I have seen a few pictures of Xi Jinping where he does this subtle body language thing. In one picture Barack Obama is slightly off balance. In another Narendra Modi is caught a little off balance.
Someone analyzed and said he is trying to suggest China is number one. Maybe so.
My analysis is different. This guy is a frustrated movie star. He came into politics because his father was a major communist figure. He is called a prince, for that reason. His father was a comrade of Mao. The family pressure was a bit too much. There was legacy.
He did marry the most famous singer in his country, did he not?
He is really into literature. He is a huge fan of Hemingway, for example. He has sensibilities. You can't become a movie star unless you have deep sensibilities. Al Pacino calls himself an "emotional athlete."
In a freer China, a more comfortable China, Xi Jinping would have been a movie star.
You see a Coke commercial on TV. Then you pick up a magazine, and you see another ad for Coke. You go for a drive, and you see Coke on a billboard. You go online, and there is a banner ad for Coke. Experts say a brand needs to get you seven times, and at that point they got you. The brand plants itself in your subconscious.
So then when you go to the corner store, and you see Coke and Pepsi side by side, you are going to pick Coke, out of "free will."
Advertising is a trillion dollar industry, because it works.
Look at what the Chinese did. They bought over 100 million dollars in real estate from Trump Inc. over the years. There were over seven transactions, all of them legitimate, all of them personally carried out by Donald Trump. He prides himself in sales and negotiations.
The Chinese, over the years, have taken both sides on the abortion issue. They used to have a one child policy. They don't anymore. Donald Trump is also all over the map on the abortion issue.
That is just one example. Experts could come up with the entire list. I am no expert.
The Chinese know better than to outright buy a candidate. They are way too sophisticated to do something so stupid. Although, with a hundred million dollars, you could run for president. That's there.
English: AGRA. Vladimir and Lyudmila Putin visiting the Taj Mahal. Русский: АГРА. Владимир и Людмила Путины во время посещения мавзолея Тадж-Махал. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
English: Vladimir Putin with his mother, Maria Ivanovna Putina, in July 1958. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
English: Vladimir Putin at school age (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Russia has seen three fundamental political paradigms in just the past 150 years. There was the Tsar, then the Lenin monarchy, and now a Putin monarchy. But the country's geopolitical pull has remained constant. Even if Russia were to become a western style democracy, I believe that pull will stay, likely even expand. My point being, we can't blame Putin for Russia's geopolitical pull. It is the country exuding the force.
No two democracy is alike. America is not like Canada is not like Britain is not like France is not like Germany, and so on. Which means perhaps countries are like fingerprints. Each country is going to end up with a slightly unique political system and culture. Russia is not waiting to photocopy any other country politically. Maybe Russia is a little too different.
I believe in democracy and human rights like no American I have ever met. I believe democracy is good for every country. And I am not exactly America inspired. Although it is obvious that America is the loudest example today. The world's first republic was birthed by the Buddha. We also recently found out Iraqis came up with calculus over a thousand years before Newton.
I do want to see a more western Europe style democracy in Russia. I very much want Russia to become a more robust economy. I want Russia to do double digit growth rates. But I don't believe in military intervention. Except in Russia's case that is not even an option. The species should survive.
My prescription would be the deepest possible engagement with the country. If you want a western Europe style democracy in Russia, you want the deepest possible engagement with the country. That is the best option, that is the only option. Which means sanctions are a bad idea, and not sustainable over the long term. I understand the circumstances that brought them about. But at some point down the line they will have to be rolled back.
One mistake America made early on was while it expanded NATO right to Russia's borders, it did not at the same time respectfully engage Russia. Russia joining NATO might be an outlandish thought, but America could have offered to carry out joint naval exercises in the Pacific, for example. This is one more thing we can blame on Bush. (The list is long.) Looks like not only W messed up the War On Terror, he rekindled the Cold War too.
The Russia India friendship does not have a parallel. This is not like the friendship between America and England. India and Russia are not shared cultures. There are no shared languages. There is not even a shared border. It is almost like a friendship between two human beings, only it is between two peoples. It is not a military alliance. And business is not the primary motive. It is just friendship.
Top elected officials called on D.C. politicians to roll back a nearly 50% proposed cut in anti-terror funding to the Big Apple....... “Our message today is both simple and urgent, we need the Congress to step up and protect the people of New York City against terror, protect the people of the United States against terror,” Mayor de Blasio said at police headquarters in lower Manhattan Wednesday.......President Obama’s spending plan for 2017 aims to slash the Urban Area Security Initiative, which provides counter-terror funds to New York and other cities, from $600 million to $330 million. The funding goes to the NYPD, FDNY and Office of Emergency Management...... The city got $180 million under the program last year. The budget proposal cuts that funding in half. ...... Schumer said he was “shocked, disgruntled and chagrined” by the proposed cuts and leveled some criticism at the Obama administration.
Official photographic portrait of US President Barack Obama (born 4 August 1961; assumed office 20 January 2009) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Just getting a black guy in there as the first black president has been a monumental achievement. The self-esteem effects on black children is beyond the clock. But the substantial work has been on education, health care, job creation, and criminal justice system reform. And he has taken huge leaps on each. The impact will play out over a generation.
The first black president has done right by the black people. Why are people wearing wigs offended?
The Great Recession was harder on the black population than on the population at large. And the unemployment rate among young black folks is still too high. And that is a prescription for continued good work. Too bad we have term limits.
Donald Trump Hates Republicans but Praises Mexicans, Obama, Pro Choice, Healthcare and Hillary -- wait, that was 3 years ago, my mistake..reverse all that now! #RockTheVote
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari— who helped run President George W. Bush’s 2008 bank bailout plan —
sounded a lot like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren
in recent comments he made. ....... Wall Street woke up with a new problem Tuesday: a Republican Goldman Sachs alum using his new bully pulpit atop the Federal Reserve to suggest the biggest banks should break up. .....
Sanders immediately issued a a press release saying he was "delighted" by Kashkari's remarks.
..... the way to fix the problem might be breaking up the biggest banks or forcing them to hold so much capital that they become public utilities. ..... Kashkari's plan shocked Washington's financial policy wonks and lobbyists who have spent years fighting over rules still being implemented from the 2010 Dodd-Frank law. Kashkari's unexpected campaign — in which he says there needs to be "transformational" change — has the potential to shake up the discussion among banks, regulators and politicians...... A big part of the surprise was that Kashkari, who ran for governor in California as a Republican in 2014 and has been at the Fed for less than two months, was taking on the issue. But he can make a compelling argument that he knows what he's talking about firsthand....... He served in the Treasury Department from 2006 to 2009, and at the end of his tenure in the Bush administration, he oversaw the financial crisis bailout known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program...... Kashkari's announcement made waves on the campaign trail, the Hill and K Street, though some bank lobbying groups are taking their time before going on the defensive against a top Fed official....... Tim Pawlenty, former governor of Minnesota who is now president of the Financial Services Roundtable, said regulations requiring larger reserves and decreased risk should be finalized and their impact studied "before policymakers can credibly call for them to be repealed and replaced with actions that could put American banks at a major global disadvantage and have other unintended consequences.” ....... John Dearie, acting chief executive of the Financial Services Forum, said breaking up global financial institutions based in the United States "would ensure that one of the U.S.’s most competitive global industries serving companies small and large is turned over to banks based outside the United States.” ........
