Petition against Facebook censorship making news

After reading five articles on FB censoring posts in solidarity with Kashmir, I did an internet search & came up with a page of articles from around the world. The articles are a repetition but reach vast numbers of readers. It’s a way to break the news barrier.

After three days, the petition has under 1,000 signatures and a long way to go. But Facebook censoring is making the news around the world, including in the Guardian-UK, Dawn.com, The Express Tribune, Yahoo, The Bangkok Post, Nation.com, The News.com, Daily Star, Gulf Today, plus several blogs.

Thank you for signing in defense of freedom of speech and in solidarity with our Kashmiri brothers and sisters under siege. If you haven’t yet, please sign the petition & become part of the news. Become part of defending freedom of speech:

https://www.change.org/p/facebook-stop-censoring-kashmiri-activists-on-facebook-reinstate-huma-dar?recruiter=723858&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_for_starters_page&utm_term=des-lg-share_petition-no_msg&recuruit_context=fb_share_mention_variant&fb_ref=Default

 

Facebook censoring & petition against it make the news

AFP photo

https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/32130176/facebook-accused-of-censoring-posts-on-indian-kashmir/#page1

Facebook censoring of posts about Kashmir & our petition against it was reported by AFP on Yahoo news today. The reporter said “Facebook did not immediately respond to requests for comment.”

The petition has going on 1,000 signatures. No one expects it to end the occupation of Kashmir. We are trying to be the voice of those silenced by the internet & cell phone lockdown who played such a vital role on social media in breaking the news blackout about their struggle. We are trying to defend freedom of speech on FB & social media.

It’s worth asking–& not in an accusatory way–why so many Palestinian supporters were willing to overlook Bernie Sanders’ wretched views on Israel & Palestinian self-determination to ardently support him. And not just support him, but run others around the block justifying his compromises on justice for Palestine.

Now with Sanders remaining a committed Democrat, like he always said he was, many will flock to the campaign of Jill Stein who supports BDS but also has compromised views on Israel & Palestine–not to mention on US militarism. She only wants to reduce the military budget rather than end US militarism. She says she will use military aid as a threat to Israeli excesses.

Worst of all, are Clinton supporters. There is no way one can talk around her determined, even if entirely self-serving support for Israel & for US military aggression. Israel & Palestine are key questions in US & in world politics because Israel serves as the linchpin holding back democracy in the Middle East.

How do progressives broker such cognitive dissonance in their politics? It’s understandable that many would vote lesser evil because they believe voting is a right they want to exercise. What is not understandable at all is the ardency of their support & the bending of principles, especially on war, colonialism, occupation.

Progressives, especially the ones who pompously call themselves Marxists, like to think of themselves as leading politically. But when they’re voting Stein or Clinton & the majority of American voters don’t even bother to register for the electoral charade, maybe they’re not so much leading as being a dead weight dragged around by their asses by lesser evil ideology.

Curfew in Kashmir & its dangers to public safety

Curfew ISource- Express Photo by Shuaib Masoodi) July 23 2016

Media isn’t reporting the details of the curfew in Kashmir but only that it has been in force since July 9th. India has imposed restriction of movement which entails restriction on access to vital services. What if you require emergency medical treatment during the curfew period? If you try to get to a hospital will the Indian army shoot you down?

Consider what it means that a government allocates to itself the power to lock in an entire population like they were recalcitrant children. But of course it’s only done to prevent public gatherings to protest the occupation. That’s how afraid the Indian government is of democracy.

Photo is streets of Srinagar under curfew.

(Photo by Shuaib Masoodi in the Indian Express)

Clinton is making hay on Drumpf’s hate-mongering by calling for love. We can call her the love bomb candidate. She’ll drop those bombs but she’ll be doing it with love. And that kind of rhetorical crap is the only difference between Democrats & Republicans.

Several years ago, a Black schoolteacher in the US set off a furor over Mark Twain’s 1885 book “Huckleberry Finn,” which was part of the core curriculum in elementary school. In teaching the book to Black children, he saw they were traumatized by the book & not just by its use of the n-word.

