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The Indian National Congress, long helmed by the Gandhi family, has been in a steady decline since its disastrous showing in the 2014 general elections. This has extended to last months elections, which was capped by a stunning loss of the INCs incumbent Chief Minister in Punjab to an upstart Aam Aadmi Party. Thus, over this stretch, the INC has gone from controlling half of Indias states to only Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. The INC convened a post-mortem meeting of its Congress Working Committee on Sunday. Rather than question its disastrous leadership of the Gandhi triumvirate, the Committee unanimously reaffirmed its confidence in the family.

Such levels of sycophancy would seem to be out of place in the worlds largest democracy and more akin to the political climate of North Korea. Perhaps part of the problem can be attributed to the fact that the Congress Working Committee members havent been elected to their positions since 1997. One of the most prominent and accomplished members of the Committee, Shashi Tharoor, went out of his way to deflect criticism of Gandhi-family mismanagement of the 2022 elections.

Hence, the INC has become an entity that has completely lost touch with the average Indian voter. Its a political party that doesnt even seem to be concerned with winning. Rather, its beholden to a core tenet of the Gandhis as divinely-ordained monarchs. This belief is perpetuated by palace nobles like Tharoor, whom, it would appear, are so satiated by their privileged existence that they dont even harbor the ruthless instinct to usurp sickly superiors thats common in politics.

The Gandhi-family personality cult political party is reminiscent of the Clinton family in the United States. Bill and Hillary Clinton were the center-of-gravity of the Democratic Party for almost a quarter-century. Domestically, they served as one of the partys bastions of political fundraising, while overseas they maintained extraordinary influence through the Clinton Global Initiative and Hillarys (unelected) tenure as Secretary of State. The 2016 Wikileaks drop helped to reveal the extent to which the Clintons and underlings such as Huma Abedin ran Democratic Party operations from behind the scenes.

The Democratic Party unflinchingly continued to follow the Clintons into their historic 2016 defeat to Donald Trump, despite many warning signs from the masses. Notably, there was Hillarys stunning loss in the Democratic Party presidential primaries to a completely unknown and inexperienced figure in Barack Obama, in 2008. This loss was attributed in large part to voter apathy for the status-quo that the Clinton family had come to represent (versus Obamas platform of change) and Hillarys completely out-of-touch campaign outreach.

The Democratic Party didnt learn their lesson in 2016. Rather, the party went out of its way to ensure that Hillary won the 2016 Democratic Party presidential nomination, instead of the captivating upstart Bernie Sanders, as was later revealed in party-leadership emails leaked to Wikileaks. This, despite increasing criticism of her husbands tenure and sexual improprieties by Democratic voters and Hillarys extremely controversial tenure as Secretary of State, which consisted of geopolitical disasters (the collapses of Yemen, Libya and Syria) and actions like the Iran nuclear deal, which were widely disliked by American voters as a whole. This culminated in the Democratic Party losing the presidency to a completely unqualified and politically divisive figure, in Donald Trump.

Using the trendy example of Russia, one can see another catastrophic example of dynasty politics. Russias last raj, Nicholas II, was allowed by the yes-men in his court to drag the Russian Empire into two suicidal wars over the span of twelve years This on top of many domestic political fumbles of his, such as Bloody Sunday, constant protests and acts of civil disobedience by the masses and genocidal violence against Jews. Nicholas IIs Kremlin nobles didnt turn on him until it was too late, when the Empire was in the midst of an irreversible collapse.

The fact that the Gandhis have assembled around them a team that refuses to challenge them at all is of grave concern to Indias multipolar democracy. The non-Gandhi INC apparatchiks are either lacking in any leadership qualities or theyre too enamored with the Nehru-Gandhi brand to even think to either usurp the tottering leadership or flee the sinking ship. To reiterate, this isnt an overreaction, based solely on the latest election results. Since 2014, the INC has been getting annihilated in local, state and federal elections. In many of these races, the triumphant BJP had little or no prior history of electoral success. With regards to the 2022 races specifically, the INC squandered the chance to cultivate an anti-insurgency platform based on the BJPs bungling of COVID-19, the farm law protests and persistent unemployment. Subtly calling out the INC, Prem Shankar Jha writes that a successful political party needs to craft campaigns that arent predicated on, loyalty to community leaders or in memory of the nations founding fathers. At the rate the electoral results are going, the BJP will become the INC of Nehru/Indira/Rajiv yore, in that they will be able to run the country for decades.

Russell Whitehouse is Executive Editor at International Policy Digest. Hes also a Bollywood film critic and freelance policy essayist whos written about topics such as US electoral politics, China, Myanmar and economics.