While Kashkari earned praise from Sanders, he is entertaining ideas that appear to go beyond the comfort zone of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has run on a regulatory platform that's more focused on risks outside the traditional banking sector.
Republicans haven't spent as much time digging into bank regulation and too big to fail in their debates...... Kashkari said he plans to deliver a plan to Congress by the end of the year.
it highlighted the U.S. central bank's independence from politics. ..... he urged Congress to consider breaking up massive banks...... Kashkari, a candidate for California governor in 2014 who last month began the Minneapolis job, acknowledged he had not consulted broadly with lawmakers or with his colleagues at the Fed, arguing it was appropriate to go public with his views before getting feedback, to which he "looked forward." ..... Bernie Sanders, a Democratic senator and presidential candidate who has tapped into anger toward Wall Street, said on Tuesday he was "delighted" with Kashkari's stance. Asked about this on Wednesday, Kashkari said: "I've never met Senator Sanders and I don't know him and I've never spoken to him. This is not about politics." ....... "If we can demonstrate to the American people that there is a diversity of views within the (Fed) and people are outspoken, what better way to demonstrate that we are not political or beholden to the (White House) or any political party," Kashkari said. "I think this shows more independence." ...... A banking trade group, the Financial Services Forum, said the Fed's own stress tests show the largest banks can now survive a "far worse" crisis than the last, and warned that breaking them up would benefit foreign competitors....."I think that they are surprised and I expect them to push back pretty hard," Kashkari said of bankers.
China's Foreign Ministry warned the United States on Tuesday there would be "serious consequences" if a plaza in front of the Chinese embassy in Washington was named after a pro-democracy dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner...... By unanimous voice vote, the U.S. Senate on Friday backed a plan to name the plaza after Liu Xiaobo, jailed for 11 years in 2009 on subversion charges for organizing a petition urging an end to one-party rule......"The U.S. has been at its wits' end in dealing with China as it is reluctant to employ military threats or economic sanctions that may backfire. The only option for Washington seems to be petty actions that disturb China," it said in an editorial.....The bill had been introduced by Senator Ted Cruz, a leading contender for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. A White House spokesman has said President Barack Obama's senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill and it was not an effective way to secure Liu's release.
Fed’s Kashkari: 25% Capital Requirement May Be Right for Banks
The Minneapolis Fed’s new president discusses breaking up the biggest banks, monetary policy and his first Fed policy meeting and what he learned from the front lines of the financial crisis
Students at one of India's premier universities say the government is wielding a colonial-era sedition law as a means to crush dissent. ...... The clash pits ultra-conservative forces of Narendra Modi against the university with detractors calling the tax-payer funded school "a nest of anti-national activity." ..... Tensions erupted at the university after students organized an event last week to protest the hanging in 2013 of Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri separatist convicted of a 2001 terrorist attack on India's Parliament......Some at the gathering shouted anti-India slogans that condemned Guru's execution. "Afzal, your death will bring revolution," one slogan said. "India should shatter into pieces," said another. ...... JNU is sometimes likened to the University of California, Berkeley, with left-wing traditions and distinguished ranks of graduates including prominent politicians, journalists and artists. ........ Prahash Karat, the former general secretary of the Communist Party and former student union president, addressed students this week, declaring, "JNU is a prime target for this [Modi] regime." ...... Since Modi's rise to power, some of his most devoted followers have pursued a hard-line agenda: They have incited against those who eat cow meat, demanded the revision of history books and tried to restrict the way Indians consume entertainment. ......
Nalin Kohli, a spokesman for Modi's ruling party, says the student protest against Afzal Guru's hanging should not be protected as free speech.
........ Mohandas Gandhi was tried by the British under the same sedition law now being invoked against student leader Kumar. .... a warning by India's home minister that anyone making anti-India slogans will "not be spared" has sent a chill through the campus......"I think it is more a case of actually criminalizing dissent," he says. "It's a larger witch hunt for people who don't agree with the agenda of the government."
JNU row: Is BJP mistaken over anti-nationalism?
The situation at Jawaharlal Nehru University, which followed earlier developments at Hyderabad Central University, raises critical questions on BJP's nationalism, what the party considers acceptable what it deems to be anti-national.
A minister in the BJP government General VK Singh, on Tuesday, said: "You consume the nation's foodgrains, reside in the nation and get education here. If after that you abuse the nation, then you are traitor." ...... On whether criticism of the country is anti-national, BJP spokesperson Mittal said - "I had thought that we would place all these comments under perspective of what happened at JNU. There is no criticism of India. It is the destruction of India that has been demanded there. They said - 'Bharat ke tukde karne hain' [Let's break India into parts], 'Bharat ko barbaad karna hai' [Let's destroy India]. This is not criticising India or the government of India."
Cruz has the backing of 28% of Republican voters nationwide, unseating Trump, who won the support of 26% ..... Marco Rubio comes in third with 17% support ..... In South Carolina, Trump leads Cruz 38%-22%, and in Nevada, Trump is beating Rubio 45%-19%.
in a hypothetical race with Donald Trump as the Republican nominee and Bernie Sanders leading the Democratic ticket -- presumably the scenario most conducive to a Bloomberg victory -- Trump was chosen by 37% of likely voters, Sanders by 30%, and Bloomberg by 16%. ..... Without Bloomberg in the mix, Trump and Sanders were in a dead heat — 44% to 43%, within the poll’s margin of error. Bloomberg drew 13 percentage points from Sanders and only seven from Trump. ...... Bloomberg’s mayoral record contains much to please (and dismay) Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives. But to the extent that voters outside metro New York know Bloomberg, they may think of him more as the gun control advocate who tried to ban sales of sodas over 16 ounces than a business entrepreneur who backed stop-and-frisk police tactics. ..... Bloomberg has an impressive résumé: a self-made billionaire who founded a global financial information company; a philanthropist who’s given billions; a mayor who presided over historic reductions in crime, helped the city recover from 9/11 and banned smoking in bars. ...... Bloomberg’s pollster, Douglas Schoen, says his man has the money, message, independence and time to fill that need: "I don't think the conventional wisdom'' —that Bloomberg is perceived as a New York nanny-state liberal — "is going to last. The mayor would be able to build support rapidly.'' ....... But Bloomberg is a stiff campaigner who managed to get just 51% of the mayoral vote in 2009 despite spending $102 million ($174 a vote). His issue would be his own competence and non-partisanship, hardly a rousing call to arms. His region hasn’t produced a president since 1960, and its loyalty might be claimed by one or more of his rivals (Sanders, Clinton, Trump). ..........
He’s a more dedicated proponent of gun control than many Democrats, and a more enthusiastic defender of Wall Street than many Republicans.
...... Schoen, the Bloomberg pollster, admits it’s vital that any third-party candidate make voters feel victory is possible. ...... It’s easy to see why Bloomberg is tempted to run, given his enormous ambition and low threshold for boredom. For 12 years, he had what is often described as the nation’s second biggest job. In the New York magazine interview in 2013, he admitted that philanthropy — even on his own heroic scale – would not be enough to keep him satisfied after leaving Gracie Mansion. .......