To most white readers, Huckleberry Finn is an inspiring, anti-racist book & the furor completely threw many of them for a loop. Once you understand it as one of the earliest examples of white savior literature–along with Rudyard Kipling’s 1888 novella “The Man Who Would Be King”–the book’s artistic problems are clarified (in particular its odious ending); Twain’s racism becomes evident; & the book develops a distinct malodor. It speaks to the cognitive disorders of white supremacy that white readers are not immediately repulsed, as the Black schoolchildren were, that a puckish white street kid would save an adult Black man from slavery.

This controversy has not abated cinematic outpourings of white savior films which usually involve leading white & Black actors. Accidental & reflecting the racism of Hollywood? Or intentional social control to inculcate racism & supremacy?

This comes to mind because one TV station just showed two films about the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa & in both a white savior is the leading character & Black anti-apartheid activists merely props to showcase white nobility.

The genre clearly appeals to whites. It must be deconstructed & undone.

That “nature red in tooth & claw” thing is hard to reconcile with. My big galoot girl has been barking all morning under the house. She had all of the dogs whipped up just now & when I checked found they had cornered a possum–not one of nature’s prettiest creatures but very wrenching when terrified.

After chasing the dogs off she could scale the fence & I saw that not only was she limping & bleeding but was in the process of birthing. Now I fear she may have other new-borns under the house.

The dogs are grounded till she figures out what to do.


Received an email asking me to rate Drumpf. Will racist dumb-ass suffice as an answer? Or should I add ugly?

New US-NATO war developing in Libya

Libya. REUTERS:Goran Tomasevic--July 22 2016

There are some who hold up the 2011 US-NATO war in Libya as a model for what the US should do in Syria. They wed their opposition to Assad’s dictatorship to a military solution. Some fools suggest the US bomb Assad out of power; some suggest Turkey or Saudi Arabia. Some hope for a coalition of those forces. Then there are those who support Russian bombing in support of Assad. You can’t reason with such idiocy.

The US is already conducting several wars. Turkey has its hands full with massive repression & martial law & its own involvement in Syria. Saudi Arabia is still bombing Yemen to smithereens. Russia, Israel, & the US are now collaborating in Syria. If one doesn’t see the possibilities for Armageddon in all that you are blinded by militarism & detached from the carnage & killing fields it creates.

The massive bombing of Libya is what occasioned Hillary Clinton to quip “We came, we saw, he died” about the murder of Qaddafi whose corpse was publicly displayed, abused, & sodomized. Regardless of the politics of Qaddafi, civilized people do not engage in or justify such barbarisms. It is in fact a crime. But that’s the character of US militarism which numbskulls propose as a salvation army in Syria.

After nearly six years, Libya is now in a state of shambles, with two governments & ISIS forces entrenched. Now the US is again heavily involved in Libya & has plans for new bombing campaigns to take out ISIS. This is a photo of a Libyan soldier allied with the “UN-backed government” reportedly firing at ISIS fighters. Is this your model for freedom from tyranny or is it a prescription for killing fields?

There is no military solution in Syria, Libya, Iraq, or anywhere else. The historic imperative is to rebuild the international antiwar movement to compel these armies & bombers to cease operations & allow the peoples of those countries to settle their own affairs without foreign intervention that makes their lives a living hell.

(Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

Can hardly wait for the Democratic convention to begin. It will be just as much of a clown extravaganza only with donkey pompoms on their heads.

Clinton is suave so she won’t openly hate on Muslims, refugees, immigrants, & Blacks. That’s how the Democratic Party rolls. That’s how they pull the wool over people’s eyes. She’ll talk a good game, like Democrats always have, but their policies will be ‘same old, same old.’ If you can stomach or justify that, good luck with the delusions. It’s how some people get through life.

But they don’t fool all the people all the time. Just those willing to close their eyes to reality & the consistent crimes administered by that party. For decades, the majority of eligible voters don’t even bother to register because they don’t want to be part of the process. They won’t pin the tail on the donkey.