BC POLITICS
Saved by @Alex1Powell

OK. India's External Affairs Minister @DrSJaishankar is about to speak to @mfullilove at @LowyInstitute and I'm going to live tweet. Please mute if you don't care about India's foreign policy (you should though you numpties, it's stupendously interesting) 1/

 Jaishankar was previously the head of MEA (comparable to @dfat Secretary) before becoming Minister. Fullilove asks which job is more satisfying. Jaishankar doesn't quite answer but says the ministerial role gave him a "broader" view of both domestic and international politics 2/
Now to Jaishankar's new book "The India Way." He says the core ideas he's exploring in the book are "multi-polarity and re-balancing." A "new architecture" is being built as power shifts. But countries are now far more interdependent. This creates "constrained competition" 3/
Jaishankar also says a new "more expanded" view of national security is emerging, which includes things like "health, food, trade, data and energy" 4/
The Minister says he also "indirectly" broaches the argument over US decline in his book. He says he's "not a great believer" in US declinism, but adds that as relative power shifts "it creates an argument for a different relationship between the West and India" 5/
India has been battered by #COVID19 . Jaishankar recognises the scale of the challenge. He says the pandemic "took us completely by surprise." And he acknowledges that in some ways India was "completely unprepared" to deal with the crisis 6/
But he is cautiously optimistic about India's recovery. He says daily cases are down to one third of what they were at the peak. And he also believes the economy is on a path to recovery and growth 7/
Fullilove asks about Jaishankar's views on Xi Jinping and China in 2020. Jaishankar says these days "you have a very much more nationalistic China, and that is expressed down the line in a variety of ways. Often in policies as well." 8/
Now to India's conflict with China and the border standoff in Ladakh. Jaishankar says Chinese incursions are at the heart of the problem- "they have brought tens of thousands of soldiers to the LAC" (Line of Actual Control) 9/
Frank stuff here. Jaishankar says in these circumstances it is "not entirely surprising that something went horribly wrong" with clashes and combat deaths on the border. He says the conflict has "completely changed national sentiment (towards China) in India" 10/
Jaishankar: "peace on border is the basis for the (India China) relationship to progress." He says it's "not realistic" to separate the conflict from other elements of bilateral ties: "frankly the relationship has been significantly damaged" 11/
Jaishankar is downright gushing about how the India-Australia relationship has grown. Recites cliches about cricket, but more important: "if there's one relationship I take satisfaction in it is the Australia-India relationship." He calls it "a partnership waiting to happen" 12/
Now Fullilove asks about democracy in India. He quotes an Economist piece which argued civil liberties and the rule of law are being degraded under Modi. He asks "are you concerned by perceptions in the West that India is moving in an illiberal direction" 13/
Jaishankar is quite dismissive. He argues some Western liberals are uncomfortable with contemporary India simply because they have not grappled with the way it has democratised. Its political leaders are no long English-speaking elites with familiar attitudes 14/
The full answer here really is quite interesting, so I'm reproducing it below 15/
Now Jaishankar is asked if Australia and India will ever sign a formal trade or defence pact. Jaishankar acknowledges the long running FTA negotiations (editor: don't hold your breath) and emphasises defence cooperation. But adds he doesn't know how formal those links will be 16/
The conversation ends with another somewhat painful cricket analogy (I LOVE CRICKET BUT WHY DO WE ALWAYS RESORT TO CRICKET CLICHES WHEN WE TALK ABOUT AUSTRALIA-INDIA TIES ARGGHHH) but overall it was both illuminating and interesting 17/

More from Politics

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Alexandria Ocasio-Cort...
@Ocasio2018
We’ve been getting calls and outreach from Queens residents all day about this.

The community’s response? Outrage.


Amazon is a billion-dollar company. The idea that it will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks at a time when our subway is crumbling and our communities need MORE investment, not less, is extremely concerning to residents here.

When we talk about bringing jobs to the community, we need to dig deep:
- Has the company promised to hire in the existing community?
- What’s the quality of jobs + how many are promised? Are these jobs low-wage or high wage? Are there benefits? Can people collectively bargain?

Displacement is not community development. Investing in luxury condos is not the same thing as investing in people and families.

Shuffling working class people out of a community does not improve their quality of life.

We need to focus on good healthcare, living wages, affordable rent. Corporations that offer none of those things should be met w/ skepticism.