Bloomberg turned 74 on Valentine’s Day. This would almost certainly be his last shot at an office he’s wanted to hold since he was a teenager.
The Bihari DNA has done it again. In 2015, it beat the shine out of the NDA campaign spearheaded by the double-cannon Modi-Shah attack team into smithereens, pieces of which are still being hunted for by anxious Bihar BJP workers who hailed their victory in Patna on November 8 a tad too prematurely by distributing laddoos and then retreated into PTSD. ....... nothing gets the goat of the Modi-Shah team like Shatrughan Sinha who keeps faulting the government for every mistake, from the micro detail to the giga gorilla. ...... Then there is Kirti Azad, who has blown soft, good and hard at the edifice that Arun Jaitley occupies. ..... Despite several stares from the party president, Kirti Azad is still at it - thanks to that DNA. ...... It's not that all of Bihar has anti-BJP DNA, there's the venerable Giriraj Singh whose claim to fame is not for being the minister of state for micro, small and medium enterprises. He specialises in the killer quote, the one that kills his party, a self-inflicted wound, like the threat to send anyone who opposes Modi to Pakistan. ....... In his rousing speech (yes, yes, the same one which got him arrested since the Delhi Police still doesn't know if he committed sedition himself), Kanhaiya Kumar defends JNU and the right to speech while condemning the pro-Pakistan slogans. His shrill voice speaks of things which every campus should have, instead of colluding with the establishment and state to count the credits by keeping mum and going with the grain. That Bihari DNA. ..... PS: The writer is not of Bihari descent nor has he been to Bihar, but lives among Biharis.
"This is our flagship model and we think it will bring a revolution in the industry" ..... At present, the firm imports parts from overseas and assembles them in India, but plans to make its phones domestically within a year
will enter testing with carriers in Indonesia and elsewhere this year. .... Project Loon almost didn’t make it. .... has advanced enough to deliver about 15 megabit-per-second Internet access, which he pointed out is enough to deliver video ...... In addition to Indonesia, Alphabet has reached a deal with the Sri Lankan government to exchange access to needed radio frequency spectrum for a stake in the project. .......
Alphabet is in talks with carriers around the world, Teller said, adding that the prospect is very real that a further five billion people will have Internet access within five to 10 years..... “it will change the world in ways we cannot possibly imagine,” he said.
...... two moonshots that Google abandoned. The first, he said, was vertical farming, which would have used
one-tenth the water and one-one-hundreth of the land demanded by traditional agriculture
. But although Google grew some lettuce, it never managed to grow staple crops like grain or rice. ........ Another effort, would have allowed landlocked countries to ship goods far more cheaply using a rocket-like air cargo ship that could land without a runway. ........ Starting with testing out the hardest part of a project, Teller said, is part of how X decides which projects to kill and which to continue with. The company starts with the hardest pieces of a potential “moonshot,” and only funds those that can survive the toughest tests.... The unit, he said, depends on both wild dreaming and what he called “enthusiastic skepticism.” ...... Virtual-reality and augmented-reality projects will take center stage, with at least half a dozen talks and exhibits centered around the emerging technologies.
The balloons, once in the stratosphere, will be twice as high as commercial airliners and barely visible to the naked eye. ....... The government announced earlier this month it would take a 25% stake in the joint venture with Google to deliver a high-speed internet service powered by helium-filled balloons. .....
Sri Lanka is not investing any capital but will take the stake in return for allocating spectrum for the project. A further 10% of the joint venture would be offered to existing telephone service providers on the island.
..... there are 3.3m mobile internet connections and 630,000 fixed line internet subscribers among Sri Lanka’s more than 20 million population. ..... Sri Lanka became the first country in South Asia to introduce mobile phones in 1989 and the first to roll out a 3G network in 2004. It was also the first in the region to unveil a 4G network two years ago.
Alphabet's Google Fiber could be preparing to ramp up its long-rumored onslaught on the cable industry. ...... All told, Alphabet could bring Fiber to as many as 19 municipalities. ...... the mounting evidence that Alphabet intends to supplant traditional cable and TV distributors like AT&T (NYSE:T), Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA), and Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC). Investors in any of these names, but especially more distribution-oriented firms like Comcast and Time Warner Cable, should view Alphabet's looming presence with trepidation. ..... All told, cable, Internet, and phone services yield sales just south of $80 billion annually for AT&T, Time Warner Cable, and Comcast. And though Alphabet will require years to develop a Fiber network with the reach to appreciably dent the results of AT&T, Comcast, or Time Warner Cable, current prices suggest Alphabet might enjoy a competitive advantage as it expands. As recently as last summer, Comcast's 1GB Internet service cost a whopping $299/month, with over $1,000 in installation and activation fees. Contrast this to Google Fiber's basic service costing only $74/month in Kansas City
At present, smartphones available in the market are priced around Rs 1,500. ..... Established last year, Ringing Bells will start with the assembly of handsets in Phase-I and aims at full indigenous development of the feature-rich smartphones ...... India, one of the fastest growing smartphone markets globally, is poised to overtake the US as the second-largest market in next few years.......In the last few months, global smartphone makers, including the likes of Xiaomi, Motorola and Gionee have commenced assembling their handsets in India, where the government is pushing local manufacturing through its Make in India initiative.
The lawyer for the family of Walter L. Scott, who was fatally shot by a police officer in South Carolina, also withdrew his support from Mrs. Clinton and endorsed Mr. Sanders last month.
suggested that a Hillary Clinton administration would continue the Obama administration’s work to expand Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, overhaul the student loan system and ensure background checks for all gun buyers. ..... “That Clinton is going to continue the Affordable Care Act is my No. 1 thing,” he added. “Bernie wants to make health care free for all citizens. But it’s going to cost money. And where’s that going to come from? Taxes. So I don’t know if I want to do that.
I want to know if it’s possible that the wealthy really pay for the bulk of his plan. Because they can afford it.”
...... “Honestly, I think Bernie’s platform is too heavily dependent on this nebulous political revolution that is highly unlikely to materialize. .... Still, the only person who would persuade the couple to vote for Ms. Clinton, they said, is Donald J. Trump. ....“He scares me,” Ms. Babington said. ....
“He has no guiding philosophies,” Mr. Babington added.
Mr. Trump drawing the most support of likely Republican voters, with 38 percent .... The poll shows Mr. Trump’s support remaining steady in South Carolina since October ...... 56 percent of likely Democratic voters in South Carolina support Mrs. Clinton, compared with 38 percent who back Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. ..... With Democrats holding their South Carolina primary on Feb. 27, Mr. Sanders has just over 10 days to narrow the gap with Mrs. Clinton. Although time is short, only 43 percent of likely voters say they have definitely decided upon a candidate.
