Why It Is So Important To Make Sure Trump Does NOT Get A Second Term

Status Quo Joe has a lot of endorsements-- mostly from politicians who are intensely disliked by progressives, from Senators Dianne Feinstein (CA) and Doug Jones (AL) and Governor Andrew Cuomo (NY) to a pack of hated reactionary Blue Dogs and New Dems like Stephen Lynch (MA), Ami Bera (CA), Tony Cardenas (CA), Vicente Gonzalez (TX), Kurt Schrader (OR), Lou Correa (CA), Charlie Crist (FL), Al Lawson (FL) and Filemon Vela (TX). Every one of them has a shitty voting record and every one of them is more like Biden than like a normal FDR Democrat. They are what makes the Democratic Party almost as disliked as the Republican Party; they are what makes it-- at best-- the lesser of two evils. And they are the heart and soul of the Biden endorsement cadre. Bleccchhh.

How would you like to see an election campaign, tailor-made for Trump, that concentrates on who has a more disgusting family, who’s more corrupt, who lies more, who’s more likely to drift away into full-blown senility first? That’s the only kind of campaign Trump can win… and that’s what a Trump-Biden campaign would look like. Think about it and then talk with anyone who know-- grandparents, perhaps?-- who is considering voting for Biden in a primary or caucus. Professor Yascha Mounk, author of The People vs Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is In Danger And How To Save It, is predicting that if Trump is reelected, his second term will be worse, just like Modi’s has been in India. In fact, in an essay for The Atlantic yesterday, Mounk wrote that “In his first five years in office, Modi did considerable damage, both to the freedoms his critics enjoyed and to the security of the country’s religious minorities. Social-media mobs intimidated anybody who dared to criticize his government. Media outlets allied with Modi stoked fears about Muslim men waging ‘love jihad’ by marrying Hindu women. Mainstream newspapers that were once highly critical of Modi started to praise him with surprising regularity, and to criticize him with notable rarity. And in episodes of what Indians euphemistically call ‘communal violence,’ Muslims were lynched by angry mobs… After Modi won reelection with an even larger majority in the spring of this year, his government began to take radical action to unwind the secularism of India’s constitution, arguably doing more damage in the first months of its second term than it had in the previous five years. Some of the concerns about Modi that seemed exaggerated at the conclusion of his first term in office are now starting to look prescient.” (Be sure to listen to Mounk speaking in the video up top-- including his response to the question at the end.)

Many observers of India have been surprised that Modi has grown so much more extreme in his second term in office. But a comparison of populist governments around the world suggests that India is following a predictable pattern of what would-be authoritarians do when they win reelection.

As we’ve seen in countries including Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela, populist leaders are at first hamstrung in their ability to concentrate power in their own hands. Many key institutions, including courts and electoral commissions, are still dominated by independent-minded professionals who do not owe their appointment to the new regime. Media outlets are still able and willing to report on scandals, forcing the government to tread somewhat carefully.

Once these governments win reelection, these constraints begin to fall away. As the independent-minded judges and civil servants depart, populist leaders feel emboldened to pursue their illiberal dreams.

…In his first term in office, Donald Trump has done plenty of damage to the rule of law. His firm control of the Republican Party has made it virtually impossible for Congress to act as a check on the executive. He has exercised enormous influence over institutions ranging from the FBI to the State Department. And it is now evident that he has abused the powers of his office to damage the electoral prospects of his most likely opponent in the 2020 election.

Even so, some of the most extreme predictions about Trump’s tenure in office have, so far, proved unfounded. Madeleine Albright’s warning about impending fascism in the United States, for example, seems a bit much: For all the tremendous damage Trump has inflicted on the institutions of the American republic, there are no stormtroopers in sight.

Perhaps that’s why the fear and anger that propelled such big protests in the first months of 2017 seem to have dissipated. Neither the spectacle of Trump’s impeachment trial nor the children still held in cages at America’s southern border have inspired anything resembling the levels of mobilization that marked his first months in office. Many may assume that Trump’s reelection will bring nothing worse than four more years of the same-- terrible, to be sure, but by now imaginably terrible.

Current events in India and Poland should shock Americans out of this complacency. Trump’s first term is at best an imperfect guide to the horrors that would await us if he manages to win a second one. When they are reelected, populists nearly always become more radical and more dangerous.

Scapegoating Immigrants Wasn't Invented By Trump Or Hitler-- Let's Look At India And Israel Today

Far right political leaders Modi and Netanyahu

You’ve probably read about serious riots in India in the last week-- and if you’ve been online much, you have probably come to see that many people are openly referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a fascist and genocidist, something DWT readers have known for over 2 decades. India has over 200 million Muslims and the Modi government has always been eager to target them. A new law, the Citizenship Amendment Act passed in early December, offering amnesty to non-Muslim illegal immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

There have been massive protests in Delhi, Chennai (Madras), Bangalore, Jaipur (where 300,000 people took to the streets) and Kolkata (Calcutta), not to mention throughout the states of Assam and Uttar Pradesh.





In India, scapegoating and ratcheting up the hatred and bigotry is backfiring on Modi and his government. This kind of thing is slightly less obvious in Israel, which has better p.r. than Modi’s government. A few days ago Haaretz reported that a government report classifies more than a third of immigrants to Israel as “not Jewish,” although most actually are Jewish. It’s a matter of definition... and government aid. Jews from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the U.S. have been having trouble being accepted as “legitimate” Jews and getting automatic citizenship and welfare. Even the right to marry is in jeopardy. Presumably, 2018 marked the first time in Israel’s history when Jewish immigrants were outnumbered by non-Jewish immigrants, although most of the non-Jewish immigrants self-identify as Jews. Since independence in 1948, Israel has welcomed over 3 million immigrants.

More than one out of three immigrants moving to Israel since 2012 is not considered Jewish by the state, according to figures published on Tuesday by the Interior Ministry’s Population Registry. Among immigrants originating from the former Soviet Union, who account for the majority of immigrants to Israel in recent years, the share was significantly higher.

The Interior Ministry, which does not typically publish such figures, was forced to release them in response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by Hiddush, an organization that advocates for religious freedom in Israel. But the initial figures, which Hiddush published on Monday, contained glaring errors that were quickly picked up on by organizations active in aliyah.

According to the updated figures, 61 percent of immigrants arriving from Russia since 2012 and 66 percent of those coming from Ukraine are not considered Jewish by the state. By contrast, fewer than 5 percent of those moving to Israel from the United States fit this definition. Among immigrants from France-- another major source of aliyah during the period in question-- under 4 percent were considered not Jewish.

During the period in question, a total of 199,876 immigrants became Israeli citizens under the Law of Return. Among them, 37.5 percent were registered as not Jewish.

