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Democratic Party presidential nominee Joe Bidens clear message that the India-US partnership will be a high priority of his administration if he is elected is important in light of the tense border situation with China.

His remarks add to the strong support shown by the Republican administration of President Donald Trump both publicly and privately. Several members of the US Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, have also spoken in support of India after the brutal killing of 20 Indian soldiers by the Chinese on June 15 along the Line of Actual Control.

Biden also said this week he would lift the temporary suspension of H-1B visas imposed by Trump and hinted at a more inclusive and generous immigration policy. Given the state of the US economy, it was politically brave of him to speak in favour of foreign workers.

As a Democratic Party elder, Biden gets the big strategic picture that the India-US partnership is extremely important in maintaining the balance of power in Asia that favours democracies, especially now that China is flexing all its muscles at the same time. Bidens top advisers seem open-eyed about China.

India needs to be a partner in the region for our safetys sake and quite frankly for theirs, Biden told a fund-raiser in his signature blunt style. The partnership, a strategic partnership, is necessary and important. He said he was proud to have played an important role as senator in getting the India-US civil nuclear deal through the US Congress. The deal indeed changed the bilateral relationship in a fundamental manner.

Bidens statements should go some distance to calm nerves in New Delhi. There has been some concern within the BJP and its hyper supporters in the US about Democrats, especially the progressives in the House because they have criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modis record on human rights, sometimes without an understanding of the ground situation in Kashmir. At the same time Modis total embrace of Trump by his political managers irked many Democrats, creating an unnecessary perceptional problem.

Some of BJPs concern may be justified because the progressives do indulge in selective outrage against India but most of the BJPs anger simply comes from a place of: How dare you? the posture of the insecure. The Democratic Party is not about to change one of its core tenets -- advocating respect for human rights -- however selectively it may practise it.

In fact, the left flank of the Democratic Party is pushing hard and succeeding to some extent to move the party away from the Bill Clintonesque centrism on social issues.

That said, its important to examine how Biden and some other key Democrats see Modi, his domestic policies and the changing nature of India. And whether the less-than-warm feelings for Modi will affect policy-making if Biden were elected?

Modi supporters are especially irked by Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal and Congressman Ro Khanna, both Indian Americans, for being vocal against Modis policies following the revocation of Article 370 last August in Jammu & Kashmir. Even though the revocation itself didnt raise as many questions, the curtailment of rights, imprisonment of political leaders and the long communication blockade did. The passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) added to the bucket of criticism.

Jayapal, Khanna and a few others went full human rights on India last year, often speaking the language of paid lobbyists or groups with a clearly identifiable agenda. Jayapal even introduced a resolution on Kashmir last December, criticizing the Indian governments conduct. But also worth remembering is that Modis Kashmir moves didnt get loud Republican support either.

Whats disturbing to many Indians is that neither Jayapal nor Khanna speaks out when terrorists kill civilians in Kashmir. The recent case of a four-year-old boy killed by terrorists in Anantnag district along with a CRPF jawan, is only the latest. When Hindus are attacked in Pakistan or forcibly converted, the progressive lawmakers dont notice. Their keen sense of India and developments within seems to work selectively.

Nor have the two havent spoken out since the Chinese brutalized and killed 20 Indian soldiers. Its noteworthy because Jayapal repeatedly refers to her Indian heritage -- she was an Indian citizen until the age of 35 and how growing up in India informs her life. Her parents still live in India.

Diplomatic efforts to brief Jayapal and Khanna on Indias point of view are generally met with indifference or ignorance about basic facts. A good example is harking back to Pakistans demand for plebiscite in Kashmir, something, which a cursory reading of history would explain as to why it wasnt held. But information flow to their offices seems to come mainly from Pakistani front organisations and Khalistani outfits.

Interestingly, the other two Indian Americans in the House Raja Krishnamoorthi and Ami Bera make an effort to stay abreast of developments in India and have taken up the India-China border situation.

Congressman Krishnamoorthi, the first Indian American to be a member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, told a hearing last week, India is one of our closest friends, and it is vital that we stand with India in the face of the Chinese governments border aggression. This aggression must be met with clear American resolve to stand by India and our other allies in the region.

