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When his run at the FCC ends I think history will remember Pai as the big telco tool that he is. His leadership (sic) at the FCC has been appalling. I can’t wai

When his run at the FCC ends I think history will remember Pai as the big telco tool that he is. His leadership (sic) at the FCC has been appalling. I can’t wait for him to be gone so that, hopefully, the damage can be repaired by someone else.

0xy 7y ago
His Obama-era predecessor Tom Wheeler was the head of a telecommunications lobby group for his entire career, bankrolled by Verizon and others. Is this a case of "my telco shill was better because he leaned my way politically"?
- uoaei 7y ago
  Yeah these comments always scream myopia to me because this shit was happening way before Trump got into office. By all accounts Obama is a war criminal. So is Bush, Clinton, Bush, etc. It's not easy to be a good person and uphold a global neocolonialist empire. To go back to normal is simply to push the grifting and swindling back into the shadows. At least now it's obvious enough that people paying attention can see how power works at those high levels, so we can be better prepared to combat abuses of power if/when they arise.
  - gigatexal 7y ago
    Notice nothing of my original post mentions politics. My beef is with Pai and his whoring for the telcos.
    - 0xy 7y ago
      The Democrats nominated a literal career telco lobbyist to this position last time. Why do you have faith they'll fix this?
      - gigatexal 7y ago
        NN has gained favor in the recent years. And since Pai is so anti-NN should a blue wave take over in a November I could see things moving back farther in the direction of sanity — towards true NN. But I’m not sure; j just have hope.
        uoaei 7y ago
        "Blue wave" worked out great in 2018 eh? Impeachment went well, and now our citizens are being taken care of by the government because now Pelosi gets to sit at the lectern and theatrically rip up pieces of paper?
      - nl 7y ago
        Who did a great job enforcing net neutrality.
    - uoaei 7y ago
      FEC Commissioner is an appointment position. Politics decides who gets to choose who to appoint, and for what reasons.
- jedberg 7y ago
  You don't need to have a political opinion in either direction to see which FCC chairs help telecoms and which help the American people. All you have to do is look at the telecom response to policy. Most have been in favor of Pai's policies, and were against Wheeler's policies. Clearly one of them is working harder for the telecoms than the other.
  - 0xy 7y ago
    This is some serious revisionism. Tom Wheeler was vehemently against NN and even after backflipping refused to enforce his own standards against ISPs. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/net-neutrality-ruling-opens-door/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/net-neutrality-ru... "The ruling in favor of corporate broadband providers [...]"
    - jedberg 7y ago
      That was Verizon suing the FCC because the FCC put NN in place. The FCC lost. Wheeler was not their friend.
      - 0xy 7y ago
        Wheeler worked as a lobbyist on behalf of Verizon his entire career. He never enforced a single NN violation.
        jedberg 7y ago
        That was what the lawsuit was about. To stop him enforcing NN. Verizon won.
        nl 7y ago
