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Stop Smoking the Democrack

By Cindy Sheehan and David Swanson
http://davidswanson.org/node/4709

 The U.S. government is toying with a war with nuclear Russia while already waging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, having done severe damage to Libya, Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia. Military spending is climbing ever higher. Presidential war powers are ever more extreme. The proliferation of nuclear technology is combining with the ease and secrecy of drone wars to raise the risk of a Dr. Strangelove finish to the human species. And, let's face it, you had more time to give a damn when the president was a Republican.

Rice Crop Subsidies Could Feed Yingluck Into Prison

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whose
government was toppled by a military coup in May, faces a possible 10
years in prison after the Supreme Court on Thursday (March 19) ordered
her trial for alleged negligence when she administered rice subsidies.

"I am innocent," Ms. Yingluck said on her Facebook page, hours after
the court's announcement.

The crop subsidies "enhanced the living standards of the rice
farmers," she said.

"The Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political
Positions has authority to consider the case," the court ruled on
Thursday (March 19).

The Attorney General's office had charged her with "dereliction of
duty" for not correcting alleged problems within her government
subsidy program.

Ms. Yingluck's trial, scheduled to start on May 19, is expected to
increase divisions in this troubled and repressed Southeast Asian
country.

She remains popular despite the coup-installed junta's use of martial

Bangkok's Firing Squad, Lime Trees & "Underboobs"

BANGKOK, Thailand -- The angry, frustrated, talkative general who
seized Thailand in a military coup last May, said on Monday (March 23)
if he had "complete power" he would have "a firing squad" execute
people, but now he suffers insomnia because Thais are demanding
democracy.

In 2003, Thailand stopped roping convicts to a cross with arms
outstretched, to be shot in the back by a lone executioner, and
instead began lethal injections.

"I can't even stop people from opposing me at this moment," Gen.
Prayuth Chan-ocha said in a speech at a Federation of Thai Industries
convention here in Bangkok.

"If I genuinely had complete power, I would have imprisoned [critics]
or handed them to a firing squad. It would be over, I wouldn't have to
wake up at night like this.

"Today there are some people who love me, but there are also many
people who hate me," he said from a podium in front of a gigantic
screen which vividly projected Gen. Prayuth speaking,
larger-than-life.

Wealth vs. Money

“There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?”

The words are those of Jonas Salk, developer of the polio vaccine, speaking to Edward R. Murrow in 1955, as quoted recently in an essay by Paul Buchheit. What was he thinking? Six decades later, the words have such a counter-resonance with prevailing thought. They exude an old-fashioned humility and innocence, like . . . striking it rich isn’t necessarily the ultimate point of life?

I read these words and sense so much spilled wisdom in them, so much wasted hope. The world we’ve created is governed these days by two unquestioned principles: commodify and dominate. And it’s chewing up the resources that used to belong to every occupant of the planet.

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