Adani - Dubious Or No?

• https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/01/28/gautam-adani-india-hindenburg-research-crash/ 
• Hindenburg's Nate Anderson and Gautam Adani's group of companies
• https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/the-man-behind-a-50-billion-selloff-11675016022102.html
  
• In London Times
  
• https://www.outlookindia.com/business/who-is-chang-chung-ling-the-chinese-link-featured-in-hindenburg-adani-crossfire--news-258079: Interesting
• https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/20/india-adani-coal-mine-kete-hasdeo-arand-forest-displaced-villages?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other: Doesn't sound good
  
• https://www.outlookindia.com/business/adani-group-shares-crash-after-credit-suisse-assigns-zero-lending-value-to-its-bonds-report--news-258611: The rout continues
  
• How Gautam Adani Made (and Could Lose) a $147 Billion Fortune
  
• India Today: Adani Enterprises case reaches Supreme Court, plea seeks action against Hindenburg Research founder.: Oh my. I wonder if Supreme Court will favor Adani and whether a subsequent verdict by an international arbiter or court will overturn it. Pretty embarrassing for India should this happen. And if the original report written by the short seller had its facts accurate then the question that arises is: what were Indian stock regulators (say SEBI) doing and how did they miss catching the issue?
  
• https://www.livemint.com/money/personal-finance/quant-mutual-fund-exits-adani-group-stocks-say-sources-11675418286737.html: Quant exits Adani stocks 
  
• Live Law - Indian Legal News: Adani-Hindenburg Issue : PIL In Supreme Court Seeks To Declare 'Short Selling' As Offence Of Fraud, Probe ....
  
• Gautam Adani’s Rise Was Intertwined With India’s. Now It’s Unraveling.
  
• Moneycontrol: Aswath Damodaran dissects Adani crisis: What's the fair value of this 'competent' infra play?.
  
• Swarajya: Why The Adani Endgame May Not Be The Disaster His Enemies Wish For.
  
• What should you think about Aswath Damodaran’s view on Adani Enterprises?: Very nice
  
• https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/corporate/story/gautam-adanis-little-known-unlisted-company-a-hidden-gem-with-351-subsidiaries-369995-2023-02-13
  
• Related party transactions
  

George Santos

• https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2023/george-santos-resume-lies/
• Harbor City called George Santos a ‘perfect fit.’ The SEC called the company a fraud. Quote: "J.P. Maroney, Harbor City’s founder and the man who hired Santos, claimed in podcasts and hireliably profitable ways to generate sales leads online for other companies."
• A man with the same ethics as Trump, but without the arrogance, yet. https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/02/10/george-santos-amish-puppies/

Additional reading

• https://vbala99.blogspot.com/2023/01/kevin-mccarthy-another-clown.html
  
• Rudy Giuliani: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/08/26/rudy-giuliani-biography-fearless-ukraine/

Kevin McCarthy, Another Clown

• How Kevin McCarthy Forged an Ironclad Bond With Marjorie Taylor Greene
• In Sharing Video With Fox Host, McCarthy Hits Rewind on Jan. 6
  
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/10/kevin-mccarthy-i-know-nothing-insurrection-questions/
  

Additional reading

• https://vbala99.blogspot.com/2023/01/george-santos.html

What Putin, Xi Want

https://apnews.com/article/taiwan-biden-indonesia-united-states-xi-jinping-3decd48c4d2e01da0008d5148237b28d?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=TopNews&utm_campaign=position_04

So un-Ayn Rand like. It's not money or business or economics only that drives the end result. It's "my country is great" emotion. Whether MAGA (Make America Great Again) or MACA / MARA (Make China / Russia great again)!

What are we doing while trying to make our country great again? Taiwan, Ukraine are being affected in trying to make our respective countries great. Sad, isn't it?

Norway, Holland, Belgium, UK, Spain, Portugal etc did the same thing few centuries back. Hitler did it 80 years back. 

I guess the same thing may happen in future as well. Lebensraum seems to be crucial for man as it was for animals.

If i can't become uber wealthy by myself, i choose to get married to an Ambani. If my country can't become rich, I take over other countries. If I can't get enough votes in an election, i say that the other guy's votes belong to me, as Trump did.

Desantis Of Florida - Another Trump

DeSantis sacked me for doing my job as a prosecutor. Who’s next?

What A Hoax

Alex Jones Ordered to Pay Punitive Damages to Sandy Hook Parents: Alex Jones claimed that a shooting event was a hoax. And he was ordered to pay $40m as compensation or punitive damages to the people who were affected by the shooting.

And there is another guy who claimed, still claims, that 2020 election won by Biden is a hoax. When is he going to be given punitive damages?

