Day 156 (month 5) of the military siege in Kashmir: thousands attend funerals of youth murdered by occupying army; father dies of shock when son is arrested second time under Public Safety Act (indefinite detention without charge); army continues abductions of youth from homes; army continues arresting youth for stone throwing & continues use of pellet guns against protesters & ambulances taking injured to hospital.

Today Reuters published a photo of Muslim youth praying at a religious shrine; the Guardian published a photo of women praying at the same shrine. Media interest in Kashmiri prayer rituals is only exceeded by its fetish with Hindu prayer rituals. No fake news here.

End the occupation. Self-determination for Kashmir.

(Photo from Kashmir Freedom)

Facebook reports 88,000 people are talking about Kylie Jenner cuddling her niece. Don’t mock it. It sure beats thinking about Trump’s cabinet choices.

Sometimes a comment on my wall will include a derogatory comment about Jews, those with learning disabilities, religion, etc. When I’ve objected to the comment (right before I delete it), it’s happened that the person will say “But I’m from a persecuted group myself so there should be some forbearance.”

My beloved younger brother Paul was stigmatized as “retarded” in early childhood in an era when enlightenment had not yet dawned. He was taunted as a “retard,” humiliated, bullied, socially isolated & considered inferior. To cope, he became alcoholic & at the age of 40 took his own life.

He lived with me off & on, including a period when he was recuperating from a broken leg. We would go for check-ups to an affordable clinic near my house where the waiting room was always crowded, mostly with Latino immigrants.

It annoyed me that no one would offer him a seat when he was on crutches but never said anything to him. One day, as we drove home he said: “Mary, all the people in the waiting room except me are–what do you call them?–Hispanics or Latinos. But I don’t like to call them names because they’re just human beings like us.”

That’s my answer to that forbearance thing.

Eva Bartlett is being toured in the US by pro-Assad forces who claim to be antiwar but support Syrian & Russian bombing of civilians as a freedom operation against “throat-cutting, organ-eating jihadist terrorists.”

Her speech at the UN Syrian mission was a predictable litany of accusations about those “jihadists” which will go over well with committed Assad supporters. But critical-minded activists & those confused about the Syrian war will require elaboration–which unfortunately Bartlett may not be able or willing to give.

Bartlett’s mantra is that there never was a popular uprising against Assad’s dictatorship in 2011, that since its beginning, the war has been a proxy war against a progressive Assad regime by US armed & trained terrorist militias with the purpose of regime change. But according to Bartlett’s own biography, she was in Gaza till after November 2012. So whose authority is she accepting that there was no popular movement against Assad–when Syrians who participated in that uprising testify otherwise & when there are mountains of documentation, including hundreds of videos?

When Bartlett & other Assadist sources describe what is going on in east Aleppo (as an example), they claim the 250,000 civilians sustaining Syrian & Russian bombing are controlled by those “throat-cutting, organ-eating jihadists.” They deny east Aleppo is being bombed & insist it is the “jihadists” who are creating the mountains of rubble. Any documentation to the contrary they claim is “fake news.”

The first question for Bartlett is: how does she know what’s going on in east Aleppo when she has not been there? What are her unimpeachable sources? Out of the over 1,000 armed militias in Syria, which ones does she know are operating in east Aleppo & how does she know that? How does she know their political character & that they are “head-chopping jihadists”? Can she document anything from independent sources who are not embedded with the Syrian army like Robert Fisk?

Most Assadists, including Bartlett, only name a few “jihadist” militias like al-Nusra & the Free Syrian Army but they insist they’re all alike, that there are no moderate militia groups. Maybe they’re simplifying because in mainstream media & other sources, there are so many militia groups with such different politics that flow charts are required. Perhaps to prove her authority, Bartlett could detail & document some of the most important groups to show she’s not talking through her hat or serving as an Assad propagandist.

What does she know about the pro-Assad militias? How many are there & where are they operating in Syria? Does she know which of the over 1,000 militias in Syria are armed by the CIA & which by the US military & what their field of operations are? Which ones are Hezbollah? Which ones foreign mercenaries? Iranians? ISIS?

Most importantly, how is the US using those militias to accomplish regime-change? It would have been so much easier for the US to accomplish that with bombers against a weakened Syrian military before Russia entered the war in September 2015. Can Bartlett explain why the US temporized over three years instead of doing just what it did in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya?

Bartlett leads the chorus that chants like a broken record: nothing one reads in “corporate media” about Syria can be trusted. It is all lies. It is all “fake news.” Her sweeping indictment includes every single media source from the NY Times to Democracy Now that doesn’t have an ardent pro-Assad position & doesn’t promote Russian military intervention.

But to her, the treachery & lying doesn’t end with mainstream media. She has devised a list of NGOs & human rights organizations who also report nothing but lies about Assad & Putin. That list which she promises to expand includes Medecins Sans Frontiers/Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the White Helmets, & others guilty of not supporting Assad’s dictatorship.

It is not persuasive that Bartlett only relies on Russian-owned media or pro-Assad sources, including propagandists like herself, for an understanding of the Syrian war.

