News Miscellany

[Watser?]

'Restore order' after kettling and then beating up the demonstrators even though they did nothing wrong. So business as usual...

[Watser?]

#NoG20 Hamburg - Polizei eskaliert "Welcome to...

Welcome to hell: »Wir sind friedlich, was seid...

So yeah, burn the fucking town. Burn police stations all over Germany.

[Watser?]

This news surprised absolutely nobody and I have not heard a single politician comment on it so far: Violent criminals more likely to get a job than ethnic minorities - report - DutchNews.nl

[Watser?]

Hamburg vs. the State: How the City is Fighting Back and the Police Are Losing, Again

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Cache Creek evacuated as wildfires burn out of control in central B.C.

Whole central interior is going up.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Yemen cholera cases pass 300,000 as outbreak spirals: ICRC

[Watser?]

Terrorist on terrorist violence: Graphic pictures: 12 Al-Qaeda members, including French national, killed by suicide bombing in Idlib

[MonCapitan2002]

Originally Posted by Watser?

This news surprised absolutely nobody and I have not heard a single politician comment on it so far: Violent criminals more likely to get a job than ethnic minorities - report - DutchNews.nl

This is pretty fucked up.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Amnesty says Turkey director and activists detained in Istanbul | World news | The Guardian

I missed this.

[Watser?]

The Dutch government has published draft proposals that would give its security services sweeping new powers to intercept internet traffic – powers that critics say would be “among the most far-reaching in the world”.

With a population of 17 million, the Netherlands is already the most heavily phone-tapped country in the world – with about 26,000 taps granted to the police and other agencies, excluding the security services, every year, according to figures from the Department of Justice.

Sweeping surveillance powers planned by Dutch government

Everything you tell me will be recorded and sold back to your government...

KPN says the proposals are in direct conflict with the right to communicate in privacy laid down in the constitution, while Swedish-owned Tele2 says that, in any case, the proposals will be “impossible” to implement.

Most worryingly in economic terms, the employers warn that global companies could leave the Netherlands because they will “lose their right to communicate online in confidence”.

The UK-based privacy watchdog, Privacy International, has warned that if the new rules go ahead as planned they will be “among the most far-reaching in the world” and will “set a poor example for countries without strong democratic traditions”.

“We would strongly urge the Dutch government “, Privacy International said, “not to expand surveillance beyond what is necessary and reasonable in a democratic society.”

The Dutch Human Rights Commission agrees, describing the proposals as “a major infringement of the right to privacy and secret communications”.

[Watser?]

International petition to the EU, UN and the international 'community' in general to save Gaza (with practical steps to take): We For Gaza

[Watser?]

Originally Posted by MonCapitan2002

This is pretty fucked up.

[Watser?]

In other news, the Saudi-backed Jaish al-Islam, which is now fighting Qatar-backed Faylaq ar-Rahman as well as the Syrian army, stops pretending and joins al-Qaeda: Jaysh al-Islam Officially Unites With Al-Qaeda In Eastern Ghouta

[Watser?]

For the first time since 1969 the Israeli occupation authorities banned prayer at Al-Aqsa

Israel cancels Friday prayers and questions top al-Aqsa cleric

Muslim Council of Elders condemns Israel for banning Friday prayers at Aqsa Mosque

Oh, this was after a (legitimate) attack by 3 Palestinians left 2 occupation police and the 3 Palestinians dead. Palestinian attackers are not arrested. They are dead. Always.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Originally Posted by Kamilah Hauptmann

Cache Creek evacuated as wildfires burn out of control in central B.C.

Whole central interior is going up.

That burning line between Kamloops and Prince George is the Cariboo Highway (97). In there is Williams Lake, also just evacuated.

Since we are socialist commies we have government agencies:
Current Wildfire Situation - Province of British Columbia

[Watser?]

Good news from Syria for once: Syrian government, Kurdish forces agree to repair Tabaqa Dam together

It's an bad need of repair too, I think.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

So it turns out Ann Coulter flies coach after all.

Delta on Twitter: "@AnnCoulter Additionally, your insults about our other customers and employees are unacceptable and unnecessary."

Backstory, she had a little twittertantrum the other day about a flight. In the right, in the wrong, it didn't show much class.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Originally Posted by Kamilah Hauptmann

In there is Williams Lake, also just evacuated.

Seems like Kamloops is full of evacuees, and the road is cut off north to Prince George. Overflow is now in the Vancouver area. That's 37,000 evacuees give or take a few so far.

[specious_reasons]

Originally Posted by Kamilah Hauptmann

So it turns out Ann Coulter flies coach after all.

Delta on Twitter: "@AnnCoulter Additionally, your insults about our other customers and employees are unacceptable and unnecessary."

