Then there’s Seth Myers and Stephen Colbert…

Time to start the Robert Mueller clock…

For the past 10 years or so Mayor Frank Jackson’s message to Cleveland’s most needy neighborhoods has been seen by many as: Drop Dead.

Back in 1975 when New York City was on the brink of bankruptcy President Gerald Ford delivered a speech essentially offering no federal help to our largest city.

The New York Daily News the next day summed up his message with blazing front-page headline: Ford to City: Drop Dead. He lost re-election a year later.

That’s what Cleveland’s poverty neighborhoods have been hearing from Mayor Jackson by actions, not words: Drop Dead.

Jackson hails from likely the most impoverished inner city neighborhood but he’s concentrated—until very recently—on the downtown agenda of Cleveland’s corporate community.

Zack Reed, one of a number of his mayoral opponents in the upcoming September runoff election, has apparently gotten under Jackson’s thin skin.

So much so that the mayor, angered by Reed’s attack on his $2.3 million dirt bike plan—seems to have a raw nerve hit.

Indeed, when questioned by Channel 19 Carl Monday at a press conference the day following Reed’s attack on the floor of the Council regular meeting, Jackson seemed to lose it.

He called Reed a “pimp.”

The Plain Dealer reported: “He can say anything, whatever he thinks Continue Reading »

I am fond of saying that I only learned on useful lesson in four years of high school and that was how to type (and I learned that for all the wrong reasons, primarily that I got to be one of only two guys in a class of girls). Public education is broken for many reasons and Ralph Nader has some observations on that idea.

Nader, in Schooling for Myths and Powerlessness, writes:

All over America, school children are completing another academic year before their summer vacation. This invites the questions, what did they learn and what did they do with what they learned?

I’m not talking about their test scores, nor the latest fads in rebranding education, like the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) curriculum that de-emphasizes the first two thirds of the old mantra—reading, writing and arithmetic. Rather, I am questioning what they learned about their real-world surroundings, about preparing themselves for life as citizens, workers, consumers, taxpayers, voters and members of various communities.

Not very much, sad to say. The same is true of my generation. Instead of receiving an enriching and well-rounded education, we were fed myths. All societies perpetuate lavish myths that enable the few to rule over the many, repress critical thinking and camouflage the grim realities. Our country was, and remains, no exception.

In school we learned that our country was number one, the greatest in the world. We sang “Onward Christian Soldiers” in music class. Being the “greatest” was neither defined nor questioned. We simply had a vague sense that “great” Continue Reading »

The increasing cadence of that annoying drip is becoming a pas de charge. Michael Schmidt, reporting in Comey Memo Says Trump Asked Him to End Flynn Investigation for The New York Times, writes:

President Trump asked the FBI director, James B. Comey, to shut down the federal investigation into Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, in an Oval Office meeting in February, according to a memo Mr. Comey wrote shortly after the meeting.

“I hope you can let this go,” the president told Mr. Comey, according to the memo.

The documentation of Mr. Trump’s request is the clearest evidence that the president has tried to directly influence the Justice Department and F.B.I. investigation into links between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia. Late Tuesday, Representative Jason Chaffetz, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, demanded that the FBI turn over all “memoranda, notes, summaries and recordings” of discussions between Mr. Trump and Mr. Comey.

Such documents, Mr. Chaffetz wrote, would “raise questions as to whether the president attempted to influence or impede” the F.B.I.

So, in my mind the question now becomes, do Reince Priebus, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell prove their loyalty to the President—clearly an attribute the president highly values—or do they attempt what may already be the impossible: save some remnant of the Republican party?

Seth Meyers reminds us of the prescience of President Donald John Trump…

From the newspaper that brought us Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein and Deep Throat comes Greg Miller, Greg Jaffe and a source-to-be-code-named-later in Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador. Note that neither in the headline nor the body of the story does The Washington Post uses words like allegedly or reportedly. Miller and Jaffe write:

President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State.

The information the president relayed had been provided by a U.S. partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the U.S. government, officials said.

The partner had not given the United States permission to share the material with Russia, and officials said Trump’s decision to do so endangers cooperation from an ally that has access to the inner workings of the Islamic State. After Trump’s meeting, senior White House officials took steps to contain the damage, placing calls to the CIA and the National Security Agency.

