 Okay, this week a federal court overturned the net neutrality rules passed in 2010 by the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC. Those rules prevent your internet providers like Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, or Time Warner from indiscriminately blocking or slowing down your internet service. And here's why the whole situation is both absurdly corrupt and completely avoidable. Over the past 20 years, the internet has evolved from emails, then to webpages, then to audio, to games, now television, and tons of other amazing stuff. It is the primary source for most communications. And during those 20 years, the largest phone and cable company lobbyists have become one of the biggest spenders in Washington to buy politicians and control the internet to maximize profits. They've passed laws that literally prevent competition. That's why you hardly have any choices for your internet provider and you have extremely slow and expensive service in comparison to other countries. But back to net neutrality. The story starts in 2002 with this guy, Michael Powell. He's the son of former Secretary of State, Colin Powell, and he got a job running the Federal Communications Commission. I'm sure there's no nepotism there. Internet was growing fast and industry lobbyists convinced Powell to classify the internet as an information service rather than a telecommunications service. Who cares, you ask. Federal law says that telecommunications are a regulated service. That's how the government made sure that every home in America had affordable home phone service in the 20th century. It's why when dial-up internet first started, there was lots of competition and low prices. It's why there were strong protections against anyone wiretapping your phone service. Oh, the good old days. On the other hand, information services are barely regulated. A few years after Powell's decision, companies like Comcast got busted favoring their internet content over others. And it all came to a head when this guy, Julius Genekowski, was appointed by President Obama to run the FCC. The president had said on the campaign trail that he would take a backseat to no one on net neutrality. So nervous industry lobbyists started throwing lots of money and propaganda around, calling net neutrality a government takeover of the internet. They got 72 House Democrats to join most Republicans in calling for the FCC to stand down. So actually passing strong net neutrality rules ever required that chairman Genekowski reclassify the internet as a telecommunications service or the new rules would eventually get thrown out by the courts. Everyone knew it, but Obama's FCC caved to cable and phone lobbyists, passed weak net neutrality rules, and claimed victory. And so we arrive at 2014. The court has now thrown out the rules. Congress won't save us because they're bought. And the only one who can realistically fix this is Obama's new FCC chairman, Tom Wheeler. But Wheeler, now wait for it, is the former president of the National Cable Television Association. So the government official who could fix this is the former chief lobbyist for the companies who just won the court case against the FCC so that they can screw consumers and make more money. If this isn't yet another reason for everyone in this country to stop what you're doing and join an American anti-corruption movement dedicated to ending this nonsense, I don't know what is.