John Oliver - Net Neutrality

[Belligerent Savant]

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Good stuff. And an absolute f'ing RACKET. Yet par for the course -- same M.O. as many other uber-CAPITALIST instruments.

[stickdog99]

spot on

[conniption]

RT

John Oliver crashes FCC site after calling to defend net neutrality
Published time: June 03, 2014


John Oliver.(AFP Photo / Brad Barket)

A pro-net neutrality rant at the end of a recent episode of HBO’s news-comedy Last Week Tonight helped to cripple the website of the Federal Communications Commission this week.

Comedian and television host John Oliver is now being blamed for sending viewers of his new show en masse to the FCC’s official website, in turn causing FCC.gov to collapse under the weight of a tremendous amount of internet traffic.

Oliver, who last year filled in for Jon Stewart as host of The Daily Show, concluded Sunday’s episode of Last Week Tonight with a comedic monologue concerning the FCC and a proposal currently being considered by the regulating agency that, if approved, could pave the way for broadband internet providers to create a two-tier system that would effectively erode the concept of net neutrality as it exists today.

“Net neutrality is actually hugely important. Essentially it means that all data has to be treated equally, no matter who created it. It’s why the internet is a weirdly level playing field,” Oliver explained. “Ending net neutrality would allow big companies to buy their way into the fast lane, leaving everyone else in the slow lane.”

As RT reported previously, the FCC agreed to consider the proposal authored by chairman and former cable lobbyist Tom Wheeler last month, but at the same time opened up his draft for comments. After spending more than 10 minutes of pleading with his television audience to consider the implications of what approving that proposal could mean for the web during Sunday’s broadcast, Oliver urged his viewers to log-on to FCC.gov and leave comments condemning Wheeler’s draft.

“That’s right,” Oliver said. “The FCC are literally inviting internet comments at this address, and at this point, and I can’t believe I’m about to do this, I would like to address the internet commenters out there directly.”

“Good evening, monsters,” he jokingly began an open statement to anonymous comment makers. “This may be the moment you spent your whole lives training for.”

“For once in your life we need you to channel that anger, that badly spelled vile that you normally reserve for unforgivable attacks on actresses you seem to think have put on weight, or politics you disagree with, or photos of your ex girlfriend getting on with her life, or non-white actors being cast as fictional characters,” he said. “We need you to get out there and for once in your lives focus your indiscriminate rage in a useful direction.”

Oliver then instructed his audience to “turn on caps lock and fly, my pretties.” Indeed, that message was heeded by more than just a few fans — on Monday, the FCC took to Twitter to say that an influx of commentary had in fact crippled the site.

“We’ve been experiencing technical difficulties with our comment system due to heavy traffic. We’re working to resolve these issues quickly,” the FCC tweeted on Monday.

“We’re still experiencing technical difficulties with our comment system,” reads a follow-up Twitter post published later that day. “Thanks for your patience as we work to resolve the issues.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, the “Protecting and Promoting the Open Internet” proposal on FCC.gov had acquired comments from 47,061 critics. By comparison, the next most-widely-commented draft on the FCC’s site garnered remarks from less than 2,000 people. All but three others have received under 100 comments apiece. Oliver's video, meanwhile, has been viewer more than 800,000 times in only two days.

"Oliver's video, meanwhile, has been viewed more than 800,000 times in only two days".
... now - 1,470,661 views. Three days?

[NeonLX]

By God, if a flurry of email messages tapped out on smart phones doesn't ensure net neutrality, then NOTHING will.

[stickdog99]

Post Modern Protest Movement

[MinM]

One of among many projected casualties of the new regime will be net neutrality...

Yes, among many, many poor, disasterous decisions to come in the future, but... Tom Wheeler, chair of the FCC, is toast. He'll likely resign, but doesn't matter since the pres appoints the chair. Likely corporate toady, Ajit Pai.

For techies, Tom Wheeler was the King of federal bureaucracies. The ex-Comcast exec was going to be a dingo, stealing away all consumer rights in favor of ISPs and telcos everywhere. Instead, the dude has been a champion of consumer rights and just fucking common sense, standing up against his old cronies time after time.

Ajit Pai is a dingo. He has voted against net neutrality and has stood with the Comcasts of the world at every turn. Hail our new overlord.