“This is code-word information,” said a U.S. official familiar with the matter, using terminology that refers to one of the highest classification levels used by American spy agencies. Trump “revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies.”

From David Kochel comes this tweet:

John McCain probably revealed less to the KGB in 5+ years of torture at the Hanoi Hilton than Trump did in 5 minutes in the Oval.

Finally, Stephen Colbert had this to say:

Would you be pissed if this were your backyard?

My congressional representative Jim Bupkis* Renacci remains silent on the rogue fossil fuel company pissing on his constituents living along the scorched-scorched earth path of the Rover pipeline. This morning I learned two additional ways that Energy Transfer Partners is flipping the bird at Ohioans as workers gleefully bulldoze a path across the state, regardless of the wishes of property owners.

The first instance involves reneging on a payment to the Ohio Historical Society for leveling a historic home. Shane Hoover, reporting in Pipeline project owes $1.5 million, according to State Historic Preservation Office, but Rover vows to “vigorously defend itself.” for the Canton Repository, writes:

The Rover Pipeline hasn’t honored an agreement to pay for harm the project does to historic properties, according to the State Historic Preservation Office.

The dispute surfaced a week after state environmental regulators proposed penalizing Rover for construction mishaps and questioned whether the project is taking Ohio seriously as it rushes to finish the $4.2 billion natural gas pipeline.

In February, Rover agreed to pay the State Historic Preservation Office $1.5 million a year for five years. The money will fund statewide education for historic preservation.

Rover was supposed to make the first payment by March 1, but the bill remains unpaid, despite repeated contacts between the State Historic Preservation Office and Rover, according to an April 28 letter from the preservation office to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The letter was filed Friday on the FERC online docketing system.

The State Historic Preservation Office asked FERC, as the lead federal agency with jurisdiction over the project, to resolve the dispute.

“The matter’s now in FERC’s hands to decide what happens next,” said Emmy Beach, spokeswoman for Ohio History Connection, formerly the Ohio Historical Society.

The second instance involves that reported $431,000 fine levied against Energy Transfer Partners by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency for dumping millions of gallons of (watch the video) goop.

Turns out that the fine was more of a request. Tim Rudell, reporting in Ohio EPA Penalties With The Rover Pipeline Builder Must Be Negotiated for WKSU, explains:

A week ago, there were widespread reports that Ohio EPA fined the owners of the Rover pipeline for environmental violations during ongoing construction of the natural gas transmission system across northern Ohio. But the fine was more a matter of definition.

OEPA did tell Rover’s parent corporation Energy Transfer that it will have to pay a penalty, in addition to cleaning up recent spills in Ohio, and change a number of its practices.

However, it did so not by levying fines or issuing directives. It proposed “administrative orders” that may be binding, but only after negotiations. James Lee is a spokesman for Ohio EPA.

“A fine has not yet been levied against Rover. Ohio EPA’s proposed administrative orders direct the company to pay appropriate civil penalties for destroying a category three wetland in Stark County, and other air and water violations. That enforcement case is ongoing. And the company has an opportunity to respond.”

That means, course, that Ohio taxpayer time and money will be expended negotiating a fine that very well may never be paid.

Thanks Bupkis.

*After extensive searches, I have been unable to determine what Renacci’s middle initial stands for. Until I can find a reliable reference to Renacci full name, Bupkis will do.

Previously…

If you were an Ohioan pissed off at those protesters in South Dakota supporting the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in the attempt to halt Energy Transfer Partners construction of the Dakota Access Pipe Line, then environmental karma is coming for your land. ETP has already had the first leak in the not-yet-opened DAPL and—surprise, surprise—dumped millions of gallons of goop on Ohio wetlands. How does the fossil-fuel company responded: with a big fuck you Ohio.

The Akron Beacon Journal’s editorial board, in Rover defies the state EPA, explains:

John Kasich long has insisted that he takes two views of the expanding oil and gas industry in Ohio. The governor likes the boost to economic development. He also says he wants the work done right, protecting public health and the environment. Of late, the state Environmental Protection Agency has backed up the latter view. It has taken an appropriately tough line with Energy Transfer Partners, the company constructing the Rover Pipeline.

