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Most Hillary Clinton supporters, including Hillary, mostly spend their time talking about Trump, not Clinton, not Sanders, not what should be done in the U.S. government. But they don't try to articulate a defense for this practice. A couple of obvious reasons (which they would not want to articulate) come to mind: (1) Hillary is incredibly unpopular, (2) Talking about Trump fuels the pretense that the primary is over.

For many people, summer is a time for beach vacations and hiking trips. But for us, it’s convention season. And while some of Columbus’ regular cons are traditionally held in the off-season — Ohayocon in the midwinter cold, and Marcon over Memorial Day weekend — the next three months will keep us busy with gaming, cosplay and even the delightful smell of old paperbacks.
 

The biggest of them all is Origins Game Fair, which is coming to the Greater Columbus Convention Center from June 15th-19th. Origins is one of the biggest tabletop gaming cons in the country, and with exhibitors both big and small in attendance it’s a great place to see what’s available to play now and what’s coming soon. In addition to a gaming and panel schedule so dense it’s offered as a massive spreadsheet (with a door-stopper of a print version available at the show), this year they’re presenting the first Origins Film Festival, showcasing independent films related to sci-fi/fantasy and gaming.

Islamophobia has become a significant factor driving politics in many western countries.

Islamophobia – fear of Muslims – is now highly visible among European populations concerned about terrorist responses from Islamic groups claiming Jihadi links. However, it is also evident among those same populations in relation to the refugee flow from the Middle East. In addition, Islamophobia is highly evident among sectors of the US population during the presidential race. It is a significant issue in Australia. Outside the West, even the (Muslim) Rohingya in Burma are feared by Buddhist monks and others.

Given that this widespread western fear of Muslims was not the case prior to the US-instigated 'War on Terror', do Muslims around the world now pose a greater threat to western interests than previously? Or is something else going on here?

In short, why are so many westerners (and others) now frightened of Muslims? Let me start at the beginning.

Donald Trump has now won the delegates needed to give him the Republican presidential nomination. The Bernie Sanders surge continues — he may even win California — but Hillary Clinton apparently has the superdelegate support needed to give her the nomination. We’re headed to a presidential race with two candidates burdened with record levels of disfavor.

This leads to the widespread expectation of a spitball brawl for a campaign. Trump has already begun branding Clinton. The Clinton campaign has begun attacking Trump as reckless and unqualified. A negative campaign of branded insults will drive down turnout. It would be a disservice to this country and its people.

President Obama went to Hiroshima, did not apologize, did not state the facts of the matter (that there was no justification for the bombings there and in Nagasaki), and did not announce any steps to reverse his pro-nuke policies (building more nukes, putting more nukes in Europe, defying the nonproliferation treaty, opposing a ban treaty, upholding a first-strike policy, spreading nuclear energy far and wide, demonizing Iran and North Korea, antagonizing Russia, etc.).

Where Obama is usually credited -- and the reason he's usually given a pass on his actual actions -- is in the area of rhetoric. But in Hiroshima, as in Prague, his rhetoric did more harm than good. He claimed to want to eliminate nukes, but he declared that such a thing could not happen for decades (probably not in his lifetime) and he announced that humanity has always waged war (before later quietly claiming that this need not continue).

“Look, nuclear should be off the table. But would there be a time when it could be used? Possibly, possibly . . .”

This is — who else? — Donald Trump, flexing, you might say, his nuclear trigger finger in an interview with Chris Matthews, who responds in alarm:

“OK. The trouble is, when you said that, the whole world heard it. David Cameron in Britain heard it. The Japanese, where we bombed them in ’45, heard it. They’re hearing a guy running for president of the United States talking of maybe using nuclear weapons. Nobody wants to hear that about an American president.”

“Then why,” Trump shoots back in all his politically incorrect, rattle-the-establishment naïveté, “are we making them? Why do we make them?”

Uh . . .

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Free speech and pro-democracy activists, Thai
journalists and others are encrypting their telephone and message
conversations, shrinking their Facebook presence and finding other
ways to avoid the coup-installed military junta's Internet war against
political discussions, satire and demands for regime change.
   Two years after seizing power on May 22, 2014, the junta says it
must monitor and censor Internet to stop illegal online activity --
not just politics -- including thieves, counterfeiters, human
smugglers and black-marketeers dealing in weapons and drugs.
   National security and keeping peace in the streets are also
priorities for blocking online content, the junta says, pointing to
political clashes in Bangkok during 2010 and 2014 which left more than
120 people dead.
   China muzzles pro-democracy Internet activity with a so-called
Great Firewall, which is much more efficient than Thailand's blocks
against online news, opinions and other data.
   The U.S.-trained Thai military does not appear skilled enough to

One of the many heroes of the peace movement that came out of the Vietnam War experience was Vietnam veteran S. Brian Willson. Just like millions of other draft-age Americans, law student Willson had been drafted into that illegal and genocidal war - against his will - and came back disturbed and angry. For reasons discussed below, he joined the anti-war movement after witnessing the Reagan/Bush Central American war after he traveled to Nicaragua and saw peasants being murdered by US-backed Contras (aka “freedom fighters”). Willson joined the antiwar movement in 1986 and has protested vigorously against America’s aggressive war policies ever since.

But his real life change came on September 1, 1987 in Concord, California,where Willson was part ofa gathering of antiwar protestors that were symbolically trying to stop the transport of weapons from a U.S. Navy munitions base. The weapons were destined for Nicaragua and El Salvador as part of the US-backed war in Central America.

Consider this a friendly reminder to President Obama on his way to Hiroshima.

No matter how many years one writes books, does interviews, publishes columns, and speaks at events, it remains virtually impossible to make it out the door of an event in the United States at which you've advocated abolishing war without somebody hitting you with the what-about-the-good-war question.

Of course this belief that there was a good war 75 years ago is what moves the U.S. public to tolerate dumping a trillion dollars a year into preparing in case there's a good war next year, even in the face of so many dozens of wars during the past 70 years on which there's general consensus that they were not good. Without rich, well-established myths about World War II, current propaganda about Russia or Syria or Iraq would sound as crazy to most people as it sounds to me.

And of course the funding generated by the Good War legend leads to more bad wars, rather than preventing them.