Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The choice is between normal and crazy.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

The US Supreme Court is on the ballot in november.

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

Elections aren’t won by handwringing, cowering, and/or bashing your own candidates.

Bark louder, little dog.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Foreign Affairs Guest Post: “Houston, We Have A Problem… “

Foreign Affairs Guest Post: “Houston, We Have A Problem… “

by | 88 Comments

This post is in: ,

Thanks, as always, to Schroedinger’s Cat:

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a rally scheduled in Houston this Sunday. WalMart is one of the sponsors and the President of the United States has promised to attend along with an estimated 50,000 attendees.

What bright future are we talking about? The Indian economy is in the doldrums, minority populations live in fear, rapists are not arrested if they belong to the ruling party while activists fighting for the rights of the dispossessed languish in jail without a trial. As for dreams, the dream of a Hindutva dominated India where minorities are persecuted and dissenting voices are silenced, sounds more like a nightmare. Where the truth is sacrificed at the altar of political expediency and history is rewritten to service the ideology of hate.

Why is Modi doing this? My guess is for the publicity and for the $$. It’s also a reward for those among the diaspora who opened their wallets for Modi’s reelection. This rally would give the Prime Minister a much needed PR boost internationally after the draconian anti-democratic steps being taken in Kashmir since August 4th. It will show his fans and supporters back home in India that India has the world’s respect. Getting the US president who routinely demonizes immigrants, to a rally attended mostly by immigrants is definitely a PR coup for team Modi.

I was actually surprised that the White House accepted the invitation. Indian Americans have voted heavily for Democratic candidates in the recent past, see the figure below. Some have suggested that the crowd size may have been the irresistible attraction. Besides the fact that the Hindu right has deep pockets.

In addition to the President, 60 other elected leaders of both parties have promised to attend according to the organizers. Here is the list of those whose names appear in the news dispatch.

Raja Krishnamoorthi
John Cornyn
Ted Cruz
Al Green
Pete Olson
Sheila Jackson Lee
Sylvia Garcia, Greg Abbot
Cindy Hyde-Smith
Ami Bera
Brian Babin
Brad Sherman,
Eliot Engel

Firstpost is reporting that Steny Hoyer is also going to attend.

Check if your representative or senator is on the list and going to share a podium with a man who presided over a pogrom targeting Muslims in 2002 as the chief executive of Gujarat and is pursuing a nakedly majoritarian agenda in his second term as the prime minister. Actions in Kashmir being the case in point, where people have been without internet or cell phone access and access to medical care since August 4th.

Check out the BBC for news updates on Kashmir.

Watch this space for more updates on this developing story of the Houston rally. If you have questions leave them in the comments.

Reader Interactions

88Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    Some have suggested that the crowd size may have been the irresistible attraction. Besides the fact that the Hindu right has deep pockets.

    Plus the chance to appear Presidential.

  4. 4.

    Mike in NC

    What are the odds that Fat Bastard will blurt out to 50,000 people, “Go back where you came from!”?

  12. 12.

    Yarrow

    @Betty Cracker: All the Houston area Dem Reps seem to be attending. No surprise at Cruz and Cornyn.

    Posted this in a thread this morning but definitely fits here:

    While a sold-out crowd of about 50,000 Indian-Americans is expected to greet India Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he visits Houston on Sept. 22, several thousand protesters representing India’s religious minorities plan to decry his alleged violence and discrimination against non-Hindus.

    Uniting for the first time minority Sikhs from Punjab and Muslims from Kashmir who now call Houston home, protesters held a “dress-rehearsal” rally on Saturday, driving tractor-trailer trucks decorated with flags and protest signs from the Sikh National Center in northwestern Houston to the NRG Center, where the “Howdy, Modi” event is scheduled to be held in a week.

    Link.

  13. 13.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: It’s not just the Kashmir issue. From what I understand (admittedly, not all that much), Modi is a thorough villain on multiple fronts — the OP says as much. It’s not a state dinner with compulsory attendance. It’s a rally, and they’re choosing to attend and lend an imprimatur of respectability to Modi.

  14. 14.

    Immanentize

    Sheila Jackson Lee is (one of) the Reps from Houston. Modi is the PM of a huge friggin country. Of course she should fucking attend.

    And SJL is no push over blue dog fuck up. Are we now totally adopting the “I hate you. No, I hate YOU!” theory of politics?

    Pogo.

  15. 15.

