Net Neutrality Bill: Broadband Internet Is An Essential Service

Last Thursday, House and Senate Democrats introduced the Net Neutrality and Broadband Justice Act, a bill to reclassify broadband Internet as an essential service and giving the FCC power to prohibit discriminatory practices like blocking and throttling certain lanes of internet traffic. The essential nature of broadband should be obvious to all, especially after COVID lockdown moved so much public sector, education, and business activity online.

In 2015, the FCC voted to regulate broadband as a common carrier under Title II of the Telecommunications Act, ensuring utility-style regulation and non-discrimination rules, but this was reversed by Trump appointees in 2017.

According to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, “the Net Neutrality and Broadband Justice Act will secure a fairer, more accessible digital future by enshrining into federal law a common-sense value: everyone deserves access to affordable, high-speed internet service.” A United Nations report declared Internet access a human right in 2011.

The Congressional effort is being led by Rep. Doris Matsui (D, CA-6) and Senators Edward Markey (D-MA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

More:

“Net neutrality bill unveiled to codify broadband Internet as essential service,” Darryl Coote, UPI

“Democrats revive the fight for net neutrality,” Makena Kelly, The Verge

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‘We will not let hate win’

Earlier this month, self-described “straight, white, Christian, married, suburban mom” Mallory McMorrow, a Democratic Michigan state senator representing suburban District 13, learned she had been targeted as a pedophile “groomer” by a Republican legislator in a fundraising email. She responded from the Michigan State Senate floor (above).

More:

“State Sen. McMorrow on reclaiming faith from being used as ‘a weapon to hate people,'” Jack Jenkins, RNS, via National Catholic Reporter

“Michigan state senator blasts colleague who accused her of grooming in fundraising email,” Kelsey Carolan, The Hill

“Smeared as a Groomer, a Michigan Democrat Goes on Offense,” Blake Hounshell, New York Times

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Biden Voter Sing-Along

As the 2020 presidential election results trickle in, Biden voters across the nation are celebrating, even during this pandemic. If you’re a Biden supporter in COVID-19 lockdown, Jack Yellen and Milton Ager wrote a tune for you, rendered here by Mitch Miller & The Gang. Dig that crazy accordion. Everybody sing along!

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Kristin Urquiza on the 2020 Presidential Election

Arizona’s Kristin Urquiza explains her choice in November.

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Marianne Williamson Fires Staff, Shifts Campaign to Astral Plane

Williamson 2020 Campaign HQ

Presidential candidate, spiritual guru, and professional inspirational speaker Marianne Williamson has dismissed her entire campaign staff, apparently retreating into her power pyramid with some favorite crystals. A sententious, self-centered New Age Donald Trump, she had previously espoused alarming views on vaccination, depression, and AIDS. Even so, she qualified for the first few Democratic debates in 2019.

More:

“Marianne Williamson lays off 2020 campaign staff nationwide,” Hunter Woodall and Alexandra Jaffe, AP, via Washington Post

Related:

“The Iowa Town Where Marianne Williamson Is Already President,” Adam Wren, Politico

Update:

“Marianne Williamson drops out of Democratic presidential race,” Amy B Wang, Washington Post

“Why Marianne Williamson’s Unconventional Presidential Bid Didn’t Catch On,” Nathaniel Rakich, FiveThirtyEight

“Marianne Williamson Has Mindfully Dropped Out,” Bridget Read, The Cut

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Gravel 2020 Campaign Goes Back to School

Gravel 2020 campaign poster, Washington DC.

The teenagers who persuaded 88-year-old former senator Mike Gravel to let them run a 2020 presidental campaign on his behalf, are headed back to school, so the campaign is going dormant. The teens had heard about anti-war Alaskan Gravel, who tried to read the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record in 1971, on the Chapo Trap House podcast. Mr. Gravel doesn’t like to travel, so the teens waged the campaign through through Twitter and YouTube. That should be a hell of a “What I Did On My Summer Vacation” essay.

More:

“Gravel and his campaign teens end presidential run,” Quint Forgey, Politico

“A Farewell To Mike Gravel, 2020’s Weirdest Presidential Candidate,” Nathaniel Rakich, FiveThirtyEight

Updates:

“Mike Gravel Officially Endorses Bernie Sanders,” Gideon Resnick, Daily Beast

“Mike Gravel drops out of 2020 race. He never wanted to be president anyway.” Catherine Kim, Vox

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Marianne Williamson’s Creepy, Cosmic Campaign

Professional inspirational speaker Marianne Williamson is being praised for praticing her profession at the Democratic Presidential Debates, where she clearly does not belong. She spouts empty sound bites like a sententious, self-centered New Age Donald Trump, and has espoused dangerous views on vaccination, depression, and AIDS.  Ms. Williamson got rich as a spritual guru, so if you feel the urge to give her campaign $5, please burn some sage and gaze into a crystal instead.

