Trump Makes It Official: He's Going To Pull Military Funding, Because Congress Won't Kill The Open Internet

from the really-now dept

There were some questions as to whether or not Trump would actually go through with his threat to veto the National Defense Authorization Act, which has been passed and signed into law every year for the past six decades, but it appears that is the case. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has officially notified Congress that Trump is vetoing the NDAA... because they refuse to kill off the open internet.

The letter it sent to Congress is... just completely disconnected from reality.

The Administration recognizes the importance of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to our national security. Unfortunately, this conference report fails to include critical national security measures, includes provisions that fail to respect our veterans and our military's history, and contradicts efforts by this Administration to put America first in our national security and foreign policy actions. Therefore, the Administration strongly opposes passage of the conference report to Accompany H.R. 6395.

There are three key complaints he raises in the letter. (1) The NDAA doesn't completely repeal Section 230 of the Communications Act (which has nothing to do with the military). (2) That it allows for the renaming of bases that were named after the Confederacy and (3) that it limits his ability to scream "national emergency" and use those claims as a reason to steal money from the military to build his stupid wall (as he's been doing).

The 230 bit is particularly stupid:

Despite bipartisan calls for addressing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, this bill fails to make any meaningful changes to that provision.

Um, yes, because it's got literally nothing to do with the military or the purpose of the NDAA. There is no reason to include anything related to 230 in the NDAA and multiple elected officials have explained that to Trump. But he wants to throw one of his temper tantrums instead.

Section 230 facilitates the spread of disinformation online and is a serious threat to our national security and election integrity. It should be repealed.

So he's finally expressed some rationalization for how 230 impacts national security, but he's wrong. The 1st Amendment is why disinformation can spread online and taking away 230 won't change that. And, I should note that one of the biggest vectors of disinformation that is spread online is... the President himself. Especially over the last month. And, I'd argue that the President has also been the biggest threat to election integrity.

It's Section 230 that has enabled many experts to speak out and show how the nonsense and disinformation that Trump and his cronies are spewing is inaccurate.

As for the claim about renaming bases named after Confederate Army officials, it's difficult to see how that is failing "to respect our veterans and our military's history." Remember, the Confederacy fought against the US military. You'd think it would be more respectful to our veterans not to have them serve from bases named after an army that fought against us. But Trump's gotta Trump.

Republicans in Congress now have a choice. They've been hinting that they'll override a Trump veto, and now is the time for them to stand up and make it clear that's exactly what they'll do.

Filed Under: confederate bases, congress, donald trump, military, military funding, ndaa, omb, section 230, veto

White House Still Pushing To Slip Section 230 Repeal Into 'Must Pass' Military Spending Bill

from the what-the-actual-fuck? dept

This was rumored a week and a half ago, and at the time I stated that there was no way in hell it was happening, and that it was all just performative nonsense... but yesterday Axios reported that the White House is still pushing Congress to insert a total repeal of Section 230 into the "must pass" National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). At the time, the story was that Trump would make a trade: he wouldn't veto the bill over a provision that removed Confederate army names from US military bases if there was a full repeal of Section 230 in it.

This is silly for all sorts of reasons, including the idea that you're horse trading the law that helped create the open internet for racist military base names in a bill that has fuck all to do with internet/telecom policy. Of course, then Thanksgiving happened, and the President threw a total shitfit because #DiaperDon started trending on Twitter, making him declare that we had to repeal Section 230 for "national security." Seems more like it would be for dealing with the insecurity of the President of the United States.

And so it appears that the White House has decided to appease the whims of the mad child emperor, and is still pushing Congress to slip the repeal into the NDAA and hoping that the confused, misplaced, and somewhat contradictory bipartisan hatred for Section 230 will cause them to go with it. Incredibly, Axios notes that it's the Republicans in the Senate trying to talk the White House out of this plan -- though they're pushing a bunch of nonsense 230 reform bills as an "alternative." The article's only comment on Democrats is that they "are sure to object." And I think that will still doom this entire effort. But, the real goal seems to be to try to sneak through some terrible bills that are short of a full repeal.

But Senate Republicans are instead trying to negotiate an alternative that would combine multiple bills aimed at reforming the law, including the bipartisan Platform Accountability and Consumer Transparency Act and Wicker's Online Freedom and Viewpoint Diversity Act, a Hill source familiar with the matter told Axios.

We've gone through the details of why all of those bills are garbage and/or unconstitutional, and even if there were legitimate movement on getting those bills through Congress, lighting up the NDAA with them is the exact wrong thing to do. Bills like these, that would fundamentally change the very nature of the internet, are not something you just hang on an appropriations bill at the last minute.

I'm still mostly confident that none of this is actually going to happen and that it's still all just insane posturing and performative nonsense. But it's still 2020, and crazy, unprecedented shit still keeps happening, so I'll back down slightly from my "no way in hell" statement, and note that we're in hell right now, and so there's still a small chance that something horrific would happen here. It's still very, very unlikely. But it's just not going away.

Filed Under: confederate bases, donald trump, horse trading, intermediary liability, names, ndaa, section 230, white house

White House Offers To Allow Renaming Confederate Bases... In Exchange For Getting Rid Of Section 230

from the who-did-the-what-now? dept

Let's state upfront that there is no way in hell this is happening, and it's all just performative nonsense. No one is actually going to do this. However, the NY Times is reporting that White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has floated the idea of "compromise" to get the annual NDAA passed, after President Trump has whined about it requiring the renaming of military bases named after Confederacy leaders. As a bit of background, I still don't understand why we have literally anything named after leaders who actually tried to leave the country and fought against the US military, in order to continue enslaving people... but that's just me. The NDAA (the National Defense Authorization Act) is the annual budget allocated by Congress for the military. It's one of those "must pass" kind of things that some in Congress try to sneak junk into, knowing that it has to pass. President Trump has threatened to veto the bill because of the base renaming bit.

Now the Times is reporting that Meadows is saying Trump would stop fighting the renaming... if Congress uses the NDAA to totally repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Really.

Over the course of several conversations, Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, asked Mr. Meadows what might persuade Mr. Trump to sign the measure with the renaming requirement intact, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Mr. Meadows, according to the people, said that adding a repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, considered the most consequential law governing speech on the internet, would help.

Just to put this out there: this is insane. On many different levels. I've already expressed my confusion over why there's any debate at all about these base names, but the idea that Congress should simply wipe out Section 230 in the NDAA just creates an entirely new layer of pure ridiculousness. I mean, in part because this would simply increase uncertainty and liability for internet services, leading to a much higher likelihood that Twitter and other social media sites would take down Trump's nonsense for fear of having to defend themselves in court over it.

It truly is striking how focused so much of Washington DC has become on Section 230 without even understanding what it currently does, how it works, and what will happen if it gets removed.

Anyway, again, this is not happening. No one is going to go ahead with this. But it's just yet another example of the ridiculous policy proposals now floating around the White House.

Filed Under: appropriations, confederate bases, congress, donald trump, free speech, funding, mark meadows, military, ndaa, section 230