    Yarrow

    @Betty Cracker:
    Here’s a little more background on why some of the Congressional Representatives might attend:

    Besides Trump and Modi, the only other speaker would be Hoyer, Shringla said, but both Texas’s U.S. Senators, Republicans John Cornyn—the founder and GOP co-chair of the Senate India Caucus and Ted Cruz, were on tap to attend, as were U.S. Reps. from Texas Pete Olson; Sheila Jackson Lee (who chairs the Congressional Caucus on Pakistan and Pakistani Americans but is also an active member of the India Caucus), Sylvia Garcia and Texas Governor Greg Abbot.

    Also expected to take the stage in Houston were Reps. Eliot Engel(D.-N.Y.) and Brad Sherman(D.-Calif.), the chairs of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific respectively.

    Link.

  16. 16.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    Even though it’s not a state dinner, it would still be a snub to refuse an invitation to a big event with the PM of a major country.

    As far as Modi’s villain status, I’m not going to defend him, but is it out of the standard deviation of foreign leaders our officials will meet with during U.S. visits?

  17. 17.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    I don’t like how it looks that any Democrats are going to this thing. And it isn’t only how it looks; I think it’s just wrong. As 21st Century dictators and despots go, Modi doesn’t seem to be among the worst, at least as far as I can tell. But that’s mighty faint praise. Nobody with any morals should be caught dead within a mile of this shit.

  18. 18.

    Cermet

    India is starting down the path many countries will soon be walking – AGW induced Barbarism (the title of a recent book.) Global warming is destroying the bases of the traditional world order that was so painfully created these last hundred years or so. India, like most of the equatorial regions of the world are doomed. So, such behavior will soon become the norm all over the world. We too are treading the same path as Central America starts to see the full effects of AGW. People so missed the real killer – not ocean rising, not strange weather but maxim and sustained temperatures in the summer months. That is deadly beyond what people were lead to believe – we in the first world find these temps annoying but our life based on AC allows us to overlooked the worse of it. Not so for the third world; it spells death or forced migration. Yes, weather changes will drive mass starvation and encourage the spread of new disease but heat and humidity are the real killers. In thirty to fifty years,most of India/Pakistan/Iran, much of South East Asia & Southern China, and much of the Middle East as well as Central America will not support human life in summer months. We so missed the boat on the real killer. We are seeing it start and fascism, intolerance, and finally murder will be its children. You are just seeing the faint start of what future generations and our children will be seen dialed up to eleven. We can thank the elite and 0.001% for this path that we are, regardless of the next ten years, gonna endure.

  20. 20.

    rikyrah

    Let’s see what happens. I am curious about all of this. Why Houston? Why not London?
    Did he go to London?
    What kind of speech will he give??
    Thanks for the post, SC.

  21. 21.

    Mai naem mobile

    We have the south Asian channels on DISH network. They’ve been advertising this event a lot but the ad just mentions Modi not his pal Trumpov. At least the one ad I’ve seen a lot. Jingoistic garbage. I don’t follow Inidan politics but Modi just gives me the creeps by his affect. This is from years ago when he was being pushed as some kind of wunderkind of Gujarat. Putin , Bolsonari and Duterte just come across as thugs but Modi comes across as a creep.

  22. 22.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: I’m no expert on protocol, but the name of the event makes it sound like a rah-rah thing to honor Modi rather than a meeting to influence policy, etc., so I don’t get why anyone who values human rights would participate, other than possibly to ingratiate themselves with constituents who support a hard right nationalist in the Old Country. Anyhoo, I’m curious about ‘cat’s take on that; she follows this a lot more closely than I do.

  25. 25.

    Mai naem mobile

    I am surprised Nicky Haley and Booby Jindal aren’t on the list of people appearing. Also Ro Khanna.

  26. 26.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    She’s following the event more than I am, but I don’t think it’s a rah-rah rally for Modi per se. It’s more like the events that happened when the Pope visited the us, except for the Indian community here rather than Catholics.

  28. 28.

    ola azul

    @Betty Cracker:

    My take exactly.The rally aspect is determinative (for me, anyway). Notta state din, as you say, and ain’t no way Dems need to sanction this, specially when the blow-up-in-yer-face-for-being-part-of-it quotient is rather high. If you were a Dem, would you trust the comportment of either of these goons not to excrete stink onto you? I wouldn’t.

    Might turn out unobjectionably, but wouldn’t bet onnit. If this turns into a demagogue-fest between two reprehensible “leaders”, there’re gonna be a buncha Dems wishing they hadn’t gone.

  29. 29.

