That Justin Trudeau is one slick operator. With great spectacle involving dancing, jokes, ritual, prayers, & this saffron headscarf, he made apologies to the Sikh community in Canada for a 1914 incident when Canada refused at gunpoint to allow Indian refugees to disembark in Vancouver. They were forced to return to Calcutta where many were killed by British colonial troops & others were jailed.

It was a monstrous crime but not the same scale of crime as the $15 billion arms deal Trudeau just negotiated with Saudi Arabia for the bombing siege against the people of Yemen.

Far be it from me to feminist nitpick, but it is just so 1950s to say you admire someone for having “the balls” to do something. Retrograde macho went out of style over 75 years ago heading toward a century. You don’t have to go all faux touchy-feely but try not to be primeval.

Earlier today, activists in New Delhi held a solidarity rally called “The Value of Kashmiri Lives: Protest against Handwara Killings in Kashmir.” Hundreds of activists called for the immediate release of the minor girl, her father, & aunt from police custody & demanded an independent enquiry into the military opening fire on unarmed Kashmiris.

Activists also called for repealing AFSPA, the draconian security arrangement that gives the Indian military complete impunity from prosecution for human rights crimes in Kashmir. The agreement is similar, if not more brutal, than security agreements the US imposes on Afghanistan & Iraq to protect military personnel from prosecution & exposure for war crimes.

My criticisms of Bernie Sanders are extremely sharp but I know many people I respect highly are ardent Sanders’ supporters. Having harsh criticisms of the guy’s politics doesn’t include damning those who support him. My mind is not that obtuse or unforgiving because I have been an activist for decades & know what it means to work with those who have differences–even significant ones.

But I have been unnecessarily badgered by left-leaning Sanders’ supporters who are irate that I won’t kiss his bumptious ass as the lesser evil. Why they give a damn about who I support is a mystery of lesser evil intolerance.

For many people, the earth moved when Bernie Sanders said “We are gonna have to treat the Palestinian people with respect & dignity.” But it only shows the poverty of political thinking in the US when people laud that rhetorical sentiment & ignore his preceding comment suggesting Palestinians are terrorists. He said, “Of course Israel has a right not only to defend themselves but to live in peace & security without fear of terrorist attacks. That is not a debate.”

In case it’s not absolutely clear to Sanders, Israel is not defending itself against Palestinian terrorists when it razes homes & playgrounds in the West Bank to make room for Zionist settlers from all over Kingdom Come; when it summarily executes dozens of Palestinians & plants knives on them; when it kidnaps & incarcerates hundreds of kids who it tortures in its gulag; when it bombs homes, schools, hospitals, mosques & marketplaces to smithereens in Gaza; when it destroys tunnels for smuggling in foods, medicines, supplies necessary to human life in Gaza. Any concession on that score is absolutely unacceptable.

There’s no complaint department to whoever organizes Lexulous, the online game akin to Scrabble & which can be played on FB. But it doesn’t use standard Scrabble guidelines regarding proper nouns (which are not allowed in Scrabble) & often uses French & Spanish words in the English version. One can live with that, but most outrageously it allows the use of jew & jewing as verbs. Those words can’t even be found nowadays in respectable dictionaries.

Does anyone know who are behind Lexulous so a complaint can be lodged?

https://www.change.org/p/un-human-rights-council-investigate-india-for-human-rights-violations-in-kashmir?recruiter=48473387&utm_campaign=signature_receipt&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition

Please take a moment to sign & share this petition. We need to besiege the Indian government with such petitions to expose its brutal occupation of Kashmir & rally international support for justice & self-determination in Kashmir.

This is the scene earlier today when police laid siege to the offices of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) which had organized a press conference where family members of the young girl sexually assaulted by Indian armed forces in Handwara could address the media.

Indian police prevented journalists from entering the office, prevented staff members of JKCSS from leaving, & banned the press conference. It isn’t certain if the complete internet blockade in Kashmir is still in force.

Millions of Yemenis hit the streets on March 26th to protest one year of massive Saudi-led, US & UK-backed bombing which has created a humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen, including child starvation, where more than 82% of the population now needs some form of humanitarian aid & critical infrastructure has been destroyed. There was barely a peep in media about the protests.

This is the scene today in Sana’a demanding an end to the war against Yemen. There was no media coverage at all but only a photo of flooding in north Yemen. The flooding is newsworthy but since they don’t report massive flooding dislocating millions of people in countries around the world, it’s curious that the Yemen flooding caught media attention. The flooding is significant for sure, but the over one year of carpet bombing is more significant because with a devastated infrastructure, the flooding damage is even more catastrophic. Antiwar protests of millions whilst the bombing goes on are of monumental political importance & again there wasn’t a peep in media about them.

Polls, which are anyway tendentious things to manipulate public opinion, claim Clinton is way ahead of Sanders in NY state. It’s not a backhanded endorsement of Sanders to ask how it’s possible that Clinton is slated to win NY when Sanders drew a crowd of over 15,000 people. Clinton spends most of her time at elite, upscale fundraisers with bouncers to keep the plebeians out. So how does she lead the race? Do only Wall Street bankers register & vote?

Cable news programs have been nattering on for days trying to undo the exposures now evident to anyone paying attention that primary elections are an eclectic mess run differently from one state to another, signifying something different in each state; that the game is rigged with this superdelegates scam; & that American electoral democracy is something of a fraud.