Daily Archives: May 15, 2014

News

Nakba 2014 commemoration: 66 years of Israeli ethnic cleansing

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May 15 marks Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe) day. In 1948, over 780,000 Palestinians were forcibly driven from their homeland by Zionist paramilitary terrorist squads under the protection of the British. Over 500 Palestinian villages were depopulated & destroyed. Nakba day follows the day Zionists celebrate as Israeli “independence” day. That is a linguistic deceit to mask the political barbarism of Nakba.

More than 7 million Palestinian refugees, one of the largest refugee communities in the world, continue to live in exile & in refugee camps, while 5 million Palestinians are living in Gaza, called “the world’s largest open air prison.”

On the 66th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, join the campaign for Palestinian justice & say no to Israeli apartheid, colonialism, & occupation. Support the Boycott, Divestment, & Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel by boycotting Israeli products (barcode beginning 729); support the right of return for all Palestinian refugees, the end of the military occupation of the West Bank, & the end of the siege of Gaza; support the cultural boycott of Israel; demand “No military aid to Israel!”

(Photo of Nakba in 1948 from http://rehmat1.com/)

News

Mexico militarizing US-Mexican border in failed strategy

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Media here (just a few miles from the Mexican-US border) are reporting an accelerated militarization of the border by the Mexican government to obstruct traffic in “people, drugs, & guns.” A high official of the Mexican regime came to Reynosa (just across the border from McAllen) to outline the new so-called security measures which include more check points, more high technology, more soldiers.

Drug traffickers & gun runners are in no peril & are likely facilitated by both US & Mexican officials. In Hidalgo County, where McAllen is situated, the long-time sheriff, his cop son, & several other cops were recently prosecuted for involvement in drug trafficking. Their sentences were minimal because the judge said they showed remorse. Crocodile tears don’t serve most defendants in a court of law but if you’re a corrupt cop they’ll get you a light sentence & praise from the judge. (Of course the judge himself may well be dealing on the side.)

Former president Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) deployed upwards of 50,000 soldiers ostensibly for the drug war & when he left office an estimated 60,000 civilians had died, 20,000 people had disappeared, claims of human rights abuses by military personnel had crescendoed, US government agents were exposed for gun-running to the drug cartels, & drug trafficking had increased exponentially. So much for that strategy.

Since public opposition to Calderón’s strategy was growing, current Mexican president Peña Nieto pursued another approach which appears to consist mainly of a news blackout. None of the soldiers were sent back to barracks, US military, special operations, & other creepy personnel were deployed to Mexico, & now there is increased surveillance & militarization.

This war on drugs thing is a fiasco, a charade, & a cover for what is really a war on undocumented immigrants, on journalists, & on labor activists. Thousands of undocumented immigrants from Central America & Mexico have died or disappeared in the past several years. Their bodies have been found in mass graves or dismembered & piled on the side of highways. These crimes against human rights have the distinct odor of paramilitary violence. Defending immigrant rights is pivotal to ending this violence.

Immigration is a human right! Open the damn borders!

(Photo of undocumented immigrants from thebentangle.wordpress.com)

News

Eamon Delaney plays leprechaun for Donald Trump in Ireland

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Ireland has produced some marvelous satiric writers–probably none better than the unintentional ones who think they’re writing political commentary. A contemporary case in point would be Eamon Delaney who calls himself an author, journalist, & former diplomat. We haven’t read his novels but if his journalistic drivel is any guage, Irish literature is in for trouble. Apparently his political commentary isn’t that well received since a conservative magazine he edited only lasted a few years. They blamed its demise on the recession but it may be more because of his idiotic claims that the Irish are “essentially British.”

There’s no public record of his eight years as a diplomat, a post he likely got through nepotism or bribery. But if dates are checked, it’s likely his tenure would correspond to Ireland’s economic eclipse.

Being a second-rate thinker has not stopped our man from prolific commentary & he felt compelled to chime in to defend the unseemly groveling over Donald Trump at Shannon. He lauded, without an ounce of shame, the violinist, harpist, & traditional Irish singer greeting Trump’s entourage coming off the plane. If he’d has his way though, there would have been a chorus of leprechauns too. The Irish officials thought that might me a wee bit over the top, making a gratuitous concession to stereotype. Our man just thought it good craic & said the Irish official greeting Trump treated it as a bit tongue in cheek. He didn’t specify which end of “the Donald” that cheek was on.

Our man is annoyed that the “begrudgers” (by which he means the Irish who object to groveling) are ignoring all the jobs Trump will bring to County Clare. Since there’s no evidence Delaney has ever worried his head about the working people of Ireland we can only conclude he just can’t help himself; he’s an unreconstructed, irredeemable groveler. He also says Trump has transformed New York & Las Vegas & he wants that for County Clare. He can hear the ching-ching of the roulette wheels now & he prefers that to Irish singers any day.

The next time Betty Windsor visits Ireland, she can leave her toilet valet at home & just hire Delaney. Or when he can’t earn a living from writing swill, he could hire out at Trump’s golf course as a leprechaun for tourists.

(Photo from YouTube; please note violist, harpist, & singer on the left. If you want to see how over the top this spectacle was this is the video Delaney posted on his blog–definitely worth a few laughs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE00VMP5w-0#t=67)