Our Farmers are protesting on getting their dues, what exactly was promised by Modi just before UP elections, pleading with folded hands. After two years, Modi has remained silent and turned his back, fleeing to Middle east to open a HIndu temple, constructing barricades around Delhi border reminding of a war scenario as if Delhi is in siege by our own adorable Annadatas. The Anti-Farmer Propaganda toolkit has been activated where every agri specialist ranging from Saints to Sinners are brought in to make them look anti-national. As they say what sow is what you reap, if at all these Propaganda team feels like they could survive with this BS, may be they should start consuming their own bull shit on a platter and check for themselves how exactly their propaganda fares or fulfils their stomach. Why not Propaganda-Vrata to taste their own medicine?
It is the kinnow season, and the fruit is sold at the doorstep for Rs 50 a kilo. Well, nothing out of the ordinary for most of the readers who are consumers. But this year’s kinnow crop has a story of toil and tears. The fruit is selling at Rs 3-10 in the Abohar mandi, which is probably the biggest kinnow trading place in the world. What is being sold by the farmer for Rs 3 is being bought at Rs 50 by the consumer from the rehriwala in Chandigarh. If this anomaly does not call for a strident agitation, what does? And that’s what is happening at the Punjab-Haryana border. The fact remains that what is bought at one end of the chain for Rs 3 is sold at the other at Rs 50 within a distance of 300 km. – Rajesh Ramachandran
The propaganda states, Government will have to spend 11 Lakhs Crore for bringing out a law which states a minimum support price for Farmer goods. This is a hoax, as the Government is not going to buy the whole produce but set a minimum support price buying buffer stocks to offset inflation. The Government wants to brand a Maximum retail price like FMCG items, so that its market driven. It makes sense superficially, just like Modi’s ridiculous Photo Op inspecting the 777 Crore worth Pragati Maidan tunnel, only to get deemed unusable and dangerous to commute in few years..
Essential food in Indian setup always had active Government participation due to reasons like unregulated agriculture sector could result in drastic inflation, seasonal vagaries leading even to famine like situations earlier and the need of Farmers to a minimum guarantee to sustain their livelihood. Free market can’t address any of the above problem but can make huge profit out of any scenario hurting Indians, just like their great petroleum loot, importing Crude at cheaper price from Russia and exposting tit to the west without even paying windfall taxes to India, when Petroleum is sold at historic highs squeezing out every indian pocket.
Even with so much Government participation, India suffered grain deficits last year. How can an individual Farmer could withstand the seasonal vagaries and free market? Modi has provided more doles / revdis to the Corporates as Tax cuts, Corporate tax reduction and to top it all waiver of 10 lakh crores of Rupees as NPA for his crony friends. We have reached a rare stage where Personal Income tax collection beat Corporate tax collection. What has the Corporates given back to the India / Modi Government? Actually nothing as the investments have got tapered down. There are more entrepreneurs fleeing abroad rather making use of his incentives. It can only mean one thing. Modi is being impartial even among the Corporates benefiting few Gujarati cronies who in turn fund his Photo-Ops and Horse trading members of legislature. Genuine investors have nil confidence on Modi. How can they trust a Leader of the Nation with high stake games, when he is not willing to provide a simple fare structure to ensure basic living of Farmers.
Farmers, for the most part, operate in a buyer’s market. Since their crops — barring maybe milk — are harvested and marketed in bulk, it leads to sudden supply increases relative to demand, putting downward pressure on prices.
Such market conditions, favouring buyers over sellers, also mean farmers are price takers, not price makers. Lacking the market power to influence the prices of their produce — or to even set the MRP (maximum retail price), as firms in most industries do — they sell at prevailing supply-and-demand-determined rates. Worse, while their crops are sold wholesale, they pay retail prices for everything from seeds, pesticides, diesel, and tractors to cement, medicines, toothpaste, and soap.
Free market economy will make food like expensive Petroleum at the hands of cronies, where the price rise is 200% despite low crude prices. Modi may instruct us to sell Pakoras if unemployed, use Bicycles than fuelling Bikes. Will he travel the Path of FM, “I don’t eat Onions. So, dont care!” playing free market stock games on our food? As far as I know Modi in his 10 years of PM-Ship, he is a mad gambler who will not bother staking India and her people for his personal ego and gains. This is exactly why Modi moves on to inaugurate temples rather worrying about a basic necessities of Indians. What will happen if Farmers stop farming for one single season? Will his free market friends sell Modi-Rice and Atta at the same price?
