evanFFTF

It can get bad. Really bad. But the worst part is that you might not even notice it happening. It's really unlikely that Comcast or Verizon are just going to start blocking websites today (although the FCC repeal gives them the legal ability to do so.) They know that they're being watched: by Congress, by the courts, and by all of us.

But over time, they'll all start trying to push the limits. They'll see how far they can go, and how much they can squeeze us all for more money to access less Internet. They'll pick winners and losers by cutting deals with the largest Internet companies (Facebook, Google, and Amazon) which over time will lead to more centralization, more censorship, and less choice online.

So the Internet is not going to come to a crashing halt, but the weird, awesome, diverse, cool Internet that we know and love, is slowly dying, starting right now, and its up to all of us to get Congress to bring it back.

There are so many reasons to choose from, but for me the #1 problem is that the completely non-transparent process surrounding these types of "trade" deals make them a perfect venue for corporations to push for policies that they know they could never get passed if they did them out in the open through traditional legislative means. The extreme secrecy surrounding the negotiations, and the fact that hundreds of corporate advisors get to sit in closed-door meetings with government officials while the public, journalists, and experts are locked out inevitably results in a deal that is super unbalanced and favors the rights of giant corporations over the rights of average people, small businesses, start-ups, etc. So, while there's a laundry list of problems with the TPP text itself, from the ways that it would enable more online censorship to the serious issues surrounding job loss and medicine access, for me the biggest issue is with the whole process itself: this is just an unacceptable way to be making policy in the modern age.

I'm not a legal expert -- but I'd say you're probably right there is little chance he'll be prosecuted. That said, there is a very good chance that this phony DDoS attack saga will continue to haunt him, and could hasten his departure from the FCC. Perhaps more importantly, it will almost definitely be the subject of litigation, and could eventually lead to a judge overturning the FCC repeal based on the fact that the agency failed to maintain a functional way for the public to have input into their proceeding. It's something we should all be speaking out about and demanding our members of Congress DO SOMETHING about. They are supposed to provide oversight for the FCC. That's their job. Call your rep and ask what they're doing about the fact that Ajit Pai lied to them. Tell them to sign the discharge petition and vote for the CRA resolution to restore net neutrality.

Sure. I actually have a six year old, and this is how I explained it to her: The TPP is global deal that was worked out in secret. So basically a bunch of corporate lobbyists and government officials sat in secret meetings, where no one could see what they were doing, and wrote rules that are going to affect all of us, without our input. The rules affect everything from jobs and wages to what we can do on the Internet to environmental standards to how much medicine costs. They wrote all the rules in secret and now they've released them, but before they can go into effect and become law, Congress has to approve it. The goal of the Rock Against the TPP tour is to raise awareness so that enough people know what's happening to make sure that Congress never does that.

It's Congress job to represent the American public, and in order to do that they need to hear from us. They hear from corporate lobbyists ALL THE TIME who drop by their offices, have their personal cell phones etc. The tools we at FFTF build are designed to give the general public that same level of access to Congress.

So yeah, i guess i'd have to say #SorryNotSorry :-)

I'll let others answer the first part of the question. Thanks for asking!