In a wide-ranging speech on “ending systemic racism,” Hillary Clinton presented a $125 billion plan to assist poor and minority communities with job training, education and re-entering society after incarceration, part of an effort to speak directly to African-American voters as the Democratic primary contest heads to South Carolina. ...... Her remarks, delivered in Harlem, were centered around what Mrs. Clinton called a “Breaking Down Barriers” agenda that would disproportionately help in “places where people of color and the poor have been left out and left behind.” And she particularly named “places like Harlem and rural South Carolina.” ....... the “school to prison pipeline” ..... the plan would be paid for by a “risk fee” imposed on Wall Street banks and other changes in the tax code. ..... “Many Republicans talk in coded racial language,” she said to applause from the audience. “They demonize President Obama and encourage the ugliest impulses of the fringe” of the party.
that he would combat institutional racism, reform police departments across the country, and make getting an education and a well-paying job easier. ...... “What is going on now, especially with regard to African-Americans — this is not new. It has been going on decade, after decade, after decade. The only difference is the cellphone video. That’s the only difference because what was going on in the past was never recorded and the police officer’s testimony was accepted as truth. This video, this cellphone, makes all the difference in the world. So clearly as a nation we need criminal justice reform.” ...... he expressed disappointment in the way some police forces have systematically discriminated against blacks. ......
“I have talked to African-American Ph.D.s who get nervous when they have to travel or drive across the country. That should not be happening in the year 2016.”
...... a high percentage of black children live in poverty (he said 35 percent) and that an even higher percentage of young black people — 51 percent — were unemployed.
Depending on who is asked, the race is either holding steady with Mr. Trump on top, or is now more fluid after Mr. Trump criticized the former president and his administration at the Republican debate on Saturday, saying that “they lied” about the rationale for invading Iraq in 2003.
Amit Shah’s new term as BJP president will be all about ensuring that Modi remains in office after 2019 ..... The Modi government at the Centre can last for 15 to 20 years” ..... On January 25, Shah was elected to his first full term as BJP president. .... Shah wants the party to substantially improve upon its past record in West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Assam ...... ensure “conditions for growth of local leadership in poll-bound states”. There has been a feeling that ever since the Modi-Shah duo came to prominence in the BJP, local leaders have been trampled upon in states where the party is not in power. “After the Bihar debacle, there was no shying away from projecting Sarbananda Sonowal as the leader of the election campaign in Assam, and later naming him as the chief ministerial candidate. That is, in effect, making room for local leadership,” said a source close to Shah. ...... the feeling of dejection among workers who hear complaints that achche din have not come, black money has not been brought back, the employment sector has not looked up, and price of food and household items is going up ..... “The BJP has to somehow reach out to the other parties and ensure the parliamentary logjams do not come in the way of reforms.” ..... Shah was the prabhari, or in-charge, of Uttar Pradesh for two years before the Lok Sabha polls. The party won 73 of 80 seats, an achievement that elevated him to the nonexistent rank of “super strategist”. His eyes would now be on the assembly polls in the state, due in 2017. ...... Shah is also focused on increasing the BJP’s strength in the Rajya Sabha. “We will keep on winning elections in the assemblies, and that should be reflected in the Rajya Sabha,” he told THE WEEK during the parliamentary logjam last year. “That is my strategy.”
asked if the Congress vice president had joined hands with separatist forces and wanted another division of India. ..... support to anti-national forces in the name of the Left's progressive ideology is not acceptable. ..... Noting that slogans like 'Pakistan zindabad', 'go India go back' and those in support of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, Kashmir's independence and India's destruction were raised in JNU, he wondered if the Congress leader had joined hands with separatists. .....
"Does he want another division of India by giving a free run to separatists in the name of freedom of expression?
The kind of statements the Congress vice president and other leaders of his party have made in JNU have proved again that national interest has no place in their mind," Shah said.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that it will be Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi's personal responsibility to ensure safety of JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, as it was told that he was badly beaten up while being brought to the court premises in police custody earlier in the day........ also said it would be police's responsibility to ensure that besides Kanhaiya Kumar, all those who attended the court proceedings in pursuance of its morning order leave the premises in safety. ........
The court had said that the security of Kanhaiya Kumar and those present in the court room should be 100 percent fool proof, indicating that if Delhi Police can't do it, then it may seek other options. It had been suggested that the security be handed over to the Central Reserve Police Force.
....... Senior counsel Harin Rawal, who would compile the report, would also submit a copy of the video recording of all that transpired in Patiala House Court complex during their visit. ..... they witnessed an "unprecedented" situation with an atmosphere of "fear and terrorising people". ...... He told the court they were not only abused in the filthiest language but were described as Pakistani agents. "We were called Pakistan ke dalle," he said, adding that not only was the police cordon around them broken, but gravel, and flower pots hurled at them along with abuse. ..... He said Kanhaiya Kumar was "badly beaten" and doctors on the request of his lawyers were attending him, and also told the court that
a gentleman wearing dark glasses entered the court room, thumped Kanhaiya Kumar and sat beside him..... Even though the registrar general asked police to stop him and arrest him as his presence in the court room was in breach of the apex court order, police allowed him to go......Dhawan told the court that even though the deputy commissioner of police present on the spot was aware of the court's order, but still the person was allowed to move in and out without his identification being checked.
BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha on Wednesday came up in support of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, who has been arrested on sedition charges and said that he is praying for his immediate release......“Have heard transcript of speech of Kanhaiya, our Bihar boy president of JNUSU. He has said nothing anti national or against constitution. Hope wish and pray that he’s release soon, sooner the better,” Sinha tweeted. ...... Sinha further stated that the Jawaharlal Nehru University is going through a crisis ‘for reasons best known to politicians’.....He went on to say that the JNU is an institution of international repute, enviable record and history...... “It is a seat of learning for some of India's brightest young minds & also some very respectable teachers. Save it from further embarrassment, he tweeted.
They are the ones who burnt the Tricolour. They are followers of Savarkar who apologised to the British. They are the ones who, in Haryana, have changed the name of one airport. There was one airport named after Bhagat Singh. The Khattar government has now named it after one Sanghi (a person associated with the RSS). ....... What I mean to say is that we don't need the certificate of patriotism from the RSS. We don't need a nationalist certificate from the RSS. We belong to this country. We love this country. We fight for the 80 per cent of the poor population of this country. For us, this is nation worship. ...... We don't have faith in Manusmriti, we don't have faith in the caste system in this country. ...... The same Babasahab Ambedkar talks about freedom of expression. ...... Their government, Madam ManuSmriti Irani is ending fellowship and they accuse us of fighting for fellowships. Their government has reduced the higher education budget by 17 per cent. ...... Our hostel has not been built for the past four years, there is no Wi-fi. BHEL gave us one bus but the administration has no money for oil. ...... We are proud of being JNU-ites because we discuss and debate the basic issues concerning this country. We raise issues related to the dignity of women, Dalits, tribals and minorities in this country. And so, their Swamy (Subramanian Swamy) says that jihadis live in JNU, that JNU students spread violence. ....... We want to raise questions about the frenzied ABVP's slogans, their slogan that they will do tilak with blood and aarti with bullets. Whose blood do they want to spill? They aligned with the British and fired bullets on the freedom fighters of this country. They fired bullets when poor people demanded bread; they fired bullets when people dying of hunger talked about their rights; they have fired bullets on Muslims; they have fired bullets on women when they demand equal rights. .........
They say that five fingers are not equal. They advocate that women should emulate Sita and give agnipariksha. ....... And when we talk about equal rights of women, they accuse us of destroying Indian culture.
