A Turkish Airlines pilot halted the deportation of an Afghan man denied asylum when he refused to take off out of Heathrow after he heard the man weeping. The unidentified pilot came off the plane & said “You’re not going to take him. I’m not flying. Someone’s life is at risk.” European aviation regulations give the pilot authority over the safety of passengers. The 22-year-old man was removed from the plane & has another shot at seeking asylum.

Deep respect for the pilot. Such is the mettle of the best of us.

“India is only as democratic as China is communist, & the Islamophobic ‘feminist’ is only as feminist as ISIS is anti-imperialist.”

–Satyadeep Satya

You might be a libertarian redneck if you take umbrage at Chris Hedges’ unflattering comparison of the thuggery of Antifa to the violence of fascists but not at his support for Assad’s dictatorship & Syrian & Russian bombing of civilians.

What’s wrong with the punch-a-fascist-in-the-face strategy?

What’s the appeal of the punch-a-fascist-in-the-face strategy? It has infantile macho written all over it. More to the point, it has undercover operatives written all over it. Why would anyone in their right mind think breaking bank windows & punching out rightwing protesters is an effective strategy for or against anything? At most massive protests these black bloc/Antifa punks have long been an irritant to serious activists & a sideshow used to discredit peaceful protest; most of them have nothing to do with building social movements but exist to disrupt them.

It is political power that ends wars, fights fascism, defends the oppressed. That power derives from maximum numbers engaged in consistent political activity, not in macho fisticuffs. Letting machismo guide your political choices will lead you off the deep end.

A friend asked me to go to her house to bury a possum that one of her dogs had killed. She is extremely sensitive & was squeamish about handling a dead animal. She had covered its body under three containers weighted down but when I removed them, the possum wasn’t there. Is there any truth to that “playing possum” thing? Do they actually play dead to elude capture?

Yaqui Animal Shelter took Sophie the Schnauzer smart enough to go to college & Franky, the 3-legged Chihuahua to their ranch today because they’re the rascals that endanger my other dogs by leading them in escapes up & down roads with traffic & who have the neighbors up in arms. They phoned this afternoon to tell me that on September 15th Sophie, Franky, & the two bambinos will be on an adoption caravan to Arizona. The two bambinos have already been adopted through the Yaqui adoption website.

Sophie & Franky were characters full of mischief & delight but it is an enormous relief not to have to worry about them or chase them or coax them back into the yard. They are in responsible, dog-lovers hands & will be cared for beyond my abilities.

Azadi sheep (Musa Kashmiri) Sept 1 2017

“#AntiNational Sheep Seen Roaming in #Kashmir Valley, NIA to probe funding. Sheep taken Into Custody.”

–Tweeted by Musa Kashmiri‏ @Musa_Kashmiri

US policy toward the occupation of Kashmir

BFF

Reposting this from September 1, 2016 when Obama was president about the US attitude toward the Indian occupation of Kashmir. There’s certainly more to the relationship between the US, Pakistan, & India than elaborated here but this was to show that the US is not neutral about the occupation nor even a potential ally of the Kashmiri freedom struggle.
It was written before the recent aggressive shift in US policy toward Pakistan which does not mean Trump’s policies are distinct from Obama’s policies. It does mean the US alliance with India makes the Kashmiri struggle an issue for American human rights & antiwar activists.

Many ask what US policy is toward India’s occupation of Kashmir because of the US economic, political, & military relationships with Pakistan & India, both the recipients of billions in US military aid. Pakistan is a key US ally not just in Afghanistan but the entire region; India plays a role in Afghanistan & is central to the US military buildup in the South Asia region as a buffer against China.

Comments by the US State Department when asked about Kashmir are carefully scripted gibberish. This is a recent statement: “As we have said many times, our policy on Kashmir is this: The pace, scope, & character of any discussions on Kashmir is for the two sides to determine, but we support any & all positive steps India & Pakistan can take to forge closer relations.” Not even no mention of the brutal Indian occupation, but no mention of Kashmiris. According to the US, it’s a dispute between Indian & Pakistan which Kashmiris are not party to.

Obama has met with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi seven times in the two years since Modi’s election & has commented about Kashmir on more than one occasion. For some unknown reason probably related to currying votes, in October 2008, two weeks before his election as president, Obama told Time magazine that “working with Pakistan & India to try to resolve the Kashmir crisis in a serious way” would be among the critical tasks of his administration. “It won’t be easy,” he said, “but it’s important.”

But by the time of his November 2010 news conference in New Delhi with then Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh, Obama had been chastened not just by India’s uproar about his campaign statement but by those who actually determine US foreign policy. He spouted the official line that “With respect to Kashmir, obviously this is a long-standing dispute between India & Pakistan” & the US would play no active role. Again at a November 2015 meeting in NYC between Obama & current prime minister Modi, Obama said ‘Kashmir is a bilateral issue to be resolved between India & Pakistan.’

There is no report that Kashmir was raised as an issue during Obama’s January 2015 state visit to India & Modi never mentioned Kashmir in his June 2016 address to the US Congress. For the US, Kashmir is of no consequence when Pakistan & India play such central roles in its military strategy. It’s the price Kashmiris, Palestinians, Afghans, Syrians, Iraqis, & for that matter Pakistanis & Indians play in the designs of US neoliberal capitalism.

The US has no right to intervene but in fact by militarily bankrolling India it is not neutral at all but supporting the occupation & arming India against Kashmiri self-determination. Human rights & antiwar activists around the world have a duty to protest the occupation & expose all the regimes who feign neutrality to Kashmiri justice.

In this photo from a state dinner in New Delhi, Obama toasts Modi, January 2015.

End the occupation. Self-determination for Kashmir.

(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Lik

Irtiza & her grandmother protest forcible disappearances in Kashmir

Irtiza and her grandmother Sept 1 2017

Eight-year-old Irtiza & her grandmother at the sit-in protest on the International Day of the Disappeared in Srinagar. Their uncle & son (in the photo Irtiza is holding) was abducted by the Indian army from the street outside his home on June 6th, 1990. Ever since, his mom has been making the rounds of police stations begging for information about her son.

Losing a beloved through disappearance has a powerful emotional dynamic & is a grief so wrenching it can never be resolved but only endured. That’s what makes these memorial protests so important. Forcible disappearances must be highlighted & opposed as a practice intended to threaten & demoralize those who resist occupation, war, genocide.

This is a very moving article about those who attended the protest on Wednesday:

http://freepresskashmir.com/2017/08/31/enforced-disappearances-one-more-eidi-less-eid-for-eight-year-old-irtiza/

(Photo from Free Press Kashmir)