Senator John Thune showed off his Sioux Falls wunder-mayor Paul TenHaken to his Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet last week to prove to the Beltway that all South Dakotans are tall lanky distance-runner types. 
He also brought TenHaken to a hearing on 5G wireless to reinforce the SDGOP message that we mustn’t charge big corporations for profiting from public rights-of-way:
It is disappointing to hear of communities demanding large sums of money from fees for small cell towers in the public right-of-way as well as unnecessary regulations and lengthy permit review times. These communities are essentially attempting to generate exorbitant profit from the wireless carriers and stand in the way of technology that consumers in their communities are demanding. Most disappointing is that for every dollar these major metropolitans demand from wireless carriers, they are taking money away from cities like Sioux Falls who are eager to foster the deployment of small cells and positioned to work with carriers as partners rather than adversaries.
…The strategy for the City of Sioux Falls in dealing with wireless carriers was simple—cover our costs. As Mayor, it is not my intent to profit off carriers to deploy small cell infrastructure. Sioux Falls seeks fair and reasonable compensation for City staff time to review applications from carriers. In kind, we offer a reasonable time frame to approve or deny applications or work with the carrier on an alternative site. Lastly, we want easement fees that cover the inflationary costs we incur with carriers locating their technology on City assets. It’s a very basic ask—make the City whole on our costs to review and house the infrastructure the carriers need to provide their service to customer [Mayor Paul TenHaken, Statement to U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet, Washington, D.C., 2019.12.05].
Scott Ehrisman notes in his post on the demise of JazzFest that Mayor TenHaken’s keen desire not to bite into corporate profits is leaving the city without the revenue it needs to provide basic services for everyone:
[It’s] ironic that our mayor was in DC yesterday bragging about how he doesn’t want to burden the FOR-PROFIT telecoms (who make billions a year) with high fees for 5G poles then turns around and depends on volunteers to clean up after tornados, doesn’t plow our streets and now wants to charge for police assistance (even though they have plenty of money in the budget for it). This administration’s priorities are messed up, and you will see that when the $21.5 million dollar TIF for a private developer gets passed with NO evidence or studies proving TIFs provide economic impact to our city. The arts and other non-profit events in Sioux Falls have already had numerous studies showing their impact, but who has time to read that stuff? For TIFs and telecom handouts we’ll just take your word [Scott Ehrisman, “Update II: JazzFest Killed,” South DaCola, 2019.12.08].
TenHaken and Thune have more than slim hubba-hubbability in common. They also the Republican “Business über Alles” mindset that makes South Dakota what it is.
“…as providers jockey…”
https://www.pcmag.com/article/345387/what-is-5g
Fly speck Johnny knows full well that what China has perfected would save consumers billions of dollars and that is why we’re in the trade war we are in. Huawei is really only interested in selling the hardware as there will no longer be a need for fiber. Cable companies are aware of that as well so they are jerking us around until they figure a way to charge us more for the use.
We can all thank another South Dakotan Republican for selling out our public airways, Larry Pressler.
“Dole, appearing with Gingrich at a Capitol Hill news conference, said, ‘There are a number of problems in the bill that could have been resolved in a different way,” including what he called a “giveaway” of the airwaves to television broadcasters.
According to that proposal, federal regulators would be required to limit eligibility for the lucrative broadcast spectrum to existing television station owners. Critics say the government would thereby lose out on as much as $70 billion through a competitive auction of the digital spectrum.” https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-12-29-fi-44909-story.html
Giveaway indeed and Fly speck Johnny and the other tall guy, want it to continue…at our expense.
TenIQ got most of the GOP boogeymen in there: regulations, big cities, etc.
This line is funny: “These communities are essentially attempting to generate exorbitant profit from the wireless carriers.” Yeah, poor wireless businesses are really suffering. Awww.
So Johnny is grooming TenIQ as the Next Big Thing for the SDGOP? Good luck, SoDakkers. If you keep blindly voting R, you’re really going to need it.
How much do they pay the man in the empty suit to be senator.
I see that Sen. Thune has been coming out more in recent days in opposition to impeachment. He has said that he hopes enough Democrats in the house will peel off to keep it from coming to the Senate. He also said that he thinks it unlikely that any Republican Senators will vote to remove Trump.
He knows what Trump did was way over the line and cannot be allowed to continue. If Obama did it, he and his brothers in denial would be screaming all day, every day.
I will predict that only Mitt Romney will vote for removal. And that’s only if he cannot come up with an acceptable alternative punishment. He is the only one with the courage to put his job on the line.
This will be a pivotal time in US history. I believe that it will be seen as a time when Presidential loyalty bested the devotion to country. I think it will also be seen as a moment when the President tried to make himself king or close to it…. and nearly succeeded.
He cannot be investigated. He cannot be charged with a crime. He can do anything. All three are statements this Administration has made.
And we have not yet seen how Trump reacts to losing the election. If he sees that coming, he will pull out the “rigged election” nonsense again and try to hang on to power. If he wins… OMG.