So the Guardian-UK is litigating like crazy to get public access to Chucky’s correspondence with British politicians. Because, after all, the moochocracy isn’t supposed to intervene in affairs of state. But for forty-million bucks a year the state has to get something out of this indolent crowd. Sure there’s some return from the horse track with all their trifectas but not enough to make all their vulgarities worthwhile. That’s where those honorary titles come in.

Betty Windsor will bestow the “rare honor” of honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) on Rivka Carmi, the woman president of Ben-Gurion University–ostensibly for her role “in strengthening scientific & academic cooperation between Israel & the UK” by founding the UK-Israel Science Council in 2010. The council is to promote academic collaboration between the two countries. Especially now since the economic, cultural & academic boycott (BDS) of Israel to protest apartheid is making such international inroads.

Here’s another one of those things you learn from snooping around Zionist websites: Israel welcomed Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, for his tenth visit to the country to give him the $1 million Dan David Foundation Prize–which we learn from Wikipedia has been given every year since 2000. Dan David is a Romanian-born businessman in Israel whose foundation partners with Tel Aviv University in the prize.

Our man Wales was chosen for “spearheading” the “information revolution.” If anyone ever uses Wikipedia for research on Palestine & Israel you will know that spearheading is less the appropriate term than inventing history wholesale. What an imagination his hasbara team employs! With his new connections to Tel Aviv University, he will render that encyclopedia absolutely worthless. That’s why there’s an academic boycott of Israel as part of BDS.

There’s just a mountain of lies (of the omission kind) in the Guardian-UK caption to this photo: “São Paulo, Brazil: A boy takes part in a protest against police violence.”

It’s a charming photo of this little fellow & if it was part of an album of photos from the tens of thousands protesting in São Paulo, it would be a real crowd pleaser. But it’s not just one of the only photos; it is the only report allowed to break the media blackout on protests in Brazil for the past several months that (by police estimates) number in the millions.

This is the Shah of Iran. He thought he was a blue-blood royal like some people believe in fairies & unicorns. He’s in that loathsome panoply that includes Pinochet, Omar Suleiman (the torturer), Henry Kissinger, Generals Sisi & Mubarak, Ferdinand Marcos, Netanyahu, Felipe Calderón, & several others. This is how you live & dress if you play ball with the US & its torture agency, the CIA.

His power rested on SAVAK, the secret police trained in torture by the CIA, using methods so extreme & barbaric they couldn’t be described in detail lest readers be overwhelmed with not grief but terror before power.

What a spin they’re putting on the immigration crisis in the Andaman Sea. It’s like a psycho-tragic version of the Blame Game. The first line of attack is against “human traffickers” who abandoned the immigrant ships at sea. Of course they wouldn’t be in business in the first place if Rohingya weren’t fleeing persecution & they wouldn’t have abandoned ship if they had been allowed to berth & discharge desperate refugees seeking sanctuary.

Another line of attack is the refugees themselves. The Guardian-UK says: “Rohingya refugees have spoken of horrors at sea: of murders, of killing each other over scarce supplies of food & water, & of corpses thrown overboard.” Take a moment to recover from the ugliness & cynicism of that report. Are they suggesting Rohingya are criminals & sociopaths? Are they incapable of imagining the trauma involved in starving to death & watching others die?

When people died from illness or starvation on board, what should they have done with the bodies? What would the lard-brained Guardian editors have done? In fact, the Guardian also reported the refugees tried to save supplies for women & children on board. Because even under extreme mental & physical duress, the refugees were unable to act with the barbarism of neoliberal governments.

The UN’s approach to blame is against governments in the region unwilling to take refugees in. Nobody wants to see UN troops show up since they bring cholera & rape, but couldn’t the UN lease some ships to at least bring food, water, & medical personnel to the refugees?

Many refugees able to get into Indonesia arrived with serious health problems & there are several photos of skeletal, desperately ill people with IV drips laying in tents without even a mattress. This boy arrived in Indonesia without his family & is crying because he’s unable to reach them by phone. The need for PTSD counselors must be massive just for the 1,600 allowed to land.

There’s no question Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, & Indonesia come in for special condemnation but the UN & all those countries who belong to it don’t get to shake the naughty finger & walk away scot-free. Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa announced Saturday that the Community of Latin American & Caribbean States (CELAC) will provide assistance to the refugees. Thirty-three countries, several with great big economies, & including Cuba & Venezuela belong to CELAC.

“If the problem continues then we will provide our total support including food supplies as well as CELAC welcoming those impacted by the crisis in order to alleviate the tragedy that is taking place,” said Correa. How long does it have to continue before they send food?

