angel d's apartment burned down!

Colorado is the Shiznit

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Friday November 06, 2015 · 2:07 PM PST

2015/11/06 · 14:07

no image description available — Living room view from the patio.

Living room view from the patio.

Talk about shit happening! Three days ago, an ember from Kossack angel d's fireplace managed to coax the rest of her living room into burning into a fiery rage, with soot, smoke, and water damage permeating throughout the rest of her apartment. As you can imagine, it's almost a total loss. :(

Water damage.

Photos doused in water.

Thankfully, Angel, her two teenagers, and her pootie all made it out safely. Hallelujah, FSM!

But now, of course, Angel is essentially homeless and she and her family are sleeping on friends' couches and on a sailboat (!) until she can find other lodging. Angel's apartment management hasn't been exactly helpful or empathetic throughout her family's ordeal; they demanded that she pay November's rent, even though they have no other apartment to place her family in, and are already taking steps to find Angel negligent for the fire, even though it was ruled accidental.

It's a good thing corporations are people, eh? :/

Angel did contact the Red Cross, though, and they are helping where they can.

Richard Brook

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Tuesday October 27, 2015 · 4:53 PM PDT

2015/10/27 · 16:53

So, this is United States policy now. To ignore the Geneva Conventions and murder civilians and non-combatants in their hospital beds.

Disgusting.

Yemeni hospital hit by Saudi-led air strike: medical aid group MSF, By Noah Browning, Reuters, Tue Oct 27, 2015 2:13pm EDT

A hospital in north Yemen run by medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) was bombed in Saudi-led air strikes, wrecking the facility and lightly wounding two staff members, the group said on Tuesday.
...
"Our hospital in the Heedan district of Saada governorate was hit several times. Fortunately, the first hit damaged the operations theater while it was empty and the staff were busy with people in the emergency room. They just had time to run off as another missile hit the maternity ward," MSF country director Hassan Boucenine told Reuters by telephone from Yemen.
"It could be a mistake, but the fact of the matter is it's a war crime. There's no reason to target a hospital. We provided (the coalition) with all of our GPS coordinates about two weeks ago," he said. At least two staff members were hurt by flying debris, according to Boucenine.

Airstrikes hit Doctors Without Borders clinic in Yemen, By Ashley Fantz and Lucy Pawle, CNN, 2:31 PM ET, Tue October 27, 2015

Five airstrikes hit a Doctors Without Borders health clinic in Yemen Monday, according to a spokeswoman for the nonprofit charitable organization.
...
The clinic in Yemen, where a civil war is raging, is in the northwestern town of Haydan, according to Mahdawi and employees who are there.
The facility, which serves a population of 200,000, was the only life-saving clinic in the region, she said. It handled 150 emergency cases each week. It had treated 3,400 injured people since May, staff said.

Earlier this year Saudi Arabia launched Operation Decisive Storm and a Saudi-led Arab coalition began launching airstrikes to curb the advance of Houthi militia who want to overthrow the government.

The Saudi-led coalition denies conducting airstrikes in the vicinity of Doctors Without Borders clinic, according to the coalition spokesman Ahmed Asseri. "Our operations were along the Saudi border, not inside the city," Asseri told CNN.

Two senior Yemen Health Ministry officials confirmed the airstrikes on the Haydan clinic. One told CNN that most of the victims treated there were ordinary civilians and that the facility treats very few families or relatives of Houthi loyalists.

Doctors Without Border's regional project coordinator Miriam Czech was not present during the airstrike, but she visited the facility in the morning and said she could still see and smell smoke. She said there are devices on the ground that appear to have not exploded, but added that she has not been able enter the facility which she described as "99% destroyed."

Yemen: MSF Hospital Destroyed by Airstrikes, Médecins Sans Frontières, October 27, 2015

(A)irstrikes occurred over a two-hour period. One staff member was slightly injured while escaping. With the hospital destroyed, at least 200,000 people now have no access to lifesaving medical care.
"This attack is another illustration of a complete disregard for civilians in Yemen, where bombings have become a daily routine," said Hassan Boucenine, MSF head of mission in Yemen.
...
The bombing of civilians and hospitals is a violation of international humanitarian law and MSF is demanding that coalition forces explain the circumstances around the attack in Haydan. The hospital’s GPS coordinates were regularly shared with the Saudi-led coalition, and the roof of the facility was clearly identified with the MSF logo.
...
"Yemen is in an all-out war, in which the population caught on the wrong side is considered a legitimate target," said Boucenine. "Markets, schools, roads, bridges, trucks transporting food, displaced persons' camps, and health structures have been bombed and destroyed. And the first victims are civilians."

