Honestly, with all the curfews & barbaric excesses of the Indian army, one would think Kashmiris would be hunkered & bunkered in their homes waiting out the siege. But that isn’t how they roll because that isn’t how they expect to end the violent occupation & achieve self-determination fighting without weapons but only with conviction.

These are photos of protests in South Kashmir today. The very hope, not just for Kashmiri independence but for the human race creating a humane society, depends on just such tenacity & determination.

We salute them & stand with them.

(Photos from Kashmir Dispatch)

Came across this photo on Twitter. It had no identification of when it was taken or who took it. It may well have been the protests in Kashmir held in solidarity with Palestinians when Israel was carpet bombing Gaza at this time in 2014.

There is everything to love about this photo of young scruffy rebels standing defiant, armed only with rocks against a brutal military occupation–& at the same time standing with their Palestinian brothers & sisters under siege thousands of miles away. This is the very heart & soul of solidarity.

Long live Kashmiri Intifada. Long live Palestinian Intifada. Self-determination is their right which we are duty-bound to support in every way possible. Especially now when Kashmiris are under siege.

Still another contingent of Kashmiri freedom fighters taking to the streets unarmed: doctors, on the front lines to treat the dying & injured, are protesting the use of pellet munitions.

Deepest respect for their toughness & fullest solidarity with their struggle against barbarism.

(Photo from Kashmir Dispatch)

Muhammad Suhail Dar, who dubbed Amnesty India as “cattle class amnesty India” for this ignominious post on Twitter, said: “Cow dung in India is known as GOBAR…..Government of India led by Modi is leaving no stone unturned to rename itself as ‪#‎GOBAR‬-MENT OF INDIA.”

It’s an indignity Americans long have lived with, given the nature of our own gobarment.

We call it like we see it & sometimes sarcasm is what saves us from insanity.

Kashmiri activists broke the international news blackout on their struggle by campaigning on social media. That changed everything because once we learned of the character & criminality of the Indian occupation, international solidarity began to develop. Their tireless work has made all the difference in the world. There’s no turning back on justice now.

Just because India locked out Kashmiris from internet & cell phone communication to silence their voices & FB censored supporters to reimpose a news blackout, that does not mean it’s all over & we have to run for cover to protect ourselves. Kashmiri activists have come too far, have fought too hard for us to fail them when most of them are being silenced or “virtually forced disappeared” as one activist put it.

We need to think out how we can defend freedom of speech on FB & social media because as Kashmiri activists have shown, there can be no political education & organizing, no international solidarity without freedom of speech, without the right to tell the truth about our struggles against brutal oppression.

Social media is how that’s done these days & we have a right to insist FB not function as an agency of the secret police. It’s not just an elementary duty to defend Kashmiris but elementary good sense to defend civil liberties. We don’t live under fascism yet & we won’t if we stand with freedom of speech now.

Photo (from Twitter) is women protesting in Srinagar on July 31st, day 22 of the current murderous siege. If they are not daunted by pellet guns & live ammunition, we cannot be daunted by FB censors.

Facebook has reinstated my account. Thank you to those who were so supportive while I was out in the cold. It has introduced me to the use of Twitter which is like the early version of FB & not endearing in any way.

I used the opportunity to reorganize my household so have a backlog of posts to catch up on–most importantly what is going on in Kashmir.

You won’t be sorry you missed my commentary on the Democratic convention. Acerbic, snide, contemptuous would sum it up. But never mind, I’ll catch up with all the nonsense & alarmism brewing in lesser evil land.

In a public statement explaining their censoring of posts about Kashmir, FB said ““There is no place on Facebook for content that praises or supports terrorists, terrorists organisations or terrorism. We welcome discussion on these subjects but any terrorist content has to be clearly put in context which condemns these organisations & or their violent activities.”

We who were censored & locked out could not agree more. Let us make clear in a Greek chorus of condemnations that we oppose terrorism in every one of its aspects. That’s exactly why we denounce the Indian occupation of Kashmir which involves indiscriminate shooting of unarmed protesters, pellet munitions which disable & blind hundreds, including children, mass disappearances, mass graves, mass rapes, torture, summary executions.

In this monstrous terrorist siege now going into its fourth week, it appears the Indian army is targeting children in Kashmir as Israeli bombers did in Gaza 2014 to disable & demoralize young people & incapacitate the future of their freedom struggle.

In keeping with FB’s policy opposing terrorism or any glorification of it, we would like to know why in the hell we who are speaking out against such monstrous terrorism are being censored & not the rabid nationalists spewing social hatred against Kashmiris & support for Indian terrorism.

End the occupation. Self-determination for Kashmir.

Have you ever seen anything quite like this in politics? One person started a caption contest for mockery but speechless is most people’s reaction–& a certain amount of embarrassment at witnessing such bad theater.

Many progressives are more disturbed that Jill Stein might be anti-vaccinations than by her utterly compromised views on US militarism & her left Zionism. It’s a case of the MMR shot versus ethnic cleansing. We need a new definition of progressive.

There’s an article circulating from Counterpunch by Margot Kidder titled “My Fellow Americans: We Are Fools.” Kidder is the actress best known as Lois Lane in “Superman” opposite Christopher Reeve.

The very emotional article was written after watching the DNC convention & reflects the disgust most progressives felt watching war mongering, rightwing political figures like Leon Panetta & Michael Bloomberg cheered by thousands of delegates. Kidder regrettably conflates that stadium of political hacks with all of the American people so her article is a sustained reproach to the rest of us, as if most of us shared a damn thing with the trained seals clapping their asses off like fools.

In fact, polls continually show the overwhelming lack of trust most of us have in Clinton & in the DNC. For decades, the majority of eligible voters in the US haven’t even bothered to register. Polls also show a majority of Americans oppose US wars even though they are not mobilizing against them. Partly that reflects the disunity of the antiwar movement & not just lethargy on the part of Americans.

We live in tough times. Screw that Chinese proverb about crises being opportunities. They’re hell to endure. But giving up on the human race is not an option. Historically, we in the US have proven to be slow on the uptake, conservative in acting. But our history also shows decisiveness once we get off our political asses.

Misanthropy doesn’t serve political action or social transformation. Kidder can say she’s Canadian & wants no part in all this but those of us who believe social change is necessary & possible don’t indulge defeatism or contempt for our fellows. That isn’t how things get changed.