"McCain: Trump defense budget not enough for 'world on fire'"
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
For some reason, this picture bothered American liberals
Why can't Muslims learn civilized behavior from the White Man? Virginia man, accused of biting victim's face in anti-Muslim attack
"Robin McGreer, 35, approached a 31-year-old man in a Tysons Corner Center parking lot Nov. 27, started a conversation and then threatened him using anti-Muslim slurs, Fairfax County police said. An altercation ensued and McGreer bit the man’s face, leaving him with a “significant face wound,” police said." (thanks Amir)
Monday, February 27, 2017
News media would like you to think that Obama and Bush never lied to the American people: Newspeak
"Yet Orwellianism isn’t just about big government; it’s about authoritarianism coupled with lies. Newspeak, as Orwell described it in “1984,” is language that means the exact opposite of what it says. Contemporary examples include the labeling of news organizations as “fake news” and falsehoods as “alternative facts.” " As if Newspeak does not apply to the Bush and Obama administration, or to the New York Times and the Washington Post.
Liz Sly, yet again, pleads for more arms for Syrian rebels
You read this headline "Syrian rebels are losing out to extremists" and you think that maybe Liz Sly finally gets it that her beloved Syrian rebels are not moderate as she has claimed all along. But you read the piece and you realize it is yet another plea for more arms to the Syrian rebels. All throughout this war in Syria, she and other Western correspondents in Beirut have been pleading for more arms to Syrian rebels under the pretext that this alone will lead to moderation. "Suspending the supplies seems guaranteed only to ensure that al-Qaeda continues to expand, the rebel commanders say. “Of course if you cut off the moderate rebels, al-Qaeda will grow more powerful,” Malahifji said."
Human Rights Watch reminds Israel of its pro-Israeli credentials
"Bashi said that in the past year, Human Rights Watch has not only reported on alleged violations by the Israeli government but also investigated and condemned the arbitrary detention of journalists and activists by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and executions by Hamas authorities in Gaza. It also probed and denounced a Jerusalem bus bombing claimed by a suspected affiliate of Hamas, the Islamist militant organization that runs the Gaza Strip and has been designated a terrorist group by the United States and Israel."
Is this not a racist tweet by Kenneth Roth?
| Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) | |
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Even Zuma gets it more than Trump: “It is wrong to brandish all non-nationals as drug dealers or human traffickers.” bit.ly/2kW9oYWpic.twitter.com/GziIHHZ6QB
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No debate on the Middle East in DC
The Zionist-Gulf alliance has been reflected in Washington, DC with a rigid restriction on discourse and debate about foreign policy. There is little room for dissent. This alliance through their control over the Arab-American and Muslim-American organizations, and through the media presence of Qatari regime media activists, are trying to impose this rigid restriction on speech also on college campuses. If the Zionist lobby had limited freedom of speech in the US, the Gulf regime alliance with the Zionist lobby has restricted speech even further.
Hollywood self-delusions
I hate how Hollywood folks really think that they change lives and change the world. So self-delusional. Their sense of self-importance is worse than Trump's. Trump is a mere product of the Hollywood mentality.
Sunday, February 26, 2017
Samantha Power on Churkin
She says: "At the same time, Vitaly was a masterful storyteller with an epic sense of humor". So basically, he was everything that you are not.
She says: "The Russian government has murdered its political opponents, seized territory that belongs to its sovereign neighbors, killed countless civilians in Syria and meddled in democratic elections, including in the United States." US did all that, but only on a much larger scale.
She says: "I challenged him to answer for the carnage, asking during the joint Syrian-Russian-Iranian assault on Aleppo, “Are you truly incapable of shame?”. Yes, here he think that she is being eloquent and witty. If this is your best memorable line, no wonder you are viewed as boring and vapid.
She says: "I got the sense that he valued Mr. Putin’s restoration of Russia’s relevance on the global stage, but would have preferred peaceful methods. " Yes, because the US pursues its interests around the world through peaceful means. Why can't Russia learns from US?
She says: "The Russian government has murdered its political opponents, seized territory that belongs to its sovereign neighbors, killed countless civilians in Syria and meddled in democratic elections, including in the United States." US did all that, but only on a much larger scale.
She says: "I challenged him to answer for the carnage, asking during the joint Syrian-Russian-Iranian assault on Aleppo, “Are you truly incapable of shame?”. Yes, here he think that she is being eloquent and witty. If this is your best memorable line, no wonder you are viewed as boring and vapid.
She says: "I got the sense that he valued Mr. Putin’s restoration of Russia’s relevance on the global stage, but would have preferred peaceful methods. " Yes, because the US pursues its interests around the world through peaceful means. Why can't Russia learns from US?
I think that the media should end its pretension that the public did not notice its pro-Democrat bias this election season
The Times makes it as if it is in doubt.
Radioactive weapons are killing innocent civilians in Iraq
"Ironically, the United States went into Iraq in 2003 with the claim that it wanted to destroy weapons of mass destruction. In turn, it was the United States that used weapons of mass destruction inside Iraq. The United States dropped at least 116,000 kgs of DU ammunition during the bombing campaign of the 2003 Iraq War. At that time, A-10 fighter jets were used for these missions, the same planes used in Syria."
Australia joined Iraq war to please the U.S., declassified report
"The report concludes that Howard joined US president George W. Bush in invading Iraq solely to strengthen Australia’s alliance with the US. Howard’s – and later Kevin Rudd’s – claims of enforcing UN resolutions, stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction and global terrorism, even rebuilding Iraq after the invasion, are dismissed as “mandatory rhetoric”."
Evangelicals are the only group whose support of a Muslim Ban has gone up
"Just on grounds of compassion and common sense, you’d think people would be aware of how Donald Trump‘s temporary Muslim ban is bad for the country, bad for our national security, and bad for the innocent people affected by the Executive Orders (both the old one and the one scheduled to arrive soon)." "In fact, only one group goes in the opposite direction: white evangelical Christians." (thanks Amir)
Chelsea Clinton, the politician
I am rather surprised that Chelsea Clinton is becoming more and more political. I remember in the 2008, when she traveled around college campuses to speak on behalf of her mother, and how much college students could not stand her. She has that same famous Clinton streak if insincerity and unprincipled. But hey, she cares about elephants in Angola. Also, like all the Clinton, she is so boring and has a speaking style which puts insomniacs to sleep.
