I'm reminded of the old saying that applies to the FCC and the bozo in charge: "Don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up."
Smut site fingered as 'source' of a million US net neutrality comments
An analysis of comments submitted to the United States Federal Communications Commission's consultation on the future of the nation's net neutrality rules has shown the whole process of public comments was fatally flawed. Speaking at the Shmoocon hacking conference in Washington DC, Leah Figueroa, lead data engineer at data …
COMMENTS
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Monday 22nd January 2018 06:38 GMT Shadow Systems
I weep for my country...
Our Founding Fathers must be spinning in their graves every time they see what the powers that be have done to this place, and then curse fit to make a hardened sailor blanche when they see what said powers are doing to the rest of the world in turn.
As a member of We The People please accept my sorrow over what they've done, what they're doing, and that I can't join in the armed revolution that needs to happen in order to put us back on track.
I can only hope that things will get better soon, but said optimism is greatly countered by the pessimism that it will get very worse before it can ever hope to start.
Sometimes I think our government is a cancer on the world in dire need of being excized, cauterized, sterilized, & chucked in the fire before it kills us all.
To the rest of the world, please accept my appollogies for my government. It's not much but it's all we've got. And before you crow about how much better yours is, please put your own political house in order before casting the first stone.
=-(
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Monday 22nd January 2018 06:51 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: I weep for my country...
SS, I see Trump's election as the system working as intended. He is a badly needed purgative, and the results are most promising so far. Sure, we really dodged a bullet with Hillary, who almost achieved total power, but it didn't happen. Instead we get a few more years of grace, and maybe, just maybe, we can fix the systemic problems that almost let one party become the Permanent Party.
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Monday 22nd January 2018 09:49 GMT P. Lee
Re: I weep for my country...
Wikipedia:
Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life
I think you are just throwing unpleasant words around without knowing what they mean.
The FCC is failing to regulate, not over-regulating. In this case, the lack of competition in the isp market indicates a requirement for them to step in.
By definition, totalitarianism means an increase in government intervention. If you want to get political, ask who tries to do that.
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Monday 22nd January 2018 11:03 GMT Anonymous Coward
"strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life"
Not so easily today. Sometime totalitarianism can have a degree of economical laissez-faire - of course as long as you're on the government side (and bribe them enough), just look at China or Russia. Often they explicitly don't regulate what other democratic countries believes needs regulation (monopolies, workers' rights, pollution, IP, etc:) because it would bound the power of the oligarchies.
Marxist totalitarianism, and their obsession for regulations because of the ideals of a new society, are just a kind of totalitarianism - other kinds exist - less idealist, maybe, more mafia-like probably, but not less dangerous.
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Monday 22nd January 2018 12:27 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: "strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life"
"Sometime totalitarianism can have a degree of economical laissez-faire "
Parties on the right often seem to be libertarian when it comes to maximising profit for a few - while doing everything they can to stop ordinary people doing things.
Margaret Thatcher pursued economic libertarian aims - and was disappointed it did not result in an resurgence of Victorian philanthropy. At the same time she attempted to remove workers rights - and Clause 28 restricted people's private lives.
So it appears with the GOP. Cut taxation on corporations; allow pollution of the environment of ordinary people; stop women having rights over their own bodies; impose biblical dogma on people's sexuality.
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Tuesday 23rd January 2018 00:50 GMT Clunking Fist
Re: "strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life"
"stop women having rights over their own bodies"
Meh. No rights have been removed. Merely the funding. There's no funding for gay marriage or my spectacles, why funding for abortion? I'm all for the right to abortion, but I'm not paying for your shoes, so why this?
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Tuesday 23rd January 2018 16:37 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: "strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life"
Meh. No rights have been removed. Merely the funding
Not just the funding. Conservative "christian" lawmakers keep pushing more and more restrictions on getting an abortion. It's pretty obvious. Every time they advance a regulation [don't you just hate restrictive government regulations? Oh that's right - only when they apply to corporations] and laws "protecting unborn children" they're making it harder to get abortions.
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Monday 22nd January 2018 13:21 GMT inmypjs
Re: I weep for my country...
