the_blue_wizard

First, large services like Netflix, Google, iTunes, Hulu, and others already Pay MASSIVE amounts of money for many many high speed lines into the Internet. I suspect many millions of dollars. If they want their data to flow faster, they simply buy more High Speed lines. Consequently, they already pay for the bandwidth to bring their data into the Internet Backbone.

On the other end, myself and everyone else pay our providers for a high speed line that extracts data streams from the Internet.

But we are both being asked to pay an extortion premium to the Internet Backbone providers, for something that we are all already paying for. The Content Providers pay the company that provide their MANY High Speed lines in, and I pay for my High Speed Line out. The data transfer rate is already been paid on both ends. No need for some jackass in he middle to extort more money from anyone.

Without question, the backbone of the Internet should be considered a Public Utility, and nothing less.

The US govt already gave the major ISPs 400 billion dollars to bring the Internet speed up to that of other countries. Given that the ISPs took the money and did nothing, shouldn't we be asking for that money back?

It is odd, my understanding is that this simply lead people to other websites that had the Music available. If the music is there on the other websites and available for streaming, where was the problem.

Now if the Aurous website itself had collect, stored, and distributed the music without payment, I could see a problem. But if the website is only acting as an aggregate for other websites, the way Google News simply aggregates news, and redirects to the source of that news, then I fail to see the problem.

Is this the Nicotine pesticide??

Good Work!

Why are there long wait times? Have you bothered to research it? Have you even thought about it? Do you have any direct experience with the VA Hospital system?

The VA runs are near 100% capacity, when you are at 100%, how do you raise that to 101%? Now, relative to the average civilian hospital is no where near the volume of patient flow that the VA has, it is not a problem for them to add one more patient. Not true at the VA, they literally run at 100% capacity. They see an overwhelming number of people everyday. Ever clinic is booked from beginning to end.

Because they run at 100%, no new person gets in until some old person goes out. That means, most often, that a World War II Veteran dies. That opens up a slot an one more person can come it.

Now, prior to the lasted fiasco call the Iraq War, most people at the VA had minor and geriatric problems. Now, returning Vets have been shredded. Their need for care is not what the typical civilian clinic can deal with. They have very high needs for care, so you can't weigh dollars spent and patients served, when the damage to these patient, both physical and psychological, is so very high.

Plus, wounded soldiers have types of trauma rarely seen in civilian hospitals, Traumatic Brain Injury for example. Yes, once in a while, now and then a civilian hospital might have a Brain Injury, but the VA is force to deal with hundreds if not thousand of this type of injury.

I've been to the VA, I've experienced care there. The volume of patients is extremely high, yet the standard of care is equally high. VA hospitals have a higher rate of patient satisfaction than civilian hospitals. They move a volume of patients that would bring a civilian hospital to its knees.

You can't demand they see more people in a timely fashion, unless you have funded the capacity to accept that load. When you send people to War, you have to pre-fund the VA Hospital in anticipation of them coming home damaged. Congress did not do that. As recent as Feb (2014) Congress failed to pass extended funding for the VA Hospital system.

You can't fund the war, which by the way, they did not do, then fail to fund care for the returning soldiers, which precisely what they did, they failed to supply sufficient funding to deal with the case load that was inevitably generated by War.

The problem, for every problem facing the USA today, is CONGRESS, a failed and wholly corrupt CONGRESS.

Great that you are covering this story but ... has any one bothered to ask how many elections around the world the USA has interfered in, and in much more criminal ways?

More than Russia trying to influence the election, I'm much more worried about corrupt and criminal activity between members at high levels of Govt including the President himself, and Russia and other foreign countries. Corruption in general has reached an unprecedented level in our govt. It seems to me much of this activity skirts the boarders of Treason.

That is where the real story is, not in Russia buying a few Facebook Ads, but in treasonous corruption at all levels of Government.