Did you ever think you’d see the day when Ron Paul was invited to address an antiwar event? He’s a classic rightwing libertarian at the nexus with fascism. Among his most detestable views are: support for Israel’s blockade of Gaza; extreme racism toward all non-whites; opposition to immigration; opposition to social security for elderly & disabled; opposition to health care for low income children & women; opposition to LGBT rights, women’s reproductive rights, & civil rights; opposition to public education; a belief that those who are sexually harassed or assaulted at work should quit their jobs.

Other participants at the event organized in California by Cindy Sheehan are mostly Assad supporters, as is she. This cannot be considered an antiwar event when it is a symptom of political degeneration.

Saw a comment by a nationalist that it’s not human rights criminality to use pellet guns against stone pelters. Nationalism makes you stupid, not to mention psychopathic. India has no right to occupy Kashmir with 700,000 soldiers & use any kind of force, particularly force that hunts down young people & executes them on the spot without due process, or that blinds, disables, disfigures & causes permanent health problems to protesters & non-protesters alike with pellets. If you cannot see the criminality of pellet guns against those who resist occupation, you have taken your stand on the side of barbarism & have no claims to being civilized.

#Sunset_and_Sunrise.

Get your shine on, get your shine off.
I love sunset and sunrise, just because
Sunset and sunrise reveals undying love, dreams, hope, friendship…….

And to the east, to the west, to the north, and to the south, the dusk falls everywhere.
And to the east, to the west, to the north and to the South, the dawn falls everywhere.

I capture, may be the moon and the sun are two long distance friends, separated by night.
I capture, may be the sunrise and the sunset are two long distance friends, parted by night.

And the evening came, after sky draws it’s curtains to the sunset.
And the morning came, after the sky draws it’s curtains to the sunrise.

Sunset is the hope to reset our past embarrassing flub.
And sunrise is the hope to start up the day without embarrassing flub.

Sunset and sunrise are two painting of God, which God reveals at night and morning respectively.
Sunset and sunrise needs cloudy skies to look more beauteous.

Sunsets are glimpses of the streets of ingang gate of the heaven.
Sunrises are the glimpses of the streets of another outgang gate of the heaven.

And I wish I could reach near to the infinite sunset and sunrise.
I wish I could capture myself nearer to the sunset and sunrise.

When the darkness is at it deepest, sunrise vanishes it’s deepness.
When the light is at its deepest, sunset vanishes it’s deepness.

Get your shine on, get your shine off.
I love sunset and sunrise, just because
Sunset and sunrise reveals undying love, dreams, hope, friendship…….

~by Shahid Imran via Rollie Mukherjee

Children of conflict:

This is from a series of digital art by artist Masood Hussain done during the 2016 uprising in Kashmir when the Indian occupying army ran amok with the use of pellet guns–often injuring, totally or partially blinding, disfiguring children inside their homes in what has been called ‘directed stray bullets’. Over 7,330 were injured by pellets, causing lifelong health issues & emotional distress. The army continues to use pellet guns against unarmed protesters despite considerable international media coverage exposing the criminality. The Indian courts have denied legal action to ban pellet munitions as unnecessary force so it will take massive international opposition to help Kashmiris stop their barbaric use.

End the occupation. Self-determination for Kashmir.

(Statistic from Research Section, Kashmir Media Service)

“Do not love half lovers
Do not entertain half friends
Do not indulge in works of the half talented
Do not live half a life and do not die a half death
If you choose silence, then be silent
When you speak, do so until you are finished
Do not silence yourself to say something
And do not speak to be silent
If you accept, then express it bluntly
Do not mask it
If you refuse then be clear about it
for an ambiguous refusal
is but a weak acceptance
Do not accept half a solution
Do not believe half truths
Do not dream half a dream
Do not fantasize about half hopes
Half a drink will not quench your thirst
Half a meal will not satiate your hunger
Half the way will get you no where
Half an idea will bear you no results
Your other half is not the one you love
It is you in another time yet in the same space
It is you when you are not
Half a life is a life you didn’t live,
A word you have not said
A smile you postponed
A love you have not had
A friendship you did not know
To reach and not arrive
Work and not work
Attend only to be absent
What makes you a stranger to them closest to you
and they strangers to you
The half is a mere moment of inability
but you are able for you are not half a being
You are a whole that exists
to live a life not half a life ”

–by Kahlil Gibran via Rollie Mukherjee

“In Kashmir if you demand freedom, dignity and justice, Indian state responds with killing, maiming, incarceration, torture and rape.

Quite understandably, the same Indian state provides protection to protestors demanding release of a policeman who rapes a Muslim minor girl.

