Assad’s ally Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, says feminism & gender equality are a “Zionist plot” to corrupt the role of women in society. We’d like to ask Assad propagandists to “nuance” that since one of their selling points for his dictatorship is the secular character of his regime.

They can object they aren’t responsible for everything Khamenei says but then of course there’s all that Saudi Wahhabi/Salafi/Zionist schtick they run on Syrian working people to justify bombing them as “head-chopping jihadists.” So maybe, if they can pull themselves away from vilifying the White Helmet rescue workers they could explain how Khamenei differs from that Wahhabi stuff.

An undercurrent of Muslim-hating among Assadists is hating on Jews. It’s why libertarians like Vanessa Beeley, Eva Bartlett, David Icke, Ron Paul, are such groveling devotees of Assad. The reptilian Jewish Illuminati are the bedrock of their demented obscurantism so Syria appeals because Assad’s father already expelled most of the Syrian Jews. There are none left. Now they just have to get rid of the Muslims.

It’s also why the outright fascists & white nationalists are so enthralled with Assad & why some like KKK guy David Duke tried to horn in on the Palestinian solidarity movement. And, to be frank, why so many anti-Jews have found themselves in Palestinian solidarity where they don’t belong through a profound misunderstanding about the character of anti-Zionism.

Then there’s the rubbish peddled by Global Research (including Felicity Arbuthnot & Michel Chossudovsky), SOTT (the David Icke journal edited by Eva Bartlett), & most anti-Jewish bloggers called “The Greater Israel Project: The Zionist Plan for the Middle East.” According to these deranged ideologues (once you believe reptilian Jewish bankers run the world, you’ll believe anything), Greater Israel would include parts of Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, the Sinai, Iraq, & Saudi Arabia. Undoubtedly, extremist Zionists harbor & promote such delusions, but the libertarians give a particularly odious rendition. It gets harder to distinguish between Zionism, Assadism, fascism, libertarianism because they are in fact all of a piece.

Many just don’t get the rift going on among Palestinian supporters, in the antiwar & socialist movements because they don’t get the hatred for Muslims yoked to hatred for Jews that is the problem. You can’t broker that hatred because the future of a secular democratic state to replace Israel’s colonial project & where Palestinians & Jews can live in harmony is politically dependent on the future of the Syrian revolution against dictatorship. If these movements are to go forward to justice, there is no room for hating on Muslims or Jews so good riddance to the ideologues of that perspective.

This is 15-year-old Suhail hit by pellets in both eyes & disfigured by occupying forces in Kashmir last Friday.

Yesterday Kashmir Reader reported there were night raids in several villages, hauling in scores of young people for stone pelting.

Protests were held in at least one village against the arrests.

What’s still missing are international campaigns demanding: End the Occupation & Self-Determination for Kashmir.

(Photo tweeted by Irshad Nabi)

“Next Muslim-ban: Muslims can come, but they can’t wear pants on the flight over here.”

(Tweeted by Murtaza Hussain‏)

The most stinging rebuke for the lack of international solidarity is the cry “why is the world silent” heard from Kashmir to Myanmar & among millions of refugees shut out of borders. In contrast, there is the international prepossession over terrorist acts in Paris or Florida or California.

In the early 1970s, during a major famine in parts of Africa, professors at Harvard promoted the triage solution–the final solution for those starving to death–claiming it was more merciful to let people starve to death because they had no future anyway. It seemed shocking when they formulated it but it was practice anyway since the origins of colonialism.

There’s no need to beat around the bush. Everybody knows what that’s all about: the same white supremacy that justifies war, colonialism, genocide. But racism is a late invention in human history to justify colonialism & slavery in the Americas. Ancient slavery was not based on ethnic differences but originated as a humane way of addressing prisoners of war. A cabal of exploiters & their intellectual minions invented racist ideology in a German university. A groundswell of committed international solidarity will shred it like confetti & scatter it to the four winds (after pummeling it to death of course) so that human beings can get on with the business of loving one another–because we didn’t survive 4 millions years of evolution with the social model of neoliberalism, the barbaric phase of capitalism, but with the social model of cooperation.

These are beautiful images of Rohingya refugee kids in Bangladesh. Mohammed Imran, who represents refugees, is the hunky guy standing with the microphone.

