Archive for the Monopoly Category

Google The Gatekeeper Wall (June 28, 2021)

Posted in First Amendment, Google, Monopoly, Technology on June 28, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “I was at Firefox to avoid the Google fist and simply sought to duck over and go to duckduckgo.  Das ist verboten.  Google monitors all requests and demands another step in its monitoring of Internet traffic.  When the desired website is one of the sites blocked by Google, the demand appears.  The Behemoth blocks.  But Google does not block a search of nyt.com or msm.com.  Google has offered absolutely no reason why it needs to determine whether the request is coming from a robot.  The one thing its AI knows is that the request is not coming from malicious software, a browser plug-in, or a script that sends automated requests but rather is coming from a very sentient and sapien human being.”

J          “Not only are they monitoring your searches, they want you to know that they are monitoring your searches.  They are brazen because they can be brazen.”

. . .

K          “I went to Firefox to search for ‘Mother Teresa’ and the request was sent over from Firefox to Google and then deemed suspicious.”

J          “Search for ways to promote world peace or cure cancer and your service may be terminated.”

. . .

K          “The CAPTCHA security measure is a clever acronym.  Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.  Alan Turing’s legacy endures.”

. . .

J          “The Internet is evil.  There may be a dozen solid reasons why the Internet has improved our lives, but in the final analysis, it is evil.  Google’s hip motto was an ironic and prescient admission of just what Google and the Internet would do.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Should You “Friend” The Tech Beasts And Behemoths? (October 23, 2017)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:


About this page

Our systems have detected unusual traffic from your computer network. This page checks to see if it’s really you sending the requests, and not a robot. Why did this happen?

This page appears when Google automatically detects requests coming from your computer network which appear to be in violation of the Terms of Service. The block will expire shortly after those requests stop. In the meantime, solving the above CAPTCHA will let you continue to use our services.

This traffic may have been sent by malicious software, a browser plug-in, or a script that sends automated requests. If you share your network connection, ask your administrator for help — a different computer using the same IP address may be responsible. Learn more

Sometimes you may be asked to solve the CAPTCHA if you are using advanced terms that robots are known to use, or sending requests very quickly.

IP address: 97.73.244.131
Time: 2021-06-18T19:52:05Z
URL: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=duckduckgo

Yes, indeed, it is really me trying to discern Truth.

Google: “Be Evil” (September 28, 2020)

Posted in Amazon, Elections, Facebook, Google, Magazine Reference, Monopoly, Privacy, Society, Technology on September 28, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “’Don’t Be Evil’.   An age of overwhelming edgy sarcastic anxiety and detached cynical irony really is not a healthy and productive age.”

J          “Our society has not aged well.  Bad wine.  White wine that has gone sour and not red wine that improved with age.  And Google and Facebook and Amazon provide the most perverse ironies of our age.”

. . .

[See “The Big Tech Extortion Racket” in “Harpers” dated September 2020 by Barry C. Lynn.

“In 2018, an Irish technologist named Dylan Curran downloaded the information Google had collected about him.  All in all, Curran found, the corporation had gathered 5.5 GB of data on his life, or the equivalent of more than three million Word documents.

In an article for article for “The Guardian”, Curran wrote that within this trove he found

“every Google Ad I’ve ever viewed or clicked on, every app I’ve ever launched or used and when I did it, every website I’ve ever visited and what time I did it.  They also have every image I’ve ever searched for and saved, every location I’ve ever searched for or clicked on, every news article I’ve ever searched for or read, and every single Google search I’ve made since 2009.  And . . . every YouTube video I’ve ever searched for or viewed, since 2008.”

In addition, Curran discovered that Google keeps a detailed record of what events he attends and when he arrives, what photos he takes and when he takes them, what exercises he does and when he does them.  And it has kept every email he has ever sent or received, including those he has deleted.”]

[See the e-commentary at “Goggle” and “Facebook” and “Amazon” and other topics such as “Privacy” and related issues.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Bye Don 2020 (also sported on lawn signs)

Re-Elect The Mother Fracker (also sported on ball caps and t-shirts)

Mono-poly (June 3, 2019)

Posted in Monopoly on June 3, 2019 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “One – many.”

J          “One from many.”

. . .