Liz Elizabeth Truss

• https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0793d6f2-09e4-11ed-a986-fc91b4ad48f0?shareToken=7fd1936fa33649e5133adfdd988dd727
• https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/03/boris-johnson-liz-truss-tory-members?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other: "According to that playbook, a leader can announce a half-baked policy one day and, on meeting with a backlash, rescind it the day after. On Monday, Truss proposed a “war on Whitehall waste”. Then Tory MPs who read the small print complained that the proposal meant docking the wages of teachers and nurses outside London. By Tuesday, Truss was denying she had ever had such a policy. Johnsonism is the technique of saying things to woo one audience without caring how they will be heard farther afield. "
• https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/12/liz-truss-boris-johnson-tory-leadership-frontrunner-workaholic?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
  
• https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/14/liz-truss-economic-plan-ruinous-nonsense-no-reference-to-reality?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
  
• https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/f3473da4-1fd4-11ed-b7c3-8b288ab55a56?shareToken=522611226e07deaf6681bc9b9055d8cf: "They were that she was intellectually shallow, her convictions wafer-thin; that she was driven by ambition pure and simple; that her manner was wooden and her ability to communicate convincingly to an electorate wider than the narrow band of Tory activists was virtually non-existent; that she was dangerously impulsive and headstrong, with a self-belief unattended by precaution; and that her leadership of the Conservative Party and our country would be a tragedy for both. “There’s nothing there,” I wrote last December, “nothing beyond a leaping self-confidence that’s almost endearing in its wide-eyed disregard for the forces of political gravity.”
• https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/sep/05/radon-liz-romps-home-in-a-pyrrhic-victory?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
  

She, like Boris, seems to be a person who says and does everything based on what is immediately expedient as though she has only AI (artificial intelligence and no human one) regardless of her position earlier and regardless of what is morally/ethically appropriate.

A friend sent me this article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/02/mikhail-gorbachev-nelson-mandela-donald-trump-boris-johnson-liz-truss?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other. I was reminded of another article in Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/apr/19/fashion-fabrics-and-fishtails-why-we-need-to-talk-about-what-female-classical-performers-wear#comment-155980075 : Maybe at this point in time we should recap what the Oxford scholar Leah Broad said in this article. That while evaluating a female soloist one should evaluate also their dress. I am sure Ms. Broad would extend the logic to prime ministers too. That the PM should be evaluated not just for their fiscal or immigration policies but also for their sartorial correctness. Perhaps our opinion of Truss would be different then, all thanks to Leah.

• https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/03/liz-truss-uk-prime-minister/
  
• https://www.theguardian.com/politics/commentisfree/2022/oct/09/i-said-liz-truss-would-never-be-pm-bet-you-wish-id-been-right?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
  
• https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/14/kwasi-kwarteng-liz-truss-jeremy-hunt?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other: Very nice
  
• Liz Truss Is Finished: Scathing
  
• https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/07/britain-liz-truss-boris-johnson-blame?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other: Even more scathing
  

Red = MAGA

 The nationalist fervor MAGA (make America great again) is perhaps linked or correlated to other conservative agenda (anti abortion, white supremacy, removal of gay rights, anti immigration and so on). 

I guess this means that if i espoused conservative agenda I could use euphemise and say I wanted America great again. And have a bunch of red (Republican) States support me

Penny Mordaunt

 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/f14014d0-0531-11ed-b180-5ddadbc72b86?shareToken=8eb1e870278eb4ece141fc703a37a01c

Lindsay Graham

 Will Lindsey Graham explain his 2020 call to Brad Raffensperger?

Boris Johnson (And Trump)

Boris has fallen. Trump is in still standing strong.

I wonder if this is any reflection on the strength of the system in UK vis-a-vis USA

Boris being far more silly and less vicious a scum than Trump, his eviction seems to indicate a lot less tolerance for bull in UK.

This is an article comparing the two. Boris Johnson faced revolt in his party. Trump never had that problem.

This is my comparison of the two.

Boris was thrown out by his own people (Tories). Trump is revered by his GOP. 

I was wondering why. Maybe because Boris is just a one man con-man. Trump is a movement. Trump created a legacy. 6 conservative judges out of 9.

Boris just got Brexit done and that too is a mess.

Additional reading:

• https://vbala99.blogspot.com/2022/03/trump-vs-boris.html
  
• https://www.thenational.scot/news/19858214.boris-johnson-school-letter-eton-teacher-despairs-pms-effortless-superiority/
• https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10398617/amp/Letter-PMs-Eton-classics-master-emerges.html
• Even diehard Tories can’t stand another minute of Johnson’s rollercoaster government | Rafael Behr e_btn_wa
  
• Boris Johnson’s Fight for Survival, Explained
  
• Boris Johnson Made a Terrible Mistake: He Apologized
  
• https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jun/11/boris-johnson-stands-make-millions-after-no-10?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
  
• https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jul/07/boris-johnson-next-big-headache-is-finding-somewhere-to-live-says-biographer?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
  
• https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/07/boris-johnson-conservatives-resign-leadership?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
• https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/14/boris-johnson-brussels-bashing-stories-shaped-politics
  
• https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/b7c43982-fe0d-11ec-88db-ae1b6b9bdd3e?shareToken=8094d9e2e7911ce01465fb037da75426
  
• https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/f8b8e5ee-fe2d-11ec-88db-ae1b6b9bdd3e?shareToken=003dca738e8f0226f79cfd3688695c61
  