On Wednesday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission did its part. It ordered a halt to new drilling activity involving the pipeline, designed to travel through 18 counties, from Washington in the southeast to Defiance in the northwest. The commission instructed the Rover Pipeline to add environmental inspectors and hire an independent contractor to evaluate its work at the site where bentonite mud, a natural clay used as a drilling lubricant, spilled across 6.5 acres of a protected wetland near the Tuscarawas River.

Dumping a “natural clay” doesn’t sound all that bad, until you consider what we’re talking about wetlands where amphibious and aquatic life live and from where the Tuscarawas grows. How upset would you be if ETP dumped two million gallons of liquefied clay on your front lawn? My congressional representative (and laughable candidate for governor), Jim Bupkis* Renacci, has been silent on the pipeline that crosses his district.

Still, the company reported the spill—one of 20—and began cleanup procedures, so, that’s all good, right?

No. That’s where the fuck you comes in.

The expectation is that laying an underground pipeline across hundreds of miles will cause disruption. What the state EPA has seen with the Rover Pipeline is something much worse. Craig Butler, the agency director, views the company as in too much of a hurry, failing to heed best management practices, even demolishing a Leesville house under consideration for the National Register of Historic Places. [Then there’s the trees clear-cut before endangered bats could roost in them. Time is money. Chop. Chop. JH]

Butler told the Columbus Dispatch, “This is pretty systemic—that’s when alarm bells go off in my head.”

Of note, too, has been the defiance of Energy Transfer, Butler pointing to a lack of contrition, or adequate response to the state’s concerns. “They’re not taking Ohio seriously,” the director said. The company initially argued that its permits fall under federal regulation. It has talked about “inadvertent releases” as “a common part” of the drilling in the pipeline construction.

Yeah, and dogs peeing in the house is a common part of pet ownership, but that doesn’t mean you ignore the problem.

*After extensive searches, I have been unable to determine what Renacci’s middle initial stands for. Until I can find a reliable reference to Renacci full name, Bupkis will do.

Previously…

Previously…

It was eight years ago that I wrote this about Jeff Johnson:

The retirement of Glenville Councilwoman Sabra Pierce Scott should mean a return to city hall of Jeff Johnson. With a bit of humility Johnson becomes a strong future possibility for Mayor of Cleveland.

He’s got the guts for the job.

I also wrote of Johnson’s problem:

Johnson allowed his arrogance to throw him off the path of political stardom here when he was videotaped seeming to ask for campaign contributions for political favors. It was sleazy stuff to watch.

As he enters the race against Mayor Frank Jackson he’s been charged as not even being eligible to appear on the ballot because he was convicted of bribery.

Johnson counters that he was not convicted of bribery but extortion in 1998. Not a smart answer. He should stick to his right to run for office, as he already has done.

Johnson’s political career was revived by former Mayor Jane Campbell when she hired him as community relations worker and later brought him into the cabinet as head of that department. Then he won a seat on City Council.

I have watched the tapes used to convict Johnson. They weren’t pretty. The placement of cameras to catch Johnson asking for what he considered promised campaign contributions smelled like a set-up.

Johnson showed his arrogant side and the showboating didn’t help him, especially when it was on tape for TV exposure. And in a dingy basement.

Johnson, I believe, was set up. By what other politician I don’t know but have suspicions.

That doesn’t make what he did right. But it does mitigate the crime.

Johnson’s career came at a particular time of a rough political culture Continue Reading »

Leslie Neilson, of all people, in his television role as American Revolutionary war hero Francis Marion make the precise case why no foreign power—from Alexander The Great to the Soviet Union—has ever come out out a winner in Afghanistan. Any leader is insane to believe that this time will be different.

Ralph Nader, in The Losing Warfare State, writes:

The USA is still bogged down in Afghanistan (the 16 year-old occupation is the longest in American history) and in Iraq (since the unconstitutional, illegal invasion of the country 14 years ago).

With about 30,000 poorly equipped fighters, the Taliban has held down a US equipped and trained Afghan army eight times larger in soldiers, plus the US forces—fluctuating from 100,000 at its peak to 8,500 now, plus contractors—[mercenaries, JH] with advanced air, sea and land weaponry that is second to none.