    Mai naem mobile

    I am surprised Nicky Haley and Booby Jindal aren’t on the list of people appearing. Also Ro Khanna.@rikyrah: Houston has a huge South Asian population. Houston has a 24/7 South Asian radio station. Regular AM station not some online station.

  30. 30.

    Millard Filmore

    @Cermet:

    maxim and sustained temperatures in the summer months

    Do you have a link to support this assertion? My understanding is that the polar areas will warm up more than the tropical regions will bake. Ocean currents will transport heat very effectively to make the temperature gradient even out. Is our configuration of continents going to frustrate that?

    I share your worry, but a smaller global catastrophe will do the same thing.

  31. 31.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: @Betty Cracker: He is pretty popular among upper caste Hindus, who make the bulk of immigrants to this country from India. They would probably call me self hating Hindu or a Macaulyite or some other slur.
    It is a rah rah Modi rally. No other PMs did rallies like these before.

  34. 34.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Mike in NC:

    What are the odds that Fat Bastard will blurt out to 50,000 people, “Go back where you came from!”?

    The odds are high. We’re talking about an orange trash, racist shitpile after all.

  37. 37.

    gene108

    @kindness:

    Modi is Trump’s twin brother by another mother. The two of them are a pair.

    Modi wasn’t born rich. He’s savvy, and competent in governing.

    @Baud:

    The number of Indian-American Democrats who would appreciate a snub of the Indian prime minister over the Kashmir issue is quite low.

    Yup.

    @Betty Cracker:

    It’s not just the Kashmir issue. From what I understand (admittedly, not all that much), Modi is a thorough villain on multiple fronts — the OP says as much.

    All OP’s have their personal axes to grind.

  40. 40.

    ola azul

    @schrodingers_cat:

    It is a rah rah Modi rally. No other PMs did rallies like these before.

    Would it be fair to say Modi is imitating the Trump playbook of staging red-meat rallies for selfish xenophobes and bullies and rubes? Or did Modi’s use of rallies precede Trump’s repugnant ascendance? (Consulted Lord Google re: when Modi was sworn in — May of ’14 — but am unaware of how long he’s relied upon this tactic; curious which direction, if any, the right-wing demagogic imitation flows.)

    ETA: Tx. for time and effort put into this timely post.

  42. 42.

    Matt

    Trump and Modi can bond over their shared love of Hitler and hatred of Muslims. They could even compare who’s got the highest score on “inciting massacres”!

  43. 43.

    gene108

    @schrodingers_cat:

    There weren’t as many Indians from India before.

    Former co-workers cousin quit a junior IT position, in the USA, 20+ years ago and got involved with the Congress Party. He’s had several positions, within the party, but has never been nominated to stand for election.

    Anyway, Congress has had fundraisers / events like this too, when they were in power. I don’t think the headliner was the PM, though.

  44. 44.

    TenguPhule

    Pompeo calls attacks on Saudi oil facilities ‘act of war’ as Trump orders increase in sanctions on Iran

    And not too far away, the chickenshits are drumming up another war.

  47. 47.

    Mandalay

    @Immanentize:

    Sheila Jackson Lee is (one of) the Reps from Houston. Modi is the PM of a huge friggin country. Of course she should fucking attend.

    This times ten thousand. Attendance does not mean support, especially when the event is being held in Houston, and you are in Congress to represent Houston.

    It’s ironic that this OP should appear on the same day as Cole’s thread which (correctly) savaged the AZ Democratic Party for considering censuring Kyrsten Sinema for being too supportive of Trump.

    Some hills are worth dying for purely on principle, but Modi’s rally surely ain’t one of them (and nor is Sinema’s voting record).

  52. 52.

    Immanentize

    I am always at a loss these days — could someone please supply a list (whether Bernie! approved) of all the elected foreign leaders elected Democratic officials cannot be seen with or be seen near? Because I just don’t know that much about it, it would be most helpful to suggest the African leaders that are off the Dems. guest list.

    Thank you.

  54. 54.

    Dan B

    @Millard Filmore: Here are a few articles on tropical heat disaster predictions:

    National Geographic June 19, 2017 …by 2200 Deadly Heat…

    Newsweek July 31, 2018 A Surge in Deadly Heat Waves….

    Yale University Jan 2 2018 Global Warming could cause Dangerous Increase in Humidity. (there are related articles at Yale 360)

    DW.com. Deadly Heatwaves set to Surge… Little Warming needed for Tropics to turn “deadly”

    There are many others articles from The Guardian and others from a serach for Deadly Heat Tropics Global Warming.