Fake News versus Fake News
I am really disgusted with the media consensus and with the media's self-righteousness. The notion that I should prefer the fake news of the New York Times and the Post to the fake news of the administration is ridiculous. I prefer neither.
Saturday, February 25, 2017
Do people think that subscribing to the New York Times is an act of resistance?
How insane are those standards. This is like saying that Jeff Bezos represents the working class interests of the US, or that Bill Gates is the socialist alternative to Trump. The standards are so skewed nowadays. If you want to undertake an act of resistance, don't subscribe to the New York Times, I say.
The alliance between Zionists & anti-Semites
"History shows that anti-Semitism and pro-Zionism have never been mutually exclusive." "While the white nationalists believe that Jews do not belong in the white nation, they do admire Israel as a model for an ethnically homogeneous nation gutsy enough to dominate or expel Muslims. As the Southern Poverty Law Center reports, one of the major spokesmen of the Alt-right, Richard B. Spencer “has termed his mission a “sort of white Zionism,” that would inspire whites with the dream of such a homeland just as Zionism helped spur the establishment of Israel. A white ethno-state would be an Altneuland—an old, new country—he said, attributing the term to Theodor Herzl, a founding father of Zionism.” "
Trump versus the press;
My stance toward the conflict between Trump versus the press is exactly the same as my stance toward the two rival candidates for DNC chair--which is the same as the stance of Kissinger toward Iraq-Iraq war (he was opposed to both).
DNC's anti-Palestinian bigotry
"Wednesday’s debate raises a question that is all the more urgent at a time when unrestrained bigotry is again widespread in American politics: why can’t would-be leaders of the Democratic Party stand both against anti-Semitism and clearly for Palestinians’ freedom in the face of rampant Israeli violations of their human rights?"
Liberal's fear of Muslims who talk back
"Maher's Islamophobia becomes worse when he rarely discusses white terrorism, whether the recent deadly Quebec mosque shooting by Alexandre Bissonette or this week's string of white terrorist bomb plots. But most glaring, Maher rarely uses his platform to invite Muslims to combat his own islamophobia. Last year Dean Obeidallah wrote that Maher has “A Fear of Muslims Who Talk Back.” “Maher not inviting Muslims to be in his show when he lectures on ‘what Islam is really about’ is like having a discussion on Black Lives Matter with only a panel of white people. True, we see that very thing happen on Fox News, but Maher keeps telling us he's a liberal." " (thanks Amir)
Bashshar Al-Asad welcomes invaders of Syria provided they are "genuine"
""If the Americans are genuine, of course they are welcome. Like any other country, we want to defeat and to fight the terrorists," he said" (thanks Mohammed)
The entry on Al-Akhbar on Wikipedia
Someone should correct this error in the entry of Al-Akhbar on Wikipedia. Elias Khuri was never a writer at Al-Akhbar.
Discourse of hate about Arabs
Back during the Cold War, Arabs were hated because they were seen as natural allies of communism, and that their Arab Nasserist passions were in synch with Soviet designs. And Palestinian nationalism was seen as a mere branch of communism: do you remember the books about the PLO when I first came to the US (like books by Neil Lingstone and Jillian Becker) and how authors warned about the dangers of the PLO because it was (as was said about the ANC) under the dangerous influence and control of communists? Only a decades later, we are now warned that the dangers of the Palestinian national movement is that it is too Islamic and non-secular. So secularism if expressed in opposition to US/Israel is dangerous, just as anti-secularism if expressed in opposition to US/Israel is dangerous. Just as anti-secularism if expressed in alliance with the interest of US/Israel (as in Saudi Arabia) is of no danger at all.
Academic freedoms, Zionists and Islamophobes
There is a real danger to academic freedoms of the US: just as the anti-communist fanfics (both Democrats and Republicans--lest we forget the work of Robert Kennedy on the congressional Committee on UnAmerican affairs), imposed a parameter of acceptable debate and discourse, today's Zionists and Islamophobes (and they often work in tandem) are imposing strict guidelines of acceptable discourse and rhetoric in the classroom, Congress, and beyond. And they have been pretty successful because Congressional and local state legislatures have worked closely with them. Imagine if discourse about Judaism by professor of Judaic studies is being subjected to the same scrutiny that professors of Islam are being subjected to. The case of Jonathan Brown is but one recent example--although I disagree with his views and interpretations as I explained yesterday. But you are telling me that Jewish professors of Judaic studies when they lecture in Jewish centers in the US, they are not apologetic about Judaism, just as Brown is apologetic about Islam, and just as Buddhist professors are quite apologetic about Buddhism. It should not be the business of political operators or even writers and academics to judge the content of speech to see the extent to which it fits into their political or even moral framework. By that token, if we were to impose the secular humanist standards (which are only applied on the discourse about Islam) to the discourse about Judaism or about Hinduism, they also will fall short. People should be free to lecture and even preach about their religions, outside of the university system if they chose too. But even in the university system: are you saying that Islam professors are sometimes apologetic about islam but Judaism professors are never apologetic about Judaism? If we apply secular standards to ban apologias about religious then, only us secular atheists would be allowed to teach about religion (which does not bother me, ideologically speaking, if the same standards are applied across the board but it is not).
