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The odds are now very strong that Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders will be the Democratic presidential nominee. New polling averages say they account for almost 70 percent of support nationwide, while no other candidate is anywhere near. For progressives who want to affect the news instead of just consume it, active engagement will be essential.

I have previously written many articles describing one or more aspects of the dysfunctional nature of the typical human mind, together with an explanation of how this came about and what we can do about it. See, for example, many of the articles republished in ‘Key Articles’ and the source documents ‘Why Violence?’ and ‘Fearless Psychology and Fearful Psychology: Principles and Practice’.

I have also explained that it is this dysfunctional psychological foundation that generated the behaviors, as well as the political, economic, legal and social institutions (such as capitalism), that are driving the multifaceted and existential crisis in which humanity now finds itself.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Israel has taught the Philippine Army for the
first time how to fight Muslim separatists and communist guerrillas,
the latest tightening of relations between the two nations which
includes Israeli weapons sales and sharing intelligence about
international Islamist extremists.

Even though Israeli boots were on the ground just in the capital
Manila, it risked alienating some of the Philippines' nearly six
percent Muslim population who live mostly in the south.

They are already battered by years of increasing Islamist demands for
independence and the subsequent worsening violence in a country that
is more than 80 percent Roman Catholic.

Perhaps to dampen any controversy, only about 10 Israeli Defense Force
(IDF) soldiers trained 180 Philippine Army troops who can now then
teach those lessons to other soldiers.

The June 26-July 4 Counter-Terrorism Trainer's Training (CTTT) focused
on how to fight an insurgency in urban and rural zones and use combat
technology.

"The CTTT is the first training collaboration between the Philippines

Spider-Man movies generally pit the reluctant superhero against two powerful foes: (1) a monster bent on mass destruction and (2) teenage angst. The monster is always vanquished in the end, while the angst survives to be dealt with all over again the next time around.

That’s fortunate, because Peter Parker’s struggles with his youthful insecurity are usually more entertaining than his alter ego’s struggles with the monster du jour.

This is truer than ever in Spider-Man: Far From Home, mostly because the comic-book hero resides in the ever-expanding Marvel Universe. Marvel’s battles tend to be so big and frantic—and so computerized—that they lose the ability to thrill us.

Thank heavens that Peter (engagingly played by Tom Holland) is as humble and angsty as ever. When Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) orders him to help fight a new class of baddies called the Elementals, Peter declines because he’s more interested in finding the right moment to declare his love for longtime crush MJ (Zendaya). And when he learns that the now-deceased Iron Man has bequeathed him a powerful technological weapon, he insists that he’s unworthy.

Had Friday’s 7.1 earthquake and other ongoing seismic shocks hit less than 200 miles northwest of Ridgecrest/China Lake, ten million people in Los Angeles would now be under an apocalyptic cloud, their lives and those of the state and nation in radioactive ruin.    

The likely human death toll would be in the millions. The likely property loss would be in the trillions. The forever damage to our species’ food supply, ecological support systems, and longterm economy would be very far beyond any meaningful calculation. The threat to the ability of the human race to survive on this planet would be extremely significant.     

The two cracked, embrittled, under-maintained, unregulated, uninsured, and un-inspected atomic reactors at Diablo Canyon, near San Luis Obispo, would be a seething radioactive ruin.

On June 5, 16 heads of Jewish organizations joined 25 Democratic senators in a private meeting, which, according to the Times of Israel, is an annual event. All of the Jewish organizations but one were openly declared advocates for Israel and are supportive of its policies. Key groups present included the Council of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, the Anti-Defamation League, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. A number of the groups have lobbied Congress and the White House in support of the use of force against Iran, a position that is basically identical to the demands being made by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Half a century ago artistic director Ron Sossi founded the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, and since 1969 the company’s epic artistic odyssey has made this theatrical venue one of Los Angeles’ best, a repository of culture where this reviewer has enjoyed many a production. To commemorate and celebrate the auspicious 50th anniversary, it’s presenting the “Circa ’69” season, with revivals “of significant and adventurous plays that premiered around the time of the Odyssey’s 1969 inception,” according to a press release.

The first of the 10 such plays is Joe Orton’s Loot, which opened in the U.K. in 1965. Bart DeLorenzo, who directs the current production at the Odyssey, claims the British playwright’s work hasn’t aged. But I beg to differ - the punch of Loot has been diluted by time. Orton’s two act spoof of Agatha Christie-like mysteries featuring detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple on the page and stage may have jolted auds 54 years ago, but for today’s theatergoers (many of whom did not return to their seats after intermission) Loot is passé. What was a “black comedy” when it debuted is now merely gray.

The annual Hollywood Fringe Festival took place in from June 13-30. According to the Fringe’s 200 page program: “The Hollywood Fringe Festival is an annual, open-access, community-derived event celebrating freedom of expression and collaboration in the performing arts community… Participation in the Hollywood Fringe is completely open and uncensored. This free-for-all approach underlines the festival’s mission to be a platform for artists without the barrier of a curative body. By opening the gates to anyone with a vision, the festival is able to exhibit the most diverse and cutting-edge points-of-view the world has to offer.”

Staged in around 30 theaters in the Hollywood area, the HFF is Los Angeles’ counterpart to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. In 2017, 2,000 performances and 375 shows were mounted during HFF. Theater artists travel from near and far in order to participate in this unfiltered fest. For example, the Polish-Australian troupe Drama Theatre Fantazja flew all the way from Sydney to present The Trial of Dali, an 80-minute play about the infamous surrealist painter, at The Complex Hollywood’s Ruby Theatre.