To qualify as Jewish under the Law of Return, which governs eligibility for aliyah, an individual must have either been born to a Jewish mother or converted to Judaism in a recognized Jewish community. Although all such converts are registered as Jewish in the Population Registry, if they were not converted by rabbis approved by the Orthodox-run Chief Rabbinate, they are prohibited from marrying other Jews in Israel. Therefore, the percentage of immigrants deemed ineligible to marry other Jews in Israel among those who arrived in the country in the last eight years is likely higher than 37.5 percent (although no exact figures were provided by the Interior Ministry).

Under the Law of Return, the spouses, children and grandchildren of Jews are allowed to immigrate to Israel, even if they do not fit the Population Registry’s definition of Jewish. These individuals belong to a category designated as “other” or “no religion” by the Population Registry and Central Bureau of Statistics.

According to estimates published by Prof. Sergio DellaPergola of Hebrew University, Israel’s leading demographer, a total of 426,700 Israeli citizens, or just under 5 percent of the total population, currently fall into this rather bizarre category. Because only a small percentage of these “others” opt to convert to Judaism, and given their childbearing rate, their numbers have been growing by thousands every year.

Responding to the Population Registry figures, Rabbi Seth Farber, the founder and executive director of ITIM— an organization that advocates for immigrants— said: “The numbers reflect the new reality of Jewish peoplehood:  There are tens of thousands of people who identify as Jews and seek to tie their destiny to the Jewish future and the Jewish state, but do not meet the halakhic definition of Jewish [meaning under traditional Jewish religious law]. The State of Israel and the halakhic community have a great responsibility to find ways to enable these individuals and families to join the halakhic community-- should they seek to. The diversity represented in these numbers is real, and we must create conversion reform in Israel. The alternative is to blind ourselves to the future of the Jewish people and to our present reality.”

Israel is in a serious demographic war with Arabs-- who have a much higher birthrate than Israeli Jews-- and the only way to keep up has been to vigorously encourage non-Muslim immigrants. There were over 37,000 in 2018 and Israel is on track to increase that by 20% this year. In 2018, about 10,500 people came from Russia, 6,400 from Ukraine, 2,400 each from the U.S. and from France. Meanwhile, Israel has completely shut off asylum seekers from Africa. Not a single one was admitted in 2018.

Genocidal Maniac Narendra Modi, The Death Penalty For Treason, Vaping-- Another Wild Monday In Trump-World

Relatively few Americans ever get to India, a real shame, since it's a truly incredible place. I set out from London in 1969 in my VW camper for my first trip. I spent nearly two years on that trip, much of it driving from the Punjab down along the west coast to the tip, crossing over by ferry into Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) and then driving up the east coast, up into Nepal and across the north of the country and out through the Punjab into Pakistan again. And I barely scratched the surface. Since then I've been back to India half a dozen times-- by plane those times-- sometimes for business and sometimes for vacation. Several of those times in more recent year have been during Narendra Modi-election cycles.

In December 2007, I wrote that there was a bitterly contested state election in Gujarat whose main issue was the controversial incumbent chief minister, Narendra Modi, of the far-right nationalistic party BJP, a Trump kind of guy through and through. The BJP is a classic right-wing political party, representing the status quo interests of the exploitative/owner class. In a thriving democracy like India, how does a party concerned exclusively with the welfare and prerogatives of .001 percent of the population, and espousing one prepackaged conservative nostrum after another, even hope to win votes? The BJP never needed Richard Nixon, Lee Atwater, Karl Rove or the Southern Strategy to succumb to the siren song of the Dark Side's exploitation of social tensions, racism, xenophobia, religionist hatreds and fear of, what Modi always talked about-- "Islamofascist terrorism." That kind of divisiveness had turned very ugly-- and launched Modi's career as a national figure, leading to his current position as national prime minister. I write at the time that "In Gujarat over a thousand Muslims-- men, women and children-- have been brutally murdered, their homes and businesses burned and looted, just five years ago as a step on the ladder to Modi-power. This is called BJP-inspired Hindutva, sometimes called Moditva, in honor of his George Wallace-like encouragement for the mayhem." While I was there that year Modi bragged about having suspected Muslim 'terrorists' dealt with extra-judicially-- by having them killed.

Gujarat is one of the poorest and most backward states in India-- think Mississippi-- in a country where over 2 million children under the age of five died in 2006 and where seven hundred million (700,000,000) people do not have access to sanitation. Muslims are Modi's and the BJP's scapegoats of choice; there are too few Jews left in India.

Let me get back to the social problems the BJP exploits to win elections in a moment and move to the heart of the party's agenda: unbridled vulture capitalism. All of India's robber barons back Modi. It is claimed he has created a development-friendly climate that vulture capitalists just eat up. And he has delivered electricity-- for those rich enough to afford it. Most cannot. "Development" for Modi and his party means Raj-level opportunities for the already rich and powerful and a slim-- very slim-- chance that there might someday be some trickle down for everyone else. Not much has trickled down so far.

Modi seemed intent to try fighting for reelection based on his development record, but most Gujaratis weren't buying it, because they aren't feeling it or seeing it. So like any right-winger worth his political salt, he turned to divisiveness and mud-slinging. (Headlines today were all about a Congress Party politician in Gujarat caught on tape in a compromising position with a woman he isn't married to. CDs were provided to all the media outlets in the state and in Delhi.)

But playing the religionist card is Modi's time-tested specialty. "The Congress [Party] questioned Lord Ram's existence in an affidavit submitted in court," he brayed to a small crowd of tribal Gujaratis yesterday. But if Modi sounds even more like a reckless religionist crackpot than Mike Huckabee or Bishop Willard Romney, he's as slick a politico as either of them. After making his emotional appeal to defend the veracity of Lord Ram's existence, he didn't hesitate to remind the audience to get their butts to the polls. "Please don't think I will become chief minister if you set out on a padayatra to Ambaji temple," unconsciously showing his own hypocrisy and contempt for religion. "I will not come to power if you recite my name 108 times a day. It will only happen if you come out of your homes to cast your votes for the GOP BJP."

Yesterday, Philip Rucker reported for the Washington Post that "The foreign strategy of soothing tensions with the United States by stroking President Trump’s ego was put into vivid effect here Sunday when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi lathered praise on his American counterpart at a massive rally celebrating the Indian diaspora. The leaders of the world’s two largest democracies took the stage together in Houston before a roaring crowd of tens of thousands of Indian Americans, where Modi delivered an unmistakable endorsement of Trump’s presidency and cast their joint appearance in historic terms. Said Modi: 'His name is familiar to every person on the planet. He was a household name and very popular even before he went on to occupy the highest office in this great country. From CEO to commander in chief. From boardrooms to the Oval Office. From studios to global stage.'" I wonder who wrote that!

It was music to Trump's ears compared to what he heard on Morning Joe a few hours later, when former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld, a fellow Republican, noted that "Talk about pressuring a foreign country to interfere with and control a U.S. election. It couldn’t be clearer, and that’s not just undermining democratic institutions. That is treason. It’s treason, pure and simple, and the penalty for treason under the U.S. code is death. That’s the only penalty. The penalty in the Constitution is removal from office and that might look like a pretty good alternative to the president if he could work out a plea deal."