Moreover, the Taliban has been advancing, controlling 30 to 40 percent of the country and a third of the population, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In Iraq, the US had hundreds of thousands of soldiers and contractors [mercenaries, JH] during the Bush years. Yet today the country is still in the throes of a civil war, where a previously nonexistent threat—ISIS—with less than 15,000 fighters, has been successfully resisting a huge Iraqi army backed by US trainers and air force.

How can this be? “We are vulnerable,” writes military author William Greider, “because our presumption of unconquerable superiority leads us deeper and deeper into unwinnable military conflicts.”

Jim Fallows, asserts in The Atlantic, that our military “is the best-equipped fighting force in history…also better trained, motivated, and disciplined than during Continue Reading »

Sherry Miller did not say that taking her land, at any price, was acceptable, but when a giant fossil fuel company—with the full support of climate-change denying Republican politicians—comes banging on your front door, there is no good choice but to believe that David could smite Goliath and win the good fight. So Miller fought for three years and lost. This story isn’t about some Indian reservation half a nation away. This is in Ohio and none of us is immune.

Marion Renault, reporting in Sherrodsville home ‘trapped’ by Rover pipeline construction for The Columbus Dispatch, writes:

As pushback to the pipeline’s construction escalated to the federal government Wednesday, Sherry Miller couldn’t escape its presence in her own backyard.

Miller has lived in her Sherrodsville home in Carroll County for 18 years. The past three have been a battle to keep the Rover Pipeline from running through her property, she said.

Since February, bulldozers and cranes operate on three sides of her property starting at 6:30 a.m. Heavy machinery roars just a few feet from the small pasture, coop and yard where Miller’s three pigs, four goats, six dogs and dozens of chickens live.

“This company has proven to everyone that they just disregard everything … and they do what they want to do,” she said.

Miller said she and her husband may move out of the dream home they spent years building.

“It feels like we’re trapped,” she said. “I try to tell myself it’ll be fine when these pipelines are done, when they’re underground and the construction crews leave.

“Then the other side of me says, ‘You’ve got to run.’”

Sherrodsville is only about 80 miles south-south-west from me here in North Royalton. I can easily imagine the city of Lorain, Ohio, landing a lucrative deal to build a liquefied natural gas terminal on Lake Erie to export the takings from Ohio around the globe. To get the fossil fuel to the port, however, would need a pipeline potentially running through my backyard.

If we allow the destruction of our lands to benefit the billionaires, then none of us will fare well.

Comey had this to say to his colleagues at the FBI:

To all:

I have long believed that a President can fire an FBI Director for any reason, or for no reason at all. I’m not going to spend time on the decision or the way it was executed. I hope you won’t either. It is done, and I will be fine, although I will miss you and the mission deeply.

I have said to you before that, in times of turbulence, the American people should see the FBI as a rock of competence, honesty, and independence. What makes leaving the FBI hard is the nature and quality of its people, who together make it that rock for America.

It is very hard to leave a group of people who are committed only to doing the right thing. My hope is that you will continue to live our values and the mission of protecting the American people and upholding the Constitution. If you do that, you too will be sad when you leave, and the American people will be safer.

Working with you has been one of the great joys of my life. Thank you for that gift.

Jim Comey

What we know this morning from The Guardian, The Intercept; and The New York Times.

Senator Angus King (I-Maine), realizing that Comey was now available for other employment, has this great idea:

As the fallout from the unexpected firing of James Comey on Tuesday continues to rock Washington, Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) suggested a new job for the ousted FBI director: leading the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia.

“I think the intelligence committee ought to hire James Comey to direct our investigation,” King said during a Wednesday morning appearance on CNN’s New Day. “I’m going to float that today and see what kind of reaction I get.”

King, who sits on the committee, argued that Comey would be a good fit for the position. “Already got his clearances,” he said. “Knows the subject. Man of integrity.”

Bar none, however, this will go down as the definitive comment on the firing of James Comey:

When you run a for-profit business there is only one rule: do all that you can to maximize your profits. That generally means shaving corners in ways that keep you ahead of your competitors and if those corners involve potential injury and risking legal action, well, you have to weight the potential profits against the potential losses. If nothing goes wrong, or if you don’t get caught, well you’re golden.