You look at kids, you see the contemptible irrationality of racism & inequality.

https://www.facebook.com/md.imran.5891/videos/1513449022052844/?pnref=story

Anyone see the HBO documentary titled “Cries From Syria” directed by Russian director Evgeny Afineevsky? According to reviews, it highlights the voices of Syrian children–so vilified by Assad propagandists–& describes how anti-Assad graffiti on a school in Daraa led to the torture & murder of teenage boys & set off one of the worst humanitarian & political crises in our times.

A friend who saw it said it corresponds to the book “Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution & War” by Leila Al-Shami & Robin Yassin-Kassab. He’s willing to write a review of it for us but if any of you have seen it & would like to describe it, please do so here.

The most fatuous thing about the US ban on passengers from 8 Middle East countries carrying electronics into the cabin is how small-minded it is. All devices larger than a cell phone have to be checked. The TSA directive said it was because of the terrorism threat but if you rig your damn cell phone to blow up the plane it could just as well do it from the luggage area.

All the ban will do is ruin the in-flight experience of expensive booze, stale peanuts, second-rate movies, & stinking air. But wait. No American carriers are impacted by the ban so it may not go worse than boredom.

The directive is trying to institute a Muslim ban administratively, piecemeal & on the sly, just as they are gnawing away at Medicare, because there is such political resistance to the Muslim ban.

The sole purpose of the ban is to normalize harassment, discrimination & persecution of Muslims & there is nothing fatuous about that. It is extremely alarming that Muslim-hating is now instituted as a central feature in international politics. If ISIS didn’t exist, US-NATO & other countries like India, China, Russia, & Myanmar would have to invent it, so invaluable is its ideological function in war-mongering, colonialism, occupation, & genocide.

Those who don’t get that & blither on instead about Russophobia are trying to mask hatred of Muslims behind a shabby veneer & take fatuous to the level of derangement. Now they flirt with & skirt the edges of fascism. temporizing till they go full monty. It’s just a matter of time. Unless we mobilize & scare them back under their rocks.

The 8 countries included in the electronics ban are Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, the UAE, Qatar. Kuwait.

The 6 countries included in Trump’s Muslim ban are Syria, Libya, Sudan, Iran, Yemen, Somalia.

“You can’t take a laptop on a flight to the US but the US is free to fly jets full of bombs into the Middle East. That’s balance for you.”

(Retweeted Karl Sharro (@KarlreMarks) via Usman A Khan Tahir)

The libertarian outpouring of solidarity with Putin & the Kremlin is so touching but don’t they think the Russkis can take care of themselves? Usually solidarity goes to the oppressed–not to the guys with the bombers, warships, missiles, tanks, & this thing called the Terminator which Russia is deploying in Syria against unarmed civilians.

Maybe libertarians are confused about who the oppressed are in Syria since they don’t read mainstream media–just alternative media like Kremlin-owned RT. But a simple foolproof method would be: the ones bombing unarmed civilians are the oppressor & the unarmed civilians being bombed are the oppressed.

Watched the confirmation hearing for Gorsuch as a supreme court judge. Color him slick & sleazy. Not to mention a big fat reactionary liar.

The death blow was when Franken interrogated him about the case of a trucker who had a brake failure on the road in -14°F (-25°C) temperatures. He couldn’t drive without endangering others so pulled off the highway & called the company dispatcher several times over a long period without the company sending emergency road service. When he began to get hypothermia, he got back on the road briefly to warm up & then pulled off again so he didn’t kill anybody.

The company fired the man & the case came before Gorsuch & a panel of judges. They found the firing unreasonable–like any sane person would. But Gorsuch wrote a dissenting opinion on behalf of the company.

When Franken questioned him about the case, Gorsuch dropped the sophisticated raconteur schtick he plied against the love bombs from Republicans & sleazed his way around answering.

Now playing us for stupid, he claims he’s not political, though he’s been involved in the campaigns of several Republicans–probably social climbing his way to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court claims it’s not political either. So we can claim we’re not political when we show up on the doorsteps of the Supreme Court to protest their reactionary decisions. Because we know the judges are as subject to political pressure as any other branch of government.

Video testimony of trucker about the case & Gorsuch’s role (my post drew on facts as Franken stated them, which differ slightly from the trucker, though the essence of the story is unchanged):

https://www.facebook.com/NowThisPolitics/videos/vb.908009612563863/1494561160575369/?type=2&theater