Global
BANGKOK, Thailand -- When Barack Obama became the first American
president to visit communist Laos on Sept. 6-8, he arrived in the most
heavily bombed country on earth where people continue to perish from
U.S. explosives dropped during a war which ended more than 40 years
ago.
President Obama's trip to Laos is seen by some as Washington's
effort to woo Southeast Asia away from China's embrace.
He had bilateral meetings with Lao President Bounnhang Vorachith,
who was promoted from the vice presidency in January when several
other top leaders shifted, prompting speculation that Vientiane wants
to ease away from financial dependence on Beijing and revitalize
traditional ties with Hanoi.
In 1975, Washington lost its "secret war" in Laos -- along with
similar defeats in Cambodia and Vietnam that same year when communists
achieved victories across Indochina.
"Obama's diplomatic visit to Vientiane certainly isn't the time,
nor the place, to find value or fault in anything the U.S.A. did in
Laos," said James "Mule" Parker in an interview.
“Sadly, NPR, MPR and WPR – my usually respected regional public radio stations (that regularly ask me for money) - have resolutely refused to interview any of the multitude of scientists, researchers, scholars and authors who have amassed mountains of court-of-law-ready evidence that 9/11 was a criminal false flag operation. All the evidence points to it being an inside job. Are they therefore accomplices of the criminal groups that have orchestrated the cover-up of the crime of the century?”
As I read of the latest coup in Brazil, once again removing a democratically elected leader from power, my anger surged. Not again! However, as I see and read about the ongoing massive protests, as well as calls by prominent community leaders to mobilize in defense of your country's democracy, I feel great hope for Brazil. Having been a nonviolent activist for many years, I would like to support Brazilian activists to develop a nonviolent strategy that will increase your chances of success.
This is our lucky day for quite a few reasons. We haven't yet rendered the climate of this planet uninhabitable for our species. For those of us who are not in prison: we're not in prison -- and not because of some significant difference between us and many who are. For those of us not hungry or scared . . . (see note above re prisons). But there's another big reason that this is our lucky day -- a reason that is different in kind from these.
So the corporate media indulged itself with the idea that Green Party candidate Jill Stein flew to the "wrong city" for a Friday rally at Capital University in central Ohio. Her lateness was in the headline, lead and conclusion of every mainstream article about the September 2 event.
As usual, they ignored the real story.
Jill originally had a speech scheduled in Cincinnati, which was moved, although the tickets weren't. So she was in Covington, Kentucky about a half-hour before the scheduled noon start of her talk at Capital, where Harvey is in his thirteenth year of teaching (primarily UC200: Cultural and Ethnic Diversity).
No big deal. Jill hopped into a Lyft and headed north. Estimated time of arrival: about 2:30.
Speaking out against racism is one thing -- and a wonderful and admirable thing it is -- but choosing to do so by sitting out the U.S. national anthem, and then having others join in, or "come out" as routine national anthem sitters: this is fantastic!
A self-governing republic of thinking people (whose first thought should be "My god, what are we doing to the rest of the planet with all this pollution and all these wars?") ought to have no use for mandatory flag worship, required hand positions, or enforced recitations of pledges of allegiance to colored bits of cloth. Or if only some people outgrow such practices, others ought to leave them alone about it.
Laura Bentz of Keybridge Communications describes her company as "a boutique PR firm -- founded by a former writer for the Wall Street Journal -- that specializes in writing and placing op-eds. With some of the country's most influential trade groups and global corporations as clients, we run many of the major op-ed campaigns in the U.S. We place roughly 3,000 op-eds per year."
The Kamara of the present and the Kamara of the past found themselves on opposite sidelines when the Columbus Crew SC defeated the New England Revolution 2-0 on Aug. 20. Former Crew SC forward Kei Kamara, who just missed winning the MLS Golden Boot award last season with 22 goals, squared off against his replacement Ola Kamara, who scored 10 goals and had one assist in his first 16 games with the Crew.
The Aug. 20 win was Crew SC’s first road game victory of the season and Black and Gold improved to 4-8-11 overall. The team, which finished second in the MLS last season, was ninth in the East Conference behind New York City FC (11-7-8) in the Aug. 21 standings.
“I think it was big. It’s a confidence builder,” Black and Gold Sporting Director and Head Coach Gregg Berhalter said. “The first half in particular, I think we played really well. There’s been times this year that we’ve gone on the road and played this way and haven’t got the result, so I think that it’s gratifying to have a strong performance and get the three points.”
A while back I wrote about something a lot of geeks have struggled with: nostalgia for the juggernaut of the MMORPG scene, World of Warcraft. Most of us have played it at one time or another – some to the exclusion of everything else in our lives – and a lot of us have stopped. Still, we end up pining for the late nights spent with a bunch of friends in Karazhan, a half-gallon of chocolate milk, and no pants. Or we go see the recent movie because we just can’t help but be curious how that old story will look with a proper budget and modern special effects.
And every time there’s an expansion, we end up wondering if it’s time to go back. Did they fix that awful change to our favorite class? Is the new storyline interesting? Has it just plain been long enough that it’ll feel a little bit new again?
Blizzard is hoping the answer to at least some of your questions will be “yes” with the World of Warcraft: Legion expansion, released on August 30th.
While Bernie Sanders was doing a brilliant job of ripping into the Trans-Pacific Partnership during the livestreamed launch of the Our Revolution organization on Wednesday night, CNN was airing a phone interview with Hillary Clinton and MSNBC was interviewing Donald Trump’s campaign manager.
That sums up the contrast between the enduring value of the Bernie campaign and the corporate media’s fixation on the political establishment. Fortunately, Our Revolution won’t depend on mainline media. That said, the group’s debut foreshadowed not only great potential but also real pitfalls.
Even the best election campaigns aren’t really “movements.” Ideally, campaigns strengthen movements and vice versa. As Bernie has often pointed out, essential changes don’t come from Congress simply because of who has been elected; those changes depend on strong grassroots pressure for the long haul.