        > He never enforced a single NN violation. He certainly did! > Tom Wheeler defeats the broadband industry: Net neutrality wins in court > Total victory for FCC as appeals court decision upholds net neutrality order. I think the top comment on ArsTechnica there is telling: If you told me 5 years ago that a 20-year lobbyist veteran would be named the head of the FCC and reclassify the wired and wireless internet agencies under Title II, I'd have punched you in the arm and called you a fucking liar. I have never been more happy to be proven wrong about a book's cover than I have been with Mr. Wheeler. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/06/net-neutrality-and-title-ii-win-in-court-as-isps-lose-case-against-fcc/?comments=1&post=31371801 https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/06/net-neutrality-a...
- gigatexal 7y ago
  Wheeler might have been a plant from Verizon but he didn’t seem to make his benefactors proud: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wired.com/2015/02/fcc-chairman-wheeler-net-neutrality/amp https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wired.com/2015/02/fcc-chair...
  - 0xy 7y ago
    He didn't enforce net neutrality even one time, despite flagrant violations under his tenure. You're just posting his marketing speak. Tom Wheeler was vehemently against net neutrality and spent his entire career fighting it, both as a lobbyist and as the FCC head. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/net-neutrality-ruling-opens-door/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/net-neutrality-ru...
    - elliekelly 7y ago
      Have you read the article you keep linking? Tom Wheeler wasn’t behind the decision that article is about. A panel of federal judges were. Tom Wheeler is directly quoted in that article saying he hopes to appeal the decision because he (and the FCC, at the time) disagreed with it.
      - nl 7y ago
        What's more, he did appeal and was massively successful. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/06/net-neutrality-and-title-ii-win-in-court-as-isps-lose-case-against-fcc/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/06/net-neutrality-a... https://www.theverge.com/2016/6/14/11487124/fcc-net-neutrality-open-internet-order-appeal-ruling-lawsuit https://www.theverge.com/2016/6/14/11487124/fcc-net-neutrali... https://www.wired.com/2016/12/tom-wheeler-resigns-fcc-long-net-neutrality/ https://www.wired.com/2016/12/tom-wheeler-resigns-fcc-long-n... https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/06/14/471286113/u-s-appeals-court-holds-up-net-neutrality-rules-in-full https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/06/14/471286113...
jedberg 7y ago
The thing about Pai is that he is really good at the politics part of his job. I was listening to a podcast where he was interviewed, and at the end I was almost convinced he actually cares about the American public and what's best for them.
- kabacha 7y ago
  If you're talking about Freakonomic's episode with him then it's widely considered to be the worst episode in the podcast. Just read the comments: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/ajit-pai/ https://freakonomics.com/podcast/ajit-pai/ He does uses simpleton sort of language and pretends to be friendly neighbour but if you pay at least a little bit of attention then it's just full of lies, diversions and every possible argumenting fallacy. People were actually really upset with the host for allowing this.
  - jedberg 7y ago
    Yep that’s the one. Like I said, he gets away with sounding like he cares.
jessaustin 7y ago
FCC under Pai does the same basic thing FCC has always done and in fact was created to do: help Ma Bell and her descendants eliminate competition and screw customers. The details may change over the decades, but the bottom line does not.
- linuxftw 7y ago
  Agreed. Remember, though, this also applies to those other agencies, even the ones defended dogmatically.