...... We want to destroy the culture of exploitation, the culture of caste, the culture of Manuwad and Brahminism. ......
They were British stooges. I dare them to file a defamation case against me. I say that the RSS's history is of siding with the British. These traitors today are distributing certificates of nationalism.
....... Check my mobile phone, friends. Dirty abuses are being hurled at my mother and sister. Which Mother India are you talking about? ..... My mother is an Anganwadi sewika, my family runs with the Rs 3,000 she earns and they are abusing her. I'm ashamed that in this country, the mothers of the poor, Dalit farmers are not part of Mother India. ....... I will tell them that if they have courage, then say ' Inquilab zindabad', say 'Bhagat Singh zindabad', say 'Sukhdev zindabad', say 'Asfaqulla Khan zindabad', say 'Babasahab Ambedkar zindabad'. Only then will I believe that you have faith in this country. ....... They are enacting the drama of celebrating Ambedkar's 125th birth anniversary. If they have courage, they should raise the issues Ambedkar raised. Caste system is one of the biggest problems in this country. Talk about caste system, bring reservation in every sector, bring reservation in the private sector. Raise these questions, then I will believe that you have faith in this country. ........ This nation had never been yours and will never be yours. A nation is made by its people and if there is no place for hungry and poor people in your idea of the nation, then it is no nation. ...... we are in difficult times.
The way fascism is coming in the country, even the media would not be spared. The media would be provided with written scripts from the RSS office, just as written scripts came from the Congress office during the Emergency.
....... Some media friends told me that JNU runs on taxpayers' money, on subsidy. Yes, it is right that JNU runs on subsidy. But I want to raise the question: what are universities for? Universities are there for critical analysis of the society's collective conscience. Critical analysis should be promoted. If universities fail in their duty, there would be no nation. If people are not part of a nation, it will turn into a grazing ground for the rich, for exploitation and looting. ...... Leave aside Pakistan and Bangladesh, we call for unity of the poor and the toiling masses of the world. We hail the humanity of this world, we hail the humanity of India. ....... We have identified that face of casteism, the face of Manuwad, the face of the nexus between Brahminism and capitalism. ....... There is violence when the JNU administration denies the constitutional rights guaranteed to Dalits. This is institutional violence. ...... Brahminism did not allow Dalits to enter temples. The British did not allow dogs and Indians to enter restaurants. .......
Friends, the situation is very serious. Under no circumstances does the JNUSU (the JNU students' union) support any violence, any terrorist, any terror incident and any anti-India activity. I want to reiterate that the JNUSU strongly condemns slogans of "Pakistan zindabad" raised by some unidentified people.
....... Listen carefully to the slogans being raised by the ABVP now. They are calling us 'communist dogs'. They are calling us 'Afzal Guru's dogs'. They are calling us 'children of jihadis'. If the Constitution gives us the right to be citizens, then is it not an attack on our constitutional right when they call our parents dogs? We want to ask this question to the ABVP and the JNU administration. ....... It is now clear that the JNU administration first gives permission and then withdraws it on receiving a call from Nagpur. This thing of first giving permission and then withdrawing, it has intensified. First, they will announce fellowship and then tell that it has been withdrawn. This is the RSS and ABVP pattern with which they want to run this country. ........ They feel that with people like Chauhan everywhere, they would get jobs. Once they get jobs, they will forget nation worship and Bharat Mata. What to tell of the Tricolour, which they have never respected? They will also forget the saffron flag. ......
Their nation worship ends with an India-Pakistan cricket match. After that when they go out on the road, they misbehave with the person selling bananas. When the person selling bananas tells them that a dozen comes for Rs 40, they abuse him and accuse him of looting customers. They demand a dozen for Rs 30.
....... Nation worship begins and ends with wealth and facilities. I know a number of ABVP people and I ask them whether the fervour of nationalism moves them? They tell me: "What to do, brother, this government is for five years and two years are already over. Three years' talktime is left and whatever has to be done, should be done in this period." ...... Long live JNU. JNU will continue to actively participate in all democratic struggles taking place across the country, continue to strengthen the voice of democracy, the voice of freedom and freedom of expression. We will struggle and win and defeat the traitors of this country.
Kanhaiya Kumar was being escorted to the courtroom when he was attacked by a large group of lawyers. He was kicked, slapped and punched...... Mr Kumar was punched, kicked and dragged by the lawyers, who later boasted to the police that "their job was done." ...... Mr Kumar told the court that he condemned what happened at the event and did not say anything that was anti-national. "I am an Indian. I have full faith in the Constitution as well as the judiciary of the country," he said.
The standoff at New Delhi’s famous Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) that has transfixed India has nothing of the routine campus controversy about it. Following the arrest of a student leader, India’s Hindu nationalist BJP government now finds itself facing down a large coalition of progressive groups laying claim to the idea of an India where the right to dissent is foundational. ........ The hardline home minister, Rajnath Singh, believes otherwise, announcing that those who question India’s integrity “will not be tolerated or spared”. Questioning the Indian state’s actions in places such as Kashmir, in short, is strictly off menu. .......
A famously contentious campus synonymous in India with critical thinking and vociferous debate, JNU has long been in the sights of the Hindu right, many of whom want nothing more than for it to be shut down.
...... his impassioned insistence on the need to uphold the Indian constitution. ...... “We fight for the 80% poor population of this country.” Addressing a topic all too familiar to students in Britain, he also attacked government cuts to higher education budgets and the steady decline of resources, including financial support, available to students. ...... In a shocking move – police are not allowed on to Indian university campuses without the permission of the vice-chancellor, precisely in order to safeguard dissent – Kumar was arrested under one of India’s many outdated pieces of legislation (which include, notoriously, a law criminalising homosexuality). The “sedition” law, intended to prevent anti-colonial resistance, prohibits inciting “disaffection” towards the government, and many in India’s freedom struggle, including Gandhi, were detained under its auspices. In recent years it has been used liberally to constrain those who would challenge the transgressions of the postcolonial state. ........ Kumar had noted correctly that the forces of “Hindu India” now most vociferous in laying claim to true patriotism were not only notably absent in the actual freedom struggle but
were often to be seen collaborating with the British.
Subject now to open thuggery – as well as state force, there have been astonishing scenes of lawyers beating up JNU students in court ....... Student unions across the country and from as far away as South Africa have condemned the arrests, as have hundreds of academics from Britain, the US and beyond. ....... India’s persistent and disgraceful caste inequalities, with upper castes, much like the white well-off of Britain, disproportionately dominating universities and the media as well as lucrative corporate positions. To criticise the Hindu nationalism that governs India today is also to note its roots in the continued domination of Indian institutions by Brahmins and other upper castes. ....... For those committed to the idea of India as essentially a Hindu country, which includes many in the government of the prime minister, Narendra Modi, the list of potential “anti-nationals” appears to be compendious. It seems to include everyone from
Muslim, Dalit, Christian, leftwing and liberal activists to those who question the Indian state’s actions in Kashmir or suggest that religious intolerance isn’t a good idea.