James Zogby clarifies: I am not only an apologist of the UAE regime
He explains that he is also an apologist of the Saudi regime: "On my most recent visit to Saudi Arabia, I received a briefing at the Ministry of Education, I was struck by: reforms in early childhood and elementary education; the new emphasis being given to math and science; the training programs that have been developed for teachers and aides preparing them to mainstream children with disabilities; and efforts to provide online and interactive educational opportunities for Saudis of all ages. These changes combined will no doubt produce even greater transformations in the years to come."
iAngry about iMuslims
"Perhaps the most glaring illustration of the problem is when Bunt categorizes the communist, Shiite professor Asad Abukhalil, known as the Angry Arab, as part of the Islamic blogosphere (p. 173). Of course Abukhalil regularly comments on Islamic topics, but so do a large list of bloggers, hacks, and ordinary people on the Net. In fact, the Angry Arab is one of the most secular Arab blogs. Would Abukhalil mind being labeled an iMuslim? The term itself is not convincing; it sounds a little too much like a different species. Could we for example imagine a book called iChristians, other than perhaps about very fundamentalist Christians online? By subsuming every phenomenon in Muslim contexts, or related to Islam, under an Islamic heading, we risk underwriting claims about Islam as the primary, sometimes the only valid, identity marker. The more interesting debate concerning mass media, perhaps, is how we as scholars can come to grips with contestations and intersections between revivalist Islam and secular modernity."
Friday, February 24, 2017
The comments of Jonathan A.C. Brown
No, not only right-wing commentators are condemning the comments of Brown. I for one, condemn his apologia of Islamic slavery or his philosophizing of non-consensual sexual relations. I know that Brown has tried to explain his comments but they are familiar to anyone familiar with the Islamic apologia of...slavery. As for the non-consensual sexual relations, I don't know what he is talking about but the idea is repulsive regardless of intentions. I should point out that Talal bin `Abdul-`Aziz (father of the funder of the Center of Christian-Muslim Understanding, after whom it was named) and his brothers owned slaves, not to mention that they engaged in non-conseual sexual relations.
Johny Abdu
My weekly article in Al-Akhbar: "Testimonies of Johny Abdu: Israel's Candidate to Succeed Bashir Gemayyel".
"No human being is illegal": a brief comment
I understand the noble sentiments behind the slogan but please don't cite Elie Wiesel as its coiner. This is a statement that does not require originality. Elie Wiesel the endorse of war crime and ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the apartheid state of Israel should not be our authority on humanitarianism. Also, I have seen where people out of sympathy with Arab refugees are printing Arabic translations thus: لا يوجد إنسان غير قانوني
I think that the Arabic version should be translated as: لا يوجد إنسان غير شرعي. This carries the sentiment much better.
I think that the Arabic version should be translated as: لا يوجد إنسان غير شرعي. This carries the sentiment much better.
Shocking: Gorka hates more than one group
"But an investigation by the Forward into Gorka’s activities from 2002 to 2007, while he was active in Hungarian politics and journalism, found that he had close ties then to Hungarian far-right circles, and has in the past chosen to work with openly racist and anti-Semitic groups and public figures."
Le Pen and Mahmoud Abbas in one week in Beirut
Beirut never stunk that bad; not even when the trash was accumulating on the streets.
The silly Washington Post motto
It is ridiculous. And I suspect all along that the Washington Post's campaign against Trump reveals something else: perhaps a feud between two billionaires (the owner of Post and Trump).
The Washington Media Consensus against Trump
I see now the tweets by mainstream journalists: all are in agreement on Trump. I saw the other day one New York Times correspondents warning about the dangers of Trump. I don't get that: 8 years of Bush and 8 years of Obama, and those same people never saw dangers of their policies, but after one month of Trump they see danger? This is not in defense of Trump but in opposition to the media biased consensus forming.
Western silence about Mosul civilians
From Basim: "You asked: How come they are silent about the plights of more civilians in Mosul?
My answer: because the city is held by IS, not al-Qaidah-affiliated rebel groups."
Obama and the Washington playbook in US foreign policy
"For those in search of a progressive alternative, the risk is that opposition to Trump's unconventionality will morph into embrace of what President Obama referred to as the “Washington playbook”". But when and where did Obama defy the Washington Playbook in foreign policy except on Syria, and only partially?
Rumor-mongering versus war-mongering
"French journalists suspect a Kremlin hand in recent rumor-mongering about Emmanuel Macron". Of course, the US engages in neither.
India approves $2.5bn missile deal with Israel
"India on Friday approved a $2.5 billion deal with Israel to develop medium range surface-to-air missiles for the Indian army, The Hindu reported.
The deal to build the missiles, reported to have a range of 50-70 kilometres, was approved during a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security, chaired by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the daily reported."
Gen. McMaster on DC think tanks
"Without naming names, McMaster ticked off a few case studies of why he believes the funding of think tanks matters.
“There is a think tank now, for example, that’s about to publish a report on the future of the Army, and it’s bankrolled by a defense firm whose business model is the integration of high technology capabilities and selling them to the Department of Defense,” said McMaster. “What do you think that answer is going to be?”"
Muslims hated more than atheists in the US
"Muslims are the least popular religious group in the U.S. They’re disliked even more than atheists". In my case, I would be doubly hated: hated for being Muslim-born, and hated for being an atheist. Too bad I am not transgendered to add more layers of hate.
Veteran spewing racial slurs shoots Indians he thought were Muslims
"Witnesses told local media that Purinton had spewed racial slurs and shouted, "Get out of my country!" before attacking the men. Purinton, a 51-year-old Olathe resident and Navy veteran, was arrested early Thursday morning while drinking at a bar in an Applebee's in Clinton, Missouri." "In Michigan, in December, a man shot a store clerk of Indian descent in the face. The shooter, who also appeared to be a U.S. military veteran, called the clerk a "terrorist," insisted he was a member of ISIS and shouted that he "used to kill people like him in Iraq."
U.S. abandonment of NPT which requires disarmament
"The tough rhetoric against the Iran nuclear deal and the tweeted promise to “greatly strengthen and expand (U.S.) nuclear capability” imply a rejection of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as the globally legitimate framework for regulating nuclear policy. Trump might prove receptive to the recommendation from a blue ribbon Pentagon panel to expand U.S. nuclear options by developing an arsenal capable of “limited” nuclear wars, which further undermine the NPT." "Without the NPT, for example, Iran as a sovereign nation would have the same right to develop and test nuclear weapons and missiles as the U.S."
