Drumpf has been proven right that US elections are a rigged operation. Dozens of delegates at the Republican convention who opposed his candidacy are protesting publicly that they were strong-armed, shouted down, out-maneuvered, & denied a chance to oppose him in favor of some other rightwing bozo.

Facebook’s censorship of posts about Kashmir, particularly those about the extrajudicial execution of Burhan Wani as well as videos of Indian army violence, is a serious violation of the US Bill of Rights which legally binds FB since it operates out of this country.

Lots of activists are making a big stink about it, especially on Twitter, but no major media source has seen fit to even mention it. If you google the issue you find it mentioned in a few Indian media sources including Catch News, Sikh Siyasat News, Indian Express; in Dawn, a Pakistani publication; & by two bloggers including myself & Dibyesh Anand. The only other media report is in IBTimes, an online publication which also owns Newsweek.

Those who have been censored by having posts, photos, or videos removed or who have been suspended should let me know so we can find a forum to discuss this problem of censorship & challenge its legality.

Photo is Kashmiri journalists in Srinagar today protesting India’s raids & ban on newspapers.

(Photo by Farooq Khan/EPA)
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#‎FreeKashmir‬

There won’t be a word on this wall about Melania Dumpf’s shameless plagiarism of Michelle Obama’s maudlin speech. Except ROFL.

If there’s one thing the attempted Turkish coup is making evident, it’s the riot of delusions that so many have about Turkish president Erdogan & about the character of his rule.

On Twitter, a leading Palestinian supporter mocked the notion that Erdogan would conduct a purge if he survived the coup. As of yesterday, only three days after the attempted coup, he had already fired 24,000 teachers & 1,577 university deans & dragged in 7,500 alleged plotters. Will they face trial or just disappear in the gulag?

Others are lauding the survival of Erdogan as the “democratically elected” president when his 2014 election campaign was riddled with corruption charges from international observers. Many are completely ignoring his violence against Kurds, his repression of democracy protesters, his raids on newspaper offices & arrests of reporters, his unsavory agreement with the EU for accepting deported refugees in return for money.

Some Assad opponents are calling on Erdogan to militarily enter the war in Syria against Assad. The credulity is beyond tragic, not to mention foolish, since as the second largest force in NATO, Turkey is already involved in Syria in many ways, including allowing the US to use its airbases.

Some have been taken in by Erdogan’s support for Palestinians, most notably in the 2010 humanitarian Mavi Marmara flotilla to the Gaza Strip that was attacked by Israeli commandoes who killed several Turkish activists. Perhaps the deluded are unaware of the diplomatic rapprochement between Israel & Turkey brokered in 2013 by Obama where in exchange for an apology for the attack & $20 million in compensation Turkey would normalize relations with Israel. Maybe they don’t know that two days after Erdogan formalized the reconciliation agreement with Israel in late June 2016, Erdogan threw the organizers of the 2010 flotilla under the bus by publicly asking, “Did you even ask me before you set sail?”

There is an alternative to the autocracy of Erdogan & that of a military junta. That alternative is the democracy movement in Turkey. Standing against the coup does not mean standing with Erdogan. The distinction is not subtle & should not go over the heads of so many who support democracy in Turkey.

The photo is a billboard in Ankara, Turkey in 2013 with photos of Netanyahu & Erdogan celebrating Israel’s apology.

(Photo from AP)

Please take a moment to sign & share this petition about the murderous siege in Kashmir. It will take a hell of a lot more to end the occupation than a petition but the point of this is to educate & campaign widely about the character of the violence, to break the news blackout in media, & to build international solidarity.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfyD2T3580jh9pc-f1UtXkWxchdARSUXXQLDPw69z7l0kkgYw/viewform

This is an interesting interview by Usman A Khan Tahir in Pakistan Today with Kashmiri activist Muhammad Faysal. It takes up all sorts of political & historical questions about the struggle against the Indian occupation & for Kashmiri self-determination.

http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2016/07/18/comment/its-always-a-good-time-to-put-pressure-on-india-%E2%80%95-an-interview-with-kashmiri-activist-muhammad-faysal/

Okay I’ll confess I’m sneaking peeks at the Republican convention on CNN. Who could miss a chance to hear the Duck Dynasty guy endorse Drumpf? Or see the delegates weep at the mention of Benghazi? Or see if Melania Drumpf comes off less vapid in a canned speech?

You think it’s farce until you realize that Adolph Hitler & the Nazi Party were probably just as unimpressive before they took state power.

Another police officer acquitted in death of Freddy Grey. Four acquitted so far out of six charged. Acquitted because they were negligent but not criminally so. He must have broken his own spine.

But what about all the other murders where the accused officers walked? Are we looking at kangaroo court justice? Are prosecutors intentionally blowing these cases to let the guilty walk?

Accidents happen. No one wants to hang a cop for misjudgment but in hundreds of cases a year isn’t there even one indictment?

No justice, no peace.

“Democratically elected” Erdogan in Turkey has arrested over 7,500 suspected plotters since the attempted coup last Friday. That doesn’t include all the journalists & other dissidents already in his jails.The guy’s a real champion of democracy.

This is not the best the Turkish people can get. It’s what they have until they wrest political power from Erdogan & the military to build a real democracy.

Homeless in Sindh province, Pakistan: Sindh province has Pakistan’s second largest economy. It’s the most urbanized & industrialized of Pakistan’s four provinces & Karachi its capital is the country’s financial center.

There is no reliable metric for homeless children in Sindh province but in all of Pakistan there are an estimated 1.5 million. Some are victims of massive flooding, some of massive US bombing, some are Afghan refugees. Likely most have been displaced by neoliberal economic policies dispossessing farmers & rural workers along with victims of urban slum clearances for purposes of gentrification & the neoliberal kind of “development.”

Homelessness for children isn’t just a problem in Pakistan. Worldwide the estimates of homeless children go as high as 150 million. But that may be conservative since after the first 50 million who is really counting? Millions of children around the world die before reaching their fifth birthday; 250,000 die every week from diseases & starvation; over 10 million children are slaves, including sex slaves in the pornography & prostitution trades; millions are abused, sexually exploited, murdered, or go missing; over 20 million children are refugees or displaced in their own homelands; estimates of child workers range from 250 million to 500 million.

These are the realities for tens of millions of children under neoliberalism, the barbaric phase of capitalism. How is it that children have become not just the chattel but the offal of capitalism?

(Photo of homeless children in Sindh province from Facebook wall of Jawad Jamil Kunber)