After hearing from so many angry Americans who wanted to preserve net neutrality rules that they had to invent a seemingly fictional “denial of service” attack to explain their servers melting down, the FCC has solved the problem by telling the public to go fuck themselves.
The FCC will no longer accept public comments on Net Neutrality, while it “reflects” on the comments it’s received.
You can still tell the FCC what you think by posting to EFF’s DearFCC.org site – EFF will make sure the commissioners get your comments.
The best help I can offer is to point you to Amy Cuddy’s book, Presence. She talks about Imposter Syndrome (and interviews me in it) and offers helpful insight.
The second best help might be in the form of an anecdote. Some years ago, I was lucky enough invited to a gathering of great and good people: artists and scientists, writers and discoverers of things. And I felt that at any moment they would realise that I didn’t qualify to be there, among these people who had really done things.
On my second or third night there, I was standing at the back of the hall, while a musical entertainment happened, and I started talking to a very nice, polite, elderly gentleman about several things, including our shared first name. And then he pointed to the hall of people, and said words to the effect of, “I just look at all these people, and I think, what the heck am I doing here? They’ve made amazing things. I just went where I was sent.”
And I said, “Yes. But you were the first man on the moon. I think that counts for something.”
And I felt a bit better. Because if Neil Armstrong felt like an imposter, maybe everyone did. Maybe there weren’t any grown-ups, only people who had worked hard and also got lucky and were slightly out of their depth, all of us doing the best job we could, which is all we can really hope for.
As Donald Trump’s FCC gets set to kill Net Neutrality, lobbyists for the country’s telcos and cable operators are tucking in their napkins and picking up their cutlery, getting ready to feast.
As a way of hastening along the neutracidal moment, the Internet & Television Association (AKA National Cable Television Association) conducted a push-poll asking Americans if they wanted Net Neutrality killed right now, or straightaway (more or less).
But even within the shitty, stilted choices the poll offered, Americans still spoke overwhelmingly in favor of Net Neutrality, leaving Big Cable to desperately spin the outcomes to claim that Americans really wanted to have their internet connections slowed down unless they were accessing their ISPs’ preferred services.
Let me just preface this real quick by saying I love to watch a smug man get his ass handed to him in a very public fashion.
It can be the result of a political debate.
Tammy Duckworth was running for the Senate against Mark Kirk and, as a veteran who had lost both of her legs fighting for this country, she made it a point to remind everyone that she comes from a line of veterans who had fought bravely for this country.
Mark Kirk’s response: "I had forgotten that your parents came all the way from Thailand to serve George Washington.“
She didn’t get down in the gutter with him. She just tweeted this instead.
Shot. Down.
It could be the result of sexism in the European Parliament.
Janusz Korwin-Mikke of Poland opened his face to defend the gender wage gap. He said, “Women must earn less because they are weaker, they are smaller, they are less intelligent. They must earn less. That is all.” Iraxte Garcia-Perez of Spain was not having it.
“According to your opinion, I shouldn’t have the right to be here as a member of parliament. And I know that it hurts you and bothers you that today women can sit in the House to represent citizens with the same rights as you. I am here to defend all European women from men like you.”
Have a seat, caveman.
It could be the result of lies about Planned Parenthood.
During the congressional hearings against Planned Parenthood two years ago – you know, after those edited videos about babyparts that have been completely debunked – Congress spent millions of taxpayer funds to hold hearings. Rep. Jason Chaffetz condescendingly tried to lead Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards down the garden path to some big reveal where he would confront her with hard facts and a handy visual aid.
But the graph was bogus and Cecile called him out on it right there in the middle of the hearing.
Get that mess outta here, Chaffetz!
Anyway, Sally Yates came through big time with two slam dunks and I just want to save these so I can relive the moment when I need a pick me up.
First she had to hand John Cornyn’s ass back to him on a platter when he had the audacity to question her actions in defying a Presidential order when during her confirmation as Attorney General, he wanted assurance from her that she would do just that if need be.
When she hit “You specifically asked me…” I hollered. That’s a receipt if ever I did see one.
Then Ted Cruz, as punchable as every, tried it in the worst way and he knew exactly what he was doing. Instead of saying “are you familiar with the law that says X” he pulled out the actual code, as if everyone has every piece of relevant case law labeled neatly in some rolodex in their brain. She knew exactly what Cruz was referring to – she just didn’t know the label because who would know the label! And then she trumped him with law that was even more relevant than the one he tried to embarrass her with.
This is just food for the soul. Even President Velveeta said one qualified woman is worth ten men (yes, he actually said that, which is why he’s so threatened by successful women) and these garbage men in politics need to wise up and realize nobody is here for their games and blatant disrespect.