........ the situation reminds many of the horrors of the 1975-77 state of emergency. Now, as then, India is poised on the brink of a choice between the dangers of authoritarianism and its historic commitment to dissent
The state's Democratic electorate -- 40% non-white and including a heavy union presence spread across a vast, difficult-to-organize territory -- provides the first true test of both candidates' national viability and battle plans. ...... For Clinton, Nevada is an opportunity to prove her strength with minorities and demonstrate how a six-month organizing head start can put the lid on her upstart opponent. ..... "Not everything is about an economic theory, right?" Clinton rhetorically asked the crowd Saturday in Henderson. "If we broke up the big banks tomorrow -- and I will, if they deserve it, if they pose a systemic risk, I will -- will that end racism?" she said as the crowd answered "no." ...... After a narrow win in Iowa for Clinton, and a historic victory for Sanders in New Hampshire, the national polls show the race turning into a dead heat: Quinnipiac University's latest survey has
Clinton up just 44% to 42%.
..... "They downplayed Nevada so much that I wondered, what do they know that I don't?'" said one unaffiliated Democratic operative who knows Nevada.
The researchers produced three types of tissue - bone, cartilage, and muscle - and transplanted it into rats and mice. ..... Five months after implantation, the bone tissue looked similar to normal bone, complete with blood vessels and with no dead areas ......... "We are also using similar strategies to print solid organs" ...... "Actual personalized medicine, especially in the tissue regeneration field, is on its way."
The perfectly-preserved flowers named Strychnos electri are estimated by researchers from Oregon State and Rutgers universities to be from 20 million to 30 million years old. ..... It comes from the family of flowering plants called asteroid that gave us potatoes, tomatoes, tobacco, petunias and our morning cup of coffee. But this one is from the genus Strychnos, which ultimate produce strychnine and curare – poisons used in everything from rat control to blow-gun weapons. Strychnine also played a part in the movie “Psycho,” in which Norman Bates uses rat poison to kill his mother and her boyfriend. ....... And one ancient genus, which has now been shown to be inherently toxic, existed for millions of years before humans appeared on the planet.
Mr. Obama also made clear his reluctance to change course in Syria, where he said Russia had blundered into a “quagmire.” ......He spoke more optimistically about Libya, saying that there was a recognition of the need for a coherent state. The United States, he said, would support efforts to put together a new government there. ..... “The good news in Libya is that they don’t like outsiders coming in and telling them what to do,” he said.
Bloomberg would have almost no chance of actually getting elected President. .... Perhaps he might get 40 percent or so of the overall vote, but not in enough states to either win 270 electoral votes or to prevent an other candidate from winning a state’s electoral votes. While the country is closely divided between Democratic and Republican voters, most states are not. ........ he would have to take mostly from Democrats in some states, and mostly from Republicans in others. That would be extremely difficult for any candidate, even one with Mr. Bloomberg’s thick wallet. ...... Mr. Bloomberg has said he would run only if the Democrats nominated Mr. Sanders and the Republicans nominate either Mr. Trump or Ted Cruz. In that scenario, centrists from both parties would consider voting for Mr. Bloomberg. .....
The Democratic base, therefore, would be unmoved by Bloomberg, while Republican voters frightened by the prospect of Mr. Trump or Mr. Cruz, and more concerned about economic rather than social policy would be a more fertile ground for Mr. Bloomberg’s campaign.
....... this year, as many Republicans embrace Mr. Trump’s populism, seems to be a limited appetite for a candidate who does not have a populist bone in his body and who promotes gun control. To suggest his political profile will resonate broadly in the electorate is to be oblivious to what is going on, and what many people are thinking, in America. ....... Mr. Bloomberg is clearly smart, qualified and experienced enough to be President, and perhaps even a very good one, but that will not be enough to get him elected President.
I can’t believe Hillary would be coasting into the primaries with her current margin of black support if most people knew how much damage the Clintons have done—the millions of families that were destroyed the last time they were in the White House, thanks to their boastful embrace of the mass incarceration machine and their total capitulation to the right-wing narrative on race, crime, welfare and taxes. ........ In South Carolina, where African-Americans comprise 30 percent of the population, Mr. Sanders cut Ms. Clinton’s lead from 40 points to 22 points. ...... To combat the surge in support Mr. Sanders is receiving in South Carolina, Ms. Clinton sent her husband, Bill Clinton, and 170 black women to try to protect her lead in the state. ...... In Nevada, where Latinos make up nearly 30 percent of the population, Mr. Sanders is rapidly closing the gap against Ms. Clinton. ....... When Democratic voters are exposed to Mr. Sanders, they overwhelmingly support him ..... If Mr. Sanders continues to stay on message with a campaign that is resonating with Democratic voters who actually want change, Ms. Clinton may begin to see the nomination dissipate before her eyes like it did in 2008 against Barack Obama, who was a junior senator from Illinois with little name recognition prior to his campaign.
I like to think that Donald Trump is Bloomberg’s No. 1 target, and that it was the Donald he was addressing when he told the Times that he finds the current level of campaign discourse “distressingly banal and an outrage and an insult to the voters.” ....... Trump responded in his trademark fully infantilized style: “He was a friend of mine. As far as I’m concerned, he’s not a friend anymore.” What sounded to Trump like a “nasty shot” was, he assumed, directed at him. ...... Bloomberg in his first run for mayor. ... As I wrote then, Bloomberg’s schedule was as light as dandelion fluff. He showed up half an hour late at a Staten Island bingo hall and spoke for all of two minutes — a felicitous public speaker he was not — before retreating into his tinted-window black Suburban. There were no connecting-with-the-people moments. ....... An encounter at his campaign office could not have lasted more than 30 seconds, barely enough time to note the man’s taut presence, a person of physical discipline ..... But that is what happened. Bloomberg didn’t win by much, but he won. And ran the city for three terms. (In a 2013 profile, the New Yorker’s Ken Auletta pegged Bloomberg’s three-campaign spend at $260 million.) ....... In office he was anti-smoking, anti junk food (autocratically so), pro gay rights, pro abortion rights, pro bike lines and was a founder of Mayors Against Illegal Guns. He pushed through tax increases and left office with a $2-billion surplus. Critics include those opposed to charter schools, which Bloomberg fought for. ....... I once interviewed his partner, Diana Taylor, who at the time was superintendent of banking for the state of New York. Taylor’s big push was to incentivize banks to service low income and immigration populations, which had been red circled (read abandoned) by the financial services industry.......Unlike Trump, in other words,
Bloomberg is not a hard-line ideologue and surrounds himself with thinkers. ...... unlike Trump, he really is a self-made businessman. His father was a bookkeeper at a dairy.
Forbes estimates Bloomberg’s current net worth at a whisker shy of $40 billion. The magazine pegs Trump’s net worth at $4.5 billion. And he started out with $1 million from dad. .......
Someone needs to block the Trump insanity. Mike Bloomberg might be just the man for the job.
