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November 27, 2017
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Why FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is CLBR’s Zero of the Year
Huffington Post / November 26, 2017
 For the past several years, the web radio program I host (Cyber Law & Business Report) has had a year-end “Heroes and Zeros” show in which we assemble a panel to highlight those doing wonderful things on the internet and those deserving a cyber lump of coal. This year, my top zero by far is Federal Communications Commission(FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai.
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Pai’s defining achievement will come December 14th, when the FCC will vote on his proposal to repeal the FCC’s Open Internet Order (aka Net Neutrality). In February 2015, after receiving nearly 4 million comments mostly in favor, the FCC adopted the Open Internet Order to treat internet service as a telecommunication service under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 and adopted rules prohibiting broadband providers from (i) blocking “lawful content, applications, services, or non-harmful devices or throttling, degrading or impairing access to the same;” (ii) favoring traffic in exchange for consideration or to benefit an affiliate entity; and (iii) “unreasonably interfer[ing] with or unreasonably disadvantag[ing] end users’ ability to select, access, and use broadband Internet access service or the lawful Internet content, applications, services, or devices of their choice.”
Pai has questioned the legality of the Open Internet Order, asserting that its rationales were mere “phantoms that were conjured up by people who wanted the FCC for political reasons to overregulate the internet,” and claiming that the Order had depressed investment in broadband infrastructure. The legality of the Open Internet Order, however, was upheld by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and there is no evidence that it has suppressed investment as asserted by Pai. As to Pai’s claimed phantoms, it is worth noting that he has refused to release complaints of net neutrality violations and shut down pending investigations into the use of zero-rating plans exempting favored services from carrier data caps in violation of the Open Internet Order.
Pai sees nothing wrong with paid prioritization (aka high-speed toll roads), blocking content or throttling internet users to disrupt their service as long as the internet service provider’s policies are disclosed. Of course, what good is disclosure when 55-percent of Americans only have one broadband provider to choose from (and only two percent have more than two options)? Pai will usher in a new era for the internet that will be more expensive and where internet service providers will be able to stifle innovation and speech.
Pai is the perfect example of a Faustian bureaucrat in the age of Trump, disinterested in facts or the greater good, as all that matters is power and using it to serve the powerful telecom providers. Like the colonial lords described by Joseph Conrad a century ago in Heart of Darkness, “their administration was merely a squeeze . . . . They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got.” For that, Pai is my top zero of 2017.
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Huffington Post / November 8, 2017
The election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 was a turning point in our history and brought into government a phalanx of ideological conservatives. Reagan’s foot soldiers would be the Generals in the Gingrich Revolution a decade later, as Republicans took control of Congress for the first time in forty years. While the conservative Reagan was very much a pragmatist who would work with Democrats, his disciples were the exact opposite – gleefully shutting the Government down under President Clinton and seeking impeachment, in the words of Newt Gingrich, “because we can.”
. . . With control of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, the Republicans have made it clear that the government is not there to serve the people but instead is being hijacked to solely benefit the Republican base and states. It is not just that they ignored public opinion to pursue repeal of Obamacare (when it would result in over 20 million Americans losing coverage and over 200,000 deaths over the decade), but they were willing to tailor the repeal to protect certain Republican states from its devastating impact to secure its passage.
It is the Republicans’ abandonment of shared constitutional principles that is most troubling, since that is what defines and unites us as a country. Save for a few retiring Republicans, the party has been silent as President Trump has threatened a free and independent press; sought to obstruct the investigation into potential collusion with the Russian government; called for the Justice Department to investigate his political enemies; flaunted the Emoluments Clause by failing to separate his business affairs as he openly promotes Trump properties as President; and set up a bogus voter fraud commission ostensibly to justify increased efforts to suppress minority voting.
