Fwd: Letter to Chtsgrh Gov, and why we need an alt-right movement in India

personal note: This is one example of why we need an alt-right movement in India.. because the conventional right is filled with hypocrites who would gladly condone the actions reported here. The very idea of a government dismissing officers by getting offended by fb posts, as well as the idea of a government going overboard with taxpayer-funded security for corporate interests rather than letting them pay for and handle their own security, stinks to high heaven of big-brother government / communism, which any self-respecting conservative ought to be opposed to right from the get-go. But instead today we have a rightist fold in India which seems totally glad with being full-on communist when the gun is pointing at those they disagree with. The alt-right will need to get back to basic principles of conservatism and reject this hypocrisy.

Letter from NAPM to Chattisgarh govt: (and we need to depend on the left for raising this awareness thanks to the vacuum on the right)

 

Sub:    Revocation of suspension orders of upright, Dalit woman officer, Ms. Varsha Dongre, Asst. Jail Superintendent, Raipur Central Jail and restoration of peace and good government in the V Schedule adivasis areas of Bastar – Reg.

Respected Balram Das Tandon ji and Shri Raman Singh ji,

We the undersigned, representing a large number of people's movements and organizations, across India, as the National Alliance People's Movements (NAPM), are writing to you with a deep sense of anguish regarding the arbitrary suspension of a young and dynamic dalit woman officer of your state, since she publicly expressed concerns over the serious human rights abuses of young adivasis girls in the jails of Chhattisgarh.

You are already, we believe, aware of the facts of the matter, which are in public domain. The officer in question, Ms. Varsha Dongre, Assistant Superintendent of Raipur Central Jail, published a post on her personal Facebook account last week (which she later deleted), wherein she expressed pain over the avoidable loss of lives (jawans, adivasis and Maoists) and stated that after all it is Indian citizens who are being killed in this mayhem. She wrote about the general displacement in the V Schedule adivasis areas and alienation of adivasis from land, forests and rivers, in violation of constitutional safeguards, for corporate interests.  She also shared her horrifying first-hand experience of witnessing the stripping, electric shock, sexual and other forms of torture of minor adivasis girls in the police stations and jails, including how the breasts of some of them were squeezed to check if they are lactating (and, therefore, not Maoists!).  

While we do re-iterate our condemnation of the recent killings of 25 CRPF Jawans by the Maoists and express our heart-felt sympathies for the families of the deceased, we would also like to state that the military counter-offensive to an essentially political problem is only jeopardizing the possibilities of peace in the region, for the ordinary adivasis. The state government cannot ignore or be a party to the gross violations of people's rights in the name of 'combing operations' and combating Naxalism. Varsha's post reinforces the worst face of this combat i.e. inhuman torture of young adivasis girls, which by no stretch of argument can be justified.

We are of the considered opinion that akin to any other equal citizen of India, Varsha is entitled to her views, as long as they are within the framework of the Constitution of India. Having seen her posts, we are convinced that not only the views she put forth, but the manner in which she conveyed them were also well-within the constitutional limits. Varsha has also raised very pertinent questions about the 'developmental approach' of the State which would never lead to resolution of the conflict, as long as the adivasis are not respected as the primary stake holders and decision-makers in their 'development'.

You good selves are well-aware that the Hon'ble Supreme Court, CBI, NHRC, National ST Commission have in the past expressed serious concerns about the human rights violations in the Bastar region. Infact the NHRC recently confirmed many of the grave allegations against the police and para-military in the state, including the rape of 16 adivasi women and also directed payment of interim compensation, pending further penal action.

We are pains to understand as to how Varsha's post, which infact speaks of safeguarding the Constitution in the interests of the adivasis, has violated the service and disciplinary rules. Her post does not in any way reveal any departmental secrets or confidential state information. All that she has stated is information available in public domain and also in reports of various authorities. Instead of going into a defensive mode and suspending an upright officer who speaks from experience and concern for the law of the land, we think it would be appropriate and necessary for the state government to initiate necessary course-correction and to begin with, undertake a rapid inquiry into the serious allegations of torture of adivasis girls and ensure that such instances are not repeated whether in jails or police stations and wherever such instances have taken place, stringent action, as per law is guaranteed.

It has come to our notice that the preliminary investigative officer Mr K.K. Rai who was required to probe the matter in seven days, gave Varsha only 2 days to file a reply, which she did, in the form of a detailed 376-page counter, annexing directions of the Supreme Court, CBI, NHRC, Planning Commission's Expert Group etc. We find it intriguing as to how the senior jail authorities issued a suspension order, holding her face book post irresponsible, wrong, misleading and in violation of the service rules and posted her at the Ambikapur Central Jail, before assessing her reply and giving her a full hearing. Clearly, basic principles of natural justice seem to have been taken lightly by the state government here. 

We would infact like to know from you as to why senior officers like Mr. SRP Kalluri had a free hand in using social media posts to vilify adivasis, human rights and peace activists and lawyers working in the area and as to why till date the state government has not considered any effective disciplinary action including suspension or charge-sheeting him (except transfer, that too after NHRC's multiple interventions) ? Why no action on Mr. Indira Kalyan Elesela, SP of Sukma who stated, in the presence of Mr. Kalluri that human rights activists should be "crushed on the highway using advanced motor vehicles". These differential approaches in dealing with officers give an impression that the state government is primarily motivated by the questionable political policies and not by any service rules or violations, thereof.

As an officer from a marginalized (SC) community, who has a proven record of high integrity, starting with her very entry into the State service when she approached the Bilaspur High Court against irregularities in the Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission examination and selection process, Ms. Varsha has demonstrated her concern for upholding the law. We find it necessary to quote the relevant observations and directions by Hon'ble Chief Justice Mr. Deepak Gupta of the Chhattisgarh High Court while delivering an 88-page judgement on 26^th Aug, 2016 in Writ Petition No. 4028/2006, filed by Ms. Varsha on the CPSC irregularities:

"The Petitioners have fought a long drawn out battle. It is only because of the persistence and tenacity of the Petitioners, especially Ku. Varsha Dongre that these irregularities, acts of corruption, nepotism, favouritism etc. have been brought out. Therefore, Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission is burdened with costs of Rs.5,00,000/- in the writ petition of Petitioner Ku. Varsha Dongre, which shall be paid to her and Rs. 2,00,000/- in the other writ petition where both the Writ Petitioners will get Rs.1,00,000/- each. Exemplary costs have been awarded because of the totally false stand taken by the Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission earlier and its obstinacy in not correcting the mistakes for which permission was granted to it on its own application by this Court vide order dated 26.10.2007. The costs be paid on or before 31st October, 2016".

Notably, even in her latest face book post, Varsha has only repeated her request to the state government to ensure implementation of constitutional safeguards in the V Schedule adivasis areas. Such officers, we earnestly feel, must be valued and their concerns, which are in the interest of the people and rule of law must be addressed; rather than being harassed in this manner.  In the light of the above, we urge you to consider this matter in utmost seriousness and immediately ensure:

a)     Revocation of the suspension orders of Ms. Varsha Dongre and her re-instation at the Raipur Central Jail.

 

b)     An independent inquiry by a Retired High Court Judge into the allegations levelled by Ms. Varsha, especially torture of adivasis girls at the police stations and in jails.

 

c)      Peace and good government in the adivasi areas of Bastar, as mandated by the Constitution of India and scaling down of military offensive with a parallel initiative to build peace in the region with the involvement of local adivasis, human rights and social organizations.

​              

We look forward to a response to this letter and immediate action as

​   

               ​

requested.

