Category Archives: racism

Far-right attacking Trump adviser McMaster for being ‘controlled by Jews’ – U.S. News – Haaretz.com

President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser General H. R. McMaster is being targeted in recent days by a far-right campaign that is accusing him, simultaneously, of being controlled by rich Jews and of harming the state of Israel. The campaign is coming from media outlets and writers affiliated with Steve Bannon, President Trump’s senior political adviser, who has been accused in the past of making anti-Semitic comments.The campaign against McMaster intensified after he fired a number of mid-level officials from the National Security Council, who were considered loyal to Bannon and to the former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. The latter was forced to resign after less than a month in office because he lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his ties to Russia. The driving force behind the campaign has been far-right blogger Mike Cernovich, who started sharing links to a website called, McMaster Leaks, which is devoted to attacks on McMaster, on social media.The website featured a brazen anti-Semitic caricature depicting McMaster and retired General David Petraeus, who is considered close to a number of senior NSC officials – as two puppets being controlled by Jewish billionaire George Soros, who himself is being controlled by “the Rothschilds,” the famously rich Jewish family of bankers. After the caricature was mocked on social media, the website edited it, replacing the word “Rothschilds” on the top of the pyramid with the word “Saudis,” but keeping in Soros depiction in place.Yet McMaster, according to his rivals on the far-right, isn’t only being controlled by the Rothschilds – it turns out he is also “hostile to Israel,” according to articles that have been published in recent days on Breitbart, the far-right website formerly edited by Bannon, and on the Conservative Review (by a reporter who used to work as an editor at Breitbart). These articles, quoting “administration officials” and a Facebook post by Israeli journalist Caroline Glick, accuse him of such “sins” as opposing an Israeli request to include Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Trump’s visit to the Western Wall during his visit in Israel earlier this year.McMaster, it should be noted, was the Trump administration’s most senior representative and speaker earlier this year at the Israeli embassy’s annual Independence Day event. He was warmly received by the crowd and gave a speech in which he expressed the administration’s strong support for Israel, and promised to always safeguard the Jewish state’s security interests.

Source: Far-right attacking Trump adviser McMaster for being ‘controlled by Jews’ – U.S. News – Haaretz.com

The war on Israeli BDS supporters | +972 Magazine

Israel’s minister of strategic affairs is gathering intelligence and compiling blacklists on Israeli citizens who support the boycott movement. By Amnon Portugaly These days Gilad Erdan, Israel’s minister of public security and strategic affairs, is promoting a new law that would exclude his ministry from governmental oversight. This is a step meant to help fight the BDS movement, while also granting legitimacy to gathering intelligence on Israeli citizens who are involved in the movement to boycott Israel. [tmwinpost] In June, Haaretz reported that the Strategic Affairs Ministry, which Erdan heads, would essentially be shielded from certain provisions in the Freedom of Information…

Source: The war on Israeli BDS supporters | +972 Magazine

For Josh Mandel, no gutter is too deep, no shot too cheap: Brent Larkin | cleveland.com

Back in 2003, it was hard not to be impressed with the polite young man who launched his political career with a tireless, door-to-door campaign for a seat on Lyndhurst City Council. Eddie Haskell had nothing on the fresh-faced kid who sat in the kitchen of then-Mayor Joe Cicero and broke bread with his family. Looking back, Cicero now knows: “Josh was a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”He fooled everyone in the city. He was opportunistic from the start, one of the worst things that ever happened to Lyndhurst. Josh Mandel is inadequate as a human being.”

Source: For Josh Mandel, no gutter is too deep, no shot too cheap: Brent Larkin | cleveland.com

Why the lack of Indian and African faces in Dunkirk matters | Sunny Singh | Opinion | The Guardian

To do so, it erases the Royal Indian Army Services Corp companies, which were not only on the beach, but tasked with transporting supplies over terrain that was inaccessible for the British Expeditionary Force’s motorised transport companies. It also ignores the fact that by 1938, lascars – mostly from South Asia and East Africa – counted for one of four crewmen on British merchant vessels, and thus participated in large numbers in the evacuation.But Nolan’s erasures are not limited to the British. The French army deployed at Dunkirk included soldiers from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and other colonies, and in substantial numbers. Some non-white faces are visible in one crowd scene, but that’s it. The film forgets the racialised pecking order that determined life and death for both British and French colonial troops at Dunkirk and after it.This is important, firstly, because it is a matter of factual accuracy in what purports to be an historical portrayal – and also because it was the colonial troops who were crucial in averting absolute catastrophe for the allies. It is also important because, more than history books and school lessons, popular culture shapes and informs our imagination not only of the past, but of our present and future.

