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I’M IMMENSELY HONOURED TO TELL YOU ABOUT OUR COUNTRY: INDIAAround a 100 million years ago, India was an island.India’s name is derived from the “Indus” river.The official name of India is the Republic of India.The first and greatest civilization in ancient India developed around the valley of the Indus River (now Pakistan) around 3000 B.C. called the Indus Valley civilization, this early empire was larger than any other empire, including Egypt and Mesopotamia.India is the largest democracy in the world.India has been the largest troop contributor to the United Nations Peacekeeping Missions since its inception.India has the world’s third largest active army, after China and USA.The Tirupati Balaji temple and the Kashi Vishwanath Temple both, receive more visitors than the Vatican City and Mecca combined.Varanasi is one of the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world today.India has more mosques (300,000 mosques) than any other nation in the world and the third largest Muslim population in the world.Takshila is said to be the first ever university in the world; it started around 700 BC.Today, India has the world’s largest school in terms of students, the City Montessori School in Lucknow. It has more than 45 thousand students!More than 54 crore people voted in the 2014 General Election – more people than the population of USA, UK, Australia and Japan combined.The residents of some Indian villages rely solely on Sanskrit to communicate with each other.India and Bangladesh are connected in more ways than you think. Look at this map!As per records released by The Guinness Book Of World Records, India is third in terms of number of records claimed every year in the world. The first two are USA and UK.Hindi and English are the official languages of India. The government also recognizes 17 other languages (Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Nepali, Manipuri, Konkani, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu). Apart from these languages, about 1,652 dialects are spoken in the country.India has floating Post office.India has a spa for elephants.Largest religious gathering on earth, Kumbh Mela.The first rocket in India was transported on a cycle.Only 3% of Indians pay income tax.India has an Ice Hockey team and they are even member of International Ice Hockey Federation.Mahatma Gandhi is not the Father of the nation.Though india is a country of multiple regional and local languages but in terms of English speaking countries in the world, it ranks number 2, yes, india is second largest english speaking country in the world, 10% of indians can speak in English which is about 125 million people.If you have read Bhagvad Gita, Ramayan, Mahabharata then you will realize that there is not even a single text which mentions the word "Hindu". It was a name which was given by foreigners because our land was on other side of river "Indus" and hence came the name "Hindu". But eventually, some people made it a religion.Indian Railways employs more than 1.3 million people. That’s more than the population of many nations.At an estimate, 25% of the total workforce of the world’s population will be from India in the next year or so.Lonar Lake, a saltwater lake in Maharashtra, was created by a meteor hitting the Earth and is one of its kind in India.India has the 2nd largest road network in the world after the US.India has the largest number of news channel in the world. India has 5600 newspapers, magazines in over twenty-one different languages with a combined readership of over 120 million.India has the fastest growing telecom market and the lowest call rates in the world.India's "Go Air" airline only hires female flight attendants because they are lighter, so they save up to US$500,000 per year in fuel.India is the only country other than US and Japan, to have built a super computer indigenously.May 26 is celebrated as the Science Day in Switzerland in honor of former President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, because on the day, Kalam visited the country. One great man who never stops making India proud. RIP Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.Another excerpt of India’s rich culture - World’s largest religious building, Angkor Wat is a Hindu Temple in Cambodia dedicated to lord Vishnu.The world famous 'JAMES BOND' theme song is actually inspired from the song ' Good sign Bad Sign' sung by Indian characters in the novel 'A House for Mr. Biswas'. The song was composed using a Tabla.'Bosons' which are considered as the greatest discovery of this generation were the discovery of Indian scientist, Satyendra Nath Bose who has worked alongside Einstein himself. The fact that half of the particles in the world are ‘Bosons’ named after Bose should definitely make us proud.Developed in 1972, Navi Mumbai, a planned satellite township of Mumbai, is the largest planned township on the planet.Martial Arts were first created in India, and later spread to Asia by Buddhist missionaries.Pioneering isn’t new to India. Here’s a list of things invented and discovered by Indians.Chess, Buttons, Ruler, Shampoo, Toilet flush, Diamond mining, Snakes and Ladder, Fibonacci Numbers, Card games, Binary Code, Ink, Fiber optics,Cataract surgery and plastic surgery, the number zero, trigonometry, algebra and calculus, water on the moon.The list goes on.The Baily Bridge, located in the Ladakh valley between the Dras and Suru rivers in the Himalayan Mountains is the highest bridge in the world. It was built by the Indian Army in August 1982.‘Bangalored’ is a word in Oxford dictionary, which came up after heavy outsourcing to India took the world by storm.It is widely believed that Indians are highly demanded employees the world over. Here’s some interesting statistics to back that -38% of Doctors in America are Indians.12% of Scientists in America are Indians.36% of NASA employees are Indians.34% of Microsoft employees are Indians.28% of IBM employees are Indians.17% of Intel employees are Indians.13% of Xerox employees are Indians.The earliest cotton in the world was spun and woven in India.India is the world’s largest producer of dried beans, such as kidney beans and chickpeas. It also leads the world in banana exports; Brazil is second.Indians hold prominent places both internationally and in the United States. For example, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems (Vinod Khosla), the creator of the Pentium chip (Vinod Dahm), the founder/creator of Hotmail (Sabeer Bhatia), and the GM of Hewlett-Packard (Rajiv Gupta) are all Indian.India has the world’s largest movie industry.The lotus is sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists. The Bahai house of worship in Delhi, known as the “Lotus Temple,” is shaped like a lotus flower with 27 gigantic “petals” that are covered in marble.The banyan, or Indian fig tree, is considered a symbol of immortality