0xy 7y ago

His Obama-era predecessor Tom Wheeler was the head of a telecommunications lobby group for his entire career, bankrolled by Verizon and others. Is this a case of "my telco shill was better because he leaned my way politically"?

uoaei 7y ago
Yeah these comments always scream myopia to me because this shit was happening way before Trump got into office. By all accounts Obama is a war criminal. So is Bush, Clinton, Bush, etc. It's not easy to be a good person and uphold a global neocolonialist empire. To go back to normal is simply to push the grifting and swindling back into the shadows. At least now it's obvious enough that people paying attention can see how power works at those high levels, so we can be better prepared to combat abuses of power if/when they arise.
- gigatexal 7y ago
  Notice nothing of my original post mentions politics. My beef is with Pai and his whoring for the telcos.
  - 0xy 7y ago
    The Democrats nominated a literal career telco lobbyist to this position last time. Why do you have faith they'll fix this?
    - gigatexal 7y ago
      NN has gained favor in the recent years. And since Pai is so anti-NN should a blue wave take over in a November I could see things moving back farther in the direction of sanity — towards true NN. But I’m not sure; j just have hope.
      - uoaei 7y ago
        "Blue wave" worked out great in 2018 eh? Impeachment went well, and now our citizens are being taken care of by the government because now Pelosi gets to sit at the lectern and theatrically rip up pieces of paper?
    - nl 7y ago
      Who did a great job enforcing net neutrality.
  - uoaei 7y ago
    FEC Commissioner is an appointment position. Politics decides who gets to choose who to appoint, and for what reasons.
jedberg 7y ago
You don't need to have a political opinion in either direction to see which FCC chairs help telecoms and which help the American people. All you have to do is look at the telecom response to policy. Most have been in favor of Pai's policies, and were against Wheeler's policies. Clearly one of them is working harder for the telecoms than the other.
- 0xy 7y ago
  This is some serious revisionism. Tom Wheeler was vehemently against NN and even after backflipping refused to enforce his own standards against ISPs. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/net-neutrality-ruling-opens-door/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/net-neutrality-ru... "The ruling in favor of corporate broadband providers [...]"
  - jedberg 7y ago
    That was Verizon suing the FCC because the FCC put NN in place. The FCC lost. Wheeler was not their friend.
    - 0xy 7y ago
      Wheeler worked as a lobbyist on behalf of Verizon his entire career. He never enforced a single NN violation.
      - jedberg 7y ago
        That was what the lawsuit was about. To stop him enforcing NN. Verizon won.
      - nl 7y ago
        > He never enforced a single NN violation. He certainly did! > Tom Wheeler defeats the broadband industry: Net neutrality wins in court > Total victory for FCC as appeals court decision upholds net neutrality order. I think the top comment on ArsTechnica there is telling: If you told me 5 years ago that a 20-year lobbyist veteran would be named the head of the FCC and reclassify the wired and wireless internet agencies under Title II, I'd have punched you in the arm and called you a fucking liar. I have never been more happy to be proven wrong about a book's cover than I have been with Mr. Wheeler. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/06/net-neutrality-and-title-ii-win-in-court-as-isps-lose-case-against-fcc/?comments=1&post=31371801 https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/06/net-neutrality-a...
gigatexal 7y ago
Wheeler might have been a plant from Verizon but he didn’t seem to make his benefactors proud: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wired.com/2015/02/fcc-chairman-wheeler-net-neutrality/amp https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wired.com/2015/02/fcc-chair...
- 0xy 7y ago
  He didn't enforce net neutrality even one time, despite flagrant violations under his tenure. You're just posting his marketing speak. Tom Wheeler was vehemently against net neutrality and spent his entire career fighting it, both as a lobbyist and as the FCC head. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/net-neutrality-ruling-opens-door/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/net-neutrality-ru...
  - elliekelly 7y ago
    Have you read the article you keep linking? Tom Wheeler wasn’t behind the decision that article is about. A panel of federal judges were. Tom Wheeler is directly quoted in that article saying he hopes to appeal the decision because he (and the FCC, at the time) disagreed with it.
    - nl 7y ago
      What's more, he did appeal and was massively successful. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/06/net-neutrality-and-title-ii-win-in-court-as-isps-lose-case-against-fcc/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/06/net-neutrality-a... https://www.theverge.com/2016/6/14/11487124/fcc-net-neutrality-open-internet-order-appeal-ruling-lawsuit https://www.theverge.com/2016/6/14/11487124/fcc-net-neutrali... https://www.wired.com/2016/12/tom-wheeler-resigns-fcc-long-net-neutrality/ https://www.wired.com/2016/12/tom-wheeler-resigns-fcc-long-n... https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/06/14/471286113/u-s-appeals-court-holds-up-net-neutrality-rules-in-full https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/06/14/471286113...

jedberg 7y ago

The thing about Pai is that he is really good at the politics part of his job. I was listening to a podcast where he was interviewed, and at the end I was almost convinced he actually cares about the American public and what's best for them.

kabacha 7y ago
If you're talking about Freakonomic's episode with him then it's widely considered to be the worst episode in the podcast. Just read the comments: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/ajit-pai/ https://freakonomics.com/podcast/ajit-pai/ He does uses simpleton sort of language and pretends to be friendly neighbour but if you pay at least a little bit of attention then it's just full of lies, diversions and every possible argumenting fallacy. People were actually really upset with the host for allowing this.
- jedberg 7y ago
  Yep that’s the one. Like I said, he gets away with sounding like he cares.

jessaustin 7y ago

FCC under Pai does the same basic thing FCC has always done and in fact was created to do: help Ma Bell and her descendants eliminate competition and screw customers. The details may change over the decades, but the bottom line does not.

linuxftw 7y ago
Agreed. Remember, though, this also applies to those other agencies, even the ones defended dogmatically.