Category Archives: News

“Clashes” enters the lexicon of deceits

Praying

Scene of a “clash” between unarmed Palestinian worshippers fleeing from Israeli troops shooting off tear gas, stun grenades, live ammo, water cannons.

“Clash” joins the lexicon where civilian deaths are “collateral damage,” secret, paramilitary warfare is “low-intensity warfare,” & orchestrated campaigns of ethnic cleansing are “communal conflict.” Soon carpet bombing, occupation, & war will be called freedom struggles as the Assad dictatorship & Hands Off Syria Coalition claim & a US-imposed No Fly Zone will be a way to enforce peace & end carpet bombing by Syria & Russia (so the US can bomb civilians all by itself).

That’s why this is the era of post-truth truthiness & Putin, Assad, & Trump are called champions of human freedom by those moving to the right under the banner of socialism.

Israeli military reenters Al Aqsa compound

Friday prayers at Al Aqsa July 27 2017 (Anadolu) July 27 2017

Continued occupation of Al Aqsa mosque compound: just hours after pulling out the metal detectors & surveillance cameras, this is what Palestinians faced when they returned to the mosque for Friday prayers today. Media said “clashes broke out” within the compound after several days of civil protests & violence from Palestinians & some pointed out that the form of protest was thousands of Palestinians praying every day outside the Noble Sanctuary.

They did not discuss how police & paramilitary forces have been attacking unarmed protesters engaged in prayer with tear gas, stun grenades, & water cannons all over East Jerusalem, not just outside the compound. They did not discuss the Palestinians killed nor the hundreds injured, including from gun shot wounds.

To post this photo with a headline “clashes broke out” is a mockery of journalism but that is exactly what media did. The Al Aqsa compound is a Muslim holy site & neither Jews nor Christians have any kind of claim to it historically or archaeologically that aren’t manufactured to justify colonialism. Pointing assault weapons & using tear gas & stun grenades on Palestinians who came to gather for Friday prayers is worse than a provocation; it is a desecration of a Palestinian sacred site, a denial of religious freedom, & the violent military occupation of the Noble Sanctuary.

Emergency protests in defense of Palestinians & Al Aqsa are more imperative than ever. The crisis is by no means over. This is a call to arms for all who believe in religious freedom, not just for those who believe in Palestinian self-determination.

(Photo from Anadolu)

Trump is clearly not all there & is otherwise engaged but the US continues to conduct several wars & is even shifting its policies in Syria. This is a real Wizard of Oz situation. If Trump isn’t the one responsible for this situation, we’ll have to find those who are & take them down.

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.

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.

Alas poor Rania Khalek: the Assadist with her head stuck up her ass (is there any other kind?)

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.

45 children treated for injuries from Russian bombing of Arbin

Injured kids at Arbin hospital after July 23 2017 air strike (SAMS) July 26 2017

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)