and is mentioned in many Indian myths and legends. This self-renewing plant is India’s national treeTo avoid polluting the elements (fire, earth, water, air), followers of Zoroastrianism in India don’t bury their dead, but instead leave bodies in buildings called “Towers of Silence” for the vultures to pick clean. After the bones dry, they are swept into a central well.The national fruit of India is the mango. The national bird is the peacock.The temples of Khajuraho are famous for their erotic sculptures and are one of the most popular tourist attractions in India. Scholars still debate the purpose of such explicit portrayals of sexual intercourse, which sometimes involve animals.Raziya Sultana (1205-1240) was the first woman leader of India.All of India is under a single time zone.Dancing is one of India’s most highly developed arts and was an integral part of worship in the inner shrines of every temple. It is notable for its expressive hand movements.India experiences six seasons: summer, autumn, winter, spring, summer monsoon, and winter monsoon.India is the world’s largest tea producer, and tea (chai) is its most popular beverage.India produces 70% of the world's spices.Chandragupta Maurya (340-290 B.C.), a leader in India who established the Mauryan Empire (321-185 B.C.), was guarded by a band of women on horseback.London has more Indian restaurants than Mumbai or Delhi. Britain also has the largest Indian restaurant in the world, The Aakash, which can seat up to 750 people in one sitting.India is home to the world's biggest family. A man named Ziona Chana has 39 wives, 94 children, and 33 grand children. They all live together in a 100-room mansion.India has the lowest meat consumption per person in the world; Luxembourg eats the most.The Golden Temple in India feeds a vegetarian meal to over 100,000 people a day regardless of race, religion and class.Farmers in India use Coca Cola and Pepsi as an inexpensive form of pesticide.Significantly more people in India have access to a phone than they do to a toilet.Viswanathan Anand is the first player in chess history to have won the World Championship in three different formats: knockout, tournament, and match.Until 1986, the only place where diamonds had been officially found was in India.India has banned all captive dolphins, stating that dolphins should be viewed of non human persons.India is the largest milk producer in the world.India leads the world with the most murders (32,719) per year, with Russia taking second at 28,904 murders per year.Karmanasa River in India is considered to be a cursed river and it is believed that touching its water would ruin one’s plans. There’s hardly any development along this river. People around this river just eat dry fruits because cooking food would require water!Chail in Himachal Pradesh is the highest cricket pitch in the world. It is situated at an elevation of 2444 meters (above the sea level).Pizza Hut had to open their first pure vegetarian restaurant in the country.KFC had to introduce a “vegetarian” menu for India and so did McDonalds, the world’s largest fast-food manufacturer.India grows 1.2 million tons of mangoes every year, weight equivalent to 80,000 blue whales.The state of Meghalaya is the wettest inhabited place of earth.India gave the world Yoga, that has existed for more than 5,000 years.India is the world’s largest importer of arms but has never invaded or attacked a country.We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.- Albert Einstein.

There seems to be no limits to the extent that people are willing to stand up for the guy.There is no accounting for human stupidity or ignorance https://www.facebook.com/NowThisPolitics/videos/464018517733024/Some people consider the right to shop and get a haircut more important than the right to breathe and think they have a perfect legitimate right to do these things because they are Americans.Is it karma or irony that John McDaniel, a vocal protester against the Governor of Ohio's shutdown orders, has recently died of COVID-19?Somehow carrying a semi automatic loaded weapon into the Michigan senate has something to with personal liberties and being able to leave the house during a pandemic.People will support him even though he blatantly acts against the interests of the people who vote for him.Americans seem to think they can ban imports from China but still be able to buy cheap Nikes or clothing at Walmart and somehow don’t see the connection between the two.Many people think its perfectly OK to impose their religious dogma on the rest of the country, even though it may be oppressive or discriminatory to minority groups.Now I know what it must feel like to belong to a massive personality cult.Many Americans will say he is the best President ever without actually being able to articulate why and back it up with solid numbers and facts.America is not a democracy but an oligarchy where the many are ruled by a few.Rather than a United States, the U.S is more like a collection of small independent countries run by governors who happen to be controlled by Washington. This pandemic has shown that states are largely autonomous in their power..As of June 2019, the top 10 percent held 69.4 percent of total U.S. net worth (that is the value of all assets a person holds minus all their liabilities)Americans are unaware that Mexicans didn’t steal your jobs, technology did and the majority of people are simply wage slaves working for the 1%. Companies move to Mexico because its cheaper to produce goods there or the jobs in the US have been replaced by machines.If a guy is rich enough and brags about how much money he has people will actually believe that hes a successful businessman despite seven bankruptcies and three wives.Trump can not even borrow money from a US bank but somehow he is in charge of the US Treasury and Central Bank. Go figure.America is the only country where you can lose an election but still become President.Farmers are having to throw out millions of gallons of milk and produce rots in the fields as they have no way of harvesting or getting the product to the market. People no longer have jobs, no money and cant buy anything at the store anyway.People whose sole means on making a living on tips from being paid $2 an hour are now unemployed and homeless, and most do not have health insurance.Millions of Americans believe Fox News is actually real news and not just entertainment.Americans believe that a gaudy rich real estate developer living in a gold palace in New York understands what its like to be poor and living paycheck to paycheck.You talk a great game about what a great country you are but cant seem to score enough PPEs and ventilators for everybody. Governors have to smuggle in supplies from Korea without the Federal government finding out.The country grinds to a halt as soon as people miss one paycheck.And yes, Fundamentalist Christians are the worlds biggest