More:

“Marianne Williamson isn’t funny. She’s scary.” Zack Beauchamp, Vox

“Marianne Williamson won the debate and we’re probably all doomed,” Brian Boyle, Los Angeles Times

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Marianne Williamson’s Aura Pervades Democratic Debate

Marianne Williamson Campaign Headquarters, Washington DC

On NBC’s live Democratic debate telecast last night, only Marianne Williamson had the vision to say the country doesn’t need any stinking plans, it needs a better bumper sticker.

“I tell you one thing, it’s nice if we have all these plans, but if you think we beat Donald Trump by having all these plans. He didn’t win by having a plan. He just said ‘Make America Great Again.'”

More:

“Marianne Williamson Went Full Goop at the Democratic Debate,” Esther Wang, Jezebel

“The 4 Kookiest Marianne Williamson Moments From The Debate,” Caitlin MacNeal, TalkingPointsMemo

“Marianne Williamson’s Weirdest, Most Wonderful Debate Moments,” Matt Stieb, New York Magazine

“Marianne Williamson’s ‘girlfriend’ call to New Zealand and her other best moments in the debates,” Emily Stewart, Vox

“Marianne Williamson brings love, peace and a distaste for ‘plans’ to the debate stage,” Caitlin Oprysko, Politico

“‘Has anyone tried fixing America with crystals and bee pollen?’: Late-night hosts tackle Marianne Williamson’s surprising debate performance,” Allyson Chiu, Washington Post

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SOTU: Guests at the Farce

Tonight, 10 days before the next Federal shutdown, we’ll have the (rescheduled) State of the Union Address. Most presidents have fulfilled this annual constitutional requirement by submitting a document to Congress (“everything’s great, but here’s what you must give me”). With the advent of broadcasting, the SOTU morphed into an annual public spectacle, and nobody loves a spectacle more than Donald J. Trump. Mr. Trump sees this as just another rally, without the red ball caps but with better TV coverage, even if Nancy Pelosi is looking over his left shoulder and half the audience members are sitting on their hands and rolling their eyes.

The event is officially a joint session of Congress, but there are guests. The President is bringing a bunch of them, a ready-made claque. The First Lady is bringing a kid named Trump who’s not even an in-law but says he gets bullied anyway.

The many guests of Speaker Pelosi include: the president of Planned Parenthood, chef and humanitarian José Andrés, Fred Guttenberg (whose14-year-old daughter Jaime was killed in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting), two active-duty transgender soldiers, Jeremy Butler of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Angelica Salas of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles,  National Education Association president Lily Eskelsen García, United Steelworkers president Leo Gerard, carpenters union president Doug McCarron, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, and Mary Kay Henry of the Service Employees International Union.

Each member of Congress gets to bring a guest, and they’re making the most of it. Rep Donna Shalala (D, FL-27) invited DREAMer and grad student Edwin Herrera. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is bringing transgender Navy officer Blake Dremann. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer is bringing air traffic controller Ronan Byrne, who worked unpaid during the shutdown. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D, NJ-12 ) invited Victorina Morales, an undocumented immigrant recently fired from the Trump National Golf Club after working there for five years. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) is bringing Diane Whitcraft, a constituent with MS who stopped taking a drug after 23 years because she could not afford it. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) will host Albertina Conteras and her daughter, Guatemalan asylum-seekers who were separated from her daughter by border agents. The guest of Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) will be Nicole Smith-Holt, whose diabetic son Alec died because he could not afford his insulin. Rep. Cheri Bustos (D, IL-17) is bringing Tom Mueller, a family farmer hit by the Trump trade war.  Ana Maria Archila, the activist who confronted Jeff Flake in an elevator during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, was invited by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D, NY-14).

We regret to say that, once again, nobody invited Stormy Daniels.

More:

“Democrats troll Trump with their State of the Union Guests,” Tina Nguyen, Vanity Fair

“Tonight’s State of the Union guests represent a deeply divided America,” Heather Timmons and Justin Rohrlich, Quartz

Related:

“When the state of the union is scary, the State of the Union gets weird,” Ted Widmer, Washington Post

“3 Reasons That State of the Union Speeches Don’t Matter,” Nathaniel Rakich, Geoffrey Skelley and Julia Azari, FiveThirtyEight

“It’s Time to Abolish the State of the Union Address,” Jared Keller, Pacific Standard

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Beto’s Beefed-Up Texas Campaign

Back in August, Ted Cruz spokesperson Emily Miller called his Democratic political opponent Beto O’Rourke “a Triple Meat Whataburger liberal who is out of touch with Texas values.” The beef (ahem) started when the Fort Worth Star-Telegram claimed the O’Rouke logo looks like a Whataburger Spicy Ketchup packet.

Unlike Emily Miller (Baltimore) and Ted Cruz (Canada!), Whataburger and Beto O’Rourke were both born in Texas. So was film director Richard Linklater (Boyhood, Dazed and Confused, Slacker), who calls out Mr. Cruz for his distinctly un-Texan affection for White Castle sliders: