Robbie Williams, singer & UNICEF ambassador, ignored months of appeals to comply with the cultural boycott of Israel & performed today in Tel Aviv. Turns out his manager is a UNICEF official so playing jester to apartheid advanced his personal interests.

Now we can feel free to speak the truth about his music. England has some explaining to do for making this guy famous. His genre has still not been defined but it’s somewhere between Raucous & Rubbish. In rock & roll, performers compete with costumes to outdo each other in outrage. Even here Williams is no rebel & dresses like Gene Simmons & KISS. Why? When the original is so cheesy?

They say the lyrics to his most famous song “Let Me Entertain You” are mostly innuendoes & double entendre. That’s another thing England will have to explain. The eroticism eludes the libido’s perception.

When we read he performed for Betty Windsor at her Diamond Jubilee concert in 2012 we should have seen it coming like a Mack truck & maybe saved our breath. Any rock & roller who wears the jester’s outfit for the moochocracy is all washed up as a rebel. As his ugly-assed song “Let Me Entertain You” drools, “I’m a burning effigy of everything I used to be.” He’s got that right.

The reviewer for Haaretz thought the concert today stunk. He said It was “two notches below that of Justin Timberlake at the same venue.” Ouch! He also complained about seeing too much of William’s armpits. Really!? And we thought he was all ass.

(Photo is the regrettable effigy)

Media coverage of Baltimore is disgraceful & carefully structured to present the Black community & protesters in a deeply hateful way. They had one young man, whose dad yanked him out of protests, tell the reporter that at least he knew who his dad was, unlike most other kids. They had people talking proudly about those involved in cleaning up the mess when the pharmacy was trashed–a good Black people versus thugs feel-good moment, pitting Blacks against each other. And over & over again, they strut the guys from the group 300 Men March who promote the view–so much in vogue among conservative Blacks (like now shamed Bill Cosby)–that violence in the Black community is due to irresponsible, mother-emasculated, sexed-up men. That’s why at their marches, which are more protests against other Black men & teens than against the war on Black youth, you see the mayor & police chief as keynote speakers.

Media interviewed some people on the street who were so eloquent in protest that one wonders why they aren’t put on TV to explain what’s going on. If one really wants to get at the truth, that’s exactly what you would do rather than ask idiotic mumble-mouthes like David Brooks from the New York Times who knows nothing & speaks at great length to prove it.
Brooks was completely nonplussed (in others it would be called playing dumb but stupidity is completely genuine with him & he reeks of racism) about how to address poverty since he claims millions of development & social welfare money has been thrown at the Black community in Baltimore. He also pulled out the old canard about “Black on Black violence,” another favorite theme of 300 Men March.

It’s true that since the 1970s millions of dollars of development money have poured into Baltimore–just like most major US cities. And just like everywhere else, it was to build convention centers, trade centers, upscale retail malls, aquariums, museums, sports stadiums, tourist attractions, upscale housing that displaced thousands of poor Blacks. If you look at the areas of gentrification (another word for displacement of the poor) in Baltimore, you will see that the area of social protest is affected. Homelessness is now a major problem.

As for that “Black-on-Black crime” crap? That’s a term used sui generis to the Black community & it’s a way to defame them as prone to violence. Where do you hear “white-on-white crime” spoken of, like it was a special category of crime? If you look at raw data on US murder statistics, several cities stand out, including Flint & Detroit, Michigan; New Orleans, Louisiana; Chicago, Illinois; & Baltimore, Maryland. All high unemployment cities after manufacturing jobs went overseas in search of sweatshop labor.

In 2013, of the 217 murders in Baltimore, 95% were by Blacks (204). That’s assuming one can trust the courts & police & that’s a very iffy proposition. The data actually doesn’t tell us who murdered who or why or in what circumstances. This is why media–if it really wants to understand & not just vilify–needs to dump ignorant, lying-assed commentators like mumble-mouth Brooks & invite some of the people they interviewed on the street who went straight to the point & know the score. They won’t improvise to suit social hatred.

It isn’t one bit apologetics or patronizing to recognize that putting human beings under sustained & acute economic, social, & political pressure will not bring out the best in them. The ruling elite has them just where they want them: not emasculated by their mothers, but demonized, cornered & isolated politically.

When 300 Men March direct their campaigns at Black men & boys rather than the power elite, they’re heading in the wrong direction; facilitating the divide & conquer strategy; justifying SWAT team terrorism against the Black community.

Once again, we stand unequivocally with the Black community in Baltimore, with no distinctions. There were massive solidarity protests in several cities & that is what has to become widespread & go international. The struggle against social hatred for our Black brothers & sisters in Baltimore is the struggle for the very future of humanity.

Photo is Black protesters in Baltimore.

(Photo by Adrees Latif)

Six Baltimore policemen were charged in Freddie Gray’s death. There are several charges against them starting with assault, manslaughter, & one charge of 2nd-degree murder. There isn’t a chance in hell they’ll serve time. Though the kid who turned himself in for breaking the window on a police car will actually serve time. Just as we saw with the mangled grand jury operation in Ferguson, the prosecution will make a dozen procedural blunders making sure they all walk. Just like the ones who beat Rodney King to a pulp in 1991 & all the rest of them before & since.

The legal experts being interviewed are all saying this will be a hard case to prove. Only in a kangaroo court of law. If they had that much circumstantial evidence on anyone else, it would be a slam dunk case. When they illegally detained him, he was walking fine. After they beat him up & broke his spine, he died. What’s the problem? Could it be spelled i-m-p-u-n-i-t-y?

If eyes are the window to the soul, Chucky Windsor is in big trouble. So understandable after 66 years of indolence. When you can’t brush your own teeth or wipe your own ass (& sometimes get the two mixed up) & aren’t allowed to do a damn thing, there’s an emotional & intellectual vacancy that takes over & eats the brain–very akin to Mad Cow Disease.

When the only ones who understand you are the horses in the royal stable & even they’ve begun to snort in protest when you show up, it may be time to end the thirteen-century monstrosity of feudalism & moochocracy. We don’t even have to wait till neoliberalism, the barbaric phase of capitalism, is trounced.

Fight feudalism. Save Chucky!

Afghanistan has become the world’s largest producer of opium, the raw ingredient in heroin, & provides between 80 & 90-percent of the global crop. The official line promoted by the UN & US government is opium poppy sales fund the Taliban & criminal gangs in Afghanistan & it’s difficult for the Afghan government to control black-market opium sales or patrol the areas where opium is produced. Like the Helmand province (the epicenter of Afghan opium production) where there are at least 70 US-NATO bases & patrol stations? Where we have photos of US marines guarding the poppy fields & US military planes flying the stuff out for processing? Who’s kidding who!?

It’s reported that while the US has spent $7.6 billion in the last decade to eradicate opium in Afghanistan, land usage for production has increased by 60% since 2011 & opium production is at record-high levels.

Recently it was reported that the private security firm (hired goon squads) formerly known as Blackwater & now named Academi received over $309 million from the US Pentagon to eradicate Afghan narcotics. Northrup Grumman, a manufacturer of bombers & a leading defense contractor, received $325 million. Academi got the largesse for “training, equipment, & logistical support” to the Afghan military for counternarcotics operations. What the hell did Northrup Grumman get it for? Bombing the fields? All that dough, all those bases, & the combined military force of US-NATO, Afghanistan, Academi, & Northrup Grumman can’t stop opium trafficking! They must think the world’s population is comprised of idiots to believe that crap!

Some photos show armed US marines standing guard over poppy fields with children like this small boy picking the crop. So the question must be asked, “Are the children working under coercion? Is the US Pentagon enforcing child labor as well as facilitating opium production?” Sometimes it’s hard to wrap your mind around the malignancy of US war policy, to face the reality that your government is a high-class drug peddling operation. But it is. And worse.

US out of Afghanistan! US out of Iraq! Rebuild the international antiwar movement!

(Photo by Ghulamullah Habibi/EPA)

Satire is the art form of the oppressed, the social protest of the powerless, the voice of rebellion. When sarcasm & ridicule are used by the social elite, it is nothing more than an attempt to have a laugh at the expense of the oppressed.

Mark Twain is a writer who tried to have it both ways. In “Huckleberry Finn” he wrote a white savior novel demeaning Blacks that always makes white people feel proud but has never fooled Black school children who despise it.

No one knows the charade of having a laugh at our expense better than women–starting with the mother-in-law jokes. Even rebuttals to our objections are stock-in-trade: “Can’t you take a joke?” “Lighten up!”

Satire needs to be rescued from the damage Charlie Hebdo is inflicting. Ridiculing & demeaning others is not the point. Giving voice, emboldening the powerless, & social protest is what it’s all about. Otherwise it’s just oppression in a joke. Horse manure served as gourmet food.

This seems to be an era of exposé when old certainties are laid bare as pipe dreams & heroes are exposed as shysters. UN officials are accused (& not for the first time) of covering up sexual assault of young boys by UN troops from France in the Central African Republic & in fact threatening to fire the aid worker who blew the whistle. The whistleblower, a senior UN official, has been suspended for handing a report to prosecutors detailing the rape & sodomy of starving, orphaned, homeless boys by troops who were supposed to be protecting them.

Human rights groups are exposed for corporate & government ties (& even as fronts) that control their politics & make them accessories to the crime of occupation & plunder in so many countries. Now PEN America, the writers group that always seemed to stand for freedom of expression, is embroiled in a controversy for offering their courage award to Charlie Hebdo at a May 5th forum in NYC. They might regret the exposure they are getting for this massive political blunder.

On its website PEN justified its choice by saying “Only a handful of people are willing to put themselves in peril to build a world in which we are all free to say what we believe” but Charlie Hebdo has done that. How much courage does it take to publish hateful caricatures of Muslims, Arabs, Africans in Paris when the French government has made wearing the veil in the public streets illegal & street goons harass Muslim women with impunity? When it’s witch-hunting & deporting Roma? When vigilantes are torching or attacking mosques? When the regime is involved in letting thousands of Africans drown in the Mediterranean? That would make Charlie Hebdo part of the gestalt of social hatred that seems to be thriving in France–not rebels against it.

There doesn’t appear to be any democracy in how PEN selects the honorees since already 35 members have objected & are boycotting the ceremony. Wasn’t the membership consulted or asked to vote? Did they all just get a tweet inviting them to celebrate racism?

What could explain PEN America’s fall from grace? One could vet the politics & connections of the entire board but most of them are just well-remunerated writers with no probable connections to nefarious organizations. Checking the money sources is a quicker way to identify who controls the decisions. And here we find PEN America is “partnered” with (that means bankrolled by) a few governments, including the Dutch & British & several private enterprises. They’re “partnered” with UNESCO, the European Commission, & several foundations of undetermined politics–except for the Open Society Foundations of George Soros which is involved in passing out hush money to immigrant rights groups in the US & trade unions in countries like Zimbabwe. The purpose of the hush money is to sit on social protest & make sure it doesn’t happen. So let’s be frank! If PEN America is accepting dough from Soros, they’ve sold their soul to a hefty bidder. And they don’t stand for squat anymore.

(Photo of two Charlie Hebdo covers from 2012 making fun of their irresponsible attitude to humor from AFP/Getty Images)

On the 40th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon when the North Vietnamese army routed the US military & ended the Vietnam war, we should take a moment to honor the Vietnamese resistance, vilified then in the US as the Việt Cộng.

Mythology & war propaganda coming out of WWII & the Korean War made the US seem an impregnable military force, especially against a colonial people. But the Vietnamese regular army & guerrilla forces had been fighting Japanese & French colonialism for 40 years & were resolute & steeled in battle. Many people today fighting the yoke of neoliberal colonialism may not have that military advantage & will have to build international solidarity, the second phalanx of opposition to tyranny.

Women played an important role in the Việt Cộng (both a guerrilla & regular army). This woman veteran is Vo Thi Tai from Quảng Ngãi province located halfway between Hanoi & Saigon (now named Hồ Chí Minh City). The province was a center of resistance to colonial occupation & the site of numerous ambushes of South Vietnamese & US troops by Việt Cộng forces. Thus it was the site of considerable US military action including massacres of entire villages. Some of the massacres are unreported since they were conducted by South Korean forces operating as part of US operations. My Lai is located in Quảng Ngãi–which makes it clearer that the My Lai massacre was not just an individual act of barbarism but part of US military operations in the province.

In 2012, a US Vietnam War veteran named Don Unrau traveled to the province & did a series of portraits of Việt Cộng veterans. He called the series “equal parts homage & reconciliation.” This portrait of Vo Thi Tai is one in the series.

Vietnam is still suffering from the war; many hundreds of children (as in Iraq) are born with catastrophic disabilities & only families to care for them. There are still thousands of land mines & soil contaminated by Agent Orange & Napalm. Many people are disappointed the Vietnamese regime is going the neoliberal route. But nothing can take away the Vietnamese contribution to humanity when they routed the mightiest military machine in the world; when their struggle showed humanity the power of resistance & international solidarity.

Our fullest respect & homage. May we rebuild the international antiwar movement to render the same solidarity to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, & elsewhere.

(Photo by Don Unrau)

The baby face of modern immigration: a Greek coast guard officer (notably deficient in nurturing skills) is carrying an infant off a boat at Lesbos, an island flooded with immigrants fleeing Syria, Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq, African countries, & elsewhere. We aren’t told whether either of the baby’s parents have survived.

The SYRIZA government has promised more humane treatment of immigrants but they have a lot of remedial ground to cover since the previous regime was so barbaric. Before SYRIZA took office, conditions for immigrants in Lesbos were reported as lacking sufficient facilities or housing of any kind. Immigrants were seen sleeping under cars to protect themselves from rain & cold.

The high number of children belies the propaganda against immigrants. We wonder how Greece will “process” the large numbers of unaccompanied minors. Will they warehouse them in abandoned army barracks like the US does? Will they deport them like the South African government does? Will they fingerprint & deport them like Europe & Israel are doing to most undocumented immigrants?

Immigration is a human right! We hope this baby will elude the ugly forces of racist immigration & lead a blessed life.

(Photo by Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP/Getty Images)