K          “The pork industry in the heartland is in a few hands and the industry farming out government pork in the District of Swampville is concentrated in a few hands.”

J          “All the pig knuckles are in one hand.  T-Mobile and Sprint are merging.  The FCC is also in one hand – the telecommunications industry – and is not the protector of the public good or the common weal.  On the other hand, those who know remind us that the transition from four to three major wireless carriers will drive up prices and drive down quality.”

K          “Hands down.  Ma Bell’s daughters are assembling another coterie.”

. . .

K          “Office Depot and OfficeMax merged and may create ‘Office Heaven’ for all your office needs.”

J          “Or ‘Office Hell’ if they go the way of all monopolists in America.”

K          “Before the turn of the millennium, Dick Cabela and Cabela’s made some first rate jackets, pants, shirts and other gear and then with each passing year uniformly and consistently reduced the quality and durability of their products.  Bass Pro recently devoured the little fish Cabela’s.  ‘OutdoorsRUs’ will produce lower quality and higher priced products.”

J          “I was not shocked to find that Zareba joined ElectroBraid and Fi-Shock to form the largest manufacturer of electric fence systems in North America.”

. . .

J          “With the final demise of ‘Ma and Pa Businesses’ comes the death, spiritual and financial, of ma and pa and then the death of their community.” 

. . .  

[See “Monopoly Power Is Growing In Response To Sustainable Development” in “Technology News & Trends” by Patrick Wood dated April 4, 2019”, “Supreme Court Allows Antitrust Suit Against Apple to Proceed” in “The New York Times” by Adam Liptak dated May 13, 2019, “America’s monopoly problem, in one chart” in “Vox” by Emily Stewart dated November 26, 2018, “Big Companies Are Getting a Chokehold on the Economy” in “Bloomberg” by Noah Smith dated February 22, 2018”, “America Has a Monopoly Problem–and It’s Huge” in “The Nation” by Joseph E. Stiglitz dated October 23, 2017.]

[See the e-commentary at “Are ‘Prices’ A Language?  Are Antitrust Laws Grounded In The First Amendment?  How Do We Forestall The “Frightful Five” And Other Monopolies?  Oh, And Happy Halloween! (October 30, 2017)”, “The Great Google Wall (June 27, 2016)”, “Less Government Regulation Series:  Google (November 30, 2009)”, “Should You ‘Friend’ The Tech Beast And Behemoths? (October 23, 2017)” and “Restraining Google/Alphabet And Damming Amazon (July 17, 2017)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

“Today, four companies produce 84 percent of our beef.  Four companies control the world’s grain market.  Six corporations [GE, Disney, News Corp, Viacom, Time Warner and CBS] control 90 percent of the media.  Ten companies control everything you buy.  Three companies completely dominate the farm equipment market.  Fourteen companies control the entire global auto industry.  You get the idea.  This extends to many different industries where giant global corporations are gobbling up everything in sight.  How did we get to this point?”  Patrick Wood, “Monopoly Power Is Growing In Response To Sustainable Development

Everything Monopolized, Nothing Economized.  Completion Of “The General Theory Of Economics” Is In Remission . . .  Oh, And Happy Halloween! (October 29, 2018)

Posted in Economics, Economics Nobel, Market Solutions, Markets, Monopoly, Noble Prize in Eco-nomics, Price, Technology on October 29, 2018 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J          “Bummer.  After all that time and thought.”

K          “And all that fun.  I tell you I realized that if it was going to be done and if it was going to be done right, I would have to do it to get it done right.”

J          “Been there.  Done that.”

. . .

K          “A construct such as the IS-LM model is largely malarkey but is heuristically valuable.  Today, the fundamental problem trying to describe and direct the operation and function of the economy is that there really is not an operating and functioning economy.  With all of the distortion, intervention and manipulation, price is not tied to anything real.  Every business, every single business in every single industry, is a monopoly.  The business is the industry; the industry is the business.  From pork to politics.”

J          “Yet only a few folks have discovered and understand that we cannot discover price.  Price discovery now is so passé.  Without price, we cannot communicate in the economic marketplace.  And the central bankers working alone and together destroyed the language of the marketplace.”

. . .

K          “He left Iowa with his father marketing the hogs to five potential buyers and returned to find that one buyer sets the price.”