MSF’s priority is to reestablish a new health facility as soon as possible, in order to maintain the provision of health care to the population of Haydan.

ACTION: Tell your Senators to oppose CISA spy bill

Brown Thrasher

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Wednesday October 21, 2015 · 12:40 PM PDT

2015/10/21 · 12:40

The spy-bill that will not die is back again.

Yesterday the Senate filed cloture & started debate on the Cyberintelligence Sharing Act (CISA) of 2015, the latest version of CISPA. Like its predecessor, it gives broad immunity to corporations that violate our privacy by turning our data over to the government, all with the excuse of "cyberwar".

Senator Ron Wyden is leading the effort against it, pointing out (among other things) that setting up massive NSA databanks to store all of our information would, in itself, create massive targets for malicious hackers, putting us AND the government at risk.

Meanwhile, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse proposed an amendment to it that would make CFAA (the "Computer Fraud and Abuse Act") worse, opening the door for companies to bully ordinary users in arbitrary ways (including "hack-backs" & other stupidities).

Also — better late than never — Silicon Valley has recognized the threat & turned against CISA. That "change of heart" came about through user pressure — & now it's up to YOU to bring that same pressure against it in the Senate.

Tell your Senators to oppose CISA (S. 754). An EFF action-link is here.

Breaking The Gentlemen’s Agreement

arlenegoldbard

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Friday October 16, 2015 · 3:32 PM PDT

2015/10/16 · 15:32

I believe that the power of corporate America, the power of Wall Street, the power of the drug companies, the power of the corporate media is so great that the only way we really transform America and do the things that the middle class and working class desperately need is through a political revolution when millions of people begin to come together and stand up and say: Our government is going to work for all of us, not just a handful of billionaires.

These words were spoken by Senator Bernie Sanders during the first Democratic Party debate among presidential candidates who hope to win the party’s nomination. The Washington Post has made a full transcript available online. In it, the word “billionaire” appears 13 times, all of them voiced by Sanders. Here’s another sample:

I am the only candidate running for president who is not a billionaire, who has raised substantial sums of money, and I do not have a super PAC.

ZhenRen

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Saturday October 10, 2015 · 11:12 AM PDT

2015/10/10 · 11:12

I'm not fooling myself. It's never gonna happen.

And I don't care if you are dashing or charming. I don't need no damn made-up GQ model, or need you to win fashion awards or get on some fancy magazine cover. I'm not effing marrying you, ffs.

I'm not looking to be entertained. This ain't no Hollywood movie, chump. You don't need to be a glamorous actor. We've had enough of the Reagan Revolution. Get over that, already. And the White House isn't really Camelot.

I don't care if you're short or tall and manly. You could be a two foot dwarf. I freakin' don't care.

I don't care if you're an old prune-faced dude. Maybe that's what we need now. Someone who's been through some hard knocks.

I don't care if you're handsome, pretty, or good-looking. I'm not going to be peering at your wrinkled, weathered mug when I get up in the cold morning. Hell, you don't want to see me in the morning, either.

I don't care how you tuck in your shirt, or if your hair looks like Albert Einstein's. In fact, if that helps you get through a day and not fuck up or kill innocent doctors in Afghanistan, you can even spill food on your clothes. I just don't care.

I don't care if you got a D from the NRA, or an F. That's good enough.

I don't care if you have the gift of humor, I haven't been in the mood for jokes lately anyway, and besides, a president gets to be gruff, it should come with the goddamn territory.

I don't care if you're a pinko-commie socialist that wants to turn us into Sweden. I could use a change. In fact, socialism sounds pretty good right about now.

And I don't care what your religion is, as long as you know enough to not force religious shit on me. I'm not a man of faith. I lost that a long time ago, if I ever had it to begin with.

I don't really care what you did forty years ago. I hear you marched or got arrested or something. At least you got some exercise. And you cared about some things. You don't have to be a saint or Martin Luther King. You were a lot like my dad back then. He was no saint either, but he was a good man, and he did what he could.