 

​ ​

Thanking You and with regards,

Signed by the National Team of Advisors, Convenors and Special Invitees of NAPM

<list of signatories>

Interesting Links for April 2017

Interesting Links for April 2017

http://www.hindustantimes.com/kolkata/at-re-1-for-17km-cheapest-bus-in-india-fuelled-by-cow-dung-biogas-launches-in-kolkata/story-LLSrp0Wwo3h9kBQ4OFsqgO.html
At Re 1 for 17km, cheapest bus in India fuelled by cow dung biogas
launched in Kolkata
... The first bus will be flagged off on Friday and will run between
Ultadanga in the north and Garia in the south in Kolkata.
... At just Re 1 for the 17.5 km stretch, the bus will be the cheapest
mode of transport for a passenger in the country.
... Phoenix India Research and Development Group, which has produced
the biogas from cow dung, has tied up with heavy vehicle major Ashok
Leyland to manufacture the 54-seater bus at a cost of Rs 13 lakh
approximately.
... Explaining the economics, he said, "The biogas we produce costs Rs
20 a kg. The bus can run 5 km on one kg now."
... they are planning to source a technology from Germany that "will
enable the vehicle to run 20 km on the same amount of fuel. The tank
can hold 80 kg gas, and therefore, the vehicle can run 1,600 km on a
full tank. That's why the fare is so cheap."
... Phoenix has set up a biogas plant in Dubrajpur of Birbhum
district, about 204 km north of Kolkata. Right now it can produce
1,000 kg of gas.
>> this article is dated 1 april 2017. found an earlier article from jan 2017:
http://gulfnews.com/news/asia/india/buses-on-bio-gas-to-hit-kolkata-roads-soon-1.1956963

>> since 2015, they're doing work in biogas for home cooking too.. biogas cylinders
http://www.hindustantimes.com/kolkata/bengal-gears-up-for-cheaper-biogas-option-may-drop-lpg-usage/story-wNMWjCB0ow3c76d3Qi1GGM.html
Bengal gears up for cheaper biogas option, may drop LPG usage
... Phoenix India Research & Development Group has set up a plant at
Gunduba village under Birbhum's Dubrajpur police station and will be
supplying biogas cylinders to distributors in the state. So, residents
will be able to get their cooking gas for just Rs 300.
... the cow dung and other bio-degradable substances are dumped in a
big tank with equal amount of water and kept for three days. When it
starts to take a thick liquid form, it will be kept in 10 big tanks —
15 feet each — from where the gasses are produced. These gases will be
scanned through machines and only methane will be stocked in six huge
balloons. Then, the methane will be filled in cylinders for domestic
use.
... With the help of local villagers from nearby villages, Phoenix
India Research & Development Group has created a cow dung bank. "We
have decided to pay Rs 2 for 1kg of cow dung," a senior official of
the group said.
... As the cylinders are made with FRB material, they are light in
weight than the conventional LPG cylinder.



http://www.hindustantimes.com/punjab/750-biogas-plants-installed-in-jalandhar-during-past-5-years/story-UQUuneBT9ThEjMFikm7H5M.html
750 biogas plants installed in Jalandhar during past 5 years


http://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/as-new-india-rises-a-father-s-open-letter-to-daughter-on-staying-true-to-nation-s-crumbling-foundations/story-0WsnkGnfwqXM8fqk9pTgSI.html
'Recall heritage of love, tolerance': As new India rises, a father
pens open letter to daughter
>> powerful future-past narrative.

Aadhaar marks a fundamental shift in citizen-state relations: From 'We
the People' to 'We the Government'
http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/what-s-really-happening-when-you-swipe-your-aadhaar-card-to-make-a-payment/story-2fLTO5oNPhq1wyvZrwgNgJ.html
... It is also clear that the government opposes any privacy-related
improvements to the law. After debating the Aadhaar Bill in March
2016, the Rajya Sabha passed an amendment by MP Jairam Ramesh that
allowed people to opt out of Aadhaar, and withdraw their consent to
UIDAI storing their data, if they had other means of proving their
identity (thus allowing Aadhaar to remain an enabler). But that
amendment, as with all amendments passed in the Rajya Sabha, was
rejected by the Lok Sabha, allowing the government to make Aadhaar
mandatory, and depriving citizens of consent. While the Aadhaar Act
requires a person's consent before collecting or using
Aadhaar-provided details, it doesn't allow for the revocation of that
consent.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/criminals-will-be-able-to-crack-uid-system-easily-jacob-appelbaum-113053100728_1.html
Criminals will be able to crack UID system easily: Jacob Appelbaum
Interview with WikiLeaks activist
... In Germany, for example, a group of hackers were able to duplicate
the fingerprint of Schauble (Germany's finance minister, a proponent
of collecting biometric data). And, it now costs less than a dollar to
get a transferable fingerprint. About the question of containing
terrorism, imagine a situation where a terrorist gets access to the
central UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) database — he
will be able to get all the details of every individual he wishes to
target.
... Considering that the programme has already been rolled out, what
can the government now do to safeguard individual privacy?
First of all, there should be no centralised database. The information
should be just on the cards. This can easily be done with smartcards.
If you link all the information, that amounts to surveillance. There
should also be legislation to prevent discrimination against people
who have not registered with UIDAI.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/death-of-odisha-boy-british-iranian-aid-worker-reflects-on-life-after-acquittal/story-mZSw5SXXNy9rC3spMNoUAN.html
Death of Odisha boy: British-Iranian aid worker reflects on life after
acquittal

http://www.hindustantimes.com/hollywood/pamela-anderson-plays-it-coy-about-dating-julian-assange-but-blogs-about-her-love/story-l2niNDSn5bfzcdWhXw5Q0J.html
... "I am getting more involved with The Courage foundation who helps
to defend whistleblowers …like Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning and
Julian Assange," she wrote on Thursday. "My relationship with Julian –
It's no secret, He is one of my favourite people- and he might be the
most famous, most politicized refugee of our time. Famous for being
persecuted. Famous for being persecuted is not a position of power but
a position of vulnerability. I am concerned."


http://profit.ndtv.com/news/corporates/article-unfair-to-majority-of-infosys-employees-narayana-murthy-slams-coo-pravin-raos-pay-hike-1676415
'Unfair To Majority Of Infosys Employees': Narayana Murthy Slams COO
Pravin Rao's Pay Hike
Infosys chief operating officer Pravin Rao, who was recruited by
co-founder Narayana Murthy in 1985, will also be eligible for Rs. 4
crore in performance-based stock compensation.
... I have always felt that every senior management person of an
Indian corporation has to show self restraint in his or her
compensation and perquisites. He or she has to fight for maintaining a
reasonable ratio between the lowest salary and the highest salary in a
corporation in a poor country like India. The board has to create a
climate of opinion for such a fairness by their actions.
... This is necessary if we have to make compassionate capitalism
acceptable to a majority of Indians who are poor. Without
compassionate capitalism, this country cannot create jobs and solve
the problem of poverty. Experts tell me that capitalism may come to an
end in the not-so-distant future if the current corporate leaders do
not heed this advice in India.

http://profit.ndtv.com/news/corporates/article-how-r-damanis-d-mart-stores-made-him-richer-billionaire-than-anil-ambani-1676486?pfrom=home-business
How R Damani's D-Mart Stores Made Him Richer Billionaire Than Anil Ambani
For 61-year-old Damani, a former stockbroker who was raised in a
one-room apartment in a Mumbai tenement block, the listing catapulted
Damani's wealth beyond that of Ajay Piramal, Anil Ambani and Kapil
Bhatia, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
... Amazon.com Inc., the global giant that's investing $5 billion in
the Indian market, and Flipkart Online Services Pvt., the biggest
domestic e-commerce company, are yet to make money in India, whereas
Avenue Supermarts said it had net profit after tax of 3.2 billion
rupees ($49.3 million) in the year ended March 2016.
>> can you believe it? Flipkart hasn't turned a profit yet! Why the hell are these guys enjoying a high mental value when they aren't able to function as a business should?
... It centers largely on everyday low prices -- a concept reminiscent
of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company
started by Sam Walton in 1962. Avenue's approach is also to procure
merchandise at low prices and to avoid relying on sporadic promotions
on specific products, the Mumbai-based company said in a regulatory
filing in September.
... "D-Mart has unfancy stores," said Technopak's Singhal. "If other
retailers became counter-intuitive and chased retail glamour by
opening stores in malls, launching multiple formats and going
national, D-Mart has been intuitive by sticking to the very basics."
... It doesn't hire high-profile executives, pay "stratospheric"
salaries or overspend on marketing and advertising -- all of which are
hallmarks of Indian retailers, Singhal said. "It's not like Damani has
stumbled on some magic formula -- he hasn't," Singhal said. "These
should have been the basic rules for every retail business in India."


