I rarely comment in this thread now a days as I find that some narrative here is so bizarre that it can compete with Zaid Hamid's rants. This is my humble opinion of course, but I think that I am not exaggerating and I think I speak most for most of the people I know.
But still since this thread is about
India-US relations let me present a serious point which I think everyone should take it seriously. I am not interested in "debate" so this may be the last message as I understand I will have zero influence on the supporters who support a bully -- a bully who boasts that "Even if I shoot someone on fifth avenue, I won't loose any support"
Anyway this is wrt to many narratives here akin to:
Trump is a crooked real estate developer who has properties in India, he will not harm India-US relations
This is an absurd and ignorant statement. As if some one saying JUD chief just runs crooked social organization, it will not harm India..(and then goes on to criticize people like NaMo bringing up false debunked nonsense and try to do = = )
Do people not know Trump's righthand man, top political aid, the campaign manager (who was recently replaced because he was too toxic even for RNC) and the manager of Republican Convention manager Manafort
worked as a lobbyist for ISI? . He charged ISI million's of dollars (it is more than "crooked' business). Was prosecuted. His associate/client Nabi was actually convicted working with terrorist organization which killed Americans and Indians in Kashmir.
This of course is no secret. It has been in major news in top papers in US, India and even Pakistan.
For example this one (
Donald Trump’s top political aide lobbied for Pakistani intelligence: report
Of course, Pak report is little mild but just do a google or wiki or read up any reputable source. Search for "Trump + Pakistan" or "ISI" or "Kashmiri American Council" - which was proved by American courts as front for ISI. I really encourage to do your own reading.
This is, of course jut tip of the iceberg. (Manafort is not just small associate, he is the top aide) :
From just one
source:
Manafort was also a lobbyist for an astro-turf group, the Kashmiri American Council, that was actually a front organization for Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
If you haven't followed the story, ISI is essentially an international terrorist group masquerading as national intelligence organization.
US authorities describe the main Pakistani intelligence service as a terrorist organisation in secret files obtained by the Guardian.
Recommendations to interrogators at Guantánamo Bay rank the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) alongside al-Qaida, Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon as threats. Being linked to any of these groups is an indication of terrorist or insurgent activity, the documents say.
"Through associations with these … organisations, a detainee may have provided support to al-Qaida or the Taliban, or engaged in hostilities against US or coalition forces [in Afghanistan]," says the document, dated September 2007 and called the Joint Task Force Guantánamo Matrix of Threat Indicators for Enemy Combatants. It adds that links to these groups is evidence that an individual poses a future threat.
The revelation that the ISI is considered as much of a threat as al-Qaida and the Taliban will cause fury in Pakistan. It will further damage the already poor relationship between US intelligence services and their Pakistani counterparts, supposedly key allies in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and other Islamist militants in south Asia.
Manafort collected nearly $1 million to give the Kashmiri American Council lobbying aid to cover up Pakistani terrorism directed against India:
The Kashmiri American Council was a “scam” that amounted to a “false flag operation that Mr. Fai was operating on behalf of the ISI,” Gordon D. Kromberg, the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case, said in March 2012 at Fai’s sentencing hearing in federal court. While posing as a U.S.-based nonprofit funded by American donors sympathetic to the plight of Kashmiris, it was actually bankrolled by the ISI in order to deflect public attention “away from the involvement of Pakistan in sponsoring terrorism in Kashmir and elsewhere,” Kromberg said. Fai, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax fraud charges, was then sentenced to two years in federal prison.
Lobbying records filed with the secretary of the Senate show that Manafort’s lobbying firm, Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly, was paid $700,000 by the Kashmiri American Council between 1990 and 1995. This was among more than $4 million that federal prosecutors alleged came from the ISI; Fai collected the money over 20 years from “straw” American donors who were being reimbursed from secret accounts in Pakistan. (The funds were in some cases delivered to Fai in brown paper bags stuffed with cash — and then the donors reimbursed with wire transfers from ISI operatives, according to an FBI affidavit.)
His campaign, associates, VP etc is as anti-India as any one possibly can. Of course he is anti-US, anti-women, anti-Hindu, anti-disabled and anti-everything....
No wonder **NONE** of the 5 living US (ex)presidents think he is fit for job. NONE of ex-secretary of state or a SINGLE decent person I have met who thinks DT is fit for the office or not the worse for the world (including India). No single major newspaper has endorsed him. (Cincinnati Enquirer - and many others- which has NEVER endorsed and Democrat in past 100+ years, have endorsed clinton)
****
OTOH it is shameful that people spin stories of hate without any basis. NO BO was not a secret gay muslim, neither NaMo a butcher or HC is anti-India. Two former US presidents, who know more about the job than any of us in brf explicitly mentioned that she is more qualified than *ANY ONE including themselves. ALL ex US presidents (including republicans) have NO doubt about her qualifications. Those who demonize her tells more about their own selves. For US-INDIA relationship, It is not a case of "lesser of two evils". (There is only ONE evil and that evil is now being criticized by even his own party.) I and virtually everyone I know are voting for her for positive reasons. She is best for India-US relationship. I endorse her without reservation. I look forward for best days for both US and India.
As I said before I am not interested in "debate".. these are my thoughts so take it for what ever it's worth.