However forcefully Adani buys / sells his agri goods, he will only get losses in return as his foundation of business is not built on trust, but by deception and intimidation, powered by the Government support. I would bet on Adani will never be able to sustain his business by forcing his agenda on Indians be it producing Farmers / buying consumers.
It is paradoxical that agribusiness is making huge profits while the producers of food are starving. But to characterise the crisis of agriculture as that of foodgrain not finding markets or farmers reduced to penury or the water table receding is reductionism. The crisis goes much deeper.
Food is politics. It cannot be addressed by administrative and legal measures alone. The resolution of issues relating to food sovereignty, food security and the livelihood of the farmers requires political will. The Centre should have engaged all political parties to find long-term solutions rather than leaving space for it being turned into a competitive vote-catching exercise. To make farming globally competitive, farming has to be subsidised. To sustain their commercial farms, even developed countries give huge subsidies.
So, what WE have gifted our Farmers back? We – Because the oppression of Farmers happens on our tax money. We delivered tear gas shells delivered by Drones till 2AM in the dark. We gifted Rubber Bullets to wound 200 of our Brothers and Sisters. We came up with Sonic sound weapon to puncture their ear drums. We are adopting Israeli strategies for riot control, applied on Gaza earlier. We all know where the war has come down to – a silent ethnical cleansing with the blessings of Western War pimps, wondering on how to spin it as Avenger comics of popcorn good prevailing over imagined evil. If at all anyone wonders why Marvel comics is not faring well nowadays, check with Biden. He just made Captain America and his gang look crazy as destruction and genocide loving psychopaths. Knowing the Farmers with their tough as nails tenacity, they are going to break the nose of the Shitler hiding behind the force for sure. It’s a matter of time Modi making a somersault, prostrating before the farmers just equipped with strong Hearts and Will. If Modi thinks he can settle his score for surrendering earlier to Farmers, it’s going to be Farmers Vs Modi, 2-(No) Love!
The city slickers who incessantly attack Punjab’s farmers for demanding a legal guarantee for the minimum support price (MSP) and those who justify the abominable use of drones against protesters should pause and wonder: will they sell their products or services below the cost price? Will they suffer seeing their products being resold for 5-18 times the original price without an iota of value addition in their own neighbourhood? – Rajesh Ramachandran
One clip stirred me and shaked me up… A Farmer questioning why should they do the Opposition Job. Well, it may not make sense completely, but none of the grand old goliath opposition or the neo-quasi-Sanghi Parties claiming themselves to be the opposition so far has not even gathered this type of resolute crowd against Modi’s policies, which few Farmer groups from few States are able to manage and even win over two years back. Maybe, it’s time for the opposition to stay with the Farmers through this struggle, help them with the legal , participatory and moral support and portray themselves to be real “Jan-Nayak” arousing admiration for them. Else, they can only get few sympathy votes out of victimization under ruthless Mo-Sha. Opposition when always given a Do-or-Die situation, have so far skipped both the options to live another day slaving over authoritarianism which has gone to the level of usurping them totally. The latest bold rowdyish attempt to freeze Congress party’s accounts stands as a testament to Mo-Sha’s crooked ambitions to win by all means.
Unfortunately, India is short of mass Leaders who are able to arouse people, because they never stood with the same people for their rights. when they needed the most. Personally, Rahul Gandhi is slowly emerging as a Mass Leader amidst all obstacles put up by Mo-Sha. He has matured interactions and crisp speeches and he is going to only improve further from here, shedding all inhibitions and negative PR to tatters ran against him. The RW fringe however tries to mock, is only getting their nose bloodied nowadays with the same treatment meted out by Congress SM team.
Let’s move on to how Modi is handling the protest. To understand the BJP’s oppressive measures one need to go back Modi’s CM days in 2002 where he presided over a brutal riot. Modi was not shaken up by its brutality under his leadership, where he failed as Leader for all. Instead, he opined that he should have handled media well, basically putting a lid on the coverage, so that such national shame could be wiped off indians mindspace. He actually accomplished that, for example, India Today magazine which made up brilliant stories about the “Hero of Hatred” to “Riding the Hate wave” on Modi is now brought down to harp about Modi’s “Great Hindu revival”. So, Modi has achieved remarkable success in taming a quasi independent media to Government biscuit loving lap-pets.