So the second question is: how can she be believed? What independent sources does Bartlett use to prove that there never was a popular uprising against Assad’s dictatorship, that “jihadist terrorists” funded by the US are the only opposition to the Assad regime & they are all engaged in “throat-cutting & organ-eating”?

Bartlett would be so much more credible if she would just identify her unimpeachable sources, if she could document a single thing she says, & if she didn’t have such close ties to the Assad dictatorship.

(Screenshot of Bartlett speaking at UN Syrian mission)

Today is International Human Rights Day. What are we supposed to do? Sing requiems?

September 2014: the CIA reported the number of ISIS fighters in Syria & Iraq to be between 20,000 & 31,500.

February 2016: a US Defense Department official reported the number of ISIS fighters in Iraq & Syria to be between 20,000 & 25,000. It’s not clear if that included the 5,000 ISIS fighters they estimated were in Libya.

December 8, 2016: a senior US Pentagon official claimed that about 50,000 ISIS fighters had been killed since the US went after them militarily just over two years ago. He called that a “conservative estimate” of ISIS fatalities.

According to official US estimates, that means they’ve killed double the number of existing ISIS fighters. Do you think “fake news” may be involved? Like the “fake news” in 2003 that Saddam Hussain harbored weapons of mass destruction?

The US Defense Department reported in January 2016 that fighting ISIS with ground troops & airpower costs US taxpayers about $11 million per day. The air war alone cost about $5.5 billion total since it began in August 2014 until January 2016. With that kind of expenditure–which is also probably a ‘conservative estimate’–US taxpayers deserve an honest accounting–which will not be forthcoming since the first casualty of war is truth.

Photo is a scene yesterday from the siege against 5,000 to 8,000 ISIS fighters in Mosul, Iraq by US & Iraqi forces. Iraqis are waiting to receive aid from a UN agency.

(Photo by Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters)

What looks like an 18th century debtor’s prison is a police station in modern day Manila, Philippines where those arrested for alleged drug use are packed like sardines in squalid conditions & take turns sleeping in any space they can find.

Since July 1st, over 35,600 people have been arrested in anti-drug operations or just picked up off the streets. Those are the ones who survived vigilante squads & weren’t shot outright like nearly 5,000 others. Officials claim over 727,600 drug users & 56,500 drug peddlers have surrendered rather than risk being gunned down.

The problem is not just insufficient detention centers to hold them but the complete denial of due process. How long will they be held in these prisons & warehoused like animals? Do they face the possibility of forced disappearance or summary execution? Whether they surrendered or were arrested, they have a right to an attorney & to defend themselves in court. More importantly, they have a right to demand rehab treatment & facilities if they are addicted to drugs rather than incarceration. Mass addiction is a health & social issue, not a criminal matter.

Duterte’s war on drugs is modeled on the US version–neither of which address mass drug addiction. Nor are they intended to. In the Philippines, it is a war on poor youth; in the US, it has the added dimension of racism. The intention behind both is to terrorize young people to forestall any organized resistance to oppression & inequality, to homelessness & unemployment.

Those who stand for justice stand with these young inmates. They are ours. Duterte is the criminal & should be prosecuted for human rights crimes on a massive scale.

(Photo by Daniel Berehulak/NY Times)

Last week Philippine president Duterte phoned Trump to congratulate him on winning. He reported that Trump wished him success in the war on poor drug addicts & said Duterte is doing it just the right way: shooting down suspected addicts & street peddlers & skipping that whole nuisance of due process thing.

In just over five months, nearly 5,000 suspected users have been shot down in cold blood by death squads incited & organized by Duterte. “They are slaughtering us like animals, one witness told a NY Times reporter.

Since they’re so in sync politically, there’ll probably be a rapprochement now between the two loudmouthed presidents & all that grandstanding & talking trash about kicking out the US military & aligning with China & Russia will soon be forgotten. Especially after Duterte takes up Trump’s invitation to meet with him at the White House next year.

Not all Americans are barbarians who share Trump’s enthusiasm for vigilante death squads. Our deepest condolences to the families of those shot down like animals. They are ours. May they Rest In Peace.
These are two victims murdered by Duterte death squads to the applause of right-wingers around the world.

(Photo by Daniel Berehukal/NY Times)

People get so caught up in their judgements about the veil they forget it’s being used to deny asylum to refugees, discriminate against & threaten Muslim women, & justify bombing & occupation.

It’s a women’s & human rights matter when governments impose it. But that substantive issue isn’t addressed with such fervor as the theology, comfort, & judgmental stuff about the veil.

When all is said & done, women who wear veils don’t give a rat’s ass what the rest of us think. We should pay more attention to their indifference than we do to their attire.

Some people are still hoping for a deus ex machina operation to oust Trump as president. Miracles like that only happen in Cecil B. DeMille movies about the Bible. The Electoral College hasn’t got a single one to its credit.

Nobody can believe the vulgarian is really gonna be president. But just give him time. He’ll get himself impeached. That won’t take a miracle.