Intellectual Property Stakeholders Doesn't Include Consumers

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/20...content-fbi.ars

I'd dare say this is even worse than what we had under the last administration.

How can a meeting on Intellectual Property Stakeholders not include the people who actually buy the products? This is crap.

Wow... bizarre to invite only the industry people and to forget even the tech business into the fold.

🤦

very, very disappointing.

We have a government of the corporation, by the corporation, and for the corporation, and that's on BOTH sides of the aisle. The only difference between the parties is the names of the corporations in whose pockets our representatives reside.

http://www.opensecrets.org/

I didn't follow the money on this one. Just can't be arsed to do it this time. I'll just assume the usual for now and resume my previously scheduled disgust.

The money is easy. I found it before Obama/Biden was elected and posted here. Biden was bought and paid for by big media. He was one of their top donation recipients as a senator.

Atomm wrote:The money is easy. I found it before Obama/Biden was elected and posted here. Biden was bought and paid for by big media. He was one of their top donation recipients as a senator.

If I had any faith in ppl left in me, this sort of thing would crush it. This is what our leaders, the people we elect to represent us, our "best and brightest", are: Whores. As George Bernard Shaw said, we've already established what they are, the rest is haggling over price. . .and the price they're willing to sell their country down the river for is low enough that it disappoints even me.

Granted, several hundred-thousand, or a few million, are big bucks for most ppl. Ppl have been murdered over far, far less. Still, fucking over an entire nation should take more than that paid in smaller amounts on a long-term installment plan. It should take much more than that. Hell, that money isn't even supposed to go into their pockets - it's for campaigning. So they take money and sell out so they can win elections and take money and sell out some more. I guess that many of them go into politics simply to get in a position to sell their vote. I find it hard to believe that it would happen so often if they were good-intentioned ppl.

Where have you gone, Jesse Unrah?

The thing is, I don't believe that any of the people in Congress and government in general (or most of them anyhow) are inherently evil. I think that they all believe that they are doing what's best for the country. However, where the system falls flat on it's ass, is that they are making decisions daily on stuff that they don't know anything about and rely on others to tell them what is wrong or right. That's where lobbyists come into the picture, and most of those people are evil because they they will sell whatever their client asks them to no matter what the impact on the country is. The more money you have, the more lobbyists you can hire to share your perspective with those that make the decisions.

It's a lot more than this, but as the sage Doc said, "Just can't be arsed to do it this time. I'll just assume the usual for now and resume my previously scheduled disgust."

Sarge wrote:The thing is, I don't believe that any of the people in Congress and government in general (or most of them anyhow) are inherently evil. I think that they all believe that they are doing what's best for the country. However, where the system falls flat on it's ass, is that they are making decisions daily on stuff that they don't know anything about and rely on others to tell them what is wrong or right. That's where lobbyists come into the picture, and most of those people are evil because they they will sell whatever their client asks them to no matter what the impact on the country is. The more money you have, the more lobbyists you can hire to share your perspective with those that make the decisions.

A bit of an epiphany here for me, perhaps. I always assume that these ppl are, in general, more knowledgeable than I, and perhaps more competent. I'm wondering if my base assumption here is far off, and that they're just average guys with an overinflated sense of their own ability. They take in the info that they're fed from lobbyists and run with that info, thinking they are capable of making a good, impartial decision after having been fed biased info ,and money, on a steady basis. Their self-confidence blinds them to their faults, and allows them to push forward with the most idiotic of ideas with the utmost confidence that they are right.

Yup, sounds like politicians.

DocJon wrote:I'm wondering if my base assumption here is far off, and that they're just average guys with an overinflated sense of their own ability. They take in the info that they're fed from lobbyists and run with that info, thinking they are capable of making a good, impartial decision after having been fed biased info ,and money, on a steady basis. Their self-confidence blinds them to their faults, and allows them to push forward with the most idiotic of ideas with the utmost confidence that they are right.

Yup, sounds like politicians.

This is EXACTLY what they are DOC. I never said they were evil, but most of them are very stupid!
That is the reason I get so damn fucking frustrated, they pass bills loaded with shit loads of pork and they just don't care. They do NOT F-IN CARE!!!!!! Their attitude is "So what if it adds another few billion, that is just a drop in the bucket from what we spend right?" THIS is that attitude, on both sides mind you, that gets me all fired up on this stuff.

They just passed another defense bill that sounds great, yes support the troops and all of that. It is filled with PORK.

They ordered way more equipment than the Pentagon asked for, WHY????

"The bill, however, would add $1.7 billion for an extra destroyer the Defense Department did not request and $2.5 billion for 10 C-17 cargo planes it did not want, at the behest of lawmakers representing the states where those items would be built."*


Why add 9 (I believe) more fighter jets at millions of dollars each? Lets add another destroyer, who cares.. I CARE!!! If the Pentagon itself did not ask for it, then why spend it? Lobbyists that's why.. This shit has to STOP!!!

*http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/28/AR2009092803862_pf.html