One could see similar approach being taken up in taming the Farmers protest. All the social media handles covering up the protest are taken down without any rationale. There are feverish trends with fake news on Farmers protest degrading our annadatas to selfish violent rioters. The Media is on full swing cooking up stories on how legalising MSP will dent economy. Even Corporate Saints are brought in to preach on food as luxury and protests as anti-national. The Farmers are mainly from Punjab and others from UP, Haryana are silenced buying complicit leaders like Rakesh Tikait who manipulate their own kind for their benefits.
These are same arm twisting tactics employed by the Modi Government, filling up its weaknesses it exhibited in last protest, to avoid failure this time. How Modi misses the point is that, this is matter of livelihood. India from being an economically growing country is gradually down to its fragile structure where people struggle on their daily needs struggling with inflation and unemployment, under his misrule. This is unlike taming select few Entrepreneurs / Bureaucrats / Politicians who will bend over backwards to please Modi at his will. Farmers can’t afford to lose their livelihood, and this is actually Hunger games operating at the Border of Haryana, to knock the doors of Delhi. It might prove deadly to Modi government if it does not understand its significance of life and death.
Now, why oppression might prove deadly to the Orwellian rulers?
There is a question which haunted me after watching the Killer movie directed by David Fincher. It talks about an Assassin or should I say the Assassin gets a long monologue about his glorious assignment and how he does not give a duck about people lives he kills for his livelihood. He also raises a mundane question hogging our civilization for long…
Of those who like to put their faith in mankind’s inherent goodness, I have to ask, “Based on what, exactly?”
The Killer Movie
I always had a conviction that Humans are inherently good and turn bad only when the situation provokes them to mad levels. This is not a proven thesis but something might have been passed across from my Parents or family members. I am not a saint for sure, nor my parents or relatives. So, when I encountered this movie dialogue, I did not have any justifications or postulates to prove otherwise, other than an empty belief. It sticked up as a well meaning question that I could not answer in anyway.
Being no saint or Priest, personally I have seen myself going through this mad torture sometimes even simulated to provoke madness in me. I have seen carefully orchestrated coincidences to enrage me. It might be a Car hitting my Bike sideways to make me lose balance or rear guard crashing not once but thrice in a month when such a thing did not happen for last 8 years, or a Cleanly shaven “Service” Profesional using his elbow to hit me “accidentally” or someone provoking me on my pressure points like abusing me to the extent of intervention or abusing kids in one way or another to indirectly hurt me and the list goes on and I can shamefully say I have fallen prey to my emotions sometimes, triggering the worst version of me. My situation is similar to the quote below.
Once upon a time, there was this little sparrow, who while flying south for the winter froze solid and fell to the ground. And then to make matters worse the cow crapped on him, but the manure was all warm and it defrosted him. So there he is, he’s warm and he’s happy to be alive and he starts to sing. A hungry cat comes along and he clears off the manure and he looks at the little bird and then he eats him. And the moral of the story is this: everyone who craps on you is not necessarily your enemy, and everyone who gets you out of crap is not necessarily your friend, and if you’re warm and happy no matter where you are you should just keep your big mouth shut. – Assassins Movie Quote
But how can I keep my mouth shut when shit gets thrown at me and cats are ready to feast? It’s actually a catch-22 predicament everyone goes through, not very successfully in life, with the bar of water level keeps on rising, making one struggle every second to remain afloat. For outsiders this could sound like solid entertainment of survival like Human Vs Evil version of Man Vs Wild. But, branding Humans are inherently evil is like completing the story halfway assuming to be done.
Even our Farmers are going through the same predicament of holding up dignity, when indignity is served on a grand Government platter. As discussed earlier, there are enough provocations to make our Farmers look evil with the social media posts and Enforcement getting them towards threshold. This is unfortunately an one-sided battle which is usually won by Government. Why not? When the Government has ordered 30000 tear gas shells to serve the Farmers Justice. But the truth is, the Government has failed miserably invoking memories of Modi with folded hands prostrating before farmers. Now who actually won?