https://dontbubble.me/
explaining in clear graphics and short lines the filter bubble and the
threat of search engines doing mass surveillance

http://nautil.us/issue/46/balance/darwin-was-a-slacker-and-you-should-be-too
Darwin Was a Slacker and You Should Be Too
Many famous scientists have something in common—they didn't work long hours.

http://www.dailyo.in/politics/arvind-kejriwal-trolls-odd-even-pollution-ad-aap-delhi/story/1/8364.html
Stop hating Kejriwal for his good work, Delhi
Odd or even, the CM has been leading by example and quietly delivering
governance.
... Riyaaz Amlani is not a political animal; he's a young entrepreneur
who's delighted that there's one city in the country where you can
open a restaurant without spending all your time in government
offices.
... Kejriwal has done away with management quota in private schools.
No chief minister was able to act against this single source of
corruption in our education system. Social media responds with near
silence. Kejriwal got a flyover completed 10 months before schedule
for Rs 100 crore, way below its budgetary allocation of Rs 250 crore.
Newspapers carried the news in their inside pages as if it happens all
the time.
... Thanks to the system of water billing introduced by Kejriwal, my
mother, who's a pensioner, hasn't had to pay for water for the past
one year. And our maid is delighted that her daughter, like every
other girl child in her school, entered the new school year with a new
uniform and books given by the government. Now, mohalla clinics are
being opened all over the city in poor neighbourhoods like the one
from where she comes. There's a widespread feeling among the unheard
majority that the government is finally working for them.


http://www.dailyo.in/politics/modi-government-diluting-right-to-information-act-rti-changes/story/1/16496.html
Why is Modi government hell-bent on diluting the Right to Information Act?
Opacity in terms of the functioning of State versus the people seems skewed.
... But the biggest issue with the new set of possible rules is the
intention to close an RTI application file in case of the death of the
appellant. This move, not yet fully legislated but being considered at
present, has been widely panned by RTI and political transparency
activists, saying it would hugely aggravate the threat to life of an
RTI applicant, since death in any circumstance, whether natural or
unnatural, would be tantamount to effect the closure of the pending
RTI application
... 7. Compulsory to file identity proof with every RTI petition filed
with a public authority to "avoid mischievous petitions filed in names
of others or non-existing persons". Anonymous RTI petitions can be
filed through post box numbers.

http://www.dailyo.in/politics/russia-terror-attack-twin-blasts-st-petersburg-vladimir-putin/story/1/16500.html
Russia terror attack: What we know so far
Twin blasts rock St Petersburg amid hyped Putin meeting. At least 10
people have died so far.

http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2017/03/23/heres-how-modi-government-systematically-dismantled-your-right_a_22008721/
Here's How Modi Government Dismantled Your Right To Transparent
Political Financing
Amendments to the Finance Bill 2017 have removed all protections in this regard.
... The Finance Bill amendments do three things: one, they amend
Section 182 of the Companies Act to remove all caps on the amount
companies can donate to political parties (prior to the amendment,
this stood at 7.5% of the average net profits of the company for the
last three years, to prevent companies being set up as fronts to
channel money into political parties--that protection is also now
gone). Two, they free the company from mandatory disclosure of
donations made by it to political parties in its profit and loss
books--the company no longer needs to say whom it donated to.
... One by one, the government systematically closed every possible
loophole that might allow us to access information about big donors to
political parties, without once feeling the need to even make the
argument to the public that there was any public interest behind what
it was doing.
... So from April 1 this year, we could potentially have absolutely no
information about who is donating to our political parties--surely not
the direction citizens expected political financing to go in after
Jaitley's budget speech declaration promising to "clean the country
from the evils of corruption, black money and non-transparent
political funding".


https://www.change.org/p/governor-rbi-finance-ministry-stop-banks-fleecing-depositors?source_location=petitions_share_skip
RBI Governor: Please Stop Banks Fleecing us Depositors!

http://www.ae911truth.org/news/349-news-media-events-plasco-report.html
https://chemtrailsplanet.net/2017/01/20/like-911-tehrans-plasco-building-collapse-caused-by-controlled-demolition/
Tehran Plasco building collapse : bearing similar hallmarks as WTC7,
is being called Iran's 9/11


https://www.startpage.com/eng/protect-privacy.html
>> worth checking out the AOL database search link!

https://wiki.nurserylive.com/t/do-u-like-green-refreshing-creative-walls-here-are-12-creeper-plants-to-help/250
Do u like green, refreshing & creative walls ? Here are 12 creeper
plants to help

https://www.infowars.com/state-department-staffer-caught-spying-for-china/
State Department Staffer Caught Spying for China
Staffer served under Clinton, Bush and Obama
>> question that should be asked : how come something so easily detectable couldn't be caught in the 8 years of the Obama Administration? Was there someone covering for her?

https://www.infowars.com/crowdfunding-site-bans-investigations-of-child-sex-slavery/
Crowdfunding Site Bans Investigations of Child Sex Slavery
Donation page to save children taken down
... Craig is now revealing to the world the intel he has received from
high-level sources inside the Navy SEALs, Delta Force, Army Rangers,
CIA, MI6, ASIS, German intelligence and more detailing the fact that
there's a war ongoing – not just in the US but in Europe as well –
against the pedophile networks inside government and that Trump has
massively accelerated these operations since he's been in office the
last 70 days.
... This should be the top news story in the United States, but
instead it's totally being ignored.
... The crowd-funding site YouCaring shut down former Navy Seal Craig
Sawyer's donation page following his appearance on the Alex Jones Show
on Friday to talk about his national non-profit organization which
aims to expose child trafficking across the nation and save children
from torture.
>> http://vets4childrescue.org/

https://www.infowars.com/flash-from-faraway-galaxy-leaves-astronomers-puzzled/
Flash From Faraway Galaxy Leaves Astronomers Puzzled
Another civilization? Or a peek outside the matrix?
... The X-ray source, located in a region of the sky known as the
Chandra Deep Field-South (CDF-S), was unremarkable before October 2014
– but then it erupted and became at least 1000 times brighter in a few
hours. After about a day, the source had faded to the point that it
couldn't be detected by Chandra.
>> to have cosmic events happen in the time span of hours where we ordinarily expect things to happen over centuries or millenia.. is unsettling indeed.

https://www.infowars.com/the-ticking-time-bomb-that-will-wipe-out-virtually-every-pension-fund-in-america/
The Ticking Time Bomb That Will Wipe Out Virtually Every Pension Fund In America
On a day to day basis, Americans generally don't think very much about pensions
>> links to this: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-03-24/pension-crisis-too-big-for-markets-to-ignore "Pension Crisis Too Big for Markets to Ignore"
... Are millions of Americans about to see the big, juicy pensions
that they were counting on to fund their golden years go up in flames
in the biggest financial disaster in U.S. history?
... Pension funds all over America are woefully underfunded, and they
have been pouring mind boggling amounts of money into very risky
investments such as Internet stocks and commercial mortgages.
>> also this happened for real in one US city:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-dallas-pension-fiasco-could-happen-in-your-state-or-city-too-2017-02-04
... According to Dave Kranzler, if the stock market were to fall by 10
percent or more and stay there for a number of months, that "would
cause every single public pension fund to blow up".
... It is being projected that somewhere around 3,500 stores will
close in the months ahead, and this is going to absolutely devastate
mall owners. In turn, it is inevitable that a lot of their debts will
start to go bad, and pension funds will be hit extremely hard by this.
... Stocks are ridiculously overvalued right now, and if they simply
return to "normal valuations", pension funds are going to lose
trillions of dollars.
... The latest data from the New York Stock Exchange show margin debt,
or cash borrowed to buy shares, hit a record $528.2 billion in
February, up from its prior high of $513.3 billion in January.