I don't care what stupid, corrupt political party you did or didn't belong to. That doesn't put food on my table, so there is no good reason to give a fig.

I just want you to do one good thing for me, just one damn thing, and not bullshit me about this, because I will sure as shit know if you do. I'm not the fool some might take me for. I will know if you don't even try.

I just want a good paying job for once in my goddamn life. I want to be paid what I'm worth, and feel like I have value to society again. I want to live in my own home again. Did you know I lost my home? Of course you didn't. We're not friends or buddies, and I'm not expecting that from you. But you know that many did. If there is one thing you know, it is that. And I want to be free of my student debt. I still owe 68,000 damn dollars and I can't pay this, for lack of decent income. A good job would go a long way toward fixing all of this for me. Can you do that one miserable thing for me? Bring the good jobs back? As president, can you treat me, and all workers, the entire 99% of us, like human beings, and promise to not degrade us, at long last? Can you give us a sense of worth again? Can you prop up the people, and put us above the Wall Street hacks in importance?

Do that and you can drink that beer on your own... you've got better things to do than slap down a cold one with me.

Working Class Hero

As soon as you're born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all

A working class hero is something to be

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules

A working class hero is something to be

When they've tortured and scared you for twenty-odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear

A working class hero is something to be

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see

A working class hero is something to be

There's room at the top they're telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill

A working class hero is something to be

If you want to be a hero well just follow me

@@@@

Final version of TPP's intellectual property chapter: it's as bad as we thought

Krotor

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Saturday October 10, 2015 · 10:50 AM PDT

2015/10/10 · 10:50

If you've opened any online news source today, you've probably already seen this: Wikileaks has published what is reportedly the final draft of the intellectual property (IP) chapter of the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement. That means the trade agreement as it will be signed will include this exact text, barring any last moment minor changes.

Image originally uploaded by StewartAcuff as tpp_small.jpg, reduced to 200 x200 pixels

As suspected from leaks of previous versions, this is a corporate-friendly document. Believe it or not, one might read it and imagine that it was drafted by representatives from related business interests rather than consumer representatives and neutral negotiators of democratic governments. Surely, that's a coincidence though...and stop calling me Shirley.

Several of the published articles point out one of the most disturbing general characteristics of the IP chapter: the language used makes enforcement of anti-consumer provisions mandatory while any exceptions which work in favor of citizens are to be considered optional. Here's one example:

Each Party shall endeavor to achieve an appropriate balance in its copyright and related rights system ... giving due consideration to legitimate purposes such as, but not limited to: criticism; comment; news reporting; teaching, scholarship, research, and other similar purposes; and facilitating access to published works for persons who are blind, visually impaired, or otherwise print disabled.

Notice that this clause is a feel-good bromide to suggest that non-commercial "fair use" of copyrighted material can be "considered" for "appropriate balance" if a country wishes to do so. It is not obligatory at all, as in [country X] can just say "we considered it and rejected it, especially after [mega-corporation Y] hauled our ass into an ISDS tribunal and won a billion dollar judgment for not shutting down [critical news site Z]."

On the other hand, the enforcement provisions to protect corporate IP are mandatory. There is no wiffle-waffle about "shall endeavor" there, just flat out orders to the signatory governments that they must prosecute, must legislate, must deregulate or regulate in order to ensure that rightsholders gain extra protection time in years of copyright and patents or to punish those who infringe on them in any way.

More transnational giveaways below the patented, trademarked, copyrighted and strictly enforced under penalty of law orange thing-a-ma-bob.

Brown Thrasher

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Tuesday September 29, 2015 · 7:43 PM PDT

2015/09/29 · 19:43

I just now found out about this, so this will be short but enraging.

Big Telecom's friends in Congress have sneaked a rider into the budget bill discussions that kills the FCC's new net-neutrality protections that we fought so hard to gain throughout 2014.

We now have hours to stop this. Public Citizen has revived its Stop The Slowdown petition, but most importantly you should call your Senators & Representatives immediately & tell them to vote down this piece of slime.

UPDATE #1: In response to several commenters' search of the Congressional record, the diary has been edited (the previous version of the 1st paragraph lacked the word "discussions"). None the less, the fact that this Congress is, indeed, trying this means that jerking around with our right to communicate still needs to be made unthinkable.

