AWKWARD ZOMBIE

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/06/us-milit ... -news.html

I'm pretty sure this can be presented mostly without comment

Has American military intervention in the Middle East ever turned out well? This is obviously a shitty PR stunt; the base is already operational again. If Trump actually gave a shit about the people in Syria, he wouldn't try to block them from coming here.

Chechnya is rounding up gay men and reportedly has a concentration camp.

Their defense for this is basically "gay men don't exist in Chechnya, and if they did their family would turn them in to avoid the shame"



In other news, the National Socialist German Workers' Party has swept the elections and their very charismatic leader is doing well for himself.

United Airlines needed to get 4 employees on an already full airplane. They asked people to volunteer to get off the plane. When nobody did, the forcibly removed a couple and then attempted to remove another passenger. Said passenger was a doctor with important patients to get to. He refused and so they beat the shit out of him and dragged him off the plane.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/10/busi ... .html?_r=0

(ignore the fact that it says the plane was overbooked, current reports say it wasn't, this was just the best article I found that explained the general outrage)

the result is a PR disaster and their stock down by about 830 million dollars.

Not to mention he was let back on the plane anyways, bloodied and disorientated. The whole debacle was for nothing in the end.

Uniteds CEO made a half-assed aplogy that really only addressed the overbooking issue and then issued a letter to employees trying to blame the passenger who he said was being beligerent (he wasnt, there is video everywhere that everything was calm up until security went up and manhandled him) http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/10/united-c ... erent.html

Actually he somehow got on the plane and then was taken off again on a stretcher

North Carolina house bill 780, the "Uphold Historical Marriage Act" has been introduced in an attempt to make same-sex marriage illegal again.


because FUCK the happiness of others, right? I'm fucking tired of the world right now.

Yeah it's shitty but I'm like 99% sure the bill is blatantly unconstitutional so it's gonna get shot down pretty hard and fast.

Which is ironic since their claiming that the Supreme Court decision overstepped constitutional bounds lol

edit: apparently even if it was passed it wouldn't even do anything thanks to the Supremacy Clause

Heard World War 3 was starting today. I don't believe it.

Jeff Sessions forgot Hawaii was a State and doesn't understand how legislation works.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai laid out his plans for dismantling Net Neutrality, which essentially amount to removing ISPs from the Title II classification that ensures that they can actually be enforced. He says that he supports a free and open Internet that net neutrality advocates want, but that he doesn't support Title II. That's like saying that you're a vegetarian while simultaneously devouring a porterhouse steak. Pai's plan to have net neutrality involves either
1.) Getting the ISPs to pinkie-swear that they'll protect net neutrality through voluntary agreements, which is ridiculous, or
2.) Getting Congress to pass a bill that would enshrine net neutrality, which won't work because Congress is full of tech-illiterate geriatrics who probably think that net neutrality is about commercial fishing regulations.

In other "The Internet's about to be screwed" news, the House of Representatives just passed a bill that would "modernize" the U.S. Copyright Office by making it appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. This is stupid for a number of reasons. First off, right now the head of the Copyright Office is appointed by and answers to the Librarian of Congress. The Librarian of Congress fired the head of the Copyright Office last year because she was bad at her job and colluded with Hollywood and the MPAA on a number of things, including supporting SOPA. Second, this isn't modernization, but rather further politicization of an office. It could in fact lead to another SOPA that could actually get rammed through Congress because, again, Congress is tech-illiterate, and for a much sadder reason which is that people just stopped giving a flying care about protecting Internet freedom after SOPA was defeated the first time. Either because they thought we "won", or because nowadays we're obsessed with so much other trivial information or other serious struggles. So much so that the only way to get people to care about something seems to be to get a popular comedian to use his HBO show to highlight the issue so that his video can spread en-masse via social media.

The bottom line is that the Internet in the U.S. is about to get screwed six ways to Sunday later this year and by the time their favorite talk show and comedy news show hosts start getting people to notice, it'll be too late.

AHCA passed. Congress is on break for the next week. Call your reps and give them hell if they voted for it and thank your reps if (like mine) that voted against. Call your senators because now their votes matter.

Look into whether there are rallies or town halls in your area where you can make yourself heard. If you do not want this bill passed, you need to do what you can, even if it you don't think it affects you it likely affects someone you know and care about.

Here is the official vote to find out what your rep voted

There are also reports of democrats either cheering (because elections) or jeering at the results and of course it's being spun both ways by whoever it's most convenient to. Wait for more verified reporting on this one.

Well, fuck. At least Dave has his shit together this round (representative from my home district) and voted no as a Republican.

Might be good to send him a carefully thought out message thanking him for his vote. To let him know you appreciate his effort and will continue watching over him in the future.

Good news: Marine Le Pen was not elected president of France.