Just got accused of ‘dripping with condescension & class-privilege arrogance.’ Either that’s a polemical manipulation or the guy is the only schnook alive who doesn’t spot working class written all over me.

We live in a very class-conscious world & the first thing people do, albeit subconsciously, is size up others for their class status. It’s bred into us. When you’re working-class you grow up very self-conscious of inferiority but if you’re gonna stay an activist you get over that fast or you’ll be eaten alive by those who think themselves superior & treat you with contempt. I could write a book on that since it’s a difficult process to go through.

Being a woman without prestigious titles means when I speak of politics it should be with a timorous voice rather than confidence, that I should defer all over the place, that I should “know my place.”

Screw that rubbish. I became a socialist because I detested inequality & anyone being looked down on. There ain’t no going back on that one. I know what it’s like to feel inferior & I know the freedom of understanding I’m equal. There’s nothing inferior about people who have the power to change the world.

(I post this not just in indignation but because it is so common to be put down in snide ways & I want others to learn young to challenge elitism & never defer to bullying.)

French police in Cannes report they apprehended 25 women for wearing the burkini at the beach. Only while they were being processed for the penitentiary did police officials realize only ten of them were Muslim women being “ostentatious” in a burkini rather than understated in a skimpy bikini.

Six of the others hauled in were scuba divers who still had their oxygen tanks attached; seven were surfers, irate because police had confiscated their surf boards during arrest; & two were US Navy frogmen on reconnaissance operations in the Mediterranean.

The US Pentagon is mighty pissed at the disruption of their operation scouting for terrorists among sunbathers on the French Riviera. But the generals accepted apologies from Mayor Pepe Le Pew after acknowledging France’s outstanding & idiotic service to advancing Islamophobic hysteria.

Thank heavens several women have taken legal action against the burkini ban to prevent France from further embarrassing itself & from interfering with surveillance operations at the beach.
Photo is one of the scuba divers arrested for ostentation at the beach.

Ever wonder where Palestinian & Kashmiri youth get their ‘in your face’ style of rebellion against brutal occupations?

The top photo is a Palestinian woman in the West Bank arguing with Israeli soldiers searching her at a checkpoint near a refugee camp (for those displaced by Israeli settlers). This is taking place at the same time Israeli soldiers are on a rampage in the refugee camp conducting searches & using live ammo & rubber bullets against Palestinians. Twenty-five Palestinians were injured.

The bottom photo is a Kashmiri woman in Srinagar trying to cover a tear gas canister fired by Indian troops at Kashmiris protesting several recent killings & beatings by the occupying forces, including a young school teacher killed in their custody.

Remember these images the next time the White House & US Pentagon claim that bombing a country to smithereens is necessary to liberate the women.

(Photo of Palestinian woman by Mussa Qawasma/Reuters. Photo of Kashmiri woman by Cathal McNaughton/Reuters)