Apart from the progressives, a few mainstream Democrats have also made moves that cause concern in Delhi. Senator Bob Menendez, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chose to club India with China and Turkey in a bill on Covid-19 relief introduced on May 7 to say that governments in these countries had taken measures that violate the human rights of their citizens without clear public health justification.

Clubbing India with China was jarring and ill-advised even if it were a single line in a 148-page bill. The bill hasnt gone anywhere but Menendez stance is noteworthy. If the Democrats win the Senate this November, he would be committee chairman.

Biden too has been critical of CAA and Modis Kashmir policies if the position paper on Muslims on his website is anything to go by. It is another piece of the puzzle that has riled up diaspora activists who are demanding a similar policy paper on Hindu Americans.

Its possible that the position paper entitled Joe Bidens Agenda for Muslim-American Communities is a vote-getting ploy to distinguish the candidate from Trumps anti-Muslim rhetoric. The paper has six lines expressing disappointment about restrictions on dissent and shutting or slowing down the Internet among other points issues that have been criticised by many Indians themselves.

One can quibble about US politicians commenting on the internal affairs of India but Indians are free to surmise on race relations in the US. Theres little point in wasting too much political capital and getting over exercised about the issue.

In the end, fears that a Democratic administration may not be as friendly to India as a Republican one, especially given the feelings around Modi, are somewhat exaggerated. All administrations will see the world through the prism of US national security interests and Indias importance with or without Modi will weigh heavily.

Whats more important is whether Biden can rally the various groups struggling for prominence and help unite a party clearly searching for its soul. He has deftly pulled a large number of supporters from the Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren camps. Defeating Trump is a bigger goal than intra-party differences for most Democrats.

A former Obama Administration official told me Biden is well-positioned to handle the left field. Most of the battles will be on domestic policy and Biden has already drawn some red lines for the progressives. He is equally capable to shutting anti-India chatter down.

Democratic insiders are confident of managing their fringe better than the Republicans who gave in to Tea Party extremism and embraced Trumps divisiveness in order to win elections.

The crazy left is not as extreme as the crazy right, one Democrat told me. More importantly, Biden is old school and moderate.

Continued here:
Biden speaks to India - Observer Research Foundation

As both national and state-level polling reveal growing support for Joe Bidens bid to make Donald Trump a one-term president, Trump and his allies have begun framing the stakes of Novembers election in increasingly apocalyptic terms and rejecting the idea that a Democrat could legitimately win.

Thirty-six of the 45 men who have shouldered the burden of the American presidency have done so by way of a peaceful transfer of power from a living predecessor. Of those 36, nine have done so after failing to secure a second four-year term.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

But even by the hardball standards of American presidential politics, Trumps reelection bid stands out in history as the sole example of an incumbent president who is pushing his supporters to view a loss as the end of the republic, rather than the end of his political career.

This unprecedented strategy is raising concerns among experts on extremism and authoritarianism, and even veterans of Republican politics who say it is likely to result in violence should Trump lose in November.

While speaking last Friday at the foot of Mount Rushmore as part of an official, taxpayer-funded celebration of American independence, Trump characterized the antiracist protest movement that has swept the country in recent weeks as a new far-left fascism and a left-wing cultural revolution that is designed to overthrow the American Revolution and would destroy the very civilization that rescued billions from poverty, disease, violence, and hunger, and that lifted humanity to new heights of achievement, discovery, and progress.

The next day, on the 244th anniversary of American independence, he stood on a stage built on the White Houses south lawn for an official event at taxpayer expense, to declare war against a growing majority of Americans who oppose him, dismissing them as the radical left, the Marxists, the anarchists, the agitators, the looters, and people who, in many instances, have absolutely no clue what they are doing. He claimed that the process of defeating those people is akin to the Greatest Generations battle against fascism during the Second World War.

And on Monday, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told Sean Hannitys primetime Fox News audience that the incumbent President of the United States who, according to recent polling, trails Biden in many key battleground states is the only thing that stands between the mob and the American people.

First, its the statues. Then its the businesses. Then its their homes," said Meadows, whose remarks echoed what his former House Freedom Caucus colleague Lee Zeldin told Hannity four days earlier.

Zeldin posited that losses by Trump and other Republicans in November could leave the federal government looking like governments in New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Atlanta, and Los Angeles (all of which have majority-minority populations and prominent non-white leaders).

