When walking my foundling dog through the neighborhood looking for her litter, I found a park she frequented where a group of people regularly fed her, gave her water & affection. They knew her so well they named her Princess. Hence her name, Princess Millie.

A kind-hearted animal rescuer here paid for Millie to see the vet today for flea control & an exam for her body sores, heart worms, etc. It cost him a fortune but the vet fell in love with her & promised to help find a suitable family for her. He gave me quite a tutorial on Pit Bulls & declared them among the most loyal & endearing of dogs. He said we needed to move fast in finding her a suitable home or she would bond with me.

On the way home, I drove past the park & saw the little crew having lunch so I stopped with Millie to give them the news. I live in a fairly poor neighborhood & it turns out they are amongst the poorest. All were unemployed, some were senior, most were disabled or sick, & a few were homeless–one man for nearly three years. They come together to share junk food they manage to scrounge up.

So I need a little advice here: The long-term homeless fellow has no benefits & the lawyer handling his case for disability social security has done little in nearly a year. He suffers from medical malpractice from the use of an IVC filter which causes him frequent bouts of excessive bleeding from every orifice. There is apparently a class action suit he cannot join since he has no internet access or other resources.

My question is where/how to proceed to help him? Where can he look for legal, medical, emergency housing help?

These little ones are children in Gaza–the little ones Israel & its loathsome minions like Elie Wiesel claim are used as human shields by their parents, who will grow up to join Hamas & become “terrorists.”

This is another demonstration of the power of photography to negate a thousand lies & make the political so personal. It can humanize those demonized by colonial & apartheid propaganda.

Honor & build the economic, cultural, & academic boycott of Israel (buy nothing with barcode beginning 729) because these children have a right to come of age without bombing & ethnic cleansing & in a world suitable for them to live & love in.

The killing fields of the Middle East, from Yemen to Iraq to Syria to Gaza–& onwards if the military domination of the region is not stopped by massive international antiwar pressure:

This photo is identified as “the al Qaeda-held port of Mukalla city in southern Yemen.” According to media reports, most of which come straight out of the US Pentagon PR office, Mukalla was taken over by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in April 2015.

The US has been drone bombing in Yemen since after the 9/11 bombing of the World Trade Center in 2001. It’s hard to imagine there’s anything left of AQAP but if there is bombing them to smithereens is obviously a failed military strategy. The Pentagon claims it takes out al-Qaeda fighters in these bombings but not a word of what Pentagon officials say about Yemen (or anything else) can be trusted. The greater likelihood is that Yemeni civilians, like the wedding party bombed to death in 2013, are the primary victims–& maybe intended targets.

This unforgettable photo by Javaidd Naikoo was taken in early April at the funeral of Kashmiri activists Waseem Malla & Naseer Pandit who were killed by Indian troops in a shootout 55 km/34 miles from Srinagar. Those in the trees are trying to view the passing cortege/protest attended by over 70,000 people.

The photo is honored on the cover of this new literary book & is certainly worthy of photographic awards. Photography is a way of getting out the truth about the occupation of Kashmir because a photo can negate a thousand lies & make the political so personal.

Congratulations Javaidd.

Hating on Clinton’s politics is one thing. Describing her as a whore is quite another. Detestable, just plain & simple misogyny–& not less so if done by a woman–because no one refers to male politicians in cheap shots & sexualized language.

Feminism isn’t about policing & monitoring language. It’s a rebellion against hatred for women which shows up in so many ways, including choice of epithets & frat boy humor at the expense of women.

As it becomes certain she will be the nominee for her party, that epithet is showing up more & more boldly on Facebook. It’s shameful.

This man in Sana’a, Yemen was part of a protest demanding the release of Yemenis held in Saudi prisons. He is holding up a photo of his son, now a political prisoner in Saudi Arabia. There are no reliable estimates of the number being held.

What makes this story so significant is that on April 16th, just prior to Obama’s summit visit to Saudi Arabia, the US released nine Yemeni prisoners from Guantanamo prison to Saudi Arabian custody. Most of the media portrayed this as part of Obama’s attempts to close Guantanamo before he leaves office in January 2017.

It needs to be remembered at the outset that none of these men, who have been held for years, have been charged with a crime or provided due process. They are referred to disdainfully as “lower-level inmates,” with the exception of Tariq Ba Odah who the military has been force-feeding since he began a hunger strike in 2007. He is now skeletal at 74 pounds & his health in grave danger. His case has generated considerable legal disputes between his lawyers & the intractable US Department of Justice under Obama.

One US official said the prisoner transfer was the result of years of negotiations because Saudi Arabia was resistant to taking non-Saudi nationals. They even offered to pay for a facility in Yemen so they didn’t have to take them. The question is, if the men have not been charged with any crimes, why are they not being returned to their families in Yemen or allowed to go where they want?

