A news commentator described Trump as “irrepressible.” That adjective is usually used in a flattering way & not to describe the boiling cauldron of sewage that is the US president.

The crisis of sexual assault in the US military is getting headlines because six women cadets at the Air Force Academy which trains officers made charges of sexual assault against male cadets. After they came forward they were subjected to retaliation by male cadets & military officers. Yesterday, CBS news brought on General Jay Silveria who was put in charge of cleaning up the PR mess for the Air Force Academy. He misjudged this moment in history when women’s claims of sexual assault are finally being heard with a vengeance. He brushed off the women’s charges & the general problem of sexual assault in the military but he is facing the music today. CBS brought on another retired general who laid out the facts & made no bones about Silveria’s big fat lies. He said in the US Air Force, over 11% of women are sexually assaulted & 47% report sexual harassment. He pointed out that the women accusers at the Air Force Academy resigned & left the military but are now being prosecuted to repay half a million dollars in education costs.

Wouldn’t Trump, Modi, Duterte, Assad, Putin, Netanyahu, Sisi (for starters) suggest capitalism has a crisis of leadership? Like being captains of the Titanic?

Good that the child molester was bounced as Alabama senator. Just over half-a-million people voted for him. He lost by 1,300 votes to a guy who’s no prize package but at least he’s not a pervert & racist dirt-ball, as far as we know. What’s interesting is that well over two-thirds of eligible Alabama voters did not bother to vote. The only cogent thing I ever heard Bernie Sanders say was in a speech about 30 years ago. He pointed out that not voting indicates disaffection with the political choices of a bankrupt two-party system but also may suggest passivity rather than active opposition when faced with political corruption. Anyway, another pervert politician bites the dust. He can get back on his horse & ride into the sunset. Now onward to the White House to oust that racist, women-hating dirtbag.

Not wanting to be bested by Putin’s nonchalance over Trump’s provocation of Palestinians, Assad came out slugging: “The future of Jerusalem is not determined by a state or a president but is determined by its history & by the will & determination in the Palestinian cause.” Assad’s indignation & the meaning of this official statement must have been lost in translation so that it only sounds like gibberish. Or maybe he’s just playing it cool in a diplomatic way–not making a roar so much as a peep approximating protest.

Assad’s diplomatic discretion probably explains why there are no reports that Syrians in government-controlled areas have protested for Palestinians. However, protests in solidarity with Palestinians were held in several towns where the revolution against Assad has not been defeated, including in areas presently being bombed by Assad. Maybe one of Assad’s groupies or propagandists could explain this glaring discrepancy in solidarity.

(Photo is protest in southern Damascus now under aerial bombardment by Assad bombers)

Since Putin has shown his ardent commitment to democracy & freedom by bombing civilians in Syria, perhaps his groupies could explain why he is doing nothing for Palestinians when they are under attack? Would denouncing Trump interfere too much with his business contracts with Israel? And speaking of his commitment to Syrian democracy, can one of his fans also explain his recent multi-million dollar contracts with Saudi Arabia? How do those contracts accord with Assad’s fight against Saudi ‘Wahhabi/Salafi head-choppers’?

Pakistani journalist Usman A Khan Tahir interviews Americans (including myself) on Trump declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel:

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2017/12/12/us-reacts-trumps-jerusalem-move-leaves-americans-divided-once-more/

Obama has too many wars & deportations under his belt to be admired. But don’t you think that if he had said or done any of the racist & misogynist crap Trump has, he would have been out on his ear in months? White & male supremacy prevails. But also, once the people who really run this country get their tax cut through Trump’s venality, they’re likely to come down on him hammer & tongs for exposing what kind of mafia really runs the US government & how loathsome the politicians & generals deciding our fates.

If we don’t rebuild a massive, international antiwar movement, the entire planet will soon be run by generals & psycho special forces with bombers. Militarism is the ethos of the barbaric phase of capitalism. The Israeli military is now drafting a bill to grant immunity from prosecution to Israeli soldiers deployed in occupied East Jerusalem, Gaza, & the West Bank. They’re already riding roughshod over Palestinians so this would merely eliminate the inconvenience of court martial.

India employs the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) giving immunity from prosecution to soldiers deployed in Kashmir. It’s not irrelevant that the AFSPA was formulated by the British against the movement demanding an end to British rule in India. The US has similar security agreements with Afghanistan & Iraq (& probably other countries) granting immunity to US soldiers who engage in human rights crimes. The question remains: since there are news blackouts on most of these wars & would still be were it not for social media, why are these agreements to legitimize impunity considered so vital to militaries? It would be important to know which other countries have these agreements in countries they are bombing or occupying.

This is an interesting blog entry by Giles Ji Ungpakorn, a Thai dissident in exile, on the military junta that rules Thailand. The entry speaks to the brutality of unbridled militarism & military rule.

https://uglytruththailand.wordpress.com/2017/12/10/the-thugs-that-rule-thailand/

A little Rohingya boy at a refugee camp near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh:

After 3 & 1/2 months of genocide, our defense of Rohingya refugees has only just begun & cannot be allowed to become just another old news cycle. There are reports of severe malnutrition among children in the camps & no indications that the sanitation problems have been addressed. That’s probably because Burma, Bangladesh, the UN & many governments plan on forcibly repatriating the Rohingya so they can continue denying the genocide & wash their hands of the human rights crisis. Our mission is to demand our governments deliver massive humanitarian aid to the camps & offer asylum with safe transportation & full refugee rights.

There can be no forcible repatriation of the Rohingya refugees without their direct involvement in decisions about their fate & that of their children.

(Photo by Shafiur Rahman)