So, in what ways can I answer the Killer that Humans are inherently good and decent when I am working up on the opposite front? I could not answer at all. But one of my favourite Directors, whose movies I don’t watch after his first, as I could not take up that intensity of his film making, came up with a book recommendation and I have just completed the prologue.
The Book is “Humankind – A Hopeful History” by Rutger Bergman. The Book is an anti-thesis of what we believe as Humans that we are inherently evil as our Rulers wants us to believe us.
On 7 September 1940, 348 German bomber planes crossed the Channel. The fine weather had drawn many Londoners outdoors, so when the sirens sounded at 4:43 p.m. all eyes went to the sky. That September day would go down in history as Black Saturday, and what followed as ‘the Blitz’. Over the next nine months, more than 80,000 bombs would be dropped on London alone
Entire neighbourhoods were wiped out. A million buildings in the capital were damaged or destroyed, and more than 40,000 people in the UK lost their lives. So how did the British react? What happened when the country was bombed for months on end? Did people get hysterical? Did they behave like brutes?
In fact, if there’s one thing that all accounts of the Blitz have in common it’s their description of the strange serenity that settled over London in those months. An American journalist interviewing a British couple in their kitchen noted how they sipped tea even as the windows rattled in their frames. Weren’t they afraid?, the journalist wanted to know. ‘Oh no,’ was the answer. ‘If we were, what good would it do us?’
‘British society became in many ways strengthened by the Blitz,’ a British historian later wrote. ‘The effect on Hitler was disillusioning.’
The bomb-mongers, meanwhile, felt the enemy needed to be dealt an even harsher blow. Churchill gave the signal and all hell broke loose over Germany. When the bombing finally ended, the casualties numbered ten times higher than after the Blitz. On one night in Dresden, more men, women and children were killed than in London during the whole war. More than half of Germany’s towns and cities were destroyed. The country had become one big heap of smouldering rubble.
So did the bombings have the intended effect?
Shortly after the German surrender in May 1945, a team of Allied economists visited the defeated nation, tasked by the US Department of Defense to study the effects of the bombing. Most of all, the Americans wanted to know if this tactic was a good way to win wars. The scientists’ findings were stark: the civilian bombings had been a fiasco. In fact, they appeared to have strengthened the German wartime economy, thereby prolonging the war. Between 1940 and 1944, they found that German tank production had multiplied by a factor of nine, and of fighter jets by a factor of fourteen.
A team of British economists reached the same conclusion. 24 In the twenty-one devastated towns and cities they investigated, production had increased faster than in a control group of fourteen cities that had not been bombed. ‘We were beginning to see,’ confessed one of the American economists, ‘that we were encountering one of the greatest, perhaps the greatest miscalculation of the war.’
I will dig into the book deeper to understand if our Humankind is really that divine. But, these are historically recorded data / facts actually stating how the rulers think they can fool us with mass propaganda… that Humans can be shushed up with oppression. History repeats and repeats itself to prove that Humans have never surrendered to evil oppression / adversity. It’s just matter of time. Meanwhile they grow stronger with each and every adversity, just like mythical Vaali absorbing the strengths of their oppressors. Farmers conquering Israeli type Armed Drones throwing grenades at them with simple kites show how Humans innovate at adversity.
Our Independence struggle stands as a biggest testament to that theory of winning it decently, if not me as an individual, acting as a lesson to me. Whenever the independence protests went violent or haywire, Gandhi was unashamed of stopping the movement though it was going well, retreating back to square one, getting brickbats from his supporters as well as his critics for his “cowardice” only to comeback stronger with a unique and bigger movement. In the same way, poor Farmers Vs Modi- 2.0 Dictator tussle, the result is already loud and clear as oppression has never won over people, be it Independence struggle, Emergency or Modi. It only made India rediscover herself for better and good.
“If Independence is granted to India, power will go to the hands of rascals, rogues, freebooters; all Indian leaders will be of low calibre and men of straw,”
Winston Churchill.
We have past 75+ years after this quote to fare much better. But we also caught up with men of Straw, who will create mile long barricades for unarmed Farmers while going weak on knees when Chinese incursion amasses thousands of square miles, shrugging off as nothing of such kind happened. For every weak Leader it spawned, India was also blessed with Leaders with tenacity and courage to question the distressed status quo and move towards betterment. The list is so long that it will be boring as good is always nice and boring. It’s not just Churchill, but almost all rulers, opinion makers of diverse fields have adopted the same notion that – evil is Humanity’s true colour.
