Earlier quoted context omitted.
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> half the voting population of the 50 states of the union keep making a conscious selection of bad policy Which half?
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FCC votes to restore net neutrality rules
161–170 of 598 posts
Re: FCC votes to restore net neutrality rules
#162Remember when the Internet freaked out and "when dark" to protest how the lack of NN would ruin the internet?....and then nothing changed? The boy who cried wolf...again.
This is a bit like removing a traffic light from an intersection and then after a day saying "see, nothing happened, we don't need regulation from traffic lights". Laissez faire, everything will be alright.
> and then after a day
It's been ~5.5 years since "the internet was doomed" by the FTC[0]
How long are we supposed to wait for your doom prophecy to realize?
[0] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-internet-exclusive/ex...
Re: FCC votes to restore net neutrality rules
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
IIRC with Modi a big factor was that the previous prime minister was seen as effectively a spineless puppet, kind of like how Biden is seen by many. Modi came in promising to try literally anything rather than just sitting by and doing nothing unless ordered to by the political dynasty leading the party, and has largely delivered on that promise. It has meant lots of controversial legislation being forced through, bu…
Manmohan Singh was seen as exceptionally spineless (because he pretty much cowtowed to whatever the Gandhi family said). That’s not how Biden is perceived. At all. Biden has installed more justices than Obama and Trump combined. He has done it without the right freaking out about it. He has been incredibly effective if you delve past the surface.
In right wing circles Biden is often perceived as a puppet for 'elites', too old and senile to make his own decisions. Every other tweet about him seems to get people joking about how he had to go to bed early or how they had to drag him out to make a speech. I was a bit young to carefully follow Manmohan's term, but I recall that one of the comments I often heard from adults were that he was clearly too old for office.
Re: FCC votes to restore net neutrality rules
#164Re: FCC votes to restore net neutrality rules
#165[deleted]
Re: FCC votes to restore net neutrality rules
#166I'm happy this reversal occurred, but I am exhausted by the continuous flip-flopping of legislation depending on which party is in charge. Feels like we're stagnating as a nation by going in a circle rather than finding commonality to go forward. Maybe it's always been this way though and I'm just getting old enough to be bothered by it?
It used to be the case that Congress actually passed laws. And pre-Chevron, the regulatory agencies actually constrained their rule making to be within the law, and so laws were more specific.
The problem started IMHO with Republican obstructionism under Clinton, but got out of control with Obama’s shift to using executive orders over legislation after the affordable care act nonsense. It’s definitely a both sides issue.
Re: FCC votes to restore net neutrality rules
#167This flip-flopping happens because there is no commonality to find. One of the only (effectively) two major political parties of the United States is completely uninterested in governing. They have no policy. They have no plan for governing; they don't like governing. Their only goal is the piecemeal selloff of government powers to the highest bidder, and they convince their stalwart followers of this by making sure they get their daily dose of other people suffering. As long as others are suffering, their base will support the wholesale takeover of government by the rich.
The other half is pretty bad at governing, but at least they try to govern. So when they're in power, the first thing they have to do is try to build back up the institutions that have been disabled or dismantled by the party of government-cannibals.
Don't ask me which half is which. You know.
Re: FCC votes to restore net neutrality rules
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you blame "congress" instead of Republicans?
Perhaps because Democrats control half of Congress today, and the general trend of Congressional avoidance-of-clear-rulemaking has been the same even during those periods that Dems or Republicans control both chambers.
The filibuster makes this kind of 'control' moot. You need a filibuster proof majority in the Senate and a majority in the House to actually get anything done (and the Presidency, to not veto). 'Control of half of Congress' when that half is the house, is meaningless.
Re: FCC votes to restore net neutrality rules
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
>So, I would be beyond shocked if this was an election year issue of substance. Because it isn't an election year issue. This has been in the works since at least 2022. https://www.cnet.com/home/internet/net-neutrality-will-make-... The rule making process takes time! >From my perspective, nothing about the internet changed since then (my experience did not upgrade or downgrade). People stopped talking about it, ther…
> The rule making process takes time! No, it doesn't take this much time. It's just that net neutrality wasn't a priority for the Biden administration, so they dragged their feet until the very last minute. IIRC, there's been a flurry of rule-making just now because they are running up against a Congressional Review Act deadline.
> It's just that net neutrality wasn't a priority for the Biden administration, so they dragged their feet until the very last minute.
The FCC was deadlocked until September 2023 and started this process a few days later. Maybe they could have started in 2022 if Biden had nominated someone else after Republicans blocked his 1st choice. But Democrats believed Republicans would block anyone who would restore net neutrality.
Re: FCC votes to restore net neutrality rules
#170I'm happy this reversal occurred, but I am exhausted by the continuous flip-flopping of legislation depending on which party is in charge. Feels like we're stagnating as a nation by going in a circle rather than finding commonality to go forward. Maybe it's always been this way though and I'm just getting old enough to be bothered by it?
Congress was destined to this fate when they eliminated earmarks. Earmarks, or pork barrel spending, were derided as gov't waste, but in reality they were the grease that kept legislation moving. A representative could go back to their voters and say, "I voted for this thing you might not like, but I did it to ensure this crucial local project got done." Without earmarks there is no incentive to compromise. Compromis…
Earmarks are back. They were against the House's rules for 10 years, but the 117th Congress started allowing them again in 2021.