u/timholt2007

Before you all start shouting “Corruption!!” consider that many districts in Texas are facing similar budget shortfalls. Here are just a few. They can’t all be corrupt, as some on these boards would like to believe. Perhaps there’s more to it than just poor financial management.  Perhaps the Republican-controlled Comptroller of Public Accounts hasn’t sent out promised funding guaranteed by the last legislative session? Perhaps inflation, caused by Republican policies such as starting frivolous wars has had an impact. Perhaps Republican policies favoring privatizing schools over public schools has had an impact.

I saw this at the Murphy gas on the west side. What is it?

8oz angus patty, provolone, bacon & jalapeño cream

Stanton Elementary School on Hondo Pass in Northeast El Paso, is slated to close permanently after this school year. Their administration is inviting families, students, staff and alumni to celebrate their campus one last time!

Join the Stallion Family this Saturday (May 16th) at 5414 Hondo Pass Drive from 11:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M. for a family-friendly outing to honor the heart of Stanton!

Los Dos Bros cheeseburger and fries

At our fly in in April. Meeting like these help get information out to the public about the drone flying community and help dispel the myths that are perpetuated in the media about community drone flyers.

This seems like a no brainer: Cover the Franklin Canal and all of the other major irrigation canals from Elephant Butte to Fabens with Solar Powered covers. Why can't we be doing this?

Happy International Drone Day!

The FCC Discovers Consumer Drones, Immediately Reaches for a Hammer

Gather around children, because once again the grown-ups in Washington, including our locally elected officials,  have found a technology they do not understand and have decided the safest thing to do is hit it with a shovel.

This time the unlucky gadget is the humble drone. Not the military kind. Not the billion-dollar flying robot with a missile bolted underneath it that has made Ukraine the world’s leader in counter drone technology. Not the scary sci-fi thing from a defense contractor’s PowerPoint presentation or a company that the Trump kids have cleverly invested in. No, no. We are talking about the drones used by wedding photographers, roof inspectors, farmers, firefighters, real estate agents, survey crews, search-and-rescue volunteers, and that one guy at the park who really wants to get a sunset shot without bothering anybody.

The Federal Communications Commission, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that DJI and Autel belong on the “Covered List,” which is Washington-speak for, “We are not technically banning this thing, but please watch us make it almost impossible to buy, sell, service, approve, or improve.” Ta-da!

If you saythese in a deep voice near an American flag it sounds serious: National security. Supply chain protection. Foreign influence. Critical infrastructure. Very important phrases. Very polished phrases. Also very useful phrases when you want to hide the smell of politics, lobbying, and plain old protectionism under a nice clean blanket.

Because let us be honest. If the concern is data security, then make rules about data security. If the concern is where images are stored, then make rules about storage. If the concern is government agencies using foreign-made equipment in sensitive places, then write a narrow rule for government agencies in sensitive places. If these devices were truly threats, then the ones already in consumer hands would have been banned faster than Donald could fly to Mar-a-Lago for a round of golf.  

DJI and Autel are not fringe companies selling mysterious gadgets from a card table in an alley. They are major players in the drone world because they make products that work. That, of course, is their real crime. They made drones affordable, reliable, portable, and useful. They let ordinary people do work that once required a helicopter, a crane, or a very brave person on a ladder.

Naturally, this could not be allowed to continue.

We all have seen this movie before. American consumers are already watching some of the best electric vehicles in the world race past us from the other side of the glass. Many of the most advanced and affordable EVs are being made in China, but American buyers are largely kept away from them through tariffs, restrictions, politics, and the usual “we are protecting you” speeches. And then everyone acts surprised when China leads the world in EV sales, battery development, charging technology, and manufacturing speed. Amazing how that works. 

Tell Americans they cannot buy the best tools because those tools come from the wrong country, then complain when the wrong country becomes the leader in that technology. That is not a strategy. That is sulking with paperwork and it is unfair to the US consumer.

And now drones are getting the same treatment. DJI and Autel built products people actually want. They are not winning because drone pilots are fools. They are winning because their drones are better, cheaper, more reliable, and easier to use than most of the alternatives. A photographer does not buy a DJI drone because she is secretly trying to overthrow the Republic. She buys it because the camera is good, the batteries work, the software is mature, and the thing does not fall out of the sky like a patriotic brick.

But here come the usual suspects. Domestic companies that cannot beat DJI on price, features, battery life, camera quality, software polish, availability, or customer trust suddenly discover a deep and patriotic concern for national security as well as deep patriotic lobbying pockets. How touching. How convenient. How very Washington.

The American drone industry does need help. But banning the best competition is not innovation. It is not leadership. It is not capitalism. It is asking the referee to eject the other team because they keep scoring. It sets the US years behind the rest of the world. That isn’t making us great again. It’s making us a source of pity and laughter from the rest of the world. 

