Category Archives: Fail!

Can Facebook connect the next billion? – IFEX

Global Voices research findings suggest that most of the content offered via Free Basics will not meet the most pressing needs of those who are not online, and that the data and content limitations built into Free Basics are largely artificial and primarily aimed at collecting profitable data from users.

Source: Can Facebook connect the next billion? – IFEX

Inoreader – Protests continue after newly installed al-Aqsa cameras

“The Israeli government has announced the presence of a large number of security forces, along with the cameras, for the coming six months to secure the site … These measures are neither necessary nor proportional to their purpose,” Yara Jalajel, a Palestine researcher at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, told Al Jazeera. “They exceed what Israel, the occupying power, is allowed to do to ensure safety and public order. These measures seem to aim to ensure control and impose a de facto sovereignty over the site, which Israel does not have under the law.”Usama Halabi, a lawyer and writer on Israeli surveillance practices, said that surveillance of Palestinians is already the status quo in the Old City.“I don’t understand the issue surrounding the cameras. It is definitely an intensification of the surveillance through more technically advanced cameras, but they can already see who goes in and out of al-Aqsa and the Old City,” Halabi told Al Jazeera.“The camera feeds into their computer systems and they can find out everything about me already. They can extract my whole family tree in minutes,” he added. “On a daily basis, I see tens of young men in court who they bring in after a week or two of seeing them on the surveillance cameras, and accuse them of throwing stones and they present the video proof. Some of the soldiers and guards in the Old City have built-in cameras in their headgear, and every group of soldiers that is stationed in the Old City has a handheld camera with them to film confrontations.”Still, for Palestinians, the issue of installing cameras on the entrances to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound is yet another manifestation of Israeli control over the holy site.“Agreeing to the new measures means agreeing to Israeli control over al-Haram al-Sharif and over Palestinians even more,” Shaheen said. “What matters to us is that Israel is sticking its fingers into the eyes and throats of Palestinians, and we must reject it.”

Source: Inoreader – Protests continue after newly installed al-Aqsa cameras

Julie Negrin Will Die If the ACA is Repealed | Dame Magazine

You probably don’t know Julie Negrin’s name or her story, but if Trumpcare passes the Senate, she’s likely to become a viral sensation. The 45-year old nutritionist isn’t exaggerating when she says she will die if the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is repealed and replaced by Trumpcare. She’s been saying that since the GOP announced its replacement health care plan; after all, without insurance, or with substandard insurance, her body’s already compromised systems will collapse. Over the past week, however, she’s been saying she’ll die under Trumpcare for a different reason. Negrin has made a big, life-changing decision. If Trumpcare passes, she vows to become a martyr for the health care cause by suspending all medical treatment and, as she put it in a Facebook post, “leverag[ing] the fuck out of my slow, sad, suffering, death.” Her hope? “To activate a movement to restore our healthcare system.”It takes thousands of dollars each month to keep Negrin alive, and with her current ACA plan through Blue Shield*, insurance covers most of her medical expenses, even mental health appointments (“There’s a lot of trauma with having organs cut out”) and some naturopathic services. Without ACA coverage and under Trumpcare, her pre-existing conditions will most certainly mean she won’t be able to obtain insurance – not any she can afford, anyway. And there’s no way she can pay out of pocket for the dozens of monthly medical appointments and costly treatments, as well as the check-ups she needs to make sure her multiple cancers remain in remission and that her body hasn’t been invaded by new ones.

Source: Julie Negrin Will Die If the ACA is Repealed | Dame Magazine

How the Catholic Church ties in to Poland′s judicial reform | Europe | DW | 24.07.2017

“An authoritarian party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s ‘Law and Justice’ has shaken hands with fundamentalist Catholicism,” the theologian and former Jesuit priest Stanislaw Obirek commented as early as last year, in an interview with the German state broadcaster MDR. The church, he said, had become a political player.Although the chair of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, supported Pope Francis, the majority of the Polish clergy were conservative and openly urged people to vote PiS, Obirek said. The theologian’s assessment was that “it was only through the submissiveness of all political parties towards the church that we ended up with the political situation we have in Poland today.”

