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"Cancel Culture"- how Democrats and Republicans Conservatives and Liberals see the shaming of people for their views on social media- it is having accountability for some, and seen as censorship or punishment by others. Pew Researchers show the views of different people by age, gender, political affiliation, on the idea of "cancel culture." Some say does it even help doing this on a platform like social media as it tends to exaggerate and is rarely helpful to educate people and create real conversations to increase knowledge. When people are being shamed for racism or sexism, there is little idea of getting people to change or for patient forgiveness, or educating on why certain behaviours are wrong. Yale University's 58 page document on where it went wrong on "holistic admissions" and "cancel culture," is an example of how "cancel culture" when adopted inadvertently at universities and colleges across the Nation can be misguided and not result in positive actions. In the process can this denigrate the achievements of western civilization through the Renaissance of ideas, the awakening of knowledge in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Enlightenment, and the Scientific Revolution that resulted from this. Followed by the Industrial Revolution unique in Europe and the US that created the Modern World and the standards of living, of literacy, education and healthcare, and transportation we know today. This is the question Yale and other universities are asking today in 2026. ...

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Guardian Royals correspondent Stephen Bates says that it is indolence, self-seeking, and self-entitlement, the absence of the responsibility that is borne by the institution of the monarchy to the people of Britain from ancient times, that could one day sink the monarchy in Britain. He looks at the monarchy in Britain in the last one hundred years.

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This editorial opinion in BBC News points to a Russian miscalculation on how its involvement in the U.S. elections would be seen in the U.S. Congress. The U.S. Congress voted for stronger sanctions on Russia with only 5 members in the Senate and the House of Representatives voting against sanctions- an overwhelming vote in favor of sanctions. This means future policy on Russia will be determined by the U.S. Congress, and with bipartisan support for such policies. President Trump reluctantly signed the bill, saying it took away from executive authority. Russia had hoped its efforts in favor of Trump would lead to an easing of sanctions, not grasping the role of Republicans in Congress who see interference in the democratic process in the U.S. in the same way as Democrats.

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Wind and solar energy are competitive without subsidies vs fossil fuels says IEA. A report in the Scientific American says wind and solar do not need subsidies to be competitive with fossil fuels. IEA shows wind and solar costs are about 50-60% of fossil fuels for new plants in 2025.

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As to financing of $6000 child tax credit costing about $100 billion a year as estimated by Office for Responsible Budget some of it would come from the $360 billion in tax savings over 10 years by Medicare negotiation of prices with Pharma, other would come from taxing corporations and high incomes at rates that are similar to what firemen and teachers pay of 20-25%. In his speech at North Carolina Aug 15, 2024 at Wake Tech in Raleigh, president Biden said- "You know how many billionaires there are in America?  There’s now a thousand billionaires.  You know what their average tax they pay — federal tax?  8.2 percent.  Anybody want to trade with a billionaire — their tax rate?  (Laughter.)  Well, guess what?  If they just paid 25 percent — it’s not the highest bracket by a longshot — 25 percent — do you know what that would do?  That would raise $40- — $400 billion over the next 10 years.  Imagine what we could do with that.  We could fundamentally sh- — slash the federal deficit.  We could make sure there’s home care.  We could do so many things — consequential — including finally making sure that we take care of Ukraine from that butcher Putin.  (Applause.) ...

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Modi called Prakash Singh Badal of Punjab "the Nelson Mandela of India," for the long time spent in jail during his lifetime in politics. Badal in turn called Modi a leader who would "fulfill aspirations of national heroes like Jayaprakash Narayan." 

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Huge losses similar to parts of the war in World War II- and calls from the US president to stop the war in 2025 and talks in 2026.

