TonyJoseph

Under Apartheid's Group Areas Act, passed in 1950, more than 3.5 million Blacks were forcibly removed from cities and desirable farmland to remote under-resourced areas which eventually became known as homelands. Until the end of apartheid, Blacks were not allowed to own land in "white" areas.

These statistics are absolutely unacceptable. #MMIW

The key argument against delimitation shouldn’t be population policy but the ‘one person, one vote’ principle Supporters of delimitation say that “one person, one vote” justifies delimitation based on population size. But this conclusion is false

A novel and enlightening intervention on the delimitation debate by Bastian Steuwer:

indianexpress.com/article/opin...

The US government has sent Columbia University a ransom note | Sheldon Pollock Like a mob boss, the government threatens to cut off two of the university’s fingers: academic freedom and faculty governance

Eminent Sanskritist Sheldon Pollock, the former MESAAS dept head at Columbia, writes that "like a mob boss, the government threatens to cut off two of the university’s fingers: academic freedom and faculty governance."

Twilight of the Populists? Perhaps it's possible that, despite it all, we have reached peak populism

New from me - is it possible we are actually at peak populism? This post is an exercise in working through a scenario - I may very well be wrong. But also, outside of America, I think something is shifting. Because of America. 1/n

benansell.substack.com/p/twilight-o...

Top Social Security official exits after clash with Musk’s DOGE over data Yet another top career staffer is leaving the administration amid a disagreement over a request by Elon Musk’s team for sensitive government information.

If you think Musk wants all this data in order to root out fraud and marginally improve government efficiency, I have several bridges to sell you.

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

The role of Hindutva in Trump’s return to power, and in the rise of other religious nationalisms for that matter, is virtually absent from mainstream media. That is because they have used anti-racism framing to protect themselves. Liberals are not prepared to respond and they need to be.

So the only asylum seekers the US will now admit are White people from former apartheid South Africa.

Concerning

Poor character written by an author who has experienced poverty: My problem is that I'm $300 short on the rent and now my car is making a noise

Poor character written by a rich author: My problem is that I feel so inferior beside these beautiful, sophisticated rich people

President Musk is handed a defeat before he officially takes office. He is going to scold VP Trump for failing to follow through on his directives

President-elect Musk is really setting down the marker of how he wants to run his administration.

VP Trump better pay attention.

#Cartoon #MediaCircus linktr.ee/MANJULtoons

If this singer can risk her life to oppose tyranny, our media can risk their profits.

Headline from 1930s: Hitler Fund Gets ‘Voluntary Gifts’

Any time we see another CEO pony up a million for Trump’s inauguration, remember this headline.

So Luigi Mangione could just run for president and have the charges dropped if he wins, is that how it works?

Some say arsenic is poisonous to drink and could kill you, while others claim it’s delicious and nutritious. In today’s @latimes.com we look at #bothsides of this debate… 😬🙄

NBC news screenshot of interview with Texas representative Greg Casar "The progressive movement needs to change. We need to re-emphasize core economic issues every time some of these cultural war issues are brought up," Casar said. "So when we hear Republicans attacking queer Americans again, I think the progressive response needs to be that a trans person didn't deny your health insurance claim, a big corporation did - with Republican help. We need to connect the dots for people that the Republican Party obsession with these culture war issues is driven by Republicans' desire to distract voters and have them look away while Republicans pick their pocket."

Newly elected Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Greg Casar is already cooking
www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...

Ashoka, by Patrick Olivelle (cover)

"Ashoka: Portrait of a Philosopher King," by Patrick Olivelle, is state-of-the-art history and a great read too -- and named one of the "Best Books of 2024" by The New Yorker. www.newyorker.com/best-books-2... #ancient #india #empire #epigraphy #skystorians #history

Congrats, Salil!

As "The Gujaratis: A Portrait of a Community" begins to appear on shop-fronts in India, here's what Rachel Dwyer, professor emeritus at SOAS University (who taught Gujarati, besides other subjects) said, after she read the book :-)

Really looking out for the working class.

With economic growth slowing, the party in power thinks it can ‘dig’ its way out of trouble. Hence the ‘survey’ of places of worship.

How the World’s Largest Democracy Slid Toward Authoritarianism “The New India,” by Rahul Bhatia, combines personal history and investigative journalism to account for his country’s turn to militant Hindu nationalism.

How the world’s largest democracy slid towards authoritarianism
www.nytimes.com/2024/11/27/b...

Free tip for spin:
“It is not that India’s GDP growth rate has crashed. It is just that last year’s GDP was too high compared to this year.”

Suggestions for TV panel discussions today:
1. Why are people not working more hours to keep growth high?
2. How can we incentivize the billionaires to grow faster?
3. What is more important - growth or national pride?
4. Why slow & unsteady is a winning formula

Every time the current Indian government books someone for ‘sedition’ for ‘anti-national’ activity the likelihood is very high that the person was doing something good and needed for the nation.

People are often surprised when I tell them this: both Twitter and Facebook/insta/threads are now specifically engineered to downgrade, hide, suppress real journalism. If this platform is different, that's a huge change