University of Maryland study finds an overwhelming and actually bipartisan majority of Americans oppose the FCC's plan to repeal 2015 net neutrality regulations. When confronted with the news that 75% of Republicans oppose the plan, I'm reminded that Newt Gingrich, in Real Change, says that if 70% of the American people want something, they ought to have it. I wonder what rhetorical feces-throwing he would employ here to deny the American people their clear will, which, I hasten to add while you can still read it, we have expressed over and over and over again.
In a related note, the FCC and FTC have announced how they'll "police" the internet after the FCC repeals net neutrality rules. FCC Chair Ajit Pai has long said the FTC really should be doing this policing, but of course the FTC won't be doing very much policing -- they won't go after corporations that block and throttle websites, but they'll go after corporations that do that without telling customers first. If you suspect that such corporate "disclosure" of blocking and throttling won't even rate fine print in a customer contract, well, I don't blame you.
Dig this Washington Post headline: "The GOP’s latest tax plan would do exactly what Rubio warned them not to. Will he vote with them anyway?" That is to laugh -- of course Mr. Rubio will ignore what one observer describes as "as close to a middle-finger from the conference committee as it gets, because the man has no courage. (His issue, in case you were wondering, is that the conference will raise the corporate tax rate a percentage point to pay for more tax cuts for the rich, when it didn't want to do so to pay for a Child Tax Credit expansion. Hey, I'd be mad, too, but I wouldn't just take it.)
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), currently Senate Judiciary chair, says two of President Trump's nominees to the federal bench will not get confirmed, a mere day after Mr. Grassley told the President to "reconsider" them. Both nominees are fairly notorious, but the American Bar Association rated one as "not qualified," which provoked some Republicans to whine about the American Bar Association! This nominee -- whom we will not name, lest some part of him survives oblivion -- is also married to the chief of staff of a White House counsel, and of course didn't disclose that to the Senate. I'm glad Mr. Grassley has put his foot down, enough so that I find his complaining about how hard it is to vet people in the "social networking world" only mildly annoying.
Finally, let me reiterate that Doug Jones's victory in the Alabama U.S. Senate special election represents a victory for civilized people everywhere. Whenever a man of accomplishment -- and putting two of the Birmingham bombers in jail should be the very definition of accomplishment -- defeats a right-wing blowhard with a history of trying to date girls who could not legally consent to sexual relations, well, that's a win for civilization. And let me also say that I'm glad Mr. Jones didn't take my advice and run millions of ads about the Birmingham bombers! Turns out the good black folks of Alabama, at least, didn't need any reminding about that.
UPDATE. Okay, so Sen. Rubio has now threatened to withhold his vote on the conference tax bill for the reasons described above. I'm pleased to see it, though I'd be more pleased if he wouldn't vote for the damn thing because his constituents don't want him to. And, you know, he does have a record of talking tough and doing nothing -- his criticisms of Mr. Tillerson before voting in favor of his nomination come to mind.
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