This is Rollie Mukherjee’s portrait of B.R. Ambedkar (14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956). He was an extraordinary figure in Indian history who should be known as well as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Sojourner Truth, Che Guevara, Maqbool Bhat, & others of such remarkable character.

He was born into the Dalit (untouchable) caste & went on to become a scholar, jurist, economist, politician, journalist, & social reformer. He campaigned for Indian independence from Britain, advocated political rights & social equality for Dalits & other oppressed castes, supported the rights of women & of labor. He was the architect of India’s constitution & a founding figure in the Republic of India.

Out of all his achievements, he will be most honored for the role he continues to play in inspiring the struggle of Dalits against caste oppression.

It’s heartbreaking to watch Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in a raging fire. They began building it in 1163 CE, 852 years ago. Just consider all the extraordinary & ancient buildings completely destroyed by US-coalition bombers only in the past 18 years. Human history, the very best of human achievement, obliterated along with millions of human lives.

Two young women I know are working their way through college doing pizza delivery. Little did I know that they must pay for their own gas & so rely on tips. Worse yet, little could I imagine that many people order pizza delivery & don’t give a dime in tips. I told the two women that I would post an appeal to tip the pizza delivery person & not be cheap about it. But then I cannot imagine that any of my friends would even consider not being generous.

Many are circulating a news report that an Israeli general is behind the military coup that ousted Morsi & replaced him with direct military rule under General Sisi. This is nothing but anti-Semitic rubbish & conspiracy mongering. The article was written by a leading fascist named Whitney Webb (who comes from the LaRouche network), was published by the pro-Iranian theocracy & Assadist propaganda site Mint Press, & circulated by Alison Weir on her If Americans Knew blog. Weir is deeply problematic politically because she attended the New Horizons conference in Iran which is a gathering of the world’s leading fascists, holocaust deniers & other anti-Semites, 9/11 truthers & other conspiracy whack jobs. She is either anti-Semitic or has a massive cognitive disconnect. Who of us could convene for days with such political trash?

To my mind, the coup against Morsi is one of the most misunderstood events in the Egyptian Arab Spring & signals its defeat. It divides those who understood the military character of rule behind the Morsi regime from those who fetishize rigged elections as the highest expression of popular rule. The military pulled an end run around the Egyptian revolution which at the time of the coup saw an estimated 30 million people in the streets demanding Morsi’s removal. Most analyses treat those protesters as of no consequence compared to the rigged elections which put Morsi in power.

We should debate this event to bring clarity to it. But it is not necessary to render anything but contempt to Webb’s rabid hatred that sees evil Jews hiding behind everything. What makes his assertion even more repugnant is that he & his ilk opposed all of the Arab Spring uprisings as orchestrated by the CIA & Mossad. We see the full fruition of their political derangement in their support for the Assad regime against the Arab Spring.

Ilhan Omar reports that death threats against her have increased a lot since Trump spread a video purporting to show her dismissive of 9/11. Trump’s tweets against Omar are called incitement to murder & we would like to ask the US Congress to explain why criminal proceedings against him have not begun?

This video from Kashmir shows an ambulance carrying a seriously ill patient being forcibly stopped to allow a convoy of Indian military vehicles to pass by on the main highway.

https://www.facebook.com/soanwatan/videos/493142184557226/UzpfSTE2MjUyMjkwNjE6MTAyMTYzNTk5NTA3MDQ0NDM/

Indian occupying forces assaulting the dead body of a Kashmiri militant. Under international law, desecrating a corpse is a war crime. But under Indian military law (rooted in English colonialism in India), they have complete impunity to commit any atrocity they want

https://www.facebook.com/kashmircause122/videos/557885784704821/UzpfSTE2MjUyMjkwNjE6MTAyMTYzNTk5MTQxMDM1Mjg/

Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails are on a hunger strike. Throughout the history of their freedom struggles against British & Israeli colonial rule, Palestinian & Irish political prisoners (who have also used hunger strikes) have expressed mutual solidarity with each other. ‘From Ireland to Palestine, we stand together against colonialism, racism & occupation, & for justice, freedom & liberation for all political prisoners & for all occupied peoples.’

Fact sheet about Palestinian political prisoners from Ireland Palestine Solidarity Committee:

https://www.ipsc.ie/press-releases/faq-why-are-over-1500-palestinian-prisoners-on-hunger-strike?

Fact that should make Islamophobes & misogynists alike choke on their own hate: Muslims gave the concept of university to the world. An Arab Muslim woman, Fatima Al-Fihri, is credited with founding the University of al-Qarawiyyin, the first degree-granting university, in Fes, Morocco in 859 CE.

(Photo of al-Qarawiyyin mosque & university)

On the Indian Army closing down the major highway to civilian traffic in Kashmir on Sundays & Wednesdays for the movement of military convoys.