These are heady days around the White House, as Trump pours gasoline on the impeachment fires. Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer noted for Politico early Monday that "Impeachment is becoming more and more likely. Some will tell you it’s approaching a certainty... Unlike the Byzantine Russiagate allegations, the latest charge-- that the president repeatedly tried to get a foreign leader seeking military aid to investigate a political opponent-- is not hard to understand. It’s about the actions of Trump himself, not his aides or former campaign nobodies. At this point, the facts are pretty much in the open and agreed to: The president has practically admitted he discussed Biden with Ukraine’s president, and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani has been open about pressing the Ukrainians to investigate Biden’s son Hunter. Now it’s up to Congress to figure out how to proceed."

Speaker Nancy Pelosi understands the caucus’ moods better than anyone, and her letter Sunday-- which said the president needs to hand over the whistleblower report now, or else-- was a rifle shot that should not be underestimated.

Time is of the essence for the Trump White House. If they don’t produce the whistleblower report within days-- maybe a week-- Democrats are going to be under extreme pressure to move toward impeachment. Thursday will be an important day to watch: That’s when Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, is testifying in an open hearing.

But you know what's funny here? While the White House is fretting over what looks like a Trump washout in Michigan, some of his allies are more worried about Trump losing because of his opposition to vaping! No, really... forget treason and impeachment and emoluments. How funny would it be if one of the only good things Trump has ever tried to do in his whole miserable life, destroys his toxic presidency! "Conservative leaders are circulating data to White House staff that claims adults who vape will turn on President Trump if he follows through with his planned ban on flavored e-cigarettes... The data reveals that the number of adult vapers in key battleground states greatly outweighs the margins by which Trump won those states in 2016-- and they argue it could cost him reelection. 'While parents may be concerned about e-cigarettes, the people who genuinely care about vaping as a voting issue so far outweighs the number of people Trump needs to win in 2020 that they are royally screwing themselves by doing this,' Paul Blair, the director of strategic initiatives at Americans for Tax Reform, tells me... Florida, which Trump won by 113,000 voters, had about 873,000 adult vapers in 2016. They reason that if 1 in 8 vapers turn against Trump in 2020 because he foreclosed their vaping options, it could jeopardize the election.

Trump has begun backing away from his anti-vaping stand and will probably soon be doing ads for the delicious flavors! This guy is so incredibly predictable! And pathetic.

The Rise Of Fascism In India And In Myanmar Suffered Severe Blows At The Polls Sunday

DWT has a history of opposing Indian fascist leader Narendra Modi. We tend to oppose religious bigots and genocidal murderers like Modi anywhere in the world, but especially in places we love, like India. Writing from New Delhi in 2007, when Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat (not Prime Minister of India as he is today), we warned that his party, the BJP is a classic right-wing political party, representing the status quo interests of the exploitative/owner class.

In a thriving democracy like India, how does a party concerned exclusively with the welfare and prerogatives of .001 percent of the population, and espousing one prepackaged conservative nostrum after another, even hope to win votes? The BJP never needed Richard Nixon, Lee Atwater, Karl Rove or the Southern Strategy to succumb to the siren song of the Dark Side's exploitation of social tensions, racism, xenophobia, religionist hatreds and-- it being, even here, a George Bush world-- fear of "Islamofascist terrorism."

Except here in India, that kind of talk can-- and has-- turned very, very deadly. In Gujarat over a thousand Muslims-- men, women and children-- have been brutally murdered, their homes and businesses burned and looted, just five years ago as a step on the ladder to Modi-power. This is called BJP-inspired Hindutva, sometimes called Moditva, in honor of his George Wallace-like encouragement for the mayhem.

Just last week Chief Minister Modi bragged about having suspected Muslim "terrorists" dealt with extra-judicially-- by having them killed. Sobrabuddin Sheik's wife was also hunted down and murdered after Modi disposed of the husband.

Modi's fascist party came to power last year and he was named Prime Minister. Yesterday his party's divisive agenda was judged harshly by voters in Bihar, India's third most populous state (103,804,637 people), as the BJP was swamped in local elections. And Modi was the focus in a state his party won just 18 months ago.

Modi was the indisputable face of his party's campaign in Bihar. He led the campaign, addressing 26 public meetings across the length and breadth of the state.

What's more, his trusted aide Amit Shah, who is also the BJP president and chief poll strategiser, camped in the state and spoke himself at more than 70 meetings.

Mr Modi came to Bihar promising jobs and development in a reprise of the campaign which helped him to sweep to power in federal elections last year.

In fact, his party and its allies won 31 of the 49 parliamentary seats in Bihar in 2014.

But the prime minister's lustre has somewhat diminished since. In what was a protracted five-phase election, his party's campaign ramped up the rhetoric, asking voters, among other things, if they wanted "a [Bihar] government… that protects terrorists."

Amid growing countrywide concern over rising intolerance and Hindu hardliners running amok, Mr Modi and Mr Shah raised the sensitive issue of cow slaughter and consumption of beef-- the cow is regarded as sacred but polarises opinion in Hindu-majority India.

They invoked Pakistan and accused his rivals of stealing affirmative action quotas for minorities. Things became so bad that the election authorities stepped in and proscribed two provocative BJP campaign adverts.

Mr Shah told a rally that if "by any chance" his party lost Bihar, "then firecrackers would be let off in celebration in Pakistan". Mr Kumar met the BJP's high-pitched campaign with a measured response, addressing concerns over equitable growth and development. Meanwhile his ally, Mr Yadav mined the caste vote successfully, making sure that not many voters strayed to the BJP.

Mr Modi and his party, say analysts, have a lot of lessons to learn from the Bihar verdict.

First, running a campaign that uses development, caste and religion does not always work. Voters should be more respected for their wisdom.

Secondly, voters appear to be increasingly sceptical of Mr Modi's promises of growth and development. Many believe the Bihar verdict shows he hasn't convinced many people that he has the ability to deliver on his key promise.

Even some of his most ardent supporters say Mr Modi has run a lacklustre and underwhelming government in the past 18 months. The tyranny of expectations is beginning to bite. The needless provocations of some of his noisy lawmakers and ministers and the radical fringe are giving his government a bad name at home and abroad.

Thirdly, Mr Modi is seen as a less invincible and strong leader. The rout in Delhi shattered the aura of invincibility. The Bihar debacle proves that the enthusiasm has waned further. Many are wondering how a prime minister with one of the largest poll victories in India's history is unable to rein in hardliners in his own flock.

Finally, the BJP should now be ready to face a reinvigorated opposition - in tatters after last year's debacle.