http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-worst-retail-cataclysm-ever-sears-warns-it-is-on-the-verge-of-collapse-as-payless-prepares-to-file-for-bankruptcy
The Worst Retail Cataclysm Ever: Sears Warns It Is On The Verge Of
Collapse As Payless Prepares To File For Bankruptcy
... I have repeatedly warned my readers that "Sears is going to zero",
and now Sears is officially saying that it might actually happen.
When you file official paperwork with the government that says there
is "substantial doubt" that the company will survive, that means that
the end is very near…
... Once thriving shopping malls are rapidly being transformed into
ghost towns. As I wrote about just recently, "you might be tempted to
think that 'Space Available' was the hottest new retail chain in the
entire country."
>> it seems the x22 report guy has been dot on the money since the past year.
... When an anchor store like Sears or Macy's closes, it often
triggers a downward spiral in performance for shopping malls.
... Not only do the malls lose the income and shopper traffic from
that store's business, but the closure often triggers "co-tenancy
clauses" that allow the other mall tenants to terminate their leases
or renegotiate the terms, typically with a period of lower rents,
until another retailer moves into the anchor space.
... The last time so many Americans got behind on subprime auto loans
was during the last financial crisis.
... The last recession probably should have started back in late 2015,
but thanks to manipulation by the Fed and an unprecedented debt binge
by the Obama administration, official U.S. GDP growth has been able to
stay barely above zero for the last year and a half. But just because
something is delayed does not mean that it is canceled.
>> a comment below, on Radioshack's bankruptcy filing:
... RadioShack could survive if they went back to their roots, aka
become a shop where people can quickly snatch that missing cable or
adapter or electronic component for their DIY projects without having
to wait for delivery. If they started hiring knowledgeable people
again, it could happen. But at their current modus operandi of selling
cellphones, they are doomed
>> another comment:
... Thanks for posting everything at once. The media reports on one
company at a time once a week so its not really noticed. This really
show how bad it is. Also funny how this comes about a few months after
the election as if it was all put on hold.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-03-27/modi-s-alarming-power-grab?cmpid=socialflow-facebook-tv&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_content=tv&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook
Modi's Alarming Power Grab
... It will allow Indian companies to donate as much money as they
like to political parties, by removing a cap linked to net profits
that's been in force for years. Voters won't have a chance to examine
which company is giving money to which politician; all donations will
henceforth be anonymous. An earlier requirement that a company
officially declare its political contributions has been erased.
... Another amendment merges various "tribunals," or quasi-judicial
bodies that examine appeals of regulatory decisions and which are,
essentially, ways to get around the widespread rot in India's regular
courts. This might seem like straightforward rationalization, but it's
not. In fact, the government will now "make rules to provide for the
(i) qualifications, (ii) appointments, (iii) term of office, (iv)
salaries and allowances, (v) resignation, (vi) removal, and (vii)
other conditions of service" for the tribunals' members. In other
words, the executive has been given arbitrary power over the
tribunals. It's trying to subvert and control a slew of hitherto
independent institutions.
... Soon, an income-tax officer will be able to waltz into anyone's
house or office to conduct a search or a seizure -- and not even have
to explain why. Not to you if you're being investigated, and not even
to the tax tribunal you would appeal to for help. With almost comical
villainy, the government has even made this apply retrospectively --
the tax guys can, without explanation, investigate you or your company
all the way back to 1962. This after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has
insisted several times that he doesn't believe in retrospective tax
law.

https://www.equitymaster.com/diary/detail.asp?date=04/04/2017&story=2&title=The-Bolbachan-of-Cleaning-Up-Electoral-Finance-in-India
The Bolbachan of Cleaning Up Electoral Finance in India

http://www.moneylife.in/article/cashless-atms-problematic-netbanking-and-pos-leave-customers-fuming-at-banks/50146.html
Cashless ATMs, problematic netbanking and PoS leave customers fuming at banks

http://foodbabe.com/2016/11/15/monsanto/
Monsanto Is Scrambling To Bury This Breaking Story – Don't Let This Go Unshared!

https://www.change.org/p/shri-narendra-modi-please-protect-startups-from-abuse-of-law-order-help-yogendra-founder-of-stayzilla-get-justice

>>Evidence of business-friendly, startup-friendly climate by government.. HELLO, isn't it simple? More criminalization of day-to-day life due to criminals running the show = BAD environment for business. You want a business-friendly India? Then stop voting for parties that harbor criminals. Simple.

https://www.equitymaster.com/diary/detail.asp?date=04/05/2017&story=4&title=With-Farmer-Loans-Waived-Off-UP-Govt-Has-Its-Oh-Darling-Ye-Hai-India-Moment&utm_source=VKD&utm_medium=mail&utm_campaign=e-letter&utm_content=VKD
With Farmer Loans Waived Off, UP Govt Has Its Oh Darling Ye Hai India Moment
>> Here's an idea : Why not waive off just the INTEREST on the loan? Or, cap it off at a certain rate of simple (not compound) interest like, say, 5% and bail out the remaining? Let the farmer stay liable with fairness restored; take care of the unfair component only. In the long run this would create an incentive for govt to CRACK DOWN on unfair lenders. Actually it could start doing so immediately, what with the established precedent of enacting laws retrospectively going as far back as the 60s. Or, even if not denying them the bailout, a government can throw bureaucratic spanners in to ensure that the lenders recovering this unfair component take ages to get it, same way as is happening in subsidy schemes. All this would give more power to RESPONSIBLE lending and recovering and severly discourage the high-interest lenders.

https://www.infowars.com/farage-flames-eu-parliament-youre-behaving-like-mafia-gangsters/
Farage Flames EU Parliament: 'You're Behaving Like Mafia Gangsters'
Architect of Brexit rips globalist bullies
... Nigel Farage left EU parliamentarians whinging and clutching their
pearls after flaming them in a hearing on Wednesday, charging that
they are "behaving like the mafia" in his response to threats and
unjust pressure being applied during Brexit negotiations.
... "I do understand, Mr. President, I do understand national
sensitivies," Farage replied, likely alluding to the fact that Tajani
is Italian.
>> OMG that is SO witty! The fact that this guy can think on his feet tells me he's not a controlled zombie.


https://www.equitymaster.com/diary/detail.asp?date=04/06/2017&story=3&title=Black-Money-The-More-Things-Change-the-More-They-Remain-the-Same&utm_source=VKD&utm_medium=mail&utm_campaign=e-letter&utm_content=VKD
Black Money-The More Things Change, the More They Remain the Same
>> I'll attempt an interpretation:
Govt: If you do transaction of more that 2 lakh AND if you report it
then you're in trouble!
Citizen: OK, what if I do the transaction but I don't report in
anywhere.. don't mention it any records?
Govt: Oh, then no worries, carry on as you were.
Citizen: But that's what I was always do...
Govt: If you do transaction of more that 2 lakh AND if you report it
then you're in trouble!

https://twitter.com/kapsology/status/849858772659056640
Another one of perhaps 100s : A BJP campaign poster caught faking
achievements. This one claims a picture of a well-lit street from
Canada is a street in Delhi and credits BJP-led MCD with the lighting.