What about Israeli interference in domestic politics of countries? This is bigger than the "Russian scandal"
"The strategy, articulated among others by influential Israeli think tank the Reut Institute, calls for pro-Israel groups to attempt to co-opt so-called soft critics of the state to separate them from “hardcore” critics – principally supporters of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement." "Speaking at the Big Tent For Israel conference in 2011, Newmark encouraged pro-Israel activists to join unions to be “a voice for Israel” and combat boycott motions." (thanks Amir)
Who will speak for the civilians in Mosul?
Western correspondents in Beirut used to tweet around the clock faking tears about the civilians in East Aleppo. How come they are silent about the plights of more civilians in Mosul? Those don't count in their propaganda campaign?
militants using hospitals and schools
"Militants often use hospitals, schools and religious buildings in the hopes that coalition forces will be reluctant to bomb them. In this instance, American officials said they had determined that no civilians were present." Do "militants" in Syria also use schools and hospitals or are militants in Syria different because they are "moderate" and "vetted"?
Look at the mild reaction of HRW director to Israeli ban? This is a guy who insults Russia and Syrian regime daily
| Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) | |
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Israel joins an unsavory group in denying access to an @hrw researcher: Cuba, N Korea, Sudan, Uzbekistan, Venezuela. hrw.org/news/2017/02/2…pic.twitter.com/RmbbGj3AS8
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Human Rights Watch responds to Israeli visa ban by reminding Israeli government of its close cooperation with it
"Human Rights Watch said the decision was particularly surprising given that the organization regularly meets and corresponds with Israeli government officials, including representatives of the military, the police, and the Foreign Ministry. Last year, the Foreign Ministry asked Human Rights Watch to intervene in a case involving Israeli victims of human rights abuses." This is quite revealing: imagine if Human Rights Watch were to respond to an Iranian or Syrian regime ban by reminding the government of its longstanding relationship with it. Also, the last reference to a "case involving Israeli victims of human rights abuses" could be explosive. We know that this could not be a reference to Israeli repression of Arabs who hold Israeli citizenship. So what is the reference about? Is this a reminder that Human Rights Watch helped in cases involving Mossad agents operating in some countries? I don't know that this is the case, but this requires further explanation especially that it refers to some secret cooperation between Israel and HRW. Where are those "Israeli victims of human rights abuses"? Who are they? The statement by Human Rights Watch then provided a defense of Israeli government: "The Israeli government is hardly the only one to disagree with our well-researched findings".
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Compare the headline and the text of the story itself: how Saudi regime media operate
The headline: "Khamenei threatens Palestinians: ‘Continue the resistance’".
The text of the story: "The supreme leader of Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urged the Palestinians to “continue the resistance” on the ground and “breakaway from the consequences of the Oslo Accords." (thanks Basim)
The text of the story: "The supreme leader of Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urged the Palestinians to “continue the resistance” on the ground and “breakaway from the consequences of the Oslo Accords." (thanks Basim)
Both Marine Le Pen and the Lebanese Mufti are charlatans and hypocrites
How Muslims can be accepted in the West
They have to take trash of their non-Muslim neighbors; they have to one son die in a Western war against a Muslim-majority country; they have to condemns all those Muslim majority countries which are not aligned with the US; they have to support Western policies in the Middle East and beyond; they have to act passive and obedient with the White Man; they have to prove that they are not anti-Semitic; they have to state that they consider Israeli occupation of Palestine to be justified and that they would accept whatever solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict envisioned by George W. Bush and his neo-conservatie clique; they have to condemn any act of terrorism and violence by any Muslim anywhere in the world; they have to not speak Arabic or Urdu or Persian in the presence of Westerners; they have to avoid eating their native food around Westerners; they have to stick to their own race and ethnic groups when dating or marrying; they have to spy on Muslims they know to make sure that they don't pose a danger to others. And if they do all that, they will be accepted as conditional citizens with full second-class citizenship.
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Harrison Ford
A hypothetical question: if Harrison Ford were to convert to Islam would he still be allowed to fly planes at the age of 74?
Bill Maher's atheism
His idea of equal opportunity attacks on religion: Muslims are all terrorists and rapists, and Jews can be talkative and Mormons can be boring.
I am so glad that Marine Le Pen humiliated the Lebanese Mufti
When I was growing up, Muftis and Muslim clerics in general had no problem in meeting with unveiled women. My mother dressed Western style and in sleeveless dresses and it never offended Musa As-Sadr when he visited us or her cousins Abdullah Al-`Alayli or his brother Mukhtar Al-`Alayli (the latter was a candidate for Mufti in Lebanon). The notion that you have to be veiled to meet a cleric is an import from lousy Saudi Wahhabi regime. This Mufti deserves only humiliating for agreeing to meet with an anti-Islam, anti-Semitic far right politician. Shame on him, and I wish she slapped him.
Bono, as an international joke
I don't know one song by Bono, and I don't like one political stance by Bono. This guy just likes to be in the proximity of US politicians.
Some Arabs and their complaints about tyrants
Don't you like it when some Arabs who live under Gulf tyrannies and they complain about the tyranny in North Korea and Zimbabwe? I mean, do they think we don't notice?
Do you notice that Jewish Fatwas don't get mocked like Muslims Fatwas? Rabbinical Council of America
"Notes that Jewish law restricts Jews from most forms of physical contact with members of the opposite sex who are not closely related.
Declares that the proper norm, when in an airplane, is to comply with the ruling of leading decisors of Jewish law (including R. Moshe Feinstein; Iggerot Moshe, Even Ha’ezer 2:14) that Jews are permitted to sit next to a member of the opposite sex who is not a relative even when this unintentionally causes physical contact between them. Accordingly,"
Declares that the proper norm, when in an airplane, is to comply with the ruling of leading decisors of Jewish law (including R. Moshe Feinstein; Iggerot Moshe, Even Ha’ezer 2:14) that Jews are permitted to sit next to a member of the opposite sex who is not a relative even when this unintentionally causes physical contact between them. Accordingly,"
When it comes to Israeli war crimes, this guy suddenly becomes polite, restrained and diplomatic
Short sentence aside for soldier's execution of Palestinian, Israeli leaders should repudiate shoot-to-kill rhetoric http://bit.ly/2m4RvXU
Who is more dangerous to the world? Milo or Thomas Friedman or Nicholas Kristof?