Oh, and it looks like Mike Pence will be taking a very active role in appointments, so good bye rational thought, hello prayer and intelligent design in schools...

Trump’s FCC: Tom Wheeler to be replaced, set-top box reform could be dead

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016 ... d-be-dead/

Verizon's very disingenuous psypops and meme management commercial on this subject...

[MinM]

One of among many projected casualties of the new regime will be net neutrality...

Yes, among many, many poor, disasterous decisions to come in the future, but... Tom Wheeler, chair of the FCC, is toast. He'll likely resign, but doesn't matter since the pres appoints the chair. Likely corporate toady, Ajit Pai.

For techies, Tom Wheeler was the King of federal bureaucracies. The ex-Comcast exec was going to be a dingo, stealing away all consumer rights in favor of ISPs and telcos everywhere. Instead, the dude has been a champion of consumer rights and just fucking common sense, standing up against his old cronies time after time...

Net Neutrality .. Stephen Colbert ..

Freep Entertainment‏ @FreepEnt

FCC looking into Colbert's Trump joke

[norton ash]

There's gonna be outrage and censorship calls about Bill Maher's joke last night where he very clearly mimes Ivanka giving her dad a handjob to settle him down. I found it funny in the context of Trump's Caligula-like sexuality, but it's also pretty skin-crawling and going to piss a lot of people off.

[divideandconquer]

Okay, I know I'm a little late to the party, but is this guy for real? I have to admit he is sort of funny as far as weasels go, I guess proving the CIA's mentally manipulating pornographic sense of humor, because if he's not CIA, or agent of some other intelligence agency, I'll eat my shoes. He actually said something like, The CIA cant spy on American Citizens because its illegal

Oh yes, Oliver does a great job safeguarding the official narrative while he exploits weak minds as he focuses all attention on the Trump circus, Russian malfeasance, and absurd conspiracy theories, mocking anyone who dares to peak behind the curtain. In other words, deriding those who see beyond the Trump spectacle, media lies and distortion that mask the machinery of the state. He's like John Stewart on steroids. Now I know why it's so hard talking to people who get their news from this clown (and the other clown, Bill Maher)....these people think they know everything from watching 20 minutes of context-free, 60-second--if that--segments on pretty much the same issues every week.

"All media of communications are cliches serving to enlarge man's scope of action, his patterns of associations and awareness. These media create environments that numb our powers of attention by sheer pervasiveness." – Marshall McLuhan From Cliché to Archetype (1970)

“Pornography and obscenity...work by specialism and fragmentation. They deal with a figure without a ground -- situations in which the human factor is suppressed in favor of sensations and kicks.-- Letter to Clare Westcott, November 26 1975. Letters of Marshall McLuhan, p. 514

“The bias of each medium of communication is far more distorting than the deliberate lie. -- JQ. Journalism quarterly, Volume 50, Association for Education in Journalism, 1973, p. 145

[Belligerent Savant]

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Somehow missed D&C's comment above, in similar spirit to my sentiments in another thread, quoted below.

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Oliver -- and Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, et al. -- have their funny moments, their comedic timing, and their valid points. But they're preaching to the choir, catering to a demographic that share similar views (AKA the standard hipster/casual liberal) but are primarily interested in catharsis rather than any actual organization towards measurable change. Clearly these shows do little, if anything, to affect/inspire noteworthy change (it's far from their most pressing objective: increasing viewership/$$$). Most of us recall one of Oliver's past episodes, likely linked here, where he and his writers did all they could to ensure Trump didn't win.... didn't work out too well, did it? Due in large part because he's venting to an echo chamber. Those that voted for Trump don't watch his fucking show; a fair amount likely can't afford HBO.

And let's not f'ing forget: these people are ENTERTAINERS and MILLIONAIRES, and the mere fact their shows exist on cable TV speaks to their membership to the status quo, despite all the self-righteous/indulgent hot air.

My simple point is: Any semblance of revolution will not be televised, to paraphrase a tired (yet true) jingle.

Trump and all the other players referenced in this board as "seriously dangerous" are ALL part of the same system.
So what does that make the system?

(Others within this forum have essentially echoed the above more ably than I have. All the same, I felt inspired to waste some time typing away on this f'ing machine. Quite self-indulgent of me.)