hypocrites.The health system is a joke.Trump has spent over 100 million dollars on his security detail to visit his Mar-a-Lago resort. That works out to about 250 times his annual salary.He has spent about 1 day in 4 playing golf while on the job. Or about the same as Obama did in 8 years as President.Probably the first time in history that some one who dodged the draft for Vietnam gets to make the commencement address at West point.Trump wants to build a wall to keep out immigrants even though 40% of illegals come in legally and overstay their visas. there is also such a thing as airplanes that immigrants use.Speaking of the wall, in Texas some parts of the border run through private property, and a wall would put some parts of United States on the Mexican side of the border. The government is trying to take peoples land off them by force to build the wall.Trump took credit for the wall that was mostly built by Obama. He was simply adding to it, maybe a few hundred miles out of a 2000 mile border.Trump said the new wall panels would be impossible to climb but video records show it being scaled in under 3 minutes.Trump said he would drain the swamp. All he has done is fill it with alligators.Steven Miller’s father or grandfather was a Hungarian Jew who came to America to escape the Nazis. if Miller had been around the time of his grandfather in WW2 he would likely have ended up in Auschwitz, not be allowed to enter the US and Miller not have been born.Ivanka Trump signed over 500 business patents for her company with the Chinese government while campaigning to buy American.Trump called Jeffrey Epstein a “ terrific guy”. Said Epstein liked his girls “really young”Trumps mother was an immigrant from Scotland and his grandfather ran a brothel in Oregon in the early part of the 20th century. Grandfather was kicked out of Germany for avoiding the draft.Trump pushed for the use of an anti malarial drug that actually increased the death rate and many people died from taking it.Trump received about $480 million from his father and probably would have made more money if he had just invested it in the stock market.Trump is estimated to have personally lost over a billion dollars in 10 years.Trump is reportedly known to cheat at golf.If you are a daughter-in law or girlfriend to the son of the President. You can get a $180,000 dollar a year paying gig without reporting it to Congress as a political donation.Stormy Daniels got 130,000 dollars from Trump. All we get is a fucking T-shirt.Its amazing what you can get people to lie about if you pay them enough or give them enough authority they are not qualified for.Jared Kushner failed his security clearance a dozen times, had multiple omissions and finally got clearance on Trumps say-so.No one, including White House staff, knows what Ivanka Trump does all day.To make money on his casinos Trump would have had to bring in close to a million dollars a day to break even. That was impossible and the casinos folded within 6 months.Trump actually wanted Marla to abort Tiffany (she was unplanned) and hoped she’d have nice breasts.Steve Muchnin the Secretary of the Treasury believes that its possible to make a $1200 subsidy check from the government last 10 weeks.This is the same guy who used a government tax-payer funded jet to go on his honeymoon.Best one I heard yet: “If we are going to have a dictator in America, i want it to be Donald Trump”.Donald Junior seems to have spent the best part of his adult life trying to gain his fathers respect and admiration while the Donald regards him as a bit of a failure and a disappointment. Going on safari shooting rhinos just made him look like a bit of an insensitive tone-deaf jerk.14 year old Barron Trump has a whole floor to himself in Trump Tower and favors wearing suits to copy his dad.Not commonly known but Trump wears platforms in his shoes to appear taller. Has bragged that he is 6′2″ but he is the same height as Barack Obama who is 6′1″.The states that scream most loudly about being anti-government and anti-Washington are largest beneficiaries of federal Aid, including Kentucky, the home state of Mitch McConnell and many are Republican.Jared Kushner’s sister-in-law was in China selling US visas to rich Chinese for $500,000 a pop until the government got wind of it.Jared Kushner’s father is a convicted felon who paid a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law as payback for a bad business deal. He did 2 years in a federal penitentiary. The guy who put his father in prison was none other than Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie.Trump canceled the health insurance on his grand-nephew who had a serious life-threatening illness, as revenge for a dispute over a family will..Mike Pence’s wife told reporters her husband didn’t know he had to wear a Mask at a visit to the Mayo clinic even though he was specifically told by the hospital everyone had to wear a mask.Trump suffers an affliction (Dunning-Kruger) where he believes he is the smartest guy in the room knows better and more than all the experts, including generals and doctors and called himself a “natural” at medicine despite no training or expertise in the field.Stupid people often lack the cognitive awareness that they are actually stupid. This is why Trump is unaware that telling people to drink bleach is not only stupid but he just doesn’t understand why it’s stupid.When asked if she married Trump for his money Melania said he wouldn’t have married her if it wasn’t for her looks.Former Secretary of Energy Rick Perry didn’t know America’s nuclear missiles came under his department.After 3 years in office Trump has still not released his tax returns.Melania is NOT fluent in five languages. In televised shots she says hello in Italian and then reverts to English. She spoke English to a bunch of French school children and relied on an interpreter for the rest. Probably speaks some Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian and some heavily accented English.Its possible to have bone spurs and play college level football when you are the President.Trump say often he attended Wharton business school but he was in the less well-known undergraduate school, not the graduate MBA program. One of his teachers said Trump was one of the laziest students he had ever taught. Penn was relatively easy to get into in 1965 when Trump was there.Trump said he was one of the smartest students in his year but there is no record of him coming anywhere near the top 50 students and his name is not listed anywhere in the summa cum laude class of 1968.So far the president has said little if anything to comfort the families who have lost loved ones due to the corona virus. What he has said is perfunctory and brief and lacking in any real compassion.Recent headline. Melania has been having a long time affair with the head of security at Tiffany in Trump Tower and he looks like Michael Avenatti. Trump knows about it and is perfectly OK with it.Trump and Melania were planning a divorce but it has been put on hold since he became the President. Watch this space.4 people died in Benghazi, the hearings lasted 2 and half years and cost 5 million dollars. 