Assad apologist Rania Khalek just returned from hard-hitting war reporting out of trendy bars in Damascus sucking down beers with off duty Syrian soldiers. So we might better ignore her latest article titled “How Some Western Feminists Betrayed Women in Syria, & Beyond, Ignoring Threat of US-Backed Islamist Rebels.” One can’t tell where the idiocy begins & the dishonesty starts. Or is it just another hangover?

According to alas poor Rania, it is not US-NATO carpet bombing of civilians that is the problem in those countries but Muslims, of course of the extremist kind. As a long-time feminist & antiwar activist I could take this piece & shred it with ridicule. But Khalek isn’t worth it. The only crap she writes now is parody & propaganda. In a few years, no one will remember who she was.

Assad supporters are circulating a video titled “Burqa is not feminist,” a contrived little propaganda farce in one act. It’s one thing to address coercion by regimes like Iran, Saudi Arabia, or by ISIS. Women’s attire should not be dictated by law. It’s another to address the issue as one of feminist attire–as this stupid video does. There is no such thing as feminist attire. Are bras feminist? Bikinis? Girdles & shapers? Strapless gowns? Long underwear? There is no dress code, no feminist proscription on what women may or may not wear but only an insistence that women be allowed to dress as they choose.

There are those who do the song & dance about veils being mandated by men & religion & thus we must speak for those women who are afraid to speak for themselves. That’s a sophisticated crock of patronizing horse manure. Whether women who wear the burqa object to it or not it is up to them to decide what to do about it. Thousands of women in Yemen, Bahrain, Egypt, Kashmir, Myanmar, & elsewhere have or are leading social revolts against war, occupation, ethnic cleansing attired in a burqa. What kind of presumptuous numbskull would have the temerity to chide them for lacking proper & liberated attire for revolutions? Revolution is a come-as-you-are affair. Those who haven’t led one or participated in one should keep their ignorance to themselves. But of course the Assadist video siding with the counter-revolution in Syria exposes the Islamophobia that is fundamental to that ideology.

Ex-Blackwater CEO Erik Prince is proposing a “private military force” in Afghanistan in place of or along with US marines. He means mercenaries which the US is already using in several countries. Mercenaries who can operate without even the minimum oversight US soldiers operate under in those security agreements giving them impunity for war crimes in Iraq & Afghanistan–similar to the military Special Powers Act (AFSPA) India employs in Kashmir.

Blackwater had to rebrand itself as the Frontier Services Group still under Prince because of the war crimes they were involved in. No to mercenaries. No to US marines. No to war.

The US is sending more marines to Afghanistan & beefing up its military involvement in the Philippines to assist Duterte–allegedly to fight ISIS in both countries. See how that ISIS thing works? It’s the all-purpose justification for US-NATO wars.

The historic imperative remains: rebuild the international antiwar movement. That is not a pipe dream since the movement against the Vietnam War involved millions on every continent.

Since I’ve been baited a few times recently as a white savior, I’ve got something to say about that. I don’t blame black or brown-hued people for being wary about the intentions of whites. But when it gets in the way of political solidarity, it becomes an issue–even though most often it comes from someone trying to demean & undercut solidarity. Like Sam Hamad who called me a white savior with a “fetish” for Palestinians because he opposes BDS & the designation of Israel as a colonial & apartheid state.

My generation went through the civil rights movement where the US transitioned from segregation in the north & apartheid in the south. It was an aborted process, politically reversed by using the so-called war on drugs against the Black community, particularly youth. But that tsunamic social struggle changed attitudes toward Blacks, Latinos, & American Indians from contempt to respect, even if it didn’t change the most malignant institutional forms, especially in employment.

Racism is inculcated through segregation which is why segregation is a pivot of institutional policies–why they’re re-segregating public schools & attacking affirmative action & why they’re whipping up panic about the border wall to keep out refugees & immigrants. Segregation is essential because racism has not proven as intransigent psychologically as it is institutionally. Familiarity fosters friendships. It’s the human way. It’s a political problem for the elite if we don’t hate black & brown people as inferior, criminal, rapists (as Trump does), because then we won’t approve of building those walls or fighting those wars or using dark-hued people as underpaid, super-exploited labor. Racism is part of the very structure of capitalism but it hasn’t worked its way into our DNA.

Just a personal anecdote, admittedly not scientific, but an illustration nevertheless: a beloved uncle of mine is close to half American Indian but not raised in that tradition, nor identified with it. He never badmouthed Black people but in the days of segregation he accepted the prevailing social hatred. His kids however grew up in the era of school desegregation & had friendships with Blacks & Latinos. (American Indians remain pervasively segregated even after they were allowed to leave reservations & move to cities.) He now has dozens of grandchildren, great grandchildren, in-laws who are Black. I asked my cousin who had the first Black baby in the family how long it took my uncle to overcome his antipathy. She answered: “The first time he held her.”

That’s all I have to say. For now.

“Dr. Reuven Moskovitz, Holocaust survivor & Palestinian activist, died Friday. In 2010 he was among eight Jewish activists who boarded the ship Irene that tried to deliver humanitarian aid & children’s toys to Gaza. He was buried in Wāħat as-Salām (Hebrew: Neve Shalom), a village he co-founded in 1972 where Israeli Jews & Palestinians live side-by-side in peace.”

May this lovely man Rest In Peace.

(from Free Palestine via Carol Sughrue)

The only ones who talk more about fake news than Trump are Eva Bartlett & Vanessa Beeley, the so-called independent journalists embedded with the Syrian army & hanging out with Assad officials. What does that tell you?

Trump better have his private jet on the tarmac ready for takeoff to asylum in Russia if this investigation nails his ass for criminal misconduct like money laundering for the Russian oligarchs. Of course they won’t put up with his crap for one moment since he bungled the operation. The thought of him in a Siberian gulag is so exhilarating.

What’s taking the deep state so long to pull off that soft coup? I’m all Trumped out. I just want him to move to Russia & get it over with.

It took a while but I’ve pretty much cleaned out the crowd posting about Rothschild bankers & Illuminati. Hating on Jews emits a particular stench that’s hard to fumigate. Islamophobes have never found my wall hospitable in any way since I bounce them sky high the first utterance & good riddance to them. A work in progress is those who use the suffix -tard, a derivative of “retard” which is an ugly insult to those with learning difficulties, causing them no end of psychic pain & humiliation.

I just bounced a Facebook friend & ally on Syria for calling me a “libtard” after I explained to him how hurtful it was for those with learning problems. There’s an entire vocabulary of insults to draw on like jerk, jackass, bozo, putz, idiot, dumb-ass that doesn’t include demeaning vulnerable people. If you’re around those with learning disabilities you learn that it’s a social stigma more than a scientific designation, a way to isolate some & create a sense of superiority & inferiority. Intelligence is very complex & not capsulized by scoring high on college entrance exams or other IQ tests.

Some of the smartest & certainly kindest people I know were/are called “retards” & every one of them resent the term because they know how profound, smart, & wise they are & want others to see that too. It’s called respect.

Don’t use the -tard thing on my wall.