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/08/boris-johnson-resignation-donald-trump-republications-tories-gop-conservatives/: Very nice. Germany couldn't do it in 1930s. Russia and Turkey and Hungary aren't able to do it now. USA couldn't do it between 2017 and 2020. It's rather unfortunate that we can only cure now, at best. We aren't able to restrain a Boris from getting his hands on power. Eton and Oxford didn't see him as a person to be shackled. Nor did Princeton or the other alma maters!
• https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0a94b7fe-ffa3-11ec-b9c1-d737fca5ec6a?shareToken=67b596e342b9762d2557e3d6436ea1e7
  
• https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jul/09/boris-johnson-accused-of-trying-to-derail-rishi-sunaks-bid-to-be-next-pm?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
  
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/07/boris-johnsons-resignation-shows-the-limits-of-shamelessness/
  
• https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jul/23/boris-johnsons-plan-to-create-large-number-of-new-peers-comes-under-fire?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
  
• https://vbala99.blogspot.com/2022/07/liz-elizabeth-truss.html
  
• Boris has gone Trump

Jan 6th Select Committee

 Hutchinson testimony: Assessing the basis for aide’s explosive claims: Cassidy Hutchison 

Interesting Article In WSJ On Texas Shooting

 The Uvalde Police Scandal: Very nice article and so un-WSJ like.

Gun Legislation

Where Senate Republicans Stand on Gun Legislation: Read the opinions of senators who declined or deflected. Michael D Crapo's answer was similar to India's opinion on Ukraine war wrt sanctions on Russia.

Opinion of Democracies About Russia

My friend:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/30/negative-views-of-russia-mainly-limited-to-western-liberal-democracies-poll-shows?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Not everyone thinks of Russia as a bad boy it seems. Negative views of Russia is limited largely to Western democracies. The Indians have a net positive view of Russia.  Negative views of China are more widespread than of Russia. I think public perception of Russia is almost entirely dependent upon what their government thinks, and what the press in their country tells them. The Western leaders are all strongly anti-Russia, and so are the press and media here in contrast to other countries. Is the press in India more pro-Russia? If it is, that would explain the Indian perception of Russia?

My response:

Western democracies  (than Asian / African / south american) are very anti Russia because the issue is happening in Europe and in a "white" country. 

The same reason why when Finland and Sweden decided to join NATO, everyone (except Turkey) was keen to accept them. While Ukraine was left in limbo for many years.

Meaning there is a pecking order even among white countries. In terms of importance,  Scandinavia > Ukraine > say Moldova >  Macedonia and so on.

And when it was about Afghanistan, of course USA and UK did try to help. But what was the level of involvement? Was it anywhere like how they are involved in Ukraine?

A second season could be that countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Macedonia are hardly relevant to the world order unlike Scandinavia or even Ukraine. 

Baby Faced Bad Guy - Mitch McConnell

Inside Mitch McConnell’s decades-long effort to block gun control

This is also the guy who caused Trump to recruit the "wrong" justices to the supreme court 

Additional reading

• Republican Drive to Tilt Courts Against Climate Action Reaches a Crucial Moment
• Kavanaugh Gave Private Assurances. Collins Says He ‘Misled’ Her.: Anatomy of an untruth: "Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky who, as majority leader, played a monumental role in creating the current makeup of the court, said he did not believe the nominees he steered through during the Trump administration broke faith with the Senate."
• https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/01/strict-obstructionist/308344/
  
• ‘Unchecked’ book excerpt: Inside McConnell’s decision not to convict Trump: Really? We have a saint here?
  

Rules Based

 A friend sent me this article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/28/united-states-should-practice-the-rules-based-order-it-preaches/. She asked: Why are so many democracies unwilling to condemn Russia?

My response: "A much better way to frame the division in the world is between countries that believe in a rules-based international order and those that don’t. " From the same article. 

If Western democracies were  so rule bound as the author suggests why were UK USA etc in bed with Saudi, China and Russia all these years? Why was uk so cosy with Russian oligarchs until the Ukraine invasion? How did those oligarchs suddenly become persona non grata in Feb this year? 

Why are we still doing business with China or Saudi (despite what we know Saudi did to khashoggi)? 

Are we, Western democracies, so honorable really? Isn't survival the driving force really behind our actions? Do we think the western democracies were ignorant until Feb? 

Why this holier than thou attitude suddenly?

Zelensky And Ukraine

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/19/opinion/why-we-admire-zelensky.html

Additional reading 

• https://vbala99.blogspot.com/2022/03/emotions-and-ukraine.html
• https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cohen-ukraine-commentary-idUSKBN1GV2TY
• ThePrint: Why it’s obscene to tell Ukraine to give in & how war-upended global balance of power brings openings for India: very nice comparing with India, China and Pak.
• Five Blunt Truths About the War in Ukraine
  
• Will Russia Pay for Ukraine’s War Damage? Very nice.
  

Le Pen Le Pew

 Le Pen Closer Than Ever to the French Presidency (and to Putin)

Imran Khan And Pakistan

 Interesting articles about the man that show his character.

Imran Khan blames America for his downfall. He should blame himself.

Additional reading:

• https://www.rt.com/news/554069-political-crisis-pakistan-foreign-police/