Guatemalan activists fight the continued contamination of Lake Atitlán. Local government bodies are supposed to attend to environmental matters, of course, but they tend to ignore complaints and then say they've got no money when they can't ignore the complaints anymore. Then some larger, extra-national body moves in and imposes a solution that doesn't address the problem (unless you consider "a momentary shortfall in my cronies' wallets" to be a "problem"). And it's curious that indigenous populations seem to bear the brunt of environmental damage in Guatemala, just like non-whites do here in America.
Iraq and Afghanistan war vets are suffering serious health problems due to massive open-air "burn pits," designed to dispose of trash. Everything went into these pits -- medical wastes, weapons, plastics, metals, tires, even body parts -- and naturally Kellogg-Brown-Root (then a Halliburton subsidiary) built them not just in violation of our own clean air laws but also the military's own environmental regulations. Thus, any soldier who lived near one is in danger of having serious health problems, from respiratory issues to cancer. But, hey, bygones, as long as Tha Bush Mobb's cronies made money.
Get your surprised face ready: the National Low Income Housing Coalition can't find a single state in America where someone can afford a two-bedroom apartment on the federal minimum wage without paying more than 30% of their income. (That last part is important, as banks used to hold you to the 30% standard before giving you a mortgage -- until they stopped caring about making good loans, that is.) Even a $15/hour minimum wage wouldn't get you a two-bedroom apartment in more than 16 states, and likely not in the biggest cities of those 16 states, either. But please, right-wingers, tell me again how easy it would be for anyone to make it if they would just sell their souls and act like banksters.
The New York Times finds Hillary Clinton "Struggl(ing) to Find Footing in Unusual Race." That couldn't be because she's trying to beat a rich idiot while trying not to lose the financial backing of other rich idiots, could it? I didn't read that in the article anywhere, possibly because the New York Times has a similar problem. Hillary Clinton will have trouble beating Donald Trump because only two kinds of candidates have won elections since 1992: a) incumbents and b) candidates who've been able to sell themselves as a "different kind of politician." And Hillary Clinton is neither one.
Finally, Gary Johnson and William Weld secure the Libertarian party nods for President and Vice President. Convention balloting was unusually contentious, especially for Mr. Weld, a former Republican who governed Massachusetts more or less like a Democrat. Now, perhaps, the Koch brothers can open up their purported $900 million warchest for a Presidential ticket that doesn't have Donald Trump but still shares their values of limited government. I kid, of course.
Comments