In the 1970s there were a bunch of laws passed that supposedly were going to greatly limit the influence of big money in elections. They all totally failed. So now you are going to try it again. "This time it's different."
It's not true that "big money is stealing our democracy." We never had democracy. If we did there wouldn't be any big money. Also--if the problem is big money, then countries where elections are publicly financed should have "better" governments. Name one.

If you're pretty much any kind of professional--teacher, doctor, artist, etc--you can go legally without prior permission from the US. It's called a "general license." BTW IANAL FYI

This is a myth. The majority of Cubans in Florida are against the US blockade of Cuba (what the US calls "embargo") and for free travel to Cuba.
http://cocodriloazul.bloguea.c...
https://cri.fiu.edu/research/c...
miami.cbslocal.com/2014/06/18/fiu-poll-shows-shifting-attitudes-among-cuban-americans/

Any takers on a bet that Congress will pass a law making legal what the Supremes just ruled against?

I believe you are mistaken about the need to have a FB acct to view content flagged as public. I'm a photographer and use FB to post photos. I send the link out to a list of non-FB users and they can all see the photos without an FB account.

There's Security Theater, and now we have Legislative Theater. Arguing about whether the law could have been "better" or "stronger" is just playing their game. IT DOESN"T MATTER what the law is. The ruling class--like every minority ruling class in history--will do whatever it needs to to stay in power.

If that's true, then why is the blockade still in place (and it's real, btw)? Why can't U.S. residents travel freely to Cuba? Why can't Cubans easily get US visas to travel here (from the US govt, not the Cuban govt)? Why is it illegal to send money to a Cuban in Cuba?

"Castro" didn't expel anyone. When the wealthy lost the sources of their wealth--ie, it became the property of all instead of the property of the few--they voluntarily left and went to a country that values getting rich at the expense of others, chiefly the U.S.

About the US cyberattack on Cuba. First of all, it failed, as every US attack on Cuba has failed. Second, the US puts form over content--the idea that if you get people to follow your Twitter feed sports scores, when you say "OK! Everyone out to the Plaza to overthrow the government!" that hundreds of thousands of people will show up and try to overthrow the government, even if they didn't know they wanted to (which in Cuba most people don't). Third, the continuing destruction of internet trust on the part of the US. And fourth, their willingness to put people at risk without telling them they're putting them at risk.

Or no evidence at all beyond what the cops invent. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03...

The real point is not whether you think you have anything to hide or if you have inadvertantly committed your daily three felonies. When it suits the police, you will get caught up in a net. The evidence will appear, or else they will convince you that they have so much evidence against you anyway (whether you believe it's real or made up) that you will end up pleading guilty. An excellent film that shows how this works is "Sins of the Father." It takes place in the UK but happens here--and there, and a lot of other places--every day.

Maybe they'll explain to TV producers that facial recognition software doesn't work by showing each face it's checking. Yet somehow get through ginormous databases in minutes.

There are laws, there are always laws, there always have been laws. But the supersecret govt spy agencies--and this is true in Canada, too, and the UK, France, etc--just ignore the laws. The laws are on the books so liberals can claim that there is "oversight." But there isn't any oversight.

The best way to fight trolling and character assassination is not to engage in it yourself. And to totally discount anyone who does. And to demand evidence. It hardly seems necessary in /. to remind people how easy it is create fake web sites, blogs, whatever. This kind of sabotage only works if you let it.

If the interface is "so much better" why are you using Thunderbird? I won't use gmail because I think the interface is very hard to use. If all you want to do is send mail, it's even hard to find the "send" button.