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/internet/facebook-leads-consortium-to-counter-fake-news/article17831479.ece?homepage=true
Facebook leads consortium to counter fake news
>> and on whose backing is FB deciding about what is right and what is wrong? With a censorship mechanism firmly in place on the internet of all places, even if it supposedly works for good purposes today (yeah right!), how in the world can anyone guarantee that it won't be used for evil purposes later on?

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/suu-kyi-denies-ethnic-cleansing-of-myanmars-rohingya-minority/article17854756.ece?homepage=true
Suu Kyi denies ethnic cleansing of Myanmar's Rohingya minority
>> while the issue itself is quite unfortunate, I'll hold up the value of the principle of non-intervention here and invite concerned persons to find out what the other external interventions are for Myanmar that is causing this and how they can be mitigated.

https://www.someecards.com/news/politics/white-supremacist-muslim-history/
White supremacist asks Muslim lawyer why there is no 'Christian ISIS,'
gets schooled.
>> Good dose of history! BUT.. perhaps a more important idea to be debating about is: how do we stop this madness, and for that, can we please find out who are the ones funding, arming and making this madness happen?

http://www.newsbits.in/just-because-goras-say-its-wrong-to-defecate-in-open-mp-ias-officer-questions-odf-clamour
Just because 'goras' say it's wrong to defecate in open: MP IAS
officer questions ODF clamour
>> points to this op-ed piece:
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/some-washroom-wisdom/article17759025.ece
Some washroom wisdom
>> questions the declared verdict that defecating in the fields is harmful. Also points out the sexism in advocating toilets for the sake of womens' safety while not demanding the men to behave like real men should (ie, one that lives as a civilized being and doesn't commit criminal offences like sexual assault on defecating women)


http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/people-without-surnames-are-facing-problems-in-linking-aadhaar-with-pan/article17844495.ece
People without surnames face problems in linking Aadhaar with PAN
>> and that includes a large swathe of south india, plus several people who have consciously given up their surnames.


http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/12000-fake-500-notes-seized/article17837052.ece
12,000 fake ₹500 notes seized
>> the argument that it was against fake currency stands weakened; and the response that demonetization should happen again and again defeats all obvious-expected semblances of stability and security. Reminds me of the argument that instead of trying to get road contractors to follow proper practices we are better off building the same roads all over again every year because it will give us more employment.

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/in-a-first-atmosphere-found-around-earth-like-planet/article17865537.ece
In a first, atmosphere found around Earth-like planet
>> haven't we been seeing a whole lot of space related stories coming up lately?

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/graphene-sieve-turns-seawater-into-drinking-water/article17805277.ece
Graphene sieve turns seawater into drinking water

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/us-launches-missile-strike-against-syria-after-gas-attack/article17859114.ece
U.S. missiles strike Syrian airfield used for toxic gas attack
>> shit, waaiit, confirm first! Last time a chemical gas attack was done in Syria it later turned out the US-backed rebels were doing it and they got their stash from the loot of Libya after NATO overthrew the govt there.


https://www.infowars.com/now-that-trumps-red-line-has-been-crossed-will-he-turn-damascus-into-a-ruinous-heap/
Now That Trump's 'Red Line' Has Been Crossed, Will He Turn Damascus
Into A 'Ruinous Heap'?
Let us pray for peace, and let us hope that cooler heads will prevail

https://www.infowars.com/forget-russiagate-susan-rice-scandal-a-constitutional-crisis/
Forget Russiagate – Susan Rice Scandal a Constitutional Crisis
Is any American safe from political espionage thuggery?

https://www.infowars.com/ron-paul-chemical-weapons-attack-in-syria-likely-a-false-flag/
Ron Paul: Chemical Weapons Attack in Syria Likely a False Flag
"Zero chance" Assad behind attack, says former Congressman

https://www.infowars.com/rand-paul-urges-trump-not-to-take-military-action-in-syria/
Rand Paul Urges Trump Not To Take Military Action In Syria
"I don't want to support people who hate our country"

https://www.infowars.com/proof-susan-rice-was-spying-on-trump-dirtyrice/
Proof Susan Rice Was Spying On Trump #DirtyRice
Compilation video exposes Rice for lying to the American people

https://www.infowars.com/just-say-no-trump-being-pressured-by-neo-cons-to-attack-syria/
Just Say No; Trump Being Pressured By Neo-Cons to Attack Syria
President repeatedly warned Obama not to attempt regime change in 2013

https://www.infowars.com/scott-adams-syria-gas-attack-a-false-flag/
Scott Adams: Syria Gas Attack a False Flag
I'm going to call bullshit on the gas attack, he says

https://www.infowars.com/live-evidence-mounts-that-syrian-gas-attack-is-false-flag/
Report: Evidence Mounts That Syrian Gas Attack Is False Flag
Establishment pushes war with Syria over Sarin incident

https://www.infowars.com/marine-veteran-warns-trump-youre-being-duped-on-syria/
Marine Veteran Warns Trump: "You're Being Duped" on Syria
"You're falling for the dumbest thing I've ever seen"

https://www.infowars.com/hillary-u-s-should-take-out-assads-air-fields/
Hillary: U.S. Should 'take out' Assad's Air Fields
'I still believe we should have done a no-fly zone'
>> the fact that his neocon rep is calling for it ought to be indication enough that something is amiss.

https://www.infowars.com/trump-to-attack-syria-within-hours-will-russia-respond/
Trump Attacks Syria / Will Russia Respond?
50 cruise missiles launched at Syrian air base

http://www.medianama.com/2017/04/223-nandan-nilekani-aadhaar/
A response to Nandan Nilekani on Aadhaar (Updated)
... it is a very rigid system that only functions perfectly under
known ideal conditions, but has worsening performance characteristics
under known variable conditions and should be avoided

>>EVM fraud cases popping up and being talked about..
http://www.news18.com/news/politics/alleging-evm-tampering-congress-aap-demand-return-of-ballot-paper-1367046.html
Alleging EVM Tampering, Congress, AAP Demand Return of Ballot Paper


http://deepastronomy.com/article/15/hubble-deep-field
The Hubble Deep Field: The Most Important Image Ever Taken
... Probably more than any other image I've ever seen, the Hubble Deep
Field has profoundly changed my perspective on the universe and our
place in it. When I first saw the image, and then learned how it was
taken, I was forever changed by it.
>> this was brought up by US President in his speech about NASA reauthorization.

Ultra Deep Field, the Hubble Space Telescope

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=vAlmaraz.miniApp.WCleaner
WCleaner for WA
>> app using which we can (in a fully controlled manner) clean out whatsapp db backup and media files which are occupying too much space in our phone memory.

https://www.desima.co/blog/2016/8/3/chinas-futuristic-straddling-bus
CHINA'S FUTURISTIC 'STRADDLING BUS' IS ACTUALLY REAL
... The bus is being tested in Qinhuangdao.

https://www.desima.co/blogposts/
A website on gardening tips and products. Amazing infographics. And NICE design!

http://nikhilsheth.blogspot.in/2014/04/electronic-voting-machine-doubts.html
Electronic Voting Machine doubts
>> shared by me in 2014. And now there are several news coming from all around the place about alleged EVM rigging, with some major opposition parties now openly alleging that rigging is happening.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/24/us-scientists-launch-worlds-biggest-solar-geoengineering-study
US scientists launch world's biggest solar geoengineering study
... "But solar geoengineering is not the answer," he said. "Cutting
incoming solar radiation affects the weather and hydrological cycle.
It promotes drought. It destabilizes things and could cause wars. The
side effects are many and our models are just not good enough to
predict the outcomes"
>> while the article downplays these risks, at least it gave this a mention. Interruption of world's RAINS is a major fallout of geo-engineering. Honestly why don't these people use planes to do just plain and simple SEEDING of seeds rather than trying to do cloud-seeding etc. Growing more green matter is SO much better than depriving the planet of drinking water.

https://youtu.be/5hCyVsUir8k
vdoevidence911-Another_Example_of_the_1_Minute_E_Voting_Machine_Hack.3gp
>> India's "legendary flawless" EVM shown hacked in a minute.

