In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

The US Federal Communications Commission is giving the finger to net neutrality: "The principle that all Internet content should be treated equally as it flows through cables and pipes to consumers looks all but dead. The Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday that it would propose new rules that allow companies like Disney, Google or Netflix to pay Internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon for special, faster lanes to send video and other content to their customers. The proposed changes would affect what is known as net neutrality—the idea that no providers of legal Internet content should face discrimination in providing offerings to consumers, and that users should have equal access to see any legal content they choose." Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

[Content Note: Guns] Republican Georgia Governor Nathan Deal signed legislation yesterday that allows "registered gun owners to carry their weapons into churches, schools, libraries and bars." At a press conference, Deal basically said straightforwardly that the law is designed to allow people to harm those by whom they feel threatened: "Today I will sign a gun bill that heralds self-defense, personal liberties and public safety. While we still guard against tyranny, America today cherishes this right, so that people who follow the rules can protect themselves and their families from those who don't follow the rules." Absolutely fucking terrifying.

[CN: Police brutality] Ruth Hunter, a 75-year-old black woman who lives in Virginia, had her hands tied and restrained by police when they raided her house as part of a drug investigation of a man who lives two doors down from her. What the absolute fuck.

Once again, I will note, with no intent to absolve police of their mistreatment of Hunter or anyone else, that the gun laws like the one Deal just signed into law are objectively making everyone, including police, less safe and more likely to be shot, which means that police will be more inclined to restrain everyone they encounter, and some individual officers' fear about gun proliferation will inform an urge to use deadly force in situations where none is needed. These garbage gun laws are virtually ensuring that more people are harmed during police encounters.

Big surprise to no one but dipshits with a conservative martyr agenda: "New Records: IRS Targeted Progressive Groups More Extensively Than Tea Party."

A judge granted the petition for Chelsea Manning to legally change her name to Chelsea. Said Manning: "Hopefully today's name change, while so meaningful to me personally, can also raise awareness of the fact that [transgender people] exist everywhere in America today, and that we must jump through hurdles every day just for being who we are."

[CN: Guns] Dr. Garen Wintemute, "a professor of emergency medicine who runs the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis" and "by his own count, one of only a dozen researchers across the country who have continued to focus full-time on firearms violence," has donated about $1.1 million of his own money in order to keep his research going, since the CDC ended his funding. Here is an interview with him.

Amazon and HBO have struck a deal to stream some of HBO's older shows.

[CN: Misogyny] I know you're all shocked, but Aaron Sorkin has lots of misogynistic things to say about why there aren't more female protagonists.

I need this cat table immediately.