GOP Confirms Unqualified Simington to FCC With Eye On Crippling Biden FCC
from the minority-rule dept
The Senate voted 49-46 Tuesday afternoon along strict party lines to appoint Trump ally NTIA advisor Nathan Simington to the FCC. Simington is hugely unqualified, and his appointment sets another new low in the modern GOP's campaign of sleazy and blisteringly hypocritical politics at the cost of a functioning government or the public interest.
Simington has absolutely no experience in telecom issues, consumer protection, or the other complicated issues facing the FCC. He was nominated because he literally helped write Donald Trump's idiotic and dangerous attack on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, and is expected to continue (at least performatively for distraction's sake) the campaign at the FCC. If you ask Trumpland, the campaign is necessary to stop "censorship" of conservatives online. In reality, that censorship doesn't exist (in fact reality indicates the opposite). The campaign is really about bullying tech giants into not policing disinformation and hate speech, now cornerstones of GOP power.
While the 230 drama will get all the press attention, Simington's appointment was rushed through primarily for another reason: to help Mitch McConnell (read: AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast) gridlock the FCC at 2-2 Commissioners for at least the next two years, preventing the reversal of hugely unpopular Trump FCC policies by the Biden FCC.
By law, the party that wins the White House controls a 3-2 majority at the FCC, and gets to appoint the agency boss. But back in August Trump fired Republican FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly for some pretty timid comments (correctly) suggesting Trump's planned attack on social media didn't make much sense. With both O'Rielly and Ajit Pai leaving the agency on January 20, that left the FCC with a 2-1 Democratic majority in the new year. So despite the FCC attack on 230 now crippled with Trump's election loss, and despite Simington being an unqualified Trump sycophant, the GOP rushed the nomination through anyway, knowing he would create 2-2 agency gridlock.
Most every telecom expert and consumer advocate I've spoken to now expect the GOP, should it retain control of the Senate after the Georgia run off elections, to block the appointment of any Democratic FCC boss with a spine, ensuring that the FCC remains mired in partisan gridlock indefinitely. With Democratic FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel's term up at the end of 2021, her replacement is likely to be blocked as well, resulting in a GOP 2-1 FCC majority -- despite losing the election. Whatever representative democracy is supposed to look like, this sure as shit isn't it.
The GOP's ploy is a huge gift to telecom giants like AT&T and Comcast, which don't want the Biden administration reversing any of the Trump FCC's hugely unpopular policies, be it the attack on net neutrality, the neutering of the agency's overall consumer protection authority, or the attack on decades-old, bipartisan media consolidation rules.
Gridlocked at 2-2 or even 2-1, the Biden FCC also won't be able to pass any COVID-relief efforts that meaningfully challenges the broadband industry (the whole point), be they restrictions on arbitrary and punitive usage caps, or policies aimed at preventing ISPs from kicking struggling Americans offline for nonpayment. Angry voters will then blame the Biden FCC for the dysfunction foisted upon them by the GOP, a story you'll see playing out across numerous regulatory agencies and policy fights in the coming year as the GOP shifts from Trump sycophancy (and attacks on fundamental democracy) back to obstructionism.
With that as context, Simington's role as a Section 230 attack dog is largely going to be an afterthought and distraction. Though as TechFreedom's Berin Szoka notes, that doesn't mean he can't throw a wrench into the numerous ongoing litigation efforts related to content moderation:
Thus, an interpretive rule on #Section230 issued this January could well wreck havoc among the courts trying to resolve lawsuits over content moderation for the next four years
For the White House, that would definitely be "owning the libs"
— Berin Szóka 🌐 (@BerinSzoka) December 7, 2020
Still, the primary goal here now for Mitch McConnell isn't Section 230. It's protecting the four-year ass kissing the Trump administration gave the telecom industry. An industry every bit as problematic as the "big tech" giants the GOP's faux-populist wing (Josh Hawley quickly comes to mind) exploits for political benefit. "Big telecom" has waged an incredibly successful four-year campaign exploiting the often legitimate anger at "big tech," to call for heavier regulation of the industries it wants to compete with in the ad space, while eliminating most meaningful oversight of its own highly monopolistic sector.
Now, with the GOP's help, they're hoping to keep things that way for as long as is humanly possible. In a functioning country, crippling the nation's top telecom regulator in the middle of a pandemic (one showing how affordable broadband is essential for survival) because some lobbyists told you to would be met with real consequences and scorn. Here, if the press can even be bothered to report on what telecom and the GOP are even doing, it will be met with a shrug and around thirty seconds' worth of attention span.
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Filed Under: fcc, mitch mcconnell, nathan simington, net neutrality, policy, politics, section 230
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Calling populists "faux-populists" is not necessary: populists are fake by definition: they are politicians who promise whatever the voters want to hear, even the impossible, and then don't deliver, except what costs them nothing.