>> this came out as a reply to a FB post on WTF is happening in Europe:
because Europeans don't know the difference between practiced Islam
and petrodollar-funded preacher-Islam and have ended up shielding and
appeasing the latter out of political correctness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQjtK32mGJQ
Sarokar: Irom Sharmila: Relationship of Civil Society Struggle &
Political Success
A discussion lead by Rajagopal P.V. ji, Medha Patkar ji &Harsh Mander ji

https://www.infowars.com/trump-pushes-back-against-neo-con-plan-to-invade-syria/
Trump Pushes Back Against Neo-Con Plan to Invade Syria
Troops massing as deep state plots regime change

https://www.infowars.com/roger-stone-goldman-sachs-has-no-power-in-trump-white-house-donald-delivers-on-glass-steagall/
Roger Stone: Goldman Sachs Has No Power In Trump White House, Donald
Delivers On Glass Steagall
Trump follows through with bringing back Glass Steagall

https://www.infowars.com/deep-state-military-hijacks-white-house-to-launch-war-in-syria/
Deep State Military Hijacks White House To Launch War In Syria
Globalists holding high positions in the intelligence communities
influence Trump

https://www.infowars.com/red-bull-boss-slams-mass-migration-forced-multiculturalism-in-europe/
Red Bull Boss Slams Mass Migration, Forced Multiculturalism in Europe
"If a company were to make mistakes on the same scale, it would have gone broke"
... Highlighting the "hypocrisies" of what he called the "refugees
welcome brigade" with regards to migration, Mateschitz said: "I am
talking about the fact that none of the people shouting 'refugees
welcome' or [Chancellor Angela Merkel's famous phrase] 'we can do it'
were preparing their own guest rooms or tents in their gardens to
accommodate half a dozen migrants.
... "Even then it was clear to everyone that most of the people
[arriving in the continent] did not correspond to the definition of
the refugee. In any case, not the Geneva Convention".

https://www.infowars.com/sharia-law-alert-department-of-education-unconstitutionally-indoctrinating-students/
SHARIA LAW ALERT: Department Of Education Unconstitutionally
Indoctrinating Students
Anti-American rhetoric spreading across U.S. school system

https://www.equitymaster.com/diary/detail.asp?date=04/10/2017&story=2&title=Dear-Mr-Urjit-Patel-Have-You-Ever-Heard-of-Wasim-Barelvi
Dear Mr Urjit Patel, Have You Ever Heard of Wasim Barelvi?
>> shares the problem with loan waivers .. of farmers AND points out the question that why is the same not being said of waivers for corporates.
... In response to the question, "What do you think are the
implications of the farm loan waiver schemes and is it a cause of
concern for the RBI?", Patel had this to say: "There are several
conceptual issues, if one were to put one's hat as an economist on. I
think it undermines an honest credit culture, it impacts credit
discipline, it blunts incentives for future borrowers to repay, in
other words, waivers engender moral hazard. It also entails at the end
of the day transfer from tax payers to borrowers. If on account of
this, overall Government borrowing goes up, yields on Government bonds
also are impacted. Thereafter it can also lead to the crowding out of
private borrowers as higher government borrowing can lead to an
increase in cost of borrowing for others. I think we need to create a
consensus such that loan waiver promises are eschewed, otherwise
sub-sovereign fiscal challenges in this context could eventually
affect the national balance sheet."
... The economist Alan Blinder in his book After the Music Stopped
writes that the "central idea behind moral hazard is that people who
are well insured against some risk are less likely to take pains (and
incur costs) to avoid it."
... When a government borrows more, it leaves a lesser amount of money
for others to borrow. This can push up interest rates
... Nevertheless, the question is where has all this forthrightness
been when it comes to the issue of corporate defaults and loan
write-offs? As is well known, corporates have defaulted on several
lakhs of crore of bank loans over the years. These defaulters have
been treated with kid gloves. Over the years, a huge amount of
corporate loans have been written off.
... "Garib lehron par pehren bithaye jaate hain
samundaron ki talashi koi nahi leta".

https://www.equitymaster.com/diary/detail.asp?date=04/11/2017&story=5&title=Why-Suddenly-There-is-No-Cash-in-ATMs
Why Suddenly There is No Cash in ATMs


https://thewire.in/124685/rss-hindutva-nationalism/?utm_content=buffer07c50&utm_medium=social&utm_source=plus.google.com&utm_campaign=buffer
History Shows How Patriotic the RSS Really Is

https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/04/16/rip-turkey-1921-2017/?utm_content=buffer60ea0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
ARGUMENT
RIP Turkey, 1921 – 2017
Recep Tayyip Erdogan didn't just win his constitutional referendum —
he permanently closed a chapter of his country's modern history.

https://www.equitymaster.com/diary/detail.asp?date=04/18/2017&story=2&title=But-What-About-the-Rs-2000-Note&utm_source=VKD&utm_medium=mail&utm_campaign=e-letter&utm_content=VKD
But What About the Rs 2,000 Note?

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/3-interlocking-pedagogies-can-change-world-emelina-minero
How 3 Interlocking Pedagogies Can Change the World

https://yourstory.com/2017/04/millets/

... it is advisable to keep rotating the kind of millets we are
eating. We should also remember that we should not mix millets and
should only eat one grain in a meal as each grain has its own
requirement as the medium for digestion and mixing them can create
imbalances in body.
... Nearly 40 percent of the food produced in India is wasted every
year.. Millets do not get destroyed easily, and some of the millets
are good for consumption even after 10-12 years of growing, thus
providing food security, and playing an important role in keeping a
check on food wastage.
... Millet is fibrous in content, has magnesium, Niacin (Vitamin B3),
is gluten-free and has a high protein content.
... from an individual's point of view, it is important to know what
one's body is comfortable with and no drastic change should be made.
>> what might be the background behind these cautionary lines in an article that's otherwise promoting millets? The author seems to be very conscious about warning people against jumping into millets right away.

https://www.infowars.com/mit-expert-claims-latest-chemical-weapons-attack-in-syria-was-staged/
MIT Expert Claims Latest Chemical Weapons Attack in Syria was Staged
Theodore Postol of MIT says there is no concrete evidence linking
Assad to the attack.

https://www.infowars.com/facebook-shuts-down-pro-le-pen-posts-as-french-election-nears/
Facebook Shuts Down Pro-Le Pen Posts as French Election Nears
Just as Mussolini made the trains run on time in Italy, FB is making
the news run on time

www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-04-14/facebook-scrambles-shut-down-pro-le-pen-accounts-election


https://www.infowars.com/wikileaks-assange-google-directly-allied-with-clinton-campaign/
Flashback: Wikileaks' Assange Says Google Directly Allied with Clinton Campaign
Wikileaks' founder warns of growing alliance between D.C. and tech giant

https://www.infowars.com/google-contractors-ordered-to-assign-low-ratings-to-infowars-articles/
Google Contractors Ordered to Assign 'Low' Ratings to Infowars Articles
Tech giant hellbent on demoting Infowars search results

https://www.infowars.com/greenfield-free-speech-dies-in-berkeley/
GREENFIELD: Free Speech Dies In Berkeley
Mainstream media oversees death of free speech at its 'birthplace'

https://www.infowars.com/google-takes-out-major-contract-to-de-list-infowars-from-its-search-index/
Google Takes Out Major Contract to De-List InfoWars from Its Search Index
InfoWars articles must be rated "Low to Medium."