Although it still remains India's strongest party, Mr Modi's binary politics-- either you are with us, or against us-- has effectively helped unite a rag-tag opposition, which now believes that it can take on the BJP by forging similar coalitions as in Bihar. Even the Congress, lacking fresh ideas and led by a reluctant leader, appears to have staged a modest recovery.

Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition Congress Party-- vaguely equivalent to our own pathetic Democrats-- termed the victory "a message against putting Hindus against Muslims and making them fight to win elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has become arrogant. He should work on toning it down as it will benefit him and the country. Modi should stop campaigning and start working."

Modi needed a victory in Bihar because the upper house of Parliament-- which is appointed by the states-- is not controlled by the BJP and has blocked some of his legislative initiatives. The NY Times' David Barstow reports that [t]he defeat also means that Mr. Modi will enter the winter session of Parliament without the political momentum he craved to force through major overhauls of taxation, labor rules and land use that he sees as critical to accelerating India’s growth and attracting more foreign investors" and that the election has "played out against a raging national debate over whether Mr. Modi’s India is becoming increasingly intolerant of secularists, Muslims and political dissent in general. According to the police, four Muslims were attacked and killed by mobs of Hindus in the past six weeks because they were suspected of stealing, smuggling or slaughtering cows."

Hundreds of writers, filmmakers, scientists and academics have protested what they see as rising intolerance by signing petitions or returning awards they had received from government-supported bodies.

“This is a victory of unity over divisiveness. Humility over arrogance,” Rahul Gandhi, a member of the grand alliance, said in a statement. Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, called the election a “defeat of intolerance.”

...Given the depth and breadth of the B.J.P. rout, the results on Sunday called into question the vaunted political acumen of Mr. Modi’s version of Karl Rove: Amit Shah, the B.J.P. president.

Mr. Shah had much to prove in Bihar after a surprising electoral defeat for the B.J.P. in Delhi, and he took personal command of the Bihar election. In campaign billboards across the state, his image was nearly as prominent as Mr. Modi’s. He was also responsible for one of the most incendiary speeches in the Bihar campaign, when he predicted that firecrackers would be set off in celebration across Pakistan if Mr. Modi lost.

On Sunday, thousands of Biharis had a ready retort for Mr. Shah. Across the state, they lit firecrackers.

EVEN BETTER NEWS IN MYANMAR

I was living, briefly, in West Berlin before the Wall came down. There were already holes in the Wall and the border guards weren't generally taking it that seriously any longer, so my German friends used to go over into East Berlin whenever they felt like it. It wasn't as safe for Americans but I had to do it, right? It gave me an eerier feeling than anything I had felt in the more relaxed Communist bloc countries I had spent time in-- basically Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria. And the next time I got that same eery feeling-- well actually it was a Stalinist feeling was when I visited Myanmar in 2007-08. I just checked and I was making the comparison between East Berlin and Yangon almost a decade ago! East Berlin, I wrote in 2007, "didn't look free and romantic; the oppression, tyranny and decrepitude were apparent and tangible... and chilling. It scared and repulsed me. I was happy to get back to West Berlin."

A few hours ago, decades later, I just returned from a place like that, a place you read about in books by George Orwell and Aldous Huxley: Myanmar.

Myanmar was Burma when I was a small boy (and avid stamp collector). I remember there were military coups when I was in elementary school. It was one of those closed off places-- exotic, mysterious, impenetrable, vaguely dangerous, like Albania, Mongolia, North Korea... places no one ever went. In the 80s the military junta took the name SLORC (an unfortunate-sounding acronym for State Law and Order Restoration Council). It sounds like something from a James Bond movie. For the people there, I just discovered, it doesn't feel like a movie. It feels like a nightmare that never ends. Paid Republican lobbyists and operatives in DC got the military dictators to ditch the SLORC moniker for SPDC (State Peace and Development Council, which sounds far less ominous-- like Bush's Clear Skies Act).

One of the first things I noticed is that the oppressive, paranoid tyranny in Myanmar exists in a parallel world next to a beautiful traditional Buddhist culture. The gentle people, predisposed to kindness, seem a little nervous-- hundreds of beloved and revered monks were brutally and ruthlessly murdered by the regime a few weeks ago after peaceful demonstrations-- but when you shoot anyone (except some of the soldiers) a mengalaba (hello) their wariness invariably breaks down and they smile. They are friendly and the reserve often vanishes quickly and, at least in Yangon, more of them spoke English than anywhere else in Southeast Asia I've ever been.

The whole city seems to be rotting and breaking down, although it may also be a work in progress of sorts. The city is immense-- but kind of slow and quiet... kind of left behind as the rest of the region rushes headlong into the 21st Century and globalization. Roland says Yangon reminds him of Havana in many ways.

I'm happy to report this evening that in their first ostensibly free elections in many years, the Burmese have chosen to go down the path of democracy. Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy seems to have won a clear majority-- perhaps as much as 80% of the vote-- and the military-backed politicians failed in an election that picked 168 of the 224 representatives in the upper house of the national parliament (the remaining quarter of seats to be appointed by the military) and 325 of the 440 seats in the lower house (with 110 appointed by the military).

Reuters reported that the dictatorship conceded defeat early Monday "as the opposition led by democracy figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi appeared on course for a landslide victory that would ensure it can form the next government."

"We lost," Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) acting chairman Htay Oo told Reuters in an interview a day after the Southeast Asian country's first free nationwide election in a quarter of a century.

The election commission later began announcing constituency-by-constituency results from Sunday's poll. All of the first 12 announced were won by Suu Kyi's National League of Democracy (NLD).

The NLD said its own tally of results from polling stations around the country showed it on track to win more than 70 percent of the seats being contested in parliament, more than the two-thirds it needs to form Myanmar's first democratically elected government since the early 1960s.

"They must accept the results, even though they don't want to," NLD spokesman Win Htein told Reuters, adding that in the highly populated central region the Nobel peace laureate's party looked set to win more than 90 percent of seats.

Earlier a smiling Suu Kyi appeared on the balcony of the NLD's headquarters in Yangon and in a brief address urged supporters to be patient and wait for the official results.

The election was a landmark in the country's unsteady journey to democracy from the military dictatorship that made it a pariah state for so long. It is also a moment that Suu Kyi will relish after spending years under house arrest.

Although the election appears to have dealt a decisive defeat to the USDP, a period of uncertainty still looms over the country because it is not clear how Suu Kyi will share power with the still-dominant military.

The military-drafted constitution guarantees one-quarter of parliament's seats to unelected members of the armed forces.

Even if the NLD gets the majority it needs, Suu Kyi is barred from taking the presidency herself under the constitution written by the junta to preserve its power. Suu Kyi has said she would be the power behind the new president regardless of a charter she has derided as "very silly."

The military will, however, remain a dominant force. It is guaranteed key ministerial positions, the constitution gives it the right to take over government under certain circumstances, and it also has a grip on the economy through holding companies.