This is what one-party rule is going to look like in Washington, if we allow the Democrats to run the table this November, he said, adding that losing isnt an option. And on that same day, American Conservative Union president Matt Schlapp a close Trump ally whose wife Mercedes is an adviser to the Trump campaign warned his 193,000 followers that if the Marxist leaders [Democrats] have their way, we will celebrate Independence Day for the last time as a free people.

Brian Klaas, a University College London professor of global politics who studied political violence in non-western nations as part of his doctoral fieldwork, told me he would be surprised if there is not at least some sporadic low-level violence around the election in the event of a Trump loss, as a result of his frequent promotion of conspiracy theories and explicit arguments against Bidens legitimacy as a candidate.

Our election is looking much more like an election in developing world countriesand what really worries me about this is that the [Republican] base has been primed to not believe that the election is legitimate if Trump loses [Trump also] suggests that if the Democrats were to win, that this would be the end of life in the United States, he said.

In modern American history, there has never been a major mainstream political figure who has argued that his opponents are not legitimate, Klaas continued, adding that the high concentration of weapons among Donald Trumps supporters, plus the steady diet of information that tells them that they are the last defense for America against some conspiracy against them in most conservative media, is a toxic combination that could cause an unstable person to respond to a Trump loss by lashing out violently.

People who have really worked themselves up in this vortex of disinformation and have really gone down the rabbit hole may take Trump's tweets literally and say: OK, they're my enemies, they're committing treason, they're part of the Deep State, and its time to be a patriot and stand up against them, he said. That would be very, very dangerous.

Former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh, who won election to Congress as part of the Tea Party backlash to Barack Obamas presidency, said the current track of the Republican Party under Trump is the last gasp of a dying party that will become even more desperate if they lose control of the White House or Senate this fall.

They will engage in violence, they will engage in trying to stop the machinery of government from even working, said Walsh, who broke from the GOP to mount a brief, quixotic primary challenge to Trump last year.

I can see them in states and even in DC, not even participating walking out. A lot of it will depend on what Trump does, because I still think Trump's gonna be around, and he'll be calling a lot of shots, he added.

Daryl Johnson, a former Department of Homeland Security analyst who consults with law enforcement agencies on combatting far-right extremism and domestic terrorism, warned that there is already significant chatter about the election among right-wing extremist groups, which he said are flourishing under the Trump administration.

They're already talking about what they are gonna do if the Republicans don't win, he said. They've already accepted the narrative that it would be a false election, that it would be a result of fraud.

Johnson, who was pushed out of DHS after a 2009 report warning of a resurgence of recruitment and radicalization by right-wing extremist groups provoked outcry among Republicans, said the increasing number of Republicans in state and local politics who are sympathetic to extremist beliefs raises the probability of violent confrontations, particularly in places like the Pacific Northwest.

You've got people like [Washington State Delegate] Matt Shay advocating and working with people that were actually training white Christian males in the art of warfare and getting them kind of stoked for a violent confrontation with the left. And there's other delegates and congressmen that are sympathetic and supportive of these types of causes, he explained.

These extremists have crept into mainstream politics, and they're trying to say one thing, but they're doing another behind closed doors. It's something that's growing and is increasing in volatility, so the capability to inflict mass carnage already exists within these far-right groups.

Jonathan Lockwood, a veteran Republican operative who recently served as a spokesperson for Republicans in the Oregon Senate, said Johnsons concerns about the Pacific Northwest are valid.

In recent years, Oregon Senate Republicans have thrice fled the state to deny the Democratic-controlled legislature a quorum rather than allow the passage of legislation with majority support, forcing Governor Kate Brown a Democrat to use the state police to compel lawmakers attendance at the state capitol.

During one such walkout last June, Dallas, Oregon state senator Brian Boquist warned that police should send bachelors and come heavily armed because he would not be a political prisoner in the state of Oregon.

Lockwood, who broke with the GOP after the Trump administration used tear gas to suppress peaceful protesters in Washington last month, said the continued pattern of lockouts stems from defiant objections to being governed by Democrats, and posited that those same sentiments could result in a violent reaction from some corners of the right to a Biden win this November.

I think we should fear a violent uprising All it takes is for Trump to say one line or post one tweet, he said, adding that such an uprising could consist of occupying state capitols or even taking hostages to prevent state legislatures from certifying election results.