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DJT appeared on Oz's health show in 2016 as a presidential candidate, and sees OZ as a fellow tv show host, a kindred spirit with a passion for what he is doing. As head of Medicare and Medicaid after afailed effort for a Senate seat from Pennsylvania, Oz is still someone whit a keen sense for the politics as well as what is good for the healthcare of Americans. He shares apassion for good health as a goal for America that was held up by JFK, and his nephew Robert Kennedy Jr who now leads the Make America Health Again movement. Oz fervently believes the time for healthy America is now after many wasted years under Clinton/Bush/Obama when national interests were neglected for places like Bosnia in a historical conflict of Turks and Serbia that goes back centuries (Clinton), in the deserts of Iraq (older Bush), in the mountains of Afghanistan that claimed Brezhnev as a victim the younger Bush followed, two wars prolonged by Obama and closed by DJT and Biden. Something as basic as health and pharmaceutical prices was allowed to get as bad as it is in 2026 with prices through the roof. DJT's plan is to get the pharmaceutical companies to commit to certain prices, to the lowest price they sell the same medicine in Europe. This is what Dr Oz wants to see not just for the next 3 years but put into established practice for the future years.  Oz says about presenting the DJT plan on healthcare to Congress and the Nation- “We didn’t demand that they do it. We said, ‘This is something that is very popular and highly achievable.’ ” Healthcare costs, gas and automobile costs, energy costs, housing costs are all part of the 4-5 costs that are the key elements in the cost of living crisis or affordability crisis that is uppermost on the minds of Americans. Already the Medicare payments to insurers are going to be flat for 2026 compared to 2025, as part of policy to get costs down, push pharmaceutical costs down. ...

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US Naval Blockade of Iran - Day 10.

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Writing about the Michael Cohen testimony to the U.S. COngress NYT columnist David Brooks says there is moral distancing every time House Republicans support Trump. He says there are the worst elements of our culture, of using people and being used.

Brooks cites John Steinbeck's classic book East of Eden."Humans are caught in their lives and in their thoughts, in their hungers and in their ambitions- in a net of good and evil.  A man after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life will ask only the hard clean questions, was it good or was it evil? Have I done well or have I done ill?" And here he finds president Trump and Cohen coming out short of where they should be.

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Local government elections in the Mumbai region show a strong win for the BJP party running the Federal Government  under PM Modi in City of Mumbai and cities of Nagpur, Pune and Pimpri, with about half of the seats contested won by the BJP Party. Key to winning the election is the voter trust in the Vikshit Bharat goal for a Modernized India by 2036 and 2047 in two phases. This is likely to influence the elections in West Bengal State that are coming up in April 2026 with the city of Kolkata. PM Modi opened several Rail projects for West Bengal and conducted rallies in the state which is governed by a party that has not worked to industrialize the state for two decades using a local linguistic and regional identity to win elections. Vikshit Bharat is likely to come to West Bengal as it has to the Mumbai region, giving the Federal Government run by the BJP Party an opportunity to form local governments and state governments that cooperate with the Federal Government of PM Modi. These 2 regions the Mumbai and Kolkata regions are the last regions that have fought central modernization efforts and promoted politics that are conducive to mismanagement and corruption, clanish arrangements for the 2 states Maharashtra and West Bengal. For India to compete with China, to catch up with China, and fulfill the hopes and aspirations of 1.4 billion people this is one more of the missing pieces that is being put in place for Vikshit Bharat. Seen from Europe and the US it shows how big the visit of Merz and the Modi Merz Kite Flying effort in Ahmedabad recently means for India as well as US and Europe. Merz has chose India as its leading partner, Germany has chosen this road, with lasting confidence in Modi's Vikshit Bharat effort for 2036 and 2047. ...

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Peggy Noonan says that Trump's group has broken from the Republican Party. She also describes the Republican party as broken, that it cannot look to the past or 1980. She says two unwon wars, with one a catastrophe, and a great recession are enough to break any party. Worse the top of the party believes in things such as immigration, trade, entitlements, that the bottom doesn't, says Noonan. You have a situation where the base has left the party leadership. She describes Hillary Clinton as having a web of relationships and arrangements from the past, and with the idea that is popular among Republicans that she is only interested in acquiring power. Sanders is respected by Conservatives for his sincerity. Noonan sees God's role as chastising in this election, reminding people about what can go wrong and what needs to be done as the damage is surveyed for democracy and the country. The only reason for hope Noonan sees is in the way the 2016 U.S. presidential election is turning the decision over to the young people of America, who can decide who shapes the future. ...

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Fragmentation based on regions, has led to lack of economic development and enormous poverty in Asia over hundreds of years. The civil wars in Japan's history before the Meiji period, the civil war in China during the period between the wars with Japanese invasion and warlords controlling different regions, acted as barriers to development. The wars between different kingdoms with invasions across Afghanistan and the Punjab in India in the period before 1800, led to British divide and rule, and lack of investment in development by the British for 200 years. It created the fragmentation that acted as a barrier to industrial development and modernization, a barrier to the spread of education, science and technology in these regions. All three regions in East Asia and South Asia have Buddhist/Vedanta civilizations. All worked to create national unity before they could modernize and build societies based on advanced science and technology to meet the aspirations of their people in all regions of their countries. ...