Incomplete vote counts showed some of the most powerful politicians of the USDP trailing in their bids for parliamentary seats, indicating a heavy loss for the party created by the former junta and led by retired military officers.

Among the losers was USDP chief Htay Oo, who told Reuters from the rural delta heartlands that are a bastion of support for his party he was "surprised" by his own defeat.

The Nature Of Conservatism-- A Sick And Deranged War Against Women

The stories coming out of India and Pakistan about the murders of women last week have been gut-wrenching. Both were primitive and barbaric acts within the context of conservative and patriarchal culture that deem women less than human. Mulayam Singh Yadav, from Uttar Pradesh's governing party, was widely quoted in the media as saying "Boys will be boys" in response to the brutal gang rapes and murders of two girls from a poor family. The police tried covering the whole incident up. When I heard about it on the radio, I nearly threw up.

And, make no mistake, this kind of brutality and terrorism against women is very much a part of sick conservative politics. Ramsevak Paikra, a minister from the new far right Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party has said rapes happen "accidentally."

"Such incidents (rapes) do not happen deliberately. These kind of incidents happen accidentally," Paikra, of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which also rules at the national level, told reporters.

Paikra, who was asked for his thoughts on the gang-rape and lynching of two girls in a neighbouring state, later said he had been misquoted. His original remarks were broadcast on television networks.

The remarks come just days after the home minister of the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh state said rapes were "sometimes right, sometimes wrong."

The minister, Babulal Gaur, gave the remarks on Thursday amid growing anger over the gang-rape and murder of the girls, aged 12 and 14, in northern Uttar Pradesh state late last month.

Modi, whose party came to power in a landslide election victory, has so far stayed silent over the rapes.

…Several politicians have sought to blame tight jeans, short skirts and other Western influences for the country's rise in rapes, while the head of a village council pointed to chowmein which he claimed led to hormone imbalances among men.

This isn't about Hinduism or the Muslim religion. This is about a primitive, patriarchal, conservative worldview-- one shared, if usually tempered-- by conservatives in our own country as well. Friday, Racine billionaire and sociopath, Samuel Curtis Johnson III, pleaded guilt to sexually assaulting-- for years-- his young stepdaughter. He got off with a slap on the wrist. He'll serve a few weeks in jail and pay a $6,000 fine.

His daughter was 15 in 2011 when she accused Johnson of being a sex addict.

The girl says Johnson would enter her bedroom at night and fondle her breasts, buttocks and vaginal area, the court documents state. According to the documents, the girl told investigators that Johnson "used his mouth to molest her," exposing himself through his pajama pants and frequently asking her for intercourse.

According to court documents the girl told her mother about the abuse in November in an effort to protect her younger sister.

Johnson's company manufactures household cleaning products like Fantastik, Windex and Draino and his personal net worth is $2.2 billion. Aviva Shen, writing for Think Progress digs into how Johnson got off so easy. The felony he was originally charged with could have led to 40 years in prison, Billionaires don't get 40 years in prison, so the prosecutor downgraded the charges to a misdemeanor, claiming the girl and her mother would not cooperate.

Johnson’s lawyers insisted the girl’s medical records be released to see if she had reported the abuse to her therapist, and a court held that the girl could not testify unless she released the records. The girl and her mother refused to release them, so the girl was barred from taking the stand. The case essentially fell apart without her as a witness, the prosecution said.

“Refusal to cooperate” is a common reason rapists go free, and obscures the difficult situations and complex power dynamics victims face when they come forward. Victims, especially children, are often traumatized and unable to navigate the rigid legal maze. They are penalized harshly if their stories change or if they don’t seem emotional enough. Sometimes they are even arrested if they try to back out. When the abuser is a family member, victims often feel conflicted about exposing them to a legal battle and face more pressure to back down. Indeed, prosecutors say the girl and her mother did not want to press charges against Johnson, whom they are likely dependent on financially and socially.

When the accused rapist is a powerful community leader, like Johnson, the costs to “cooperating” are even higher. In the now infamous Maryville case, prosecutors said they initially dropped charges against a football star because the victim refused to cooperate. That justification didn’t address that the victim had been ruthlessly bullied for months, her mother was fired from her job, and that the family ultimately felt the need to leave town.

Johnson is the latest symbol of how the justice system works differently for the super-rich. One wealthy heir who raped his 3-year-old daughter was recently sentenced to probation because the judge decided he “will not fare well” in prison. In another high profile case, a wealthy teenager successfully avoided jail time for killing four people in a drunk driving incident by arguing he had “affluenza”-- that his rich parents had never taught him how to make moral choices.

Is this is a good time to mention that it is the official policy of DWT that, while rapists should be castrated, all billionaires should be taxed out of existence?



UPDATE: Legal Notice

This e-mail, reasonable enough, came from someone representing SC Johnson (the company) who seems quite eager to disassociate the company from the billionaire/child sex predator, SC Johnson.

Hi Howie,

Wanted to reach out to you and kindly request a minor correction on your June 8 blog, “The Nature Of Conservatism-- A Sick And Deranged War Against Women.”

Specifically, where it notes that “Johnson's company manufactures household cleaning products like Fantastik, Windex and Draino and his personal net worth is $2.2 billion,” we’d like to request the underlined here/first half of this sentence is updated to “Johnson is an heir to the Johnson family fortune”-- removing the part that suggests he owns the company.

Curt Johnson has no formal relationship to SC Johnson; he has not worked for or served SC Johnson in any capacity for more than 18 years.

Thanks very much for your help-- please let me know of any questions.

For Ro Khanna, A Past Filled With Cheating Was A Predictable Prologue To His Current Campaign

Anti-family conservatives Khanna & Singh

Yesterday we took a look at how Ro Khanna, from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, was forced to resign from his first elected office when he was exposed for financial campaign fraud (1996) and then how Bill Clinton denounced him 8 years later when Khanna falsely claimed to have been endorsed by Clinton while he was running against Congressman Tom Lantos.

Clinton wasn't satisfied with telling Khanna to cease-and-desist, he took the unusual step of endorsing Khanna's rival, Congressman Tom Lantos because of the flap. Clinton said he generally does not endorse candidates in primaries. "I regret that Ro Khanna has misled the people of the 12th District in this mailing," Clinton said in a press release.

Now Khanna, financed by wealthy Republicans as part of their class war against working families, is running the same kind of sleazy campaign against Mike Honda in a neighboring district. Yesterday the biggest newspaper in the area, the San Jose Mercury News exposed the latest dirty trick in Khanna's arsenal. Remember back in January when we told you that polling showed a Republican, Vanila Singh, was outpolling Khanna for the #2 spot in the upcoming June 3 primary? A poll by PPP showed that if the primary were voted on now, Honda would lead with 45% while Singh, the actual Republican nominee, would come in second with 29% and Khanna, the stealth Republican with all the millions of dollars behind him, would trail with 26%. So Khanna's instinct for dirty pool kicked into hight gear. And he had all the money he needed to try to fix the ballot, just like he did in 1996. And now Khanna is being sued.