When it comes to notions about human nature, the continuity throughout Western thought is striking. ‘For this can be said of men in general: that they are ungrateful, fickle, hypocrites,’ summed up the founder of political science, Niccolò Machiavelli. ‘All men would be tyrants if they could,’ agreed John Adams, founder of American democracy. ‘We are descended from an endless series of generations of murderers,’ diagnosed Sigmund Freud, founder of modern psychology – Rutger Bergman
Coming back to lovely Killer movie, no wonder it harps on the possibilities of humanness has fragile presence in Humans, asking for proof to believe that so called humanity. To be fair, it’s about the Assassin character who makes us dive deep into his Assassinistic atmosphere with a looong monologue, too long that he actually misses the target in the end of operation. But the grey theme is also much bigger than simple perception of an Assassin. Because, Hollywood always had a knack of sponsoring consumerism at opportunistic possibilities. It’s a symbiotic industry of Creatives and Corporates who go down parasitic on the hapless consumers. Hollywood is just the top of the pyramid version of Multi Level Marketing. “I own it… Do you? consumerist Model. None other than Steve Jobs understood this, to invest on making Apple as part of movies and celebrities as subconscious PR, rather shoving explicit ads down our throats.
In the vast reaches of the Pacific Ocean, for example, lies a tiny atoll called Ifalik. After the Second World War, the US Navy screened a few Hollywood films on Ifalik to foster goodwill with the Ifalik people. It turned out to be the most appalling thing the islanders had ever seen. The violence on screen so distressed the unsuspecting natives that some fell ill for days. When years later an anthropologist came to do fieldwork on Ifalik, the natives repeatedly asked her: was it true? Were there really people in America who had killed another person? – Robert Bergman
I did not want to bring in an animalistic alpha movie, but the movie created similar effects in me. Maybe we are not that edgy and nazistic initially but grow gradually with incentives and acquired taste to violence. Bergman argues it’s not easy to be violent. He provides historical evidence that not all soldiers are trigger happy and only ~15% do the firing Job. What others do? They pretend to load the Rifles when commanded to fire, trying to avoid a kill. Forget about wars, there is an unintentionally hilarious Baghpat War, between two snack shop owners and their team. Only very few deal with blows while others play it along…
Maybe the Baghpat Chacha who fought with utmost vigour does not know on encashing it. But, the Western war Movies (needlessly) glorified and merchandised armed violence to an extent making them look sacred. The Defence forces, Arms lobbies and Hollywoodies collude to form an intoxicating elixir where War is Peace. Can we call the genocide at Gaza as Western heroism? If you follow proper news, maybe not! But I would bet Hollywood financed by the vested interests will come up with another Munich type movie (Have you ever wondered what triggered Munich olympics assault? Was the history of bloodlust Israel shown in the movie? ), making monsters out of Hamas attack and Israel’s attack as sweet and passionate revenge killing thousands of Palestinian Children and women. Who knows they may even have end credit showing up proud Netanyahu arguing that he just killed few extra civilians women and Kids tastefully for each Hamas terrorist. Now, what is the probability of Steven Spielberg taking a Movie on “Gaza’s dead list”? I have been carried over by Oscar winning war movies and own a camo t-shirt screaming with US-Army badge. But, after Gaza, I think a lot to wear it though camo is my favourite design. Well, they got blood on their Oscar, BAFTA trophies… and my Camo T-shirt too.
“Smokey, this is not Vietnam, this is bowling. There are rules.”
The Big Lebowsky
Well, that’s the cherished American Dream, getting blogged on a Laptop bought from America, where even bowling has rules but not their nosey wars. At least the laptop tie things together. The fact is none of the wars have helped Humankind in any way other than Armed / Petroleum lobbies and Politicians. Even the Killer movie acts like an Arms porn where the assassin keeps godowns of Arms to endorse them. Ridiculously, as if that’s not enough he shops from a petty Black marketeer and Amazon for a tinge of reality. I am not looking for any moral lessons down there especially from happily ever after Assassin chasing tranquility with weapons and tranquillisers. But it’s actually gratifying when Stalwarts like James Cameron and Christopher Nolan comes with anti-war ideas and movies. Dunkirk is a war movie but deals with Soldiers as real lives rather as war merchandise. I have been called insane for my antiwar stance in SM quoting Dunkirk movie. But to know how precious a life is, go for a disaster tourism to know how a life means undying Hope for many… The despair and anguish in the air breaks a part of you. You may not come back as the same person whatsoever you were before. As we concluded earlier, for every war propaganda we got many more peace activists, even from the same Hollywood. And that concludes Humankind is actually and inherently decent!