60,000 people have died in the last 2 months and Trump is still President. No charges were ever filed against Hillary Clinton.Trump is still waiting on that 3 am phone call.When Mike Pence went to Germany they flew back via Scotland where Trump has a golf course and airport is about a 2 hour drive from the course. Pence and his security detail were pretty much ordered to use his boss’ hotel as accommodation.The Trump International Hotel in the Federal Post Office building recently petitioned the federal government i.e. the President for a break in the rent, so basically you have the owner of a private hotel business petitioning himself for a rent break.Trump apparently likes to eat pizza with a knife and fork.There is something wrong when 30 million people sign up for unemployment assistance one month into a lock down.Kelly Anne Conway actually though there was a Covid 1–18, not realizing “19” stood for 2019.Report: Trump Hired 200 Illegal Workers in NYC and Paid Them $4 an Hour, if they Got Paid at AllStarted a fraudulent university bearing his own name, which was then sued by thousands of its students, subsequently closed down, and to settle the suits, agreed to pay $25 million (!) in restitution.Was captured on video saying “And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab 'em by the pussy. You can do anything.”Paid off porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to stay silent about their affair, then lied about it repeatedly.Used his fraudulent Trump Foundation to buy a portrait of himself, pay off porn stars, and bribe Florida Attorney General to drop a lawsuit against him. Then was forced to close up said fraudulent foundation.Hired Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort, who was paid millions of dollars by Russian oligarchs, subsequently indicted, and found guilty of tax evasion and money laundering.Perpetuated the known false “birther” conspiracy against President Obama for years.Endorsed known pedophile and child molester, Roy Moore, for US Senate.Repeated the absurd campaign promise countless times that “Mexico will pay for the wall”. Then, when he took office, blamed Democrats for not giving him money for the wall.Campaigned on “Lock her up,” which was ridiculous at the time, and turned into another broken campaign promise.Continually called the Mueller investigation a “witch hunt”, even after it resulted in 35 indictments, convictions and guilty pleas. All while this investigation was conducted by people who reported to him in his own Justice Department.Falsely proclaims all news he doesn’t like to be “fake news.”Routinely tramples the First Amendment by attacking and insulting reporters.Locked immigrant children in cages.Appointed to the Supreme Court a man who was, very credibly, accused of sexual assault.Commuted the sentence of disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, and pardoned disgraced Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio.Sided with Vladimir Putin over America’s Intelligence agencies.Withheld aid to Ukraine in exchange for a personal favor that Ukraine investigate his political rival.Impeded, and continues to impede, oversight investigations by Congress.Repeatedly promised to release his taxes when elected, then refuses to release his taxes as promised.Has told over 16,000 lies or misleading claims while in office.When you are Donald J Trump Jr. You write a book about how your father has been victimized and bullied by the media and the Liberals. May as well be useful for something.Ivanka said she was going to work for all women when her father became president. So far she has done squat for working mothers, maternity leave and went so far as to say it was not her responsibility. Pretty easy to be a working woman when you can afford nannies and maids.When your daddy is President its “take your daughter to work day” at international summits where you hobnob with the foreign heads of state and pretend to be one.When the Trumps meet the Queen its a family affair as even Eric’s and Junior’s wives and children went along for the ride.Be publicly made the butt of jokes when other world leaders gather and talk about Trump. Justin Trudeau was laughing about how Trump made his own staff’s collective jaws drop at his behavior.Trudeau admits to talking about Trump after President calls him 'two-faced'Trump refused to attend a Veterans Memorial service because it was raining.Ivanka and her husband declared a personal income of $120 million dollars last year while working as unpaid advisors in the White house.Many of the apartments in Trump Tower are owned by shell companies backed by Russian oligarchs and Putin’s cronies. One paid close to double the market rate for his apartment.Trump pulled out of a security deal with North Korea without first telling his Secretary of Defense or the Secretary of State. Japan’s Shinzo Abe almost had a heart attack.The US government had been working very closely with the WHO in China overseeing the pandemic in China before Trump pulled its funding saying they had been working with the Chinese and had not warned the US about he pandemic. The US has known since January but did nothing till late March about it.Bill O’Reilly was one of the biggest blowhards and loudmouths on Fox News until he got fired for sexually harassing his staff. He had to pay a $20 million dollar settlement.Fox News pundit Sean Hannity is a college dropout.Melania herself only finished one year of architecture school in Slovenia and did not graduate. She tried to make out she had a degree in design until it was shown to be a lie on her CV.She likely worked illegally on a tourist visa, used a special visa for “geniuses” to gain her green card and then went on to sponsor her parents for residency in America. her husband wants to ban all illegal immigration. But not if you are a Slovenian trophy wife.Trump tried to sue the Scottish Parliament when they built windmills in front of his property n Scotland saying they ruined his view. His case was thrown out of court.Tiffany is probably the only member of the family to have gone to graduate school, with a Law degree from Georgetown University in Washington.Ivanka, Donald and Donald Junior all attended Penn University with Ivanka attending the Wharton school of Business.Donald Junior was known best for partying hard at college and not known for his scholarship or brains. Mostly majored in beer pong.Trump held up the distribution of subsidy checks so he could put his name on them. The checks are tax payer money, not specifically from the Donald.The CDC spent weeks working on a detailed report including flow diagrams, on how to deal with the pandemic but once it reached Trump’s desk