    The poles, especially the Arctic, will warm faster but the Tropics will be pushed beyond temperatures and humidity (dewpoint) that humans and vegetation / crops can survive. There’s evidence that it is already locked in unless we can pull immense quantities of greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere.

  55. 55.

    Yarrow

    @Mandalay: It’s just a dumb argument.
    Al Green, Pete Olson, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Sylvia Garcia are all Representatives from the Houston area. They’re all supposedly going. All but Olson are Democrats. Olson represents the area with the largest South Asian population.

    I don’t see Dan Crenshaw on the list. Kind of surprised by that. He’s also from the Houston area and is a Republican.

  56. 56.

    Jay

    The work is unpaid, depressing, and seemingly never-ending, he allowed, but it was also rewarding. When I spoke to Daryle Lamont Jenkins, he was getting dressed to attend the New York premiere of Skin, in which he’s portrayed by the actor Mike Colter, of Luke Cage fame. “People complain about Antifa,” he said, “but if you’re on point, and you rock the boat, they really do appreciate it.”

    I asked him if he was discouraged that far right extremism seemed to be on the rise, despite all his effort. “You know what? They are the luckiest people on the planet to have Trump in office right now,” he replied. “But when their luck runs out, we’ll all realize how small they have always been.”

    https://gen.medium.com/antifas-keyboard-warriors-254f62be2a95

    BTW, another planning a mass murdering Nazi arrested today,

  58. 58.

    Immanentize

    I love Star Trek:

    From Undiscovered Country:

    Chekov: “We believe all planets have a sovereign claim to inalienable human rights.”

    Gorkon’s daughter, Azetbur: “Inalien—If only you could hear yourselves. Human rights—the very name is racist. The Federation is no more than a homosapiens-only club.”

    Democratic Party koan

  59. 59.

    Jay

    Dozens of stormtrooper-like officers clad in solid black riot gear with no visible insignias or badges, chanted and marched. Where they came from and who they were with, days later, we still don’t have an answer. Barricades protected by men looking as if they were armed for a comic book battle shut down streets. More than 600 police from across two states poured into the small north Georgia town of Dahlonega this past weekend.

    There were Nazis and Klansman rallying for Donald Trump in the public square. But, that’s not really the news from Saturday. After all, white supremacists have been rallying in the South since before the United States was, well, the United States.

    The real news from this weekend was the amped up level at which police across Georgia and Tennessee protected the rallying white supremacists and shut down antifacist protesters, going so far as to make social media posts calling the Nazis patriots and saying they were showing up to help protect Dahlonega against “the antifa protests.”

    http://idavox.com/index.php/2019/09/18/stormtroopers-protect-klansmans-georgia-trump-rally/

    Your Tax Dollars at “work”.

  60. 60.

    Mandalay

    O/T, the mustache of military might isn’t going quietly…

    John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s fired national security adviser, harshly criticized Trump’s foreign policy on Wednesday at a private lunch, saying inviting the Taliban to Camp David sent a “terrible signal” and that it was “disrespectful” to the victims of 9/11 because the Taliban had harbored al Qaeda.

    Bolton also said that any negotiations with North Korea and Iran were “doomed to failure,” according to two attendees…

    “He ripped Trump, without using his name, several times,” said one attendee. Bolton didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment…

    Billionaire Rebekah Mercer introduced Bolton as “the best national security adviser our country could have hoped for,” garnering her very loud applause…

    During the Q&A session, [Alan] Dershowitz told the crowd that it was “a national disaster” that Bolton had been booted from the White House, to what the attendee described as “thunderous applause.”

  62. 62.

    Brachiator

    @schrodingers_cat:
    Apart from publicity, and distraction from what is happening in Kashmir, what does Modi gain from this? A White House visit and consultation with State Department officials would be appropriate if trade deals or other matters were in play. Or even immigration.

    I guess I can see the PR vanity play. But is there anything else he might be after.

    Are Trump and the GOP going to suggest that India is an acceptable non-white country? I don’t know that the dumbest conservative Americans know much about India, or even know enough to distinguish India from Pakistan.

    And the US has also been friendly towards Pakistan recently. How does this tilt towards India look to them?

    It’s interesting that Modi is pretending that all is right with the world and that his actions in Kashmir are acceptable.

    How is the Indian media treating this story? I imagine there must be some intimidation or encouragement to put a positive spin on the visit.

    ETA. I will admit that I think that Modi handled his visit to the Indian space agency well during the failed lunar landing.

  63. 63.