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Re: "Jeroen Hellingman" with silly labeling.
You're yet another ancient yet sparse "account" with name change and LONG absence:
Jeroen or Jeroen Hellingman: 94 (9), 1 in 2017, 1 in 2016; 22 mo gap to 2013; 1 Jul 2010
https://www.techdirt.com/user/jhellingman -- ODD bunch of websites given w name
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I bestow this man no long Simington. But your name shall be...
...Simpington.
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Re: I bestow this man no long Simington. But your name shall be.
Gosh, "Jojo", THANKS for so well typifying the depth of reasoning and analysis from Techdirt fanboys.
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Re: Re: I bestow this man no long Simington. But your name shall
Says the Trump Simp.
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Re: I bestow this man no long Simington. But your name shall be.
I used to go with "Slymington", in reference to the then-Arizona governor.
When I was ten.
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Re: I bestow this man no long Simington. But your name shall be.
Childish name-calling is a very right-wing way to "debate" an issue, as if your opponent is so easily dismissed. Did you learn that from the child in chief? Or did you just never grow up past 3rd grade?
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Re: Re: I bestow this man no long Simington. But your name shall
Just taking an opportunity when it arises.
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Re: Re: I bestow this man no long Simington. But your name shall
I see you’re fun at parties.
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I hate this government.
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Re:
Mitch McConnell is the problem. He doesn't just play hardball, he plays hardball and then he shoots the batter in the face.
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Re: Re:
It's not that he plays hardball, it's that he cares more about his own power than he does about the country or people. Think about that, one (actually many) of the ruling elite in the US doesn't give a damn about the country. Is it any wonder we have problems.
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McConnell is a poison pill for democracy
We need to not only strip McConnell of his power (and then make an example of him -- which is unlikely) but we then need to make sure no future McConnell-wannabes can do what he does, in crippling the federal government via procedural shenanigans.
This is one of those situations where I think the fourth box of liberty might be opened, not to assassinate a senator, but to hold the Senate hostage until ironclad provisions are installed that assure no given ten officials can obstruct lawmaking under any circumstances.
Though I certainly have fantasies of shelling the the Senate if the siege takes more than a week. Maybe with 3-inch Ordnance Rifles to reduce costs of history books.
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Re: "Nathan F" declares himself.
I won't guess by which label his view are, as doubt that has any actual consistent views other than "hate", exactly like a yapping ankle-biter.
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Re: Re: "Nathan F" declares himself.
Right. So I'm supposed to like and respect a government that spends the vast majority of time deadlocked or voting straight down party line instead of actually debating the issue, working out a compromise or voting on the issue in the manner the people they are supposed to represent want?
Yeah no.
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FCC best & brightest
Objectively then, what should be the personal qualifications for an ideal member of the FCC.
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Re: FCC best & brightest
Not strongly aligned to any political party, and an understanding of what the citizens problems are, rather than the problems of monopolies wishing to grow their income every quarter.
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Re: FCC best & brightest
Someone who actually has experience and knowledge about telecom and administrative law?
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Re: Re: FCC best & brightest
...without having worked for the telecom industry in the past.
It's a bit of a high bar. Bringing in industry insiders to govern the industry is a failed proposition. But where do you find someone with the right experience and none of the wrong motives?
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Re: Re: Re: FCC best & brightest
"Bringing in industry insiders to govern the industry is a failed proposition."
Would you agree to surgery from non medically trained personnel? Someone who has never performed the procedure?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: FCC best & brightest
How is that even remotely the same thing?
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Re: Re: Re: FCC best & brightest
What about Mike Masnick? :)
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Re: Re: Re: FCC best & brightest
...without having worked for the telecom industry in the past.
There are plenty of people who meet that criteria, including those who have worked on Capital Hill on telco issues, or worked at the FCC previously, or worked at any one of the non-profits focused on teclo related issues...
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Re: Re: Re: FCC best & brightest
There are loads of people who understand telecom but who haven't defended or lobbied the industry's business practices. Hell, there are enough who haven't even worked in telecom.
It's a high level of fallaciousness to insist someone can't know about x if they themselves have never been x. It's ridiculous, and frequently a way to seek to avoid any accountability, among other things.
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Re: Re: FCC best & brightest
Equally as important knowledge of admin and telecom law, work at the FCC requires a solid technical grounding.
While it's just barely possible to pick up the required background knowledge informally, it's more likely that any good candidate would have at minimum a bachelor's in electrical engineering (BSEE) or equivalent.
Knowlege of Maxwell's Laws is important at the FCC.
Or do you just want call those the most foundational of “telecom” laws?