J          “And both Senators from Iowa are Republicans.  You don’t have to ‘go figure’ when ‘it figures’ so clearly.”

. . .

J          “And the Swedish central bankers reward those individuals who provide the economic cover for the crimes and misdemeanors of all the central bankers by giving their ignoble ‘Nobel’ Prize in E-con-omics to the most successful errand boy or girl.”

K          “The Noble Prize in Eco-nomics is the part of the answer.”

. . .

J          “The most vexing monopoly is the government/corporate syndicate that precludes any competing alternative entity.”

K          “The twisted irony is that most industries, and all the major tech industries without exception, are basically ‘natural monopolies’ and thus ‘utilities’ such as the water company.  A utility is a monopoly.  A monopoly must be regulated.  Yet the tech companies/tech utilities own the government and quash any regulation.”

. . .

J          “The Republican political monopoly firmly supports the current economic monopolies who in turn own the Republican political monopoly.  The Death Spiral is spiraling but not changing.”

K          “In a fortnight, the slow boiling coup d’état by the Republicans could be completed by the Republicans.  If the Democrats do not take the House, the control of government will be concentrated in one mega-corporation – the Republican Party, Inc. / the Corporation, Inc.  The political ‘campaign’ is aptly namely for battle because the Democrats are charging east up Jenkins Hill trying to retake the southern flank of the Capitol and the House of Commons under intense enemy fire.  We need to hire the friends and fire the enemy.”

J          “The Presidency is a lock, the Judiciary is the stock and the Congress is the barrel.  Lock, stock and barrel.” 

K          “For the next two years at least, the Presidency is indeed a lock for the Republicans.  For the rest of our time on this Planet, the judiciary is a laughing stock and a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Republican Party, Inc. / the Corporation, Inc. doing their bidding.  And the Republican Congress has the ordinary citizen over a barrel.”

J          “Hook, line and sinker.  We are hooked, they have us firmly on the line and all of us are sunk.”

. . . 

[See the discussion in “This is Not a Market” in “The Automatic Earth” by Raul Ilargi Meijer dated April 23, 2018.]

[See the scary e-commentary last Halloween at “Are ‘Prices’ Language?  Are Antitrust Laws Grounded In The First Amendment?  How Do We Forestall The ‘Frightful Five’ And Other Monopolies. Oh, And Happy Halloween! (October 30, 2017)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Free markets now!

Alex J. / J. Assange And The First Amendment (August 13, 2018)

Posted in Antitrust, Apple, Awards / Incentives, Courage, Facebook, First Amendment, Google, Monopoly, On [Traits/Characteristics], Perjury/Dishonesty, Supreme Court on August 13, 2018 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “I don’t think I would like him.”

J          “Me neither.”

. . .

J          “Which is, of course, the point.  Reflect on the principle not on the principal.  The Supreme Court looks at the principal not at the principle.”

K          “That is the Supreme Court for you.”

J          “For me?  Not for me.  You take ‘em.”

. . .

K          “Google, YouTube, Facebook, Apple and Spotify are imposing various levels of censorship.  Each is a monopoly in its own sphere and is, in practice and effect, a utility and a powerful government.”

J          “The First Amendment does not protect free speech directly but rather is a limitation on government interference with free speech.  Governments such as Google, YouTube, Facebook, Apple and Spotify should not be allowed to interfere with free speech.”

J          “Governments should interfere with and regulate monopolies.  However that is impossible when the monopolies are the government or at least own and operate the government.”    

. . .

K          “Free speech for Alex Jones!”

J          “Freedom for Julian Assange!”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Hero or Traitor? (June 10, 2013)”, “Third Annual ‘Cameo In Courage’ Award For 2018 (April 9, 2018)”, “Second Annual ‘Cameo In Courage’ Award For 2017 (March 6, 2017)”, “First Annual ‘Cameo In Courage’ Award For 2016 (May 9, 2016)”, “Award Deadlines (Livelines?) (July 25, 2016)”, “Profile In Cowardice Award (May 12, 2014)”, “Profile In Courage Award, 2015 (May 11, 2015)”, “Chelsea And Ed:  Time For ‘Con’ ‘dign’ Treatment (November 30, 2015)” and “On Courage and Truth (March 17, 2008)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week: 

Free speech for Alex Jones!

