“Want to start a pool on how long that last?”
-It will last till the next proposal. New taxes or fees weren’t added to this proposal. They wanted to be honest, right? *rolls eyes*
..so....maybe...15 months?

One day. Did I lose yet?

How do we divide that pool up?

Nanoseconds since implementation?

Read it and weep. The Income Tax rates in 1913 maxed-out at 7% for income over $500,000. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenue_Ac...

This is the way that the Socialists always work: They enact regulations that are, initially, non-financially threatening in that only the concept of control is asserted. Once that concept is entrenched it is never reversed but is used to justify greater controls. The mental image is that of the Lilliputians pulling tiny threads across a prone Gulliver's chest each easily broken but, collectively, strong enough to keep him from rising. So to will America be kept from rising.

I say make an election issue to roll back those regs. And while we're at it, we ought to work up a proposal to abolish the FCC and institute a definition of airwaves and bandwidth as a new type of real estate. Rand ("The Property Status of Airwaves") proposed that very thing.

this encroachment will expand and reduce the value
of this medium steadily -- govt screws up everything
it touches. -- j

To all users of the formerly un-collectivized and unfair internet system worldwide:

The Internet Unification Plan is now in effect.

To insure a non-competitive structure, all net resources are now commandeered through the "Equal Internet Opportunity" bill to assure all persons have equal internet access, all physical net resources at all levels are now property of and controlled by the U.S. government, and to insure compliance will be subject to oversight by the DHS.

The ability to post to sites not conforming to this policy will end in five, four, three, two, on....

Next step is not taxation.
It is limitation of free political speech on the internet because it is now in the control of the FCC who are appointed and hold office at the pleasure of the executive branch.
Will the Snowden's of the future be able to freely spread the truth?

The internet competes with state controlled media.
They MUST control the free dissemination of ideas or the hegemony will fail.
The internet is obviously the enemy of the state.
I bet they call it terrorist in private.

We need to further develop internet access on Amateur Band, or Citizen band radio. Peer-to-peer network, decentralized, like bitcoin.
CB has potential because the FCC doesn't monitor it anymore.
email is already available via HAM radio. Browsing isn't because it is illegal to use Amateur band for commercial application (ie Amazon).
No it wouldn't be fast, but it would be something the gov;t cant turn off.
This is another reason for you to get your HAM license if you haven't already.

When they take control of the DNS servers, you can say goodbye to the First Amendment. They will have the power to block access to any website they choose - on the ENTIRE Internet. And they can blame it on a glitch, an employee with a vendetta - anything.

Just like the IRS targeting scandal but with more far-reaching implications.

I also wouldn't be surprised if Obama tries to turn over control of the DNS servers to the UN for (mis)management.

All I knows that reading that article was exactly like reading Atlas- "the public good". Disgusting

I'll give it 12 months.

How can a widely distributed network (which is what the WWW is) that is owned by tens of thousand of private companies and individuals be usurped by someone without their permission? This "step", no doubt all about $$$ to the politicians and control to the UN, has to be completely unlawful. The BS it is because we say so can't possibly be upheld in court.

Interesting how they did it. At least twice before, attempts to control the Internet were pushed back by peitions and protests by all of geekdom. What was different about this "Net Neutrality"? They promised not to give the big corporate users faster access, even for a fee. That got all the "greed" shriekers on board. And for their envy they will now have the camel's nose in the tent. Stupid, venal, short-sighted, throwing away the last bastion of freedom and handing the government the keys to all their data.

Yet these folks don't mind toll roads and express lanes on the highways where, for a fee, you can get faster transit.

This just came in: Seems to cover it quite well.

http://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/item/...

My partner asserts that we deserve everything, including this disgusting power grab, that we get by the last two elections.. Yell or argue all you like.. Just imagine why it has to be 'secret' and unknown to 'the people'. Remind you of 'you'll have to find out what's in it after we pass it! (Sorry to bring up bad memories). Socialists/Communists all

It IS about new taxes and fees somewhere. It always is. I resent giving any money to our government. I loved in AS 1 where Orren Boyle said that Rearden's success on the John Galt line would provide the tools to take him down (meaning they would pay money in some form which is used to enable the government people to actually take over). Every dollar I have to give to our government gets used to have more power over me.

There is a "Darknet" with quite a few levels of encryption, and attempts to track IP addresses result in dead ends. The government isn't sure how to control this beast without major communication shutdowns, so it may the the modern equivalent of the "Committees of Communication" that trafficked in treasonous exchange outside of the Crown's control prior to the Revolutionary War.

I am going to be unpopular for this, but I must admit that on even days I am in favor of net neutrality and on odd days I am opposed to it. I am _always_ opposed to government control of net neutrality, on the other hand.

What I consider when I think about this is how Netflix and Youtube handed the government a hook for their entry into this venue. As pro-business as I am, it is obvious that corporations evidence the same lack of wisdom as do individual humans. When Netflix and Youtube negotiated secret deals with the internet services to provide preferred bandwidth for their products, this opened the door. If the deals had been aboveboard or if they had used the same money to support improved infrastructure then we would not have come to this point.

As someone who rarely uses Netflix or Youtube but who avidly researches Minoan architecture - and who lives in an area with borderline internet - I am quite aware that on Friday nights all of the geeks-who-cant-get-dates log on and I can barely get an email through let alone look up interesting stuff. I would really like the internet to be use-agnostic, so that I can look at ashlars and not be sidelined by Netflix.

But I don't want the gov to regulate it.

Jan

Morbid pool. Don't want in.

is anybody surprised?
government employees are never satisfied with doing damage they have this need to do more and more and more.

This is so beyond anything that could curtail freedom of speech that it leaves me speechless (almost). Even Dumbocrats should recognize this for what it is, the granting of power to the FTC to regulate what can and cannot be said in one of the few bastions of free speech left. I hope all their tongues break.

It was really a great run! I remember when I was about to graduate from college almost 3 decades ago. I was interviewed by a little start-up from Menlo Park, about 55 employees. I would have been their first manufacturing engineer. I thought, "Hooking computers together? What's so exciting about that?", and I took a job building huge airplanes instead (which was very exciting). That company?...Cisco Systems. I would have been retired long ago, smoking a stogie on my giant yacht. But, I think back at how much the internet has affected our existence since then. What an amazing phase it has been. The brakes will probably be thrown on now. But, it was exciting to be here to experience the wonderful flow of information!

Next step: taxes!