By Seton Motley
Former President Barack Obama just turned sixty. To celebrate, he threw on August 7 a giant, non-social-distanced, mask-free suarez at one of his three post-presidential mansions.
Obama Variant? Footage Show Maskless Guests Enjoying Former Prez Party
The Obamas played host to the elitist of the elite. All of whom have spent the last year-plus demanding you shut down your lives and your livelihoods. In a way they have not ever – and did not on Saturday.
What? Yes, I said Obama’s three post-presidential mansions.
Obamas Now Own $11.75 Million Estate in Martha’s Vineyard
Photos of the Obamas $8.1 Million Washington, D.C. House
Did Obama Just Buy a Hawaiian Mansion?:
“The commander-in-chief appears to have started planning his post-White House life by buying a $8.7 million Hawaiian mansion that was featured on the classic ’80s TV series ‘Magnum, P.I.’…”
Obama then tore down that mansion – and started all over again….
President Barack Obama’s Hawaii Beach House Being Built on Idyllic Site of ‘Magnum, P.I.’ Mansion
How does Obama – a man who has never, ever had a real job in his entire life – so easily afford three-and-a-half monster mansions?
He spent his eight years as President selling the United States by the pound.
Far-and-away the biggest check Obama cashed after leaving office?
The Obamas’ $50 Million Netflix Deal – Cronyism Comes Full Circle:
“The Obamas, of course, have zero history in the filmmaking business. The chances of them falling backwards into content production success are…just about non-existent.
“When examined through a political prism – rather than a business one – this move makes perfect sense. For the Obamas – and Netflix.
“It is the culmination of a decade’s worth of DC cronyism – come round full circle….”
How is Netflix able to afford such extravagant largesse? What did Obama do to be the beneficiary of such extravagant post-presidency largesse?
Obama provided Netflix with a lot of during-presidency cronyism. Most especially, Obama imposed the ridiculously stupid policy known as Network Neutrality.
Netflix LOVES Net Neutrality Because it is huge government that hugely helps them – but does not apply to them.
Netflix’s Contribution to the Net Neutrality Big Lie:
“Netflix Has Been Secretly Slowing Down Your Videos for the Past Five Years:
“Uber-huge-bandwidth-hog online-video-streaming-company Netflix has long been a very vocal proponent of Network Neutrality. About which Netflix said: ‘The net neutrality debate is about who picks winners and losers online: Internet service providers or consumers. Today, the FCC settled it: Consumers win.’
“Except consumers don’t win. They rarely do when government gets (exponentially) bigger. Of course uber-huge-bandwidth-hog-company Netflix likes Net Neutrality – because it outlaws their being charged for being an uber-huge-bandwidth-hog-company.
“No matter how much data Netflix uses – and they use a ton – Internet Service Providers (ISPs) cannot charge them a dime. Which leaves We the Consumers picking up Netflix’s tab in the form of much higher monthly ISP charges.
“That’s consumers-augmenting-Netflix-profits, which is certainly a win for Netflix. For We the Consumers? Not so much.
“And lest we forget: ‘Netflix…was one of the lead proponents of…a bright-line prohibition on throttling online traffic by broadband providers.’…
“‘Netflix and its allies last year won the fight over Net Neutrality, arguing that without federal protections Internet service providers could throttle traffic to individuals and companies that didn’t pay for access to Internet fast lanes.’
“Get that? Internet throttling by ISPs? Cataclysmic. But when non-ISP Netflix does it? No problem.
“Not Neutrality: The Netflix Scandal That Isn’t:
“‘(W)hatever it is, it’s not a Net Neutrality violation. Plain and simple. Anyone who tells you that it is — or that this practice undermines the case for Net Neutrality rules — is either in the business of misleading you, woefully ignorant of the law, or both.’
“Sadly, that is correct. Because the FCC’s huge power grab doesn’t apply to ‘edge providers’ like Netflix. Only ISPs are subject to this heinous onerousness:
“‘ISPs could receive a hefty fine under the net neutrality rules for similar practices, but Netflix faces no such danger, at least not for the throttling itself. The net neutrality rules only apply to ISPs…, not to companies…like Netflix or Google Inc.’
“How’s that for unequal protection before the law? Except this isn’t law – it’s agency regulatory fiat. We’re already way off the constitutional map.”
Netflix (Market Cap: $230.4 billion) makes its huge money nigh-exclusively by using bandwidth to deliver its content. Just how much bandwidth does Netflix use?
Netflix Consumes a Third of America’s Internet Bandwidth
That’s quite a lot.
So Obama’s Net Neutrality fiat – was more than a little helpful to Netflix.
So Netflix was then more than a little helpful to Obama.
$50 million helpful.
And the only people hurt by all of this uber-heinous DC cronyism – is We the People.
Originally published by Less Government. Republished with permission.