No for-profit enterprise can ever be safe. Safer, yes, but never safe.

Some however, are more dangerous than others.

Sam Levin, reporting in Dakota Access pipeline has first leak before fully operational for The Guardian, writes:

The Dakota Access pipeline has suffered its first leak, outraging indigenous groups who have long warned that the project poses a threat to the environment.

The $3.8bn oil pipeline, which sparked international protests last year and is not yet fully operational, spilled 84 gallons of crude oil at a South Dakota pump station, according to government regulators.

Although state officials said the 6 April leak was contained and quickly cleaned, critics of the project said the spill, which occurred as the pipeline is in the final stages of preparing to transport oil, raises fresh concerns about the potential hazards to waterways and Native American sites.

“They keep telling everybody that it is state of the art, that leaks won’t happen, that nothing can go wrong,” said Jan Hasselman, a lawyer for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which has been fighting the project for years. “It’s always been false. They haven’t even turned the thing on and it’s shown to be false.”

Everyone involved, from President Donald John Trump down the workers actually laying the pipe, knew that to be the case. The people at the top were just betting that the odds were in their favor.

Meanwhile, in Ohio: FERC stops some drilling for Rover Pipeline.

Part II

Zaid Jilani, reporting in Jimmy Carter and Bernie Sanders Explain How Inequality Breeds Authoritarianism for The Intercept, writes:

On Monday night, one day after the far-right Marine Le Pen lost France’s presidential election but garnered a record number of votes for her political party, Bernie Sanders and Jimmy Carter sat down together to discuss rising authoritarianism across the globe.

The two spoke at the Carter Center, in a discussion that was streamed online.

Asked by the moderator about the rise of authoritarian politics in the United States and elsewhere, both the Vermont senator and former president agreed on a single root cause: political and economic inequality.

“I think the root of it is something that I haven’t heard discussed much,” Carter replied. “I believe the root of the downturn in human rights preceded 2016, it began earlier than that, and I think the reason was disparity in income which has been translated into the average person, you know good, decent, hard-working middle class people feeling that they are getting cheated by the government and by society and they don’t get the same element of health care, they don’t get the same quality education, they don’t get the same political rights.”

“I agree with everything that President Carter said,” Sanders replied.

“Look, here is the situation. You got all over this country tens of millions of people who are extremely angry and they are disappointed. Now we all know as a result of technology workers are producing more today than they did 20 or 30 years ago. Yet despite that you’re seeing people work not 40 hours a week, they’re working 50 or 60 hours a week. Their wages are actually going down!”

Carter and Sanders’s belief that inequality breeds authoritarianism is backed by evidence from France’s recent election.

A post-election examination of France’s presidential contest by the New York Times found that Le Pen’s support “was strongest in areas with high unemployment and low wages.” A regression analysis by The Economist came to similar conclusions.

Sanders and Carter disagreed on little during the night’s discussion, leading the former president to admit who he supported in the Democratic presidential primary.

“Do y’all see why I voted for him?” Carter joked, as the audience laughed.

Yes we do, Mr. President. President Cater is the only president of the United States for which I have voted twice.

Of course, Stephen Colbert also had a few choice words.

What we know this morning: “Our Democracy Is in Danger”: Key Reactions to Donald Trump’s Firing of FBI Director James Comey; and Donald Trump fires FBI director, raising questions over Russia investigation: US president cites Comey’s handling of Clinton email investigation.

James Comey is only the second director of the FBI to be removed.

No, not this Clinton, THIS Clinton.

Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown has a plan for fixing the North American Free Trade Agreement. He writes:

I have spent my entire career fighting for a trade policy that puts Ohio workers first. Two days after last November’s election, I called the president-elect’s transition team and offered to work with them to make good on his campaign promise to renegotiate NAFTA.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve held roundtables with workers across Ohio to get their input and hear what they believe that should look like. Last Monday, I sent a letter to President Trump outlining a strategy for renegotiating NAFTA, to secure the best deal for Ohio workers. The plan has four key parts, including new strategies that the U.S. hasn’t used in past trade deal negotiations.