Even worse, Republicans are supporting the Senate candidacy of Judge Roy Moore who flat out rejects the separation of church and argues that the purpose of the First Amendment was, instead, to “foster religion and foster Christianity.” Moore is not just a theocrat who believes that 9-11 was divine retribution, he is also a genuine bigot. Moore is a birther who believes homosexuality should be a crime and that Muslims should not be allowed to serve in the United States Congress. He also has contempt for the rule of law, having twice been removed as Chief Justice for refusing to abide federal court rulings.
Moore, like Trump, espouses a tribal, nativist vision of America that not only is antithetical to the Constitution but which was resoundingly defeated on the battlefield during the Civil War. The fact remains that, with its ostrich approach to Russian interference and Trump’s abuses of power along with their endorsement of Judge Moore, the Republicans are standing with two of this nation’s greatest enemies – the Russians and the Confederacy. In doing so, they have essentially become a modern-day Vichy government, at war with fundamental American values.
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Note this column was published the day before the Moore scandal broke. That is what is so shocking, he was unfit for office even before then.
Watch this video to learn about Doug Jones, the Democrat who is running against Moore.
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Huffington Post / November 14, 2017
This month marks the 25th anniversary of Bill Clinton’s winning the White House in 1992. People often forget where the Democrats stood before Clinton. Democrats had been out of power for 20 of the last 24 years and the sole Democrat to hold the White House lost reelection in a landslide after presiding over high unemployment, record inflation and foreign policy failures in Iran and Afghanistan.
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A Record of Achievement
A 2010 Siena College survey of Presidential historians ranked Clinton as the 3rd best President in handling the economy and 13th overall for good reason. President Clinton came into office facing the largest budget deficit in history and left office with its largest surplus. He did so while adhering to his campaign slogan, “Putting People First.’ He implemented the largest expansion of college opportunity since the GI Bill, expanded Head Start by sixty percent, signed the Family and Medical Leave Act and raised the minimum wage. While he lost the fight on health care reform, then-First Lady Clinton convinced Congress to enact the Children’s Health Insurance Program which was the largest expansion of health coverage for children since Medicaid.
 President Clinton also worked to make us safer both at home and in the world. . . . .
Clinton Revisionism
Despite this, the Clinton legacy recently has come under fierce attack from pro-Sanders Democrats that often points to one or two issues and ignores the bigger picture. A common criticism is that there is little difference between “Clintonism” and Republicans (or that Clinton was merely “GOP-Lite”). This reflects bumper sticker mentalities and the intellectual laziness that goes with it. Can anyone seriously believe there is little difference between Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Samuel Alito? Please remind me of the last time a Republican was willing to endure a government shutdown to protect Medicaid or tax credits for working families or ever did anything for civil rights, the environment or gun control.
One such critic is Robert Reich, a one-time friend of the Clintons and Clinton’s first Labor Secretary, who has criticized Clinton and the Democrats for contributing to income inequality. Reich comes up short on the facts in this argument, since blaming Clinton not only ignores the fact that his middle class focused policies saw real wage growth for the middle class and brought about the largest six-year drop in poverty since the Great Society but also overlooks the role of declining unionization in driving income inequality.
Author Thomas Franks calls the Clinton Presidency “odious” because of policies such as NAFTA and his 1994 Crime Bill that increased sentences for drug offenses. Franks and Sanders conflate NAFTA with globalization itself, as economists uniformly conclude that NAFTA had minimal effect on overall U.S. employment. More importantly, NAFTA likely saved the U.S. auto industry and hundreds of thousands of jobs.
As far as the crime bill, there are three important facts to remember. The first is that it is easy to forget that the bill was in response to a 40-percent increase in violent crime in the eight years prior to Clinton coming into office due to the spike in cocaine trafficking. The second is that the reason you may forget this violence is that violent crime fell 39 percent over the next decade. The final point is that Bernie Sanders himself supported the bill.