Freedom for Julian Assange!

(Unedited) petition circulating on the Internets; edit as appropriate or better yet use your own words and express your own concerns:

A Petition to the President of the United States:  Pardon Julian Assange

Whereas Journalist Julian Assange and his media organization, Wikileaks, has in the respected tradition of American journalism obtained and published information that is classified and newsworthy, a practice shared with the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and others and

Whereas in the eleven years of its existence the authenticity and accuracy of materials published by Wikileaks has never been questioned or disputes and

Whereas the material regarding Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee published by Wikileaks served the national interest by exposing the corruption of the Clintons, the Clinton Foundation, the Clinton campaign and the Obama Justice Department and

Whereas assertion by the American Intelligence Services that Julian Assange is the agent of a “Hostile Foreign State” or the Russian government are politically suspect and completely unproven and denied by Assange and

Whereas Julian Assange has consistently denied that material obtained from the Democratic National Committee and published by Wikileaks came from the Russian State and has repeatedly offered to prove this for US authorities and

Whereas Assange, now in failing health, has been a veritable prisoner in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for six years, with the media now reporting Ecuador is preparing to hand Assange over to British authorities who will presumably extradite Assange to the United States for trial and

Whereas Julian Assange is an impeccably-honest, incredibly-brave, humanitarian journalist, who provides an invaluable platform for whistleblowers exposing corruption and criminality infesting governments, nullifying democracy and obliterating human rights, around the world and

Whereas there are absolutely no legitimate legal grounds to prosecute Assange and, as the U.S. DOJ admitted in 2013, that doing so would expose ALL U.S. journalistic and news outlets to similar criminal jeopardy.

Therefore Urge President Donald J. Trump to issue a full and unconditional pardon to the journalist Julian Assange in the interests of both justice and mercy.

The Medium Mandates The Message.  Analog v. Digital: Monopolization & Monetization. Oh, And Happy World Press Freedom Day! (May 7, 2018)

Posted in Antitrust, Awards / Incentives, Blog, Cyberactivities, Journalism, Monopoly, Newspapers, Press/Media, Pulitzer, Pushitzer, Technology, Truth on May 7, 2018 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Analog affirms the status quo, digital negates it.  Challenges it, really, with a goodly number of exceptions.”

J          “Yet digital is moving toward and merging with the analog business model which is all about business.  Analog is already monopolized.  Digital is aggressively monetizing.”

K          “The medium mandates the message.”

. . .

K          “Some of the digital messengers are not as beholden to the powers that be as the analog members.  Digital messengers are more likely to connect two disparate and distant points, to realize that two plus zero is not three, and to accept that two or more persons can work together to reach an end, usually to the public’s detriment.”

J          “A few stray digital messengers are acting as the town criers.  The best that a commentator of conviction can hope for is to be a prophet with honor and not to be convicted for writing that challenges the established disorder.”

K          “But no one is listening.”

J          “Makes you want to cry for your town.”

. . .

K          “Six corporations monopolize the popular media.  Most of the digital sites are in the monetization phase and may be forced to modify or mute the original message to survive.”

J          “Yet you cannot thrive if you do not survive.  Decades ago, the editor noted to a friend on the first day of his summer newspaper internship that the most important mission of the newspaper is to make payroll.  No payroll, no paper.  He was not disappointed by the stark insight.”   

K          “Making payroll is painful.  One of the sites challenging inequality has something like seven levels of membership and another sells t-shirts and decoder rings.”

J          “No can thrive if no can survive.” 

. . .

K          “Digital is regressing to the mean, digital is regressing to analog.”

J          “No can thrive if no can survive.”

. . .

[With a nod to Marshall McLuhan.]