I say that Friedman and Kristof do so much more damage than Milo.
Breitbart about the persecuted Christians of Lebanon
Historically (after the founding of modern Lebanon after WWI) it would have been more accurate to speak about persecuted Muslims of Lebanon. Lebanese have been mocking this since yesterday.
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
This just in: Kenneth Roth is attempting humor--and very original. Only thousands of people said this already
Kenneth Roth @KenRoth "Trump was right after all about Sweden. Just awful." Stop, please. You are way too funny. I can't take this anymore. I am on the floor already.
US-backed war plunging Yemen into famine
"President Donald Trump may be on the brink of sparking a full-blown famine in Yemen ― all because of a subtle shift in messaging that risks effectively cutting off humanitarian relief to the war-torn nation." “The coalition’s been bombing the hell out of that country for two solid years now,” the second former official said."
Israelis post anti-Arab racism online every 46 seconds, study finds
"Every 46 seconds an Israeli Jew publishes a racist or inciting comment against Arabs on Facebook and other social networks, a new study finds." "According to the study, the Israeli media serves as the main inspiration for racist posts against Arabs."
Why is that? "Jewish Federations in Canada oppose motion condemning Islamophobia"
"On the heels of the Quebec City mosque shooting, which left six worshippers dead, and then a hate-filled protest outside of a Toronto mosque last Friday, a private member’s motion to condemn Islamophobia was introduced in parliament. Regrettably, CIJA (the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, the organized lobbying arm of the Jewish Federations in Canada) is opposing the motion, at least in its current form." "In the wake of the mosque massacre and the hateful protests on Toronto’s usually peaceful streets, coupled with the shadow of Trump’s xenophobic policies, the time is now for Canadians to stand together against Islamophobia. That’s the word we have, that’s the member’s motion being proposed, and that’s the wave of hatred — one prominent wave among many, sadly — that we urgently need to address." (thanks Amir)
Lindsay Lohan for Al-Azhar
If it is up to the Qatari regime, Lindsay Lohan would be appointed Mufti of Al-Azhar.
Saudi regime's foreign minister
"Donald Trump 'is a friend to everybody', says Saudi foreign minister"
Syrian Network for Human Rights: on the documentation methods of Western human rights organizations and media
All Western human rights organizations and media now rely on the Western/GCC-created and supported Syrian Network for Human Rights. Have you read their reports? Do you realize how non-credible they are? They claim that they have "documented" (but they don't tell us how) 89 cases of chemical attacks by regime ONLY between March and August of 2015. 89 cases and no one knows about those cases except them. And you know that Amnesty International and HRW work closely with this group? They also claim that chemical attacks by the regime after passage of resolution 2118 killed 87 civilians and only 45 Syrian rebels. In their tallies, the Syrian regime always manage to kill more civilians than rebels for some reason, and the number of Syrian rebels is always rather small in their tallies. When will someone produce a study on Fabrications and Propaganda: Western media and human rights organizations in coverage of the Syrian war. The tragedy is that here you have a brutal regime which certainly committed war crimes--just as the Syrian rebels have--and yet the fabrications by his enemies help him in fact because he can point out to their record of lies and fabrications. The same thing happened with Saddam Husayn: no one disputed that Saddam Husayn was a brutal dictator and yet the US government managed to vomit so many lies and fabrications about his regime (remember those satellite picture which the lousy Madeleine Albright used to brandish at the UN, and in which it claimed that Saddam was constructing 78 new castles for himself during the war? Or do you remember US media and Western human rights organizations when they lied about how many people died in Libya by Qadhdhafi's gunfire only to justify the NATO intervention)? The old Babylonian Talmudic saying applies to Western media and human rights organizations: you are not believed even when you tell the truth.
How can you take Jordanian opposition seriously?
How can you take Jordanian opposition seriously when demonstrators during protests against the government carry portraits of the buffoonish king and chaats slogans of loyalty to his rule?
US influence on Arab politics: take Libya
Libyan government now requires that a woman needs a male guardian's permission to travel. This never was the case in Libya. This proves once again the horrible influence of American government on Arab politics: in every country where the US intervened or invaded, the politics of the country always became more sectarian and less secular. If the the US were to invade Saudi Arabia, they are cable to make even more sectarian and more anti-secular--if that is possible.
Monday, February 20, 2017
Al-Azhar
If Al-Azhar devotes its curriculum to teaching Middle East cooking it would finally become beneficial.
The Sudden death of the Russian ambassador at the UN: was he poisoned?
If the US ambassador in Moscow were to die "suddenly", I have no doubt that mainstream US media would have leveled the charge that he/she must have been poisoned by Putin.
Sleazy Huffington Post Arabic
They have a full blast headline saying: "Female Politicians but Naked". Kid you not. This is what the Huffington Post deal with the Qatari regime brought to the Arab world.
John McCain and Lebanese Army commander
Another in-depth analysis of the American right by the Guardian newspaper
"Why do all the women on Fox News look and dress alike? Republicans prefer blondes"
How Western media Arabic section operate
Arabic versions of Western media are mere mouthpieces of Gulf regimes. They are run by Arabs who aspire to one day work for Gulf regimes media so they are keen on ingratiating themselves with those tyrannical regimes. CNN Arabic published this fawning praise for UAE by a UAE academic without mentioning that the writer was recently arrested for mild disagreements with his government.
on John McCain, the hero of US liberals and media
"Rand Paul: If John McCain Were In Charge, U.S. ‘Would Be In Perpetual War’" Who can disagree with Paul, here?
