Category Archives: Fail!

Dear Senator Ted Cruz, I’m going to explain to you how Net Neutrality ACTUALLY works – The Oatmeal

Good explanation – problem is that folks like Senator Ted Cruz does not care whether he knows or not, or what happens to the Internet. He figures, he has it made now and no matter what he will always have enough money to overcome any barriers he has put up for everyone else to deal with.

 

Dear Senator Ted Cruz, I’m going to explain to you how Net Neutrality ACTUALLY works – The Oatmeal.

Brazil’s indigenous population can use their land, but are not its owners | Latina Lista

In short – Brazil can do whatever it wants with the land since it belongs to the government and not the people who live there!

 

The geographer and researcher from the University of São Paulo, Camila Salles de Faria, tells the Americas Program that in Brazil there are only two modalities for possessing land, a public and a private one. According to her, although indigenous lands will be recognized through demarcation of space, the land does not actually belong to the indigenous people, since in Brazil’s legal system communal or collective property does not exist, thus it remains beneath the jurisdiction of the state, and if at any moment it decides to interfere in the area, it is able to.

via Brazil’s indigenous population can use their land, but are not its owners | Latina Lista.

Americas MexicoBlog: Outrage as Mexico’s Attorney General Says Missing Ayotzinapa Students Are Dead

Outrage as Mexico’s Attorney General Says Missing Ayotzinapa Students Are Dead

Global Voices: Shot, burned in a garbage dump and thrown into a muddy river in black plastic bags. That was the fate of the 43 missing student teachers, known as normalistas in Spanish, who vanished on September 26, 2014, according to Mexico’s federal attorney general on November 7.

Jesus Murillo Karam‘s words were met with disbelief, anger and indignation not only by the students’ families, but also by people throughout Mexico and the world because they rely on the confessions of three drug cartel hit men, not conclusive evidence — human remains discovered near a landfill based on their information haven’t been identified yet.

via Americas MexicoBlog: Outrage as Mexico’s Attorney General Says Missing Ayotzinapa Students Are Dead.

Army Veteran Back From Afghanistan Shot And Killed At Party: LAist

RIP – sad++!

Francisco Garcia, who got back this summer from serving in Afghanistan, was partying at his girlfriend’s house on Dronfield Street, according to City News Service. He and other partygoers went outside the house and into the street around 2 a.m., where two cars stopped and a man jumped out of one car to confront Garcia.

The man grabbed a gun from the other car and started shooting, according to police. Garcia was shot and killed at the scene. Police believe the young vet was the target due to a dispute with the men that occurred before the party.

“The ironies are obvious,” LAPD Lt. Paul Vernon told City News Service. “To survive as a soldier in an overseas conflict, only to be killed in your neighborhood upon your return.”

Garcia recently posted on Facebook that he applied to join the California Highway Patrol and was accepted, KTLA reports.

via Army Veteran Back From Afghanistan Shot And Killed At Party: LAist.

‘I’ve had enough’, says Mexico Attorney General in massacre gaffe | Reuters

Six weeks on, the government has yet to confirm the students’ fate.

Thousands marched on Saturday evening from the attorney general’s office to Mexico City’s central Zocalo square. Many carried hand-made placards and banners with the hashtag as well as posters calling for Murillo’s resignation. Others held candles and posters that said “Justice!” or “Enough!”.

Another march by protesters who have walked 180 km (112 miles) from Iguala to the capital is set to culminate in the Zocalo on Sunday.

via ‘I’ve had enough’, says Mexico Attorney General in massacre gaffe | Reuters.

The third intifada is here – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

“Temple Mount Faithful” members and right-wing activists in Israel maintain that Jews have the right to ascend to the Temple Mount, similar to the Muslim right to do so. Even if we assume that their claim is just and that Jews do indeed have the historic right to ascend and pray on the Mount as Muslims do, the choice is between a religiously motivated intifada, and distancing right-wing activists from the center of conflict — the Temple Mount.

Perhaps in the past understandings could have been reached with the Palestinians to allow Jewish groups to ascend to the Mount and pray. But that was not accomplished. Solutions were not obtained, not even in the course of peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, talks that have collapsed in the meantime.

What was not accomplished in the past through dialogue and understandings cannot, so it seems, be created now, when the earth in Jerusalem is burning under our feet and there is concern that a “second Al-Aqsa intifada” may well spill over into the West Bank. At that point, no security coordination will be able to stop it. Apparently, there is only one way to try to halt the downward spiral, before we again use a million bullets and transform the bus stations in the capital city into shelters: To close the Temple Mount to Jews.

