Global

The firing of FBI Director James Comey may have been a surprise to some, most particularly in the media, but there was a certain inevitability about it given the bureau’s clear inability to navigate the troubled political waters that developed early last summer and have continued ever since. The initial reaction that it may have been triggered by Comey’s recent maladroit comments regarding the Huma Abedin emails would appear to miss the mark as that issue was not raised either by Attorney General Jeff Sessions or by the White House in their written explanations of what had taken place and why.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- A devastating car bomb exploded in front of a
shopping complex on May 9 in southern Thailand, minutes after a
smaller blast lured security forces and rescuers to the site, injuring
at least 56 people in the one of the worst attacks on a civilian
target this year.
   Suspicion immediately fell on Muslim Malay-Thai insurgents fighting
for autonomy or independence from Buddhist-majority Thailand.
   The stalemate conflict has killed 6,800 people on all sides since 2004.
   Unidentified people parked the car bomb in front of a shopping
center in downtown Pattani, capital of Pattani province and exploded
it on May 9 at about 2:30 p.m. when the area was thronged with buyers
and sellers.
   Some early reports said assailants first threw "fireworks" into the
Big C Supercenter and fled.
   Other reports described the first attack as a motorcycle bomb
exploding in the entrance of Big C, causing minimal damage.
   While trying to determine what occurred, security forces, rescuers

BANGKOK, Thailand -- The best way to experience North Korean cuisine
in Bangkok is at Pyongyang Okryu Restaurant where armed troops and
gleeful singers relentlessly try to brainwash you, while North Korean
women strip you of your freedom and delicately pull out your bones.
   If you like, your noodles will be cheerfully scissored.
   But be warned: the efficient staff are subject to instant mood swings.
   The polka-dot clad waitresses begin with shy smiles and tender hand
waves while greeting you.
   Suddenly however they can appear panic-stricken, drained of
emotions, or severely displeased if you stray from the menu.
   You can eat a tasty but somewhat oily and salty meal while ignoring
the bizarre behavior around your plastic-covered table amid the
restaurant's permanent Christmas decorations.
   If you are aware of North Korea's harsh regime, you may feel like
you have passed through an invisible membrane when you enter this
restaurant on trendy, upmarket Ekamai Road.

The USSR had Sergei Eisenstein, while Bulgaria had Angel Wagenstein. The life and work of the 94-year-old screenwriter and novelist is wonderfully depicted in Andrea Simon’s top notch documentary, Angel Wagenstein: Art is a Weapon, which had its West Coast premiere at Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills during the 12th annual South East European Film Festival.

This extremely well-directed, enlightening nonfiction biopic paints a fascinating portrait of this leftwing Jewish writer who was born 1922 in Plovdiv. The son of a Bulgarian dedicated Communist - who, the son quips, naively “expected the world revolution to take place next Tuesday” - little Angel met his father on a visit to the prison where he was confined for his role in what Weapon contends was the first armed uprising against a fascist regime. Wagenstein (alternatively spelled as “Vagenshtain”) would recount this largely overlooked 1923 rebellion in one of his first scripts, 1954’s The Heroes of September.

As of this writing, 7,269 people in the United States, and rising steadily, have posted messages of friendship to the people of Russia.

Corporate Democrats and liberal commentators love to scapegoat the activist left for their catastrophic failures. The blame game just fell to a new low with Bill Maher’s latest attack on Jill Stein.

Like Hillary branding Trump supporters as “deplorables,” Bill tells American grassroots activists to “go f*** yourselves with a locally grown organic cucumber.”

Hillary says she was “on her way to victory” when FBI Director James Comey and “the Russians” intervened. Maher and others say Stein caused her defeat, as they blamed Ralph Nader for George W. Bush in 2000.

Hillary now pledges to “resist” Trump Fascism. Maher and other liberal pundits have been relentless in their attacks on him.

And the rest of us struggle with the keys to nonviolent resistance in the Dark Age now upon us.

But one thing is clear: what won’t work is another 16 years of liberals like Maher scapegoating left activists without facing the basic realities of where Trump came from:

onald Trump’s latest insane excursion into US history has been to claim that his great hero, Andrew Jackson, might have prevented the Civil War.

Given his racist, genocidal nature, our seventh president could only have done that by giving up slavery in the South, spreading it into the North or giving the Southwest back to Mexico.

Jackson, of course, would never have given up slavery, which was the cause of the war and the core of his fortune.

As a young man, like a cowboy driving cattle, Jackson personally drove slaves to market. He eventually owned more than a hundred of them, and defended America’s “peculiar institution” at every opportunity.

In addition to their authoritarian temperaments, Jackson and Trump share “accomplishments” such as trashing the Constitution, personally profiting from the presidency, and inciting imperial conquest. Jackson did stand for the Union against South Carolina’s threatened secession, but that was about tariffs, not slavery.

The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival focuses on features, shorts and documentaries from and about Asia and the Pacific Islands. The films screened during LAAPFF in L.A. from April 27-May 4 and in Orange County from May 5-11 are all shot on location in Asia and Oceania and/or depict characters of and/or were made by talents of Asian and Pacific Islander ancestry, such as Mele Murals, a documentary about Hawaiian street artists. As such, LAAPFF provides cineastes with an invaluable window into the movies and societies of Asia and Polynesia, and of individuals from those ethnic groups living in continental North America. The L.A. venues where LAAPFF screenings and conferences took place highlight specialty cinema, such as the opening and closing night galas at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theatre and the Directors Guild of America on Sunset Strip, as well as the Downtown Independent, the arthouse where I viewed the below.

THAILAND: BY THE TIME IT GETS DARK

The reviews of Donald Trump’s first 100 days have generally focused on his failures, flip-flops and follies. We’ve heard a lot about what he’s failed to achieve, but far too little about what he is intent on doing.

Trump’s time in office so far has been a systematic and vicious assault on civil rights. The progress that was won with struggle, sacrifice and legislation is being subverted by ink and administrative actions and deregulation. Trump is intent on rolling back the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, and in his first 100 days the damage has already begun.

He appointed Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, a judge with a record of rulings undermining the rights of workers, women, LGBTQ community, and protections of the environment and democracy.

At dusk I stood on a residential street with trim lawns and watched planes approach a runaway along the other side of a chain-link fence. Just a few dozen yards away, a JetBlue airliner landed. Then a United plane followed. But the next aircraft looked different. It was a bit smaller and had no markings or taillights. A propeller whirled at the back. And instead of the high-pitched screech of a jet, the sound was more like… a drone.

During the next half-hour I saw three touch-and-go swoops by drones, their wheels scarcely reaching the runaway before climbing back above Syracuse’s commercial airport. Nearby, pilots were at the controls in front of Air Force computers, learning how to operate the MQ-9 Reaper drone that is now a key weapon of U.S. warfare from Afghanistan to the Middle East to Africa.

Since last summer the Defense Department has been using the runway and airspace at the Syracuse Hancock International Airport to train drone operators, who work at the adjoining Air National Guard base. Officials say it’s the first time that the federal government has allowed military drones to utilize a commercial airport. It won’t be the last time.