I have no idea why James Hodgkinson waited until he was 66-years-old to become a gunman. Being unemployed at that age probably didn’t help, especially if he was already unhinged. But I first learned about the anger of seniors when I was a bank teller after I left the convent & waited on lines of them every first of the month when their social security checks arrived. I heard wrenching stories of lonely seniors living in roach-infested apartments, predatory, dangerous landlords, not having enough money for food–& that was in the 60s.

As a political activist doing lots of door-to-door & street campaigning, I have met dozens of seniors bristling with indignation at the injustices they face & the helplessness they feel.

A few years ago, there were reports of large numbers of seniors apprehended in bank & business robberies all across the US because most have no pensions & sometimes Social Security (SS) payments go as low as $500 when the average rental is nearly twice that. Since Obama trimmed the cost-of-living increase for SS, it’s very hard for most seniors to make ends meet. And it is very hard for seniors to find work.

So this is no apology for Hodgkinson but since he was active in the Occupy movement, it’s certain that he seethed with fury at the US Congress for administering the attacks on working people.

That’s why across the globe you find seniors on the front lines of struggle–from the anti-austerity struggles across Europe to the Arab Spring in the Middle East to the battles for social security in India.

It seems appropriate to add this painting by Syrian refugee Abdalla Al Omari of world politicians as homeless, powerless, dispossessed.

Trump just signed an executive order for an apprenticeship & job training program to keep jobs in America which he thanked his daughter Ivanka for helping launch. She was there at the signing, beaming ear-to-ear. How does that correlate with her use of sweatshop workers overseas working in deplorable conditions to manufacture her shoe & garment lines?

The $100 million Saudi donation to her women entrepreneur program is actually a scam being run by the World Bank who will launch a $1-billion fund next month at the G-20 meeting in Germany to help female entrepreneurs. They will control the fund, not Ivanka Trump who functions as their celebrity shill. This program needs to be investigated since the World Bank & IMF are key players in the establishment & consolidation of sweatshop economics around the world. Millions of refugees have set out on arduous journeys to escape the depredations of sweatshops depriving them of rights, dignity, & the possibility of a human life.

The World Bank has been operating female entrepreneur programs for several years in countries like Ethiopia & it appears they involve child labor. It’s hard to know because it’s difficult to access information about exactly what the money goes for. But that would correspond with their involvement in sweatshop economics which are based on child & women’s labor. It also corresponds with World Bank involvement in artisanal gold mining in some African countries where children & adults work in extremely toxic conditions & are then ripped off by middle men working with the global industry.

How much rubbish will this administration force us to swallow? Actually, it’s taking us a lot more up close & personal with exactly how capitalism works at our expense.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/13/revealed-reality-of-a-life-working-in-an-ivanka-trump-clothing-factory#img-1

Glad the Democrats & Republicans are finally admitting they’re all one family. We’ve known that for years.

Such a show of unity between Democrats & Republicans over this shooting. Touching–& such high-flown rhetoric. But they show the same kind of unity when they vote billions in war appropriations.

Now if we can just unite & forge a new international antiwar movement against those wars.

This is my article in Pakistan Today about the relationship between the US & Saudi Arabia, a country which has become even more important than Israel as a bulwark against the Arab revolutions to end military, monarchical, & autocratic rule.

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2017/06/15/for-all-trumps-speeches-saudi-arab-spring-is-a-looming-inevitability/

For those who would like to follow news about the Rohingya struggle both in Arakan state & in diaspora, the Rohingya Blogger is one of the best compendiums. It is a network of citizen journalists who report news about Rohingya in media around the world. It’s a much faster resource than googling.

It is a thorn in the side to the Suu Kyi regime & generals who have attempted to discredit it for fabricating news when it reports on incidents of ethnic cleansing. Suu Kyi’s office actually runs a campaign against it, including getting a former Human Rights Watch monitor in Myanmar, now her groveling minion for hire, to write a scurrilous attack on it in the NY Times. What higher recommendation?

http://www.rohingyablogger.com/

Trump is under criminal investigation by Mueller just after he threatened to fire the guy. The world’s dumbest president. Makes my heart sing to imagine the orange president in an orange prison jump suit. When it comes to revenge, God should not have all the fun.

The shootings in DC are deeply regrettable but I do wish media gave even one-tenth the coverage to the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Somalia. Mostly I wish they would say outright that the vituperations of Trump have incited such violence.

Lately there have been comparisons made between the Israeli military in Palestine & the Indian military in Kashmir suggesting that the Indian army is more brutal because the Israeli army is guided by a principled code of conduct. Where the hell does that rubbish come from?

This June 2nd article in Indian Express titled “Lesson from Israel: Those who invoke Israeli army example in J&K must educate themselves about its code of ethics” by D. S. Hooda, a general in the Indian army, should clear up any delusions about the character of the Israeli army. He lays out their monstrous crimes against Palestinians quite clearly going back decades. And he only scratched the surface. The Israeli army portrays itself as the “most moral army in the world” based on the hyperbole & lies of retired British Colonel Richard Kemp (quoted in the article). Kemp has been deployed in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, commanded British forces in Afghanistan, & boasts of collaboration with the Israeli military & with Mossad, Israel’s secret service.

He testified before the UN Human Rights Council that Israel committed no war crimes or crimes against humanity in its 22-day 2008-2009 carpet bombing siege of Gaza when 1,387 to 1,419 civilians were killed; nearly 6,000 were injured (some permanently disabled); 22,000 buildings, including schools, homes, public buildings, were destroyed; 20,000 people were made homeless; the electrical, water, & sewage infrastructures were bombed to smithereens. Human Rights Watch accused the Israeli military of “wanton destruction” but our man Kemp told the UNHCR that the Israeli military “did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in the combat zones than any other army in the history of warfare.” Kemp is so filled with hate that he wouldn’t know a human rights crime if it shot him in the ass & almost certainly has more than his own share for which he should be prosecuted.

The cynicism & the intent of this Hooda article is summed up quite clearly in his final paragraph: quoting Plato, he says “it is the reputation, not the reality of goodness that is desired, for nobody ever does right simply because it is right.” This may be a cynical view but it is realistic. It is squarely on the military leadership to ensure a reputation of ethical behaviour.” In other words, the Indian army has to get its propaganda game on to silence & counter the voices of Kashmiris on social media who have done more than enough damage already exposing military impunity for pellet guns, mass incarceration, mass rape, forcible disappearances, mass graves, torture, extrajudicial executions. Too late General Hooda. Suck it up. The lies haven’t worked for Israel & they aren’t working for India. You’re approaching the end game of the occupation.

Article from Indian Express:

http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/israeli-palestinians-rift-kashmir-situation-lesson-from-israel-4684913/

(Photo of Palestinian blocking Israeli armored vehicles from Youssef M. Al-Attar)

There’s a lovely story out of Los Angeles where Latino & Muslim activists decided to build bonds of solidarity & respect since they are both groups targeted by the Trump regime & crescendoing campaigns of hate. Latino activists pull up taco trucks to mosques at sunset for the iftar meal breaking fast during Ramadan. Such a simple but powerful expression of solidarity.

This is the article about the inaugural  event:

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-tacos-ramadan-20170604-story.html

(Photo by Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)