Today’s comic by Tom Tomorrow is The folly of aspiration:
What you may have missed on Sunday Kos …
• #breakfree of fossil fuels climate change actions conclude their 12-day run:
Twelve days of unprecedented worldwide action against fossil fuels concluded Sunday showing that the climate movement will not rest until all coal, oil and gas is kept in the ground. The combined global efforts of activists on six continents now pose a serious threat to the future of the fossil fuel industry, already weakened by financial and political uncertainty.
Tens of thousands of activists took to the streets, occupied mines, blocked rail lines, linked arms, paddled in kayaks and held community meetings in 13 countries, pushing the boundaries of conventional protest to find new ways to demand coal, oil and gas stay in the ground. Participants risked arrest—many for the first time—to say that it’s time to Break Free from the current energy paradigm that is locking the planet into a future of catastrophic climate change.
• Anti-Defamation League to recognize Armenian genocide:
The Ottoman government’s massacre of 1.5 million Armenians in the early 20th century was “unequivocally genocide,” the head of the Anti-Defamation League said in the group’s strongest position on the subject.
Jonathan Greenblatt, the civil rights group’s CEO, also said in a blog post Friday that the ADL will support U.S. recognition of the Armenian genocide — a move the group resisted for many years.
• Yellowstone tourists “rescue” bison calf, get ticketed by National Park Rangers: According to one person helping to chaperone a group of fifth-graders on a field trip, the father-son tourists from another country picked up the animal because “They were seriously worried that the calf was freezing and dying.” That person warned them pair that they should release the calf because they could get into trouble. Sure enough, when the rangers arrived, they ticketed them and followed them back to where they had picked up the calf and released it. The calf subsequently was euthanized after several unsuccessful attempts were made to reunite it with its herd. Under park rules, tourists are supposed to stay 100 yards away from bears and wolves and at least 25 yards away from bison.
• Lake Michigan has risen four feet in three years: Thirty years ago, the lake was reaching record levels and the authorities placed some large rocks at one beach to break up the waves. Then, the water receded. Now those rocks are an island and no longer accessible. Tim Murphy, a local resident who has studied Chicago beaches for decades said: "It's a very complicated situation — it's absolutely unpredictable. It's up to Mother Nature and whatever she decides to do."
• Mural of Donny Trump and Vladimir Putin kissing goes viral: The mural, which includes the stenciled phrase, “make everything great again,” appears on the back of a Lithuanian barbeque place, the Keule Ruke. The restaurant owner had requested the mural. Artist Mindaugas Bonanu told CNN that he was unaffected by the international attention his work has garnered. "In my life nothing changed, except that now I have full pocket of food coupons to eat in Keule Ruke," Bonanu said. The mural echoes a well-known piece of work that once appeared on the western side of the Berlin wall, a depiction of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev kissing East German leader Erich Honecker.
• Shark bit woman’s arm and wouldn’t let go: At Boca Raton, a Florida woman stepped out the water with a foot-long nurse shark firmly attached to her forearm. Efforts to get it loose failed, even after the animal died. It was finally pried off at the hospital. Witnesses said the woman was with a group of others who were in the water antagonizing the shark. Ocean Rescue Capt. Clint Tracy, who saw the woman and the shark being placed into an ambulance, said: "I have never seen anything like it. Never even heard of anything like this."
• Meanwhile, thousands of tiny red crabs are washing up on southern California beaches.
• On 50th anniversary of Chinese Cultural Revolution, state media remains silent: The campaign to purge the Chinese Communist Party of “capitalist-roaders” was announced by Mao Zedong on May 16, 1966. It produced a decade of bloodshed and exile, with the ridicule, exile, imprisonment and murder of hundreds of thousands of academicians, military officers, bureaucrats—some of them prominent communists who had been part of the communist revolution that brought Mao to power in 1949. Deng Xiaoping, who would maneuver his way to power after Mao died in 1976, was exiled to the Xinjian County Tractor Factory in 1969 where he was meant to be a regular worker. After Mao’s death, he managed to gain power and hold it for 20 years. This he did being careful not to diss Mao, but vigorously attacking the so-called “Gang of Four” the ideological leadership cabal that was led by Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing. Ultimately, Deng set the country on a modernization course with a form of socio-economics that might be labeled “Red Capitalism.”
• On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, Greg Dworkin previews what we know about the KY & OR primaries, and rounds up Hairspray von Clownstick news. And guess who exploited undocumented immigrant labor? Armando weighs in on the discussion of the Nevada Dem convention debacle.
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