On the advice of Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch and the Jerusalem police, it was decided to place concrete railings around bus stations and underground train stations to protect pedestrians. While these may give some local protection to travelers, they ostensibly won’t be able to stop assailants from among the residents of East Jerusalem who believe that they are engaged in a religious war.

via The third intifada is here – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

How Many NYers Bothered Voting On Tuesday? The Answer May Dishearten You: Gothamist

2/3s of nation said – nada, nothing, zip, zero – screw you/screw me, huh?

NO PRESIDENT CAN RUN COUNTRY ON HER/HIS OWN – those who did not vote just guaranteed that anything good President Obama has done or wanted to do is at risk!

Not that New York’s low turnout stood out in this election—according to U.S. News, fewer voters showed up in all but 12 states this year. Washington, Delaware, Missouri, South Dakota, California and Indiana all saw drastic drops, and only about 36.6 percent of the nation’s eligible voters cast ballots overall.

Not that New York’s low turnout stood out in this election—according to U.S. News, fewer voters showed up in all but 12 states this year. Washington, Delaware, Missouri, South Dakota, California and Indiana all saw drastic drops, and only about 36.6 percent of the nation’s eligible voters cast ballots overall.

And of course, Millennials were too busy sexting or something to bother voting at all—according to NBC News, only 12 percent of voters in this election were under 30 years old. This was a bummer for the Democrats, who received the majority of Millennials’ votes, and got massacred anyway. The good news is we can blame Millennials for just about everything!

via How Many NYers Bothered Voting On Tuesday? The Answer May Dishearten You: Gothamist.

Standing in the Firing Squad: An Interview with Brianna Wu

The culprit is obvious. It’s male privilege. And, if there is a mecca of male privilege, it’s gamedev.

It’s filled with men that frequently harbor resentment towards women they don’t understand. While they intellectually feel we should be here, they unconsciously assume it’s their space and that their comfort is paramount. There’s no way to describe it but really, really shitty. I think we all address it in our own way. I try to make it better by never taking any shit, and speaking up on this stuff. I don’t accept excuses. That’s not going to work for everyone, but I think I’m helping make it better.

via Standing in the Firing Squad: An Interview with Brianna Wu.

Protesters Descend on Mexico City to Demand Action for Missing Ayotzinapa Students · Global Voices

Tens of thousands of people marched from the presidential palace to Mexico City’s main plaza to demand the safe return of 43 missing education students and protest the regional government’s role in their disappearance along with the president’s inefficient response to the crime.

Organizers said 120,000 people participated in the Global Day of Action for Ayotzinapa in the city, organized by various Mexican student groups, while police counted 60,000. Protesters’ cries for justice reached every corner of Mexico and the world; news site Revolucion 3.0 described the demonstration as possibly “the largest condemnation march in history” and shared an audiovisual gallery with minute-to-minute updates of the movement.

via Protesters Descend on Mexico City to Demand Action for Missing Ayotzinapa Students · Global Voices.

US airstrikes hit Nusra Front in Syria | News | DW.DE | 06.11.2014

Slopes getting slippery!

US-led airstrikes targeted the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front in Syria Thursday, marking only the second time coalition airstrikes have hit jihadists outside of the ” Islamic State,” activists reported.

The coalition carried out “several raids after midnight” against Nusra Front targets in northwest Syria, killing several jihadists as well as two children, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Observatory also reported that another radical Islamist group, Ahrar al-Sham, had been hit for the first time with airstrikes. There was no immediate US comment on the strikes.

Militants reportedly confirmed the airstrikes on Twitter, claiming they were undertaken by “the alliance of Crusaders and Arabs on Al-Nusra positions, causing deaths, mostly of civilians.”

The al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front was once the most powerful militant group in Syria, but has been eclipsed by the “Islamic State”

The US-led coalition has been primarily hitting Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria for the past several weeks, and the recent strikes against the Nusra Front are only the second instance of coalition airstrikes hitting non-IS targets.

The coalition had previously targeted the Nusra Front in September during the first wave of airstrikes, accusing it of harboring a terror cell called “Khorasan” that was plotting to attack US and Western interests.

The strikes come after Nusra Front fighters made gains against Western-backed Syrian fighters in the country’s northwestern Idlib region. The US is attempting to train what it describes as a moderate rebel force to combat both jihadists and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s security forces.

via US airstrikes hit Nusra Front in Syria | News | DW.DE | 06.11.2014.