Democratic congressional candidate Ro Khanna recruited two last-minute Republican candidates to split the GOP vote and restore his position as the top challenger to Silicon Valley U.S. Rep. Mike Honda, an East Bay Republican official claims in a lawsuit.

…Jeffrey Wald of Fremont, an Alameda County Republican Central Committee member, wants a Sacramento County Superior Court judge to order the Alameda and Contra Costa county registrars and Secretary of State Debra Bowen to kick Vanlandingham and Rathore off the June 3 primary election ballot.

His lawsuit claims "Khanna recruited candidates to enter the race as Republicans to split the Republican vote three ways, effectively diluting votes that would otherwise be cast in favor of (Vanila) Singh."

Dr. Vanila Singh, a Fremont Republican, entered the race at the start of this year, while Vanlandingham and Rathore filed papers just before the March 7 deadline.

"The addition of Singh Rathore and Vanlandingham, both of whom are running as Republicans, will split the GOP vote, effectively moving Khanna to second place in the top two June 3 Primary Election," Wald's lawsuit says. "The addition of Singh Rathore, another Indian-American, will split the Indian-American vote. In addition, the fact that Singh Rathore has added his middle name on his ballot designation appears to be a clear effort to cause confusion between 'Vanila Singh' and 'Vinesh Singh,' both of whom are designated as Republicans."

Rathore, a Google product attorney for San Jose, submitted candidacy papers bearing several nominating signatures in the same handwriting, indicating the people didn't sign personally as required by law, the lawsuit says. And Vanlandingham, a tech industry job recruiter from San Jose, submitted nomination papers signed by people who also had signed for Khanna, or bearing addresses or handwriting that differed from those people's voter registrations, the suit claims.

The lawsuit also claims neither Rathore nor Vanlandingham had registered or filed statements of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission as of this past Sunday; no FEC records could be found for either of them Wednesday.

The national Republican Party has embraced Vanila Singh, a candidate who appears to be backed by India's fascist-oriented Bharatiya Janata Party of genoicidal maniac Narendra Modi. His anti-Muslim fanaticism is perfect for the American GOP. NRCC Chairman Greg Walden is always proud to embrace a fellow fascist backed by foreign money. He put Singh on the Republican Party's "On The Radar" list of candidates and said "California's hardworking families deserve better than skyrocketing health care costs, financial instability and mountains of debt on their backs. I am certain that Vanila Singh will be a strong contender this election cycle."

India's Corrupt, Dysfunctional Politics Comes To California

The first time I got to India, in 1969, I went the hard way-- overland in a VW van from Europe. What a trip, and I stayed in India, Nepal, Ceylon and Pakistan for two years. Over the years, I've been back many times, most recently over the Christmas holidays in 2012. And in the last decade, every time I went, there was some kind of election involving a fascist Indian politician, Narendra Modi, head of India's far right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which, in the right-wing constellation, is as more akin to the Nazi Party than the Republican Party. Imagine Paul Ryan's economic agenda meets genocide. I've wound up blogging about Modi and the BJP from India several times and I always get a lot of animated responses from Indian-Americans on the right of the political spectrum who tell me Modi may be best known internationally for as an anti-Muslim terrorist-- who facilitated (to put it mildly)-- the slaughter of at least a thousand Muslims in 2002, but that they admire him for his economic policies. Remember how fascists excused Hitler;s and Mussolini's quirky excesses? They made the trains run on time. (Never mind what was in the trains.) Modi, they claim, has been very good for Gujarat's economy. Maybe-- for the rich, but certainly not for the millions of poor people in the state. According to wikipedia, while Modi has been boasting of an economic miracle as Chief Minister, Gujarat has been the "13th in India for poverty, 21st for education and 44.7% percent of children under five are underweight and 23% are undernourished putting the state in the 'alarming' category on the Hunger Index… Political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot states that the development in Gujarat has been limited to the urban middle class, whereas rural dwellers and lower castes have become increasingly marginalised. He cites the fact that Gujarat ranks 21st among the 28 Indian states in terms of its Human Development Index, due to the lack of development in rural Gujarat. He states under Modi the number of families living below the poverty line has increased, and that particularly rural adivasi and dalits have become increasingly marginalised."

Because of his role in the massacres of Muslims, Modi has been banned from traveling to the E.U. and the U.S. And here's where the Modi story starts to intersect with American politics. Meet Shalabh “Shalli” Kumar, Chicago "businessman" and Modi's man in America. He's behind a SuperPAC working for one thing: rehabilitating Modi in America. He brought 3 shady Republican congressmembers-- Aaron Schock, Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Cynthia Lummis-- to India to meet Modi, complements of his National Indian American Public Policy Institute in Chicago. A few months ago Kumar got slapped down by Republicans in Washington he had bribed when he used their names in a Modi event without their permission. He doesn't understand that bribing congressmen isn't the same thing as owning them.

The Coalition Against Genocide (CAG) has successfully exposed that Narendra Modi’s purported event on "Capitol Hill" as a fraud and an exercise in illegal and criminal misuse of US Government symbols. After five days of phone calls, letters, document verification and hundreds of emails between CAG activists and Congressional staffers, several members of the House Republican Conference whose names had been used to endorse the Modi event have washed their hands off the event. First reports in the media also suggest that the congresspersons were unaware that their names or the Congressional seal were being used to promote the Modi event and that the fraud had been enacted by a an organization called National Indian American Public Policy Institute (NIAPPI) and one Mr. Shalabh Kumar, a person with a checkered history of ethics violations.

CAG has learned that the office of Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers has issued a "Cease and Desist" order to Mr. Shalabh ’Shalli’ Kumar and NIAPPI, who are organizers of the event outside Capitol Hill, where Modi is expected to appear via satellite video on November 19, 2013.

The promotional material for the event has illegally used the seal of the House of Representatives as well as names and pictures of the top Republican Leadership without their consent. It purports to have the support and endorsement of the House Republican Conference, a top Republican body chaired by Rep. Cathy Rodgers.

