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https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/29/15100620/congress-fcc-isp-web-browsing-privacy-fire-sale
Republicans in Congress just voted to reverse a landmark FCC privacy rule that opens the door for ISPs to sell customer data. Lawmakers provided no credible reason for this being in the interest of Americans, except for vague platitudes about "consumer choice" and "free markets," as if consumers at the mercy of their local internet monopoly are craving to have their web history quietly sold to marketers and any other third party willing to pay.
The only people who seem to want this are the people who are going to make lots of money from it. (Hint: they work for companies like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T.) Incidentally, these people and their companies routinely give lots of money to members of Congress.
So here [below in the article] is a list of the lawmakers who voted to betray you, and how much money they received from the telecom industry in their most recent election cycle.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 27 2017, @04:22AM (9 children)
Just another example of Congress showing just how useless it is. A terrorist could mow down the House of Representatives and the Senate, kill them all, and not only would no one miss them, and the government would probably be improved as a result. God, if only Mark Twain were alive today, the things he could write! Democracy stinks, but there isn't a better method of governance.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Mykl on Monday November 27 2017, @05:20AM (5 children)
"Democracy"
America - you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by zocalo on Monday November 27 2017, @09:03AM (3 children)
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Nuke on Monday November 27 2017, @01:47PM (1 child)
It has not died everywhere; democracy is simply people voting for a government and clearly that still happens most places. You mistake is to assume that democracy should automatically lead to sweetness and light, and if it does not then it cannot be democracy.
Or to put it another way, you think that if it does not give the result that you want, it cannot be democracy. It was funny to see all the "democratic" liberals in the UK, following the Brexit vote, suddenly become anti-democracy and rage for the vote to be overturned.
Eh? The point of an election is to sideline the arguments and discussions, tell the losers to STFU, and for the winners to get on with whatever they want to do. It is a virtualised civil war. Or as someone said, it is like two wolves and a chicken voting what to have for dinner.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by zocalo on Monday November 27 2017, @04:01PM
Take the DPRK; they have elections, everyone chooses their preferred option (there's often only one, so it's really simple), and as a result everyone gets what they want and is happy, and it's a shining example of a functioning democracy, right? I'd actually say that if democracy was working as originally intended then almost nobody would get *exactly* what they wanted, but as many people as possible would get a result that they can at least accept and work with. Let's look at Brexit again; roughly a 50:50 split between Leave/Remain, and of the Leave vote a range of opinions from a soft exit to hard exit. That distribution most probably follows a bell curve, but even if it's a linear distribution the current hardline exit approach doesn't really work for either the best overall solution or your "You lost, STFU!" approach. Yes, the Leave vote got the majority, so fine, for better or worse that's the way it's going to be (leaving aside the whole non-binding referendum and all the other issues with the setup), and whatever the eventual outcome we're going to have to try and make the best of it - and there's nothing wrong with expecting and preparing for the worst as long as you keep hoping for the best. However, by going for a hard exit (or what seems increasingly likely to be a no-deal default , which even Leave think tanks were saying would be a disaster before the vote) the Conversatives have pretty much guaranteed that not only will most of the ~50% who voted Remain not like the outcome, but whatever proportion of Leave voters that just wanted a soft exit for some nominal improvement on a given issue won't either.
The way I see it, there are two places where ballots should occur in a typical democracy; when electing representatives, and when those representatives make decisions on what becomes law. The former should really just inform the representatives of what their constituents views are so they can represent them more effectively, and the latter should be where you get the full-on, first past the post, "You lost, STFU!", style ballots based on that informed view of the distribution of their constituent's views on the matter. A referendum is a special case that applies the latter style to the general electorate, which is fine, but as the aftermath of Brexit demonstrated they need much clearer ground rules than David Cameron set up for Brexit to avoid all of the kinds of fallout that resulted. Things like being perfectly clear over the intent to avoid the Non-Binding vs. "It's the Will of the People, we're not have a debate!" issue, any ideally a minimum turnout / super-majority requirement (which Leave actually wanted to guarantee a do-over when they lost, but promptly shut-up about once the results came in) for what is presumably a major decision given that you're having a referendum in the first place.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Monday November 27 2017, @08:44PM
Those of us who live in Western nations with proportional voting, non-gerrymandered electorates, and who do not allow corporate interests to purchase the loyalty of representatives still have democracy.
The comment above about how things have got bad in the US over the last 18 months ignores the fact that things have been going downhill since (at least) your Mr. Reagan explained to the world how black was white and night was day and was rewarded with two terms as President, despite him not remembering most of his second term.
He would have been un-electable in most other Western democracies. (Although, to be fair several of your Presidents during my lifetime have been considered jokes in my country).
(Score: 2) by infodragon on Monday November 27 2017, @05:15PM
That's inconceivable!
Don't settle for shampoo, demand real poo!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 27 2017, @07:53AM (1 child)
"Democracy stinks, but there isn't a better method of governance."
Then perhaps you guys should become one! Your republic is obviously not working out for you, elected or not.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 27 2017, @10:53PM
A nation can't be both a republic and an empire.
Rome demonstrated this millenia ago.
USA.gov made the choice back in 1896 when it invaded and occupied Hawaii.
The Spanish-American War in 1898 extended the paradigm.
Pacifica Radio had an excellent presentation on this last week.
The Birth of American Empire with Stephen Kinzer [kpfa.org]
14MB MP3 [kpfk.org] (available till late January)
22MB MP3 [kpfa.org] (available forever)
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Tuesday November 28 2017, @01:28AM
> Democracy stinks, but there isn't a better method of governance.
[citation needed]
Democracy doesn't nearly as many man-millenia of data to back it up, compared to feudalism. It keeps failing left and right after each major crisis.