(Originally posted on January 11th, 2020)

This is the 23rd anniversary of the suicide of my younger brother Paul Francis Scully at the age of 40. His death was one of the most painful losses of my life & I still think about him every day–partly because I did not fully understand the psychic pain he endured as a man stigmatized as ‘retard’. I commemorate his life publicly hoping others will accept, respect, & socially integrate all those with disabilities instead of patronizing, isolating, or persecuting them. This is what I wrote in 2017:

“My brother took his own life by stabbing himself in the stomach after 40 years of being ridiculed & tormented as a person with disability. He was taunted all his life as a “retard” & made to feel small & worthless. He was intelligent, insightful, witty, generous, & so sweet & kind, but being humiliated for being disabled made him hate himself so much he overcame the elemental human instinct for survival. He lived with more psychic pain than most can imagine–or that only the oppressed can imagine–because he didn’t have the sense of self or the social power to defend himself. He knew he was worth something as a human being but he knew he would never get others to understand that.

With great indignation, he would tell me how companions would ply him with alcohol, shave off his mustache which was his pride, & then drop him off on the side of the highway far out of town in the middle of night & the middle of winter. That was his life. That’s the life of many with disabilities & of the oppressed if they don’t have the power to defend themselves.”

May my beloved brother Paul Rest In Peace & may his life & death teach others to reject all stigmas attached to disability.

(Photo is Paul in Galway, Ireland, 1996)

Iraqi protest graffiti: graffiti has played a central role in all of the Arab Spring uprisings, including Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, & by Palestinians on the Israeli apartheid wall. Most of it has been destroyed in those countries as part of the counterrevolutions so photographic documentation is invaluable. When these countries have won their freedom from war & occupation, this graffiti will become the monuments of resistance.

(Tweeted by Abdalaziz Alhamza @3z0ooz)

The flag of the Syrian revolution against the Assad regime figured prominently at the Iraqi protests on Friday. The politics of counterrevolution in Syria are not too complex for Iraqis to understand. They are not disoriented or corrupted by Assadist & Stalinist propagandists as so many others, including leading figures of the so-called left. They do not draw their understanding from the collected writings of Stalin, the paid propaganda of Eva Bartlett & Vanessa Beeley, or the embedded ‘journalism’ of Fisk, Pilger, & Cockburn, but from the lived experience of war & occupation. Assadist propagandists be warned.

(Photo tweeted by Abdalaziz Alhamza @3z0ooz)

A video from November 2019 which shows the extreme violence used against unarmed protesters in Iraq. It will resonate profoundly with Palestinians & Kashmiris who face some of the same violence.

This is a quite cogent article by Sumantra Bose on the political relationship between Zionism & Hindutva ideology. The author doesn’t go into it here, but it is also important to understand the political relationship between the Modi regime & the Palestinian Authority. The collaboration between Modi & Abbas is not bonhomie but betrayal of Palestinian self-determination, as are the Oslo Accords which Abbas & the PA administer for Israel & the US.

https://theconversation.com/why-indias-hindu-nationalists-worship-israels-nation-state-model-111450?

So the Indian Supreme Court ruled today that internet access is a fundamental right, that the internet lockdown of Kashmir is an abuse of power by the Modi regime, & that it is illegal. Since the court ruling gave the Indian government one week to review the restrictions of internet services (whatever that means), it looks like there may be a built-in escape clause or at least a way for the Modi gang to temporize or stall. Do any Kashmiris believe the Indian government will turn the internet back on, complete with social media?

Photo is Kashmiri journalists in Srinagar protesting the internet blockade in October 2019.

(Photo from CNN)

Tens of thousands of Iraqis protested today in Tahrir Square, Baghdad against a corrupt government beholden to foreign powers & against foreign intervention by the US & Iran. They chanted “Screw Iran! Screw America!” & carried placards saying “No to Iran, no to America”. Fearing the resurgent movement would be eclipsed by a US-Iran war, thousands turned out across the country in many cities chanting “go go occupiers”. Thousands streamed into Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the new movement.

The Iraqi movement has to be one of the most important political developments in the Middle East. Since it began in October 2019, nearly 460 people have been killed & over 25,000 have been injured. This movement has the potential to cut like a laser through the monstrous Assadist & Stalinist deceits about the Syrian Arab Spring, the pernicious role of Hezbollah in Syria & against the protests in Lebanon, the role of Iran & the US in Syria & Iraq, & the nearly 20 years of brutalities & war crimes under the US-NATO occupation. There still needs to be an accounting for the criminal & barbarous assault on Mosul & the role of US covert operatives in fostering conflict.

This resurgent movement makes rebuilding a principled antiwar movement more imperative than ever to stand with them in their historic struggle to force US-NATO & Iran to withdraw & let them live in peace as a free people.

The photo is graffiti against foreign intervention in Iraq.

(Photo from journalist Lindsey Hilsum, Channel 4)

A panoramic view of the protest in Tahrir Square: https://twitter.com/othmanalbasher/status/1215627000527888384?

My sincere apologies for neglecting to regularly update my blog. Sometimes the stress of what I report gets the best of my good intentions. I will try to maintain my blog with more due diligence & timeliness.