This aspect of Israel is never written about in Western media
"Israeli Ministers Vote Down Gay Rights Bills on Eve of LGBT Rights Day in Knesset"
Tributes for `Umar `Abdul-Raman by Gulf regimes
The Jihadi militant Shaykh, `Umar `Abdul-Rahman, has been receiving tributes from supporters of Gulf regimes on social media. Aljazeera described him as someone who "rejected tyranny" and who "defended human rights". I kid you not. Those Gulf regimes media say one thing to Western audiences and then another to their Arab audiences.
It could soon become a job description: that Arab leaders should have US citizenship
"of Somalia’s 24 presidential candidates, nine held American passports."
Sunday, February 19, 2017
Lousy American liberals and their love of Israeli occupation and aggression
Read this interview with Tim Kaine. Let him tell you how much he loves Israeli occupation and aggression. Yet, he is considered a critic of Israel by US liberal standards.
This is how you are considered a "critic of Israel" in the Democratic Party
This even applies to Bernie Sanders: criticisms of Israel is basically the ability to say (only): I don't agree with everything that Israel does. This is considered a brave statement according to the lousy standards of US liberals.
How come Western correspondents and pundits are not shedding fake tears over people in Western Mosul?
"With military operations to retake western Mosul beginning, humanitarian organizations are warning that tens of thousands of families are at extreme risk. Recent surveys with key informants confirm that food and fuel supplies are dwindling, markets and shops have closed, running water is scarce and electricity in many neighborhoods is either intermittent or cut off."
"The Disturbing Alliance Between Zionists and Anti-Semites"
"The answer may lie in the history of the Zionist movement, a history which demonstrates that there is no inherent contradiction between Zionism and anti-Semitism. The two ideologies have in fact often worked in concert to achieve their shared goal: concentrating Jews in one place (so as to better avoid them in others). Even before the modern Zionist movement arose in the late 19th century, Christian philosophers and statesmen debated what to do with the “oriental” mass of Jewry in their midst. As the scholar Jonathan Hess of the University of North Carolina has noted, one “solution” popular among Enlightenment figures who harbored anti-Semitic feelings was to deport Jews to a colonial setting where they could be reformed. Johann Gottlieb Fichte, among the founders of German Idealism, noted in 1793 that the most effective protection Europeans could mount against the Jewish menace was to “conquer the holy land for them and send them all there.” Indeed, Zionism crystallized as a political movement among European Jews explicitly to solve the problem of political anti-Semitism. For Zionist pioneers like Leo Pinsker and Theodor Herzl, anti-Semitism was an inevitable phenomenon that would occur at any time and place where Jews were a sizable minority. Normal relations with other nations could only be established by moving Jews to a place where they were a majority. Thus rather than pushing contemporary states and societies to devise new ways of accommodating difference, Zionist thinkers of Herzl’s generation ascribed to the logic that the Jewish “problem” could only be settled by removing Jews from European states...It has been with this history in mind that I approach contemporary debates about Donald Trump’s presidency and the alliance it fosters between members of the white nationalist “alt-right” on one hand, and a certain segment of American Jews, on the other. The argument that the latter should work with the former because they all share a commitment to “Greater Israel” belies the fact that not all allies, or alliances, are created equal. When Richard Spencer voices his admiration of Zionism (because, in his understanding, the movement stands first and foremost for racial homogeneity), we should realize that this is not incidental to his suggestion that America might be better off with a peaceful ethnic cleansing of those population segments that are not of white, European descent. Do American Jews really believe that they will pass muster within such a state? And are the swastikas and other acts of intimidation that have been so abundant since Trump’s victory really just peaceful incentives to realize that our true home is in a land far, far away The answer must be a resounding “no.” Jewish life flourishes in pluralistic societies within which difference is not a “problem” to be resolved, but a fact to be celebrated. The alliance of right-wing Zionists and the alt-right should not be viewed as an abnormality, but the meeting of quite compatible outlooks that assert — each in their own way—that the world will only be secure once we all retreat to our various plots of ancestral land. Nationalist thinking of this sort wrought more than its fair share of damage during the twentieth century. Let’s not enact a repeat performance in the twenty-first."
Zionists scrambling to the defense of the anti-Semitic, misoygunistic Saudi regime
"Iran aimed to "undermine stability in every country in Middle East ... their main destination at the end of the day is Saudi Arabia," Avigdor Lieberman told delegatesthe Munich Security Conference, saying he was looking forward to hearing comments from Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir." (thanks Basim)
Milo on US college campuses
Milo is not one person who can be simply silenced by protesters. He represents a movement which has roots and strongholds on US college campuses. Milo was at UC, Berkeley because a student group at UC Berkeley had invited him. US liberals still refuse to acknowledge Trump represents a movement: even after the election, liberals cite dubious polls to convince themselves that the entire country stands with Schumer.
A press conference by Jihadi Fanatical leaders of Jordan (with regime consent)
It is stunning (not really) that Jordanian regime still sponsors and uses and manipulates the worst of the Jihadi Fanatical ideologues, like Abu Qatadah and Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi: it arrests people for complaint about inflation on Facebook but allows people like those Jihadi kooks to hold press conferences.
Saudi regime foreign minister on Trump
He said in Munich that Trump is a "pragmatic businessman" who always wants to find solutions. This is how Western media will cover his statement: they will say that Bashshar Al-Asad said that he is willing to work with Trump (and they skip the rest of his statement).
Union of Arab Writers and measuring Arab public opinion
I am always looking for evidence of Arab public opinion especially that Arab public opinion surveys can't always be trusted because 1) regimes often manipulate results; 2) Western polling firms often mistranslates questions and answers and often sub-contract their work to local unreliable firms; 3) polling don't take place in a free climate. But here is one interesting case: the Union of Arab Writers met in Algeria and the statement was surprisingly (given regimes and Arab League's subservience to US-Israeli-Saudi alliance) tough against Israeli occupation and Trump's Muslim ban and hailed resistance to Israeli occupation and condemned all forms of normalization.
