Forcible evacuation by Assad forces in Eastern Ghouta

E Ghouta evacuation (White Helmets) Mar 28 2018

Assad supporters are calling the forcible evacuation of thousands of civilians from Eastern Ghouta a “liberation.” That’s because they come from the same political traditions that called Stalin’s forced mass relocations a liberation. But the sole purpose of forcibly removing people from their homes & towns & dispersing them to homelessness or pup tents is to break down the social fabric & cohesion–in this case, to break down the revolutionary spirit of the Syrian people against a brutal dictatorship.

Stand with the Syrian people & demand the immediate cessation of Syrian, Russian, Turkish, & US coalition bombing of civilians, the immediate release of all political prisoners, the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all foreign military forces from Syria, & the immediate halt to forcible evacuations.

Photo of child being forcibly evacuated is from White Helmets.

The human toll of Duterte’s vigilante war against the poor

Ginnalyn Soriano weeps of older brother Julius (Ezra Acayan) Mar 28 2018

This incredibly powerful photo is of Ginnalyn Soriano weeping over the body of her older brother Julius who was executed by a vigilante death squad as part of Duterte’s war on the poor. Many consider such wrenching photographs an invasion of privacy. We all prefer photos of flowers & puppies. But in the barbaric phase of capitalism, it is necessary to face the realities of human suffering imposed by inequality, war, occupation, genocide. Ginnalyn & Julius are one of ours. We need to know exactly what is happening to them in order to take our place next to them in solidarity. May Julius Rest In Peace.

The photo won the 2017 Istanbul Photo Award for young photographer.

(Photo by Ezra Acayan)

An important article about Facebook’s censorship of Palestinian voices as “hate speech.” Twitter & Facebook play just as pernicious a role in silencing the voices of Kashmiris, Rohingya, and at the behest of other tyrannous regimes. This is a civil liberties issue. Facebook is facing criticism, interrogation, & investigations for violating members’ privacy by trawling personal data even off android phones. This is of a piece with its political censorship. We need to consider legal options to protect privacy & our right to free speech.

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/facebook-labels-palestinian-journalism-hate-speech

ABC network is bringing back the Roseanne sitcom where the multimillionaire Trump supporter Roseanne Barr plays a working class white woman as stupid, vulgar, & reactionary as she is in real life. It’s an 8-episode reboot using the traditional TV formula of portraying working people as stupid. Will anyone be surprised if it bombs?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but wouldn’t you agree that racism, white supremacy, xenophobia, Muslim-hating, & misogyny are the hallmarks of Trump’s politics? Call me pollyanna, call me crazy, but I don’t believe that crap represents the majority of Americans.

Welcome to Trumpland: news is reporting that the US just deported Miquel Perez, a US military veteran with two tours of duty in Afghanistan who came to the US at the age of 8 as an undocumented immigrant. He was deported & just dumped in Mexico–a country which at this point he has no associations with except familial. He was picked up for a drug offense–probably self-medicating for PTSD. The US does the exact same thing with thousands of undocumented immigrants who they deport. They bus them to the bridges & let them go with no provisions for their housing, transportation, safety. If they have been caught trying to cross more than once into the US, they get dumped further into the interior of Mexico, regardless of where they are from.

Open the damn borders. No human being is alien to us.