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A Federal Communications Commission lawyer faced a skeptical panel of judges today as the FCC defended its repeal of net neutrality rules and deregulation of the broadband industry.
FCC General Counsel Thomas Johnson struggled to explain why broadband shouldn't be considered a telecommunications service, and struggled to explain the FCC's failure to protect public safety agencies from Internet providers blocking or slowing down content.
Oral arguments were held today in the case, which is being decided by a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. (Audio of the four-hour-plus oral arguments is available here.) Throttling of firefighters' data plans played a major role in today's oral arguments.
[...] The lawsuit seeking to overturn the net neutrality repeal was filed by more than three dozen entities, including state attorneys general, consumer advocacy groups, and tech companies such as Mozilla and Vimeo.
(Score: 4, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Monday February 04 2019, @01:45PM (5 children)
Enough leaks about the orange that is consistent with the premise "stupid fuck" that it would appear to be true.
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Make hay whilst the intervening mass is insufficient to diminish received solar radiation below the threshold required for the drying of grass.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 04 2019, @03:24PM (4 children)
Enough leaks about the orange that is consistent with the premise "stupid fuck" that it would appear to be true.
The truism "never ascribe to malice what can be explained by stupidity" is often a reasonable default position to take, but it ignores the danger of ascribing to stupidity what is in fact malice, and thereby giving the malicious actor a "free pass" by dismissing him as stupid or ill-informed, rather than the malevolent, irredeemably evil *?%! he is.
In the case of Trump, I've gradually moved from thinking what a stupid prick is he, to what a malicious, wicked, vicious, evil *?%! he--according to mounting evidence--appears to be.
It is as big a mistake to attribute to stupidity what is in fact malice, as it is to go the other way, and arguable much more dangerous.
Trump is a master con-artist. He is a master of spin, dodging responsibility, defecting, projecting, and outright deceiving on a mass scale. He's done it his whole life, to pretty much everyone, and has been pretty damn successful at it. He's chosen ignorance over being informed (oh no, he might have to "read") on pretty much every geopolitical subject that matters, because it doesn't matter to him. He may be stupid in many ways, but whatever his mental limitations in particular fields, his arrogance, and his maliciousness dwarf any ignorance and stupidity he can lay claim to.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday February 04 2019, @05:47PM
You make great points and I agree. But reflecting, and thinking bigger-picture (as I can't help doing), I wonder what is the point of all of this blaming, name-calling, bashing, criticism, etc.?? It seems that government and politics have devolved to the point that mostly only idiots, crazies, etc., get involved. Whether ignorance or malice, what's the difference? The system does NOT in fact have working "checks and balances" that we're all lulled into believing exist.
The once-great system (US govt. structure) has been eroded little-by-little over the past 240+ years. Our govt. (USA and others) is rife with conflict of interest. Ajit Pai's work and involvement at Verizon should have disqualified him for FCC chair.
I don't have time to list them but I'll pick on one: lobbying. That means if you have lots of money, and/or control of money (corporations), you can hire lobbyists to swamp the senators and representatives (and news media) and sway things your way. We're all out here communicating but the govt. doesn't hear us. Unfortunately many engage in very negative bashing and are viewed as fringe crazies, so their otherwise good points go unheard.
The good news is that through the Internet, we're able to communicate, collaborate, and some senators, reps., local govt. are slowly starting to hear us.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday February 04 2019, @06:15PM
Bingo. I've referred to that tipping point for years now as the point where Hanlon's Razor loses its edge.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by mobydisk on Monday February 04 2019, @10:24PM
I don't agree. Trump said "The polls, they say I have the most loyal people. Did you ever see that? Where I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters, okay? It’s like incredible." [realclearpolitics.com]
Trump is a terrible at spin and his deceits are blatantly obvious. His success lies in the fact he was a celebrity who aligned himself with a party. That point it literally didn't matter what he said. The media didn't understand that running quotes of him contradicting himself all day long didn't do anything to convince people he was a liar. It just made him seem more and more important.
The same thing kinda happened with Bush Jr. There were people saying "this guy is a lightweight" (a polite way to say he was dumb) but it didn't matter to party loyalists.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday February 04 2019, @10:32PM
The problem with the aphorism is that it assumes that stupidity and malice are exclusive of each other. One can be both.
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