Just days ago, an English judge adjudicating asylum applications said most refugees in the “Jungle” camp at Calais are not “genuine refugees” but are benefit scroungers trying to get to the UK to suck up benefits. (The judiciary around the world seems to attract a disproportionate number of halfwits.)

One of the leading UK charities providing direct service to refugees reports to the contrary. Most asylum seekers are not allowed to work & are forced to rely on state support which can be as little as £5 a day. There’s no need for a currency conversion since it’s chump change in any currency. They cannot choose where they live, are not provided rent money, & are offered mostly ‘hard to let’ rentals that others won’t live in. The majority live in poverty, poor health, & chronic hunger.

There’s a TV dramatization about the swindler Bernie Madoff bilking people, including through charitable donations. Part of his spiel was reading the self-aggrandizing crap Elie Wiesel croons about not remaining silent against injustice. Ironically, Wiesel was one of the people Madoff swindled. Apparently there’s a circle of life among swindlers.

There’s no mercy for the Weasel after he published full page ads during Israel’s 2014 bombing siege in Gaza claiming Palestinians used their children as human shields though Israel was denounced by human rights groups for targeting children with bombers. To hell with the swindlers!

Twice in the past month, two socialist guys ridiculed my running for office. One called it a political stunt & the other questioned my capabilities. Are they kidding me!? Have they checked out the alternatives? Do they think Trump, Cruz, Clinton, or Sanders are suited for anything other than animal control officers? And only then after they get extensive remedial job training? Misogyny, thy name is stupid.

No one knew better than me how hard it would be to run as a socialist while the socialist movement is so divided. But only the timid & defeated admit impediments to necessity? Somebody has to stand up against the corporate fiasco of US electoral politics & say the right thing. Why not me, since I’m one of America’s oldest activists?

It’s good news that some governments are taking proactive measures to prevent the spread of Aedes mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus. In adults, the virus can cause a mild rash & slight fever but infected pregnant women can have babies with microcephaly, a condition with an extremely small head & brain damage. The parents of microcephalic babies profess the same love for their kids as any other but in countries without social services for those with disability, it’s an extreme burden & stress that the already poor do not need.

It may surprise many that Israel, which bills itself as the only democracy in the Middle East, does not have a constitution or a bill of rights. When paramilitary terrorist groups set up Israel, they chartered a constituent assembly to formulate one but it couldn’t broker the immense contradictions between conservative Jews who considered the Torah sufficient legal foundation for the colonial state & more secular Jews who wanted a modern constitution to legitimize colonialism.

Democracy & theocracy are mutually exclusive, but more importantly, democracy is incompatible with colonialism & apartheid, the actual legal reality of Israel. The constituent assembly, unable to fulfill its mandate, morphed into the Knesset, Israel’s parliament or colonial administration, which extemporizes a legal framework according to the needs of apartheid.

Last Sunday, the Knesset passed a law allowing police to stop & frisk without probable cause. Probable cause is a fixture in any bill of rights (though habitually flouted in the US Black community). The Jerusalem Post, an unsavory Israeli publication, said the Knesset was “expanding the meaning of probable cause” by eliminating it. When did sarcasm become accepted legal analysis?

Human rights groups rightly protest the law as a flagrant violation of international law & as a weapon of discrimination against Palestinians in Israel. Well that’s exactly what it’s intended to do: harass, humiliate, & assault Palestinians without facing legal hassles. It’s the legalization of racist profiling

The question is why does Israel need such a law when that has been its colonial practice for 68 years? The rationale given is to counter the threat of knife-wielding Palestinians but that’s baloney. Under the occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, & Gaza, it’s routine for Israeli soldiers to body search without probable cause & there’s plenty of photographic documentation for that. At gunpoint, soldiers stop & frisk adult men, adult women (including by male soldiers), old people, & kids on their way to school. Part of the procedure often involves aggressions like kicking the legs or pushing in the back of the knees to make people fall.

This colonial practice goes along with all the other policies like extrajudicial killing of Palestinians; curfews & restrictions on the movement of Palestinians; banning Palestinian workers from Israeli worksites; demolition of homes; torching of homes & mosques; arrest & incarceration of small children; indefinite incarceration without criminal charges. Israel never lets a little stinking law stand in the way of its colonial mission.

Far from being a democratic institution, the Knesset is a colonial administration that will improvise any legal fiction required to facilitate the expropriation of Palestine, including harassment, humiliation, & the constant use of extreme violence.

In this photo, an Israeli soldier is ordering a Palestinian man to lift his clothing for a body search in Hebron, West Bank. We aren’t told, but the young fellow was likely on his way to work or school & there was no reason in the world to suspect him of plotting a crime. This is just pro forma practice under Israeli occupation.

Build & honor the economic, cultural, & academic boycott of Israel. Buy nothing with a label beginning 729.

(Photo by Abed Al Hashlamoun/EPA)

I love the political tradition of burning effigies. We don’t have that tradition here but we sure as hell could use it since we have more than our share of psycho politicians. Come to think of it, a lot of the effigies burned overseas are US politicians. But why haven’t they gotten to Kissinger yet? He should burn before he ever gets to hell. Filipino activists seem to have mastered effigy making & effigy burning & should consider offering workshops on how to do it with style.

Samir al-Najjar became wheelchair-bound after being shot by Israeli soldiers in 2008. He & his family live in temporary housing in Khan Yunis, Gaza, since their home was destroyed by Israeli bombers in the 2014 carpet bombing siege. “We live–but that’s only because we’re not dead,” al-Najjar said.

It really is justice time for Palestinians. Build & honor the economic, cultural, & academic boycott of Israel. Check every label & buy nothing with a barcode beginning 729. Solidarity is imperative.

(Photo by Said Khatib/AFP)

Shaimaa al-Sabbagh was an Egyptian socialist & activist who was shot to death on January 24th 2015 when police attacked a peaceful protest with tear gas & bird pellets. The protesters were marching to commemorate those many activists killed during the Egyptian uprising of 2011 that ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak.

Many have drawn cynical conclusions from the reversal of the Egyptian uprising. It’s easier to be a cynical smart-ass than it is to sustain hope because the latter doesn’t rely on miracles or deus ex machina solutions but requires diligent commitment. That’s why al-Sabbagh has become a symbol of resistance to Egypt’s military junta–because despite massive repression, she dared defiance. That’s what makes Palestinians & Kashmiris so politically vital–that they dare defiance against what seems all odds.