Correa also said the entire international community has to end discriminatory immigration policies. And that is the heart of the issue. It’s not just a matter of ending discriminatory immigration policies but of having any restrictions on the right of human beings to live & work where they want.

Immigration is a human right! Open the borders!

(Photo by Beawiharta/Reuters)

It’s so comforting to know the UN human rights chief is “appalled” at reports Thailand, Indonesia, & Malaysia are pushing immigrants back to sea; that the White House spokesperson ‘expressed concern’ about the refugees, that the US State Department is ‘urging’ countries to work together, & that the US is working with the UN refugee agency to save lives. Because if there’s anything the massive humanitarian crisis in the Andaman Sea needs, it’s more platitudes & hand-wringing–especially of the appalled kind. The Council on Foreign Relations is really worked into a fury over the monumental human rights crimes against the Rohingya in Myanmar & the Andaman Sea. Their man says, albeit with some peeve, Myanmar should “rethink its “racist” plan for the Rohingya.” You can’t talk tougher than that.

The persecution & ethnic cleansing of Rohingya in Myanmar has gone on for decades including being stripped of citizenship; religious persecution; forced labor; land confiscations; arbitrary taxation & various forms of extortion; forced eviction & house destruction; restrictions on travel for health & work; restrictions on marriage, education, & trade. Today, 130,000 to 140,000 homeless Rohingya live in refugee camps in Myanmar & thousands more in camps in Bangladesh. The camps in Myanmar are filthy & wretched & infectious diseases are rampant. Residents are not allowed to leave without police escort so they’re more like concentration camps. The NY Times called them “apartheid-like conditions” but they’re really more like Auschwitz.

When then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the country in late 2011 & when Obama went there in 2012 & 2014, the ethnic cleansing & flight of Rohingya was in high gear. Media reported “there was much fanfare about the country’s political reforms & apparent road to democracy after decades of oppressive military rule.” There was fanfare, but only if you had your head stuck up your ass because the military still ruled the country without making much effort to camouflage that fact.

The US State Department claims they have a “calibrated” approach to human rights in Myanmar. They like that word; they think they’re being foxy with it. It means the US can maintain some minor sanctions on Myanmar but still do substantial financial business & work out an understanding with the junta so Myanmar can join Thailand & the US in annual military exercises. It’s called talking a good game. Obama calls it “engaging with the country.” And you wonder why so many graduates with international affairs degrees end up as Fox News commentators or driving taxi?

One US State Department official put it so subtly–what they call nuance in apologia: “I don’t think we’re going to see breakthroughs in the short term. Burma was an opening to a breakthrough, and it’s one that we always knew would take years to move from its starting point to its finishing point.” “An opening to a breakthrough.” It could be poetic if it weren’t complete horse manure.

The Australian regime also has a “calibrated” approach. That’s why prime minister Tony Abbott glibly defended turning boats away from sanctuary, as Australia does. When was he released from the criminally insane asylum? He hasn’t even the good sense to talk with “nuance,” the essential tool of diplomacy.

The US claims in the past year it’s sent $109 million in humanitarian assistance for “vulnerable Burmese people, including the Rohingya.” It’s apparent not a dime has gone for that project but given the US track record on promised humanitarian aid, it’s more likely it was actually never sent. Both Obama & Clinton met with Nobel Peace Prize winner Aug San Suu Kyi who spent years under house arrest for opposing the military dictatorship. As a member of parliament now, she remains as mute today as she was in 2012 about the persecution of Rohingya even though she is considered one of the most influential women in the world. But then of course, you wouldn’t ask Obama about peace.

While the Thai navy is pushing refugees further out to sea to die, the Thai government is organizing a regional conference on May 29th to window-dress the crisis. Myanmar is threatening to boycott the meeting if the issue of Rohingya is on the agenda. They don’t have to be there to be condemned or to have sanctions leveled against them. But of course, that won’t happen.

Truth of the matter is, with close up shots like this from journalist boats, we are being offered a front row seat to slow-motion genocide. Journalists are tossing water bottles to the boats; Thai fishermen are passing supplies–but there are no UN vessels in sight. There are no US ships though they could move the 5th Fleet from Bahrain or those warships off the coast of Yemen.

The Thai, Malaysian, & Indonesian regimes are shamed. And so is every other country that could move navies into the Andaman Sea & take the refugees to safety.

Immigration is a human right! Open the borders!

(Photo of Rohingya on ships by Christophe Achambault/AFP)