"the lack of competition in the isp market indicates a requirement for them to step in."
Yes, but, net neutrality discourages competition so in this case stepping out is the right thing to do.
As I understand it the FCC still has plenty of powers to deal with abuse of monopoly.
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Sunday 28th January 2018 16:53 GMT Alan Brown
Re: I weep for my country...
> Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life
Look up "corporatism", "mercantilism" and "Inverted totalitarianism"
Incidentally, the "land of the free" is one of the least free countries out there and falls a very very long way down the list on both human rights and quality of life. It's a bit like seeing countries called "democratic republic" or "people's republic", which tend to be neither.
And that's without even going into the intricacies of a national anthem which has verses celebrating the persecution of slaves.
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Monday 22nd January 2018 12:15 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: I weep for my country...
So how come the downtrodden, penniless and powerless Democrats have managed to bring the US of A to a complete grinding halt then? Funny how it was all the fault of the evil GOP when Obama managed to screw up the budget but now it's the fault of the GOP because... oh wait, it wasn't them stopped it this time. Oh dear, that's not going to help the wasteful leftie policies that have all but driven the UKs economy into the ground have the same effect on the other side of the pond...
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Monday 22nd January 2018 16:22 GMT Mike Moyle
Re: I weep for my country...
"You mean the GOP who currently hold all the branches of power and are taking political control of the judiciary? That way lies a totalitarian state."
...and whose demonstrated rampant gerrymandering and voter suppression are intended to create a "Permanent Party".
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Monday 22nd January 2018 16:18 GMT Shadow Systems
At Big John, re: Trump.
Let us agree to disagree on that one.
I've tried to rewrite this post three times now to "dial back" the vitriol, so I'm forced to leave it like this:
The TL;DR version: Trump is the visible expression of a deep cancerous ailment that needed to be scooped out, cauterized, sterilized, & ejected into space a very long time ago.
We are well & truely fucked. =-(
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Monday 22nd January 2018 16:35 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: At Big John, re: Trump.
SS sez:
"Trump is the visible expression of a deep cancerous ailment that needed to be scooped out, cauterized, sterilized, & ejected into space a very long time ago."
This is your dialed back, sanitized version? So what's the full version? Put the entire Trump family up against the wall? Send all who voted for him (that deep cancerous ailment) to the camps? Or maybe just have them "reeducated"?
Do tell SS, and please don't dial back.
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Sunday 28th January 2018 17:03 GMT Alan Brown
Re: At Big John, re: Trump.
"Trump is the visible expression of a ..."
There have been 3 past presidents like Trump. In every case there was a short uptick in the USA economy followed by a prolonged and deep recession.
As you say, Trump is the visible expression but the problem runs far deeper in the structure of the current american system.
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Monday 22nd January 2018 06:58 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: I weep for my country...
" and that I can't join in the armed revolution that needs to happen in order to put us back on track."
History suggests that the resulting chaos often allows a possibly even worse regime to take power.
Like many areas of concern it is education of the masses that leads to a society with checks and balances that work by mutual consent.
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Monday 22nd January 2018 17:49 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: I weep for my country...
"History suggests that the resulting chaos often allows a possibly even worse regime to take power."
You are 100% correct!
History has also shown that Non Violent Protest is highly effective.
There are many examples, but one that comes to mind for more recent changes to oppressive regimes is Gene Sharp's "Albert Einstein Institution".
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Tuesday 23rd January 2018 16:23 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: I weep for my country...
Like many areas of concern it is education of the masses that leads to a society with checks and balances that work by mutual consent.
Good thing then that the Republicans are intent on removing education for all but the wealthy (via increasing public college fees, stripping away public school funding, and promoting for-profit education)
It even took Pence to cast the vote to confirm Betsy DaVros
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Monday 22nd January 2018 13:18 GMT inmypjs
Re: I weep for my country...
OMG how pathetic.
In this case your government has rightly decided it is better to butt out and not interfere with business and the market. Generally the less governments do the better but it is making you cry.
You are making me cry, just can't decide if it is with sadness or laughter.