Source: Why the lack of Indian and African faces in Dunkirk matters | Sunny Singh | Opinion | The Guardian

Republicans try to take cheap phones and broadband away from poor people | Ars Technica – “Truly funny racism – President Bush added cell phones to lifeline service – but GOP race baiters called them Obama phones even though President Obama had nothing to do with the expansion. And GOPers are too dumb to realize that the GOP are the ones who expanded the program – they believe their own lies.”

$9.25 monthly subsidy for mobile service would be eliminated by Republican bill.

Source: Republicans try to take cheap phones and broadband away from poor people | Ars Technica

Palantir: the ‘special ops’ tech giant that wields as much real-world power as Google | World news | The Guardian – “Predictive programs cannot help but build in biases/beliefs of the designers because the designers are either unaware of their biases or believe them to be true..”

Data merely becomes a new way of reinforcing old prejudices. Critics of these analytics argue that from the moment a police officer with the pre-crime mindset that you are a criminal steps out of their patrol car to confront you, your fate has been sealed. In 2013, TechCrunch obtained a leaked report on the use of Palantir by the LA and Chicago police departments. Sgt Peter Jackson of the LAPD was quoted as saying: “Detectives love the type of information [Palantir] provides. They can now do things that we could not do before.” Palantir is immensely secretive. It wields as much real-world power as Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple, but unlike them, Palantir operates so far under the radar, it is special ops.

Source: Palantir: the ‘special ops’ tech giant that wields as much real-world power as Google | World news | The Guardian

Israeli forces target journalists, raid media offices in midst of Aqsa crisis – IFEX

Amongst those journalists who were attacked by the Israeli occupation forces in Jerusalem were the following colleagues: Muhammad Musa Abu Hadwan, a cameraman for Sky News Arabia; Ali Mohammed Dwayani, a cameraman for the Ru’ya channel in Jerusalem; Diala Juyehan, reporter and photographer of Al-Hayat Al-Jadida newspaper in Jerusalem; Sinan Abdullah Abu Mizar, a Reuters cameraman in Jerusalem; Ali Sami Yassin, Palestine TV cameraman in Jerusalem; photographer Said Abdel Nasser Rokon; Mohammed Kamel Sadiq, Director of the Jerusalem Media Center; Latifa Radwan Abdel Latif, cameraman for the Al Jazeera Live Channel in Jerusalem; Dalia Jamal Numarry, Russia Today reporter; Fatima Abd Al Bakri, correspondent and videographer for the Al-Quds satellite channel; Liwa’a Abu Rmeleh, correspondent for PaltodayTv; and many other Palestinian and foreign journalists who were attacked.

Source: Israeli forces target journalists, raid media offices in midst of Aqsa crisis – IFEX

The mask is off: Trump is seeking war with Iran | +972 Magazine

But Trump’s confidence may be misplaced on two levels. First, abusing the inspection mechanisms of the deal may prove harder than Trump has been led to believe. The inspections are the cornerstone of the deal, and Iran’s ability to cheat on the deal is essentially non-existent as long as the integrity and efficiency of the inspections remain in tact. But if Trump begins to abuse the mechanism to fabricate a conflict, he will end up undermining the inspections regime and actually enhance the ability of those in Iran who would like to pursue a covert nuclear program. Precisely because of the commitment of Europe and others to non-proliferation, they are likely to resist Trump’s efforts to tinker with the inspections.Second, by revealing his hand, Trump has displayed his duplicity for all to see. That includes the American public, whose anti-war sentiments remain strong and are a key reason they supported the nuclear deal in the first place.The American public knows the Iraq playbook quite well. Trump’s own supporters remain enraged by the disastrous war with Iraq. They know how they got played. It’s difficult to imagine why they would allow themselves to get played again by a president who has left little doubt about his intent to deceive.

Source: The mask is off: Trump is seeking war with Iran | +972 Magazine

The Trump Assault on Trans Rights Is the Canary in the Coalmine | Dame Magazine Worse than even depicted here – it is just about perceived political advantage to be anti-women, POC, “foreigners,”LGBTQ,” Muslim… and whatever wingnuts fear or hate next.

The tiniest of silver linings here is that Trump probably expected all conservatives to line up joyfully to support this latest bit of awful. And the social conservatives like creepy Steve Bannon and ghoulish Mike Pence are indeed overjoyed. But when someone as conservative and military-fetishizing as Orrin Hatch (!!) issues a statement that you’re wrong to discriminate against transgender people serving in the military, you’re as far on the wrong side of history as it is possible to be.

Source: The Trump Assault on Trans Rights Is the Canary in the Coalmine | Dame Magazine