Bloomberg is reportedly considering a run, and sees an opportunity for an independent candidacy if Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders were to become the nominees for their respective parties. ..... Cuban added that he isn’t ready to pick a candidate, but he again encouraged Bloomberg to run to see if he would change the tone of the debate.
there is one corner of the US still holding out for a Bloomberg candidacy: Silicon Valley. ..... The tech industry sees the billionaire entrepreneur, who is fiscally conservative and socially liberal, as one of its own....... “Bloomberg is good billionaire to Trump’s bad billionaire,” former Google executive and current startup founder Mike Dudas said. ..... In part, Bloomberg’s popularity in the tech sector stems from the absence of any other candidates that so closely resemble the values that underpin the industry. ...... “In Silicon Valley, everybody loves somebody who’s an operator,” Calacanis added. “Bloomberg’s an operator. You just look on Twitter people are like yes, yes, yes, Bloomberg please, please, please.” ...... Vermont senator Bernie Sanders may enjoy a constituency among some radicals in Silicon Valley – and the self-avowed socialist is now outpacing Clinton in fundraising among employees at the five largest tech companies. ...... “He’s an entrepreneur’s entrepreneur,” Shonfeld said. “He invented the SaaS business model. That’s how he made his billions.” ....... He added: “Literally I’m here at the Nob Hill Center and there’s hundreds of companies here that are all trying to sell subscriptions and most of them for data services, and he [Bloomberg] invented this.” .......
“The guy who won the New Hampshire primary for the Republicans has openly threatened to shut down the internet to fight Isis,” Johnson said, referring to Trump. “How do you propose to shut down the internet?”
From 1930 to 1980 – for half a century – the rate for the highest US income (over $1m per year) was on average 82%, with peaks of 91% from the 1940s to 1960s (from Roosevelt to Kennedy), and still as high as 70% during Reagan’s election in 1980. ....... This policy in no way affected the strong growth of the post-war American economy, doubtless because there is not much point in paying super-managers $10m when $1m will do. The estate tax, which was equally progressive with rates applicable to the largest fortunes in the range of 70% to 80% for decades (the rate has almost never exceeded 30% to 40% in Germany or France), greatly reduced the concentration of American capital, without the destruction and wars which Europe had to face....... Reagan was elected in 1980 on a program aiming to restore a mythical capitalism said to have existed in the past. ....... The culmination of this new program was the tax reform of 1986, which ended half a century of a progressive tax system and lowered the rate applicable to the highest incomes to 28%. ....... Democrats never truly challenged this choice in the Clinton (1992-2000) and Obama (2008-2016) years, which stabilized the taxation rate at around 40% (two times lower than the average level for the period 1930 to 1980). This triggered an explosion of inequality coupled with incredibly high salaries for those who could get them, as well as a stagnation of revenues for most of America ......
Reagan also decided to freeze the federal minimum wage level, which from 1980 was slowly but surely eroded by inflation (little more than $7 an hour in 2016, against nearly $11 in 1969). Again, this new political-ideological regime was barely mitigated by the Clinton and Obama years.
...... Hillary Clinton, who fought to the left of Barack Obama in 2008 on topics such as health insurance, appears today as if she is defending the status quo, just another heiress of the Reagan-Clinton-Obama political regime. .......
Sanders makes clear he wants to restore progressive taxation and a higher minimum wage ($15 an hour). To this he adds free healthcare and higher education in a country where inequality in access to education has reached unprecedented heights, highlighting a gulf standing between the lives of most Americans, and the soothing meritocratic speeches pronounced by the winners of the system.
....... Meanwhile, the Republican party sinks into a hyper-nationalist, anti-immigrant and anti-Islam discourse (even though Islam isn’t a great religious force in the country), and a limitless glorification of the fortune amassed by rich white people. The judges appointed under Reagan and Bush have lifted any legal limitation on the influence of private money in politics, which greatly complicates the task of candidates like Sanders......However,
new forms of political mobilization and crowdfunding can prevail and push America into a new political cycle.
If it feels to the Democratic and Republican Party establishments that events are spinning out of control, there’s a reason for that, but things could get worse in a hurry. ..... If Bloomberg is actually willing to commit 10 figures to a presidential run, he can compete on turf that has not been up for grabs in decades. That’s not to say it would be an easy fight, but the GOP nominee or Hillary Clinton could not ignore him in California, New York, Florida or Texas. If a “silent majority” truly exists, and they are disgusted with their options for the general election, Bloomberg could find his path down the middle. ...... His campaign would add radical uncertainty to a race that already feels unpredictable.
He’s just the latest harbinger of the coming end of America’s devotion to its two-party heritage. He might just be the disrupter the system needs.
....... Reed Galen is a political strategist in California. He was John McCain's deputy campaign manager until July 2007.
You are the eighth-richest person in America with a net worth of more than $38 billion..... You served three terms as mayor of New York. You’ve been a Democrat, a Republican and an independent. And you believe that the country has suffered from political polarization and needs a strong president who can get things done and bring the country together. ....... One-third of voters self-identify as independents, and Congress’ job approval sits in the low double digits. Voters are unhappy with the status quo and the two parties’ political establishments. ...... with the two major parties nominating controversial candidates – that’s the scenario I’m starting with – there looks to be room for a candidate in the middle. ...... Gallup found
Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Utah, Arkansas, Tennessee, Montana, Idaho, Oklahoma and South Carolina
are the nation’s most conservative states. Bloomberg could not carry any of them. ....... Gallup’s most reliably Republican presidential states that are not already on the most conservative list:
Wyoming, South Dakota, Kansas, North Dakota, Nebraska, Kentucky, West Virginia, Missouri, Texas and Georgia.
....... Voters in those
20 states, with 166 electoral votes
, would be very likely to support a conservative and/or a Republican, not an elitist Manhattan billionaire independent who occupies the left on guns, the size of soft drinks and other issues. ....... Gallup’s list of most liberal states includes Massachusetts, Vermont, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and Maryland. Add to them states that are among the most reliably Democratic – Rhode Island, Delaware, Illinois, New Mexico, Michigan and the District of Columbia – and you have
12 states with 151 electoral votes.
........ New York, Connecticut and New Jersey might be uniquely receptive to a Bloomberg candidacy, and California, which ranks seventh as both the most liberal and the most Democratic state in the nation, according to Gallup, might find his message appealing. More importantly, if Bloomberg were to have any chance of winning 270 electoral votes, he would need to carry the Golden State and the other three Northeast states. ........ I count 29 states (plus D.C.) with 243 electoral votes as starting out of Bloomberg’s reach. That leaves 21 states, with 295 electoral votes, as potentially winnable ....... Bloomberg would need to win 270 of the available 295 electoral votes, a virtual impossibility considering that some states would be particularly difficult for him in a three-way race – e.g., Alaska, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, North Carolina and Ohio. ........ the national map and voters’ strong partisan attachments – in spite of the public’s grumbling about partisanship – make it tantamount to impossible for Michael Bloomberg to win the White House. The electoral votes simply are not there. And if he were to run,
he almost certainly would increase the GOP nominee’s chances of becoming the next president
......At the end of the day, Bloomberg’s path to the presidency in 2016 looks remarkably like a dead end.
Not many people considered the possibility last year that Trump could win the Republican nomination, or that Bernie Sanders could win the Democratic nomination. Before we join all the other pundits in dismissing out of hand the possibility that Michael Bloomberg might be sworn into office as the 45th president of the United States, let’s stress test the assumption. ......
A candidate who is neither a socialist nor a racist would have a large niche.