it was promptly shelved.Trump watching a solar eclipseTrump has no dress sense or sense of sartorial style. His jackets and pants are too big, his ties are worn too long. He wears baggy clothes to hide his protruding gut. When he went to a white die dinner with the queen his white vest was lower than his jacket lapels and he looked like a huge penguin. He can afford to get bespoke suits but prefers off-the-rack or perhaps has his own tailor.Trump could not name a single book that he had read apart from his own, nor name any newspapers that he reads.On one occasion he wished out loud that he wished Melania could have been there, except she happened to be standing right next to him.Trump has a very peculiar way of standing. He will lean forward, stick his bum out and hang his hands in front of him as if holding two hot irons.THE WORLD HAS LOVED, HATED AND ENVIED THE U.S. NOW, FOR THE FIRST TIME, WE PITY ITBy: Fintan O'TooleOver more than two centuries, the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the US until now: pity.However bad things are for most other rich democracies, it is hard not to feel sorry for Americans. Most of them did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016. Yet they are locked down with a malignant narcissist who, instead of protecting his people from Covid-19, has amplified its lethality. The country Trump promised to make great again has never in its history seemed so pitiful.Will American prestige ever recover from this shameful episode? The US went into corona virus crisis with immense advantages: precious weeks of warning about what was coming, the world’s best concentration of medical and scientific expertise, effectively limitless financial resources, a military complex with stunning logistical capacity and most of the world’s leading technology corporations. Yet it managed to make itself the global epicentre of the pandemicAs the American writer George Packer puts it in the current edition of the Atlantic, “The United States reacted … like Pakistan or Belarus – like a country with shoddy infrastructure and a dysfunctional government whose leaders were too corrupt or stupid to head off mass suffering.”It is one thing to be powerless in the face of a natural disaster, quite another to watch vast power being squandered in real time – wilfully, malevolently, vindictively. It is one thing for governments to fail (as, in one degree or another, most governments did), quite another to watch a ruler and his supporters actively spread a deadly virus. Trump, his party, and Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News became vectors of the pestilence.The grotesque spectacle of the president openly inciting people (some of them armed) to take to the streets to oppose the restrictions that save lives is the manifestation of a political death wish. What are supposed to be daily briefings on the crisis, demonstrative of national unity in the face of a shared challenge, have been used by Trump merely to sow confusion and division. They provide a recurring horror show in which all the neuroses that haunt the American subconscious dance naked on live TV.If the plague is a test, its ruling political nexus ensured that the US would fail it at a terrible cost in human lives. In the process, the idea of the US as the world’s leading nation – an idea that has shaped the past century – has all but evaporated.Other than the Trump impersonator Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, who is now looking to the US as the exemplar of anything other than what not to do? How many people in Düsseldorf or Dublin are wishing they lived in Detroit or Dallas?It is hard to remember now but, even in 2017, when Trump took office, the conventional wisdom in the US was that the Republican Party and the broader framework of US political institutions would prevent him from doing too much damage. This was always a delusion, but the pandemic has exposed it in the most savage ways.Abject surrenderWhat used to be called mainstream conservatism has not absorbed Trump – he has absorbed it. Almost the entire right-wing half of American politics has surrendered abjectly to him. It has sacrificed on the altar of wanton stupidity the most basic ideas of responsibility, care and even safety.Thus, even at the very end of March, 15 Republican governors had failed to order people to stay at home or to close non-essential businesses. In Alabama, for example, it was not until April 3 that governor Kay Ivey finally issued a stay-at-home order.In Florida, the state with the highest concentration of elderly people with underlying conditions, governor Ron DeSantis, a Trump mini-me, kept the beach resorts open to students travelling from all over the US for spring break parties. Even on April 1, when he issued restrictions, DeSantis exempted religious services and “recreational activities.”Georgia governor Brian Kemp, when he finally issued a stay-at-home order on April 1, explained: “We didn’t know that [the virus can be spread by people without symptoms] until the last 24 hours.”This is not mere ignorance – it is deliberate and homicidal stupidity. There is, as the demonstrations this week in US cities have shown, plenty of political mileage in denying the reality of the pandemic.It is fuelled by Fox News and far-right internet sites, and it reaps for these politicians millions of dollars in donations, mostly (in an ugly irony) from older people who are most vulnerable to the virus draws on a concoction of conspiracy theories, hatred of science, paranoia about the “deep state” and religious providential-ism (God will protect the good folks) that is now very deeply infused in the mindset of the American right.Trump embodies and enacts this mindset, but he did not invent it. The US response to the coronavirus crisis has been paralyzed by a contradiction that the Republicans have inserted into the heart of US democracy. On the one hand, they want to control all the levers of governmental power. On the other they have created a popular base by playing on the notion that government is innately evil and must not be trusted.The contradiction was made manifest in two of Trump’s statements on the pandemic: on the one hand that he has “total authority”, and on the other that “I don’t take responsibility at all”. Caught between authoritarian and anarchic impulses, he is incapable of coherence.Fertile groundBut this is not just Donald Trump. The crisis has shown definitively that Trump’s presidency is not an aberration. It has grown on soil long prepared to receive it. The monstrous blossoming of misrule has structure and purpose and strategy behind it.There are very powerful interests who demand “freedom” in order to do as they like with the environment, society and the economy. They have infused a very large part of American culture with the belief that “freedom” is literally more important than life. My freedom to own assault weapons trumps your