This year the

BANGKOK, Thailand -- When U.S. Ambassador to Thailand Glyn T. Davies
recently asked Bangkok's coup-installed military government to support
international sanctions against North Korea, he reflected concerns by
analysts that Pyongyang could build nuclear and other weapons with
dual-use imports and profits from exports.
   "As a leader of ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations),
Thailand has an important role to play in the broad effort to signal
to North Korea it will be isolated if it does not suspend its weapons
programs and return to talks on the basis of a verifiable commitment
to denuclearize," Mr. Davies said.
   "Cutting off the financial lifelines that enable North Korea's
proscribed programs," is vital, the ambassador said.
   When asked what, if any, businesses in Thailand enable Pyongyang's
prohibited programs, U.S. Embassy Spokeswoman Melissa Sweeney replied:
 "The ambassador's op-ed speaks for itself."
   The envoy's 827-word statement was published on the Bangkok Post's
opinion page on May 22, the third anniversary of the coup when

Any truthful way to say it will sound worse than ghastly: We live in a world where one person could decide to begin a nuclear war -- quickly killing several hundred million people and condemning vast numbers of others to slower painful deaths.

Given the macabre insanity of this ongoing situation, most people don’t like to talk about it or even think about it. In that zone of denial, U.S. news media keep detouring around a crucial reality: No matter what you think of Donald Trump or Vladimir Putin, they hold the whole world in their hands with a nuclear button.

If the presidents of the United States and Russia spiral into escalating conflicts between the two countries, the world is much more likely to blow up. Yet many American critics of Trump have gotten into baiting him as Putin’s flunky while goading him to prove otherwise. A new barrage of that baiting and goading is now about to begin -- taking aim at any wisps of possible détente -- in connection with the announced meeting between Trump and Putin at the G-20 summit in Germany at the end of this week.

This year, sit back with your favorite beverage or herb, prop up your feet and open your head to consider Independence Day in a whole new way.

A historically critical article about the American Revolution would typically discuss how the democratic promises of the Declaration were left hanging at war’s end, followed by a decidedly undemocratic constitution six years later.

Examples of that would include abandoning ideals stated in the Declaration like: “all men (sic) are created equal” and have unassailable rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” It could cite that:

Tuesday, July 4, 11am-3pm
Goodale Park
The 6th annual Vegan Shift 300 Vegans 4 Independence in collaboration with the Columbus Vegan Meetup in the Columbus Doo Dah Parade is on the 4th of July (rain or shine the show goes on) every year!