https://www.equitymaster.com/diary/detail.asp?date=04/20/2017&story=4&title=In-an-Ocean-of-Corporate-Defaulters-Vijay-Mallya-is-a-Small-Fish&utm_source=VKD&utm_medium=mail&utm_campaign=e-letter&utm_content=VKD
In an Ocean of Corporate Defaulters, Vijay Mallya is a Small Fish

https://www.infowars.com/red-pilled-populace-is-savaging-the-media-liars-this-week/
Trend: Americans Trolling Anti-Trump Media on Camera
Red-pilled populace is savaging media liars this week

https://www.infowars.com/france-hit-with-terror-attack-days-before-presidential-election/
France Hit With Terror Attack Days Before Presidential Election
One cop dead, one attacker still on the run


https://www.infowars.com/isis-claims-responsibility-for-paris-attack/
ISIS Claims Responsibility For Paris Attack
Gunmen had extremist ties, say police
... Osri, who was known to police as an extremist, had also just
arrived from Belgium before the attack.

https://thewire.in/128570/mcd-verdict/
A Party That Didn't Sweep the Streets for 10 Years Has Swept the MCD
Polls Again. Here's Why
by YY.
Makes sense, but I'd like to see more details later.

http://www.indiantelevision.com/television/tv-channels/news-broadcasting/arnabs-the-newshour-lands-times-now-in-soup-in-uk-170426
Arnab's 'The Newshour' lands Times Now in soup in UK
United Kingdom broadcast regulator Ofcom has studied several episodes
of Times Now's nightly show 'The Newshour' from last summer, which was
broadcast during the rising tensions between India and Pakistan over
Kashmir...

small note on DataMeet projects

Regarding our ongoing projects, to be honest I'm more inclined towards
finding people with less skills but more time. Because the work to be
done that I'm seeing, requires time. And I've seen groups of highly
skilled people simply fail with the job on hand (nobody mentions
failure but the fact is we end up with no real outcome) because
everyone is looking for some automating hack that will fix everything
and highly skilled people think that the job needed to be done is not
worth their time and that somebody else (who doesn't exist) should do
it. Don't mean to discourage but just sharing something I have
observed.

Interesting links from February and March 2017

Really overdue. But man a lot has been happening. I've actually seen so many more youtube videos that I just downloaded and didn't copy the link over here. And with the mainstream media pretty much omitting most of it out of their reportage (in many cases not even giving their side but just omitting completely), in the vaccuum I am seeing people being thoroughly confused about what's going on. Well, that's a good starting point.

I'm also seeing that Patreon.com has played a role of a great enabler for many independent media sources. It's an awesome example of how just a simple change in crowdfunding method (from funding for project to funding the persons doing the projects and from limited-time period to constant) has had such a massive impact.

Fwd: To Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate?

Forwarding a newsletter from VaccinesRevealed. I liked this line:
It's not always comfortable to discuss openly, but whenever we shut down the conversation, we're headed in the wrong direction.

To vaccinate, or not to vaccinate? That is the question. That's exactly the question we really wrestled with during the creation of Vaccines Revealed. I know this has been a controversial topic for some time, and I present it with absolute respect for your unique position on the matter. Just ten years ago, vaccines were almost taken for granted, an obvious part of routine health. But just the word "Vaccine" now evokes strong emotion. And for good reason, our decision can impact those who matter most. It's not always comfortable to discuss openly, but whenever we shut down the conversation, we're headed in the wrong direction. What I want as a parent and fellow human is to see all the facts about vaccines laid on the table so we can all make an educated decision. Check out this new Series "The Truth About Vaccines" The reason we created Vaccines Revealed was to start a dialogue - a healthy conversation so that we as parents can be making educated decisions concerning vaccinating our families. As you know, I've been working to educate the public about vaccines for some time now, and I'm delighted to see others coming into the arena with us. If you're as concerned as I am with what some are calling "the great health debate of the 21st century", there is something you have to see. Over the next few weeks, Ty Bollinger, co-founder of the acclaimed series The Truth About Cancer is hosting a free screening of his new documentary series The Truth About Vaccines. You can check it out using the link below: In this FREE 7-part documentary, Ty jumps head first into the choppy waters of the vaccine debate to investigate BOTH sides and to find out what parents need to know to make the right decision for their kids. Traveling around the world, Ty interviews some of the top experts on the topic. What he compiled has resulted in another important series on the topic of vaccines. There's new information constantly coming to light that you, your neighbors, and everybody in our community need to know about. Click here and get the full details about this explosive new documentary series and how you can watch the whole thing for FREE. Every voice in this issue has one thing in common - they want their kids to be as safe and healthy as possible. It's frowned upon to even have this conversation in certain groups, but it will certainly be one of the most important health debates of our time. With Purpose,

Farmer loans waiver : How about an Unfair Interest waiver?

https://www.equitymaster.com/diary/detail.asp?date=04/05/2017&story=4&title=With-Farmer-Loans-Waived-Off-UP-Govt-Has-Its-Oh-Darling-Ye-Hai-India-Moment&utm_source=VKD&utm_medium=mail&utm_campaign=e-letter&utm_content=VKD
With Farmer Loans Waived Off, UP Govt Has Its Oh Darling Ye Hai India Moment

Reading this, an idea came to mind:

Why not waive off just the INTEREST on the loan?

Or, cap it off at a certain rate of simple (not compound) interest
like, say, 5% and bail out the remaining?

Let the farmer stay liable with fairness restored and liability
limited; "take care" of the unfair component only.

In the long run this would create an incentive for govt to CRACK DOWN
on unfair lenders.

Actually it could start doing so immediately, what with the
established precedent of enacting laws retrospectively going as far
back as the 60s. Or, even if not denying them the bailout, a
government can throw bureaucratic spanners in to ensure that the
lenders recovering this unfair component take ages to get it, same way
as is happening in subsidy schemes.

All this would give more power to RESPONSIBLE lending and recovering
and also responsible and safe borrowing; and severly discourage the
high-interest lenders. It would avoid the current adverse effect of
encouraging unsustainable borrowing by farmers. The farmers who do pay
off their loans.. will not be left looking like fools; only the
lenders who charged high interest will.

Addendum : Putting the data hat on, I'd also like to see a break-up of this mighty loans figure and see how much of it is the principal owed and how much is the interest built up?

on what to do about North Korea's dictatorship

http://www.rajnikantvscidjokes.in/girl-escaped-north-korea-revealed-horrific-truth-country/

Historically it has been seen that with more and more sanctions
imposed on a country, the dictator's rule only gets stronger and more
unshakeable. On the other hand, lifting sanctions and removing the
threat of the outside enemy and continuously inviting for dialogue,
ends up making the soldiers question why all the strictness, the news
that the world isn't your enemy anymore passes down the ranks and
through the population, and gradually the nation breaks free from the
dictator's death-grip. What to do about North Korea? Well, threatening
them with annihilation since 50 years has caused THIS. Do you want to
continue the same shit or use your brains now?

Changing your website's domain name - a Walkthrough

Hi friends,

Yesterday I did a successful domain name migration for a client from a .cu.cc test domain to a .org final domain. (host remained the same so we did not move the site - only changed the domain / URL / address)
I've done a few earlier but there's usually some mess happening but this time after quite some corrections I managed to get some steps in order. So sharing what worked on my end.

Time warning : This procedure is one with some nervousness because there is a throw-and-catch situation : Imagine a very delicate piece of crockery has been tossed at you like a ball, coming at your hands but your eyes are closed and you don't know if it'll be caught properly or not. So it's good to plan things out and have patience. Also, in this the site's new address went "down" while the old test URL also didn't work for about 1 to 2 hours in my experience, so it is advisable to do it at a time when you're not expecting anyone to visit, like early morning or so.

Disclaimer : This is just my experience and things can go differently on your end. Apologies in advance if something goes wrong, but I probably won't be able to help you fix things.

