A personal anecdote - after HR 5035 went into effect in December, I acquired my own modem/gateway for my internet service and have been arguing with my ISP to take off the rental charge.
The crux of the disagreement is that they don’t sell the modem/gateway, therefore someone stole it or failed to return it. Therefore, it’s their property and I am still renting it. Indeed, between their auth scheme and their TOS, it’s not possible to use third party modems without violating their TOS by hacking your original hardware (MAC spoofing, Cert extraction).
I decided to file an FCC complaint, in vain. I have filed many over the years regarding scammers – some very egregious – and never received any kind of response.
Well well well, we now have a Democrat in office who appointed a corporate watchdog and Net Neutrality advocate, and the FCC is interested in consumers again.
It’s made the news the FCC is seriously pursuing plans to put a stop to scam calls. And after my complaint, I got an email response from the FCC in a day, and a call from the President’s office of my ISP 2 hours later promising to look into it, as indeed I seem to have a leg to stand on.
Maybe it will go nowhere, but maybe this will get ISP’s to toss their practice of forcing you to rent subpar equipment, instead of buying your own decent equipment.
It’s also worth mentioning, my internet service sucks. Not complaint worthy, but I have been running the FCC speed test app to make sure they are aware that my ISP may not be delivering the coverage they indicate to the FCC.
This video on Russian-election-interference-whistleblower Reality Winner ends with a plea to pressure Biden to commute her sentence, and I think it makes a strong point (as well as being entertaining if you like Samantha Bee’s style of humor)
"Everybody should get representation in Congress. Why NOT make DC a state?
For starters, the Constitution sort of seems to say it can’t be done. Article 1, Section 8, of the Constitution says Congress should be in charge of the seat of government, which will be a “District (not exceeding ten Miles square).”"
So, box in Fed Triangle, the WH, Cap Hill and the money printing plant and call it a day! Done.
That’s idealistically great, except that we don’t need to piss off Turkey, who’s too well-placed on the map to become an enemy or be driven to align with Russia, Iran, or China–the other countries that the Biden administration seems determined to needlessly provoke.
Don’t we have enough problems (foreign and domestic) without encouraging these countries to band together for their common interests (whatever Russia might want, Iran to end crippling, cruel sanctions, China to dominate everything)?
I’ll be impressed when Biden formally calls Israel out for apartheid and illegal nukes. That would be significant.
However, that looks unlikely…
Thank you, Elizabeth Warren. You’d make a helluva President. Ditto you, Bernie.
Biden’s advantage is that he’s not just nice; he’s also tedious. He is relentlessly enacting an ambitious domestic agenda — signing legislation that could cut child poverty by more than half, expanding Obamacare, and injecting the economy with a stimulus more than twice the size of what Obama’s Congress passed in 2009 — while arousing hardly any controversy. There’s nothing in Biden’s vanilla-ice-cream bromides for his critics to hook on to. Republicans can’t stop Biden because he is boring them to death.
Exactly. Why do you think Biden was able to finally state that the Turks committed genocide? Well, because it doesn’t matter if we piss them off because they are already in bed with Russia and China.
Pretty much. Once Erdogan stepped away from the commitment to secularism that’s been a core part of Turkish politics since the collapse of the Ottoman empire, that’s the direction he was headed. He’s only doubled down since then. He’s fully in the Putin-led authoritarian camp now. And while he does want to foster ties with China, he’ll align with Putin first.
Ok. That’s great. The ship sailed.
I think the clumsy verbal saber-rattling against the countries listed (that includes Turkey) serves to galvanize efforts to band together against US interests. Whether it’s already happening or not, making it worse seems pointless. Needlessly antagonizing other countries exacerbates existing problems and encourages the creation of new ones while allowing the endless US war machine to continue.
If acknowledging crimes against humanity like a genocide “needlessly antagonizes” a country… maybe they need to be antagonized. This was long past due.
And maybe we can move on to their current crimes against humanity and start to hold them accountable for their treatment of Turkish Kurds?
I agree. It’s not one or the other.
But given that there are people alive whose parents and grandparents were impacted directly by this, and that it still shapes regional politics, and that the current regime leans heavily into denying the past, it actually does matter. Just because YOU don’t care, doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter. There are people alive, whose history were shaped by it, who it matters VERY MUCH to.
I admire the idealism.
When Biden has the courage to call out Israel for dehumanizing the Palestinians, I’ll respect the bold condemnation of the Ottoman Empire’s actions.
EDIT: We appeared to be typing at the same time.
Please don’t presume to tell me (again) what I care about. Assume good faith and like the good.
I do want those people (all people) to have the best life they can. I don’t think Biden’s comments help.
I agree that Biden’s statement can provide emotional ballast to those whose history and present circumstances are shaped by the Armenian genocide.
However, I think the downstream ramifications of escalating verbal snipes at not only Turkey, but Russia, China, and Iran will have harmful effects on people in all the countries involved and beyond. Instead of seeking resolution of conflicts, this administration is picking fights while it ostensibly pulls out of Afghanistan.
Talk is cheap, but the human and monetary cost of conflict are immense. I think we need an end to sanctions that crush the life out of innocent children in Iran (not to mention Venezuela) and to stop creating justification for an ever-growing “defense” budget that swells annually. I cringe applying utility calculus here, but believe the impact of the Biden administration’s recent talk will create more suffering, suffering that outweighs that just among those affected by Erdogan.