I think you could see takeovers of every [state] capitol, since the president seems to enjoy watching that from DC, and the country can descend into a chaos that we've never seen. People are gravely underestimating how pervasive these conspiracies and the de-legitimizing of Democrats governing truly are.

Originally posted here:
Trump supporters are already talking about what they might do if he doesn't win extremism experts are worried - The Independent

(CNN) You'll remember the Boston Tea Party of 1773, when American revolutionaries famously trolled the British by throwing chests of tea into Boston Harbor.

A new spat over the correct way to brew a "cuppa" has boiled over into a similar international incident, with both the UK and US ambassadors sticking their spoon in.

It all began in early May when an American TikTok user named Michelle, from North Carolina, sparked howls of rage across social media platforms with her controversial guide to making "hot tea."

It involved a microwave and an unholy mix of milk, powdered lemonade, cinnamon, the soft drink Tang, industrial amounts of sugar, and one innocent teabag, which surely deserved better things in life.

It was all too much for British users, who take great pride in their homespun national drink, with its leaves imported primarily from Kenya, India and Malawi. The twin themes in the furious outpouring of comments were "war crime" and "diabetes."

The fifth columnist of TikTok has already amassed more than five million Likes for her efforts, but she has also incited righteous anger in a nation close to boiling point, and with a lot of time on its hands.

So Dame Karen Pierce, British Ambassador to the United States in Washington, called in the military.

Yes, that's right, on a video posted Monday she got the boys from the British Army, Navy and Air Force to demonstrate how to prepare tea in a manner both patriotic and pukka. There was even a nod to how to conduct high tea at high altitude.

Pierce had got the armed forces behind her, but when Woody Johnson, the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom got involved on Wednesday, he made like Dirty Harry and went in solo.

His strategy was a smart one. He went after Britain's weakness: coffee. With the UK famously weak at continental-style caffeine consumption, how could he possibly go wrong?

The problem for this Clint Eastwood of cappuccinos is that he makes what appears to be an absolutely terrible cup of coffee.

He commits the cardinal sin of using instant coffee, raising the hackles of any connoisseur faster than hot water dissolves a freeze-dried granule.

As people around the world have been upping their gourmet antics during lockdown, with their sourdough starters and their AeroPress cold brews, there can be just one message for Johnson. Do better.

There have no been no video responses yet from Raffaele Trombetta, Ambassador of Italy to the UK since 2018, and Armando Varricchio, Ambassador of Italy to the US for the past four years.

Nor have there been comments on TikTok tea from Liu Xiaoming, China's Ambassador to the UK, or Josephat Karanja and Gaitri I. Kumar, respectively Kenya and India's High Commissioners to the UK.

Is the time for silence over?

Read the original post:
Military called in after TikTok 'tea war' goes global - CNN

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is one of the most popular T20 leagues in the world. But before the action goes to the cricket pitch, plenty of drama happens in a hotel auditorium where the franchises spend big money to buy their favourite players. The IPL auctions are given as much importance as the tournament itself and believe it or not they attract or almost as much eyeballs as a cricket match.

All over the world, the cricketers who have put their names in the auction pool, remain glued to the television or online streaming to see if they are being picked up a franchise and if yes, for how much. In a recent interview, former Indian Premier League (IPL) Chief Operating Officer (COO) Sundar Raman gave an insight into how the IPL players auction came into existence before the inaugural season in 2008.

Also Read |A Pakistan fan started abusing us: India all-rounder recalls absurd scene ahead of World Cup match

The player auction almost came as a part of an evening tea conversation while we were doing a thousand other things. We had sold the franchises, we had the venues confirmed, now it was left to on how do we get the players rostered into different teams, Raman said during the show 22 Yarns with Gaurav Kapur on Oaktree Sports YouTube channel.

The only thing sure was the marquee players, who were assigned to a set of franchises. There was Sachin Tendulkar for Mumbai, Virender Sehwag for Delhi, Yuvraj Singh for Punjab, Sourav Ganguly for Kolkata. But MS Dhoni was without a home, Raman said.

The challenge was one of those conversations where the question was how do we make the franchises take on the players? One of the franchises, I dont remember who it was, said why dont we auction them?

After two minutes of deliberation I said good idea, it will generate a lot of consumer interest. And that decided that he explained.

The 13th edition of Indian Premier League which was set to take place this year between March and May has been indefinitely postponed due to Covid-19 outbreak.

