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Common Dreams reports
Last Week Tonight host John Oliver on [May 7] issued another powerful rallying cry to save net neutrality protections, and, repeating the outcome of his 2014 plea, his viewers flooded the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) site, causing it to temporarily crash.
[...] Oliver said it's worth noting that [FCC Chairman Ajit] Pai is "a former lawyer for Verizon", a company which "won a lawsuit which meant that if the FCC wanted strong, enforceable protection, its only real option was to reclassify the ISPs, and yet he cheerily insists under questioning that there is just not evidence that cable companies were engaging in rampant wrongdoing".
"Title II is the most solid legal foundation we have right now for a strong, enforceable net neutrality protections", Oliver said, and urged "we, the people, [to] take this matter into our own hands".
To that end, Last Week Tonight bought the domain name gofccyourself.com, which redirects users to the official FCC page[1] where open internet advocates can leave a comment and call for these protections to remain in place. (Oliver notes that it simplifies the commenting process the FCC "has made more difficult since three years ago".)
"Everyone needs to get involved. Comment now, and then maybe comment again when the FCC makes its proposal official. Even call you representative and your senators", Oliver urged.
So successful was the start of his campaign, according to Motherboard, that there was such a high volume of traffic flooding the Federal Communications Commission that the site temporarily went down. As of this writing, it is up and running again.
[1] The fcc.gov page is almost entirely behind scripts.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Tuesday May 09 2017, @04:49PM (11 children)
Should TV audience size really be a factor for running for president?
That sounds like what got us into the current mess. (*cough* Trump *cough*)
How about picking someone who understands government rather than a professional comedian? (Or a professional huckster / reality tv star.)
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday May 09 2017, @05:00PM
That particular professional comedian is making a career out of explaining how the US system works, and why some parts of it are Hard.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday May 09 2017, @05:39PM (3 children)
Understanding government is trivial and can be described in three little words: *Follow the money*. In Spanish it's only slightly different: plata ó plomo. And really, all the superficial drama isn't too difficult to figure out either.
Either way, this 'current mess' is ours to fix. After all, we really do have the power to clean up the House every two years, should we ever decide to use it.
And just because a guy makes his living as a comedian, it doesn't mean he doesn't know what he's talking about. One of the things about good comedy is the underlying truth behind it.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 09 2017, @06:38PM (2 children)
Understanding government is trivial and can be described in three little words: *Follow the money*.
Oh fuck off.
Understanding corruption is about following the money.
But that is only a small fraction of understanding governance.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 09 2017, @06:59PM (1 child)
Oh fuck off yourself! Corruption and blackmail and appeasement are the major motivators in government. Politicians do what they are told, or the money dries up and the newly financed 'opposition' takes his place. Leave your naive grade school civics books at home.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 10 2017, @09:33AM
I'm posting from home, you insensitive clod!
(Score: 3, Informative) by Thexalon on Tuesday May 09 2017, @06:14PM (4 children)
A person can be both a professional comedian and somebody who understands how government works. The strongest example of that would be now-senator Al Franken, who as senator has been a fairly serious and dedicated legislator doing stuff like ensuring Zika got treated and trying to better link mental health care with crime prevention.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday May 09 2017, @06:53PM (3 children)
Back in the 90's I enjoyed Al Franken's book: Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot, And Other Observations.
The most memorable part that springs back to mind is the "simulated interview". (That may not be the exact description used, but I'm not going to go look it up.)
Rush did a "simulated interview" with Hillary Clinton. Rush would ask loaded questions, followed by Hillary's responses. Now the responses used direct quotes from Hillary, and cited the sources. He tried to make it seem like it was fair in some delusional way.
So Al Franken did a simulated interview with Rush, and it was hilarious. Rush's responses were direct quotes cited from Rush.
Al: So Rush, are you an idiot?
Rush: Yes [1]
Footnotes:
[1] some source where Rush at one time answered "Yes".
Of course, the whole point was that the whole simulated interview thing is a farce no matter how much you try to make it look fair. And no matter how easily your stupid gullible audience accepts it as gospel truth.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 09 2017, @07:39PM (2 children)
And no matter how easily your stupid gullible audience accepts it as gospel truth.
I no longer think that "guillible" is the right adjective for the talk-radio zombies.
It seems to be closer to wishful. Frustrated by reality's stubborn insistence on not cooperating with their prejudices, dittoheads and the like searched out someone who told them that reality was wrong and that they were right. Limbaugh didn't lead them into idiocy, he followed the money and no one has ever gone broke telling people what they want to hear.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Tuesday May 09 2017, @08:38PM (1 child)
Apparently by telling people what they want to hear you can become president, even if you are an illiterate inarticulate maroon.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday May 10 2017, @12:40PM
Apparently by telling people what they want to hear you can become president
That's hardly news.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Wednesday May 10 2017, @11:20PM
...why start now?