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Gaurav Sabnis 🇮🇳🇺🇸

@gauravsabnis

13 Dec

TIL that Bhakt whatsapp, usually busy researching archaic islamic theology, has taken a break to research Canada's agriculture laws. 😂
To attack Trudeau 😂
Never mind that Trudeau didn't criticize the laws. Just the treatment of protesters.

Modi voters are so default dishonest!

Vajpayee was no saint, but he got regularly criticized and lampooned and even officially internationally sanctioned. Not once was there "HOW DARE YOU?" pushback from his people. Shekhar Suman rebooted his career by lampooning Vajpayee.

Modi is so thin-skinned and insecure!

Hearing more about it, this isn't something to "😂" at but rather "😳". This is some well thought out sophistry from the bhakt-lite camp. The logic is, Canada has laws similar to what BJP passed. So Trudeau is out of line. Again, he only talked about protests. But let's see...

Read 4 tweets

Gaurav Sabnis 🇮🇳🇺🇸

@gauravsabnis

13 Dec

Almost any elite Indian's dream of a "developed" India will have Nordic type infrastructure and safety and low crime. But still daily domestic help that is paid in Indian wage terms, cheap autos and cabs, cheap food delivery etc.

And therein lies the disconnect between the urban elites (especially Modi lovers) and the protesting farmers. They seem almost outraged that these farmers look better off than the emaciated ones in old newsreels, but are still protesting. Bhakts consider them "uppity".

The subtext of the lofty sounding "Jai jawaan, jai kisaan" is that it is the duty of soldiers and farmers to be overworked and underpaid. And now that farmers don't look emaciated, they are suddenly thought of as fat cats. By people sitting in westernized apartment complexes.

Read 13 tweets

Gaurav Sabnis 🇮🇳🇺🇸

@gauravsabnis

10 Dec

https://twitter.com/curiouswavefn/status/1336995683736322048

A very underrated and underknown figure. Centuries ahead of his time. And he got exactly the kind of pushback that Defund Police activists do today. To temper his "radical" positions towards the center. But without him, the center would have been considered radical.

https://twitter.com/curiouswavefn/status/1336995683736322048

This is a point I've been trying to make since the election to well meaning liberals who are going after the progressive wing and especially the squad, saying defund or GND or M4A are unrealistic pipe dreams. They might end up being. But those positions are ideological anchors.

Many like Lincoln himself (who until the war was kinda centrist if not conservative on race by today's standards) lectured Garrison, saying dude, be realistic. But he stuck to his positions and advocacy. And the center slowly moved towards him.

Read 8 tweets

Gaurav Sabnis 🇮🇳🇺🇸

@gauravsabnis

9 Dec

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1336762564982738952

Oh wow, this is huge! This is a bipartisan challenge to Facebook, if it involves the federal government AND 48 states. No republican democrat differentiation here. This is the United States declaring war on Facebook!

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1336762564982738952

https://twitter.com/NewYorkStateAG/status/1336755231946846208?s=19

It'll take a while for everyone to realize what a huge deal this is. Like earth shattering historic huge. In these ultra polarized times when the 2 parties can't even agree on an election outcome, they are united in wanting to dismantle Facebook!

https://twitter.com/NewYorkStateAG/status/1336755231946846208?s=19

Anti-trust actions in the past against IBM, Microsoft etc haven't really gone anywhere. Mostly because by the time the lawsuits played out, the companies had stopped being monopolies, so prosecutors lost interest.

But this Facebook suit is WAY more all encompassing!

Read 7 tweets

Gaurav Sabnis 🇮🇳🇺🇸

@gauravsabnis

9 Dec

This chapter in the Obama book kinda depressed me. Because it reminded me that on carbon emissions, US and China are in a kind of a Nash Equilibrium in not changing their respective positions. They can each justifiably blame the other to their domestic audiences.

When this happened, Democrats had 60 seats in the senate. But climate change has gotten so politicized in America that Obama couldn't even think of convincing 7 Republican senators to go along and ratify a binding climate treaty. That was our last dance. Under pressure.

It didn't used to be like this. Nixon set up the EPA and passed the Clear Air and Water Acts. Until then, US skies were as smoggy and heavy as Indian and Chinese cities.
Remember acid rain? Bush Sr was the one who changed policies to make it a distant memory. Republicans both.

Read 5 tweets

Gaurav Sabnis 🇮🇳🇺🇸

@gauravsabnis

9 Dec

https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1336627653760126978

This city I tell you! 😍😍😍🗽

https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1336627653760126978

Also, if a humpback whale has randomly surfaced, we can assume that the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 is hidden somewhere in orbit. #StarTrekIV #VoyageHome

Which is the cutest most fun Star Trek movie of all time and why is it #StarTrekIV? Wrath of Khan is best overall obviously. But when it comes to funny, cute moments, especially with the cast so visibly old. Time travel and whales and general goofiness. Nimoy as director.