Friday, June 16, 2017

The Flint River Water Project

I am not on the same page with the Michigan Attorney General. If the Emergency Manager is charged where is Snyder. The governor is culpable.

Andimba Toivo ya Toivo, once a resident of Robben Island prison has passed away at the age of 92.

June 13, 2017
By Emily Langer

Mr. ya Toivo kisses the ground upon his return to Namibia from exile in Angola in 1989.

Andimba Toivo ya Toivo, (click here) a Namibian independence leader whose struggle against his country’s South African rulers landed him for 16 years in the infamous Robben Island prison, where with his steadfastness he earned the admiration of Nelson Mandela, a fellow inmate, died June 9. He was 92.

His death was reported by the Associated Press and by Namibian outlets including New Era, which said Mr. ya Toivo died at his home in a suburb of Windhoek, the country’s capital, of a suspected heart attack.

Mr. ya Toivo fought what the London Guardian once described as a decades-long “war of nerves” with South Africa in behalf of Namibia. South Africa assumed control of the onetime German colony through a League of Nations mandate at the end of World War I....
June 15, 2017

Donald Trump is correct, they are laughing, but, they aren't laughing at the country. (click here)

The death count is to 17 now. I don't think there will ever be an accurate death toll. I don't know how they will be able to enter that tower.

The building is unstable and dangerous. As sad and sacred so many lives lost in that building are, the city is going to have to consider demolishing the building for the safety of the area.

June 15, 2017
By Lizzie Dearden

Thousands of homes (click here) in tower blocks across the UK are undergoing urgent safety reviews after a fire that claimed at least 17 lives in London, amid concerns that exterior cladding commonly used on such buildings could have led to the horrific speed at which the flames spread.

Residents said they had sounded the alarm over issues dating back several years at Grenfell Tower, which was covered in aluminium panels to improve its “external appearance” last year.

Buildings across the UK renovated by the same firm that installed the tower's cladding will now be reviewed, The Independent has learnt.

Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, was among those demanding an immediate review of fire safety at blocks across the country as police launched a separate criminal investigation into the disaster....

Start with normal occupancy and where the head of the household worked. Then expand from there into school attendance and absences at work. It is going to be impossible to recover the bodies in that building. Families and friends need to take account of loved ones that lived in the building and decide if their absence from phone calls and the like is normal or not.

How many more buildings are fitted with these tiles. They have to be removed as soon as possible.

Cladding (click here) believed to have been used on Grenfell Tower is banned in the US, it has emerged, amid revelations that it would have cost just £5,000 extra for the contractors to apply a fire-resistant version of panelling to the building....

...The panels believed to have been fitted to the outside of Grenfell Tower are produced by US company Reynobond, which makes three types of panel: one with a flammable plastic core and two with fire-resistant cores. 

It is thought that contractors chose the cheaper, more combustible version for Grenfell, which has a polyethylene core and is known as PE.

A salesman for the US company Reynobond, which produces the panels, told The Times the type of panel believed to have been used on Grenfell Tower was banned on tall buildings in the US “because of the fire and smoke spread”.

The Dubai fire occurred for the same reasons.

April 2, 2017

...The high-rise (click here) Fountain Views complex, which is being built by state-backed Dubai developer Emaar Properties, eventually will connect to the massive Dubai Mall across the street. It's planned to eventually be home to 788 apartments and a hotel.

Emaar, which built both the Dubai Mall and the tower struck by the 2015 blaze, declined to immediately comment.

Dramatic fires have hit skyscrapers in Dubai and other fast-growing cities in the United Arab Emirates in recent years. Building and safety experts have cited a popular type of cladding covering the buildings that can be highly flammable. Authorities say they've changed fire safety rules in the sheikhdom to address the danger, but have offered few details....
Russia believes al-Baghdadi is dead in an air strike. Congratulations. His idea of a caliphate dies with him. It is disgusting the number of young minds and hearts he corrupted into brutally killing innocent people. His death brings recognition of a painful period in Islamic history.

There is still a threat from his diaspora, but, it will abate in time. His death is reassurance of the growing desire for peace in the Middle East. Stabilizing Syria and Libya is the only real challenge left. Iran has no reason to continue to arm the Shia Crescent with a stabilizing region. Enough. All faiths and ethnicity are guaranteed a place and right to exist. The childrrn are to be given a future.

bin Laden
al Baghdad

Who else wants to make the list? Junior? You want to make the lift, too?