Washed up tennis player John McEnroe, known for temper tantrums on the court, said Serena Williams would rank 700 if she were ranked with male players & he refuses to back down from his stupid, misogynist claim.

In a similar situation in 1973, Bobby Riggs, a former world tennis champion, said “the best way to handle women is to keep them pregnant & barefoot,” called women’s tennis inferior, & said he could beat any woman player. Woman tennis champion Billie Jean King took him up on the challenge & faced off against him in a Houston arena. She eviscerated the punk in front of 30,000 people in the arena & millions of others on TV.

The greatest defeat of all time in tennis. So how about a match between McEnroe & the great Serena?

Modi & Trump in the bear hug asana when they met Sunday:

Any appropriate captions to this photo? Other than projectile vomiting?

(Photo by Kenin Lamarque/Reuters)

Reposting this brilliant “revolutionary manifesto” about Syria by poet Musab Iqbal from 2016:
*****
The “Revolutionary” manifesto of 21st-century Hypocrites

– Russian intervention is different from US/Nato intervention
– Russia has no imperial/colonial ambition (ever) unlike US and allies
– Iran-backed militias are not like US/Saudi-backed militias. Former unlike later is busy saving human lives with great empathy and kindness
– Assad is the most ideal democrat and any criticism of him and his power is sinful
– Assad army never shot or killed anyone, in fact Hama massacre never happened, there is no prison and torture center in Syria
– Syrian Army is personally trained by Gandhiji
– The world is made of binary. If you are not with us (Russia-Syria-Iran) then you are with them (ISIS-Al Qaeda- USA- Saudi etc)
– Celebrating death and torture is the most merciful and dignified revolutionary act
– Iran is defending Secularism and Democracy in Syria like it is doing in its own country
– Everyone is lying except PressTV, RT and journalists close to Assad regime
– Don’t criticize Syrian regime if you have not criticized all the violence in the world starting from Habeel and Qabeel (Adam’s son killing the other son)
– There is/was never political opposition in Syria, there were terrorists and there are terrorists.

The US Supreme Court, a confederacy of reactionary dunces if there ever was one, has ruled to allow most of Trump’s Muslim ban, including suspension of the US refugee program. Later this year, they will adjudicate the entirety of the ban. This is going to be a much tougher battle than we thought.

The Supreme Court tries to present itself as some kind of ex cathedra body drawing on the holy writ of the constitution & immune to political pressure. They can stuff that myth. They are as subject to massive political pressure as any other body of the US government.

If we are going to push this onslaught back–& we must because it endangers refugees, Muslims, & the Bill of Rights–then we must organize, agitate, educate, mobilize.

Zahid Shah, who introduced parkour to Kashmir, has introduced this beautiful piece of music to me. It seems so appropriate to the long, unremitting struggle to make this world suitable for human beings to live & love in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6Qc7eOiqtI

“… may we continue to extinguish the fires of hate wherever they burn, whoever they threaten.”

–Eid Mubarak blessing from Thamina Faiz

Brace yourselves for a pearl of wisdom. When you’re my age, you think you have the right to drop them. Which explains why so many senior activists are removed from so many guest lists:

Listening well & observing carefully are essential to the art of politics. Resist jumping on the bandwagon when you don’t understand something but take your time to study, listen, & do that elementary compare & contrast thing. Ask basic questions & stay away from conspiracy thinkers.

Hope nobody objects that Trump cancelled the “traditional” Ramadan celebration in the White House. Don’t know how traditional it is since this is the first time most of us ever heard about it. But who would want Trump making a mockery & burlesque of Ramadan?

In 2010, a 14-year-old Mexican boy named Sergio Hernandez was shot by US border patrol on the Mexican side of the border near El Paso allegedly for stone pelting, although he was shot in the back.

There wasn’t much political response in the US or in Mexico for such an outrageous crime against a young boy. There was a lilliputian protest here & I went out a few times by myself with a placard.
In my FB memories for this day, I came across this post about the shameful role El Paso media played in blunting the anger for the boy’s murder. I was so outraged by their dishonest smearing of Sergio that I sent several emails to the El Paso TV station to which I never received even a canned reply. This is one email I sent about their claim that he was involved in smuggling immigrants. Bless his heart if he was involved in helping them, but he was not.

There has never been justice for his murder. Presently, the US Supreme Court is sitting on a case deciding the right of his family to file a civil suit against the border patrol, denied by lower courts because he was shot on the Mexican side of the border. May he Rest In Peace.

“Sent email to KFOX-TV, El Paso: “You reported anonymous source saying 14-yo Sergio Hernandez was known immigrant smuggler, charged in 2009, and on most wanted list of juvenile smugglers.

Why would this information require anonymous source; is it not all a matter of public record? Where is the most wanted list posted and who posts it? What are the details of the 2009 charge? Is all this per Mexican or U.S. sources?”