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Obama Signs CISA Bill into Law

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201–210 of 230 posts

Re: Obama Signs CISA Bill into Law

#201
post #16

How this happened [1]: In a late-night session of Congress, House Speaker Paul Ryan announced a new version of the “omnibus” bill, a massive piece of legislation that deals with much of the federal government’s funding. It now includes a version of CISA as well. Lumping CISA in with the omnibus bill further reduces any chance for debate over its surveillance-friendly provisions, or a White House veto. And the latest…

If the USA Freedom Act was 1 step forward for privacy (also debatable if even that), this is 5 steps back. The US really needs to break away from its 2-party system, and the only way to do that is to kill the FPTP voting system. Otherwise, Americans will never have real choices for stuff that really matters.

I'm not convinced that even a flat popular vote wouldn't have supported CISA.

Maybe this is just the generation of internet users who are willing to trade other people's freedom for their own security, given the chance?

Re: Obama Signs CISA Bill into Law

#203
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the few concrete functions of the Vice President once elected, is to serve as a more extreme alternative to the political positions of the President. That way, nobody opposed to the President's platform can assassinate the President in the hopes of killing that platform, because it will only be replaced with a worse version. This is not the case in an across-the-aisle Presidency. There are lots of Paul support…

The broader problem is that the Vice President has no real power. You can't balance a Presidency with an across-the-aisle candidate because the Vice President can't meaningfully do anything without the President's assent. The interesting thing is if the Democrats nominate Sanders and the Republicans nominate Paul.

Sanders is a long shot, but plausible. Paul is well outside the realm of possibility.

Re: Obama Signs CISA Bill into Law

#204
post #198
post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the free market is what brought us Dialup, DSL, Cable, FiOS, WiFi and whatever's after WiFi Government research and subsidies brought us these. The market only sold them.

> Government research and subsidies brought us these. The market only sold them. You do realize that the government pays (with private company tax dollars) other private companies to do things for them, don't you?

Either that or it hires private individuals and pays them to do it. What is your point? In either case, the govt is making the resource-allocation choice.

Re: Obama Signs CISA Bill into Law

#205
post #198
post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the free market is what brought us Dialup, DSL, Cable, FiOS, WiFi and whatever's after WiFi Government research and subsidies brought us these. The market only sold them.

> Government research and subsidies brought us these. The market only sold them. You do realize that the government pays (with private company tax dollars) other private companies to do things for them, don't you?

Either that or it hires private individuals and pays them to do it. What is your point? In either case, the govt is making the resource-allocation choice.

Re: Obama Signs CISA Bill into Law

#206

I don't get it, can somebody explain this to me, why does this stuff happen in democracy? How can public fight government for years and lose? How is it possible to pass a law in US that is clearly against everyone's will? I mean for all I know, most of the people are strongly against it, except for a few polititians, nobody wants this to happen, so how is that even a discussion?

> why does this stuff happen in democracy

because democracy only works when people actually care. most us citizens are more concerned about the superbowl than government.

> How is it possible to pass a law in US that is clearly against everyone's will?

Who is everyone? Again - most people don't give a shit.

Re: Obama Signs CISA Bill into Law

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Yeah, this whole thing about electing the right president who will somehow magically change all the wrongs of the world overnight is a fairy tale. I'm not sure who you guys think you're arguing against. I understand why you feel like you're correct in naysaying and feeling like you're adding something to the conversation by being contrary. Unfortunately you're setting up a bit of a strawman, as if people who support…

> I'm not sure who you guys think you're arguing against. Sometimes I forget that hackernews has a slightly more intelligent user-base. Unfortunately, I participate on reddit as well, and there, political supporters have a slightly naive view of how politics and the government works (that's putting it nicely). Sometimes I confuse the two websites. > So even in regards to your opinion your only real candidate is Berni…

http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Western-Illinois-U...

Read that, not so crazy.

Re: Obama Signs CISA Bill into Law

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm honestly starting to think sander's is our last hope -- I was on the fence until seeing this. Meanwhile he is getting undermined by the media.

Assume he wins and becomes president, what could he do? Judging by the way congress operates right now, not much.

Don't forget that the next President will almost certainly have to nominate one or two Supreme Court justices.

Re: Obama Signs CISA Bill into Law

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The magical thinking with less regulatory power = more competition with regard to utilities like last-mile internet comes down to 1) infrastructure cost and 2) lack of access to shared infrastructure. For most potential players, it simply costs too much to even think about entering the market. Truly unregulated free markets are great in theory, but are instantly distorted when you take things like reality into accoun…

A large portion of the costs of building last-mile infrastructure come from regulations imposed by local governments. http://www.wired.com/2013/07/we-need-to-stop-focusing-on-jus...

which may serve more big investors building yet more sprawling suburbs than regular people
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