A split in the Gulf between the regimes
Qatari regime media relish to show how Trump shows contempt towards Gulf regimes, while Saudi and UAE regime media relish praising Trump and showing his hostility toward Iran. But Qatari regime also relishes publishing articles on how Trump will be tough toward Iran.
Nothing great comes out of Gulf regimes-funded think tanks and centers
 | Sarah Leah Whitson (@sarahleah1) |
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Great report by @AtlanticCouncil - look forward to next one on #BreakingSanaa w strong condemnations by @madeleine @RNicholasBurnstwitter.com/atlanticcounci…
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Bill Maher's career as an anti-Islam bigot is longer than that of Milo and many others: here is from 2001
Saturday, February 18, 2017
Milo and Bill Maher
It is good to know that Bill Maher and Milo agreed on detestation of Islam and Muslims.
What American liberals stand for: and other delusions
1) Hillary did not lose the election. Putin arranged for her defeat.
2) the military-intelligence apparatus should overthrow an elected president and install Hillary or John McCain instead.
3) there is one truth and one version of events and history: and New York Times and CNN will vomit the truth to the masses.
4) it is the liberal thing to promote and expand NATO and to nurse the enmity toward Russia.
5) the US should keep a strong alliance with Gulf tyrannies because it is good for Israel.
6) Chuck Schumer is the most charismatic and able leader since Alexander the Great.
2) the military-intelligence apparatus should overthrow an elected president and install Hillary or John McCain instead.
3) there is one truth and one version of events and history: and New York Times and CNN will vomit the truth to the masses.
4) it is the liberal thing to promote and expand NATO and to nurse the enmity toward Russia.
5) the US should keep a strong alliance with Gulf tyrannies because it is good for Israel.
6) Chuck Schumer is the most charismatic and able leader since Alexander the Great.
What is happening in the US now
This is a great opportunity for leftists to realize that their alliance with US liberals has been wrong-headed and harmful. It is an opportunity for progressive (wait, I hate that word, it is used by conservative Democrats in the US, like the lousy Clintons, to avoid using he word liberal) to chart an independent course, away from the corrupt and corporate Democratic Party.
McCain or Trump? Who poses the biggest danger to the world?
If you compare the record of McCain over the decades with the record of Trump over the weeks, I would say that McCain is poses a bigger danger to the world. That could change, and Trump has the time to change that.
War monger John McCain is the hero of US liberals
| Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) | |
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In Munich, @SenJohnMcCain did a devastating repudiation of Trump without ever mentioning his name. #MSC2017 bit.ly/2kzlgj9pic.twitter.com/WFifK63Zwq
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Human rights industry never produced more fake champions than those two--ever
Smarter to enlist most Muslims who despise Islamist terrorists than alienate those most likely to unmask them: Zeid. http://bit.ly/2lYoEBx
Israeli soldiers shot Palestinian on his way to chemotherapy
"A Palestinian man was on his way to a chemotherapy session when he was shot by Israeli soldiers last November, his family told an Israeli journalist this week. Muhammad Amar Jallad was being treated for Hodgkin’s lymphoma, his family told Haaretz reporter Gideon Levy."
U.S. nonprofit funds the Israeli guards who terrorize Palestinians
"Shabtay Bendet is a former ravshatz from Yitzhar and Rechelim, and he is now a journalist for the Israeli news outlet Walla News. He tells In These Times that when he was a guard in Rechelim, he patrolled outside the settlement to “frighten” neighboring Palestinians so they would move away. Driving Palestinians off their land clears the path for settlement expansion, he explains—and expansion is a primary goal of Israel’s West Bank settlers. And by handing over equipment to guards in order to “thwart terrorist attacks,” the One Israel Fund is arguably helping to intimidate and push out Palestinians."
US and North Korea
"The story dates to the early 1950s, when the U.S. Air Force, in response to the North Korean invasion that started the Korean War, bombed and napalmed cities, towns and villages across the North. It was mostly easy pickings for the Air Force, whose B-29s faced little or no opposition on many missions. The bombing was long, leisurely and merciless, even by the assessment of America’s own leaders. “Over a period of three years or so, we killed off — what — 20 percent of the population,” Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay, head of the Strategic Air Command during the Korean War, told the Office of Air Force History in 1984. Dean Rusk, a supporter of the war and later secretary of state, said the United States bombed “everything that moved in North Korea, every brick standing on top of another.” After running low on urban targets, U.S. bombers destroyed hydroelectric and irrigation dams in the later stages of the war, flooding farmland and destroying crops. Although the ferocity of the bombing was criticized as racist and unjustified elsewhere in the world, it was never a big story back home. U.S. press coverage of the air war focused, instead, on “MiG alley,” a narrow patch of North Korea near the Chinese border. There, in the world’s first jet-powered aerial war, American fighter pilots competed against each other to shoot down five or more Soviet-made fighters and become “aces.” War reporters rarely mentioned civilian casualties from U.S. carpet-bombing. It is perhaps the most forgotten part of a forgotten war."
Mourning the "peace process"
It is noticeable and revealing that the same Zionists who were in charge of the lousy "peace process" are the one freaking out about the death of the peace process.
The Left versus liberals in the US
The stance of US liberals in recent weeks has validated the leftist distrust of liberals: they are terrible in the Middle East and terrible in the US. And they are fundamentally anti-Democratic.
Sen. McCain
The seeds of the Trump movement were planted in the McCain campaign back in 2008. Have people forgotten? And yet liberal democrats in the US are citing McCain approvingly about Trump. McCain has been a worse danger to world peace than Trump has been in office as of yet. He could become worse, but thus far McCain alternative policies on foreign policy and defense are always worse than anyone else. But the media love him and for that his imperialist recipes are treated as wise and reasonable.
