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

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).

People protesting at Ohio Statehouse

Unity March to protest police brutality.

Friday, October 28, 12noon, Goodale and High Street.

Marching south on high to the state house where there will speeches and then we'll continue the march south on High to the Franklin County Court House. 

Trump in front of flag with red baseball cap on

Donald Trump’s demand for “monitors” at polling places to prevent a “rigged election” is an old and ugly story.

It’s obviously aimed—-KKK style—-at stopping black and Hispanic citizens from voting.  But in fact both major parties have used such terror tactics—- and updated electronic ones—-since the birth of the nation. 

The cure—-we call it “the Ohio Plan”—- is scorned by both corporate parties:  universal automatic voter registration, transparent registration rolls that can be easily monitored, a national holiday for voting, and universal hand-counted paper ballots that stay in one place and are tallied (and re-tallied) in full public view.

The “rigged election” story dates back to the Constitution.  Its Electoral College gave a three-fifths “bonus” to slaveowners for blacks who could not actually vote.  The race card carried through Jim Crow segregation and the KKK terror unleashed against post-Emancipation blacks who dared try to vote.  It continues through the Drug War and the tens of millions of African-American and Hispanic citizens stripped of their freedom and franchise.


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.

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