[See the e-commentary at “First Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2016 (April 18, 2016)”, “Boycott (Advertisers On) AM (Anger Mongering) Radio (March 5, 2011)”, “World Trade Center Building 7 And The AIA (May 18, 2015)”, “A ‘Journalist’ Declares War On Journalists . . . And Journalism (November 28, 2016)”, “Dispatches From The War On Journalism: The New ‘Nixon’s Enemies List’ (December 5, 2016)”, “Blogging Bloggingly About Blogs:  A Thing In Search Of A Name (November 1, 2016)”, “Debasing The Dialogue (April 14, 2014)” and “On Courage and Truth (March 17, 2008)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”  Eric Hoffer

“Only the small secrets need to be protected.  The big ones are kept secret by public incredulity.”  Marshall McLuhan

May 3 – World Press Freedom Day

Are “Prices” A Language? Are Antitrust Laws Grounded In The First Amendment? How Do We Forestall The “Frightful Five” And Other Monopolies? Oh, And Happy Halloween! (October 30, 2017)

Posted in Amazon, Apple, Constitution, Economics, Facebook, First Amendment, Google, Internet, Language, Microsoft, Monopoly, Price, Radio, Technology on October 30, 2017 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Prices for goods and services are a language spoken with numbers (7) not letters (L).”

J          “I love language.  French is the language of love and the language of diplomacy.  Accounting is the language of business.  So Prices are the language of a free market economy?”

K          “Yes.  Russian is one of the languages of literature.”

J          “So is French.”

K          “And English.”

. . .

K          “Monopolies distort Prices which distorts speech.  By distorting Prices, the public is making inaccurate and incomplete decisions and paying more for goods and services while the corporations are not internalizing externalities.”

J          “Price may just be the real Esperanto.”

. . .   

J          “The current monopolies are in part the consequence of acts of commission and even more often acts of omission by the government.”

K          “The problem with my analysis is that the First Amendment is a restriction on government activity not a requirement for government action.”

J          “So the Constitution is unavailing.  We are stuck with Congress, the executive agencies and the courts to protect us.”

K          “They do not speak our language.”

. . .

[See the interview by Terry Gross with the tech columnist Farhad Manjoo with “The New York Times” who cautions that the “Frightful Five” (Amazon, Google/Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook) are more powerful than the governments on the “Fresh Air” radio program titled “How 5 Tech Giants Have Become More Like Governments Than Companies” on October 26, 2017.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Spanish is the language a man uses to talk to his God;

French is the language a man uses to talk to his wife;

Italian is the language a man uses to talk to his mistress;

German is the language a man uses to talk to his mule.

And English is the language a man uses to fly a plane or to surf the web or to engage in international discourse.  You create it, you talk it.

And Price is the language a man and a woman use to value and exchange resources.

Restraining Google/Alphabet And Damming Amazon (July 17, 2017)

Posted in Amazon, Antitrust, Google, Monopoly, Technology on July 17, 2017 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Google/Alphabet is restraining trade and needs to be restrained.  Google is the behemoth gatekeeper restricting, controlling and directing entry to the Market.”

J          “Hard to dispute the observation that there has never been a time in American history when as many industries are dominated by one company in the industry.  In most industries, the player is the industry.”

K          “The NASDAQ is a menagerie of monopolies.”

. . .

K          “Google is buying professors.  Medical professors are subject to ethical constraints.  Law professors, like the students they teach and the law they profess, are amoral and available to the highest bidder.  Google is the highest bidder.  Amazon cannot be far behind.”

J          “So there may be some competition to buy law professors.  They also buy legislators and legislatures and may get a volume discount.”

. . .

K          “The compelling need to regulate Google/Alphabet is as simple as A, B, C.”

J          “As simple as it is impossible.  The regulatory agencies are as captive as the law professors and propagandists.”

K          “America will not respond or regulate.  America is the current failing Empire of the century on the planet.  The former European Empires need to step up and do it.”

J          “The Kleptocracy in America will not stand for it.”

K          “I may need to revise the ‘Manual For A Constitutional And Sustainable Post-Empire America’ in the next few weeks.”

J          “The former Republic could use a self-help book.”

. . .

J          “Rumors suggest that Amazon may consume Whole Foods.”

. . .

K          “When only Google and Amazon are left, which one will kill and devour the other?”

J          “God-zilla will ravage and ingest King Kong.”

K          “And which one is God-zilla again?”

. . .

[See “Google Fined Record $2.7 Billion in E.U. Antitrust Ruling” in “The New York Times” by Mark Scott dated June 27, 2017 and “Is It Time to Break Up Google?” in “The New York Times” by Jonathan Taplin dated April 22, 2017.]

