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Radicalization: What Is it Good For?

Radicalization: what is it good for? The song, “War? What is it good for?”, tells us that war is worth “absolutely nothing!” Is radicalization the same? Just something that turns everyday, ordinary people into gun-toting, bomb-throwing terrorists? The media give us that image after every new terror incident here in the U.S. or in Europe involving presumed Islamists. How did these people turn into suicide bombers, gunmen/women, decapitators, torturers, or whatever? Well, it must have been “radicalization.” So then we need to know how that happened. Where and when did their radicalization start? Was it from a web site? Or the influence of a religious leader or friends or family or even a spouse?

Palestinians Seize Israeli Embassy While Thailand's King Annoints Son

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Armed Palestinian "Black September" guerrillas
seized the Israeli Embassy in Bangkok, threatened to execute the six
Israelis inside and blow up the building, but suddenly surrendered
saying, "We love your king," when told that King Bhumibol Adulyadej
was appointing his son that day in 1972 as sole heir to the throne.
   Today, while Thailand mourns King Bhumibol's death on October 13,
his son Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn is preparing to fulfill his
father's decision and become this country's next monarch.
   But on December 28, 1972, the king's royal appointment ceremony of
then-Prince Vajiralongkorn to be crown prince and heir, was almost
marred by bloodshed across town.
   Four Palestinian guerrillas wearing jackets in the sweltering heat
had arrived in a taxi at the Israeli Embassy on Soi Langsuan near the
British Embassy just before lunch on December 28.
   They climbed "over the wall, using the embassy insignia [placard]
as a step-ladder," the embassy's messenger Anek Bariman said hours
later.

Nintendo unveils the Switch, a home/portable console hybrid

Photo of Nintendo

Since the mid-90s, Nintendo has been an outlier in the video game industry. Despite a museum exhibit’s worth of attempts by everyone from Sega to Nokia to break into the portable console market, Nintendo’s iconic Game Boy and its later incarnations have been the only real success. Over the last decade, with competitors Sony and Microsoft fighting against each other for the most realistic graphics and the highest-numbered specs in their home consoles, Nintendo’s Wii and Wii U have focused on innovations in gameplay. And while many who think of themselves as “serious” gamers have scoffed at being experimental and family-friendly over pure graphical power, Nintendo has kept to its own path.

Commander in Chief

 

Maybe it’s the phrase — “commander in chief” — that best captures the transcendent absurdity and unaddressed horrors of the 2016 election season and the business as usual that will follow.

I don’t want to elect anyone commander in chief: not the xenophobic misogynist and egomaniac, not the Henry Kissinger acolyte and Libya hawk. The big hole in this democracy is not the candidates; it’s the bedrock, founding belief that the rest of the world is our potential enemy, that war with someone is always inevitable and only a strong military will keep us safe.

In a million ways, we’ve outgrown this concept, or been pushed beyond it by awareness of global human connectedness and the shared planetary risk of eco-collapse. So whenever I hear someone in the media bring “commander in chief” into the discussion — always superficially and without question — what I hear is boys playing war. Yes, we wage war in a real way as well, but when the public is invited to participate in the process by selecting its next commander in chief, this is pretend war at its most surreal: all glory and greatness and hammering ISIS in Mosul.

Standing Rock Protectors Honoring Principles of Nonviolenent Risistance in the Face of Intentional Provacations

  As I drove my van into the main gate at the Standing Rock Sioux encampment on the Cannon Ball River in North Dakota few weeks ago, I was greeted by a smiling young Original Nations man. I told him that I was arriving from Ohio, was supportive of the cause, wanted to learn more, but mainly that I was there to help in any way they felt might be useful. He asked how long I thought I would be stay. I told him I did have to be back in Ohio for three or four weeks weeks.    The man at the main entrance gate invited me to go on in and find myself a place to set up my camp. Also at the gate entrance, on a little knoll above where the man had greeted and welcomed me, there was a warrior-looking guy, dancing, and appearing to be in a trance. His feet performed the rhythmic up and down dance movements typically seen in Native American ceremonies and demonstrations. He sang and made plaintiff wailing sounds. He raising his arms and outstretched hands up to the sky with his back arched while his feet danced. Slowly he would bring his arms down and stretch his hands out to the front of his dancing body.

China's Diplomatic Success in Thailand & The Philippines



BANGKOK, Thailand -- China is achieving fresh diplomatic successes in
Thailand and the Philippines, thanks to security arrangements which
blocked Hong Kong's pro-democracy dissident Joshua Wong from visiting
Bangkok in October and an unexpected anti-U.S. spiral in Manila
impacting President Obama's Asian "pivot."
   China eyes Thailand as a modern, southwest overland commercial
route to the vast Indian Ocean, where navies from the U.S., India and
elsewhere are preparing to counter-balance Beijing's advances.
   "Since relations with Myanmar [Burma] soured, China has looked to
Thailand for a route from southwest China to the sea, particularly to
the Indian Ocean," said Thailand-based political analyst and author
Chris Baker, 68, in an interview.
   "All of mainland Southeast Asia has come under heavy Chinese
influence through trade, investment, and migration. But this is not
colonialism. It's just having a very powerful neighbor.
   "The current military junta in Thailand does not know how to handle

Rigged

The 2016 Republican presidential primary was rigged. It wasn't rigged by the Republicans, the Democrats, Russians, space aliens, or voters. It was rigged by the owners of television networks who believed that giving one candidate far more coverage than others was good for their ratings. The CEO of CBS Leslie Moonves said of this decision: "It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS." Justifying that choice based on polling gets the chronology backwards, ignores Moonves' actual motivation, and avoids the problem, which is that there ought to be fair coverage for all qualified candidates (and a democratic way to determine who is qualified).

The Death of a King is a Political and Emotional Trauma


BANGKOK, Thailand -- King Bhumibol Adulyadej's death at age 88 on
October 13 has plunged Thailand into the deepest political and
emotional trauma in the lifetime of its people, breaking millions of
hearts, creating an unpredictable leadership situation for the
military government, and prompting widespread fear and pessimism about
this often violent nation's future.
   "Dear all Thai people, His Majesty the King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the
Ninth of His Dynasty, has passed away," announced Prime Minister
Prayuth Chan-ocha on national TV several hours after the monarch's
death.
   "Long live His Majesty the King of the New Reign," he said,
indicating King Bhumibol's only son, 64-year-old Crown Prince Maha
Vajiralongkorn, will be confirmed as Thailand's new monarch.
   In 1972, when he was Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, he became the
royal heir in a ceremony that was later engraved onto a commemorative
currency note, showing the younger man kneeling in front of his
enthroned father.

What Hillary Clinton Privately Told Goldman Sachs

At first glance, Hillary Clinton's speeches to Goldman Sachs, which she refused to show us but WikiLeaks claims to have now produced the texts of, reveal less blatant hypocrisy or abuse than do the texts of various emails also recently revealed. But take a closer look.

Clinton has famously said that she believes in maintaining a public position on each issue that differs from her private position. Which did she provide to Goldman Sachs?

Yes, Clinton does profess her loyalty to corporate trade agreements, but at the time of her remarks she hadn't yet started (publicly) claiming otherwise.

I think, in fact, that Clinton maintains numerous positions on various issues, and that those she provided to Goldman Sachs were in part her public stances, in part her confidences to co-conspirators, and in part her partisan Democratic case to a room of Republicans as to why they should donate more to her and less to the GOP. This was not the sort of talk she'd have given to labor union executives or human rights professionals or Bernie Sanders delegates. She has a position for every audience.

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