Slashdot Mirror
Internet Activists Urge Congress to Fire Trump's FCC Chief Ajit Pai (vice.com)
Open internet advocates and Democratic lawmakers are mounting a last-ditch effort to remove Federal Communications Commission chief Ajit Pai over his anti-net neutrality stance, just days before Pai is set to be approved by the Senate for a new term. From a report: Since being elevated by President Trump to lead the FCC in January, Pai has become the bete noire of open internet advocates for a variety of anti-consumer actions, but none more so than his crusade to kill federal rules protecting net neutrality, the principle that all internet content should be equally accessible to consumers. [...] During a blistering floor speech on Thursday, Sen. Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat, portrayed Pai, a Republican former Verizon lawyer, as an industry stooge who has worked relentlessly to deliver gift after gift to the nation's largest broadband companies. "Mr. Pai has a long track record of putting big cable before consumers, big corporations above small businesses, and pay-to-play over the free and open internet," Wyden wrote in a blog post accompanying his speech. Free Press, a DC-based public interest group, has also launched a campaign to pressure the Senate to "fire Pai," citing his proposal to kill the FCC's net neutrality policy and other anti-consumer actions. But if reconfirmed, Pai is expected to try to ram through his plan to torpedo the FCC's net neutrality rules before the end of the year. "Rehiring Pai to head the agency that oversees US communications policies would be a boon for the phone and cable companies he eagerly serves," Tim Karr, Free Press Senior Director of Strategy, wrote in a blog post.
I see a lot of people whining about the FCC's stance turning around and gloating about corporate freedom everytime Apple/Google/Twitter/Facebook/Cloudflare takes down or censors another White nationalist app or alt-right website.
but I doubt it's going to happen for two reasons. First is that the FCC isn't one of those headlining institutions that the GOP cares about. In fact, they'd rather it all just go away right now because they can't be bothered to govern let alone care about governing. So as long as Pai isn't causing it to rain on their parade, they couldn't care less. And second, I'm pretty certain if it came down to a close vote there would be more than enough lobbying action on his behalf to see him through. There's a lot of moneyed interests that want to keep him that post.
Not to mention that if does deliver on this agenda there's probably a pretty cushy job waiting for him with whichever telecom or cable operator he chooses when it's all over.
You were probably taught Modern French, not Old French, in high school. We're talking about Old French here, because we're discussing the etymology of the phrase "bete noire".
Since we're looking at the origin of the phrase, and it's an ancient phrase, we need to look to the meaning of the word "bete" in Old French, and not its meaning in Modern French.
There are similar situations involving words derived from Old English where the earlier definition differs from the more common Modern English definition, and often in ways that we wouldn't expect.
For example, the Modern English word "weapon" is derived from an Old English word that meant "penis".
Another example is the Modern English word "tweezers". It's also derived from an old English word that meant "penis".
English is a fascinating language, especially when it comes to how it has borrowed from so many other languages. French is also fascinating, although it doesn't derive as many words from non-Latin sources. Both exhibit many modern words that have very unexpected original meanings.
Many words that are seen as innocent today were originally used to describe very primal things or actions such as the penis, the anus, intercourse, defecation, and so forth.