My use case scenario : Domain (.org) is hosted on bigrock. Website is hosted on godaddy (single site, 30GB plan) and has been developed in wordpress while having a temp .cu.cc (free) domain name assigned to it. So the .cu.cc domain name was to be removed and the proper one was to be put.

Terminology : I will henceforth refer to "bigrock", "godaddy", "wordpress" to indicate the admins of the bigrock domain name management, godaddy web hosting cpanel and wordpress dashboard respectively.

1. Prep: open in different tabs and get logged in to ALL the places: wordpress, godaddy, bigrock, cu.cc. Also, note down and keep the customer care numbers of godaddy and bigrock on the side. (keep the customer id etc handy in a notepad window). In wordpress, backup everything.

2. Find Nameservers : Go to godaddy cpanel, and find "DNS management". In the new tab, choose your present site, click the settings wheel, and go through to seeing the DNS records. Now a large list of things should load, and probably in page 2 or the end you will see two nameservers listed, like "ns35.domaincontrol.com" . Copy these to the notepad window (and save!). More details here: https://in.godaddy.com/help/find-your-websites-nameservers-16140

2.1. Warning: We had got some nameservers mentioned in the initial hosting registration email, but they turned out to have been changed without any intimation from godaddy. The email said ns57/58 but in cpanel I found ns35/36. This caused unnecessary delay as for some time the new domain was pointing to the wrong nameservers. So always go into the cpanel and find the current suff and don't rely on the email if it is more than some months old.

3. Change Nameservers: Go to bigrock, open up your account domains listing and click on your domain to open its managent. Open "Name servers". Backspace out the existing ones and put in the new. Don't worry if there were 4 and you have only 2 now.. it's ok to leave the 3rd and 4th field blank. Save changes / Apply.

4. If you had earlier set this domain to redirect to somewhere else, then go to URL forwarding section (in bottom in bigrock), open it up and backspace/delete the URL completely and save changes.

4.1. Later on, in case the domain change didn't work yet, this URL forwarding could be a culprit... it might still be forwarding to an empty URL. For this in bigrock I had no other choice but to call up customer support and ask them to make sure there is no URL forwarding happening. Better to just do it from beginning, and inform them that you're making the domain point somewhere, please alert if doing anything wrong, what are the proper steps etc so all is clear from their side.

5. Ignore alerts : In the bigrock domain dashboard you will now see warnings / alerts about nameserver not being set properly. Check it out but don't change anything.. what they usually mean is that the nameservers aren't their's. That's ok; proceed.

5.1. Edit: Actually it's a good idea to take a break of an hour or more now, so that the DNS change propagates properly while your test site is still active. Didn't think of this earlier.

6. Go to GoDaddy cpanel. Find and open up the Change Main Domain name or similar sounding section. This is for changing the whole website's domain. Now.. keep this tab open but wait! don't make any changes yet.

7. Wordpress plugin : In wordpress, go to Plugins > Add new and install and activate this : "Search & Replace" See this page to verify you have the right one:: https://wordpress.org/plugins/search-and-replace/
Why this: Most online guides recommend Velvet Blues plugin, but in my experience I found that while it changes most URLs, it didn't change the image URLs of all the images, backgrounds etc on my site. I was using a pagebuilder so maybe there was some conflict there. But this plugin did the job properly. Additionally, this plugin is an open-source one (hosted on github) and gives more features free that are otherwise paid, especially the Dry Run and letting me see exactly what changes are being made.
Just install this plugin for now.. don't do anything with it yet.

8. Worpress URL update: Go to wordpress, Settings > General. Change both the URLs there to the new domain. ex: it was http://abc.cu.cc , I changed it to http://abc.org . And now we are beginning with the throw-and-catch. Go finish off your chores/toilet etc, drink some water and come back and have complete attention here.

8.1. Save Changes to save the change of wordpress URL. (press the Blue button!) The next screen should show error and in the URL bar or loading message you will see that it is trying to access the site using the new domain name. The crockery has been launched in the air. Don't panic. Proceed with next steps.

9. Go back to GoDaddy tab for domain change. Change it to your new domain. Keep out the www. etc.. just put in the name and extension like abc.org or the like. Save changes. It probably gives you some IP address and tells you to change the A record / IP addr of the new domain to this. Ignore it.. it's a flaw. When we do nameservers change, we do not need to do any of this stuff.

10. Go to cu.cc and login (or to the admin of whatever old domain you had developed the site in) Go to the management of the domain that we were using, and disable it by resetting or wiping out the nameserver, A record / IP address or whatever setting was there. If you were developing using a temp addr provided by GoDaddy (unlikely.. bigrock gives but godaddy doesn't) then don't bother doing anything.

10.1. It's important to disable the temp domain. When I didn't, my cu.cc domain was still pointing to my web sever's ip address, and visiting it surprisingly led one to a godaddy under-construction page and there was a link there that led straight to my godaddy cpanel! Serious security risk! :O

11. Recap : So we set bigrock to make your new domain point to your website's server. Then we changed the URL in our wordpress so it starts using the new path. Then we made the godaddy web hosting to change its name. Now it should "catch" the internet traffic that bigrock "throws" at it whenever anyone visits your site name.

12. It's now a waiting and praying game for the domain change to take effect, or to "propagate". Open a new tab and go to your site (new name). It probably gives an error. I found that some internet connections change their DNS and point to the new site more quickly than others.

12.1 There's a cool tool to keep track of this without wasting your time.. Go to this site : "Follow that Page" : https://www.followthatpage.com . Sign up to make an account, and add your new site name. Set the frequency to highest possible. Now that site will do the job of tracking changes for you and email you as soon as something happens. If the site name is still giving error 2 hours or more later, please call up customer care on the domain side (what to say I already wrote earlier).

13. I'm assuming that the "catch" has happened now : the website has been updated to the new domain name. Yay! Pat yourselves on the back! Now, few more steps left. You'll notice even though the site loads, images / backgrounds are gone and maybe some things look funny.

14. Login to your wordpress dashboard on the new path ( like abc.org/admin or abc.org/wp-login.php) .

15. Go to Settings > Permalinks. Set to whatever setting you want and save changes. This forces the system to set most of the internal links, menu links etc in order.

16. Go to Tools > Search & Replace. Take and save a backup of the database as advised, then go to the second tab. Search for : old site name. Replace with : new name. Keep them without http:// or other extra chars like /. (like : abc.cu.cc and abc.org ).. just keep the main stuff so you get a clean sweep. Select all tables by clicking the checkbox. Keep the Dry Run option checked. Click the Blue Button (do it!)

17. Give it time. It will come back to this page again, but on top there will be an alert message like "500 changes" or so. Click to see details. Skim through the large table that opens up, and if you need to then press Ctrl+A and Ctrl+C to copy this. How to paste : Open notepad or a simple text editor and paste. Then remove the extra lines at top and bottom, and copy this and paste into an excel and save it for your reference. You'll have all your changes in a neat table. Close the details page.

18. Repeat the find+replace, only this time check OFF the Dry Run option and click the "Save changes to database" option below it that is now enabled. Press the Blue Button again.. do it! Wait some time, and again you'll see the results.

19. Now go to your site and check it out. To ensure things, clear out your browser cache (Ctrl+Shift+Del, check off other things and keep only Cache chosen and set the time to all time). Refresh the page fully by Ctrl+F5. Or open an incognito window or another browser and visit your website from there. Now the images should display properly and the website should be fully functional (Yay! Whew! Drink water!).

20. In case something went wrong, call up any customer care that you haven't called already. If everything is ruined then apologies, but read disclaimer on top.

21. Oh ya, clean up. Log out of all the domain, cpanel etc dashboards properly, save your passwords etc securely and don't leave anything open for your cat to come and accidentally delete everything. And you might want to go back to Follow that Page and delete the site check. (just remembered!) (don't worry, pressing Delete button on followthatpage site cannot and will not delete your site. It only disables the site-checking service)

Happy Migrating!