Marbles

I don't think that is true. He got nearly 50% of the popular vote both times he ran for office. Plus, most Republican politicians have thrown their weight behind him, regardless of what he said or did. Only a handful of his own party politicians went against him. The failures of the democratic party and their shambolic handling of everything the US electorate cares about would bring Trump back. Or someone like him.

Too late. Sanders is too old for this circus. The democrats rejected him twice when he still had juice left. The next president of the US will be Donald Trump. Mark my words.

Personally, I'm sick of being bombarded with LGBT stuff every day in the news and entertainment media. It's as though half of the world's problems revolve around gender issues. Read a contemporary book of literature or watch a film or a TV show and it seems over half the world's population has suddenly gone homosexual all of a sudden. I'm glad I don't live in the West and it remains a non-issue here where I live, but it is difficult to escape the constant cycle of news and controversies that has become a mainstay of Western media productions - and what's more, being the cultural imperialists that they are, they want the entire world to emulate them or else... As for the parade in particular, I find this whole spectacle of almost-naked people with crazy makeup doing even crazier dances completely ridiculous and extremely cringe-worthy. That's just my personal gut reaction to it. It goes completely against the values of decency and modesty taught to me, and that before I factor in the religious angle into the equation. Shameful.

Ah I see. I should have known. Segregation in the States refers by default to the racial segregation.

I have never seen a segregated church. Not in real life, not in films. But I like that mosques are segregated. It helps to maintain the purdah between the sexes. The nature of Islamic prayer is such that it may breach the code of modesty if non-mahram men watch women in the act of prayer.

This is just a poor joke.

I predicted this back in 2014 before Modi first came to power. But some Indian Shia friends in here and people sympathetic to the Indian polity claimed faith in the Nehruvian secularism and dismissed my concerns as ravings of a bitter Pakistani.

This seems pretty representative of the public mood. If there's one thing that'll drown Imran Khan's govt it is the double-digit inflation of the last at least two years. But, with how things are going, the generals might drown him before the electorate has a chance to drown him in the next ballot. Yes, the covid pandemic is partially responsible for inflation but people don't want to hear that excuse. They only care about the prices they have to pay on the checkout. Edit: Thanks God PK didn't rely so much on tourism for its income. Otherwise we'd just be a bigger version of Sri lanka. The collapse of the economy and the imminence of default is causing some serious problems there and might eventually lead to large scale civil unrest.

The damage to the standing wheat crop has been done already, especially in the southern plains of the Saraiki Belt where my fields are. Last week the mercury rose as high as 42 C. This kind of temp in mid March is devastating for the crop that still needs time to grow and ripen. The grains have stopped growing and become dry. I am predicting a drop in yield of 10-15%. There is already a national shortage of around 15% this year. Add to it the effects of the current heatwave (caused by irregular weather patterns more common due to the global warming), and we over here in PK have a crisis on our hands. Once the generals and their selected government stop fighting each other they'd probably pay attention to the problems on the ground.

I thought democratic process and democracy were sacrosanct? Suddenly the "people" wanted the democratically elected president out by any means, including large scale violence, with foreign funds aplenty, led by ultranationalist skinheads. It is not hard to see who should have been hung for treason in this case. Except they were the real Nazis, leading the coup from the front. They were the ones who fired the first shots and blamed the government for firing on the protestors. They were the ones who shaped the outcome of the "revolution." They were the ones who later forced the lawmakers to enact anti-Russian laws effectively banning Russian language. They were the ones who were later incorporated into the Ukrainian army (Azov battalion) It's all on record. But looking it up may damage your securely-held views about the whole thing. So let's call Putin mad and wonder about his mental health and even compare him with Hitler (which encompasses the entirety of Western critical assessment of the man and his policies) than look for the root cause and address it in good faith.

....overthrow of the democratically elected president, whose election the EU monitors certified as free and fair. If people wanted to join EU and NATO they should have voted in a president who promised them both. But instead they voted a pro-Russian president, who was then overthrown in an illegal coup led by the bald-headed armed Nazis and and funded by the US embassy in Kyiv. There is enough evidence for those who want to see. But those fed on a diet of mainstream Western media wouldn't know a thing, because for journous to report that and to put this conflict into context means career suicide.

This American dude's been doing a good job of telling the truth. Don't know how many are listening to him.

Not sure about some wheat deal, which is unlikely, as Imran Khan's visit had been planned long before the war started. He was caught unawares and looked a bit shocked when he finally met Putin on Day 1 of the invasion. Imran had gone to Russia to seek cheaper gas and the necessary infrastructure to transport that gas. PK wants Russia to provide cheap gas through an international pipeline as well as provide technical assistance and funds to build a domestic pipeline from Karachi all the way to north which can address the growing national demand. PK's national reserves are dwindling fast and the demand is increasing every year. Currently, we import the shortfall from Qatar in the form of LNG which is expensive and requires specialised upgrades which obviously can't be used for non-LNG natural gas. Now with sanctions on Russia, PK's desire to win a pipeline from Russia will become a pipedream like the IR-PK-IN pipeline which the US intimidated first India and then Pakistan to abandon.

Over here the government purchases wheat from the growers on controlled prices. This policy along with Pak's self-sufficiency means we're not as exposed to shocks in global market as those who rely entirely on market forces. But this does not mean no trouble. The costs of growing wheat and other crops have significantly gone up over the last couple of years due to the covid pandemic (higher energy costs, shortage of imported fertilisers etc). The war and sanctions could jack up the costs even further. Another worrying thing is our export behaviour. Our exporters will try to cash in on the rise in global wheat prices and export more than they normally do, causing a shortage of grain and flour closer to the next growing cycle. The government will then import expensive grain and pay for it in USD to make up for the shortage in the country. So a country that exports its surplus around the world ends up purchasing back expensive grain due to the sheer mismanagement (and criminal greed) of the ruling elite. Thus the rich make more money and the common man ends up with paying more for roti. This has happened a few times before and the likelihood of the same happening this year is also high.

My wife's cousin and his elderly father were martyred in the blast. The mosque is located in an overwhelmingly Shia neighburhood where most of the extended family go for Friday prayers and muharram majalis. It is the same neighbourhood where the famous Shia-Sunni debate took place about a century ago which is known as Peshawar Nights. The above-mentioned momins who were martyred today are the direct descendents of the person in whose house the debate took place. They still own and maintain the house. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peshawar_Nights Iltamas-e-dua.