It’s the US national day to save Net Neutrality: the day when we phone, tweet, email, and show up in person at every congresscritter, senator and FCC Commisioner’s office to demand a free, fair and open internet, where the big phone and cable companies don’t get to demand bribes from the services you use for delivering them to you.
You buy internet access because you want to access the sites you want. Your ISP – in America, that’s almost certainly a phone monopoly or a cable monopoly – wants the right to slow down traffic from the sites you love unless they bid against deep-pocketed giants for access to you. In other words, they want to get paid by you to access the net, and paid by the net for access to you.
This became illegal a year ago, when the FCC under former Chairman Tom Wheeler enacted “Title II” rules for ISPs, saying they couldn’t discriminate against online services that hadn’t paid them bribes. But Donald Trump’s FCC Chairman pick, Ajit Pai – a former cable lobbyist – has declared his intention to roll back Title II, allowing monopolistic ISPs to pick the winners and losers for the whole American internet.
Today, we put a stop to it. EFF’s Dear FCC tool will send a letter to the FCC about this, and Battle for the Net’s widget will also send a letter to Congress, then let you call up Congresspeople and Senators to let their staffers know where you stand. I made 20 phone calls this morning. It felt great.
Chairman Pai and the ISP lobbyists say they don’t want to “regulate” telcoms, but telcoms are nothing but regulation: without the government rules that grant them access to rights of way in and between America’s cities and towns, telcoms companies would have to pay for every square foot of sidewalk they dug up, every mile of railroad track they wanted to run conduit next to. It would cost trillions.
The telcoms industry is absolutely in favor of the regulation that saves them trillions in capital outlays and rents – the only regulation they oppose is the one that says they owe a fair and useful internet in return for all that public largesse.
In 2012, the SOPA Internet Blackout melted Congress’s switchboard, putting through 8 million phone calls in 72 hours. SOPA died. Now it’s time for the net to flex its muscle again. We all depend on a free, fair and open internet – whether you read Boing Boing or 4chan, the New York Times or The Clickhole.
i like clues because they make sense, unlike people, who have legs that go on for days. how can a leg go on for days? i don’t know. help
i got the call late at night: “there’s been a murder on the orient express.” i knew i had to take the case immediately, because that is a TRAIN
i have been told i am “gritty” and “hardboiled”, maybe because i eat so many eggs and crunch the bits of shell between my teeth
“he’s the killer!” i said. “wait, no he’s not. wait, all these people look the same, which one is which again?”
i’m a straight shooter who plays by my own rules, all 376 of them that I have in this annotated binder
i’m a lose cannon, in fact, i have been institutionalized for erratic behavior
my job as a detective is made harder by the fact that i am physically incapable of telling a lie or bluffing but made easier by the fact that i have no emotions about anything but trains. once a train was murdered, and i couldn’t stop crying
she had curves in all the right places. i like curves, because they make sense, unlike people
i like my liquor hard, and my social interactions harder
i’m the best detective around, but my fees are high, and i only take payment in trains
she had curves in all the right places. she was a graph i was making about trains. in the other room, my dad was crying because i wouldn’t make eye contact with him
“you will tell me what i want.” i said. “everyone tells me what i want. i’m tough as nails, and i’m not afraid to display aggressive behavior”
i got into this job because one time in fifth grade i asked my special teacher why people don’t like me, and she told me to be a detective and figure it out. i took that completely literally, and here we are today
maybe i should throw away all my detective memorabilia so that i can hug my dad for the first time
“i know you’re a detective,” my mom sniffled, “but sometimes i feel like the real detective, trying to figure out how to finally help you”
the only mystery i cannot solve is the mystery of why these nice ladies keep making me play with special blocks. i have literally no theories about why this is happening
“i didn’t solve the case, and i let a second train get murdered!” i cried. “i’m a bad detective!” “oh, honey, no,” my mom soothed, “you’re not a bad detective, you’re just special, and sometimes that means things are a little bit harder for you”
he handed me the pictures of the suspects. i crossed out their eyes so i could look at their faces.
i got the call late at night. “TEXT ME” i shouted into the phone
“Hargrove explained in the video that she had ridden her bicycle to a local store to buy a Father’s Day gift before realizing the establishment was closed. On her way back home she stopped to get a drink of water out of her backpack. That’s when she noticed three police cars behind of her. The 19-year-old said that one of the officers had already had his gun drawn as soon as he got out of his patrol car.
The teen said that officers demanded to see her backpack, but she asked them for a warrant. When officers pointed out the K9 dog to her, Hargrove said she got scared and gave them her backpack, but at that point the officer allegedly grabbed her by the wrist and neck and punched her and threw her on the ground. At that point the K9 came and bit her.
Hargrove claims that one officer put his knee in her back and another knee on her head.
“I told him ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe’ and then I started yelling out “somebody help, somebody help me, they’re gonna kill me,’” she said.
Ultimately, the teen was arrested on suspicion of resisting or delaying an officer and aggravated assault on an officer.
Police say that they mistook the 5-foot-2, 115 pound Hargrove for a suspect who was described as being a 25 to 30-year-old bald man with a goatee, who stands at around 5 foot 10 and weighs 170 pounds.”
Hazel Scott playing two pianos at the same damn time with ease
Hazel Scott was a musical sorcerer and a civil rights hero. She:
was admitted to Julliard at 8.
was performing in top venues by 16.
pioneered “swinging the classics” and made the equivalent of a million dollars a year doing it.
was the first person of color to have their own national TV show.
went to Hollywood but refused to be cast as a “singing maid.” Demanded and got control over her casting, her wardrobe, and how footage featuring her was cut.
refused to perform in segregated venues and led charges for integration in several northern cities, notably Spokane.
She was brought down by the House Committee on Unamerican Activities, and has been largely forgotten. But she was a sorcerer, and a hero.
@ppl who get embarrassed bc they responded “you too” to a server who told them to enjoy their meal: if your first instinct is to be polite & friendly even when you’re not necessarily paying attention you have nothing to b embarrassed about
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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