Another Fight Over Net Neutrality

I have broadband service through my ISP. Very few of my online activities involve information services from that ISP. Similarly, very few of my phone calls are to or from my telephone service provider. In both cases, I am buying access. I want to be able to access my Google e-mail account, Netflix, Amazon Video, Youtube, other smaller video sites, Facebook, multiple news sites big and small, cloud storage, various online game providers, blog posts that I write and that others have written on different web sites. I want to be able to access government sites and other public sites such as libraries. And I don't want my ISP to inhibit any content just because they could legally extort money from larger corporations or larger political parties.

Calling my ISP an information provider is the same as calling my phone company an information provider because they have a time-and-temperature service. They are telecommunication companies. My broadband is a telecommunication service even if I don't specify the exact route my internet traffic should take. I don't care what satellites are used or what cables are used when I make a phone call. I am paying for access. My computer uses a domain name server to look up IP addresses in order for me to access web sites. Similarly, I can select names on my phone to talk to other people without my caring what their actual phone number is. In both cases, I am the originating point and they are the destination point. To say that my internet service or my phone service is not a telecommunication service is juvenile, unjustifiable, and is definitely not in the public interest.

I live in a rural area. My fiber-optic connection goes to exactly one broadband provider. I am not going to call long-distance for a slow telephone connection to a far away ISP. I am not wealthy enough to afford a satellite service for an ISP, especially one which would tie up my one phone line for uploading internet URLs and other information. To call your proposal Restoring Internet Freedom is a joke. Freedom for who and for what? Certainly not for me. The only freedom I would have is freedom from internet access. Just like unaffordable health insurance would give me the freedom to be without health care.

I want the FCC to protect me from fraudulent billing, price gouging, and privacy invasions. If my ISP raises my rates 10-fold, I want the FCC to have the authority to reverse it. My ISP has no competition. If you are not looking out for the public interest, then I have no remedy.

People at the FCC are there as public servants. Their mission is to work for fairness to both consumers and providers, doing so in the public's interest. To reclassify broadband as an information service is an abdication of responsibility and a betrayal of the public trust. If anyone at the FCC thinks that greed is a virtue, I would suggest they find another line of work.

Regarding proceeding 17-108, Restoring Internet Freedom.
Each of the above paragraphs was submitted separately for clarity. These comments were sent to the FCC public comments web site, https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/search/proceedings?q=name:((17-108)).
Confirmation #:2017071506955133/Submitted:Jul 15, 2017 5:23:25 AM
Confirmation #:2017071587350836/Submitted:Jul 15, 2017 5:26:36 AM
Confirmation #:20170715773316277/Submitted:Jul 15, 2017 5:35:56 AM
Confirmation #:20170715040228766/Submitted:Jul 15, 2017 5:40:55 AM

Confirmation #:2017071541043429/Submitted:Jul 15, 2017 5:43:45 AM

It's a Two-Party Country

Like it or not, we are effectively a two-party system. We may be able to get some people from other parties elected, but not at the presidential level. And the presidential votes impacts a lot of down-ballot voting. In a presidential election, a vote for a third-party candidate is a vote for the opposition. Clinton lost a lot of votes to other parties, and Trump was elected.

The GOP has been very successful at destroying traditional Democrat fundraising (such as union contributions), and now both parties rely on corporate donations. Yes, it has been disastrous. But to counter extremist conservative policies we need the Democrats, and we need to work from the inside to effect change. A failure to understand this and to hide out in an alternate third party (or none at all) is to cede victory to those who would put corporate interests ahead of workers' interests, environmental concerns, consumer protections, judicial reform, diplomatic sanity, financial and economic reforms, health care and health insurance reforms, and racial and gender (including LGBTQIA) protections.

We need to elect people who don't think the market is amoral and self-correcting. We need people who are not proponents of social Darwinism. People who don't think that those on Social Security or SSDI or SSI are moochers. People who have principles and ethics and knowledge and an actual desire to help others.

Most of all we need people who can get elected because second place doesn't get you a seat at the table.

This has been a response to an article in The Liberal Network, What the Democrats Need To Do To Win Back The White House, which was linked to indirectly in a Daily Kos article via EgbertosWillies.com.

Don't Make Excuses For These Shysters

A reply to a comment in a Huffpost article, The Fake President.

Nicole Mi - Workers are treated like crap. CEOs think their only obligation is to stockholders and short term profits. How would you suggest minimum wage workers (largely with no benefits, sometimes working 2 or 3 jobs to get to 40 hours, many with families) get retraining? And can they even afford to move to where these miracle jobs are? Who will hire them if they are older?

CEOs salaries are skyrocketing to above 300 times what the people who actually do the work earn, and if they run the company into the ground they have golden parachutes. Trickle down means peeing on the peons. People who send their money to work are taxed at a lower rate than real workers' sweat. People like Romney buy companies, take the cash and maybe sell some assets, and then saddle those companies with the debt incurred in buying those companies.

And since the radical conservatives succeeded in decimating unions, both political parties are chasing after corporate donations. And the removal of limits on those donations means that our politicians are bought and paid for. There are not even restrictions on ex-legislators getting jobs in the industries they passed laws on. Just because payment is delayed does not mean it was not a bribe.

Are you getting the picture yet? Are you going to wait until Social Security is gone, Medicare changed to a voucher system, more rivers catch on fire, more corporate executives go unpunished for fraud, and the sick and elderly are put into resurrected poorhouses? Have you not seen all the bake sales and other events to raise money for people to help with medical expenses so that they might be able to avoid bankruptcy?

Don't make excuses for these shysters; wake up to what is really going on.