From Aleppo

"As I was walking through Suleymaniyya yesterday, a upper class Christian neighborhood in Aleppo, I stumbled across a protest that was taking place.  Based on their chants, it was a mix of opposition and supporters of Bashar, although the latter was bussed in and quickly outnumbered the former.  Weirdly enough, I haven't found anything about it in todays news, although it's possible that most news sources have effectively given up on Aleppo.  I've heard that Syrians have begun mocking Aleppans for their reluctance to join in on the protests, even denying some Aleppo plated cars gas in other cities.  A friend of mine here says that one of the main reasons there are so few protests in Aleppo is the lack of Alawites.  As she puts it, there's no "friction" here between the Alawites and everyone else, i.e. they don't see firsthand the absurd social privileges Alawites receive."