Another self-angradizzing douchenozzle whose lips are super glued on the assholes of AT&T and Comcast CEOs.

I'm not even from that country and think fuck all those guys!

I thought Republicans were in favor of the state rights?

The tenth amendment preserves states rights and I could see the proposal getting struck down in court, particularly in the 9th circuit which has been striking down every other rule from this administration.

"During his speech, O'Reilly attacked those defending privacy protections and net neutrality as part of a 'progressive agenda to vanquish capitalism and economic liberty.'

This man thinks that you Americans are all as dumb as Fred Phelps, Pat Roberston, and Roy Moore...

That's pretty insulting, but to be expected from the post-Goldwater GOP and from the warmongering neoconservative corporate "Democrats".

As far as I'm concerned, letting consumers, rather than monopolists and oligarchs, choose the services and the content that they wish to use, produce, and consume over the Internet on a fair and equal playing field is, in fact, a quintessential example of 'capitalism', 'economic liberty', and the 'free market' in action.

To suggest the opposite is as Orwellian as anything to have ever come out of Josef Stalin or Nicolae Ceausescu's asshole.

My formal knowledge in economics is limited to a first-year university course that I did reasonably well in and to whatever popular media and literature I've read ersatz about the subject, but the ability of a monopoly or an oligopoly to arbitrarily restrict supply, demand, price, and consumer choice is a special case of a negative externality impeding with the proper operation of the free market known as "market failure".

In this particular case, nobody can credibly argue that there is any meaningful social or economic benefit to be derived from allowing the free market to be hindered, and, as such, any credible economist, irrespective of other political or philosophical considerations, would argue for a regulatory framework that would prevent the monopolists and the oligarchs from interfering with the free market.

What many incumbent telco shills and self-described "conservatives" and "libertarians" (in practice, though, far-right corporatists) fail to understand here is that, in a monopoly situation, especially with respect to infrastructure, it is not only the government, but also private sector actors, that can interfere with the operation of the free market. They may condemn the big bad government for "picking winners and losers", but, in cases such as this, it is private-sector actors with no democratic accountability beyond bottom line and, perhaps, shareholder value that are doing the picking.

In a liberal democracy, it thus becomes the obligation of democratically-elected governments, acting as tribunes for and stewards of the interests of the governed and of the political community as a whole (see Jean-Jacques Rousseau's concept of 'general will' vs 'particular will'), to correct this problem through effective intervening regulation, whether that be forcing the telcos to open their networks to third-party ISPs, whether that be a functional separation between those who own and operate the telecommunications networks and those who provide products, consumer and business services, and content over the networks, or whether that be full-on state ownership of these networks.

Each political community must be empowered to choose the path that is right for the them in this respect, but it seems as though American "conservatives" still only care about "state rights", devolution, local option, and decentralized power when they can use them as dog whistles with which to retain dry counties, harass cannabis users, and beat up on African-Americans and the LGBTQ community.

Russia flying planes closer and closer to the US and sailing spy ships 30 miles off of Connecticut, overtime pay laws being reworked in favor of corporations, the head of the Dept of Education is a dumb ass and we have a tantrum-throwing toddler as "president". This FCC is just symptomatic of where we are as a nation. Democrat / Republican....doesn't matter. They are both keeping people in The Matrix.

it always astonishes me how politicians can get away with using groundless long ago disproven buzzwords to justify their positions.

they assume voters are so stupid and have such a short attention span, that voters are unable to see past politician soundbites.

like every time some talking head on fox news hints at some justification from "trickle down economics" it makes me nauseous

Screaming "states rights....when Democrats are in power but as soon as the GOP wins screw state rights you must obey and don't you dare raise your voice or else " Jesus and people still believe this clowns? But the kicker is this line "progressive agenda to vanquish capitalism and economic liberty."= for who is this economic liberty for ? Yes for those oppressed CEO's and mega companies. But for you average consumers "screw you for wanting to be treated like a person and not a silent ATM machine".

I miss Wheeler more and more every day.

Is the federal government going to tell a city what ISPs they have to allow and what behaviors they must accept? Yeah no.

....the party tells you what to do (or in this case that party, tells this (GOP) party) how to control the peoples choice, how to mute the peoples voice.
when congress long fails to act, those in homes and cities and states, must rise up and voice out LOUD, to voice our conscience to the crowd
to protect our RIGHTS, to stand our ground.

Call AND/OR write* the FCC, your congresspersons, senators on the state and local level TODAY and INSIST they protect OUR RIGHTS FIRST.

*no gun required, the pen is truly mightier than the sword