Antonin Scalia croaked a year ago & we’re still dancing

Here I go laughing at my own inappropriate sarcasms again. This is my obituary from February 14, 2016 when stone-cold reactionary Supreme Court judge Antonin Scalia croaked:

“I’m taken aback by the number of FB posts celebrating the demise of that guy on the Supreme Court–good old what’s-his-name. People are dancing on his grave; some are pissing on it. Women are in the lead. Some are hauling in chips & guacamole for a big drunken bash.

Let me know if you think that’s appropriate funereal ritual for the judge or if we need to hire a mariachi band too.”

Too early to jubilantly taunt “bend over Trump & kiss your ass goodbye”?

Trump is under fire for treasonous diplomacy with Putin & country club diplomacy at Mar-a-Lago. The question in the former is “what did the president know about Flynn’s illegal negotiations with Putin & when did he know it?” The question in the latter is “what did the president let every other security service in the world know by negotiating in an unsecured area during dinner theater?”

Is it too early to jubilantly taunt “bend over Trump & kiss your ass goodbye”?

How long before Trump gets drumped?

I’m gonna start running a bookie operation on how long before Trump gets dumped. Three weeks & his regime is in utter chaos. Put aside Kellyanne Conway & her Bowling Green massacre. The big question tonight: what do the Russians have on Flynn & Trump?

How will the crazy-pants libertarians explain all this since they’ve been claiming Trump is making a “frontal assault on the new McCarthyism”? They think he’s being demonized to destabilize his regime & dump him. Turns out he’s just being blackmailed by Putin.

Not to penny-ante Trump’s corruption, but isn’t it a conflict of interest for him to bring foreign leaders to his private Mar-a-Lago club in Florida? Are taxpayers footing the bill for $1,000 a night accommodations?

The children of Kashmiri Intifada

Kashmiri Intifada Feb 13 2017

Kashmiri Intifada:

You see this same kind of image of Palestinian children against Israeli soldiers. In Belfast in 1983, I saw many small boys taking rocks after armored vehicles of the occupying British army.

Some living sheltered lives get on a high horse & shake the naughty finger: “where are the parents?” To stop children from resisting occupation you would have to keep them locked up. Something about a child that doesn’t like an occupation–especially when children are the targets of pellet guns (Kashmir) or bombers (Gaza).

The tragedy here is not that children resist oppression but that the Indian government makes it necessary for them to do so & takes away their childhood in the process.

End the occupation. Self-determination for Kashmir.

(Photo circulating on FB)

Mourning those killed in Kulgam, Kashmir. Standing with those whose homes were violated in house to house searches

Exiled Home--Rollie Mukherjee

Mourning those killed in Kulgam yesterday. Standing with those whose homes were violated in house to house searches:

“mourning those martyred by india in combat and protest. in resistance for sure but also in deep fear. such thoughts abound: is this a repeat uprising which india will brutally quell, undermine and appropriate? what will be the “hasil?” all around there is increasing anguish, agonizing. there are calls for better strategy. there is hope and desire for options in a brutal polity where only illusion of choice is made to exist. how does one go forward? how does one face the day and the night? and how does one commemorate those who don’t mull but take bullets and pellets like play darts and those who are waiting to do so. to stay faithful to resistance in forms one chooses takes courage of a flame in a thunderstorm. is there even a choice ever? in this time it seems all answers have become questions even when tremendous courage abounds.”

–Ather Zia

Painting: Exiled Home by Rollie Mukherjee

(Thank you Irfan Mehraj)

When you think of Assad’s gulag, think Auschwitz; think the bowels of hell

I cannot bring myself to post images from Assad’s slaughterhouse: piles of bodies–naked, skeletal, bruised, lacerated, battered, burned. Think Auschwitz. Think the bowels of hell.

According to Amnesty, those they interviewed for their report on Saydnaya prison who were associated with the gulag (doctors, prison officials & guards, judges) said one of those signing off on torture for the regime was the Grand Mufti of Syria–the same guy the US Peace Council boasted about meeting last year to give a sacred aura to fawning over Assad. Vanessa Beeley called the Mufti a “genuinely compassionate & forgiving human being” but she’s paid to do rancid apologetics.

When Assad was asked in the interview with Michael Isikoff about the Mufti’s role & about hanging executions in his gulag, he defended the right of his regime to enforce the death penalty. Hanging, torturing, barrel bombs, chemical warfare, carpet bombing of unarmed civilians are all of a piece, & to Assad’s mind justified.

Not everyone who’s joined the Hands Off Syria Coalition are disreputable & politically corrupted beyond repair. There are those who have been misled & are insufficiently informed who would not want to go where that political current is leading you. I cannot urge you strongly enough to take a look at the images in this article about Assad’s holocaust & ask yourself if you can find sufficient justification in the apologetics peddled by the coalition of the damned.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4215532/Assad-s-21st-century-holocaust.html

Many libertarians are saying the protests against Trump’s policies are a regime-change operation. Sarcasm is no match for that stuff.