The Obama regime says it opposes sending them to Yemen “because it is engulfed in civil war & has an active al Qaeda branch.” First of all, it isn’t a civil war; it’s carpet bombing by a Saudi-led, US & UK-backed coalition. What’s that got to do with where the nine prisoners go? Obama officials also claimed all nine men had family connections in Saudi Arabia. So what? They weren’t in Saudi Arabia when they got picked up so they may not want to go back there.

Obama officials also say they’re sending the prisoners to Saudi Arabia because it “operates a rehabilitation program for those who have drifted into militant Islamism” & helps them “reintegrate into peaceful society.” According to the Saudi prince who runs the rehab program, it has “a record of reducing, though not eliminating, the risk of recidivism.” Recidivism from what, since they haven’t been accused of a crime? Why are they being rehabbed?

So what the hell is going on here? Are they being sent to Saudi Arabia because they have family there? Because they need rehab? Or because Yemen is being carpet bombed?

A Pentagon official called the prisoner transfer a “humanitarian gesture” by the Saudi government. It turns out that vaunted rehab program is just a high-security prison for those the Saudi regime deems “jihadists.” The transfer is nothing but a switch & bait operation so that Obama can pretend he’s closing Guantanamo by simply transferring prisoners elsewhere. But why so insistent they go to Saudi Arabia? So they can be cell mates with other Yemeni political prisoners? Are those the family connections the Obama regime referred to?

The NY Times has described those Saudi rehab prisons almost like they were resorts with “three catered meals per day & sleep in luxury suites outfitted with big-screen TVs, king-size beds & shiny wallpaper” & even conjugal visits. Are we being asked to believe that the same regime that beheaded 47 political dissidents last January has a humane approach to political prisoners? Sometimes when you talk out of both sides of your ass you get caught in your own lies.

We should note the names of those “lower-level” nobodies that Obama is sending to the Saudi gulag. They are our brothers: Tariq Ba Odah; Umar Abdullah Al-Hikimi; Abdul Rahman Mohammed Saleh Nasir; Ali Yahya Mahdi Al-Raimi; Muhammed Abdullah Muhammed Al-Hamiri; Ahmed Yaslam Said Kuman; Abd al Rahman Al-Qyati; Mansour Muhammed Ali Al-Qatta; Mashur Abdullah Muqbil Ahmed Al-Sabri.

The historic imperative remains: rebuild the international antiwar movement to demand the end of bombing & occupation in Yemen & the release of all political prisoners.

(Photo by Yahya Arhab/EPA)

Millie (the Pit Bull I just picked up) presents a clear & present danger to my birds so I’ve been calling every rescue group in the metropolitan area to place her. Half have gone out of operation & the rest were over capacity, not accepting more animals. But they just don’t have it in them to turn away an animal who needs help. Some posted her photo on their web sites, some offered food.

One man who rescues only cats had me come to the spa he owns to pick up twenty-five pounds of food & then offered to pay for Millie’s vet care since she has some serious skin issues.

Obama is in Germany to open the world’s largest industrial technology trade fair in Hannover with Angela Merkel. Speaking at a news conference with Merkel, he pushed the Trans-Atlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP), a proposed trade agreement between the US & EU & he also pushed the Trans-Pacific Partnership with the 12 Pacific rim countries. Corporations & banks will make a bundle off both those agreements which are based on militarism & sweatshop economics.

In his notorious monotone & not evidencing his Ivy League education, Obama droned: “…given the challenges that we face in the world & the headlines we see every day, may seem improbable but it’s true. We are fortunate to be living in the most peaceful, most prosperous, most progressive era in human history.”

Just so we’re clear about who the refugees are: this doctor disembarking from a Doctors Without Borders ship in Sicily is carrying a child rescued on the north Africa to Italy refugee route.

Most photos in media show only boatloads of African men being rescued. Given the rancid state of racism & white supremacy, it’s an image that lends itself to xenophobia & insularity. It is true, according to UN demographics, that nearly 75 percent of refugees from African countries are men & boys because it’s safer for them to travel. Only 10 percent are women & 16 percent are children, including a huge percentage of unaccompanied minors.

Just so we’re clear on what Syrian refugees (as well as Iraqi, Afghan, & Pakistani refugees) are fleeing from: this is a scene from Fardous, a district near Aleppo, following an airstrike yesterday.

On February 27th, 97 fighting rebel groups as well as the Syrian, Russian, & US-led coalition agreed to a ceasefire. Russia claimed it had grounded its warplanes in Syria. But according to media reports, it was not immediately clear whether strikes were carried out by Assad’s air force or by allied Russian warplanes.