[The Campaign for Accountability released a report on July 11, 2017 titled Google Academics Inc. detailing Google’s extensive acquisition and appropriation of law professors and policy propagandists in America and abroad.]

[See the e-commentary at “Less Government Regulation Series:  Google (November 30, 2009)”, “The Great Google Wall (June 27, 2016)” and the e-commentary under the Category “Google” and “Amazon.”]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Do The Right Thing:  Break Up Google And Amazon

The Court Of Truth And Justice (CTJ) (August 29, 2016)

Posted in Courts, Judges, Judicial Arrogance, Judiciary, Justice, Monopoly, Rackets, Rule of Law on August 29, 2016 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Courts have failed.  Courts exist to make life easy and lucrative for judges and to make money for obliging and cooperative lawyers.”

J          “Just another racket.”

K          “The lawyer’s unwitting role is to lead the public to believe that we live under a system of laws with neutral judges who listen to all arguments and discern the law and facts objectively.”

J          “A lawyer goes on the bench so that he or she can go home early with full and guaranteed pay.”

. . .

K          “We need to create courts that find some truth and do some justice.  Hundreds of years ago in England, the courts of ‘law’ dispensed very little truth or justice and applied a ruthless version of the law.  The market responded and a new court system and court house was established across the street – the court of ‘equity’.  If you fell behind on your house payment, the ‘law’ court would toss you out in the street.  However, go across the street and the ‘equity’ court would give you credit for what you invested in the house and even prevent the law court from tossing you out in the street.”

J          “Isn’t that why they call what you invest in the home – dollars and sweat – the ‘equity’ in your house.  The thing called ‘equity’ in your home was created to address that personal investment in and commitment to the home.”

K          “Exactly.  There are still equitable causes of action and equitable remedies.  Dozens of years ago, all the big legal players decided to merge the ‘law’ court and the ‘equity’ court into one court.  That created a monopoly.  And the courts quickly began to act like monopolists.  They could and do whatever they want to do which is typically to dismiss a case and go home.”

J          “With full and guaranteed pay.  Sounds like the merger of the National Football League and the American Football League into the National Football League in 1970.  Monopoly is bad.”

K          “Monopoly is very bad.  We need to return to our roots and create a new court of ‘equity’ that could be called . . . the ‘Court of Truth and Justice’ to address the genuine legal needs of the populace.”

J          “What you are talking about is what I call restoring the rule of law in America.”

. . .

K          “We need a test case.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Assigning Blame: The Lawyers: 50 Percent; The Non-Lawyer Public: 50 Percent; The Judges: 100 Percent (December 3, 2012).”]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Why not try the rule of law for a week or two?

The Great Google Wall (June 27, 2016)

Posted in Courts, Google, Internet, Monopoly, Privacy on June 27, 2016 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “I am found on Google, therefore I am; I am not found on Google, therefore I am not.”

J          “If you are not making money for Google, you are not found on Google; if you are not found on Google, you do not exist.  You are not.”

. . .

K          “If Google does not deliver the site ‘above the fold,’ the site will ultimately fold.  If Google consigns a site to the second page – the obituary page in digital media – the site is dead.”

. . .

K          “You could play one of those Will Shortz puzzler games.  ‘Drop the word “ogle” which means “to look at amorously, flirtatiously, or impertinently” and add a “d” and what do you get?  . . .  God.’”

J          “Google is the gateway to reality and the wall to existence.”

. . .

K          “Google has emerged as a natural monopoly in this the ‘Age of Monopoly.’  By definition, the free market cannot regulate a natural monopoly.  A natural monopoly should be broken up or regulated.”

J          “Google is our contemporary ‘Pa Bell’ much like ‘Ma Bell’ that dominated the telephone industry forty years ago.  Google is a national public utility.” 

K          “And the United States Court of Appeals for The District of Columbia Circuit agrees.”

. . .

[See “United States Telecom Ass’n v. Federal Communications Comm., No. 15-1063 (June 14, 2016).” and “Court Backs Rules Treating Internet as Utility, Not Luxury” by Cecilia King, June 14, 2016.]

[See the e-commentary at “Less Government Regulation Series:  Google (November 30, 2009).”]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Google is God; net neutrality is good.