    Brachiator

    @Mandalay:

    Bolton also said that any negotiations with North Korea and Iran were “doomed to failure,” according to two attendees…

    “He ripped Trump, without using his name, several times,” said one attendee. Bolton didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment…

    Billionaire Rebekah Mercer introduced Bolton as “the best national security adviser our country could have hoped for,” garnering her very loud applause…

    During the Q&A session, [Alan] Dershowitz told the crowd that it was “a national disaster” that Bolton had been booted from the White House, to what the attendee described as “thunderous applause.”

    Damn. Stuff like this helps Trump with his base and others. Trump is an idiot about foreign policy, but he has no problems shitting on GOP hawks and neoconservatives. And all these people applauding Bolton will kiss Trump’s ass the next time they are in a room with him.

    They will also write him a fat check for his campaign.

  64. 64.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Brachiator: He is good at stage craft. His admirers loved the hug, while his detractors pointed out that he hugged the scientist the next day after he returned with photographers. On the day of the failed mission he was brusque and curt.

  65. 65.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Aleta: Thanks. I am in mourning for the India I knew.
    1. Dissent is being silenced, many politically motivated cases targeting the opposition
    2, News media is mostly subservient, people have lost jobs for criticizing the BJP
    3. Several Muslims have been lynched by mobs
    4. Kashmiris have been under an armed siege with limited outside contact for over 40 days now, no internet and no cellphones.
    5. Intellectuals who questioned the rise of BJP have been gunned down outside their homes, Gauri Lankesh, Kalburgi, Govind Pansare’s killers have yet to be brought to justice.
    https://www.npr.org/2019/08/21/751541321/this-is-it-im-going-to-die-indias-minorities-are-targeted-in-lynchings

  66. 66.

    Jay

    NOBODY:SOME DUDE WITH A PUNISHER SKULL ON HIS SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT: LISTEN SNO-

    ME: LEMME STOP YOU RIGHT THERE MY MAN. I APPRECIATE YOUR MISPLACED ANGER AND INABILITY TO FIND THE CLITORIS. BUT MY TIME ISN'T FREE AND I JUST DON'T HAVE ANY TODAY TO EXPLAIN BASIC EMPATHY TO YOU.— NECKBEARD_DEATHCAMP (@NDeathcamp) September 11, 2019

  67. 67.

    Anne Laurie

    @Mike in NC:

    What are the odds that Fat Bastard will blurt out to 50,000 people, “Go back where you came from!”?

    Since he just publicly greeted the Hispanic candidate he was supposed to be promoting, at a Latinx conference, with the question ‘Which do you like best, the Hispanics or the country?”… I’m sure he’ll come up with something that will embarrass the rest of us. “Joking” about sharing a nice cheeseburger with Modi, for instance…

  68. 68.

    Jay

    @Brachiator:

    Apart from publicity, and distraction from what is happening in Kashmir, what does Modi gain from this?

    He flies home with a shitload of nonsequential USD small bills stuffed in bag after bag to use at his “discrescion”.

  69. 69.

    Jay

    IT MAKES ME FUCKING CRAZY WHEN I SAY TO SOMEONE THAT I WANT HEALTH INSURANCE AND THEY ASK ME "WHOSE GONNA PAY FOR IT"

    ME YOU FUCKING DUNCE. THE FEDS TAKE 25% OF MY FUCKING PAYCHECK. I DON'T WANT YOU TO SPEND IT MAKING LITTLE PALESTINIAN KIDS INTO SKELETONS.I WANT HEALTHCARE.— NECKBEARD_DEATHCAMP (@NDeathcamp) September 10, 2019

  70. 70.

    Mathguy

    I have a colleague that was telling me about what a humanitarian Modi is, the personal sacrifices he makes–he sounded exactly like a shitgibbon cultist. Apparently choosing to be unaware of Kashmir, the economy, etc. Spooky.

  71. 71.

    Anne Laurie

    @Mai naem mobile:

    I am surprised Nicky Haley and Booby Jindal aren’t on the list of people appearing. Also Ro Khanna.

    Haley and Khanna, at least, have political ambitions which would require them to get the votes of centrists, if not center-left voters. An event like this is only liable to hurt them with people whose baseline is “I’ll vote for a not-mayonnaise-pale candidate, if they’re not all strident.”

  72. 72.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Mathguy: I bet your friend is an upper caste, most likely Brahmin male.
    BJP Twitter warriors (some are real, some are bots and some are paid operators) approvingly retweet Katie Hopkins’ bile against the London mayor, Muslims etc.
    ETA to my list at #65
    6. Undermining science by spinning fabulist tales about what is in the Vedas (like our RWNJs but replace Vedas for the Bible)
    7. Rewriting Indian history to suit their majoritarian agenda.