I bring these criticisms up, not to show that the Clinton administration is beyond reproach because there is no doubt that both mistakes were made and that certain policy judgments made in good faith in the 1990’s (including the Crime Bill) need to be reevaluated today. Rather, I raise this to demonstrate an effort to distort and delegitimize the success and legacy of President Clinton (and even President Obama) as not being truly “Democratic”. This criticism is being raised by the ivory tower wing of the party that has not won a national election in modern times. While they may anoint themselves as the sole true “Democrats” or “progressives” (despite what a majority of Democratic voters may think) and are now pushing for “purity” litmus tests for 2020 candidates, the simple fact is that there is nothing progressive about pursuing an agenda that ultimately elects Republicans.
Little Rock Here We Come
While these are dark days for Democrats, this weekend I will travel to Little Rock to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Clinton’s historic victory. I will do this not simply out of nostalgia or pride in having played a small part in Clinton’s election, but because I believe the Clinton legacy of civic engagement, shared responsibility and “Putting People First” is how the party and the nation can come together again and move forward.
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Cyber Law & Business Report / November 7, 2017
Listen to my interview with MSNBC contributor Malcolm Nance, author of The Plot to Hack America: How Putin’s Cyberspies and Wikileaks Tried to Steal the 2016 Election, the true story of how Putin’s spy agency, run by the Russian billionaire class, used the promise of power and influence to cultivate Trump as well as his closest aides, the Kremlin Crew, to become unwitting assets of the Russian government.
In Segment 2, we speak with Laura Rosenberger and Jamie Fly from the German Marshall Fund’s Alliance for Securing Democracy discuss their latest project – Hamilton 68 a real-time dashboard that provides a near real-time look at Russian propaganda and disinformation efforts online. The dashboard gets its name from Federalist Paper No. 68 in which Alexander Hamilton discussed how to prevent foreign meddling and influence in America’s electoral process.
The show notes include a timeline of events surrounding the Russian hacking effort.
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Listen to Cyber Law & Business Report
I am the host of Cyber Law & Business Report which airs every Wednesday at 10 AM Pacific / 1 PM Eastern and recently began its 7th season. Listen live on the web on WebmasterRadio.fm or via the following podcast channels. Follow us on Twitter at @CyberLawRadio to get updates and learn about upcoming changes to the show.
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POSTS FROM MY OTHER BLOGS
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Nov. 25: Butterflies and the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women
The International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women has its start in the heroic but tragic tale of Minerva, María Teresa, and Patria Mirabal. Three sisters who, along with their husbands, openly opposed the brutal dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. Within the group, the sisters called themselves “Las Mariposas” (“The Butterflies”), after Minerva’s underground name.
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Nov. 27: Assassinations in SF and CO; Quebec Nationhood
November 27 marks the anniversary of the assassination of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, a terrorist attack against a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs and Canada approving legislation recognizing “that the Quebecois form a nation within a united Canada.”
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History of the Astros
In Part 1 we cover the birth of the franchise and slow movement towards becoming contenders. In Part 2, we cover the last half of the Astrodome era when the Astros were legitimate contenders who came ever so close to winning the pennant. In Part 3, we cover the 21st century Astros – including their two World Series appearances.
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ABOUT BENNET
Q. So who is Bennet Kelley?
A: I am the founder of the Internet Law Center, a small law firm based in Santa Monica, California where we represent clients across the globe on issues such as e-commerce, online advertising, privacy, cyber harassment and online reputation management, intellectual property and general business matters. I was named by the Los Angeles Business Journal as one of the most influential attorneys in E-Commerce and Digital Media.
Q. But this is a political newsletter . . . .
I have been active in politics for nearly 40 years and was Co-Founder of the Democratic National Committee’s Saxophone Club, the DNC’s young professional outreach and fundraising arm, from 1992 to 1998.
I write regularly for Huffington Post and have won two Southern California Journalism Awards for online and print commentary and a third for my legal newsletter.
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Shameless Random
Puppy Picture
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Bennet Kelley's Clippings & More 