Assad ideologues get hundreds more “likes” on their posts, including now when they’re talking that US regime-change rubbish about the protests in Iran. Don’t let it be discouraging. It’s just very hard to compete with Russian bots who have 1,000 personas in every language.

Yesterday, a Thai court jailed a 23-year-old blind woman for 1-1/2 years under the medieval lèse-majesté laws outlawing insults to the king or other “royal” personages. Nurhayati Masoh was found guilty of posting an article on FB by Giles Ji Ungpakorn, a Thai-British dissident who fled into exile after he was charged with a lèse-majesté offense in 2009.

Masoh may have posted this excoriating obituary of old king Pumipon from when he croaked in October 2016. One never tires of reading it since it elevates lèse-majesté disrespect to an art form.

https://uglytruththailand.wordpress.com/2016/10/13/king-pumipon-of-thailand/

This is a little Rohingya boy in a classroom at a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. The responsibilities of solidarity with him are to oppose any forcible repatriation of Rohingya refugees to the killing fields of Arakan state & to demand our governments provide safe asylum, visas & work papers, humanitarian aid, education, healthcare, & port-au-potties.

(Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

The Syrian army supported by Russian bombers is engaged in an offensive on those areas held by revolutionists against the regime. Medical personnel report that most of the fatalities are women & children. Assad supporters portray this carnage as the liberation of Syria in defense of national sovereignty. But national sovereignty for whom? The Assad dictatorship or for the Syrian people?

This small boy in Douma (15 kilometers from Damascus) under siege is holding up a fragment of a bomb dropped on an unarmed, civilian population.

The only principled demand is for the immediate cessation of bombing & the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all foreign military forces from Syria.

Thousands of Dalit protesters & strikers closed down businesses & schools & blocked roads & transportation in parts of Mumbai, India after Dalits were attacked by rightwing upper caste nationalists at a gathering in another city on New Year’s day. The rebellion in Mumbai & other areas of the state began when rightwing goon squads attacked Dalits at the 200th anniversary celebration of a battle when Dalit fighters in the British colonial army defeated an upper caste army several times their size. The celebration in the village of Bhima Koregaon (170 kilometers/105 miles from Mumbai) represents a historic moment when Dalits defeated upper caste Hindu oppressors. Two Dalit men were killed in the attacks & their deaths are what ignited the Mumbai protests.

Our fullest solidarity with the Dalit protesters who are taking a stand against the rise of rightwing nationalist thugs & against caste oppression.

(Photo of Dalit protesters from Reuters)

Little boys in Kashmir. Posted for no other reason than it’s a delightful photo of kids playing.

(Photo by Aasif Shafi)

Kashmiri photo/video journalists on their way to an encounter with the Indian occupying army. It’s not an exaggeration to say they are among the best photojournalists in the world documenting a very dangerous occupation.

(Photo by Faisal Khan)

Children under the Indian occupation of Kashmir: a picture worth a thousand nationalist lies.

(Photo from Kashmir News Trust)