  74. 74.

    Another Scott

    The Gates Foundation is giving Modi an award, also too.:

    In an op-ed for The Washington Post, lawyers and human rights activists Suchitra Vijayan and Arjun Singh Sethi warned of the danger of honoring Modi. “This award would legitimize his policies and embolden the ethnonationalist forces he has championed,” they wrote. “If the Gates Foundation really wants to amplify sanitation efforts in India, it should give the award to community workers instead of a far-right nationalist.”

    But the Gates Foundation is planning to go ahead with the Modi honor. Asked to comment by NPR, the foundation provided this statement: “Prime Minister Narendra Modi is receiving an award at the Goalkeepers Global Goals Awards from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for the progress India is making in improving sanitation, as part of its drive toward achievement of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.” [Editor’s note: The Gates Foundation is a funder of NPR and this blog.]

    I’m not surprised that they’re blind to all of the horrible things he’s doing.

    Grrr…

    I was surprised that Obama was so buddy-buddy with Modi, but I assume that was for geopolitcal reasons (wrt China). He’s certainly cooled on Modi now (2017).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  76. 76.

    Anne Laurie

    @Yarrow:

    I don’t see Dan Crenshaw on the list. Kind of surprised by that. He’s also from the Houston area and is a Republican.

    Suspect even the Trump handlers don’t trust Crenshaw not to blurt out something that would be all over the airwaves the next morning, and not in a good way. Even worse, a Crenshaw faux pas might overshadow Donny Dollhand’s “brilliant wit” — and nobody is allowed to be ‘funnier’ than Lord Smallgloves.

  79. 79.

    Jay

    @Sebastian:

    History, learn from it,……

    "We have already indicated that the police alone are not capable of eliminating Hitlerism. We will have to mobilize and, aside from the use of police, adopt other social means as well."- from 'The Night of the 16th' by L. Eminadab in Der Yiddisher Zhurnal, 22 August 1933#antifa pic.twitter.com/W2vNb3sW1t— Bob Nesta Makhno ??? (@GilletteMachNo) July 29, 2019

  80. 80.

    Anne Laurie

    @Mike G: He has been, but the only people paying attention any more are the Media Village Idiots… and a bunch of Sandernistas trying to use it as an ‘electibility’ argument against her.

    As the Social Media Geenyus-in-Chief has said, he used that insult ‘too early’ — now the virality has worn off.

  81. 81.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Jay:

    Cool analysis of Trump Train networks on Twitter by @3r1nG.One takeaway: MAGA organizing on Twitter is robust, grassroots and organic. The left doesn’t have anything comparable. https://t.co/Vc5ELcvlrc— Luke O’Brien (@lukeobrien) September 16, 2019

    Sounds like a total crock

  83. 83.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Jay:

    police across Georgia and Tennessee protected the rallying white supremacists and shut down antifacist protesters, going so far as to make social media posts calling the Nazis patriots and saying they were showing up to help protect Dahlonega against “the antifa protests.”

    These officers need to be identified and pressure needs to be put on their departments to not only fire them but blacklist them from law enforcement. Those fascist white supremacist fucks aren’t patriots. They’re an existential threat to everything the US has achieved not only in the last 50-60 years but the last 200. The kind of state they would build would resemble Russia. They have to be stopped

  85. 85.

    justawriter

    Now convinced that Hoyer could show up in Pelosi’s office covered in hooker blood and nibbling on a decapitated skull and everything will be fine but I will hold my tongue so we don’t alienate the moderates.

  86. 86.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Cermet: Your extremely depressing outline of the world’s future is what my son (b 1969) has been describing for the last 3 or more yrs. He is especially negative about what he sees as the inevitable rise of dictatorships and the destruction of democracy as societies take draconian measures to preserve their water, land, and food for themselves. Taking ever harsher measures to prevent refugees from entering the country.

  87. 87.

    Origuy

    Khanna is my rep. He’s too close to Bernie for my liking, but he’s out in front on a lot of things. Here’s what he said last month:

    Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) tweeted the following on Aug. 29: “It’s the duty of every American politician of Hindu faith to stand for pluralism, reject Hindutva, and speak for equal rights for Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhist & Christians.”

  88. 88.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Jay: Have you been following the One Peoples Project for a while? What’s your take on it and what it’s doing? Thsnks for any info.

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