The political character of Assadists is revealed in their methods & language of discourse. On a post about the bombing of civilians & the death of small children in Syria, one of them posted a phallic looking message telling me to go fuck myself; another called me a “pernicious fucktard,” & others dispatched to assail my post associated me with the CIA & ISIS. They actually exhibited a higher level of intelligence & cogency than the average Assadist who tends to drool, stumble over epithets, & talk in mantras about regime change.

Method matters in politics. So does language. If go fuck yourself & “fucktard” (which demeans those with learning disabilities) are the best you’re packing in defense of dictatorship it’s because you are moving to the right–to the fascist right. Those who stand with justice don’t settle for abuse & vituperation. Maybe we use sarcasm & like to rough up our opponents a bit but we prefer to document our views & stand our ground rather than viscerally grope our way to hanging with fascists.

Celebrations in Jerusalem over victory defending the integrity of the Al Aqsa mosque compound:

The Israeli retreat from occupation of the Al Aqsa compound is a momentous victory for Palestinians & heartens supporters around the world. Longtime supporter Carol Sughrue expresses the elation many of us feel about this hard-fought battle:

“I truly believe that real victory for the Palestinians will come one day. I only hope I live long enough to see it. The occupation cannot be sustained. It’s just not possible.”

Long live Palestinian Intifada.

Carol Sughrue says there are no reports in English yet but Arabic media reports Israel has removed all metal detectors & surveillance cameras from Al Aqsa compound because of pressure from Palestinian Intifada. This is a complete victory for Palestinians.

Long live Palestinian Intifada. End the occupation. Self-determination for Palestine. Palestine will be free.

This is dancing in the streets time.

You know you’re in for a whizzer (in the sense of that word associated with urine) when giggly-assed Assadist Rania Khalek begins her most recent article with “I was sitting at a bar in the Old City with off-duty Syrian soldiers….” And her banality never fails us as she goes on to describe hanging with chichi Syrians in trendy bars in Damascus while pretending to do independent war journalism. This is where sarcasm sputters & falls flat on its ass before the absolute bull-headed cluelessness & social climbing of a woman whose 15 minutes of fame was up two years ago & is now coasting on venom-cum-idiocy.

Let this statement from the completely worthless article titled “As the US Backs Away From Syria’s Civil War, War-Weary Residents of Damascus Struggle to Survive” stand as testimony to Khalek’s intellectual, moral, & political bankruptcy:

“In the West, especially among those who advocate more war in Syria, there is such an obsessive focus on the dead that they don’t see or care what the war does to the people still living. They have to reorient their entire lives & put their dreams on hold just to survive, to keep their family together & safe & fed.”

What Khalek means is that the chichi people in those trendy bars & her drinking buddies from the Syrian army really want the West to just get past the nearly half-a-million dead so they can get on with their trendy lives. Khalek in previous articles has already dispatched the 4 million Syrian refugees as harboring ISIS fighters. Her feigned interest in the cabbies & factory workers of Syria is only the cosmetics of her politics. She doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the working people bombed to death or forced to flee for their lives because that isn’t where the glamor is. When it comes to politics, glamor is what this sorry-assed apologist for dictatorship is all about.

It’s necessary to know what rightwing forces are saying in order to rebut them so this means spending time following them on social media. Assad should fire his stable of minions because their ignominy is only exceeded by their banality. Or are they just repeating what they’ve been told to say? Is he that obsessed with discrediting the little girl Bana, baby Omran, & the White Helmets that they can speak of nothing else for going on three years? Following them is the equivalent of watching an eternity of goose-stepping.

Some of the 45 children injured in air strikes last Sunday on Arbin, Syria, designated a ceasefire zone by Russia. They are waiting in hospital to be treated. Five children were killed.

US, Russia, Iran, Hezbollah & all foreign military forces out of Syria. Bombers, special forces, & paramilitary militias have never been freedom fighters & they are decidedly not in Syria.

Out now!

(Tweeted by SAMS‏ @sams_usa)

A young boy near the rubble of buildings after Russian bombing of Arbin, a town outside Damascus frequently bombed by Assad forces.

Arbin was designated one of four “de-escalation zones” in a deal reached last May between Russia, Iran & Turkey. Within these zones, militias & Assad forces were to maintain a ceasefire, including air strikes, for six months. Russia would continue to fly over the areas but not conduct bombing operations, the Syrian government would allow humanitarian aid into the area without bombing it, & public services like electricity & water would be restored. In the Eastern Ghouta zone where Arbin is located, there are an estimated 690,000 civilians.

Perhaps Russia should explain why it bombed Arbin last Sunday, killing five children & injuring 45 children.

US, Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, & all other foreign military forces out of Syria. Out now!

(Photo by Bassam KhabiehReuters)

Landscape of the Shuja’iyya residential neighborhood in Gaza on July 26, 2014 as a result of the Israeli carpet bombing operation that lasted seven weeks from July 8th to August 26th.

Any questions about Israel being the only democracy in the Middle East? Any lingering doubts about Israeli ethnic cleansing & colonialism?

End the occupation. End the blockade of Gaza. Self-determination for Palestine.

(Photo by Oliver Weiken/EPA)

Here we come face to face with the pernicious bias in media against Palestinians. Reuters has photojournalist coverage all over the world, much of it quite powerful. But remarkably, they have almost no reportage on the Israeli siege & occupation of Al Aqsa compound & no photo coverage. Except for this photo which they describe as Hamas militants in Gaza protesting in solidarity with the prayer protesters outside Al Aqsa. Since Gaza is an open air prison they are unable to travel to East Jerusalem to participate in defense of Al Aqsa.

At the sight of these fighters we’re supposed to shudder in fear of Hamas at the gates of Israel & do an obligatory, unsparing denunciation of Hamas ideology. You can stuff that melodrama. Because of the Israeli blockade, Gaza is on the verge of collapse. If there are to be any denunciations, let them be of the barbarous Israeli blockade of Gaza. We may disagree vigorously with the politics of Hamas but Palestinians have a right to defend themselves against ethnic cleansing by any means necessary. Reuters should be all over East Jerusalem documenting the monstrous violence against thousands of unarmed Palestinian protesters & worshippers–not in Gaza at a parade of a handful of fighters without anything close to the military might of Israel, one of the most powerful armies & bomber fleets in the world.

End the occupation. End the blockade of Gaza. Self-determination for Palestine.

(Photo by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

PS: If anyone can find photojournalist coverage by Reuters of the Al Aqsa siege, I would gladly be proven wrong.