Racism is profoundly irrational, taking human consciousness to a place akin to hell where hatred & fear create a cesspool of venom. It’s scary stuff & leads to monstrous crimes. Before the US civil rights movement in the 1960s, it was embedded in the culture. It still is, but is more discreetly expressed, even if less venomous.

Often, on Zionist walls on Facebook, you can see that same kind of stuff we know so well from KKK rantings. It makes you feel ashamed, as if you came acrosssomeone in the act of violence.

The news about refugees becomes more gruesome by the day. These are refugees waiting at Canakkale, Turkey for a raft to Lesbos, Greece. The UN count of January arrivals in Greece is 50,668 to date. Media reported yesterday that 25, including 10 children, had drowned when their raft capsized. Just this month alone, 236 have drowned. Some were reported burning their life vests in a bonfire to keep warm.

EU officials are pressuring Greece to do more to stop the movement of refugees. The Greek coast guard was already spotted disabling rafts in mid-sea. Is that the kind of proactive refugee policy being demanded? Or does the EU want the Greek military to just shoot them as they come ashore?

EU officials are also in Turkey trying to get the regime to honor the agreement they hammered out in November to stop the movement of refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, & elsewhere. In return for 3 billion euros (USD$3.2 billion), visa-free travel for Turks within Europe, & renewed talks about Turkey entering the EU, Turkey was supposed to have tighter, more militarized border controls & naval patrols. There were news reports of Turkish coast guard boats disabling refugee rafts mid-sea. But apparently the EU hasn’t come up with the dough they promised so Turkey is not in full compliance with the agreement. The EU is looking more like a mafia operation than a governmental contraption.

Tuesday, the Danish parliament, following the lead of Switzerland, approved a law allowing refugees to be searched on arrival in the country & their cash & belongings confiscated if they have value over 10,000 kroner (£1,000) (USD$1,449) & ‘have no sentimental value to their owner.’ Who decides what has sentimental value? The justification for the Nazi tactics is to reimburse the government for the expense of processing refugees.

For decades, Scandinavian countries have managed to elude criticism despite deep involvement in military manufacturing & now in military operations in Syria & Iraq. Sweden had an international reputation for respecting human rights & accepting asylum seekers, including US conscientious objectors of the draft during the Vietnam War. But that’s about to change. Last week, Norway began deporting refugees to Russia through the Arctic. Finland is going to deport 20,000 of the 32,000 refugees it accepted in 2015 & Sweden announced it will reject the asylum applications & deport 80,000 of the 160,000 it accepted last year. The question is, where will they deport them to? Back to the war zones they came from?

The US, which is leading the military carnage in Syria & Iraq, has accepted less than 3,000 Syrian refugees since 2012. And there’s an even bigger problem that is not noted. Of the hundreds of thousands of refugees, the majority are Syrian. But there are hundreds of thousands of refugees who are Afghan, Pakistani, Palestinians from refugee camps in Syria (denied entrance to Jordan), from several African countries (where the US is involved militarily & economically), & others. What about them? Have any of them been given asylum?

The refugee crises all over this planet highlight the growing barbarism of neoliberalism which has no respect for national boundaries or sovereignty when it comes to plunder & war but then puts up the barricades when it comes to human rights. For working people, that doesn’t work.

It is more imperative than ever to rebuild the international antiwar movement & to demand that refugees from war & poverty be given every respect & right due under international law & every measure of human civilization. Open the damn borders, stop stealing from refugees, & end the deportations!

(Photo by Ozan Kose/AFP/Getty Images)

Nothing will ever make us long for the ‘good old days’ of war correspondence with Lara Logan, the embedded & Islamophobic CBS reporter who acted like a cheerleader for US wars or with Richard Engels, the sycophantic NBC war correspondent. There was no distinction between their reports & press releases from the Pentagon. Does either network even have a correspondent covering any of the many wars now? Because there is almost no real news.

This photo is an example of war correspondence in the era of news blackouts & barbarism. The caption reads: “Herat, Afghanistan–A man walks with his cow at sunset.” Golly it’s bucolic. But what about those US bombers?

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau made quite a display of greeting Syrian refugees at the airport last month. Good for him, but under international law he has an obligation to do so, even if other countries flout that obligation. Has international law become so degraded now that it’s a feather in their cap when some political figure actually complies with them?

In October 2014, former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper deployed troops, including special forces, & six fighter jets as part of the US-led bombing campaign against ISIS in Syria & Iraq. In October 2015, Trudeau, fulfilling a campaign promise that got him elected, announced he would withdraw the warplanes but did not set a date for the withdrawal. The planes are scheduled for deployment until March 2016. Apparently the planes are still there on bombing missions. How long does it take to pull them out? Presumably no longer than the eleven hours it takes to fly from Damascus to Ottawa. So why are they still there? Do we have another case like Obama of Mr. Hope & Change not delivering on his promises?

Facebook has apparently tired of asking me to write a bio without any response & is now asking me to “Describe Who You Are.” The existential question: who am I? How the hell do I know!? I’m not that deep that I actually want to answer that.

But let me give FB an answer so they’ll leave me alone. Those who I block think I’m intolerant; most others just wish I had fewer opinions. Me? I’m grateful to FB for introducing me to so many lovely people all over the world.

Now enough with the introspection.

Chelsea Handler tries to compensate for her banal comedic talents by grandstanding–like sitting on a camel topless except for Star of David pasties while on a visit to Israel.

Handler visited Israel in January 2015 ‘to explore her Jewish roots” for a personal documentary & referred to Israel as her “homeland.” While there, she did the obligatory photo op with Shimon Peres. There’s a problem with that narrative. Handler was raised in Livingston, New Jersey & has zilch relationship to Israel. Her American father was Jewish & her German-born mother was the daughter of a Nazi. How does that make Israel her homeland? Does she identify with storm troopers?