...... Jesse Ventura in Minnesota, Lowell Weicker in Connecticut, or Angus King in Maine, among others, have established the mechanical viability of defeating two major-party candidates. It is clearly possible for an independent to win a three-way race against two established party candidates in a state. And if it is possible to do it in a state, it is also possible to do so in enough states to add up to 270 electoral votes. ......... In 1992, Ross Perot was up to 39 percent in the polls, before he began wigging out in public, ranting about President Bush’s plot to disrupt his daughter’s wedding, dropping out of the race even while riding high, and then erratically reentering in October. Perot still received 19 percent of the vote. ....... Getting from competitive to first place is not as imposing a barrier as it might seem, though. A three-candidate race creates an inherently unstable dynamic, where voters have to choose based not only on their preference, as they do in a normal two-way race, but also on the basis of which candidate can win. ...... One paradox of American politics is that high numbers of voters call themselves “independent” even as smaller numbers of them actually swing between the parties. Political scientists Alan Abramowitz and Steven Webster have called this phenomenon “negative partisanship” — most voters have developed deep voting attachments not out of positive affection for their own party but out of intense loathing and fear of the opposing party. An initial Bloomberg base would consist of pure independents (a small number) plus Democrats who can’t abide socialism and Republicans who can’t abide Trump. If that base reached a threshold of viability, Bloomberg could see a sudden influx of Democrats who are terrified of Trump, Republicans who are terrified of Sanders, or both. ......... the election of either a self-professed critic of the “free enterprise system,” or
a reality-television buffoon
as president ....... In a world like that, the election of buttoned-down CEO Michael Bloomberg might quickly seem not just thinkable but downright boring.
The complaint said that the news of Kanhaiya and others raising anti-national slogans injured national sentiment and created hatred in the minds and urged the court to take legal action against the accused.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said the central government framed JNU students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar on sedition charges. ..... He said Jawaharlal Nehru University is a prestigious institution and there is a tradition of free debate and discussion in a democratic environment. An attempt is now being made to “murder” democracy in the institution. ..... Kumar also said
the BJP-led government is trying to create an emergency-like situation in the country
. ......“Those who stand and speak in favour of the BJP are nationalists and those who oppose the BJP are termed anti-national. The BJP should not try to impose its ideology on the country,” he said.
India publicly expressed its unhappiness with the new Nepalese Constitution, which it felt was not “inclusive” enough and failed to protect the rights of the Madhesis in the Terai region. ..... India has been pushing Nepal to amend its Constitution to address the demands of the Madhesis who are ethnically and culturally closer to India.
“The people and the government of India have shown overwhelming support to our issues during the six-month-long agitation, launched by the UDMF, so if the Prime Minister wants to make his India visit successful, he should address our issues,” Mahato told reporters in Kathmandu. ..... Madhesis, who are largely of Indian-origin, have led a nearly six-month-long violent protest for better political representation, redrawing of the provincial boundaries and the federal structure of the Constitution. The protests have claimed more than 50 lives before being called off unexpectedly this month. .... “Boundary demarcation is the bottom-line of our demands and unless the demands are properly addressed through an amendment to the Constitution the movement will not stop,” Mahato warned.
who helped Jesse Jackson win the state of Vermont in the ’80s ..... feel that many of the crime policies that began under President Bill Clinton have done long-term harm to their communities. ..... Sanders has to do the ‘Carolina two-step’ ” — increasing his name recognition and then convincing voters he can deliver. ..... Clinton proposed new federal regulations that would end what she said were
overly punitive school discipline policies that disproportionately affect minority students
. ........... “We have got to achieve the day when young black males and women can walk the streets without being worried about being harassed by a police officer.” ...... Sanders participated in the 1963 March on Washington as a college student and says he wants to end racial profiling, combat police misconduct and dismantle private prisons. ...... “Bernie has a passionate, motivational speech that draws young people,” she said, taking a respite from her call sheet. “What I love about Hillary is her facts. Her reality. She’s not selling you a white picket fence. She’s selling you things that she can deliver.” ......
“Things are picking up, and Bernie’s name is coming up in every conversation,” he said. “It’s going to be a lot closer than people ever believed it could be.”
Take off your parkas and get out your umbrellas — only two days after some of the coldest weather in decades blasted the Northeast, vastly warmer conditions moved in Tuesday, flipping temperatures by as much as 60 degrees and opening the rain buckets. ..... Binghamton, New York, went from a low of minus-18 on Sunday to a high of 43 on Tuesday. Boston, which plunged to minus-9 degrees on Sunday, basked in 50 degrees Tuesday. .... The transformation comes thanks to the leading edge of a surge of warm Western air moving in from the Rocky Mountains.
The ability to directly detect gravitational waves — which are generated by the acceleration or deceleration of massive objects in space — has been compared to a deaf person suddenly gaining the ability to hear sound. An entirely new realm of information is now available. ....... "It's like Galileo pointing the telescope for the first time at the sky" ...... For many centuries, astronomers could only work with optical light. But relatively recently, researchers built instruments allowing them to study the universe using X-rays, radio waves, ultraviolet waves and gamma-rays. Each time, scientists got a new view of the universe. .......... Other exotic objects scientists hope to study with gravitational waves are neutron stars, which are mind-bogglingly dense, burned-out stellar corpses: A teaspoon of neutron-star material would weigh about a billion tons on Earth. Scientists aren't sure what happens to regular matter under such extreme conditions, but gravitational waves could provide extremely helpful clues, because these waves should carry information about the interior of the neutron star all the way to Earth, LIGO scientists said. ........ "Until now, we have only seen warped space-time when it is very calm — as though we had only seen the surface of the ocean on a very calm day, when it's quite glassy" ...... Questions remain about the nature of the graviton, the particle believed to carry the gravitational force (just like the photon is the particle that carries the electromagnetic force). ..... scientists have many questions about the inner workings of black holes, which gravitational waves may help illuminate (so to speak). ....... "When Einstein predicted general relativity, who would have predicted that we'd use it every day when we use our cellphones?" ...... (General relativity provides an understanding how gravity influences the passing of time, and this information is necessary for GPS technology, which uses satellites that orbit further away from the gravitational pull of the Earth than people on the surface). ........ LIGO is "the most sensitive instrument ever built," said Reitze, and the technological advances that have been made while building the observatory may feed into technologies that will be used in ways people can't yet predict.
two of the largest and most sensitive microphones ever made — a brief, rising tone from gravitational waves generated by an immeasurably powerful collision of two black holes a billion years ago ..... Various justifications have been offered, from lists of the practical benefits of past discoveries that seemed useless when they were made, to the metaphysical notion that the better we understand our universe, the better we understand ourselves. ...... The curiosity of our species knows no bounds; more remarkably, neither does our capacity for satisfying it. And that is truly wonderful in itself, even if it doesn’t lead to a better toaster. ...... “seems destined to take its place among the great sound bites of science, ranking with Alexander Graham Bell’s “Mr. Watson — come here” and Sputnik’s first beeps from orbit.” ..... LIGO (for Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) ...... potentially changes the shape of scientific inquiry into the next century ..... vindicates an investment of about $1.1 billion over 40 years by the National Science Foundation.