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Re: Re: Re: FCC best & brightest
Better yet, government appointees should listen to employees with relevant knowledge for technical information. I.e. they do not need to understand the reasoning, but rather accept an expert opinion, such as data caps do not help managing congestion, and make decisions based on that acceptance.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: FCC best & brightest
Certainly I'm not suggesting that a candidate needs a Ph.D. in physics!
But if you can't, won't or haven't done the math at some point in your life, then you just don't speak the language.
I totally agree that the FCC commissioners should listen to genuine experts, including the FCC's technical staff, as well as others. The more you learn, the more you realize how much you don't know yourself, and how much you just have to rely on advice.
But you really need the fundamental background.
Is there any possible excuse for doing spectrum management without ever having done your homework in Fourier analysis? I just don't think so.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: FCC best & brightest
Why, because the lobbyists and telco executives have almost zero knowledge of the physics. An ability to read Wikipedia will give enough technical background, and an ability to tell other unpleasant truths would be more useful
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Re: Re: Re: FCC's best & brightest Everyman
Maxwell? How about Lenz Law? But more important, Sidney Lens & the law of the Commons
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The French...
... were very effective with Guillotines.
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Re: The French...
Dr. Chopper Has The Cure.
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So... You admit in Freudian slip, it doesn't "doesn't exist"!
YES, reality IS the "opposite" of your lying "doesn't exist".
And anyway, a President is ENTITLED by will of the majority to appoint whoever he wants and surely to implement his notions.
You're not actually in favor of "democracy" when don't get your way. You just start shrieking that all is illegimate.
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Re: So... You admit in Freudian slip, it doesn't "doesn't exist"
"a President is ENTITLED by will of the majority to appoint whoever he wants and surely to implement his notions"
The public is also entitled to question, criticise and attack his choices to any degree they wish - especially when a majority has already stated that their will is for him to leave office at the next available opportunity. You seem strangely opposed to others exercising that freedom.
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Re: So... You admit in Freudian slip, it doesn't "doesn't exist"
Which is why there is a lot of anger over Mitch McConnel's decision to hold up Obama appointees, fast track Trump Appointees, and his stated intent to not confirm Biden appointees.
The article noted that FCC nominees are normally appointed in partisan pairs (one R, one D) to avoid the very problem this appointment would present.
While this appointee is unqualified, Its the history of appointments and stated future environment for appointments that is the real issue being discussed.
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Re: So... You admit in Freudian slip, it doesn't "doesn't exist"
" President is ENTITLED by will of the majority"
Donald Trump lost the majority vote, twice.
But yes, you are correct in that Donald considers himself to be entitled to whatever he wants because he thinks he is king.
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Re: Re: So... You admit in Freudian slip, it doesn't "doesn't ex
And by getting his sycophants in positions of power will continue to rule after he leaves the Whitehouse.
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Re: Re: Re: So... You admit in Freudian slip, it doesn't "doesn'
Rule from a jail cell hopefully.
After the GOP looses GA, the Senate will be free to do their jobs and impeach those who have committed crimes.
I'm dreaming.
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Re: So... You admit in Freudian slip, it doesn't "doesn't exist"
"...a President is ENTITLED by will of the majority..."
Did you mean to confirm that he in fact doesn't have that entitlement, or was that your own Freudian slip?
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Can anyone translate "America First" into English for me?
I obviously don't get all the subtle differences of American English compared to the language I learnt at school.
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Re: Can anyone translate "America First" into English
Yes. Down with Royalists.
A serf in thrall to Royalists of course can't understand the principle of rational national self-interest -- and especially the NOT of allowing furriners to set our interests -- because carefully indoctrinated from birth to BE a serf: your monarch is your god / nation and you're devoted.
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Re: Re: Can anyone translate "America First" into Engl
Well, "Down with Royalists" does not seem to match what is happening here, "Royalists" meaning people entrenched with maintaining an inherited order rather than one established through individual merit. And "America" and "nation" to me naively refers to a populace governed by common principles, not to some select part of it.
So I don't really figure out how to apply your explanation to the usage of that phrase.
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Re: Re: Can anyone translate "America First" into Engl
"understand the principle of rational national self-interest"
I wish the GOP types understood this.
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Re: Re: Can anyone translate "America First" into Engl
“Rational self interest”
You people can’t even wear mask and take vaccines to not get sick and die of preventable disease lol
Don’t tell me about my interest
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Re: Can anyone translate "America First" into English for me?
How about "Anyone who's not my supporter can fuck off"
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Re: Can anyone translate "America First" into English for me?
I can think of a 14-word translation.
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Re: Can anyone translate "America First" into English for me?
Your issue might be that at least 3 dialects of American English make use of the phrase.
In the trump supporter Dialect, "America first" generally means "do things that upset people online".