If you are a journalist who does not bootlick the collaborator government and records the brutality of the state, you are a criminal who deserves to be behind bars. But if you do the bootlicking that is called ‘moral journalism’, inverting the very meaning of morality.

If you are an artist who speaks truth to power, you may be threatened or ignored, but if you attain significant fame there are attempts to co-opt. The role of co-option as a counterrevolutionary measure is only second to brutal violence which the state perpetuates on a daily basis.

It is a duty incumbent upon all of us to understand these traps which are sold in the name of “bringing the change from within”. No such change is going to come out of a system which is totally rotten from within. A system whose foundational doctrine is to deny us freedom and “integrate” us at any cost cannot be expected to mysteriously transform by our participation. Our survival as a morally upright nation depends upon our total opposition to this oppressive, illegal occupation of our land and lives. Azadi the only way.”

–Mir Laieeq

This is Burma’s chief genocidaire General Min Aung Hlaing (on the left) in Bangkok yesterday receiving the “Knight Grand Cross First Class of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant” from his Thai counterpart General Tarnchaiyan Srisuwan.

Apparently, in Thai & Burmese feudal tradition white elephants were considered sacred & a symbol of royal power. But in English idiomatic language, a white elephant is something expensive but useless which becomes a burden because its maintenance is out of proportion to its value. Stadia built for Olympics & FIFA World Cup games would be an example of white elephants. A ‘white elephant sale’ in the US is where you dump your used junk for sale. Ironically the English idiom came from Siam where the king would give the animals to courtiers considered a pain in the ass to ruin them because they couldn’t give them away but had considerable expense to house & feed them. This white elephant honorific from General Srisuwan to General Hlaing is of the junk sale kind. Absolutely worthless, unless he can dump it on the gold market.

The malignant affinities between these two generals don’t just involve military rule but Thai complicity in the Rohingya genocide. In the 2012 flight of Rohingya refugees, the Thai navy took decrepit boats of fleeing refugees out to sea & abandoned them. In the 2015 flight, the Thai military turned boats back from landing. Thousands of Rohingya refugees remain unaccounted for. There are also credible allegations that the Thai military is involved in human trafficking of Rohingya refugees. The Thai navy intercepts boats of fleeing refugees, holds them for ransom on islands or in forests & sells them to traffickers. In 2015, 30 bodies of trafficked Rohingya were found in mass graves or left in the open on the Thai-Malaysian border. A police task force claimed they were starved to death or died from disease while being held for trafficking.

Stand with the Rohingya people against such treacheries.

(Photo is from FB wall of General Min Aung Hlaing)

Please take a moment to sign & share this petition to Oxford University which has chosen a scholar who advises the Burmese military to write an entry about the Rohingya people for an upcoming series. Part of the struggle against genocide is the protection of Rohingya history against misrepresentation & racist lies by the genocidaires.

https://www.change.org/p/vice-chancellor-of-oxford-university-re-oxford-u-press-myanmar-genocide-its-choice-of-dr-leider-as-the-expert-on-rohingyas?

The occupation of Kashmir: another picture worth a thousand lies.

The same rightwing & nationalist political forces in Jammu & Kashmir who support the occupation of Kashmir & are campaigning to get Rohingya refugees in Jammu deported are now marching to support the Special Police Officer arrested for the abduction, captivity, torture (bite & burn marks), rape, mutilation, & murder of 8-year-old Asifa Bano, a child from the nomadic Gujjar and Bakerwal community in the Jammu area of Jammu & Kashmir. She was abducted on January 10th but her body was not recovered until January 17th where it was dumped.

Probably because the Gujjar nomads are an oppressed caste, the police took no action to investigate the little girl’s disappearance until community members protested. Police then assaulted the protesters with tear gas & arrested their community leader. The arrested policeman, who was accused of harassing the family & members of the Gujjar community, was part of the police search team–although the body was found by local people, not by police. He was also part of the police team who handed the child’s body to the family.

According to the police report on the arrest, little Asifa was raped & murdered by the accused to create fear among the Gujjar so they would leave the area. It is reported that the community does in fact feel considerable fear, especially when rightwing nationalists are marching to defend the accused murderer. This unspeakable crime against a small child exposes the psychopathic nexus of caste, ethnic, class, & gender oppression. That he could exact such hatred, brutality, & terror on a small girl touches the depths of human evil. Every rape & murder of a woman or child is always a personal & a political crime.

Our heartfelt condolences to Asifa’s family & to the Gujjar community. May she Rest In Peace. The struggle for justice has just begun.

#JusticeForAsifa

(Photo of Asifa Bano from Greater Kashmir)