First, we need secure up front commitments from Mexico and Canada on anti-outsourcing provisions and Buy America protections before even beginning negotiations.

We know what causes outsourcing: low wages, exploited workers, and weak, or non-existent, environmental protections in other countries. That’s why we need commitments from our trading partners to secure strict worker protections before we even sit down at the negotiating table.

Next, we can’t pit American workers and industries against each other. The administration should develop individualized negotiating strategies for manufacturing sectors that have been hurt by outsourcing.

American workers shouldn’t be horse-traded simply for the sake of cutting a deal.

Of course, even good trade deals mean nothing if they aren’t enforced. Any new deal must also include more meaningful enforcement tools for American workers, and do away with special courts that allow multi-national corporations to undermine U.S. laws and take advantage of American workers.

Finally, we need to include workers in the negotiations. Time after time, we’ve seen corporate lobbyists writing trade deals behind closed doors, while American workers are locked out. That’s how we end up with trade agreement after trade agreement that sells out workers.

American jobs shouldn’t be up for negotiation, and American workers can’t be traded away as bargaining chips. By setting high standards, putting workers ahead of corporations, and refusing to compromise on outsourcing, we can create the best possible deal for all American workers.

Sherrod

Good luck with that senator. There is a bigger problem here, pointed out to me this morning by Cleveland’s treasure Roldo Bartimole quoting Cleveland Mayor Tom Johnson. Elizabeth J. Hauser, editor of Johnson’s biography My Story, wrote in the books final chapter:

One night John Paul said a suggestive thing. It was a sort of a fable, a dream—I don’t know what he called it; but it had been ringing in my ears every since and I am going to try to tell if to you. John Paul said there was a certain river and that many human beings were in it, struggling to get to the shore. Some succeeded, some were pulled ashore by kind-hearted people on the banks. But many were carried down the stream and drowned. It is no doubt a wise thing, it is noble that under those conditions charitable people devote themselves to helping the victims out of the water. But John Paul said it would be better if some of those kindly people on the shore engaged in rescue work, would go up the stream and find out who was pushing the people into it. I could not help but follow that thought. We single taxers, while ready to help pull the struggling ones out, feel something urging us up the river to see who is pushing the people into the river to drown.

“It is in this way that I would answer those who ask us to help the poor. Let us help them, that they may at the last fight the battle of Privilege with more strength and courage; but let us never lose sight of our mission up the river to see who is pushing the people in.

Some of us need to head up river now.

[Update @ 1928—Oh, this is rich:

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) claimed on Monday that its online comments system was attacked hours after comedian John Oliver called on viewers of his HBO series Last Week Tonight to file comments to urge the agency to protect open internet rules.

The clowns at the FCC wouldn’t know a DoS attack if it punched them in cock holster.]

[Update @ 1618—I finally got through and left this comment:

Under no circumstances should any corporation be allowed to profit from use of the public communication system, specifically the Internet, more than any other corporation, entity, organization or individual.

Net Neutrality means just that: no favor nor special access.

Video views are now at 926,388; likes/dislikes are 71,481/993 and comments are at 4,536.]

And keep those serves crashing by going to gofccyourself.com

Melissa Locker, reporting in John Oliver Wants You to Flood the FCC Website to Save Net Neutrality, Again for Time, writes:

“The Internet is the repository of all human knowledge — and goats singing Taylor Swift songs,” said John Oliver on Last Week Tonight, rejoicing in the fact that the Internet is an incredible place. However, according to Oliver, that is threatened by the Trump administration’s decision to roll back protections for net neutrality.

If you don’t recall the fifth-ever episode of Last Week Tonight, where Oliver also discussed net neutrality, it is the idea that Internet service providers (ISPs) cannot limit, slow down access to, or otherwise manipulate the choices that consumers make online by slowing down access to less popular sites. In short, they have to treat all websites as equal. For instance, Ancestry.com and Oliver’s new website, JustTellMeIfImRelatedToANazi.com (which, by the way, directs to the Federal Communications Commission’s site). In short, net neutrality makes the Internet a level playing field. However the Trump administration has decided to roll back Obama-era rules safeguarding net neutrality, which doesn’t surprise Oliver, who also wouldn’t be surprised if “Trump purposefully killed every turkey that Obama ever pardoned.”

