The outpouring of solidarity for Russia is so moving. You almost wish it wasn’t nuts.

Is a soft coup against Trump really in progress this time? It’s getting to be like the boy who cried wolf.

First Clinton tried to pull a soft coup on Trump & the deplorables did not speak out because they were watching zombie movies. Then the electors tried to pull a soft coup on him & the deplorables did not speak out because they were under the bed hiding. Now Obama loyalists & the deep state are pulling a soft coup on him & the deplorables will not speak out because they’re afraid the CIA will take away their zombie movies.

Will somebody just get the damn coup over so the deplorables can get back to preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse?

Momentous events have preempted a long overdue update on the doings of Betty Windsor. It should be discreetly reported that Phil’s flatulence problem caused some uncomfortable moments for assembled guests from the aristocracy at the Sapphire Jubilee celebrating Betty’s 65th year on the throne.

Having a senior moment, Betty didn’t remember the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery would be giving her a 41-gun salute in Green Park. When it went off in a thunderous volley that rocked the palace, Betty asked, loud enough for all her guests to hear, “Was that you, Phil, or was it one of those damn 41-gun salutes?”

The aristocratic composure of guests was only momentarily disturbed & easily assuaged when Camilla came to Betty’s side & said “Oh get off it. It isn’t that different from hitting the trifecta at the horse track.”

(Photo of 41-gun salute from CNN)

So many mocked the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria (with reverberations in Iraq, Morocco & elsewhere) as orchestrated by nefarious forces. Others wrote jubilant obituaries to the failure of Arab democracy. The undercurrent was a sneering contempt for Arab culture, for Muslims, & the stinking mendacity of racism.

Arab revolutionists in those countries braving extreme repression to commemorate the 6th anniversary of the historic uprisings would like the world to know the revolutions have been delayed but are not vanquished. There’re been some setbacks due to massive bombing, extreme repression, widespread arrests, forced disappearances, torture, executions. Thousands have given their lives & suffered the unspeakable.

But still they rise. What’d we think? That social transformation would come easy? That entrenched power with high-tech armies would just cave? Get real.

These photos are from a protest in Sitra, near Manama, Bahrain on Tuesday, February 14th, the 6th anniversary of the Bahrain uprising. To crush the uprising, early on the king brought in the most sophisticated & brutal super-cops from the US & UK to terrorize the protesters, including with pellet munitions. The top photo is a young men throwing a petrol bomb at an armored personnel carrier come to harass the protesters & which is discharging tear gas canisters. The bottom photo is a woman holding up a photo of resistance leader Isa Qassim to taunt the soldiers.

Until they send us further notice, the revolutions continue & international solidarity must stay steadfast. That includes for Syria against Assad.

(Photos by Hamad i Mohadded/Reuters)

PS: Perhaps it’s worth noting that the same political forces who sneered at the Arab Spring sneer at the youth anti-Trump protests, Women’s March, & protests against Trump’s Muslim ban. Coincidence?

This is Kashmir

Where the nightingale utter song of cry,
Having the strongest wings birds can’t fly

This is Kashmir,

Where the brothers fight to die,
Where the sisters standby.
This is Kashmir,

Where the martyrs depart with smile.
Where the mother shower sweets over her dead son.
This is Kashmir,

Where the fathers teary eyes don’t dry,
Where the mothers wishes, with her young son die.
This is Kashmir,

Where the toddler is pellet victim,
Where the older is bullet victim.
This is Kashmir,

Where there is AASIYA in every family.
Where there is NEELOFAR in every home
This is Kashmir,

Where there is MAQBOOL in every heart,
Where there is AFZAL in every part.

This is Kashmir,
Where the atrocious is Government,
where the oppressed is poor.
This is Kashmir,
Here is something cruel in endless space,
Here are scares that people chase.

–Waseem Nasir

(22-year-old Neelofar Jan was the sister-in–law of 17-year-old Aasiya Jan; both were brutally raped & murdered by Indian military forces in the Shopian district of Kashmir in 2009. The Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society has extensively documented the crime.

Afzal Guru was hung by the Indian government in February 2013 & Maqbool Bhat in February 1984, both as independence fighters.)

The contentious relationship between Obama & Netanyahu is portrayed as differences over Israel’s aggressive settlement policies. That’s how Obama explained it even though Netanyahu is known to be irascible & difficult. Despite provocative & pissy behavior from Netanyahu, Obama understood what was at stake in the relationship between Israel & the US & conducted himself like a professional politician. Unlike Trump, more narcissist than politician, who thinks he can prevail on social familiarity with Bibi. Trump is a moron & will learn the hard way what is at stake & why sweet-talking plays no part in US diplomacy on that score.

As for those policy differences between Bibi & Obama? Last year, under Obama, the US signed a deal for $38 billion in military aid to Israel for the next ten years, the largest military assistance package in US history. To see the extortionate scale of that aid, Israel is roughly the size of New Jersey, the 5th smallest US state.

What is the military aid to Israel for? To maintain the brutal occupation of the West Bank necessary to expand settlements on Palestinian lands & for periodic bombing offensives over Gaza. But the US also bankrolls Zionist settlers moving from the US to Israel. In 2015, the Obama administration said in the previous 6 years of his tenure, he had authorized $140 million to cover travel expenses for Zionist settlers from the US & for transitional shelter, Hebrew-language courses, & youth programs in Israel.

The US does not disagree with Israel over apartheid & ethnic cleansing nor about expanding settlements in the West Bank or bombing of Gaza. It not only bankrolls Israeli colonialism but it brokered the Oslo Accords which laid out the terms of Palestinian surrender & the means to accomplish a Jewish-only state through ethnic cleansing.

Where the US differs with Netanyahu is on the pace & public presentation of Israeli colonialism. Netanyahu recklessly vows outright that there will be no Palestinian bantustates in Gaza & the West Bank. The US thinks it injudicious to be so forthright because it strengthens Palestinian resistance, BDS & the international solidarity movement.

Trump is not going to sweet-talk Netanyahu out of his recklessness. Palestinian Intifada strengthened by BDS is the decisive difference.

(Netanyahu & Obama putting on their mad faces.)

Media is talking about Trump’s comments on the bantustate solution for Palestinians as if he were signaling a major shift in US policy toward Israel. He’s an ignorant ass & more likely had no idea what he was talking about. He’s over his head & all he knows is he hates Palestinians.