Source: How the Catholic Church ties in to Poland′s judicial reform | Europe | DW | 24.07.2017

How to culture jam a populist in four easy steps | openDemocracy

The recipe is universal. Find a wound common to many, someone to blame for it and a good story to tell. Mix it all together. Tell the wounded you know how they feel. That you found the bad guys. Label them: the minorities, the politicians, the businessmen. Cartoon them. As vermin, evil masterminds, flavourless hipsters, you name it. Then paint yourself as the saviour. Capture their imagination. Forget about policies and plans, just enrapture them with a good story. One that starts in anger and ends in vengeance. A vengeance they can participate in.That’s how it becomes a movement. There’s something soothing in all that anger. Though full of hatred, it promises redemption. Populism can’t cure your suffering, but it can do something almost as good—better in some ways: it can build a satisfying narrative around it. A fictionalized account of your misery. A promise to make sense of your hurt. It is them. It’s been them all along.For all those who listen, Populism is built on the irresistible allure of simplicity. The narcotic of the simple answer to an intractable question. The problem is now made simple. The problem is you.

Source: How to culture jam a populist in four easy steps | openDemocracy

Senate Parliamentarian Challenges Key Provisions of Health Bill – The New York Times

One provision questioned by the parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, and cherished by conservatives would cut off federal funds for Planned Parenthood for one year. Another would prohibit use of federal subsidies to buy insurance that includes coverage for abortions.A third provision would penalize people who go without health insurance by requiring them to wait six months before their coverage could begin. Insurers would generally be required to impose the waiting period on people who lacked coverage for more than about two months in the prior year.If formally challenged, the provisions could survive only with 60 votes, a near-impossibility in the partisan, narrowly divided Senate. The abortion-related provisions are important to many conservatives, not just in the Senate but also in the House.

Butler County sheriff’s Narcan stance draws new protests – “Let them die has everything to do with politics and nothing with “officer safety” Jones delivers puffed chest and nothing more.

Picketers have gathered outside the Butler County Sheriff’s Office in Hamilton today, protesting his stance prohibiting his deputies from using Narcan to treat overdose cases.Sheriff Richard Jones has said in recent days that he will not allow deputies to use Narcan on opioid overdose victims. In Butler County one law enforcement agency, the Miami University Police, have officer equipped with Narcan.

Source: Butler County sheriff’s Narcan stance draws new protests

Inoreader – Secret Service rejects claim it vetted Trump Jr. Russia meeting – #TraitorTrump Lawyer does not do his homework.

In an emailed response to questions about Sekulow’s comments, Secret Service spokesman Mason Brayman said the younger Trump was not under Secret Service protection at the time of the meeting, which included Trump’s son and two senior campaign officials.“Donald Trump, Jr. was not a protectee of the USSS in June, 2016. Thus we would not have screened anyone he was meeting with at that time,” the statement said.

Source: Inoreader – Secret Service rejects claim it vetted Trump Jr. Russia meeting

The White House just posted the emails of critics — without censoring sensitive personal information – Vox – Thus enabling Russian and GOP trolls the information needed to bully people exercising the 1st Amendment rights.

, the White House just released the sensitive personal information of a lot of concerned citizens giving feedback to their government. That’s made even worse by the fact that the White House did this when the thing citizens were complaining about was the possibility that their private information would be made public.As of Friday afternoon, the emails are still uncensored and available on the White House’s website. They include all sorts of feedback, from concerns about privacy to outright insults of the Trump administration. One email just links to an image of the terrifying pornographic meme Goatse. (Do not Google this if you value your eyes.)“DO NOT RELEASE ANY OF MY VOTER DATA, PERIOD,” said one person whose full name and email address were subsequently released in the collection of emails.The White House website does now warn about the possibility of personal information going public: “Please note that the Commission may post such written comments publicly on our website, including names and contact information that are submitted.” But it’s not clear if the people who sent emails to the White House knew of this before the commission’s website went up this week.

Source: The White House just posted the emails of critics — without censoring sensitive personal information – Vox