesis that Democrats are in love with bureaucracy for bureaucracy's sake

Absolutely! But there's context beyond "Dems just like bureaucracy for bureaucracy's sake" they could have included with like 5 minutes of research. There are some decent reasons this program had more restrictions. And other programs from that same year (ARPA) have been successes.

So I stopped listening and get my news from The Bugle now, at least they inform me upfront that they are the purveyors of the finest bullshit on the internet.

not the first time & won’t be the last that stewart is a useful idiot for the right wing www.americanprogress.org/article/thin...

Interesting, isn’t his argument though that outcomes of the bills are failures or dont make a difference? We spend all the effort in getting bills passed and then it loses the fights in implementing the bills quickly so that it makes a difference within 4 years?

Ezra Klein is not a trustworthy voice so it’s not surprising to me that what he says is bunk.

Jon is such a disappointment, lucky cut-rate comedian gifted with top-tier writers uses his giant platform to chase Republican media frames, sad boomer vibes, go back top your rescue animals or whatever

Just as Donald Trump is a poor person's idea of a rich person, Ezra Klein is a dumb person's idea of a smart person.

My ears are burning

Yeah. I wish Stewart would stop platforming neoliberals whose only concerns are their own. youtu.be/jeYxT5zl1D8

@ryangrim.bsky.social posted a video about this yesterday. He was much less angry than some of the commentators here, but off cam I'm sure he was spittin'.

I figured it also was a overcorrection from Obama era ‘connect America’ plan funding that my local ISP accepted then did absolutely nothing with to expand access in the area. Three years from enacting to funding seems like a lot but quickly getting funding out with not plan isn’t efficiency.

EXACTLY a limp-biscuit dim-bulb easily-played Jim Crow GOP apologist pod-guy for millennials 🤨

Ezra Klein is way too full of himself, and not anywhere near as smart as he thinks he is.

there's no money in measured, informed consensus, education, detailed analysis, and real journalism (quite intentionally)

This is so roganescue and disappointing.

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yes! a lot of this stuff isn't bureaucratic for bureaucracy's sake. Corporatism and corruption built most of this! Accurately identify the target you're angry with.

Similar to Obamacare being so fucking watered down and then a bunch of dipshits insist it didn’t work or wasn’t good as though it demonstrates the failure of ideology when it’s really a process failure. Fuck! Angry just thinking about it!

"Abundance" is just warmed-over Third Way libertarian garbage. don't fall for this fuckin' scam again, folks.

This thread is an excellent summary of everything catastrophically wrong with our mainstream media landscape. Not remotely enough knowledge but *lots* of loud, overly confident opinions.

Ezra is making his way down the tracks to Yglesias station

I have a feeling you are right about the IRA program...but do you have a source that simplifies explaining the process for obtaining the funds that will make sense to those of us who are less knowledgeable? Government works slowly, destruction is easy and fast (as we are discovering).

What is wrong with them?!!!

Tried listening to an interview with Klein and his coauthor and their entire argument seems unprovable, like you can’t A/B test legislation to prove that including certain requirements has a negative impact on outcomes (also omnibus bills exist because Congress can’t pass more than a single bill)

I stopped reading Vox daily after the 2016 election and have steadily weaned myself off of Stewart since then. I didn't find his 'Biden old' stuff all that funny. Jordan Klepper and Josh Jordan do rule. Both seem like actual caring humans vs. Court jesters.

the program they built was far from perfect, but there are legitimate reasons some of this stuff took so long. They had to completely remap the entirety of U.S. broadband access. And coordinate across 50 different states.

Jon Stewart has actually done a lot of damage to democracy and people might want to stop treating him like a working class hero.

I have REALLY come to despise Ezra Klein this past year or so. (He's somehow managed to 'grow' into something even more loathsome than Yglesias...¯\_(ツ)_/¯).

Wait, you mean to tell me that Ezra Klein and Jon Stewart didn't understand something and instead wallowed in faux outrage so they could seem smart and cool? A truly new development in their careers and one never seen before.

Always swinging between Oprah and Stewart as to who’s been the worst representative of the “left”. Papa Bear or Dr. Oz you pick

Ezr...ughhh

Ezra Klein is such a dipshit.

Not really helping! I'm aware of Jon Stewart from The Daily Show about 20 years ago. But what's this? Are they criticising a Biden initiative? Or meta-pretending to criticise it? Or what? (As I say, I can't watch it over here.)

Despite being introduced in 2021 with a $42.5 billion allocation, NO BEAD-funded broadband networks have been built as of early 2025. NONE!!! That’s what the conversation was about. NOTHING has been built. Klein is not wrong that there is unnecessary red tape.

Good god, can we get some actual broadband experts in that room? John Stewart should know better!

This is why I will not watch Stewart. He is not a source of information. He is an entertainer and a gossip.

So typical of both NYT and Klein and disappointing from Stewart - perpetual expectations that Dems effectively clean up GOP messes without criticizing the underlying incompetence

So fucking tired of both of them