Indian paramilitary forces on murderous rampage in Kulgam district, Kashmir

Funeral protest (Kashmir Living) Feb 12 2017

Thousands of Kashmiris attended funerals today for six young men shot to death by paramilitary soldiers in a search & cordon operation in the Kulgam Frisal area that began around 4:30 am this morning. Four of those killed were alleged militants; two were civilians. Military & police officials called the killing of the four alleged militants a “major success” & “major breakthrough” in the fight against “Islamic militants” & called the civilian deaths “unfortunate.”

In fact, from the point of view of human rights, the operation was a cold-blooded massacre just like all military encounters with militants. From the military point of view, it was a public relations catastrophe: first, because they can’t get their story straight about what happened; & second, because the military did a shoot to kill operation against alleged militants & then shot live ammunition at unarmed residents protesting the assault. One can understand the confusions of young people attracted to armed struggle when due process is no part of military occupation & when you get shot at no matter what you do to resist occupation.

According to Asian Age, an Indian media source, officials in Kashmir told them three different counterinsurgency forces were involved in the operation. The Special Operations Group (SOG) said they got a tipoff from their network of snitches about the presence of militants in the district. Acting on that tip, they set up a cordon around the village & began waking people up in the middle of the night for a house-to-house search. When they couldn’t find any militants, who presumably look like everybody else in town, the SOG guys insisted that their snitch could not be wrong which prompted soldiers to re-search a particular house.

On re-searching, the soldiers found a false ceiling in the house where the militants were hiding. When their hideout was discovered, the militants opened fire on the soldiers & the home owner & his son who were with the soldiers, killing the son instantly. That scenario strains credulity & requires investigation.

In a second version of events reported by police officials to Kashmir media, counterinsurgency troops, acting on that tipoff, cordoned off a “suspected house” & began the search operation. No mention of waking up everybody in town & searching their homes first. In this scenario, three militants managed to escape the cordon–quite a feat since in this version there was one around the house & another around the village. In this version, the hiding militants opened fire on the paramilitary search party & the home owner’s son was killed in crossfire. Possible the soldiers were using him as a human shield? Again, all this requires investigation.

The four militants shooting from the attic were all killed, all were identified as local youth, & their bodies were turned over to their families for burial today. The body of Ashiq Reshi, the 30-year-old son of the home owner, was recovered from the debris of the house which had been completely razed to the ground. Exactly what kind of operation was it that required leveling the house? Or that couldn’t remove the body of a victim before it did so?

The violence of this operation brought thousands of unarmed residents from the surrounding areas fearlessly marching toward the site, shouting freedom slogans, & attempting to break the cordon around the village. The soldiers opened fire on them with pellet guns, tear gas, & live ammunition. Another young man was shot dead & 15 others sustained bullet injuries. Six are in surgery; one remains in critical condition.

The young men killed include the four alleged militants: Mudassir Ahmed Tantrey, Wakeel Ahmed Thokar, Farooq Ahmed Bhat & Muhammad Yunis Lone; & the home owner’s son, Ashiq Reshi. Three different names have been given for the civilian protester so it isn’t certain if there’s confusion about the name or whether three were shot. The names are: Mushtaq Ahmed, Muhammad Shafi Reshi, Mushtaq Ibrahim Itoo. May they Rest In Peace as we honor them as freedom fighters.

Their funerals were attended by tens of thousands of people & reportedly massive protests continue in the district against such atrocities of military occupation. The joint resistance leadership has called for a complete shutdown in protest tomorrow.

Our fullest solidarity with the Kashmiri struggle to end the occupation & achieve self-determination for Kashmir.

Photo is of one of the several funerals today, all attended by thousands of people shouting “Azadi.”

Kashmiris “breathe torture, inhale injustice”

MC Kash raps in English because “English is a universal language. Kashmiris know how they have suffered.” He uses the power of music to educate about the unremitting brutalities of military occupation. Just in the past several hours young activists have been murdered & several protesters injured by paramilitary forces using pellet guns, tear gas, & live ammunition. Afzal Guru, who was hung by the Indian government on February 9th 2013 (MC Kash honored him in “Bring Them Home”), said from his jail cell that Kashmiris “breathe torture, inhale injustice.”

Kashmiri activists feel powerful affinity with Palestinians in their struggle against colonialism. MC Kash said, “Gaza & Kashmir are related. A stone relates us. Humiliation relates us. Occupation relates us. Anger relates us. The human rights violations relate us. Intifada relates us.”

We can carry solidarity forward by sharing videos like this which expose the occupation & show the grief & relentless demand for Azadi (freedom) which drives Kashmiri resistance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAOgT49w2Co