Now they’re reporting that coronavirus can be spread through money. Do you think there might be overkill in the panic department?
Daily Archives: March 5, 2020
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The International Criminal Court allows an investigation of US war crimes in Afghanistan to proceed. Imagine that the ICC acts before the international antiwar movement which has been reduced to a cult around Assad & is now sucking up to Iran. The US-NATO war crimes, including rendition prisons, in Afghanistan are as harrowing as any we know about anywhere.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/world/europe/afghanistan-war-crimes-icc.html?
A Syrian journalist covering the flight of nearly a million civilians from scorched earth Syrian & Russian bombing in Idlib reports:
So is there really a toilet paper emergency in Australia? Or is this like the old days when the only news about Australia was about kangaroos & we didn’t know about those concentration camps for refugees, genocidal policies toward Aborigines, & politicians that make Trump look smart?
It’s extremely courageous for these young men to speak out about the torture they sustained in Indian detention. The estimates of young men arrested & tortured during the lockdown period that are now presented in media do not correspond with those previously presented by investigative teams & human rights activists which were considerably higher. It’s not certain how many are still being held & how many have been released. There were even reports that young children arrested & stuck in Indian jails had been lost in the system. There needs to be a full accounting of the situation of Kashmiri political prisoners. The demand for their release needs to be chief among our solidarity demands.
A stand with Kashmir rally tonight at Indian consulate in NYC.
(Photo from Stand With Kashmir)
Where does the US State Department in the person of its director Mike Pompeo, who is also a former director of the CIA, get off handing out Women of Courage awards to women human rights activists? I don’t challenge the suitability of any of the twelve recipients but the US State Department & Pompeo have no relationship to human rights & make a mockery of this honorific. Unless some dough comes with the medal you hang on your chest, it’s wiser to toss the damn thing.
The coronavirus alerts have convinced me to finally wash my hands–a practice I gave up when my mother stopped nagging me to do so several years ago. Maybe it’s time I washed them, don’t you think?
Good thing Starbucks is already on the BDS list of companies to boycott since it was revealed in a recent investigation on Britain’s Channel 4 that their coffee suppliers use child labor. Nespresso, a subsidiary of Nestle which is represented by George Clooney, uses the same suppliers. When asked about it, Clooney did an Oscar-worthy performance claiming he is “surprised and saddened” by the use of child labor. He is neither surprised nor saddened since he was informed of this at least four years ago in public exposés of Nestle’s labor practices. He has found a way to rationalize his involvement in child labor & make his fortunes off the exploitation of children.
The Netherlands & White Helmets have responded favorably to Turkey’s call for a no fly zone in Idlib although most NATO members have thus far given the cold shoulder to Turkey’s proposal. The problem is that Syria has already called a no fly zone for the area & will try to enforce it with Iranian ground forces & Russian bombers even though Turkey has been operating with what appears to be Russian permissiveness, or at least lack of resistance.
A militarist solution should not be what first leaps to mind in defense of the Syrian Arab Spring. Before calling for a no fly zone, it might be more effective & politically advanced to call for international protests demanding the cessation of bombing since polls show the majority of people oppose foreign military intervention in Syria. To build a movement, the demand would have to be for a cessation of all bombing since you cannot build a social movement that endorses bombing that would kill civilians unless you organize among fascists.