US  MIDTERM  ELECTIONS                 Voters in USA had enough trust in its political system to reject Republican  extremists who were election deniers. Many had continued to deny legitimacy of election  of President Joe Biden in spite of verified validation of the results of last presidential  election.There was no red wave, only a red trickle. Democrats were successful to retain the  control of Senate. Republican party gained control of the House of Representatives with a  small majority. It is confirmation of the tendency of the political pendulum in USA to  swing toward the center.

                                            RUSSIA'S  WAR  WITH UKRAINE                Russia launched its military invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. This war has  continued so far without interruption. Russian president Vladimir Putin has initiated this illegitimate  attack on another sovereign nation, in violation of international norms. President Volodymyr Zelenski of Ukraine and its people have put up a valiant defense against this attack on their country, The war has  caused a large number of civilian deaths in Ukraine due to deliberate attack on civilian areas by  Russian army. Hundreds, if not thousands, of homes have been destroyed. A great number of Ukranian  women and children have been evacuated from their homes and have become refugees either in their  own country or in other coun...

                                                                      ELECTION  EXPENDITURE  &  POLITICAL CORRUPTION                Many political analysts have opined that money donated to political parties prior to the time  of  election is the most powerful source of corruption. This applies to all countries of the world,   including India.  The current ruling party in India, soon after it came to power, passed the law of  electoral bonds.The avowed purpose was to eliminate role of black money in political corruption. But  this system of electoral bonds for political contributions is made totally nontransparent to public. This  has actually increased chances of corruption all the more. The general public has no ide...

                            CURRENT  POLITICAL  LEADERS  IN THE WORLD                There has been lately a growing trend of authoritarian, nativist and divisive   leaders coming to power in different parts of the world. Here is a patial list: Putin in Russia, Xi Jinping in China, Modi in India, Bolsonaro in Brazil, Erdogan in Turkey. Orban in Hungary, Lukashanko in Belarus, Talibans in Afghanistan, Military dictators in Myanmar and recently  ousted Trump in U.S.A.                 As a result, there has been a setback for those who hold liberal, secular.and inclusive  outlook in goverance. In its place, there is an outgrowth communal divisiveness,  ultranationalistic identity politics and antiimmigrant feelings.                I hope that citizens of the world...

                                             GETTING THE VOTE OUT                Elections are part and parcel of  democracy. Once elections are over, common  citizens  can not do much to influence day to day functioning of the government. They have  to  wait till the next  election to be able to do something about it. Money spent for political campaigning  is  a  very powerful  factor in determining the outcome of election.  A factor  which is paid less  attention is "How many  people come out to vote". Most elections in U.S.  are decided by a  small margin, i.e., based on the  difference of a relatively small percentage  of votes, less  than  5%. In this case, enthusiasm of the ground workers of any party in  bringing out its...

                                        THE SECOND AMENDMENT                                     (CONSTITUTION OF THE U.S.)                                "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state,                   the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."                  For 218 years, judges concluded that the amendment authorised states to form  militia,  what we now call national guard. Then in 2008, the U.S Supreme Court upended two centuries of precedent. In the case of District of Columbia vs. Heller, the majority opinion written by Antonin Sc...

                                            HUMAN  BEINGS                Us human beings tend to have self-centric view of things. At one time,  we thought  our earth is the center of the universe and that Sun, moon and stars revolve around the earth.  Copernicus in 16th century, based on his systematic observations, established that contrary  to our belief, earth and other planets of the solar system revolve around the sun. Bible  proposes that humans are special creation of God, quite apart from other animals. Charles  Darwin exploded that myth and showed that human beings evolved from other animals and  they share a lot of biological features with other animals,                Based on our group identity also, we tend to adopt s...

                                            SOME  PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHTS      (1)     Early humans imagined existence of some supernatural being or beings (one God                 or multiple Gods) when they were awed by some large scale events like flooding                 from rainstorm, gusting windstorm  or  wild fire. Fear of  making these Gods                 angry led them  to worship them and desire  of their  blessings led them to offer                 sacrifices to propitiate them.      (2)     All scriptures are written by some human leaders of  society, and not based on  ...

                                          THE  CURRENT  POLITICAL  CLIMATE                                                                     OF  INDIA                The ruling political party (BJP) primarily concentrates its energy on electoral  politics and ground level management of polling booths to win elections and capture power. BJP has strong will to power. Inbetween elections, it fights the opposition with repressive use of government agencies, such as, CBI, ED and POLICE.                The main oposition party Congress has lost its strong will to power. Its leader Rahul Gandhi does not click with peop...

                                                        A N G E R                To be angry at times, is human. One need not carry a sense of guilt for it.There is a difference between anger and aggression. Anger is an emotion felt in the form of several  bodily sensations, such as, rapid heartbeats, faster breathing, knot in the stomach, an urge to  fight. Aggression is outward expression of anger by negative verbal and/or physical activity,  such as, yelling, cursing, throwing objects, hitting. Anger does not have to lead to  aggression. There is a popular misconception that when one feels angry, it is a good idea to  freely vent one's anger by screaming, cursing or throwing objects, behind the back of the  o...