Hey you, take this stick and ...

angel d

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Wednesday August 19, 2015 · 9:45 AM PDT

2015/08/19 · 09:45

… wait, that's not a stick, it's an olive branch! Imagine that. I have a crazy idea. Bear with me, I have had a lot of changes in my life, mostly good but some bad, there was some personal growth, I just shuttered a business I started last summer and took a new day-to-day office job and am trying to get used to sitting and focusing for eight hours a day (minus lunch). But I digress, we can talk a bit more about me, and you, in a minute.

In the spirit of comity, I'd like to extend an olive branch to everyone at DKOS. Some of you will accept it with grace and with the healing spirit with which I offer it, others will sneer, and even some others will think I've gone crazy. But let me be clear, just because I think it's important for Democrats and left-leaning Independents and others of our ilk to stand together against the encroaching host-eating parasites that are the 1%, I'm still not going to put up with bullshit. I'm just not going to get nasty about it anymore. I'm so tired.

This is going to be a long read. Hopefully it won't be a Palinesque word salad, but I've been so busy, and I'm so tired, and all I really want is for us to not fight anymore.

I've been posting here a long time, since 2007 or so, and lurked since the 2004 election. Actually, that's when I found this site, was in 2004 a few days before election time. I've made a lot of friends, some of these relationships have flourished outside of this orange thing, and I've made a few enemies and even a couple of frenemies.

We've all been so tense lately. Really, way too tense. Let's just take a moment to breathe, and have a group a hug, okay? Let's learn more about each other, what excites us, what makes us happy, what makes us cry, what makes us puke. Let's try to find common ground, but without tearing each other down. If only in the comment thread of this one diary, let's LISTEN to those who we think are yelling at us, let's really try to understand the other side's POV. Let's not fight.

Getting to know you, getting to know all about you ...

Okay, I'll start. My name is angel d, which is short for Angelina de ___. I'm a Mexican-American-Canadian Catholic Jew with a Punjabi Muslim kid. It sounds confusing, but it's not, really. My ancestors came from Spain, from a town whose name is alive in my own last name. In the 1300s, that town was burned to the ground for being too Jewish. I always forget details, my uncle did all the background work on our family tree and sent me volumes of notes so I could write our history.

I come from Spanish Sephardim, both along my mom's patrilineal and matrilineal lines, but during the explusion, my ancestors had to choose between leaving or conversion, so we became crypto-Jews, until my foremothers and forefathers moved to the new world, were they intermarried with the indigenous peoples, and we became Catholics for real, and Mexican too!

My mom was born and raised in El Paso, Texas, in a small house with 9 brothers and sisters, opted to escape the crushing poverty by joining the Navy. She was stationed at Great Lakes, where she met my dad, and they were then stationed in Newfoundland, where I was born. Hence, when I'm in Canada, I'm a dual citizen, but over here, I'm American.

Back in the 90s when I was just a wild and crazy thing, I met my (now ex) husband, a Pakistani cab driver in Chicago, who drove me home after flamenco dance class one night. I glanced in his rearview mirror at the very moment he did and our eyes met, we went out for a milkshake and a child was born. You know why I named my boy Haroun? Because my ex had a knee jerk hatred of Salman Rushdie because of "Satanic Verses," and so I named my boy after another Rushdie novel, "Haroun and theSea of Stories." Plus, I really do love the name -- it is the Muslim equivalent of a solid Jewish name, Aaron -- and it when I was choosing a middle name for my baby boy, the first time I said "Haroun Miguel," I got goose bumps. So he's got the whole Mexijabi/Punjexican thing going for him.

Brown Thrasher

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Wednesday June 17, 2015 · 1:54 AM PDT

2015/06/17 · 01:54

The Hill and Politico are both reporting that John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, & fellow Republican congressional leaders are now floating a new plan to try to ram though Fast Track as soon as this week.

Basically, this time the House would initiate a new, separate Fast Track bill to pass & send to the Senate, then leave the Senate the separate task of writing a new TAA. The 2 bills would then go to Obama separately. The plan is deliberately designed to ignore Nancy Pelosi.

