In yesterday’s school massacre in Florida where 17 were killed & in five other school shoot-ups, an AR-15 assault rifle was used. In an apparent non sequitur, a so-called terrorist expert on the morning news called for more censorship on social media. She also said that while the AR-15 should not be in the hands of civilians, it is absolutely necessary for US soldiers overseas. Therein lies the problem. When ‘might becomes right’ at the barrel of a gun & s/he who carries the rifle has the upper hand against unarmed civilians, a poisonous national ethos festers that rots militarist societies at their roots. The historic mission of our era is to oppose militarism & root out that ethos from our consciousness & cultures. The future of humanity depends upon our commitment to that mission.

May the 17 kids in Florida Rest In Peace. May all victims of war, occupation, persecution, & genocide Rest In Peace.

Hopefully, the report by a former UN chief of operations that an estimated 60,000 rapes, including of children, have been carried out by UN staff working in its different agencies in the past decade will put a decisive end to the call for UN peacekeeping troops to protect forcibly deported Rohingya refugees & raise demands that they be withdrawn from those countries where they are deployed. UN troops have previously been accused of involvement in human trafficking & prostitution–not to mention the cholera epidemic in Haiti for which the UN refused compensation to victims & their families. This is the first time UN humanitarian aid workers & other functionaries have been accused of such monstrosities. No wonder so little humanitarian aid or political monitoring is accomplished by the UN. They are otherwise engaged in criminality against women & children. And this on top of the Oxfam scandal involving sexual crimes in Haiti & Chad.

#MeTooOnBehalfOfUNVictims

It’s absolutely shameless to recycle your own sarcasms but I am not above doing so & more than once. This is my February 14, 2016 obituary for the vile & reactionary Supreme Court judge Antonin Scalia:

“I’m taken aback by the number of FB posts celebrating the demise of that guy on the Supreme Court–good old what’s-his-name. People are dancing on his grave; some are pissing on it. Women are in the lead. Some are hauling in chips & guacamole for a big drunken bash. Let me know if you think that’s appropriate funereal ritual for the judge or if we need to hire a mariachi band too.”

My little flock of cockatiels have been distressed lately. Captivity gets to them. So I’ve been playing “Les Miserables” to calm them. They like it as much as I do & sit here for hours just listening. Another is on my shoulder and one is sitting just off camera

Militarily, the war in Syria is very complex & convoluted because all of the combatant forces have conflicting interests–except their unity in crushing the Syrian revolution against Assad’s dictatorship. The power of that revolution can be seen in the military force required to defeat it, including Syria, Russia, the US coalition, Turkey, Iran, Hezbollah, ISIS, & other foreign agents arming & funding mercenary forces. But one needn’t be a military strategist to take a stand on this war; one needn’t understand the conflicting interests which anyway shift according to the needs of counterrevolution. The fundamental thing to understand is that Syria is not a “proxy war,” not a regime change operation on the part of the US, not even a war to defeat ISIS. It is a militarized counterrevolution.

Given the conflicting interests of the combatants & the shifts in policy now that all parties claim to have defeated ISIS, it is inevitable that those conflicts would emerge on the battlefield, threatening years more of barbaric bombing & paramilitary violence. Provocations will be involved & counter measures taken, as was the case when Israel recently downed a drone Iran sent into Israel. Israel & Syria both responded by firing anti-aircraft missiles. The Israeli missiles directed at Syrian & Iranian targets in Syria reportedly killed Iranian military personnel. Another recent case is when US coalition forces took out at least 100 Russian mercenaries laying siege to a US military training facility. No one is grieving for those mercenary hired killers, but the regimes involved will use such assaults to justify continuing involvement in Syria.

This photo of a White Helmet rescuing a small child was taken on February 8th in Arbin city in Eastern Ghouta district of Syria. In 23 airstrikes & heavy artillery firing that day, 27 civilians, including ten children & four women, were killed; 114 were injured. And Assadists call this a US regime change operation? Those who dare vilify the White Helmets–who must sustain extremes of PTSD in rescuing traumatized victims with bodies mangled & often dismembered–are beyond political redemption. May they burn in hell. Our fullest solidarity with the White Helmets.

The only principled demands are for the immediate cessation of Syrian, Russian, & US coalition bombing & for the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all foreign military forces from Syria. Out now!

(Photo from White Helmets)

Just listened to a 2 & 1/2 hour UN Security Council meeting on the Rohingya genocide. When it comes to long-winded speeches, the UN is right on top of things. When it comes to action–like sanctions against Burma, humanitarian aid to refugees, or asylum with visas & full refugee rights–the UN diplomats are all hot air.

And for the record, under capitalist competition, there is no such thing as an “international community”–unless you’re talking about social movements of solidarity.

Reuters coverage of the Rohingya genocide has been deplorable. But since two of its reporters in Burma were arrested by the Suu Kyi regime it has found a modicum of journalistic integrity to report what is happening without equivocating a genocide away.

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/myanmar-rakhine-events/

Children of Gaza peeking through the walls of a building damaged by Israeli bombing:

From September 28th, 2000 to February 8th, 2018, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem reports that 9,556 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, including 2,173 children. The B’Tselem report did not indicate the ages of the children, i.e., if they included small children with teenagers. The figures are staggering either way. As was reported in 2013, that is about one Palestinian child killed every three days. Such is the character of ethnic cleansing.

B’Tselem also reports that in the same time period at least 100,508 Palestinians were injured, some permanently disabled, particularly in the repeated bombing sieges over Gaza. Denying the disabled & seriously ill to leave for specialized medical care not available in Gaza because hospitals have been bombed out is human rights criminality that is part & parcel of ethnic cleansing.

Report: https://israelpalestinetimeline.org/

(Photo from several Palestinian sources)

Censorship on social media is a major political problem, especially for those freedom struggles up against news blackouts & dishonest reporting. Reporting fake news to Facebook or Twitter is not the solution because it plays straight into the hands of the censors. Sorting through & vetting the barrage of information is essential for activists & is a learned skill available to all with the internet at hand. Why would anyone allow the political forces who control social media to discharge news reports with a censor button rather than do the heavy lifting of research?

On military occupation of Kashmir:

“my friend by my side sank into a chair and sighed with sadness, Zafar, I don’t want to sleep, I don’t have dreams anymore but long last nightmares.”

–Zafar Iqbal