It’s possible to establish economic partnerships w/ real opportunities for working families, instead of a race-to-the-bottom competition.
POLITICS
Brian Cates
Brian Cates
@drawandstrike
Trump is gonna let the Mueller investigation end all on it's own. It's obvious. All the hysteria of the past 2 weeks about his supposed impending firing of Mueller was a distraction. He was never going to fire Mueller and he's not going to


Mueller's officially end his investigation all on his own and he's gonna say he found no evidence of Trump campaign/Russian collusion during the 2016 election.

Democrats & DNC Media are going to LITERALLY have nothing coherent to say in response to that.

Mueller's team was 100% partisan.

That's why it's brilliant. NOBODY will be able to claim this team of partisan Democrats didn't go the EXTRA 20 MILES looking for ANY evidence they could find of Trump campaign/Russian collusion during the 2016 election

They looked high.

They looked low.

They looked underneath every rock, behind every tree, into every bush.

And they found...NOTHING.

Those saying Mueller will file obstruction charges against Trump: laughable.

What documents did Trump tell the Mueller team it couldn't have? What witnesses were withheld and never interviewed?

THERE WEREN'T ANY.

Mueller got full 100% cooperation as the record will show.
POLITICS
Advertisement
Werise
Werise
@We_Have_Risen
I was working on something before the election that became the election...

Color revolutions are real and we just witnessed one live and direct...

1.
POLITICS
InSearchOfSense
InSearchOfSense
@ganesan312
The initiatives of Congress are to come in two areas. One within the party and the other with other parties.
First Congress has to Improve its communication with people, cadres, leaders and supporters.
Rahul is mainly shouldering this responsibility. But why not other leaders.
/1

It may be argued that some leaders are doing it within their areas. What about other areas, other leaders?
There will be many contenders for posts, maybe even for President’s if given a chance.
Why not leaders volunteer to propagate views, counter the Modi regime on the field?
/2

Some leaders give out statements in media, write their views on social media. Are they enough? Are they doing justice to their potential?
Even during elections, they limit themselves to their constituencies/ state.
Why should they not extend it beyond & even between elections?
/3

The statements of Congress leaders with few exceptions are bland, insipid, prosaic, not interesting and attracting enough to percolate to the people.
How many of their messages reached the people?
Can they not make it more attractive or find other ways to reach the masses?
/4

Some may say there are limitations of age, barriers of territory, egos, invitations, interference.
Most of them are artificial, self-imposed and can be sorted out.
These leaders do not devote themselves to the masses.
If Rahul does it, expected to do it why not others?
/5
POLITICS
Heidi Li Feldman
Heidi Li Feldman
@HeidiLiFeldman
It takes guts to truly face hard truths. But facing them is the only way to protect oneself going forward. This is why I keep reminding people that the Republican Party is beyond repair. 1/

The Republican Party’s internal structures, at the state and federal level, are dominated by people actively opposed to democratic pluralism, rule of law, and U.S. constitutionalism. 2/

Once a political party refuses to drop its support for a leader, in this case Donald Trump, who constantly and consistently betrayed the country throughout his time in office that party cannot be salvaged as a player in U.S. constitutional democracy. 3/

Everybody else, from individual rank and file Democrats to President Joe Biden, must radically overhaul how they deal with people who do not disaffiliate from the Republican Party. 4/

Anybody who remains a Republican at this point must be presumed to be an enemy of U.S. constitutionalism, rather than as somebody with right wing policy views. 5/
POLITICS

You May Also Like

Enigma
Enigma
@ainittomai
On December 25 Mr Pool retweeted August 16 message about the Phoenix and that the worst was still on the horizon to come. 1/*


Maybe now we can assume that November 3 message meant "FUD" nor "FUN". Putting the word in capital letters seems to indicate the aspect the word fud has in our space, FUD. 2/*


Brad started it on December 22 (1/3 posts (Don't say? Sure) = 13 = Plan B). 3/*


And immediately the SEC followed dropping the bomb (1.3 billions (Don't say? Sure) = 13 = Plan B). 4/*


FUD materializes, Bitstamp is one of the first that haltes XRP trading and so on. 5/*
FOR LATER READ
Noah Smith
Noah Smith
@Noahpinion
1/People I know on the Right tend to be obsessed with the idea of "crimethink", taboos, and the (supposedly) oppressive, omnipresent enforcement of liberal cultural norms.

Why?