right not to get shot at school. Now, my freedom to go to the barber (“I Need a Haircut” read one banner this week in St. Paul, Minnesota) trumps your need to avoid infection.Usually when this kind of outlandish idiocy is displaying itself, there is the comforting thought that, if things were really serious, it would all stop. People would sober up. Instead, a large part of the US has hit the bottle even harder.And the president, his party and their media allies keep supplying the drinks. There has been no moment of truth, no shock of realisation that the antics have to end. No one of any substance on the US right has stepped in to say: get a grip, people are dying here.That is the mark of how deep the trouble is for the US – it is not just that Trump has treated the crisis merely as a way to feed tribal hatreds but that this behaviour has become normalised. When the freak show is live on TV every evening, and the star is boasting about his ratings, it is not really a freak show any more. For a very large and solid bloc of Americans, it is reality.And this will get worse before it gets better. Trump has at least eight more months in power. In his inaugural address in 2017, he evoked “American carnage” and promised to make it stop. But now that the real carnage has arrived, he is revelling in it. He is in his element.As things get worse, he will pump more hatred and falsehood, more death-wish defiance of reason and decency, into the groundwater. If a new administration succeeds him in 2021, it will have to clean up the toxic dump he leaves behind. If he is re-elected, toxicity will have become the lifeblood of American politics.Either way, it will be a long time before the rest of the world can imagine America being great again.THIS WAS ON A FRIEND’S PAGE: An anguished question from a Trump supporter: ‘Why do liberals think Trump supporters are stupid?’THE SERIOUS ANSWER: Here’s what the majority of anti-Trump voters honestly feel about Trump supporters en masse:That when you saw a man who had owned a fraudulent University, intent on scamming poor people, you thought "Fine." (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/04/10/trump-university-settlement-judge-finalized/502387002/)That when you saw a man who had made it his business practice to stiff his creditors, you said, "Okay." (https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-hotel-paid-millions-in-fines-for-unpaid-work)That when you heard him proudly brag about his own history of sexual abuse, you said, "No problem." (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/list-trumps-accusers-allegations-sexual-misconduct/story?id=51956410)That when he made up stories about seeing Muslim-Americans in the thousands cheering the destruction of the World Trade Center, you said, "Not an issue." (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/11/22/donald-trumps-outrageous-claim-that-thousands-of-new-jersey-muslims-celebrated-the-911-attacks/)That when you saw him brag that he could shoot a man on Fifth Avenue and you wouldn't care, you exclaimed, "He sure knows me." (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/23/president-donald-trump-could-shoot-someone-without-prosecution/4073405002/)That when you heard him relating a story of an elderly guest of his country club, an 80-year old man, who fell off a stage and hit his head, to Trump replied: “‘Oh my God, that’s disgusting,’ and I turned away. I couldn’t—you know, he was right in front of me, and I turned away. I didn’t want to touch him. He was bleeding all over the place. And I felt terrible, because it was a beautiful white marble floor, and now it had changed color. Became very red.” You said, "That's cool!" (https://www.gq.com/story/donald-trump-howard-stern-story)That when you saw him mock the disabled, you thought it was the funniest thing you ever saw. (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/donald-trump-criticized-after-he-appears-mock-reporter-serge-kovaleski-n470016)That when you heard him brag that he doesn't read books, you said, "Well, who has time?" (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/americas-first-post-text-president/549794/)That when the Central Park Five were compensated as innocent men convicted of a crime they didn't commit, and he angrily said that they should still be in prison, you said, "That makes sense." (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/06/19/what-trump-has-said-central-park-five/1501321001/)That when you heard him tell his supporters to beat up protesters and that he would hire attorneys, you thought, "Yes!" (https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-trump-campaign-protests-20160313-story.html)That when you heard him tell one rally to confiscate a man's coat before throwing him out into the freezing cold, you said, "What a great guy!" (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/donald-trump-orders-protesters-coat-is-confiscated-and-he-is-sent-into-the-cold-a6802756.html)That you have watched the parade of neo-Nazis and white supremacists with whom he curries favor, while refusing to condemn outright Nazis, and you have said, "Thumbs up!" (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/08/why-cant-trump-just-condemn-nazis/567320/)That you hear him unable to talk to foreign dignitaries without insulting their countries and demanding that they praise his electoral win, you said, "That's the way I want my President to be." (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-insult-foreign-countries-leaders_n_59dd2769e4b0b26332e76d57)That you have watched him remove expertise from all layers of government in favor of people who make money off of eliminating protections in the industries they're supposed to be regulating and you have said, "What a genius!" (https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/12/29/138-trump-policy-changes-2017-000603)That you have heard him continue to profit from his businesses, in part by leveraging his position as President, to the point of overcharging the Secret Service for space in the properties he owns, and you have said, "That's smart!" (https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2018-03-05/how-is-donald-trump-profiting-from-the-presidency-let-us-count-the-ways)That you have heard him say that it was difficult to help Puerto Rico because it was in the middle of water and you have said, "That makes sense." (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/09/26/the-very-big-ocean-between-here-and-puerto-rico-is-not-a-perfect-excuse-for-a-lack-of-aid/)That you have seen him start fights with every country from Canada to New Zealand while praising Russia and quote, "falling in love" with the dictator of North Korea, and you have said, "That's statesmanship!" (https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/02/politics/donald-trump-dictators-kim-jong-un-vladimir-putin/index.html)That Trump separated children from their families