lonsharim

[lonsharim]

Heard of "Judge, Jury and executioner" but this takes it to another level.

During the impending Senate trial of Trump's II impeachment, certain senators might feel like Judge, Witness and Co-defendants???

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Amazon, and America’s Real Divide

While America was fixated on the most tumultuous midterm election in modern history, Amazon reportedly decided that its much-vaunted “second headquarters” would be split between Long Island City in Queens, and Crystal City, across the Potomac from Washington, D.C.

What does Amazon’s decision have to do with America’s political tumult? Turns out, quite a lot.

Amazon’s main headquarters is in Seattle, one of the bluest cities in the bluest of states. New York and metropolitan Washington are true-blue, too.

Amazon could have decided to locate its second headquarters in, say,  Indianapolis, Indiana. Indianapolis vigorously courted the firm. Indianapolis is also a Republican city in a bright red state.

Amazon’s decision wasn’t based on political partisanship, but it reveals much about the real political and economic divide in America today.

Amazon’s business isn’t just selling stuff over the Internet. It’s getting consumers anything they want, faster and better. To do so, it depends on a continuous flow of great new ideas.

Like the other leading firms of the economy, Amazon needs talented people who interact with each other continuously and directly – keying off one another’s creativity, testing new concepts, quickly discarding those that don’t work, and building cumulative knowledge.

Technology isn’t a thing. It’s a process of group learning. And that learning goes way beyond the confines of any individual company. It happens in geographic clusters, now mostly along the coasts.  

As the Times’ Emily Badger has reported, the digital economy has been great for places like Seattle, New York, metropolitan Washington, and the other big talent hubs like San Francisco, Boston, and LA. But it’s left behind much of the rest of the country. 

The result is widening inequalities of place.

For most of the last century, wages in poorer parts of America rose faster than wages in richer places, as inventions were put to work in the hinterlands. After Henry Ford invented the Model T, for example, workers on assembly lines all over the Midwest built it.

Now it’s just the opposite. Bright young people from all over America, typically with college degrees, are streaming into the talent hubs of America – where the sum of their capacities is far greater than they’d be separately.

The invention sparked inside these hubs is delivering streams of new designs and products to the rest of the world – including to other global hubs.

In return, the money pouring into these places is delivering high wages, great living conditions (museums, restaurants, cafes, recreation), and unbounded wealth.

Yes, corporate rents and housing costs are skyrocketing, as are the costs of sending kids to school (even many “public” schools are in effect private ones because nobody but the rich can afford to live in the school district). 

But the incomes and profits more than make up for it.  Which is why Amazon chose New York and metro Washington.

As money pours into these hubs, so do service jobs that cater to the new wealth – pricey lawyers, wealth managers, and management consultants, as well as cooks, baristas, and pilates instructors.

Between 2010 and 2017, according to Brookings, nearly half of the America’s employment growth centered in just 20 large metro areas, now home to about a third of the U.S. population. 

Relative to these booming hubs, America’s heartland is becoming older, less well-educated, and poorer.

The so-called “tribal” divide in American politics, which Trump has exploited, is better understood in these economic and cultural terms: On one side, mega-urban clusters centered on technologies of the future. On the other, great expanses of space inhabited by people left behind.

Another consequence is a more distorted democracy. California (now inhabited by 39.54 million) and New York (19.85 million) each get two senators, as do Wyoming (573,000) and North Dakota (672,591).

Even though Democratic Senate candidates in the midterm elections received 12 million more votes than Republican Senate candidates, Republicans still gained at least one more Senate seat.

The biggest talent hubs – like San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington – also harbor large and growing populations of poor who have been stranded by the turbo-charged gentrification. These gleaming cities are becoming the most Dickensian locales in the land, where homelessness and squalor mix with luxury high-rises and toney restaurants.

So as the American middle class disappears, the two groups falling perilously behind are white, rural, non-college Tumpsters, and the urban poor.

It’s not Amazon’s business to know or care. That falls to the rest of us.  