The person leading the charge to roll back net neutrality is President Trump’s new FCC Chair, Ajit Pai, a former lawyer for Verizon. According to Oliver, Pai has reportedly suggested that ISPs could simply promise not to obstruct or slow consumer access to websites in their terms of services (those long technical rules that no one reads), and as Oliver notes, “That would make net neutrality as binding as a proposal on The Bachelor.”

Net neutrality could be protected by an act of Congress, but Oliver does not trust this Congress or any Congress to handle such a complex and technical issue. Instead, Oliver believes that anyone who loves the Internet needs to speak up and make sure the FCC knows that net neutrality is important. To make that easy, Oliver bought the website GoFCCYourself.com which leads directly to the FCC’s public comment area.

As of 0606 this morning, the servers are crashed and 165,400 people have viewed the video and 1,333 have left comments on Oliver’s YouTube account.

This is going to be another good day for We The People tired of corporate fuckery.

Last week, in my continuing coverage of the barbaric lashing and imprisonment of blogger Raif Badawi, I posted an update from The New Arab: Saudi Arabia sentences man to death for ‘insulting religion.` The story tells us that:

A court in eastern city of Hafar al-Batin handed down the sentence to Ahmad al-Shamri last week, two years after he was arrested for apostasy.

Shamri, who is in his twenties, was reportedly sentenced to death in February 2015 for posting videos on Kik Messenger of himself “insulting God, the Prophet Muhammad, the Prophet’s daughter Fatima, ripping up the Quran and hitting it with a shoe”.

Shamri perpetrated his crime against gawd at about the same time that Stephen Fry gave the interview with Gay Byrne for RTÉ One’s The Meaning of Life excerpted above.

Now, more than two years later Shamri has lost his second appeal and Fry is being brought up on blasphemy charges, not in Saudi Arabia, where we shrug off such medieval bullshit because the House of Saud is our valued ally and, well, you know, Islam, but in Ireland.

Pádraig Collins, reporting in Stephen Fry investigated by Irish police for alleged blasphemy for The Guardian, writes:

Police in Ireland are investigating a complaint of blasphemy regarding comments made by Stephen Fry on a television programme shown on Ireland’s state broadcaster, RTÉ.

Gardaí (police) in Dublin have contacted the man who reported the allegation following a broadcast in February 2015, and a full investigation is due to be carried out, the Irish Independent reported.

Under Ireland’s Defamation Act 2009 a person who publishes or utters blasphemous material “shall be guilty of an offence”. A conviction can lead to a fine of up to €25,000.

That this is not some archaic ecclesiastical edict dating from the last millennium, but a secular law only on the books for less than six years makes the charge all the more horrendous. Collins continues:

A member of the public, who asked not to be identified, said he made the complaint against Fry more than two years ago at Ennis garda station in County Clare.“I told the Garda I wanted to report Fry for uttering blasphemy and RTÉ for publishing/broadcasting it and that I believed these were criminal offences under the Defamation Act 2009.

“The garda then took a formal written statement from me in which I quoted Fry’s comments in detail. This written statement mentioned both Fry and RTÉ specifically.”

He said he was asked by the garda if he had been personally offended by the programme and if he wished to include this in the written statement.

“I told the garda that I did not want to include this as I had not personally been offended by Fry’s comments – I added that I simply believed that the comments made by Fry on RTÉ were criminal blasphemy and that I was doing my civic duty by reporting a crime.”

After hearing nothing for 18 months, the complainant wrote to the head of the Irish police, Commissioner Noirín O’Sullivan, “asking if the crime I reported was being followed up. A few weeks later I got a standard ‘we have received your letter’ from her secretary.”

But recently the man was contacted by a detective from Donnybrook garda station in Dublin (the same suburb where RTÉ is headquartered) to say they were looking into the blasphemy claim. “He said he might have to meet me to take a new more detailed statement.”

The No. 1 comment on Collins’ story (with 684 likes) comes from Iliaska who wrote:

In the 21st century, could we just prosecute whoever attempts to prosecute someone for “blasphemy?” This very notion has to go.

Hear, hear!