Global
Given the overwhelming evidence that activist efforts are failing to halt the accelerating rush to extinction precipitated and maintained by dysfunctional human behavior, it is worth reflecting on why this is happening.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Several people died, hundreds were missing and
6,600 left homeless Tuesday (July 24) after a partially constructed
dam collapsed in southern Laos, dumping more than 1 billion gallons (5
billion liters) of churning water onto villages below, official
reports from the communist country said.
The collapse of the partially constructed hydroelectric dam on Monday
(July 23) night in Attapeu province was described as an accident
caused by heavy rain.
The 1 billion gallons (5 billion liters) of water which roared out
equals 2 million Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to one
report.
"The incident was caused by a continuous rainstorm which caused a high
volume of water to flow into the project's reservoir," the dam's
Thailand-based Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding reportedly
said in an English-language statement.
Rainwater "fractured" the "Saddle Dam D" and "leaked to the downstream
area," it said.
The dam's other investors include South Korea's Korea Western Power
and the Laos government's Lao Holding State Enterprise.
Director/choreographer Tor Campbell’s rendition of Dreamgirls is an extremely exciting, energetic version and vivid vision of the beloved musical that opened on Broadway in 1981 and onscreen in 2006. With a cast of dozens (including five performers who been part of national Broadway tours), the almost three hour production pulsates with vibrant dancing, singing and live music played by a quartet.
The play, of course, appears to be suggested by actual Motown and other major musical acts, in particular the Supremes, here called the Dreamettes then the Dreams, and finally as Deena Jones (the sultry Shaunte Massard, whose stage credits include Fiddler on the Roof and Ain’t Misbehavin’) & the Dreams. James “Thunder” Early, aka “Jimmy,” seems to be a cross between James Brown with a dash of Little Richard is played mostly for laughs by the scene stealing, charming Chad Ra’shun, who provides comic relief and kinetic pyrotechnics.
Everyone's talking about election hacking these days. In the country's latest reprise of "the Russians are coming," we're all in turmoil about Putin's interference in U.S. elections.
However, don't you find it highly ironic politicians on all sides are so worried about "Russian hacking," while virtually none of them is addressing much more significant forms of election rigging? I'm talking about the criminal fixes arranged by the U.S. officials themselves?
More specifically, these include the retention of the outdated electoral college itself, outrageous gerrymandering of voting districts, super delegates at nominating conventions, voter suppression's many forms (from voter IDs to felony disenfranchisement laws), Koch brother funding of candidates' election campaigns (as in Citizens United), and the use of highly hackable computerized technology that miscounts and discounts millions of votes each election cycle. (No wonder so many of us decide on election day, "Why bother?")
Note: In its 200 year history, the USA has intervened in, invaded or militarily occupied the following Western Hemisphere nations: Canada, Confederate States of America, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Colombia, Panama, Venezuela, Surinam, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Grenada. The article below enlarges upon the 10 most lethal coups.
While the dates most associated with the Central Intelligence Agency are the 1953 coup against Iran's Mohammed Mossadeq and the following year against Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz, the world's most notorious–and possibly ignoble–spy agency actually was chartered on this day, 18 September, in 1947.
Since then, the CIA has played a role in hundreds of assassinations, military coups, and rebellions around the globe, from Argentina to Zaire.
In Illinois, as in all the rest of the states, it’s legal to carry a concealed handgun, unless you’re at a ballgame or in the library or a number of other designated public places. But one of those places is not the corner of 71st Street and Jeffery Boulevard, in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood.
You mix guns with racism, and stir in some law and order, and it gets very confusing.
The one thing that’s not confusing is that Harith Augustus, a 37-year-old barber, father of a little girl, who lived and worked within a few blocks of that corner, is dead, shot by a police officer in the midst of a needless confrontation — and in utter violation of the Chicago Police Department’s own alleged policy: to respect the “sanctity of human life.”
Police shoot another black man, spark community rage, further destroy all trust and continue to behave not as protectors but as an occupying army. God bless America.