The smartphone is the “weapon”authoritarians fear most because it records and exposes their crimes against humanity. That’s why ICE attacks and even murders those who bear witness and then slanders them as terrorists.
Their songbook has a limited repertoire. Someone posted today on Bluesky the British Home Department statement from January 31, 1972, when their Secretary of State blamed the unarmed civilian protesters in the Bogside of the City of Derry in Ireland. They called them trouble-makers and claimed they attacked the Army, and that the Army "met this assault with two water cannon, CS, and rubber bullets only." Then claimed that the protesters had attacked the Army with firearms and with bombs. FOURTEEN victims, all residents of the area. Not a single conviction.
Yes. It never stops breaking my heart. When Soldier F was acquitted this September 2025 for the blood bath he caused in the city of Derry on Bloody Sunday, I cried in my kitchen - and drank Irish whiskey, and sang a bit. Like I saw when my father cried in our kitchen in Montréal in 1972 when the news came in. The last try at getting justice against those war criminals.
Law never applies to war criminals if they are British in the north of Ireland, or American in Latin America. It’s always been provisional. No justice, no peace.
As lawyer Ernst Fraenkel noted from early nazi Germany, there have always been at least two societies under law: the normative one, for which the law works; and the prerogative one for which all deals are off. Ireland, Palestine, Latin America. We all fall into the latter category.
International law is aspirational. Some of us know what it’s like when it passes us by. Like standing on the side of the street trying to flag down the bus. You know the driver saw you. Yet it drives on by.
I will continue to pin my hopes to the aspirational. Not because I’ve experienced it, but because I’m a ridiculous optimist and what the hell.
The smartphone is the “weapon”authoritarians fear most because it records and exposes their crimes against humanity. That’s why ICE attacks and even murders those who bear witness and then slanders them as terrorists.
Exactly!
Their songbook has a limited repertoire. Someone posted today on Bluesky the British Home Department statement from January 31, 1972, when their Secretary of State blamed the unarmed civilian protesters in the Bogside of the City of Derry in Ireland. They called them trouble-makers and claimed they attacked the Army, and that the Army "met this assault with two water cannon, CS, and rubber bullets only." Then claimed that the protesters had attacked the Army with firearms and with bombs. FOURTEEN victims, all residents of the area. Not a single conviction.
Fascists are the same across timelines and borders! Fuck fascism, everywhere.
Yes. It never stops breaking my heart. When Soldier F was acquitted this September 2025 for the blood bath he caused in the city of Derry on Bloody Sunday, I cried in my kitchen - and drank Irish whiskey, and sang a bit. Like I saw when my father cried in our kitchen in Montréal in 1972 when the news came in. The last try at getting justice against those war criminals.
Law never applies to war criminals if they are British in the north of Ireland, or American in Latin America. It’s always been provisional. No justice, no peace.
As lawyer Ernst Fraenkel noted from early nazi Germany, there have always been at least two societies under law: the normative one, for which the law works; and the prerogative one for which all deals are off. Ireland, Palestine, Latin America. We all fall into the latter category.
International law is aspirational. Some of us know what it’s like when it passes us by. Like standing on the side of the street trying to flag down the bus. You know the driver saw you. Yet it drives on by.
I will continue to pin my hopes to the aspirational. Not because I’ve experienced it, but because I’m a ridiculous optimist and what the hell.
Tenacious optimism is what I call it too!
Beats the alternative.
And if I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution, as Emma Goldman said.