Shep Smith
Sam protested about my post about Shep Smith the other day. I was in no way endorsing his politics. I was just making comparison in mainstream media and said that this guy does not seem partisan like the rest and seem to exercise a more independent judgment than most. What is the alternative? Dan Rather and his lousy standards of documentation and his more lousy campaign on behalf of Bin Laden and the other Mujahidin in Afghanistan, when he snuck in local attire to Afghanistan to present the role of the future Taliban-Al-Qa`idah as freedom fighting? Or Tom Brokaw who on the day of Sep. 11 said live on the air that "it is time that we reconsider our freedoms in the US" and who presented the role of US armed forces in WWII without any qualifications or criticisms (the rape of German women by US and Russian soldiers is not to be forgotten and the cruel role in the Pacific (read "War without Mercy" when US soldiers kept ears and bones of Japanese soldiers as souvenirs)? Or the new Megyn Kelly whose reactionary and anti-Feminist past is being airbrushed? Or the fabricator Brian Williams> It is all relative and Shep Smith remains more independent and unpartisan than most.
Fake news campaign
I wrote about this at length in Arabic but I will say here briefly: worse than Trump's attack on Fake news is the campaign for combating "fake news" but the coalition of Democratic Party, Intelligence agencies, news media, and Tech companies". More Orwellian than Trump's attack on the media is the notion that the coalition mentioned above can produce Truthful news for the public. Kellyanne Conway was widely mocked for speaking about "alternative facts" but she was right. Take the Arab-Israeli conflict: the standards US-Israeli version of the founding of the occupation state of Israel is presented as "fact", while the real story of the uprooting of the Palestinians is in fact the alternative AND REAL fact here. The US media's current alliance with the intelligence community and with tech companies is a scary scenario and is more threatening to democracy than Donald Trump. I have never seen the lousy American liberals being more undemocratic than recently.
Truthful news versus Fake news
My weekly article in Al-Akhbar: "Truthful news Versus Fake News: The US Has the Truth?"
Friday, February 17, 2017
International Crisis Group
Do you know that both the Qatari regime and the Saudi regime now have representatives on the board of the Group?
According to Times, West Bank is an emotional issue to settlers from Brooklyn but not to Palestinians who have lived their for centuries
"There is also the emotional issue for those who identify the West Bank as the heart of the biblical Jewish homeland promised by God." I guess the original inhabitants of the land for many centuries don't have emotions.
US-Saudi war aim remains hegemony
"However, the republic was strengthened by the 1990 union of the North with the South, which had become independent as the People Republic of Southern Yemen in 1967. This alarmed the Saudis who have always sought to assert their hegemony over the Arabian Peninsula."
US-Backed coalition bombs another funeral killing civilians
"A U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition airstrike killed at least eight women and a child at a funeral reception near Yemen's capital, Sanaa, on Thursday, witnesses told AFP." "These funerals are just some of the many civilian areas bombed by the coalition, for which the U.S. has consistently provided weapons, intelligence and tens of millions of pounds of fuel. A study found that more than one-third of the thousands of coalition airstrikes have hit civilian sites, including hospitals, schools, civilian homes, refugee camps, and more." (thanks Amir)
Trump may avoid foreign entanglements but maybe not
Trump may avoid foreign entanglements as he is too busy with the mess of his administration and governance, especially that he attacked US military intervention in the past. But then again: what could distract attention from his White House than foreign military intervention, and what would guarantee an increase in popular support? So we really don't know which way it will go.
Thursday, February 16, 2017
Palestinians will always be in Palestine
“We are going to win, Mr. Friedman,” he called out before being escorted away. “We were there, we are there now, and we are always going to be there. Palestinians will always be in Palestine.”
Shep Smith of Fox News
He maybe the most independent TV reporter in the US. He doesn't operate from a partisan perspective--unlike most.
Basim sent me this suggesting that all sons of Zayid should be relocated there
"Leaders in the United Arab Emirates aim to build a human settlement on Mars by 2117, a research project the government promises will bring benefits to generations of people."
This is like a rapist claiming that his penis accidentally slipped into a woman's vagina
"when the officer’s expandable baton happened to slip into the victim’s anus."
North Korea's missile test a response to U.S. provocations, not the other way around
"There are currently around 50,000 U.S. troops stationed across 23 military bases in Japan. In South Korea, there are around 28,000 U.S. troops stationed across 15 military bases. Together, the U.S. and South Korean armies routinely conduct so-called “war games” right on the DPRK’s border and shorelines. There were two rounds of joint military drills in 2016, one in March and one in August-September. The second round of military drills included the simulated pre-emptive bombing of North Korea and the “decapitation” of the government’s leadership. The next round of war games are scheduled to begin next month. This is the situation facing the people of North Korea. The most powerful military in history is stationed right at its border."
Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee: U.S. has inserted itself into other countries' elections
"Grassley, a seven-term senator, while discussing allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign, also noted past instances in which the U.S. has inserted itself into other countries’ elections. “If you want some history from an 83-year-old person, I can tell you I remember reading about our own CIA trying to influence the Italian voters not to go communist,” Grassley told Iowa reporters."
Mass sexual assaults by refugees completely made up
"Prosecutors in Frankfurt are investigating two people for making up a crime, after they claimed in a national newspaper that dozens of Arab men rioted and sexually assaulted women at New Year. The claims first appeared in Bild newspaper on February 6th, which described the men as a “rioting sex mob,” speculating that they had come from a refugee home in central Hesse."
If these men were Muslim, the story would have dominated the news cycle for a week at least
"Police were forced to board a flight arriving at Luton airport on Monday, after a group of strictly-Orthodox Jewish men refused to sit next to women for religious reasons and plugged a phone into the plane’s control panel. The group, believed to be a wedding party, were described by one passenger as causing “absolute bedlam”. The party of ten men were accused of antagonising staff by obstructing the main aisle and constantly ringing the service button, whilst one man also attempted to charge his phone in a control panel - which led to the plane’s exit light being switched on." (thanks Amir)
How Arab potentates handled the Muslim Ban
UAE and Saudi regime argued that the ban was not a Muslim ban because they were excluded. Bashshar Al-Asad claimed that the ban on Syrians was not actually a ban on Syrians but that it was a ban on terrorists.
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