Isn’t creativity supposed to be capitalism’s vaunted selling point? Is there a problem with the creativity thing developing in haute couture? Has neoliberal degeneration begun to manifest on the runway? Will the fashion world get to Armageddon before the rest of us? And is this how we’ll all be dressed?

(Photo by Patrick Kovarik/AFP/Getty Images)

Is any commentary on this photo necessary? Because we are speechless in condemnation of European refugee policies. This is Idomeni, Greece at the border with Macedonia where nighttime temperatures are just above freezing. These refugees–already exhausted, traumatized from loss, afraid for their children, elders, disabled, infirm, & their futures–are still forced to endure inhuman conditions–with miles & months to go before the ordeal ends. Most have no idea where they will end up.

Sixty-million people across the globe on the move fleeing from war, bombing, impoverishment. They present only one option to humanity: solidarity or barbarism.

(Photo by Alexandros Avramidis/Reuters)

The killing fields of Yemen–now being democratized by a Saudi-led US-backed alliance of feudal monarchies & military juntas bombing it to smithereens. You can’t tell the difference between Yemen, Syria, & Gaza.

The old saying that ‘politics makes strange bedfellows’ needs to be updated for the neoliberal era, the barbaric phase of capitalism. There’s nothing strange at all that the US & UK are in league with Saudi Arabia, a regime that started the new year with a mass beheading of 47 people on January 2nd & which has been bombing Yemen since March of last year.

Forgive me for not thinking Noam Chomsky a god & daring to disagree with him. Plebeian women have no such rights when even breathing air is an infringement of elite male entitlement. Yeah right! That’ll fly on my wall. If you insult me for criticizing Chomsky because I’m unworthy, imagine what vituperations you’ll unleash. I detest elitism & am not real polite about it. So don’t push your luck if that’s your schtick.

BDS was part of the plot line on “The Good Wife” episode tonight. It was awkwardly presented & somewhat confusing, but the character Diane Lockhart legally defended a student who wrote an article about the boycott of Israel after the school defunded the student newspaper for publishing it. It was surprising they didn’t have the author morph into a terrorist which is how they usually portray Arabs & Muslims on these shows.

There isn’t much info about the politics of lead Good Wife actress Juliana Margulis. Her American parents lived in Israel for a short time & her father-in-law works for the Brookings Institute, but you can’t draw much from that about her. Because her husband is Jewish & Irish, she used to frequently quip that their son would be proficient as a thinker & a drinker. I wrote her a note saying it was great that she acknowledged the intellectual achievements of the Irish but that she shouldn’t disparage Jewish people that way. They had considerable intellectual achievements of their own, just like all other nationalities, & weren’t known for drinking any more than others

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has been keeping a daily count of refugees in the Mediterranean. FRONTEX, the EU policing agency against immigrants & refugees, also keeps a count but admits it’s completely unreliable. On Friday, the UN agency said 50,668 refugees had entered Greece so far this year; today they report 58,547–almost 8,000 people more in two days. The drowning toll is now 309 people, including children.

Now here’s what’s curious: the number of refugees from the north African coast to Italy hasn’t changed in that same time. What’s more curious is that the number has remained steady at only 3,850 people. So little information, so many questions. Like how has FRONTEX stopped the movement of refugees from Africa? Are refugees still drowning on that route? What about the refugee centers on Lampedusa & Malta? What about those trying to cross to Spain from Morocco? Has the Spanish government’s new security law clamping down on democratic rights & on refugees put an end to that movement of refugees?

Yes, it’s regrettably true that Cornel West & Noam Chomsky have both endorsed Bernie Sanders for president. There’s a lot you could say about that but let it suffice to say, shame on them for lacking any sense of political principles when it comes to elections. They both influence a lot of people & are modeling the politics of compromise & corruption.

What about Palestinians? What about immigrants & refugees? What about those US wars? What about standing with those on the receiving end of US treachery even during elections?

Let them not again cry foul, we’ve been fooled, when the new Democrat turns out to be just like the old.

Despite the corruption of Hillary Clinton & her political & financial entanglements with Wall Street, she is playing the populist card like a virtuoso. That’s what you get when a campaign is orchestrated by PR firms. It’s a debasement of politics that citizens are treated like consumers rather than citizens in a democratic republic.

Clinton knows how this country is run better than any other candidate. That’s not a recommendation but a condemnation. She understands what the issue of Israel means to the geopolitical schemes of those who really run this country. Israel is a touchstone for US foreign policy because it is the linchpin to US control over the Middle East. What is at stake is not just oil but democracy in the entire region. Bankrolling & arming Israel against Palestinians & the tyrannous Arab regimes against their own citizens is not an episodic feature of US policy but the heart of its colonial policies involving the CIA, coups, occupations, wars. That’s why Clinton is the chosen candidate of Zionist ideologues in the US.

One of those ideologues is billionaire media mogul Haim Saban, a guy with dual Israeli-US citizenship. Saban owns Univision, the largest Spanish-language network in the US; Fusion, a TV channel, as a joint venture with Disney; The Root, a well-established Black news website; & he has just purchased The Onion, the satiric website.

Media commentators claim Saban’s purchase of these news sources is to broaden appeal to “millennials” & to become more multicultural. Such commentators are playing stupid about Saban’s motives which he does not disguise. He boasts that he’s a one-issue guy: Israel. He’s explained without an ounce of coyness that his strategy to influence American politics includes three things: political donations, establishing think tanks, & controlling media sources. It’s a three-pronged approach, not mutually exclusive.

Saban wants Clinton elected president because he knows that as president of the US she will be as committed to Israel as she was while NY senator & US Secretary of State & as committed as Bill Clinton was during his tenure in the White House. That’s why Saban has donated millions to Clinton’s campaign, to the Democratic Party, & to the Clinton Foundation. It’s called buying influence–& it should be illegal because it violates every standard of democracy & electoral integrity.

In September 2014, the New York Times published an investigative report about how foreign countries buy political influence through Washington think tanks. One of the most influential think tanks in Washington is the Brookings Institute. Saban is not only a trustee for Brookings but in 2002 he founded the Saban Center for Middle East Policy as an adjunct to the institute.

But the plot sickens & Saban’s connections to the Clintons & to US foreign policy are exposed as a labyrinth of deceits. Martin Indyk is the vice president & Director for Foreign Policy at Brookings. Indyk’s resume includes deputy research director for AIPAC (the Israeli lobby); US ambassador to Israel under Bill Clinton; Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs under Bill Clinton; US Special Envoy for the fraudulent 2013-2014 Israeli-Palestinian negotiations under the Obama administration.

Lesser evil voters have to confront this reality & of course the problem is, given the undemocratic way US elections are set up, they have no place to go to choose a candidate based on political principles–especially Palestinian solidarity. It’s a dilemma & the only way to solve it is to eschew lesser-evilism & to do what Eugene Victor Debs said: ‘vote for what you want & not get it rather than vote for you don’t want & get it.’

This photo from 2003 is Clinton, then senator from NY, with Cheryl & Haim Saban at the dedication of the Saban Research Institute of Childrens Hospital in LA. Their nefarious connections go back a long way, This is what influence peddling looks like, not what democracy looks like.

(Photo by Bob Riha Jr/WireImage)