Professor Rashid Khalidi Slams ‘Crushing Repression’ at Columbia, Cancels Course to protest Trump Settlement / How Trump and Miller are rewriting US higher education to shut out international students 

The last thing I want to say is this is not just a capitulation to the Trump administration. This was an inside job. There was a fifth column, members of the Board of Trustees, senior members of the faculty of some of the professional schools, and a clutch of donors, who have been beating the… Read More Professor Rashid Khalidi Slams ‘Crushing Repression’ at Columbia, Cancels Course to protest Trump Settlement / How Trump and Miller are rewriting US higher education to shut out international students 

Hitchhikers Guide To Trump’s Galaxy / Modi’s Vishwaguru Image Dented by Trump’s Taunts

V Sudarshan: Hitchhikers Guide To Trump’s Galaxy Trump goes and says things that our Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson just can’t, not while the Parliament is on and in an unvarnished fashion. He doesn’t hide behind anonymity Trump goes and says things that our Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson just can’t, not while the Parliament… Read More Hitchhikers Guide To Trump’s Galaxy / Modi’s Vishwaguru Image Dented by Trump’s Taunts

Operation Mahadev / Dead terrorists tell no tales

A pattern of post-attack ‘encounters’ raises serious questions about the credibility, accountability, and timing of India’s counterterrorism narrative Bharat Bhushan Would a group of terrorists on the run from Indian security forces for over three months still be carrying the weapons they used, their Pakistani voter ID cards, and branded Pakistani chocolates? It was a remarkable… Read More Operation Mahadev / Dead terrorists tell no tales

Mukul Kesavan: Speaking in tongues – Narendra Modi & the Anglosphere / Garga Chatterjee: Modi salutes US military casualties in the Vietnam War (2016)

First posted June 16, 2016 NB: Two perceptive comments on Modi in America: Kesavan notices his pathetic yearning to be accepted at the high table of the Anglophone powers; Chatterjee sees through to the symbolism of his homage to US soldiers killed during the Vietnam war. For those who may not know it, the RSS referred to the American  intervention as… Read More Mukul Kesavan: Speaking in tongues – Narendra Modi & the Anglosphere / Garga Chatterjee: Modi salutes US military casualties in the Vietnam War (2016)

U.S. leaders knew we didn’t have to drop atomic bombs on Japan to win the war. We did it anyway (2020)

NB: As the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki approaches (August 6 and 9, 1945); readers might like to read this article by two accomplished scholars of twentieth century history. DS ‘the overwhelming historical evidence from American and Japanese archives indicates that Japan would have surrendered that August, even if atomic… Read More U.S. leaders knew we didn’t have to drop atomic bombs on Japan to win the war. We did it anyway (2020)

MI6’s Man in Damascus: Jonathan Powell, Inter-Mediate, and the Al-Qaeda-Linked Gov’t in Syria

NB: An ISIS leader has become a friend of Britain and the non-violent activist group Palestine Action has been declared a terrorist group. Such are the geopolitics of the British Labour Party By Kit Klarenberg / The Cradle On 19 July, the Mail on Sunday revealed that Inter-Mediate, a shadowy firm founded by Jonathan Powell, now National Security advisor… Read More MI6’s Man in Damascus: Jonathan Powell, Inter-Mediate, and the Al-Qaeda-Linked Gov’t in Syria

Science could enable a fascist future. Especially if we don’t learn from the past

Ambika Kamath and Melina Packer Science is in crisis. Funding infrastructures for both basic and applied research are being systematically decimated, while in places of great power, science’s influence on decision making is waning. Long-term and far-reaching studies are being shuttered, and thousands of scientists’ livelihoods are uncertain, to say nothing of the incalculable casualties resulting from the abrupt removal of… Read More Science could enable a fascist future. Especially if we don’t learn from the past

Dhankhar’s resignation and BJP’s outsider syndrome

After Jagdeep Dhankhar’s high-profile exit, outsiders are likely to be kept away from sensitive assignments. Internal gate-keeping and stricter vetting of new entrants could be enforced. Bharat Bhushan The sudden resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar as Vice President of India, on July 21, will trigger ripples across the political system. It will impact the fate of other… Read More Dhankhar’s resignation and BJP’s outsider syndrome

Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: If Gaza’s corpses can vanish from our conscience, what else are we becoming blind to?

NB: This is what needs to be said repeatedly, because so many people have shut their eyes to the most brutal campaign of mass extermination since the American punishment of Vietnam, which left some 4 million dead over a decade. The rate of murder in Gaza would please the operators of the death camps run… Read More Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: If Gaza’s corpses can vanish from our conscience, what else are we becoming blind to?