Original post:
An evening tea party, a random suggestion: The story behind IPL auction - Hindustan Times

Ive heard people say that they dont care much for native plants because they lack color. Some dont have that beautiful color, but many do have color and feed many of our pollinators. I am going to discuss five that I have in my garden.

One of the first to bloom is False Blue Indigo, Baptisia australis, with australis meaning southern. In Southside it blooms late April, early May with a beautiful blue bloom, and anything with small early blooms is good for pollinators. The plant has bluish foliage giving it a special look even when not blooming. The seedpods are black and can be used in floral arrangements. The Wild Indigo Duskywing butterfly uses False Blue Indigo and its sister plant Yellow Wild Indigo, B. tinctoria, as its larval plant meaning that it lays eggs on either of these Baptisia so the caterpillars will have an appropriate food source after emerging. It is native to the Eastern U.S. so these plants are fine with our soils and climate and have minimal to no pest problems, including deer. They like full sun and may get floppy in shade. One trick to know, it has a taproot so hates to be transplanted. Buy small plants and place in the final destination when planting. As its common name suggests False Blue Indigo was used as a blue dye in earlier times.

Coming next into bloom is Blue Star, Amsonia tabernaemontana. As its name suggests, the flowers are blue star shaped. Here it blooms in May. I want to note that another common name is Dogbane, and indeed the milky sap is poisonous if ingested. If you have a dog that likes to chew plants, this wont be a good choice for you. It is a nectar favorite for butterflies, bees, hummingbird moths and early arriving hummingbirds. It likes full sun but can handle some shade. Once again, it has no serious pest problems, and deer dont like it. An added plus, the leaves turn golden in the fall.

There are people who hate this next plant, Bee Balm Monarda. Admittedly it has powdery mildew issues, and it is in the mint family so can spread out. To me, that is a plus. Ive found covering all the soil with plants will cut down on weeds where mulch doesnt cut it. M. didyma, also known as Oswego Tea, has a red bloom and is a favorite of hummingbirds.

According to Allan Armitage in Herbaceous Perennial Plants, The American botanist John Bartram first collected bee balm near Oswego, New York and used the leaves to make tea. Bee Balm was grown in colonial gardens for the herbal properties. Legend has it that the Oswego Tribe showed the colonists how to make tea from the leaves during the time of the Boston Tea Party. There are many cultivars that offer different colors, but Armitage warns that they all have powdery mildew issues. M. fistulosa, known as Wild Bergamot, has a rose, purplish bloom and is more mildew resistant.

My all time favorite perennial is False Sunflower, Heliopsis helianthoides Summer Sun, quite a mouthful but just a wonderful perennial. It sports bright yellow flowers and blooms from June to frost. I am not normally a fan of cultivars or nativars, a term credited to Armitage. But the length and quality of bloom make this one worthy. We have an area around an old outhouse that we call The Jungle because frankly that is what it looks like. But every summer I look over there among the variety of weeds, and there is Summer Sun smiling away. We used to enjoy one right in front of where we sit and talk most evenings. We saw it visited by bees and butterflies and sometimes a goldfinch would alight to eat some of the seeds. It wants full sun but isnt picky about soil. Deadheading on a weekly or biweekly basis will encourage more blooming. But I dont dare venture into the jungle to deadhead and still that one blooms its head off.

For fall blooms, you cant beat asters. Their botanical names were so easy but now it is Symphyotrichum, but there is a real chance that it might still be labeled as Aster in catalogs and nurseries. A good one to try is S. novi-angliae, New England Aster. You might have trouble finding the straight species as there are many cultivars. My husband and I watched many monarchs feeding on the nectar last fall. Again, it is a full sun plant and not picky about soil. The bloom is purplish, and it will be blooming end of August until the first hard frost. As with all these plants, they are not deer favorites.

While we are all still practicing social distancing due to COVID-19, and all county buildings are closed to the public, so if you have gardening questions, you can best reach an extension master gardener or extension staff member by sending an email to wmccaleb@vt.edu or ask@ssmga.org. Keep washing your hands and wearing your mask when you go to nurseries to find these wonderful native plants.

Cornell is a Southside Master Gardener with the Virginia Cooperative Extension

Originally posted here:
Native perennials add color from spring to fall - YourGV.com