My new theory: A lot of it is guilt.

2/It's true that in some circles - the media, universities, many big corporations - liberal norms *are* enforced to some degree, and the enforcement has probably gotten stronger in recent years.

But I don't think this explains all of the Right's obsession.

3/The stereotype is that people on the Right tend to be more threat-sensitive. That would help explain the perception that liberal norm-enforcers are lurking everywhere, ready to pounce and anathematize anyone who makes a misstep.

But I don't think that's all of it either.

4/And of course, it's always fun - whether you're on the Right or the Left, or playing a video game, or whatever - to style yourself as the brave iconoclastic rebel fighting against the oppressive forces of blah blah blah.

But I don't think this is all of it, either.

5/The reason I think it's more than these things is that even *in private*, people on the Right express their "crimethink" ideas very gingerly and hesitantly.

I get the sense that they're not just afraid of external censure, but have also internalized liberal norms.
SOCIETY
Advertisement
Jaya_Upadhyaya
Jaya_Upadhyaya
@Jayalko1
HORANADU ANNAPOORNESHWARI, CHIKMAGALUR (KAR)
#bharatmandir

Annapoorneshwari is the Devi of nutrition and food. The literal meaning of Annapoorneshwari is “Feeding one and all”. Anyone who comes here is offered meals and shelter within the premises.
@LostTemple7


Maharshi Agastya is believed to have done pratishtha here.

Once, Shiva and Parvati had an argument. Shiva declared everything in the world including food to be Maya or illusion. To prove him wrong, Devi Parvati disappeared resulting in entire Earth becoming still.


Taking pity, Devi appeared as Annapoorna and relieved everyone.
Another belief is that once Shiva beheaded Brahma and his skull got stuck in Shiva’s hand. He was cursed that till the skull is not full of food or grains, it will remain stuck to his hands.


Shiva went everywhere and asked for food but the skull was never full. He finally came here and Maa Annapoorna filled the skull with grains and reversed Shiva’s curse.

It is believed that who ever visits Devi Annapoorna here will never be without food in their lives.
ALL
Danielle \U0001f1e7\U0001f1f4
Danielle 🇧🇴...
@dinkydani21
❤✈️🌎 2 years ago today @JamesIvings and I sold all our belongings and left the UK to travel for a year. We've never been happier and we have no plans to ever return there 🙂

Thread 👇

Since then we've started a remote web dev company @SquarecatWebDev and been lucky enough to have completed several freelance projects 💻 that have kept us on the road.

In the last few months we've become a huge part of this amazing new Maker community and have found so many new friends from @makerskitchen, @women_make_ and several others! 🥰

We love travelling together (even if I'm only a glorified laptop watcher 😒) but we're both much happier being able to share our ideas outside of our own little bubble and our products have benefitted too!

Here's to another year of nomading with my favourite person and to the Maker community continuing to grow with our help! Maybe one day we'll all get to meet each other ✌️ 💛
LIFE
#OurFavOnlineDoc \U0001fa7a\U0001f1f3\U0001f1ec\U0001f1ec\U0001f1e7\U0001f48e
#OurFavOnlineDoc 🩺🇳🇬🇬🇧...
@DrOlufunmilayo
HELLO: If you pee and every time you finish, your urine looks like this picture, you may have a serious medical illness.

Foamy urine especially if it is persistent and noticeable over time may mean you have a serious kidney problem.

Let’s talk about this today...
RT for others.


What are the features of a normal urine?

A normal urine should have a light yellow colour, painless, odourless (or faint smell), steady stream and should ideally not foam when you pee.

When there’s something wrong, then you see changes in all the above normal features of urine.

For instance if urine becomes very deep yellow, it may mean you are dehydrated;

If urine becomes painful or smells really really bad, it may mean you have an infection;

If urine has a poor stream, especially in a man, it may mean a prostate problem like cancer.

Do you get me?

So today let’s talk about Foamy Urine.

What are the things that can cause urine to suddenly be foamy. As I said in the first tweet, it MAY mean a serious medical illness like a serious kidney problem.

First things first- it does NOT always mean a problem but it may as well.

Now what are the causes of Foamy Urine:

1. SPEED-
If you pee really fast or with a lot of force, it may make your urine more foamy than usual. The speed and force makes the urine generate a lot of bubbles which tend to almost quickly disappear as it is formed in the toilet bowl.
HEALTH