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Sunday 28th January 2018 16:58 GMT Alan Brown
Re: I weep for my country...
"In this case your government has rightly decided it is better to butt out and not interfere with business and the market. "
That would be the same government which has for the most part passed legislation and regulation ensuring that only one business is IN any particular geographic market.
Net Neutrality rules would not be needed if there was competition for supply. Across most of the USA, there isn't and consumers are faced with legislated monopolies.
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Monday 22nd January 2018 07:00 GMT Lysenko
Re: American democracy
The USA has only ever been a democracy on paper. It is a de facto Plutocracy, as guaranteed by the First Amendment and Corporate Personhood. It is meaningless to give everyone an equal right to speak if the right to be heard is auctioned to the highest bidder.
That's why there are only two viable parties today and it is only a matter of time before a sufficiently powerful coalition of billionaires assemble to completely monopolize political campaigning and create a one-party state. Practical electoral choice only exists today because there is still a factional split between the few dozen individuals and corporations who determine who gets elected.
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Monday 22nd January 2018 12:35 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: American democracy
"It is a de facto Plutocracy, as guaranteed by the First Amendment and Corporate Personhood. "
IIRC the Founding Fathers initially gave everyone an equal voice in the passing of laws. They quickly changed the system when "the people" voted for the wealth of the upper classes - which included the Founding Fathers - to be redistributed to "the people".
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Wednesday 24th January 2018 16:20 GMT Charles 9
Re: American democracy
"IIRC the Founding Fathers initially gave everyone an equal voice in the passing of laws."
Nope, the original Constitution didn't have universal suffrage (that really didn't hit until the 19th Amendment granted the vote to women; the 15th granted it to all men, and the 26th lowered the age to 18 to reflect draft injustices). To be able to vote originally, you had to be a landowner (IOW, have actual skin in the game). The Industrial Revolution IIRC reduced the dependency on land which is why that requirement went away (that and the fact recently-freed slaves were starting from scratch and would otherwise face vicious cycle issues).
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Monday 22nd January 2018 07:07 GMT KSM-AZ
Re: American democracy
Nobody's holding a gun to anyone's head who wants to leave. All those hollywood types promised if trump was elected. . . They were full of sh--t because they like living in their overpriced left coast homes with their illegal alien housekeepers, fleecing the willing from their entertainment dollars.
If it's really that awful to you, don't live here. Move to mexico or the UK, or Greece, or Canada. Really much better, get the f-ck out, and don't come back.
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Monday 22nd January 2018 08:41 GMT Charles 9
Re: American democracy
"Nobody's holding a gun to anyone's head who wants to leave."
None of the other countries out there are exactly holding up signs saying "Welcome Disenfranchised Americans." Guns at the gate might as well be guns on our heads. Plus most anywhere else is even further along, creating an "out of the frying pan and into the fire" situation because what we're seeing is basically human nature. There's nowhere to go, really.
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Monday 22nd January 2018 09:09 GMT John Robson
Re: American democracy
"Well, you get the government you majority vote for (unless there's electoral irregularities at work)."
In general governments are made of the largest minority, not a majority.
IIRC the actual figures of population voting are not in Trumps favour - but it's only the weird electoral collage system (paint by numbers) that actually votes for a president...
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Monday 22nd January 2018 10:50 GMT John Robson
Re: American democracy
@Dr Syntax.
It was deliberate...
The EC system is particularly broken because of the way the different colleges decide to handle their votes. Surely a proportional split would make much more sense than each section of the country rounding their votes up to provide 100% support, when a candidate likely only received 60%.
I'm not suggesting that anywhere else has a perfect system - but this peculiar artefact of the US system is particularly screwy.
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Monday 22nd January 2018 10:07 GMT P. Lee
Re: American democracy
The paint by numbers thing is (I believe) a result of trying to bring separate states into the union. No sparsely populated state would join if it knew it would always be out-voted by big cities.
The solution should be to repatriate power to the States. Democracy is supposed to be a means to achieve self-determination not a moral fig-leaf for you to impose your will on those you consider deplorable.
