Global

History in blackface slaps the present moment awake.

What? The governor put that picture on his yearbook page? In 1984? The wave of outrage, the demand for his resignation — from Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s own party, the Democrats — can’t be dismissed with a shrug and an apology. His career may be over, thanks not simply to an act of youthful stupidity but to the context that made it possible: good old American racism.

At the recent World Economic Forum at Davos, a U.S. panelist claimed that high taxes on the super-wealthy and economic growth had never coexisted in any country ever. The moderator and other panelists were ready to move on, but someone had made the mistake of allowing a guy on the panel who would blurt out the obvious, and he did so, pointing out that those two things had coexisted for decades in the United States up through the 1960s.

The St Louis River of Northern Minnesota will be as Vulnerable to Annihilation as were Brazil’s Rio Doce and Paraobeba Rivers (pictured below) – if the PolyMet Project is Allowed to Proceed

(Trying to understand why every Brazilian mining catastrophe has been blacked-out by the Duluth News-Tribune)

The photos and videos in this supplemental Duty to Warn column need to be viewed by everybody living downstream from the proposed PolyMet mine tailings lagoon – scheduled to be built near Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota, a St Louis River river-town in northeast Minnesota. Hoyt Lakes is the northernmost of the 12 river towns on the St Louis River estuary which empties into Lake Superior, the least polluted of the Great Lakes. Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world (by surface area) and it contains 10% of the entire world’s remaining fresh water.

Tales from la Vida

ComFest will be collaborating with The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Library and Cartoon Museum and it's current exhibit, Tales From la Vida, for a special fund raising event on Sat. March 2nd from 1-5PM. We will be raising funds for (a yet undetermined) immigration support group. We will be offering an opening lecture with Frederick Luis Aldama, who curated the exhibit along with Jenny Robb. There will also be a series of curated tours of the exhibit.

Admission will also include access to the rest of the museum, which will be opened specifically for the event. The book, Tales From la Vida, A Latinx Anthology will be for sale. It was edited by Frederick Luis Aldama and published by The Ohio State University Press. ComFest and The Museum will have information tables.

Tales from la Vida: Latinx Comics:

A lot more energy is invested by people in theorizing what respectable and corrupt influences motivate members of the U.S. Congress than at least some members of the U.S. Congress invest in thinking or in having opinions at all.

To the People of Venezuela

Yet again, the United States elite has decided to attempt to impose its will on the people of another nation, in this case, and not for the first time either, your country Venezuela.

On 23 January 2019, following careful secret planning in the preceding weeks and a late night telephone call the previous day from US Vice President Mike Pence – see ‘Pence Pledged U.S. Backing Before Venezuela Opposition Leader’s Move’ and ‘Venezuela – Trump’s Coup Plan Has Big Flaws’ – the US initiated a coup against your President, Nicolás Maduro, and his Government, whom you democratically re-elected to represent you on 20 May 2018. See ‘The Case for the Legitimacy of Maduro’s Second Term’.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- After nearly five years in power, Thailand's
coup-installed military regime will allow nationwide elections on
March 24 for a House of Representatives and prime minister. But
analysts and activists warn instability will torment whoever wins.

Machiavellian, moody and often angry, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha
orchestrated a controversial post-coup constitution which enables him
to extend his prime ministry either through the ballot box or as an
unelected leader.

Whichever route he chooses, Mr. Prayuth would need support from 376
House and Senate members out of a total 750.

Mr. Prayuth knows his junta-appointed 250-seat Senate is virtually
guaranteed to boost him. So he needs only 126 pro-Prayuth politicians
among the 500 elected House members to reach a combined 376.

Unfortunately for an opposition candidate to become prime minister,
several parties would likely need to form a coalition because they
need to collect all 376 seats solely in the House, while the appointed
Senate is expected to be hostile.

It’s possible that the U.S. Congress will for the first time use the War Powers Resolution of 1973 to end a war — the one on Yemen. This would be wonderful. There are some caveats.

he Green New Deal’s demand to make our energy system 100% renewable has become central to the new American Dream. It’s essential to our survival, both economically and ecologically.

But the original New Deal, whose Godmother was Eleanor Roosevelt, embraced a broad vision of remaking society as a whole. It aimed to end poverty, win social justice, promote the arts, and much, much more.

So here’s a partial list of New Deal-style changes to create a fair, decent, sustainable world. We welcome your own suggestions at www.solartopia.org.