Meanwhile, several Senate Democrats who voted for the old package, such as Mark Warner & Patty Murray, have already said that they don't want TPA without TAA; hence, they have objected to the Boehner plan. Additionally, Senate Republicans could easily block a TAA "sidecar" bill like the one that is being proposed.

As of "late Tuesday", the Rules Committee postponed considering this plan, so nobody knows when (or in what grotesque form) we will eventually see it unfold.

In any case, keep calling Congress in support of all who stood up for all Americans last week, & keep up the pressure against putting us on the fast track to corporate serfdom.

UPDATE: The House has now scheduled a vote for tomorrow, June 18. Diary here (thank you, Savvy).

ACTION: Tell your rep to OPPOSE the Trade Adjustment Assistance bill

Brown Thrasher

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday June 11, 2015 · 1:09 PM PDT

2015/06/11 · 13:09

As we speak, opponents of Fast-Track are gathering behind a plan by which this bill may be scuttled — defeating the TAA bill first on Friday. By the way the question is being divided, defeating TAA will in turn lead to defeating TPA.

Richard Trumka has been talking to House members about how the Senate's so-called "assistance" is being lowballed, really amounting to pitching a few pennies out of the royal carriage.

The manner in which the pennies are pitched, moreover — gutting Medicare — is also completely unacceptable. Regardless of any "procedural fix" (read: magic beans) attached to a sidecar bill, supporters will be rightly charged with voting to cut our safety net.

Nancy Pelosi herself has stated how TAA would leave public-sector unions in the cold.

Meanwhile, Republican support for TAA is tepid at best, with only somewhere between 50-100 Republicans supporting it. Thus, progressive focus on the weakness & unfairness of TAA has already placed it in jeopardy of failing — & now the public needs to help give it that extra push.

If your rep is a Republican, encouraging a no-vote is quite likely to be an easy sell since most are against it anyway.

If your rep is a Democrat, encourage him/her to vote against this anti-progressive poison pill.

The Inevitability of Bernie Sanders

angel d

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Wednesday June 10, 2015 · 3:03 PM PDT

2015/06/10 · 15:03

At last, friends, the Angry Fringe has reared its beautiful head, and is making its voice heard.

And wow, doesn’t it feel good to have a candidate who articulates the things we’ve been thinking for years? Yes, it does.

Who do you think is going to be leading this political movement about which Bernie Sanders speaks? Do you think it’s all the politicians who accept dark money for their campaigns from Wall Street and other big money donors? Are they going to lead this new movement?

No. We are.

And who are we you might ask? The Angry Fringe. That’s right. All the piece-meal pragmatics who are happy with “realistic” and incremental change can eat the Angry Fringe’s dust. Because I am here to tell you that this movement has already started and while people were looking at polls and watching MSNBC, the new movement has been making inroads into the consciousness of America.

Brown Thrasher

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday June 10, 2015 · 12:04 AM PDT

2015/06/10 · 00:04

Within the past hour of this writing, the House of Representatives added 3 Senate-passed trade-bills (HR 1314, HR 644, & HR 1295) to the weekly schedule. HR 1314 is the main fast-track bill, the "Trade Act"; the others are things that got passed alongside it.

I have no idea what kind of political gamesmanship has just landed it there, whether show of confidence, daring the opposition, or whatever; what's self-evident is that now is the time for the American people to make as much noise as is necessary to stop this un-American con-job of a bill. No change in our economy should be rammed though Congress without real debate — especially not changes which (as Wikileaks has revealed) so fundamentally overhaul our way of life on behalf of international Big Business.

With a "test vote" coming any day now, call early & often to make sure your Representative doesn't flunk.

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angel d's apartment burned down!

The War Against MSF

ACTION: Tell your Senators to oppose CISA spy bill

Breaking The Gentlemen’s Agreement

I will never have a beer with you, Bernie Sanders

Final version of TPP's intellectual property chapter: it's as bad as we thought

ACTION: Congress trying to kill Net neutrality by budget-rider; Stop them NOW (UPDATED)

Hey you, take this stick and ...

BREAKING: GOP to attempt NEW Fast Track deal (UPDATE: Vote is TOMORROW)

ACTION: Tell your rep to OPPOSE the Trade Adjustment Assistance bill

The Inevitability of Bernie Sanders

BREAKING: Fast-Track now on House schedule for THIS WEEK