An old man says to his grandson: ‘There’s a fight going on inside me. It’s a terrible fight between two wolves. One is evil – angry, greedy, jealous, arrogant, and cowardly. The other is good – peaceful, loving, modest, generous, honest, and trustworthy. These two wolves are also fighting within you, and inside every other person too.’
After a moment, the boy asks, ‘Which wolf will win?’
The old man smiles. ‘The one you feed.’
When Modi loses 2024, he will only have himself and his misguiding Crony friends and gymnastic bureaucrats to blame for his loss. The Farmers needs the opposition and Government on their side more than any other time. Hopefully, the opposition will act as force to reckon this time, providing the Farmers basic rights to protest for their livelihood.
‘My own impression,’ writes Rebecca Solnit, whose book A Paradise Built in Hell (2009) gives a masterful account of Katrina’s aftermath, ‘is that elite panic comes from powerful people who see all humanity in their own image. Dictators and despots, governors and generals – they all too often resort to brute force to prevent scenarios that exist only in their own heads, on the assumption that the average Joe is ruled by self-interest, just like them. – Humankind Book Quote
The Dharma and Justice phenomena
Once upon a time, there were two friends in a school. They were the best of friends and they promised to share everything with each other. After they graduated, one became rich and one remained poor. The poor friend went to the rich friend and asked for help. The way the friend behaved led to two endings. In one retelling of this story, the poor friend reminds the rich friend of their childhood friendship and demands help, in the name of this friendship. The rich friend mocks his poor friend and says that there cannot be friendship between unequals, and so, the poor one cannot demand help, but he can beg for help and get alms. This makes the poor friend so angry that he decides to take revenge. The story results in the Mahabharata war. The poor friend being Dronacharya and the rich friend being Drupada. A similar retelling with another ending is found in the Bhagavata. Here, when the poor friend enters the rich friend’s house, he comes bearing gifts. He starves himself for three days and saves the rice and gives it to his friend. Without being told, the rich friend realises the poverty of his childhood friend and, without being asked, gives him a lot of wealth. Here, the rich friend is Krishna and the poor friend is Sudama and it is the story of bhakti and love that we are always taught. Clearly, these stories depict that if you don’t help poor people and humiliate them, there is war and crisis in society. If you help poor friends and poor people, there is happiness in society. But the story is not so simplistic. We are told that Sudama starved himself for three days and gives his three portions of rice to Krishna. This is all that Sudama has. Sudama is giving Krishna three fistfuls of rice: knowingly or unknowingly, this is his investment in a friend. Krishna reciprocates to the kindness, by also giving Sudama ‘all that he has’ in ‘three measures’. We can argue that Krishna has to repay the debt resulting from receiving a gift. Else he will be trapped in debt. Krishna eats two fistfuls. However, just as he is about to eat the third fistful, his wife catches hold of his hand and says, “Leave some for us.” His wives tell him not to give three measures but two. In essence, he could give two in reciprocity, which more than makes up for his debt, but must keep one for himself. Thus, we see prudence being brought in this story of kindness. Through such stories, Indians were taught about commerce, debt, exchange, reciprocity, empathy and return on investment. You give in order to get. You cannot get something without giving something. To demand something as your right, as in the case of Dronacharya, leads to rage and violence. Exchange and commerce is more egalitarian while demanding/granting rights has something feudal about it. Social justice, and justice, is a western discourse: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, equal distribution of God’s gifts, are the mythic themes that influence western, and now global, politics. Dharma, however, focuses less on the idea of justice and more on the idea of empathy. The strong must help the meek. Everyone has the potential to feed another. Things have to be given voluntarily, without being prodded, rather than asked or demanded. Great kings give of their wealth freely. This is not charity – this is investment for the future. Because hungry people are angry people who will attack and destroy what we have. Those who are fed are happy people who will collaborate.
Timepass Politics 