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(cartoon by Jim Morin)

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So true

[lonsharim]

Losing respect for Kiran Bedi

According to Kiran Bedi a fatwa was issued and it impacted freedom of choice and that led to her loss while contesting for the Krishna Nagar constituency. This is a seriously misleading statement on multiple counts.

Shah Imam Bukhari of the Juma Masjid did not issue a fatwa. A fatwa is "a ruling on a point of Islamic law given by a recognized authority." No Islamic jurisprudence was quoted and no directive was issued. May God show mercy on all Indian Muslims if Bukhari is considered a recognized authority on Jurisprudence. He does have a big mouth which he thought fit to use and polarize the voters by his unwanted endorsement. Calling it a fatwa is to payback the Imam by the same tainted communal coin, which the voters of Delhi rejected and a dirty attempt at reverse polarization and creating an us versus them narrative.

By implication it also means that Muslims would have voted for BJP but for the so called Fatwa which is simply not true. While some Muslims may vote for BJP they would never have voted for BJP en-block. Modern day politics is so fragmented, that Muslims have not voted en-block for many a year. Proof of the pudding is the number of Muslim dominated seats BJP won in UP during the last Lok Sabha elections.

Incidentally our big mouthed Imam endorsed Congress and SP in the last Lok Sabha elections, didn't seem to have any effect, BJP still won in 71/80 seats in UP and all 7 in Delhi. 

It should not be forgotten that Krishna Nagar is a BJP bastion, with Harsh Vardhan being a 5 time winner from here. This was the safest seat in Delhi. Muslims have a very small vote share here. If Bedi lost its because people on whom Imam has no impact (i.e. those that are not Muslim) also voted against her in the safest BJP seat in Delhi.

AAP won a lot of respect when they rejected outright any endorsement by the Imam. Theirs is a politics of issues not caste and religion. By walking the talk, they showed intent. People respect that.

BJP hoped for reverse polarization in this election because of the Imam's statement which did not happen much to their chagrin.

Also lets not forget that AAP got a popular vote of 54% around 20% more than BJP. If BJP lost then they lost because of the largest popular mandate Delhi has ever seen. Muslim votes even if enblock could not possibly have made it 67/70

Bottom line: She is a really sore loser. I really lost respect for her. She knows very well that this is not a fatwa or a directive, she knows its an endorsment, she knows AAP rejected it.

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Panch Saal Kejrewal

WOW, just WOW

How does a party with no infrastructure and dedicated cadre win 95% of the seats after being written off barely 2 months ago? Leading or winning in 66/70 when I last checked. AAP got 53%+ popular vote. To put things in perspective, in the Lok Sabha elections, 31% of the voters voted for NDA alliance. Its so massive a mandate, its practically scary.

There are several points I want to make some of which aren't even being processed by the news media.

Impact on the Budget - The budget is around the corner. I think they will be forced in include some populism in the budget. The Land Acquisition Ordinance would not have gone down well with the poor nor Modi's pro corporate persona. A little bit of populism is probably just what the doctor ordered. Expect the finance ministry to working long hours realigning their goals.

Can Kejrewal leave behind his dharna disruptive politics behind while occupying the seat of governance? He couldn't do it in his previous 49 day stint. Mamata Banerjee has never been able to do it. Still the signs are encouraging. 

What impact does this have on the rest of Indian politics. Not much I think in the short term. AAP is fairly central in its leadership and does not have infrastructural depth. Second, most political analyst think that Delhi has larger media exposure and urban voters, the rest of India is rural therefore social media reach is limited. Third, other states have entrenched opposition, Delhi became a bipolar fight. In other places, anti government anti BJP anti modi votes will get divided and in the first past the post contest, BJP will edge forward. Look at how crowded the political space is in Utter Pradesh for example.

We vote for a candidate most likely to win. I didn't vote for AAP in my local constituency in the last Lok Sabha elections. I actually liked the candidate. My thought process was simple, why waste my vote on someone who is not going to win. Why waste it and let someone else win. AAP will change this perception in the next elections. If local voters feel that an AAP candidate can win then they will dump their traditional parties in favour of someone who promises freedom from corruption. This I think is a tectonic gain for AAP.