and put them in cages, managed to lose track of 1500 kids, has opened a tent city incarceration camp in the desert in Texas - he explains that they’re just “animals” - and you say, “Well, OK then.” (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/more-5-400-children-split-border-according-new-count-n1071791)That you have witnessed all the thousand and one other manifestations of corruption and low moral character and outright animalistic rudeness and contempt for you, the working American voter, and you still show up grinning and wearing your MAGA hats and threatening to beat up anybody who says otherwise. (https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/democracy/reports/2018/06/04/451570/confronting-cost-trumps-corruption-american-families/)What you don't get, Trump supporters, is that our succumbing to frustration and shaking our heads, thinking of you as stupid, may very well be wrong and unhelpful, but it's also...hear me...charitable.Because if you're NOT stupid, we must turn to other explanations, and most of them are less flattering.- Adam-Troy Castro

Since I acknowledge myself on the centre-right side of things, the choice of words (smear campaign) appear ironic when one uses sarcasm laden words such as supreme leader to denote a democratically elected leader, as if we were addressing Kim Jong Un or the fictional Admiral General Aladeen.Anyway, we normally see people engaging in lowest common denominator while having a dialogue. People have a tendency to shout “bhakt” and “khalistani” on their keyboards and this is the reason, it appears like a smear campaign.However, the political right have some issues with this whole protest too. Now, lets have a look at what the political right thinks about these issues. Shall we?Consider these arguments:“I am a doctor's son. My relatives are also doctors. I have seen them suggesting paracetamol when they are suffering from fever and ofloxacin ornidazole during lose motion. I know about medicine. Trust me.”Would you trust that person when a closed one suffers from cancer?No, right?Why would I trust someone who claims he is a farmer's son or relative and he knows more about farming than me, who has had one year of experience in agricultural sector? Agree, my contribution to farming is extremely low (and not negligible) in personal capacity but I have a degree and sufficient knowledge about it myself. Why would I listen to various people who have “opinions" on the matter?Now the question arrives as to who are protesting?Of these 31, 13 farmer unions have direct or indirect allegiance to communist parties. The rest are linked to Shiromani Akali Dal, Congress besides the mainstream farmer unions.[1]Hence, it's clear that there are opposition political outfits (along with alleged funding) backing them. One cannot say that a crowd of such gargantuan scale would march without any incentive and without thinking about their crops which would be growing in this Rabi season. Rabi crops are sown between end October to mid November and even till early December. This is the period when a farmer is the busiest with crops (especially Punjab where wheat is the major crop).Anyway, notwithstanding with their political choices - their demands may be legitimate. They may not be. Let's check what their demands are, for a moment and then decide:Rolling back of Farm Bills - although, this is not the demand of every farmer group who are protesting.While the non-communist farmer unions had suggested that the new farm laws should be suitably amended, others were adamant on their demand to the Centre to drop the laws.Here is what these bills are about:The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 - This act permits intra-state and inter-state trade of farmers’ produce beyond the physical premises of Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC). It allows trading in an "outside trade area" like farm gates, factory premises, cold storage, silos etc.[2] Earlier, such was possible only within mandis. The act prohibits state governments from levying any market fee or cess on farmers, traders and electronic trading platforms for trading farmers’ produce in an 'outside trade area.[3]The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 - This creates a national framework for contract farming through an agreement between a farmer and a buyer before the production or rearing of any farm produce. If in any chance, a dispute arises - the Act also provides for a three-level dispute settlement mechanism by the conciliation board, Sub Divisional magistrate and Appellate Authority. The agreement had to provide for a conciliation board as well as a conciliation process for settlement of disputes.[4][5]Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 - This act already existed as the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. This was ammended. There is no definition of essential in this act. However, it says that the Centre, if it is satisfied that it is necessary to do so in public interest, can notify an item as essential, in consultation with state governments. By declaring a commodity as essential, the government can control the production, supply, and distribution of that commodity, and impose a stock limit. Now, we are talking about agricultural items here. Under the amended EC Act, agri-food stuffs can only be regulated under extraordinary circumstances such as war, famine, extraordinary price rise, and natural calamity.[6]Now, there is a legitimate criticism to these farm reforms. One, for example is what happened in Maharashtra.Dilip Mohite Patil, president of the Maharashtra Rajya Bazaar Samiti Sahakari Sangh, a federation of the 306 APMCs in the state, claimed that around 100-125 market committees in Vidarbha and Marathwada regions have reported almost no business and are on the verge of closure after the central Ordinance was announced.[7]This is because the business of these APMCs depended upon the fixed farmers and such farmers have looked beyond the traditional system for marketing their crops. Now, APMCs are a safe bet for farmers and are required in areas where farmers do not have access to other means of sales. In Maharashtra, farmers have found other means to get the best possible value. We are talking about Vidarbha farmers here, the same area where farmer suicides peaked in numbers throughout India.