Global

If you saw a book in Barnes and Noble called “How Not to Go to War,” wouldn’t you assume it was a guide to the proper equipment every good warrior should have when they head off to do a little killing, or perhaps something like this U.S.

The “ShotSpotter” voice surveillance system is being promoted by Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther and Deputy Police Chief Bash as a crime fighting tool capable of locating a gunshot within a 20-foot radius and determining the type and caliber of the weapon.

The ShotSpotter records everything it hears and simply selects what to detect. The sensor system associated with the software signals processing and alert system is designed to be incorporated into streetlights. ShotSpotter partnered with GE's CityIQ project that would incorporate surveillance cameras, ShotSpotter sensors, a WiFi hotspot and intelligent on-demand low power consumption LED lighting into a single streetlight.

The targeted pilot neighborhood for the ShotSpotter program is the Hilltop, though the project is budgeted to cover the entire city. However, it appears the Hilltop did not receive the whole package.

A nighttime survey of the area by a Mockingbird researcher found not a single LED, merely the same old energy hungry bulbs in use throughout the city with their characteristic yellowish light struggling to illuminate anything. No free WiFi hotspots were noted either.

“I believe that for a moment I thought the explosion might set fire to the atmosphere and thus finish the Earth, even though I knew that this was not possible.”

These words of Manhattan Project physicist Emilio Segre, quoted by Richard Rhodes in his book The Making of the Atomic Bomb, refer to the Trinity blast on July 16, 1945, at Alamogordo, N.M., the first atomic explosion in history and, so it appears, a turning point for all life on this planet.

Barry Jenkins, winner of the Best Director and Best Feature Film Independent Spirit Awards for If Beale Street Could Talk, proclaimed to the media that “the industry is responding” to America’s current conditions. Jenkins urged, “See the films nominated” for 2019’s Spirit Awards, which honor features and documentaries reflecting Film Independent’s mission statement to: “champion the cause of independent film and support a community of artists who embody diversity, innovation and uniqueness of vision.” Big budget studio productions, superhero, special effects-driven pictures, sequels and “A Star is Boring” remakes need not apply for the Spirit Awards, which pay homage to personal, character-driven cinema that says something about the human condition.

When the New York Times front-paged its latest anti-left polemic masquerading as a news article, the March 9 piece declared: “Should former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. enter the race, as his top advisers vow he soon will, he would have the best immediate shot at the moderate mantle.”

On the verge of relaunching, Joe Biden is poised to come to the rescue of the corporate political establishment -- at a time when, in the words of the Times, “the sharp left turn in the Democratic Party and the rise of progressive presidential candidates are unnerving moderate Democrats.” After 36 years in the Senate and eight as vice president, Biden is by far the most seasoned servant of corporate power with a prayer of becoming the next president.

Led by their fearless leader Lizzie Lightning (Tania Verafield), the Brooklyn Scallywags are rolling back into Los Angeles. But this time the all-female teammates are skating into a much larger arena, presenting Gina Femia’s rough and tumble For the Love Of (Or, The Roller Derby Play) at Culver City’s 317-seat Kirk Douglas Theatre. Derby is one of three 2018 L.A. plays selected for revival by the Kirk Douglas’ third annual “Block Party” and the first one being mounted on the boards during this celebration of theater, which presents encore productions from L.A.’s outstanding intimate theaters.

Last May, Derby was mounted at the diminutive Theatre of Note, which is about one sixth the Douglas’ size. But as Dr. David Rubin once shrewdly (if not lewdly) observed, “size is not important,” and it’s noteworthy that this cutting edge freewheeling feminist-themed drama is being reprised. And it will be interesting to see how this adaptation on presumably a grander scale by Rhonda Kohl, who also creatively choreographed and directed the original at the Note, compares.

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, March 7, 2019

We just returned from nine days in Iran with a 28-person peace delegation organized by CODE PINK. It is clear that people in Iran want two things:

The path to those goals requires the United States to change its policies toward Iran as the US has a long history of interference in Iranian politics with disastrous results. The US must stop its belligerence and engage in honest, respectful dialogue with the government of Iran.

By Nicolas J S Davies, World BEYOND War

The world faces many overlapping crises: regional political crises from Kashmir to Venezuela; brutal wars that rage on in Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia; and the existential dangers of nuclear weapons, climate change, and mass extinction.

But beneath the surface of all these crises, human society faces an underlying, unresolved conflict about who or what governs our world and who must make the critical decisions about how to tackle all these problems — or whether we will tackle them at all.  The underlying crisis of legitimacy and authority that makes so many of our problems almost impossible to solve is the conflict between U.S. imperialism and the rule of law.

Imperialism means that one dominant government exercises sovereignty over other countries and people across the world, and makes critical decisions about how they are to be governed and under what kind of economic system they are to live.