Backstory, she had a little twittertantrum the other day about a flight. In the right, in the wrong, it didn't show much class.

From what little facts I gleaned, Coulter had a reserved seat, which she reserved for a specific reason, and possibly for a higher price. In a typical dick move by the airline, they changed her seat without explanation (and possibly without compensation). I'd be mad, too. I might even complain on Twitter.

What I wouldn't do is take pictures of the passengers in and by my chosen seat and post them publicly. That was the classless part. Whatever little sympathy I had for Coulter is totally gone.

[Watser?]

Top Ten Myths about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict | Foreign Policy Journal

Especially this:

Myth #4 – Israel has a “right to exist”.
The fact that this term is used exclusively with regard to Israel is instructive as to its legitimacy, as is the fact that the demand is placed upon Palestinians to recognize Israel’s “right to exist”, while no similar demand is placed upon Israelis to recognize the “right to exist” of a Palestinian state.

Nations don’t have rights, people do. The proper framework for discussion is within that of the right of all peoples to self-determination. Seen in this, the proper framework, it is an elementary observation that it is not the Arabs which have denied Jews that right, but the Jews which have denied that right to the Arabs. The terminology of Israel’s “right to exist” is constantly employed to obfuscate that fact.

Top Ten Myths about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict | Foreign Policy Journal

[godfry n. glad]

Originally Posted by Kamilah Hauptmann

Seems like Kamloops is full of evacuees, and the road is cut off north to Prince George. Overflow is now in the Vancouver area. That's 37,000 evacuees give or take a few so far.

Ouch. No fun. Beautiful area, too. Sounds like Kelowna and Penticton are probably full as well. Nobody being shunted to Calgary? Or, Edmonton?

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Originally Posted by godfry n. glad

Ouch. No fun. Beautiful area, too. Sounds like Kelowna and Penticton are probably full as well. Nobody being shunted to Calgary? Or, Edmonton?

Penticton is actually really small. I'm not sure why the overflow went to Cloverdale (metro Vancouver area) rather than Kelowna, but Cloverdale has the Agriplex (I think it's called that) which is pretty massive and the surrounding fairgrounds with other assorted buildings could camp a lot of people.)

Getting to Edmonton or Calgary from the Caribou region is an ordeal in itself. The drive to Vancouver from Kamloops is about four hours on a lovely six lane highway with a 120km/hour limit. From Prince George, which is cut off right now, it's almost the same drive to Edmonton as Vancouver.

Surrounding regions have sent additional personnel, though, as is normal. From California to Alaska, also with Australia and sometimes South Africa (clusterfuck story to that), there's reciprocity agreements in place. No one region has the manpower to handle a Fort McMurray, but generally no more than one region gets womped at any one time so the firefighters decend on the trouble spots in an organized cooperative manner. When it gets really bad, they will call the off season Australians and (I hope still) the South Africans. And they us in the Southern hemisphere summer.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Originally Posted by specious_reasons

From what little facts I gleaned, Coulter had a reserved seat, which she reserved for a specific reason, and possibly for a higher price. In a typical dick move by the airline, they changed her seat without explanation (and possibly without compensation). I'd be mad, too. I might even complain on Twitter.

Yeah, I'm right there with you and that's why I didn't post the stinky clickbait story I was skyped, because it was... so bad and mad more about the OMG FLAUNTING YOUR YUGE WEALTH than the:

Originally Posted by specious_reasons

What I wouldn't do is take pictures of the passengers in and by my chosen seat and post them publicly. That was the classless part. Whatever little sympathy I had for Coulter is totally gone.

So here's the stinky clickbait I probably should have posted and expanded on:
"Don't you fly first class, Princess?": Ann Coulter gets trashed for bratty Twitter meltdown over airline seat <-- complete with deliberately crappy photo!

And it's still going, though, and I'm not sure if this Washington Post article isn't sarcasm right down to the headline, or if it's clickbait trash too.

Delta tells Ann Coulter she can have her $30 back, but she won’t stop raging on Twitter - The Washington Post

A couple things I found hilarious, tho:

Delta says Coulter’s seat upgrade cost a mere $30, which the airline has promised to refund.

Coulter calculates things differently. Moving three seats down represented $10,000 in sunk time, she contends.

Yet she's still flying coach.

And bolding mine:

She defended her Twitter rant as “the picture of politeness” — and restyled her seating complaint as a struggle against fascism.

[Stephen Maturin]

GOP operative who sought Clinton's emails committed suicide | Fox News

Unless, of course, he's just the latest of the countless Clinton murder victims.

[Watser?]

Chuck Schumer, the senator for Tel Aviv...

Schumer, 'guardian of Israel,' calls anti-Zionism a form of antisemitism [videos]

Of course it's perfectly clear that it is zionism that is the hatemongering racism.