And let us pause for a moment on the comedy of geography: In El Paso, Texas, where I live, a person can look across the Rio Grande river into Juárez, Mexico, where ordinary Mexican consumers can buy drones that Washington wants us to treat as radioactive flying spy goblins. Apparently, the menace is so severe that Americans must be protected from it, but not so severe that our neighbors a few yards away need to panic. The same drones can be available to our allies, trading partners, tourists, filmmakers, contractors, and hobbyists around the world, but somehow when they cross the U.S. border they become a national security fever dream.

If these machines are truly such an immediate and obvious danger, why are they not treated that way by every friendly nation on earth? Why are they not considered too dangerous for photographers in Canada, Mexico, Europe, Australia, or Japan? Why can someone in Juárez buy the “forbidden” flying camera while someone in El Paso is told to make do with fewer choices, higher prices, and a lecture about sacrifice being the patriotic thing to do? Either the danger is specific and should be addressed with specific rules, or the danger is being inflated to justify a market wall. Those are not the same thing.

As bureaucrats draft shiny regulations, what happens to us plebes on the sidelines? Small drone businesses get squeezed. Public safety agencies pay more for less. Farmers lose affordable tools. Schools lose entry-level teaching platforms. Hobbyists get pushed out. Photographers get told that the flying camera they saved up for is now some sort of suspicious foreign menace. Meanwhile, well-connected companies with the right lobbyists and the right patriotic brochures get a captive market for the military, first responders and the Border patrol, while consumers are left to watch the rest of the world gladly pass us by. Funny how that works.

The great irony is that the same crowd that lectures everyone about free markets suddenly becomes very allergic to free markets when the market picks the “wrong” winner. The same people who say consumers should decide are now perfectly happy to let a federal list decide for them. The same people who claim to hate government overreach are cheering government overreach because this time it is pointed at a Chinese logo. The same crowd that cries about any ban on guns because of “bad actors” are completely silent about banning drones because of a few “bad actors.” But truly, what is the difference? 

Now, before someone runs into the comments waving a tiny flag and shouting “China!” — yes, security matters. Of course it matters. Nobody serious is saying otherwise. But serious security policy is precise. It is evidence-based. It distinguishes between a drone flying over a military installation and a retired teacher photographing the Franklin Mountains at sunset. A blanket punishment is not wisdom. A handmade drone being flown INTO the US by a drug cartel is something completely different than a drone being used to capture a cool video of a skater in a skatepark or even an evil mylar balloon. 

If DJI or Autel devices create a real, proven security risk in certain government uses (which by the way has NEVER been substantiated by either the government or private security firms), then regulate those uses. Require offline modes. Require data transparency. Require third-party audits. Require American servers for certain contracts. Require open standards. Require disclosure. Require whatever actually addresses the problem.

But do not pretend that grounding the market, strangling repair options, and choking off future approvals is some grand act of national defense. It is not. It is a gift basket for companies that want protection from competition. Worse, it teaches American companies the wrong lesson. Do not build better products. Do not lower prices. Do not out-innovate the competition. Just lobby harder. Wrap your weakness in the flag. Convince Washington that your failure to compete is actually a public emergency.

That path does not create a stronger American drone industry. It creates a weaker one, protected from reality until it forgets how to improve.

The FCC should remove DJI, Autel, and other Chinese-made consumer drones from the so-called Covered List and stop pretending that every flying camera from China is automatically a national security threat. If there are real concerns about specific government uses, sensitive locations, data storage, or network connections, then write clear rules for those situations. But do not punish ordinary photographers, small businesses, farmers, teachers, students, search-and-rescue volunteers, and hobby pilots because some companies want protection from better competition.

The drone world does not need a panic button. It needs standards. It needs competition. It needs choice. It needs adults in the room who know the difference between a battlefield weapon and a camera with propellers.

Because if America keeps banning, blocking, and walling off the best technology instead of competing with it, we should not be shocked when the rest of the world keeps moving ahead without us.

Until then, American drone pilots are left with the usual message from Washington: We are here to help. Please hand over your tools.

Tim Holt is the co-founder of DEEP, the Drone Enthusiasts of El Paso and a retired educator. 

Saturday May 2 is International Drone Day. 

May 11 is the deadline to submit comments to the FCC about the Drone Ban. 

Here is how you can help: https://droneadvocacyalliance.com/fcc-take-action/

On the west side, Schneider Electric has four (soon to be five) massive factories in a complex on Northwestern Drive, between Trade Center Avenue and Northern Pass Drive. Due to the large number of employees at these sprawling complexes, Northwestern Drive has become a parking lot for them.

To address this issue, the city has repainted Northwestern, removing an entire right lane of traffic on both sides (reducing the road from two to one lane). Additionally, parking lot markings have been added to the former far right lanes.

My question is: Why do we, the taxpayers, have to pay for the parking for this large company that clearly has enough money to construct five factories but not enough to build a parking garage for its employees? Why do WE have to be punished (two lanes to one lane) when clearly it is Schneider Electric that should be taking care of the problem?

Now that the burger champion has been crowned, may I introduce you to Los II Brothers in Canutillo, a total hole in the wall on Doniphan with surprisingly good burger. $10 gets you that cheeseburger, fries and a drink. Check it out if you are ever down Canutillo way. Maybe next year they will be in the championship round.