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Imagine some foreign nation sent 100 missiles into Washington D.C.

You can imagine this because Hollywood has trained you to imagine it.

Imagine that for weeks or months prior to this attack, the foreign nation’s government and public debated whether to do it.

You can imagine this because you live in the one nation on earth where such debates happen, or because you have heard about the sorts of things that go on in the United States.

Now imagine that the primary excuse for the attack settled on in the debate in the distant foreign capital was this: it would be punishment for the U.S. government’s use of and possession of banned weapons: depleted uranium, white phosphorous, napalm, cluster bombs, etc.

You may be able to imagine that, depending on what you know about events in the world and how good you are at playing role reversal.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idVoVgQ2baw

Today, April 20, 2018, Senator Tim Kaine told an audience at the U of Virginia that missiles into Syria were illegal because not authorized by Congress, leaving everyone to imagine Congress could have made such a thing legal. Kaine gave a long speech on the legality of war without ever mentioning that it is illegal. So I asked him, and he admitted as much. He offered no way in which Congress could have made the missiles legal. He claimed wars are legal if a puppet “invites” you, a claim not supported by written law and not relevant to attacking Syria.

The fact is that the same line of text that gives Congress the war powers in the U.S. Constitution also gives it the power to hire pirates — except that everybody admits you’re not supposed to do that. War also was banned, first and in its entirety by the Kellogg-Briand Pact, second and with limited exceptions not met by any recent wars by the UN Charter, as I pointed out to Senator Kaine.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thailand's coup-installed Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwon will be in Washington from April 22-27 to meet Defense Secretary James "Mad Dog" Mattis, boosting the junta despite demands for elections, human rights, democracy and Mr. Prawit's resignation for alleged corruption.

"The U.S. needs to counter China's increasing rise in interests and influence in Thailand, and in Southeast Asia by extension, and deepening already deep military-to-military relations is one way to do that," Benjamin Zawacki said in an interview, describing retired army general Prawit's visit.

"Thailand's government is -- as all Thai governments have been since the turn of the century -- pro-Beijing. And until Trump came to power, it was anti-Washington as well," said Bangkok-based Mr. Zawacki, author of a new book titled, "Thailand: Shifting Ground Between the U.S. and a Rising China."

Thailand publicly says it wants good relations with all nations, and is not leaning toward China to the detriment of the U.S.

“…most ‘flu’ appears to have nothing to do with influenza. Every year, hundreds of thousands of respiratory specimens are tested across the US. Of those tested, on average 16% are found to be influenza positive.” – From the British Medical Journal editor, Peter Doshi, MD

American Spring, the fourth live stage show by Artists Rise Up Los Angeles since the Trump regime took power, rocked Atwater Village Theatre with a moving matinee on April 14 meant to raise consciousness and funds. Largely using spoken word, in a series of one-person presentations, a dozen mostly female and/or nonwhite thesps gave a voice to those whom the Trump-sters seek to render voiceless and Ralph Ellison-like invisible, thereby shining the spotlight on the so-called “least” of these among us during ARULA’s 90 minute production, co-directed by Mapuana Makia and Jose Restrepo. Here are some highlights:

African American women led the way, as some observe Black females are doing offstage, too, in terms of activism. FreXinet freely floated from one female character to another a la Anna Deavere Smith to answer the probing question she posed: “What does it take to be Black in America?” The braided-hair actress wrote and acted out the various dramatic personae, demonstrating her range and talent.

MakerX: The Columbus Maker Expo will be held on April 21. MakerX is a public festival of digital design and creation with over 60 exhibits and activities for all ages. The event will feature drones, robots, 3D printing, virtual reality and game development, electronic music and more. 

MakerX has been planned by an all-volunteer committee of educators from Columbus area schools and universities. It will take place from 10am to 5pm at the Performing Arts Center of Reynoldsburg City Schools (8579 Summit Rd, Reynoldsburg) on the 21st.

 “Maker festivals have been popular all over the world for more than ten years” said Dr. William Ball of Capital University and leader of the planning committee. “MakerX is the Columbus area’s maker festival with a distinctive focus on high technology designed to appeal to all ages. Additionally, the festival is being driven by schools and universities in the Columbus area, although there will be many exhibitors from community maker spaces, companies, professionals, clubs, and home workshops.”

Five years ago, the British Parliament said no to an attack on Syria that its prime minister wanted to join the U.S. president in launching. That action, combined with public pressure, was instrumental in getting the U.S. Congress to make clear that it would say no as well, were it absolutely forced to — you know — admit it existed and do anything at all. And that was key to preventing the attack.

So, when Britain’s prime minister this week joined the U.S. president in launching a war despite various members of Parliament and Congress warning against it, one might have thought that Prime Minister May was landing herself in deeper legal trouble than President Trump. Not at all.

The ban on war found in the United Nations Charter and the Kellogg-Briand Pact applies exactly equally to all nations except the five biggest weapons dealers and war makers on earth, and effectively not at all to any of those five because thay have veto power over anything the UN or its dependencies — including courts — attempt to do.

There is a vast industry in the United States that wants a hot war with Syria and Iran as well as increased confrontation with Russia and China. It is appropriate to refer to it as an industry because it has many components and is largely driven by money, much of which itself comes from Wall Street and major corporations that profit from war related business. Some prefer to refer to this monster as the Military Industrial Complex, but since that phrase was coined by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1961, it has grown enormously, developing a political dimension that includes a majority of congressmen who are addicted to receiving a tithe from the profits from the war economy to finance their own campaigns, permitting them to stay in office indefinitely and retire comfortably to a lobbying position or corporate directorship.

When history is looked at in its complexity, it plays havoc with the present moment.

“This wasn’t done by the Klan, or people who had to wear a mask. This was done by teachers and clergy and law enforcement officers.”

This is Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative, talking to Oprah Winfrey on “60 Minutes” last week about the lynching 80 years ago of Wes Johnson, in an Alabama cotton field. It was one of multi-thousands of lynchings in the South and across the country in the wake of the Civil War — lynchings meant both as acts of terror to African-American communities and acts of public celebration and patriotism, with children present, dressed in their Sunday best. The lynchings were often commemorated as postcards . . . souvenirs.

Politicians, pundits and activists who’ve routinely denounced President Trump as a tool of Vladimir Putin can now mull over a major indicator of their cumulative impacts. The U.S.-led missile attack on Syria before dawn Saturday is the latest benchmark for gauging the effects of continually baiting Trump as a puppet of Russia’s president.