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An Open Letter to the FCC

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41–50 of 222 posts

Re: An Open Letter to the FCC

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Per Trump exec order, he can't lobby for at least 2 years and most likely 5 depending on his tenure. So it's not a profitable move for him, taking this position.

If I were a betting man, I would absolutely bet that he works in the telecom industry after his stint at the FCC. He might not work as a lobbyist, but there are a lot more jobs than that open for a person with his knowledge and contacts.

Sure, and why shouldn't he?

Re: An Open Letter to the FCC

#43
To play devil’s advocate, are we really ready for Internet to be regulated like a public utility? Like water, we will need to pay more the more we consume. You and I can pay but what about poor people? Will this discourage Internet usage?

Re: An Open Letter to the FCC

#44

The revocation of the Net Neutrality rules became a foregone conclusion once Donald Trump was elected. The sad reality is there's not much we, Eric Schneidermann or anyone else can do about it. There are 5 FCC commissioners but only 3 may be of the same party. Ajit Pai, Brendan Carr and Michael O'Rielly are locks to vote in favor, so it will pass, 3-2. At this point the best thing people can do is prepare to vote in…

The effect is nonpartisan. Whether you're Alex Jones or Bannon we'll all the affected equally, I just only your this comment can be brought to the president's attention through a tweet or something of that nature.

Or one of the critical mouthpieces he pay's attention to.

Re: An Open Letter to the FCC

#45
post #8

More and more we see state agencies standing up to regime change in Washington (ex: CA and environmental regulations). Regardless of your personal politics, I wonder how this dynamic will affect democracy in the US.

Well up until election 2016, Democrats were vehemently opposed to states authority, and concentrated far more power in Washington during the Obama administration. It's nice to see them coming around.

> Democrats were vehemently opposed to states authority

No, they weren't. Neither Democrats nor Republicans, on the whole, have a strong general position one way or the other on the balance of federal vs. state power. Republicans like to invoke the phrase “states rights” around issues where they disagree with the current federal policy and project a strong centralizing position onto Democrats on those issues, but both tend to act more on issues that state/federal preference, acting at whatever level they have the present influence to act, and Democrats aren't even particularly prone to pretending a strong preference either way. (They'll often cite a practical need to act at one level because of a failure at the other level, but that's different than even a for-show ideological preference.)

Re: An Open Letter to the FCC

#46
post #34

The revocation of the Net Neutrality rules became a foregone conclusion once Donald Trump was elected. The sad reality is there's not much we, Eric Schneidermann or anyone else can do about it. There are 5 FCC commissioners but only 3 may be of the same party. Ajit Pai, Brendan Carr and Michael O'Rielly are locks to vote in favor, so it will pass, 3-2. At this point the best thing people can do is prepare to vote in…

Regulations are not the answer, for the very reason that they will flip-flop with political appointees, and it amounts to people begging for what they rightly should demand.

The inconsistency in this position is prioritizing killing off net neutrality regulations while the thicket of regulations which cement the ISP oligopoly remain in place to be dispensed with probably never.

Re: An Open Letter to the FCC

#47

It's been really interesting to see the interplay between State Attorneys General and the federal executive branch over the past decade. I don't know enough legal history to know if this contention is new or has always happened. But the contrast between what happened with regulation of carbon and coal is fairly striking. The federal judicial brach said that it had to be regulated in order to meet the laws that the le…

Can states regulate ISP activity within their states? Could the New York state legislature pass a law stating that ISPs who offer services in New York must provide net-neutral services?

Maybe, and the states have a leg to stand on. Along with net neutrality, the FCC voted to overturn laws that limit municipal broadband. The states challenged the FCC, and the states won.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/08/in-blow-to-muni-...

Re: An Open Letter to the FCC

#48

The revocation of the Net Neutrality rules became a foregone conclusion once Donald Trump was elected. The sad reality is there's not much we, Eric Schneidermann or anyone else can do about it. There are 5 FCC commissioners but only 3 may be of the same party. Ajit Pai, Brendan Carr and Michael O'Rielly are locks to vote in favor, so it will pass, 3-2. At this point the best thing people can do is prepare to vote in…

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is a former Verizon lawyer and probably plans to parley his government experience into a lucrative gig at one of the big telcos

I don’t care if he was a professional kitten killer, it has little relevance to actions currently being taken. I say this for two reasons: Pai has spent more time in public service than he did at Verizon, by multiples. And second, who cares what his motivation is? Does that amplify or mitigate the circumstances in some way? No? Then it’s just a distraction from the issue at hand, which is bad enough that we best not derail the conversation worrying about where someone worked twenty years ago.

Re: An Open Letter to the FCC

#50

The revocation of the Net Neutrality rules became a foregone conclusion once Donald Trump was elected. The sad reality is there's not much we, Eric Schneidermann or anyone else can do about it. There are 5 FCC commissioners but only 3 may be of the same party. Ajit Pai, Brendan Carr and Michael O'Rielly are locks to vote in favor, so it will pass, 3-2. At this point the best thing people can do is prepare to vote in…

> FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is a former Verizon lawyer He worked in their legal department for 2-3 years 15 years ago. All of his other time has been spent has a public servant. People need to stop bringing this up, because it only muddies the actual policy debate.

Let's wait and see where he ends up. If he doesn't immediately go back to telecom after his appointment is over, then I'll agree bringing up his history wasn't warranted.
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