In the Trump donor Dialect, it means "My bank account first".
In the Trump Dialect, it means "An eternal war to spin what makes my bank account bigger to get cheers from the people whose bank accounts I am draining."
There is a lot of nuance in the various Trump Dialects, to a near Groot degree.
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But won't the new chair create a 3-2 majority?
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Re:
Yes, but if the Senate is still controlled by the GOP, you can easily expect that they will stall and block any Biden nominee for as long as possible, as they had done so with Obama.
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Re: Re:
Only if the Democrats go along with it. As Schumer's already shown, there's a procedural method to force a floor vote in the Senate over the Majority Leader's objection. The Democrats merely need to be willing to use it regularly enough on things they can successfully pass (at worst they only need to swing a couple of GOP Senators to succeed) to break McConnell's illusion of control.
And even the Majority Leader's control of the agenda isn't part of the Senate rules. By the rules the Vice President as presiding officer controls the agenda and which items go to a floor vote when, it's only tradition that that gets delegated to the Majority Leader and tradition can't be enforced.
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Re: Re: Re:
In which case, and I never thought I'd utter these words, it's time to pull a republican, kick 'tradition' to the curb and run it over a few times for good measure.
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Re: Re: Re: Re:
No, no need to kick tradition to the curb. We just need to be honest and accept that it's been dead for a long time.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Dead Horse Theory
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Re:
Isn't this is addressed in the para that starts:
"Most every telecom expert and consumer advocate I've spoken to now expect the GOP, should it retain control of the Senate ..."
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Re:
If Biden can get his nomination confirmed by the senate.
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Re: Re:
The senate knows they do not want Pelosi as president.
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Re: Re: Re:
opps, I see what you meant.
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Re:
It would, if the GOP hadn't already perfected the tactic to deal with that: Refuse to even consider any non-GOP nominations. So long as they have any veto power they've made clear the only people they consider acceptable for government positions is someone on their side, and if you're not that you're not getting in.
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Re:
Historically, what has happened is that the FCC opens up 2 seats at a time: one for each party. Then there's a consensus agreement that the Senate will approve filling both seats at once.
But the move to push Simington on now, rather than wait until January, effectively ends that practice. And now the GOP-led Senate (assuming victories in Georgia) can just block the FCC from ever appointing a new Dem.
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Next...
Time for McConnell to follow Trump out the door.
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Re: Next...
He's just been reëlected; so it won't be this election cycle.
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'Our way or not at all.'
Ah the GOP, not even pretending to be there to serve or represent the public(or if they are, saying far too much about the kind of person that they're representing). No, much like monarchs of old they are there to rule and the only quality needed for any office is loyalty to the party, with everything else a distant second.
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Okay, so fire some of the GOP commissioners
I mean, let's do this. Let's fire them all. And let's start putting GOP people in prison.
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Re: Okay, so fire some of the GOP commissioners
How? You saw how well impeachment worked out last time.
You're...skipping a few steps there. Generally somebody has to be charged with a crime first. And then convicted.
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Why not
So why can’t Biden just sell ace this tunt “see what I did?” When he gets in office and tell Mickey to get older faster so he can leave everyone else alone?
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To envision the Trump regime, simply imagine a gang of four-year olds, hopped up on caffeine, speed and crystal meth, then turned loose in the Nursery after being told to destroy everything they could find. And cheering them on, a larger gang of purely Amerikan (with some Russians on the sidelines) drooling idiots, waving their MAGA skullcaps in the air, hollering with unrestrained glee. SO we have there what our own, homebred Amerikan Fascists have been able to craft, with the help of a completely incompetent Democrat opposition warbling "Kumbayah", and screaming slogans of hatred at Jimmy Carter, for all of the past forty years. 'Nuff said.
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Re:
Yeah that kumbaya shit really describes the Democratic Party. I mean, lololololololol.
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How can you call your entity independent, when all you spout is leftist talking points. Y'all sick rocks, bit I thank you for sharing your true colors.
Enjoy Biden communism dumbasses
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Re:
How does that compare to Trump's handling of the pandemic?
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Re: sudden laughs
“How can you call your entity independent”
Hahahahahahaha!
Hahahahaha!
Hahahaha!
I’m sorry I was just thinking of you people trying to invalidate an election and you said that.
Please continue your worthless diatribe I’m not going to care about.
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Re:
I don’t think you know what communism actually is, what Biden does/doesn’t support, or what leftism actually is. You’re just spouting conservative buzzwords.
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Re:
What does independent have to do with an outlook? What does leftist have to do with any of this outlook, or with Biden of all people? What does communism, which has never existed anywhere in any modern nation state have to do with Bidenor anything?
Enjoy your continuing stay in Fantasyland.
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Re:
[Projects facts not in evidence]
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