Congress declines hurts BJP more than it benefits. Who would have thunk it when Modi bellowed in every single rally, imploring voters to get rid of Congress. Congress Mukt Bharat was the slogan. So decimated are the Congress that it has begun to badly HURT BJP. BJP vote share has not shrunk but all new voters and traditional Congress voters and marginal votes have gone to AAP. Modi will be hopeful of a Congress revival, if only to divide the votes of his opposition. Where is Rahul when you need him?

Rejecting Imam Bukhari. Can you imagine any "secular" political party not pandering to minority votes? Can you imagine Congress saying no? It was so pleasing to hear AAP reject Bhukari's call for consolidation of muslim votes behind AAP. AAP actually avoided reverse polarization by doing this. It was both mature and smart politics. Importantly it sends a strong message that AAP politics is not about religion.

Modi fans may not agree, but I hope he does learn one lesson. You cannot afford to keep silent while hardliners talk about ghar wapsi, burn churches, call to produce 4 children, call everyone who is not from the BJP haramzadoon and indulge in love jihad kind of polarization. There is an entire set of young voters who will be unhappy that the PM says and does not nothing about it.  

Finally, the demise and obituary of Congress is all but certain if it is unable to change its thinking and its politics. Indian politics is showing a paradigm shift. If they cannot reinvent themselves, they will be swept away.

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PK

is good for a laugh or three in that typical non slapstick comedy routine that Hirani has made his own. I think I prefer the other Hirani movies to this one although it must be said it's miles better that the usual trash that we call blockbuster in India.

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The new Dark Ages

2 or 3 hundred years from now we will probably be seen as the Dark Ages. That's if we survive that long. We have exteme views. We can't tolerate each other. People get shot or blown up all the time. We torture our enemies in the name of the greater good. We beheaded people to grab the attention of the world. There are so many of us that life has little value. How many hundreds of thousands died in the medival period? How many of us are going to die before we learn our lesson. History is an excellent teacher but we are extremely poor students. We are doomed to repeat the failures of our ancestors. In the name of deterrence we have stockpiles of nuclear arms that can destroy life on this planet hundreds of times over. We have even used it to decimate a couple of cities in Japan. We have biological weapons to kill and maim people that would make you so glad to have died rather than survived and suffered all your life. The Dark Ages is not our past. It's our present. We are each other's demons and angels.

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I know everything happens for a reason. But sometimes I wish I knew what the reason was.

Anonymous

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Peshawar school attack

How can anyone rationalize the murder of children, walk into a school and execute over a hundred. Barbaric, insane, fanatical, scarcely believable, horrific, unspeakable brutality. The current death toll has gone up to 124 and sadly this number looks like it will rise further. I am struggling to understand how anyone is capable of this.

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The Hobbit

One Ring to rule them all One Ring to corrupt them all Oh Peter, what have you done Box office greed to bastardise The Hobbit One small story don't deserve a trilogy

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The men who were accused and picked up by the Gujarat police have come out to speak against the atrocities they suffered under the state system.

Anti-terrorist operations and subsequent prosecution cases are increasingly and glaringly falling apart. As usual no questions will be asked, there will be no public outcry. No body gives a damn. Let us instead celebrate the prospects of an emergent and triumphant economy. The death of innocence is a small price to pay if the same lot lead us to development.

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A pluralistic gamble

India has gambled its pluralistic fabric in favor of development. Only time will tell if the gamble was worth it. Our constitutional checks and balances will be tested. Make no mistake, let the markets celebrate, they earned it after 5 years of paralysis. Time alone with gauge the impact on our society. I can only hope the gamble is worth it and fears are unfounded. Somehow I am not a believer.

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Ben Affleck's Batman look.

Christian Bale's Batman trilogy remains my favorite superhero movie and I remain skeptical that anyone else can match it. Chris Nolan has taken this genre to a whole new level.

Still if anyone can, Ben Affleck can.

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The art of scoring self goals

Firstpost aptly sums up performance by Congress party.