I’m so tired of being “whipped into an anti-Russian frenzy” by mainstream media just to demonize Putin & delegitimize Trump. Thank heavens alternative media financed by George Soros are straightening us out & getting us to take a chill pill. That frenzy was wearing my ass out.

In the new progressive politics we gotta hate on somebody. Now that Clinton is out of the game, if not Russia, who? Tell us oh masters who we should be hating on.

PS: Can I go back to reading Dostoyevsky again? “The Idiot” is kind of de rigueur for modern times.

Advice for an era when distinctions between reality & bonkers no longer exist.

What kind of socialist is Vijay Prashad who quotes a contact in the Syrian armed forces & a staff member of the White House National Security Council for his analysis of Syria & advises Assad how best to handle Syria’s “internal contradictions”?

Time to roll into action again to support the cultural boycott of Israel, to educate & prevail on Aerosmith to honor BDS & cancel their slated performance in Israel next May 17th.

Every BDS campaign, I go through my list of FB friends to send an invite to like & share this wall. That’s 5,000 people & takes a lot of time. Don’t make me hunt you down & stalk you; just go to the page & do it already.

Palestinian self-determination against apartheid & colonialism is one of the most important struggles of our time & is seen by the forces of repression as a linchpin against democracy in the Middle East.

https://www.facebook.com/aerosmithboycottapartheidisrael/?pnref=story

The shadow of a tyrant is taller than him
much darker and thicker
knows no border of kindness and care
it just spreads like death grows in a besieged city

Damascus is far and the watch is frozen
the Christmas tree is waiting and mom is praying
the road to market is muddy
and the apartment has many hidden eyes

your memory is hacked by spies
and what is beneath memory cannot be said
the language trembles and emotion retreats
when the violence scripts its own grammar

The ocean grows in your silent eyes
your heart melts in the smoke of a newsroom
Peace is a vulgar word and love is suspended
we all are invisible footnotes of humanity.

(22/23 December 2016)

This is an anthem in solidarity with Rohingya who have stood alone for decades against genocide by the Burmese military junta.

Rohingya refugees around the world have initiated an international solidarity movement, educating, rallying, protesting the genocide.

It didn’t take long for the multinational corporations investing billions to “neoliberalize” the economy of Myanmar to take the offensive against solidarity by claiming there is no genocide but only a military crackdown on growing “jihadist terrorism” among Rohingya.

The first volley in this propaganda campaign against Rohingya was issued by the International Crisis Group in its recent report which doesn’t exhibit the research skills or integrity considered de rigueur for an honest 7th grade book report.

We cannot allow the growing solidarity with Rohingya to be preempted by liars & profiteers but must increase our campaigns in their defense.

This is shared from the Facebook wall of Mohammed Imran who is an elected representative in a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh.

https://www.facebook.com/md.imran.5891/videos/1381351771929237/?pnref=story&qsefr=1

So as Assad’s Vanessa Beeley tells it, she accompanied Assad official Fares Shehabi & the Syrian army into east Aleppo as it was being ‘liberated’ from “head-chopping jihadists.” As they advanced into the city, Shehabi was issuing threats of vengeance on social media.

Her first & only mission in a city with thousands of war-traumatized & terrified civilians & reduced to rubble by over five years of daily Syrian & Russian bombing was to hunt down the White Helmet rescue workers she had been doing investigative condemnations about for months & get civilians to finger them for the army.

The White Helmets were the people plowing through cement rubble to rescue people’s children, elderly, disabled, infirm, beloved parents & siblings who had been buried by the bombing. While accompanied by her Syrian military security, she interviewed civilians about the White Helmets but according to her they gave her quizzical looks & said they never heard of them.

Fares Shehabi posted this photo on Twitter (on December 12th) of men & boys from east Aleppo rounded up by the Syrian army as it took over. He referred to them as “terrorists,” though he had no way of knowing whether they were militia fighters, White Helmets, or civilians. Due process of course is no part of dictatorship even though according to international law it is supposed to be part of the treatment of war prisoners.

This kind of “investigative journalism” is a sarcasm. Beeley is not a journalist nor does she know anything about war or Syrian politics. By her own admission, she has only four years of hanging out doing something in Palestine & no claims as a legitimate journalist. It is not inappropriate to interrogate how she emerged to prominence as a propagandist for Assad & to ignominy as Assad’s own Leni Riefenstahl.

After nearly six months of a brutal military siege, 7,330 Kashmiri protesters have been injured, disfigured, & permanently afflicted by pellet munitions, including 1,562 youth partially or fully blinded. Over 15,000 people have been injured overall, including from tear gas, grenades, & live ammo.

We can see here how all that violence has brought their defiance & commitment to freedom to its knees.

(Photo from Kashur Paul on Twitter)

There’s something not quite right about tourists who think of the brutal military conflict in Kashmir only as an inconvenience & delay to enjoying the ski slopes there.

Indian NDTV showcased a group of tourists from South Africa (need it be said white South Africans?) taking the “unforgettable” gondola ride up Gulmarg, a mountain range in the Himalayas popular among tourists.

NDTV reported that the “violent protests across Kashmir” since July had taken a toll on tourism but it is now making a comeback. One of the South Africans said “We plan to return to Kashmir next year. The situation in Kashmir was bad for some time, but that does not matter.” Maybe the problem is worse than “not quite right” but full-blown psycho stuff rooted in apartheid.

Kashmiris often testify to the beauty of their country but who with conscience can ignore the violent occupation just to ski & go sightseeing?

We should take a moment to honor Kashmiri freedom fighters killed by Indian military & paramilitary forces in the past nearly 6 months of a brutal siege. Between July 8th & December 1st, 115 people were killed, most of them young protesters. Without citing the number killed, Indian media reported that as a 300-percent increase over last year, as if they were reporting pork barrel statistics.

Between January 1989 & November 30 2016, there have been 94,589 deaths, 7,074 of them while in custody of Indian security forces. At least 22,828 women have been widowed & 107,594 children orphaned.

That is a terrible price to pay for freedom & a measure of its value to those denied it. We would know nothing about this were it not for Kashmiri activists on social media who post reports & photos of funeral cortege/protests numbering in the thousands for every person killed.

Long live Kashmiri Intifada. End the occupation. Self-determination for Kashmir.

Fullest solidarity & deepest respect for the Kashmiri freedom struggle.

(Statistics from Kashmir Media Service; photo from Kashmir Freedom)