Decentralise power and Trump becomes less important. Shouldn't that appeal to both sides?
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Tuesday 23rd January 2018 18:45 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: American democracy
The paint by numbers thing is (I believe) a result of trying to bring separate states into the union. No sparsely populated state would join if it knew it would always be out-voted by big cities.
Hamilton thought the constitution ensured "that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications".
Well, he was obviously wrong.
The 12th amendment basically required partisan elections and it was the change from proportional allocation for each state in the EC to winner-take-all that set up such an absurd system.
No, the EC system was not so states would join the union. Direct election wouldn't have worked for the south - slaves couldn't vote, but WERE counted at at 2/5 rate under the electoral college.
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Sunday 28th January 2018 17:07 GMT Alan Brown
Re: American democracy
"The solution should be to repatriate power to the States. "
The US federal government has been on a 70-year long power grab which started with WW2. Stepping down from a war footing _requires_ decentralisation and that's why the USA has been flailing around for enemies since the Cold War ended.
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Monday 22nd January 2018 07:01 GMT Michael Habel
Ain't American Politics Great?!
Especially when the Demorats would rather shutdown the whole of Government (Sans themselves. Oh deary no, we couldn't have that now could we?), Because the President wants to take their Illegal Voters (from Commifonia), away from them.
Hopefully this will come back to bite them in the arse come November.
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Monday 22nd January 2018 07:11 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Ain't American Politics Great?!
"Hopefully this will come back to bite them in the arse come November."
It is possibly more likely to bite the GOP. IIRC some Republicans voted with the Democrats.
The GOP control all three legislature branches. Yet their infighting has created an inability to agree on anything amongst themselves - never mind any consensus with the Democrats.
The Democrats have taken on board the GOP blocking tactics used during the last administration. One is reminded of the biblical caution "You shall reap what you have sown".
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Monday 22nd January 2018 07:50 GMT Voland's right hand
Re: Ain't American Politics Great?!
Especially when the Demorats
Was this what you were saying when the GOP was using the same tactics to try to prevent most of USA having some form of Health Coverage in order to ingratiate themselves with their sponsors from the health care biz. Guess not...
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Monday 22nd January 2018 08:09 GMT Jamie Jones
Re: Ain't American Politics Great?!
Especially when the Demorats would rather shutdown the whole of Government
What planet are you on?
The democrats fucked up, yes, but they fucked up BECAUSE they gave in to trumps demands - THEY GAVE IN TO AVOID A SHUTDOWN, they should have stood firm oh their demands, the spineless wimps.
But even though they gave in, the republicans still couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery even with the democrats bringing the beer.
The republicans control the senate, congress, and have the current President. 3 for 3. Full House. Strike! Yet when the government shuts down, it's the democrats fault? You sure you don't want to blame the Greens, or maybe BRexit?
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Monday 22nd January 2018 08:57 GMT Charles 9
Re: Ain't American Politics Great?!
No, it's not a full 3 for 3 because the GOP can't force cloture (they need 60) nor does either chamber have overriding majority (two-thirds: 291 in the House, 67 in the Senate) which is needed to start Amending. Knowing this, the Dems are using immigration as a hot-buttin make-or-break issue to force a concession. And it happens to be an issue that hits the core of both parties' constituents: causing lots of hand-wringing.
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Tuesday 23rd January 2018 19:52 GMT sisk
Re: Ain't American Politics Great?!
Bah, both parties are to blame. The Democrats screwed up, the Republicans screwed up, and none of them give a shit about the people they're supposed to be working for. I say vote them all out and start over.
Maybe elect a bunch of monkeys to go to Washington DC. They could hardly do worse than the last few batches of politicians have.
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Tuesday 23rd January 2018 23:09 GMT Charles 9
Re: Ain't American Politics Great?!
"Maybe elect a bunch of monkeys to go to Washington DC. They could hardly do worse than the last few batches of politicians have."
Um, look what happened in the 2016 elections. The trouble with the "Vote 'Em Out" attitude is the risk you actually find something WORSE enters in their stead. Didn't like the Beast? Say Hello to the Smiler.
