Net Neutrality.

Open Internet.

Title II.

Open Carrier laws.

Whatever you want to call it, it's a weird argument to have. Most of the USA and, indeed, much of the world think that the move of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to repeal the 2015 rules is just a stupid corporate power-grab. This decision overturns rules stating that internet service providers (ISPs) were not allowed to prioritize any traffic or source over any others. This prevents your ISP from charging special service fees to "make sure" your streamed video is sent at the fastest speed possible or that you stream with the Comcast App over the Hulu one. With the 2015 rules in place, they were prevented from artificially altering how fast data were transmitted because of any source, request, or quantity. Basically, they weren't allowed to mess with the data itself.

Before the 2015 rules, some glaring violations of consumer rights were (according to The Daily Dot):

• The 2004 blocking of Voice-over-IP services like Vonage by Madison River Communications (a regional ISP that's now a part of CenturyLink)
• The 2007 blocking of Pro-Choice fundraising through text messages by Verizon
• 2008 saw Verizon attempt to block tethering apps that allowed mobile device users to turn their devices into internet hotspots. Verizon went so far as to try to get Google to remove these apps from their app store. Verizon was charging users an extra fee, at the time, to allow tethering on their network and Google had apps to bypass their required fee. This is where things really got touchy. Verizon argued that they were within their rights to charge users an extra fee to allow their devices to transmit internet service to other devices. The FCC disagreed. The FCC argued that Verizon was not operating in good faith based on their deal to use certain radio frequencies and Verizon eventually settled and agreed to stop their tethering policies.
• In 2012, AT&T blocked Apple FaceTime unless people paid for unlimited voice and text services, a separate plan from most of their data services. AT&T backed off by late 2013, buckling under public pressure.
• Finally, Comcast had one of the worst examples of this. In 2008, they set a monthly data cap for users. However, they also offered a service, available only through the Xbox, that let people bypass this cap and stream video from their private network without counting toward the cap. Basically, "We can't handle the large amounts of data. But... if you want to pay us for this other thing, maybe we can come up with a way to handle a little extra. Just for you." It was basically an extortion racket. Comcast backed off, but a Comcast executive recently said they will probably set a monthly data cap on all customers by 2019. Time to look for a new ISP, yo.

If you want to learn more about this, you really need to listen to the interview of Tom Wheeler by Deray McKesson on Pod Save the People. (Side note, check out DeRay's other projects including work on OurStates.org). The interview starts at 31:23 or so.

I have to say that the move is... disheartening. It has been a dark year filled with many terrible moves made by a government that I have little positive feeling about.

I am heartened by little, when it comes to American society. There is one general good thing that I fall back on, though. Progress happens. Progress continues to happen. There may be setbacks, but

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice."

 and

"Americans will always do the right thing — after exhausting all the alternatives."

Shame on Al Franken

Regarding Al Franken...
What a stupid and cruel thing for him to do. He was a scumbag to her and acted like a scorned teenager.
The kiss thing could have been him projecting and misinterpreting her polite or kind behavior as flirtatious, but who knows? We weren't there.
I believe Ms. Tweeden and think we all should. I question why he would do such a dumb thing. He's been married forever and has a couple of adult kids. It's not like he was a single guy on the prowl; not that such a thing would be excusable even then. I know she's a beautiful former model, but that doesn't mean he gets to throw himself at her and hope she reciprocates. What a jerk thing to do and an awful way to treat her.
The photographed groping or faux-groping is juvenile petty crap. He dehumanized her in ways that should offend anyone, particularly today. I have to think he felt rejected as she was avoiding him after the first incident and he was lashing out. It doesn't excuse him of course. In fact, it probably makes it worse.
Okay. I'll stop raging for a minute and look at facts that we do actually know.
She was furious at him for over a decade. To the point that she describes making a fist every time she saw him on TV.
He apologized. She accepted. She said she doesn't want him to resign unless it's discovered that this has been some sort of pattern of behavior from him.
The Senate will investigate and draw it out for a couple months. Republicans will use him as a punching bag for a while. Probably through the midterms. He'll try to keep a low profile and do his job. If others come forward, he'll probably do the right thing and resign.
I assume he's having very uncomfortable discussions with his family right about now.
On a personal note, it's very interesting to see the flawed humanity behind those we hold in such esteem.
None of our heroes are perfect.
FDR and JFK had terrible track records with how they treated women. Likewise, Bill Clinton. Hell, it still seems pretty likely that Bill raped a woman and got away with it. That horrifies me. Just because I admire him politically doesn't mean I like him as a person. (There's an excellent episode of the "With Friends Like These..." podcast on Bill and Hilary Clinton from about a week ago. Check it out.) Hell, Joe Biden, whom I adore, was the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings and he basically didn't defend her from character assassination despite many opportunities to do so. Sure, that was more than 25 years ago, but that doesn't excuse treating women as less than human.
Taking off our rose-colored glasses is necessary and part of being adults. We need to stop turning a blind eye to bad behavior and accept the truth in all its ugliness.
And shame on Al Franken.

Starting Over

I'm not sure why, but I've decided to re-launch this whole blog thing. There's so much going on in the world and so much going on in my life.

So, if life really begins at 40, here's what is my life right now:

• Family
• Teaching
• Politics (following rather than participating actively)
• Television
• Music
• Video games
• Reading
• Some sort of social life (a serious challenge with parenting)

The original intention of this blog was to share insight into subjects near and dear to my heart as they unfolded in my life. I left much of that off about the time my first child was born. The second walks and is beginning to talk, so... it has been a while. I guess it's time to update.