Huffington Post

[Commentary]  Recently, 19 towns across Colorado voted to allow the exploration of creating a local, public alternative to expensive private providers. Fort Collins (CO) voters went the furthest, passing a measure to finance an assessment of starting a city-owned broadband utility, which would aim to provide faster service at a cheaper price. That means residents could have a say in whether a new public network maintains the principle of network neutrality, whatever the Federal Communications Commission decides in the future.

[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission et al have created a series of interconnected proposed rules, regulations and actions. Unfortunately, we, the public, are now facing at least 10-20+ different cuts into the public interest, (depending on how you count). Killing off net neutrality is just one of the many planned harms. While none of this is new, it is now a sped up, concealed, heavily funded and very well coordinated plan, aided by the ability of the companies to control the FCC’s votes.

[Commentary] In every industry we hear horror stories of how the government agencies that are supposed to provide oversight of the companies and protect the public interest have been taken over by the industry. The Federal Communications Commission, which has oversight over most of the phone and cable companies’ business – i.e., the wireline, wireless, satellite, cable, TV, Internet, broadband, phone and data service services—all communications services—has been captured.

[Commentary] Things have improved in the last 20-plus years: We’ve gone from 15 million people on the internet when I joined the Clinton Administration to 3.5 billion on the internet today worldwide and, in the U.S., we’re 80 to 85 percent connected. The numbers are moving in the right direction, but we won’t be done until there is no gap, until every person who wants access has access to the information and opportunities the internet provides. We’re still hammering away at the problem of the connectivity gap, but the face of the problem has changed as well.

[Commentary] President Donald Trump and his White House don’t argue on the merits. They attack the institutions that come up with facts and arguments they don’t like. They even do it preemptively.

Last week, White House press secretary Sean Spicer warned that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office couldn’t be trusted to come up with accurate numbers about the costs and coverage of the Republican’s replacement for the Affordable Care Act. “If you’re looking at the CBO for accuracy, you’re looking in the wrong place,” he said. So what’s the right place? The Oval Office?

Trump’s big lies are bad enough because they subvert the truth and sow confusion. But Trump’s attacks on the institutions we rely on as sources of the truth are even more dangerous, because they make it harder for the public to believe anything. In a democracy, the truth is a common good. Trump is actively destroying the truth-telling institutions our democracy depends on.

[Robert Reich is the Chancellor Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley]

[Commentary] With President Donald Trump’s early morning tweet several days ago accusing former President Barack Obama of unlawfully tapping his phone calls “during the very sacred election process,”and adding that “This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!,” Trump unambiguously accused President Obama of criminal conduct. In so doing, Trump committed the quintessential libel. It would be truly fascinating if Obama were now to sue Trump for defamation.

Of course, this will not happen. Barack Obama is not that kind of “guy.” He is a person of integrity, calm, and self-restraint. So, perhaps sadly, we will be spared the drama of such litigation. But this is just one more illustration of why the person currently in the White House should not be there.

[Geoffrey Stone is the Edward h Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago]

[Commentary] On Thursday, February 23rd, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission held its first official meeting with the new FCC Chairman, Ajit Pai. And like a polluted stream filled with dead fish floating belly up, the meeting just added to the stench from the FCC we’ve seen in this ‘transition’. As I previously mentioned, Pai is a former Verizon attorney, while the head of the transition team, Jeffrey Eisenach, has been a consultant to Verizon, wearing multiple hats, for two decades. But I’ll let the FCC’s actions or in-actions speak for themselves.

• Overarching Theme: Remove All Regulations & Consumer Protections
• Block Privacy Rules
• Erase the Accounting Rules
• There Should be Audits of the Accounting to Expose the Billions in Cross-Subsidies.