It was once wrenching for me to see people I held in high esteem & worked with in the antiwar movement sharing articles from Assad propagandists like Eva Bartlett, Mint Press, Global Research, defending “self-determination” for the Assad regime against the Syrian Arab Spring uprising, & defending Syrian & Russian bombing of civilians as a fight against ‘jihadist terrorism’. Now I’m just waiting for their other shoe to drop so they can limp off to the oblivion which their corrupt, rotten politics deserve.

In an apostolic letter, Pope Francis has issued long-awaited rules mandating church officials report sexual abuse by priests to other church officials for prosecution by church officials. What has changed is exactly nothing since the rules do not require church officials at any level of this procedure to notify law enforcement so that offenders can be prosecuted in a civil court of law where rape allegations belong. The church will continue to cover up & transfer rapists. Rape is first of all a crime against children. Salvation & redemption of the offender are between a rapist & his confessor & are none of our concern. Justice is between the child & the rapist & is adjudicated in a civil courtroom.

Bernard, the Nazi pope, was bounced & Francis installed under the hope that Francis would clean up the mess within the clergy but he has shown he is completely unwilling to do so. The church’s tax exempt status should be revoked until it demonstrates compliance with laws regarding the protection of children from priest rapists. That means church officials should skip all that internal maneuvering & be mandated to turn the offenders over for prosecution to civil authorities. Until the Pope orders that, he’s just playing us for fools.

PS: I don’t understand why civil authorities do not prosecute the Catholic Church dioceses for obstructing justice when it comes to turning rapists over to civil authorities.

Can any of us who have not experienced war, occupation, genocide even imagine what it is like for a child to live in such circumstances?

(Photo of child caught in Syrian & Russian bombardment of Idlib & Hama from White Helmets, May 10 2019)

A White Helmet rescue worker in Idlib going about their nefarious business of saving civilian lives from the rubble of Syrian & Russian bombers pounding homes, schools, hospitals. There are also Syrian & Russian ground troops deployed in this onslaught. Because of Assadist vilifications & vituperations against the White Helmets associating them with terrorism & organ trafficking, these men & women rescuers are in an extremely dangerous position if those forces get to them on the ground or from the air. That they stand ground to rescue civilians speaks to their immense courage.

This is an emergency appeal from the White Helmets & others struggling to save people: https://diary.thesyriacampaign.org/sosidlib/?

(Photo from White Helmets)

Remember this 2017 photo from the occupation of Kashmir? Another picture worth a thousand lies.

(Photo by Faisal Khan)

A beautiful poem worth reading again & again by Kashmiri Zafar Iqbal:

-a poem (my mode of resistance)
my mode of resistance is silence.
silence, silence and silence.
far i know silence lies
on the opposite lane of
revolutions.
so , in all probability,
my mode of resistance is to count.
count, count and count.
far i know count will
include
dead and
martyred children of
revolutions.
so, in all probability,
my mode of resistance is to escape.
escape, escape and escape.
to high mountains and deep valleys.
for i know high mountains and
deep valleys are
all occupied by the tyrants.
So, in all probability,
my mode of resistance is to pray.
pray, pray and pray.
for I know
God will never help,
God helps those
who help themselves.
so, in all probability,
my mode of resistance is to write.
write, write and write.
for I know
they will never understand
my poetry.
So, in all probability,
my mode of resistance is to educate.
educate, educate and educate
for I know
my tyrant is snared
in the sewer of baser minds.
Evil lunatic is its king.
hate and killing is the objective
so, in all probability,
my mode of resistance is to educate
educate, educate and educate.

Pardon me for saying so, but the Icelandic group Hatari performing at Eurovision 2019 is blowing smoke up our asses when they say they’re for BDS, describe Israel as apartheid, & challenge genocidaire Netanyahu to a trouser-wrestling contest. They deny they’ll make any political statements supporting Palestinians during the performance but it wouldn’t matter if they did. When Hatari defied the Palestinian call for a cultural boycott of Israel & crossed that picket line, they took a stand with Israeli apartheid & genocide against Palestinians. When they reduce political opposition to genocide to a trouser-wrestling contest with Netanyahu, they don’t just mock & belittle the scale of oppression faced by Palestinians but flip the bird to justice. In politics, you can’t play both sides of the street. You cross the cultural boycott picket line, you become the soundtrack to genocide. There’s no two ways about it.

(Photo of Hatari holding a rehearsal at the expo center in Tel Aviv by Thomas Hanses/EBU)

According to civilians in Idlib, Syrian & Russian bombers are only targeting civilian areas, especially homes & hospitals. Does Assad claim civilians are hiding terrorists in their closets & doctors are hiding them in their operating rooms?

Hospitals are inoperable, schools are closed down, & tens of thousands are fleeing for their lives. The numbers of civilians killed is not yet known but several children are among them.

Demand Syria & Russia stop the bombing & demand the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all foreign military forces from Syria.

(Photo of child in Idlib from White Helmets, May 10, 2019)

Syrian refugee life. Or what Assadists call “liberation.”

(Undated photo by unidentified photographer)

These young Palestinian men are scaling the apartheid wall today at Al-Ram town just outside Jerusalem so they can attend Friday prayers during the holy month of Ramadan at Al-Aqsa Mosque. This is despite Israeli authorities barring men under 40-years-old from praying in the mosque while Israeli settlers are allowed to enter the mosque under Israeli police protection.

(Photo by Issam Rimawi/AA)