You Win Some, You Lose Some

Net neutrality? Done! Finished!  Even though five out of six Americans supported keeping it, Federal  Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said no and nixed it.  Now Internet service providers will get to do with Uncle Charlie's blessing all of the nasty, evil things I kept talking about.

Fortunately, we don't have to worry about paying extra for content or getting our blogs blocked just yet.  Many pro-Net neutrality groups are immediately calling on Congress to stop Pai under the provisions of the Congressional Review Act, which allows the legislative branch to review bureaucratic regulatory actions, and New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is already suing the FCC to stop the rollback.

And how about Doug Jones's victory in the U.S. Senate special Alabama?  Roy Moore's personal issues obviously had a lot to do with it, but a growing distrust of Trump and of his poisonous populism turned off important demographic groups, like white women with college degrees and independents, and most Alabama voters said that pedophilia allegations against Moore were not an important factor in their decision - mainly, no doubt, because there were so many other factors that turned them against Moore. Like when he said slavery was a force for preserving black families?  Or that homosexuality should be criminalized?  Imagine being too reactionary even for Alabama . . . and you imagine Roy Moore.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell won't allow Jones to be seated before the vote on the tax bill, likely on the grounds that Jones was not involved in the debate and so should not vote on the legislation - even though he demanded - and got - the seating of Scott Brown of Massachusetts after a special election in 2010 to get the 41st vote for a filibuster against health care reform legislation (which the Democrats managed to get passed in the filibuster-proof reconciliation process) when Senate Republicans were in the minority.  But keeping Jones out until after the tax reform vote may not help; a few Republican senators have expressed doubts about the final bill.  That smooth path to passage may not be so smooth after all; Trump may end up being able to sign it by Christmas, provided he means Eastern Orthodox Christmas (January 7).   But then Trump loves people who celebrate Christmas thirteen days later, like the Greeks; he once proposed that more Greeks be able to emigrate here after Greece's economy tanked big time.  

You don't suppose that was because Greece is a so-called white country, do you?

Things are getting more interesting . . ..  

You win some, you lose some . . ..