Madonna is trying to recover her posture as a human rights advocate after playing the jester for Israeli colonialism, apartheid, & genocide last month, just an hour away from where Israeli snipers were shooting down unarmed Palestinian kids. She did her banal song & dance about music bringing people together which could only be true if Israel wasn’t bombing Gaza & razing villages in the West Bank as she spoke. Now she’s released a music video titled “I Rise” featuring footage of political protests & acts of defiance. After strutting herself across an Israeli stage in defiance of the cultural boycott & sticking a Palestinian flag on the asses of her dancers, we’re quite clear just exactly where Madonna stands on human rights. If genocide pays, she plays.

Many Indian & Kashmiri friends are sharing articles about the vigilante murder of Tabrez Ansari, a young Muslim man from Jharkland beaten to death by a mob. Besides its gruesome & vigilante character, the articles aren’t explaining what is behind this monstrous crime & emphasize accusations that he was beaten to death for stealing a bicycle. Early last year, a Muslim man in Jharkhand was beaten to death after asking a group to turn down their loud music on New Year’s day. Stealing a bike or objecting to loud music are not capital offenses even in a kangaroo court so obviously there is more going on here. Like an escalation of Hindutva nationalist violence against Muslims, Dalits, & other oppressed castes.

Could Indian & Kashmiri friends, or others who understand the social conflicts in this case, elaborate the politics of this particular vigilante murder? And please don’t do a number on so-called identity politics. As long as human beings are persecuted or murdered for their particular identities, identity politics will be a necessary form of resistance, whether maligned or not.

This is a 2018 Human Rights Watch report that gives considerable insight into the increase of these crimes in India:

https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/india?fbclid=IwAR2Ltsht2x-

I have the shameful habit of laughing at some of my own goofy humor, especially that directed at the British moochocracy. When someone else ‘liked’ this, it was an excuse to repost it. My simple mind never tires of ridiculing feudalism & its bootlickers.

February 11, 2013
Big news from England is they found the bones of Richard III who died in 1485. Our man’s been dead 528 years so those in the former colonies do wonder why the hell the big deal!? They had to use radiocarbon dating & mitochondrial DNA to analyze his bones found under a parking lot in Leicester. Isn’t this taking royal watching to a whole new level!? The history around the old boy is chock-full of the banalities most of us tired of in high school: inter-dynastic jealousies & conspiracies & feuds, homicides & beheadings, retinues & hangers-on & concubines, land-hunger & rebellions & battles. The tale as it’s told hasn’t advanced much beyond “Edward was a good king & happiness reigned in the kingdom but his son Richard was an evil lad & blood rolled in the streets.”

Shakespeare, Vergil, & Thomas More portrayed Ricky in the most unflattering terms but regrettably focused on his scoliosis to dramatize him as a malignant & machiavellian character who clawed & murdered his way to power–including murdering two small nephews so he could take their place as king. He also has historical defenders but the youngest was born over 300 years after Ricky croaked & their best efforts are more damning than defense. Alfred Legge in “The Unpopular King” (1885) claimed Richard’s noble spirit was warped by the ingratitude of others. We’ve all sustained ingratitude in life but most of us don’t go psycho & kill our relatives. The 20th century medievalist, Charles Ross, eschewed moral judgement saying 15th century England was a ruthless & violent age among the upper classes & Ricky’s villainies are excusable since they were “conditioned by the standards of his age.” We don’t live in such swell times ourselves so next time you want to pull a double-homicide pull that alibi out & see if it’ll fly in a court of law.

Ricky’s not looking so good after all this time under the parking lot but even over 500 years later you can see Ricky & Betty share the same snarl. That’s how they really knew this was Betty’s ancestor. That & the smell of his bones.

The only question remains: where was Robin Hood in all this?

(Photo from University of Leicester)