[8] If these farmers are looking past their traditional means and are flourishing at the cost of some APMCs, why shouldn't they be receiving some light?And I don't see right wing-left wing in this because frankly enough - being the right wing, it should have supported the businesses or the APMCs. What current government did was very socialist in nature since the farm bills in itself was the 2019 manifesto of Indian National Congress which was implemented by the BJP.Written assurance that MSP would continue in the future.The second demand is a written assurance that MSP should continue in future. Now here's the thing. If I feel I have a fundamental right as allowed in the constitution and I am denied that, what should be my first move? Should I approach the nearest police thana or should I call 20,000 people and protest to change the government all at once?In my humble opinion, MSP is the right of a farmer. Every farmer should be guaranteed a MSP - a rate which he receives as a bare minimum. Also, providing a written assurance is the job of the supreme court. A PIL case should be filed and taken immediately from Punjab High Court, and if not settled there - to the Supreme Court for the decision.Centre must drop the electricity bill amendmentThird demand. The reason why farmers in Punjab are protesting this one is because they fear they will lose free power supply facility. They also fear that this amendment will promote privatisation and discontinuation of free power supplied to farmers in Punjab. These are rich wheat farmers, who have their contact all the way to Canada and other parts of India, and were the beneficiaries of socialist schemes by the government. Not the ones in Vidarbha. They aren't protesting.The main problem here is the increased expenses. To have alternatives from the increased expenses, the farm bills are also guaranteeing increased income for the farmers. However, explaining this much is not an easy task. It requires a lot of patience. What's easier? Blame the government.Banning the law which says farmers responsible for burning farm residue can be imprisoned for five years besides fine up to Rs 1 crore.Demand no. 4. Now, this is where most right-leaning people have objections. After destroying the air pollution levels drastically all over Delhi and Haryana and causing havoc through stubble burning, thereby destroying quality of lives, how can one call for the ban on such a much required law? This is the AQI of Delhi before Diwali (7th November 9:30am), thanks to Punjab farmers for some reference.The Uttar Pradesh government made mechanisms to buyback the extra stubble and provide them manure via barter[9]. Why can't Punjab do the same? There is a saying: Ignorantia juris neminem excusat. In English, it means: Ignorance of law is no excuse.Here, we are seeing that those who are protesting in Delhi know for certain that law exists. Hence, this cannot be applicable on them and their future endeavours of burning stubble as well as bringing air pollution.Release of those farmers who have been imprisoned due to burning farm residue.Regarding the penultimate demand and demand number five, I must say the Hon. Supreme Court also says in a recent interpretation, that the maxim “ignorance of law is no excuse” need not be used bluntly and in all cases. Since certain people are from less privileged backgrounds, this is true but then, one thing is to be noticed here.Which police have arrested those farmers?Is it the Delhi police or Punjab police?If Punjab police has imprisoned farmers, why are they going all the way to Delhi for the gherao-ing?Why are they saying Indira ko thok diya, Modi kya cheez hai?[10]Despite the last footnote, I acknowledge there are farmers who are protesting due to good intentions. You guys also acknowledge that apex farmer groups have been milked by political opponents. Also, a lot of their issues are not political but legal in nature such as MSP or power crisis.As the saying goes, the “devil is in the details” - these are the devils that we are up against. On the surface, “farmers rights” have a high aesthetic appeal but when you sow into the surface (no pun intended), such things come to our attention.Update (as on 12/12/20):A lot of things happened ever since I have written this answer. The protest is now hijacked by the left wing activists.[11] Now such sloganeering is in the open. The inner agenda isn't even hidden. If this isn't enough to convince you, the entire political game is hijacked, probably you need to revisit proofs.Prime Minister Narendra Modi has met with the farmer leaders and promised 50% above MSP.[12] However, they are still adamant.[13] They are blocking roads and causing trouble to the common man.[14] They don't have enough sense to see that these are not sending a message to Modi - with whom they have already had a sitting and discussion.Our nation is obsessed with quantity over quality. We often take pride on GDP over GDP capita or HDI. These new bills make enough sense. The new farm acts aims to improve quality of farming since farmers will adhere to global standards if they are asked to produce crops of a suitable type.Rahul Gandhi's latest argument on the 2013 data holds true. Rare insight from the otherwise intellectually impaired human but he is true when he says that “Punjab has the most income per agricultural household according to 2013 data”. However, he is least concerned with the quality of farm output.This is what I had written in a comment elsewhere on Quora (divided in two to provide references)Punjab households earn the most according to 2016-17 data as well. But their produce is subpar…This applies to every aspect of farming. Be it paddy[15] or maize[16] or basic soil management[17] . There was even a seed scam going on, this June in Ludhiana itself.[18]…and most of it goes to feed midday meals to schools. With contract farming initiatives, the quality of crops would be better.No one speaks about thr qualitative changes in farming and are just focused on household income per capita and production value. Not what we eat. This is what Farm Bills seek to change.Footnotes[1] Why Punjab farmers are marching towards New Delhi | Explained[2] What are the 3 new farm Bills: Benefits for farmers, all you need to know[3] The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020[4] The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020[5] Explained: What are the three new agri sector bills and how will they benefit the farmers | All you need to know[6] Explained: What is the Essential Commodities Act, and how will amending it help?[7] Central law removing mandi tax: Traders, mandi operators spar, call for bandh[8] Over 7,700 Vidarbha farmers committed suicide in 6 years - Times of India[9] इस अनोखे तरीके से योगी सरकार लगाएगी प्रदूषण पर लगाम, पराली के बदले किसानों को देगी 'गोबर-ट्रॉली' का इनाम[10] Rishi Bagree on Twitter[11] 'Wait, What?' Posters demanding release of Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Elgar Parishad activists seen at farmers' protest; Twitter wants explanation[12] PM Modi meets farmers from 5 states, promises MSP 50 per cent over cost of production[13] Farmers have called the bluff of the Modi government [14] ANI on Twitter[15] Punjab's paddy dilemma[16] Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh seeks abundant high quality maize seeds for kharif sowing[17] Paddy in Punjab, Part 2: High-cost farming is degrading quality of soil, driving small farmers to ruin - India News , Firstpost[18] Punjab's paddy dilemma