The "Cease and Desist" Notice seeks immediate cessation of all activities to promote the Modi broadcast in the name of Congresswoman Rodgers and the House Republican Conference. Even as the office of Rep. Rodgers issued the "Cease and Desist", other Republicans namely Congressman Sessions moved swiftly to put a distance between themselves and the Modi broadcast. In a statement issued by Congressman Sessions received by CAG via email, Congressman Sessions stated clearly:

"It has come to my attention that the National Indian American Public Policy Institute (NIAPPI) recently used my name and image on an invitation to an event that it is hosting in Washington, DC, on November 19. At no point in time did I agree to attend this event, nor did I approve of the use of my name or image on this invitation. Further, I did not see the invitation until it had been distributed publicly. Had I known that my name and image were on this invitation before it was distributed, I would have requested that they both be removed. Additionally, I have contacted NIAPPI to request that they remove my name and image from this invitation and that they explicitly ask my approval before using my name or image in any of their materials going forward." – U.S. Congressman Pete Sessions (R-TX-32)

NIAPPI, the key agent behind this misrepresentation and fraudulent promotional tactics, is a Hindu nationalist front organization posing as a public policy institute. It is a resting ground for RSS stalwarts like Bhailal Patel. In the case of this event, Kumar and company tried to run piggyback on an event titled the "Indian American Meetup" that has nothing to do with NIAPPI, and that is indeed taking place inside the Capitol Hill building on November 19. The program schedule for this event clearly shows that neither Mr. Modi nor any functionary of the RSS are scheduled to speak at this event. This GOP "meet and greet" event with Indian Americans was projected as a Modi promotional by Shalli Kumar and the NIAPPI.

And that brings us to the incendiary Ro Khanna campaign against progressive icon Mike Honda in CA-17, a D+20 district that takes in most of the Silicon Valley, much of Santa Clara County and the cities of Fremont, Newark, Sunnyvale and Cupertino. First elected in 2000, Honda has never been reelected with less than 2/3s of the vote and in 2012 he won with 74% (beating Obama's 72%). This year, as we've been writing, conservatives trying to knock off Honda have found an anti-working class fake Dem, Ro Khanna as a patsy. And wealthy Republicans and other conservatives have poured-- literally-- millions of dollars into Khanna's campaign.

Predictably, Khanna has been playing footsie with the proto-fascist Modi forces in the hope of getting money from Kumar's Republican SuperPAC. After consulting the State Department, the weasly Khanna pulled back and Kumar felt he had been stabbed in the back. So he recruited another Indian, this one an outright Republican, Vanila Singh, to run against Khanna and Honda. In California's jungle primary, she will pull votes and support directly from Khanna's conservative and Republican base. The San Francisco Chronicle's Carla Marinucci, who has been covering the campaign from the perspective of a Khanna partisan, was upset that Singh tossed her hat into the ring.

If Silicon Valley’s Democrat-versus-Democrat House race wasn’t already combative enough, now a first-time Republican candidate has jumped in and ignited a new drama-- one starring a conservative, wealthy Indian American donor and a politician at the center of ethnic conflicts raging half a world away.

Vanila Singh, a Stanford Medical Center anesthesiologist, says she entered the South Bay contest because it is “time to do my civic duty.”

But critics say the man who recruited her to run, Chicago businessman Shalabh “Shalli” Kumar, has a far more divisive agenda.

Born in India and brought to the U.S. as a toddler, the 43-year-old Singh acknowledges she never considered a political career until Kumar, founder of a super PAC, Indian Americans for Freedom, asked in October whether she would be interested in jumping into a race that featured two Democrats-- the seven-term incumbent Mike Honda of San Jose and his main challenger, former Obama administration trade representative Ro Khanna.

Kumar was “a very nice gentleman” seeking “Indian Americans who might be interested in running,” said Singh, who lives in Fremont. After “multiple conversations” with him and other Republican insiders late last year, she filed to run Dec. 26-- one day after switching her voter registration from “decline to state” to Republican.

In recent weeks, Singh met in Washington, D.C., with Kumar, who chairs the Indian American Advisory Council of the House Republican Conference.

“Because of him, I was able to meet the congressional leaders,” Singh said. He also opened the door to introductions to other key players in the National Republican Congressional Committee and the chairman of the California Republican Party, Jim Brulte.

The GOP committee designated her “one to watch” in its national “Young Guns” program to encourage promising candidates.

Kumar-- who did not return phone calls or e-mails from the Chronicle-- told the publication IndiaWest that he approached Singh to be part of a “project” he founded with Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas. Their plan, he told the paper, was to build a GOP congressional “team” that supports a “pro-India” agenda.

Kumar told IndiaWest that had Khanna-- who, like Singh, is Indian American-- been “free of (House Minority Leader Nancy) Pelosi’s whip,” and willing to sign on to his agenda, he would have received the Indian super PAC’s support.

That agenda, according to several Indian American publications, includes securing a visa for the man Kumar has called his “idol,” Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist and leading candidate for prime minister in India’s upcoming elections.

…Kumar’s super PAC could alter the dynamics of the South Bay race, should he choose to back Singh financially. In 2002, the super PAC spent $500,000 in an unsuccessful attempt to defeat Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., including producing an ad set to Middle Eastern music that showed the double amputee Iraq war veteran wearing a headscarf during a visit to a local Muslim community center.

The Republican candidate that year was a Tea Party favorite, Joe Walsh. This year, Kumar is backing another candidate to oust Duckworth-- an Indian American health care executive, Manju Goel.

…Pressed about her views regarding the denial of Modi’s visa, Singh said the U.S. should “take another look” at the decision. “It would be regretful if certain groups that have certain agendas would make the policy for the United States,” Singh said. “U.S. policy came about because people pressured them.”

Her position stands in contrast to Honda and Khanna-- and to Rep. Ami Bera, D-Elk Grove (Sacramento County), the only Indian American member of the House-- who have said there is no reason to change the State Department’s ruling.

Singh’s links to Kumar raise alarms for Khalid Azam, a member of the American Indian Muslim Council and longtime resident of the district, home to one of the highest concentrations of South Asians in the nation.

“It is definitively a matter of great concern for the South Asian community-- the Muslim community and the entire Indian community,” Azam said.

Singh’s candidacy is “even more alarming,” he said, because of her activism with the Hindu American Foundation-- a group whose more fundamentalist factions back a Hindu supremacist movement in India.

Many people have questioned how much money is illegally funneled into Kumar's SuperPAC, Indian Americans for Freedom, from Modi supporters in India. The PAC refuses to disclose donors and backs right-wing Republicans with shady money. And now a word from Ro Khanna

TODAY INDIANS ARE LOOKING AT MIKE HUCKABEE THROUGH A NARENDRA MODI PRISM

Indian media is far more informative about U.S. politics than American media is about Indian politics, or, for that matter, about India in general. The big political news in India right now is about what we would call a midterm election in the U.S., involving the state of Gujarat, and pitting an extreme right-wing incumbent-- a violent xenophobe and religionist hypocrite, Chief Minister Narendra Modi-- against the very concept of a secular and unified nation. Yesterday was day one of actual voting as 87 constituencies (think Assembly districts) in the southern part of Gujarat went to the polls. The second round takes place next week and then the results will be announced the week after. 60% of the voters turned out, not bad for a midterm. (I'm really eager to see how many voters turned out in OH-05 today, where a feisty Democrat was able to force the NRCC to spend 20% of it's entire bankroll to defend a deeply red congressional district.) Indian media's exit polls yesterday all agree that Modi's NJP lost seats. The conclusions and specifics, though, vary widely. Star News shows the BJP losing 5 seats but retaining a lead with 48 seats over the Congress Party's 37 (a gain for Congress of 7 seats). But NDTV shows the BJP down by 13 seats to a total of 40, with Congress picking up 13 for a total of 43. The 3 areas that voted yesterday, Saurashtra, Kutch, and South Gujarat, have been BJP territory and if voters here are turning against Modi's naked appeal to communalism, divisiveness and religionist bigotry,it bodes very badly for his chances to retain power.