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Wednesday 24th January 2018 01:32 GMT veti
Re: Ain't American Politics Great?!
The GOP wouldn't need to force cloture if they were willing to, y'know, actually put a bill up to the vote that would attract some Democratic votes.
They could do it today. There's easily a majority in both houses for a straight DACA replacement. The reason they won't do it is because Ryan and McConnell are both terrified of pissing off their own hardliners. They'd rather keep their own fractured caucuses together, and keep the Dems out, than pass a law that actually has majority support.
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Wednesday 24th January 2018 16:12 GMT Charles 9
Re: Ain't American Politics Great?!
Because it's an election year. Piss off the hardliners, and they'll respond with primary challengers. The biggest fear isn't the general election (which in general tend to be safe if not uncontested) but the primary election where the opponent is in the same party. Lose the primary and you don't get to go to the general election, as has been happening lately with moderates.
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Monday 22nd January 2018 08:38 GMT jake
As an aside from the ineffectual political bickering of the rabble ...
How long have you been sitting on the phase "smut site fingered", ElReg?
We now return you to the usual complete waste of time that is apparently necessary in all online threads with anything resembling politics in them.
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Monday 22nd January 2018 12:16 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Therefore: Big John is actually ...
I usually disagree with Big John, but even I have to acknowledge he is far too coherent, in his phrasing if not his thinking, to be Trump himself. I'm not sure Trump is a purgative at all - more an irritant or an allergen: he doesn't seem to have unblocked very much at all but he has caused no end of adverse reactions.
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Monday 22nd January 2018 19:43 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Conspiracy 101
I understand very little. Trouble is, there are some posters here that understand EVERYTHING.
BTW, I want to thank you all for discussing my many failings so earnestly, and I promise to take all criticisms under advisement. You've been most helpful!
Oh, and I am NOT Hillary! The very idea...
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Monday 22nd January 2018 12:49 GMT EddieD
Dear oh dear, what is the Reg coming to?`
All this material and not one double entendre? No-one though that the bill faced stiff opposition? That the thrust of politics was making boobs out of everyone? And that, when it comes down to it, folk who oppose net neutrality are a bunch of c***ts who have just fucked us all?
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Tuesday 23rd January 2018 10:56 GMT BoldMan
"Nobody's holding a gun to anyone's head who wants to leave."
Except for the punitive cost of renouncing American Citizenship (currently the most expensive in the world at over $2000).
Anyway this sort of statement is so juvenile, the sort of thing bullies say in the school playground. You don't leave a country if you are unhappy with its leadership, you work to change it - unless of course you are some pathetic whining alt-right moron.
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Tuesday 23rd January 2018 19:56 GMT sisk
unless of course you are some pathetic whining alt-right moron.
I'd just like to point out that so many left-wingers tried to leave when Trump was elected that Canada's immigration website crashed. That being the case I think your statement would be more accurate if you left out "alt-right" and just included all whining morons, regardless of their political leanings.
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Tuesday 23rd January 2018 19:50 GMT sisk
Hundreds of thousands of comments were submitted at exactly midnight on four separate days in July
Cripes. They're not even TRYING to look authentic.
American Democracy
That's not a thing anymore. It hasn't been for a long, long time. They're keeping up the illusion, but the fact of the matter is that America is actually an oligarchy these days and the will of the people counts for exactly crap.
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Wednesday 24th January 2018 01:40 GMT veti
"Signing petitions with joke names" is a tradition - older than modern democracy itself.
The great Chartist petition of 1839 was signed Queen Victoria - several times, in different handwriting oddly enough - and quite a few other people of similar levels of improbability.
It's not about "looking authentic", it's likely just people having a laugh. Trolls, as we call them nowadays.
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Tuesday 23rd January 2018 21:24 GMT Anonymous Coward
fuck Net Neutrality
massive increases in speed over the next decade will wipe out any percieved throttling. I have a mere 200Mbit - my ISP trottles to 40-50mBit at times and for certain services - makes zero difference to watching shit on Strem.io or Watchseries-online. I seriously do not give a toss. And if a business wants a phat pipe they should pay for it.