The post about Meir Ettinger–the Israeli guy picked up as a suspect in the firebombing murder of the Dawabsheh family but set free with a tsk-tsk–is evoking some very unsavory comments–most of which I am furiously deleting. Two of them hailed Hitler & Nazism for the Jewish holocaust; others called for burning him alive, hanging him, torturing him.

The culture of impunity in Israel for the murder of & assaults on Palestinians is the problem because it fosters psychos like Ettinger. It includes arresting him but not charging him with a crime or prosecuting him. None of the Israeli media, even the most reactionary, questioned his guilt. That’s what a court of law is for.

For activists (thank heavens none of them were my Facebook friends) to call for barbarisms against this guy is an outrage. Those are the methods of the Israeli & US governments, their Mossad & CIA–not of activists who want to see justice & believe the way forward for humanity is to end barbaric practices like hanging & torture.

I really wanted to give everyone a report on the opening of Parliament with Betty & Phil Windsor. I get such a kick out of feudal pomp that I actually watched the whole damn thing on CNN hoping for a few chuckles & kernels of insight into feudalism. But it was like being at the Vampire’s Ball & I was left to wonder if the planet has been taken over by the undead.

The kiss-ass commentators on CNN tried to give dignity to groveling but it’s hard to drool & maintain composure at the same time. They kept insisting, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that the opening of Parliament is a party environment–raising the question if partying under feudalism is a more restrained affair than under capitalism? Or is the difference in party style between oligarchs & working stiffs? Do you think a little booze would help?

Obama called Drumpf’s economic policy proposals ‘crazy’. That’s from the man who bailed out Wall Street & the auto manufacturers & let millions of homeowners be foreclosed on. He’s a real stand-up comedian that guy. But he does know crazy.

Received this message from a caring friend & former coworker: “I’m seeing some very sad posts on your page!!!!! please don’t get lost in every bad thing on Earth—it will destroy you !!! hoping you do enjoy life.”

Rest assured, I’m not one to get lost in sadness. Three things operate to prevent that: firstly, adrenalin & outrage pumping at the rate 2/40 a second that human beings are subject to such violence; & secondly, a belief that working people can change the world to make it suitable for human beings to live & love in. If my energy ever flags–& in several decades of activism it has–I think of children & the world they deserve to live in. And thirdly, the political companionship of so many others from around the world who feel the same outrage & share the same convictions that a humane world is possible.

This drawing is titled “Mourning” by Rollie Mukherjee which is appropriate for the Indian occupation of Kashmir where grief & resistance go hand in hand.

Kashmiri human rights activist Khurram Parvez said: “To express it’s commitment on the International Week of the Disappeared, the Indian army disappeared 27 year old Abdul Wahid on 21 May 2016. Based on the testimonies of locals at Kishtwar, it is feared that army may have killed Wahid, as they heard gunshots & then disposed of his body in a rivulet. People in these far flung areas of Chenab valley are suffering unheard.”

Vampires: the lesser evil in US politics.

A few days ago I posted this photo of a recent protest in Srinagar against India’s plan to resettle thousands of Kashmiri Hindus, known as Pandits, in Kashmir.

The flight of 60,000 Pandit families in 1990 (about a year after the Indian military occupation of Kashmir in 1989) is frequently used by Indian nationalists to discredit the Kashmiri struggle, including in discussions on my wall.

I had not studied the Pandit issue & tried to correct that but my sources were inadequate. I should have discussed better sources with my Kashmiri friends on FB to get an understanding but regrettably did not. Just as Israel, the US, & media portray Palestinians as terrorists, India portrays Kashmiri Muslims as terrorists to justify the occupation. Many sources portray the flight of Pandits as a result of Muslim extremists or even as an ethnic cleansing but if you think about it, that explanation makes very little sense in the context of India’s massive military occupation of Kashmir.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ultra-conservative government with close ties to Hindu nationalist groups has proposed resettling Pandits in separate colonies. Activists oppose segregated settlements dividing Kashmiris by religion. Although a minority in Kashmir, Pandits were/are socially integrated & mingled with Muslims for decades. So Pandit-only settlements are clearly a divisive tactic to create conflict & as a weapon of Hindu nationalism.

This is an important issue & clarity about it cannot wait until my research catches up. So it would be invaluable for Kashmiri activists to explain the issue to us. Please don’t take umbrage at our ignorance. We’re working on it.

(Photo by Danish Ismail/Reuters)

Got called a Manichean today for criticizing the Dalai Lama’s Islamophobia & xenophobia. It’s been awhile since I was au courant on the different heresies so I had to look it up. It says Manicheans see things in black & white rather than contextualizing. Does contextualizing mean writing at great length & using big words to parse the rubbish coming out of the Dalai Lama’s mouth?

Don’t ask me to contextualize. It takes too long & bores me silly. Most of us detest equivocation. It’s easier to take sides with the oppressed & leave the mumbo-jumbo & apologetics to others. So you can call me Manichean but I’m betting the heresy is overcrowded. Either you stand with the oppressed or you blither on the sidelines contextualizing out of both sides of your ass. Most of us prefer justice.

The Dalai Lama is worshipped as a demigod & addressed as “Your Holiness.” When he speaks of kindness & compassion & the oneness of all living creatures, his acolytes around the world swoon in harmony because they think he means it. Very much like the acolytes of Bernie Sanders. But there comes a time when hero worship falls apart. Or should. A time when abstract pieties & empty rhetoric don’t cut it.

In the era of genocide & sweatshops everybody has to make an accounting to political realities. What the Holiness guy is spouting about refugees in Europe can hardly be called abstract pieties. He told German media “there are too many refugees in Europe”; that “Europe, for example Germany, cannot become an Arab country”; & that “From a moral point of view…the refugees should only be admitted temporarily.”