And in the midst of wall to wall Modi coverage here, Indians have been introduced to an American political "rising star" of a similar stripe: Mike Huckabee. Indians don't know he has a funny-sounding name but today they found out about his not so funny views on important social policies courtesy of a Hindustan Times story by Kira Cochrane, Mike Huckabee's Antiquated Views Are Frightening For Women. Acknowledging him as a "folksy charmer," and noting his accomplishments-- losing over 100 pounds, helping the children of undocumented immigrants get taxpayer-funded scholarships, and being a rock music fan-- the article posits that if an observer were to "squint a little... this guy looks great. A clear eyed view of Huckabee's candidacy, though, reveals that this ordained Southern Baptist minister is not just offbeat (he doesn't believe in evolution), but frightening. In fact, when it comes to women's rights, he ranks as one of the most terrifying presidential candidates in memory.

Huckabee's conservative politics contain plenty of subtle threat to women... [W]hen he was governor of Arkansas in the 90's, Huckabee pushed for the release of Wayne Dumond, a convicted rapist. This was despite a number of Dumond's victims writing to him personally-- including one who had been raped at knife point while her three year old daughter slept beside her.

Huckabee was apparently more moved by the right-wing tabloid campaign waged in Dumond's favour, and his influence helped to release the rapist 25 years early. Dumond went on to rape and murder one woman, and died in prison as charges were being brought against him for the rape and murder of yet another.

Staunchly opposed to abortion (which he has compared to the Holocaust), one of Huckabee's first acts as governor was to block Medicaid, the health scheme for people on low incomes, from funding an abortion for a 15 year old with learning disabilities who had been raped by her stepfather. This went directly against federal law, which requires states to fund abortions in cases of rape.

It is the sheer, unbridled cruelty of this decision that gives the lie to Huckabee's claims that he cares for the vulnerable.

The article concludes that only a fool or a misogynist could possibly support Huckabee. Presumably the writer doesn't support Narendra Modi either.

IF YOU THINK ONLY U.S. HAS HATE-SPEWING POLS LIKE TANCREDO, YOU HAVEN'T MET NARENDRA MODI... YET

Since I got to India a week ago, it has been impossible to ignore that a bitterly contested election in Gujarat state is coming to a head. Voting starts today and will be completed and counted by Dec. 23. The main issue seems to be the controversial incumbent chief minister, Narendra Modi, of the far-right nationalistic party BJP.

The BJP is a classic right-wing political party, representing the status quo interests of the exploitative/owner class. In a thriving democracy like India, how does a party concerned exclusively with the welfare and prerogatives of .001 percent of the population, and espousing one prepackaged conservative nostrum after another, even hope to win votes? The BJP never needed Richard Nixon, Lee Atwater, Karl Rove or the Southern Strategy to succumb to the siren song of the Dark Side's exploitation of social tensions, racism, xenophobia, religionist hatreds and-- it being, even here, a George Bush world-- fear of "Islamofascist terrorism."

Except here in India, that kind of talk can-- and has-- turned very, very deadly. In Gujarat over a thousand Muslims-- men, women and children-- have been brutally murdered, their homes and businesses burned and looted, just five years ago as a step on the ladder to Modi-power. This is called BJP-inspired Hindutva, sometimes called Moditva, in honor of his George Wallace-like encouragement for the mayhem.

Just last week Chief Minister Modi bragged about having suspected Muslim "terrorists" dealt with extra-judicially-- by having them killed. Sobrabuddin Sheik's wife was also hunted down and murdered after Modi disposed of the husband.

Last week, a day after Modi's outrageous justification of the murder of Sobrabuddin, I spent an afternoon at the home, now a revered national shrine, where Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated. He spent his last years, days and hours trying to tamp down communal violence between Muslims and Hindus as the British were forced, primarily through his own nonviolent leadership, to give up their colonial crown jewel. He watched in profound sadness as his beloved India was split apart. Meditating at the spot where the greatest man of peace the contemporary world has had was gunned down by a Hindu religionist fanatic, it was difficult not to realize that symbolically Narendra Modi is assassinating Mahatma Gandhi all over again as he spits on the universal ideals he promoted and on his life's work.

Even after the formation of Pakistan, India-- whose founding fathers were secular and enthusiastically embraced separation of church and state-- was left with the third biggest Muslim population of any country in the world. I'm guessing Modi is at least as interested in his party's vision of a "free market" development model as he is in stoking the flames of always tragic-- if politically profitable-- communal violence. But in a nation with as many desperately poor people as India, the political right can only win by playing divisive politics.

Gujarat is one of the poorest and most backward states in India-- think Mississippi-- in a country where over 2 million children under the age of five died in 2006 and where seven hundred million (700,000,000) people do not have access to sanitation. Muslims are Modi's and the BJP's scapegoats of choice; there are too few Jews left in India.

Let me get back to the social problems the BJP exploits to win elections in a moment and move to the heart of the party's agenda: unbridled vulture capitalism. All of India's robber barons back Modi. It is claimed he has created a development-friendly climate that vulture capitalists just eat up. And he has delivered electricity-- for those rich enough to afford it. Most cannot. "Development" for Modi and his party means Raj-level opportunities for the already rich and powerful and a slim-- very slim-- chance that there might someday be some trickle down for everyone else. Not much has trickled down so far.

Modi seemed intent to try fighting for reelection based on his development record, but most Gujaratis weren't buying it, because they aren't feeling it or seeing it. So like any right-winger worth his political salt, he turned to divisiveness and mud-slinging. (Headlines today were all about a Congress Party politician in Gujarat caught on tape in a compromising position with a woman he isn't married to. CDs were provided to all the media outlets in the state and in Delhi.)

But playing the religionist card is Modi's time-tested specialty. "The Congress [Party] questioned Lord Ram's existence in an affidavit submitted in court," he brayed to a small crowd of tribal Gujaratis yesterday. But if Modi sounds even more like a reckless religionist crackpot than Mike Huckabee or Bishop Willard Romney, he's as slick a politico as either of them. After making his emotional appeal to defend the veracity of Lord Ram's existence, he didn't hesitate to remind the audience to get their butts to the polls. "Please don't think I will become chief minister if you set out on a padayatra to Ambaji temple," unconsciously showing his own hypocrisy and contempt for religion. "I will not come to power if you recite my name 108 times a day. It will only happen if you come out of your homes to cast your votes for the GOP BJP."