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The Gandhis: Dynasty dinosaurs remind us of the Clintons - The Sunday Guardian Live - The Sunday Guardian

Vladimir Putins government continues to call Russias February 24 invasion of Ukraine a special military operation and has instituted harsh punishments for media outlets that do not hew to the state line. However, some foreign-based media have bypassed Russian censorship in various ways, providing Russian citizens vital access to facts about the war.

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It is nearly impossible. The few remaining Russian independent media outlets with any sizeable followings, notably TV Rain and the radio station Echo of Moscow, shut down following Putins signing of the March 4 fake news law, which threatens imprisonment for any journalist who deviates from the Kremlins portrayal of the conflict in Ukraine. Many Western outlets shut down their Russia bureaus as well, depriving their audiences of access to news from within the country.

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Meanwhile, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other foreign social media platforms that disseminate Russian-language information are blocked, and TikTok temporarily banned users in Russia from uploading new content. But YouTube and the encrypted message app Telegram, which are used heavily by state propaganda sources, are reportedly still available and widely used in Russia.

The March 4 law followed years of mounting government pressure on media outlets, and surveys have shown that most Russians get their news from state television. Official media typically downplay the severity of the conflict in Ukraine while echoing Kremlin falsehoods about what it calls a peacekeeping operation against Ukrainian aggressors.

Still, news of the invasion appeared to spur protests in cities across Russia, leading to an estimated fifteen thousand arrests in the first three weeks of the war. In addition, thousands more Russians reportedly fled the country as the war intensified and tough Western-backed sanctions kicked in, though that could mean fewer dissenting voices remain within Russia.

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Yes, but this has become more of a challenge. Since the invasion, the government has blocked the Russian-language websites of media outlets including the BBC, Latvia-based Meduza, the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and Voice of America (VOA), and Germanys Deutsche Welle. These organizations were already under increasing Kremlin pressure from a foreign agents law instituted last year and had largely closed their bureaus in Moscow due to the draconian media law signed in March.

Despite the crackdown, these media outlets say they had large Russian audiences in the pre-invasion months. RFE/RL, which began broadcasts in Russian in 1953, said in a news release that the extensive network of websites run by its Russian Service attracted a monthly average of more than twenty million page views in 2021, and that its videos were viewed nearly three hundred million times that year on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Its YouTube videos have attracted millions more views since the invasion began. The BBC said its Russian-language news website reached more than ten million visits per week in the early phases of the war.

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Its not clear whether they can replicate these audiences given the current censorship, but just this week, data from Apples App Store and Googles Play Store showed that twelve of the top twenty apps in Russia were virtual private networks (VPNs), which disguise a users location and help access region-restricted content, and Telegram was the fifth-most-downloaded app.

The intensified media clampdown reflects the Kremlins concern about the impact that real news would have on Russian citizens. Experts say exposure to objective reporting on the military campaign, including the indiscriminate attacks on civilians, could be influential to the Russian public.

The efforts underway by trusted agencies such as the BBC, RFE/RL, and VOA in some ways hearken back to the Cold War era when, primarily as broadcasters, they developed major news-gathering operations to try to reach audiences behind the Iron Curtain. Research has shown that those broadcasts played an important role in informing both regime elites and citizens in the former communist bloc.

Russian media experts also express concern that intensifying Western-led international sanctions on Russia could have the unintended effect of severing many Russians from the internet at a time when they crave straight information. Its gonna be pretty grim, and its pretty unfair to young Russians who would want to maintain some connection with this world that now rejects them, Meduzas Alexey Kovalev said in an interview with the University of Oxfords Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. I hope the outside world finds a way to incorporate young Russians into the global community.

Antonio Barreras Lozano contributed to this report.

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Russia Is Censoring News on the War in Ukraine. Foreign Media Are Trying to Get Around That. - Council on Foreign Relations

TargetingS, a Redmond-based company, has spent the last 20 days helping independent media report on the war from inside and outside of Russia, all free of charge.

REDMOND, Wash. In Russia, President Vladimir Putin has blocked access to independent news sites and Western media. TargetingS, a Redmond-based company, is responding to the war censorship in a big way.

They are using their technology to fight for the truth. In order to make that happen, TargetingS is reacting in real time, according to Chris Deco, the company's general manager of North America.

"We're helping these these independent media outlets play that game of Whack-A-Mole with Putin and the oppressive regime there," said Deco.

Val Khotemlyansky is the vice president of product development for TargetingS. He was born in Russia, but left the country 30 years ago.

"I think that our job is very important," said Khotemlyansky. "Our goal is to bring the truth to Russian citizenship and citizenship around the globe."

For the past 20 days, they have been helping independent media outlets to keep publishing. A prime example is the widely-shared video of a 'No War' sign being displayed during a government-run newscast in Russia.

"One of our partners that's operating within Russia, Republic, was able to publish that across social media networks using the TargetingS platform. They've been banned. However, as they continue to pivot, where they're able to post that information, we're able to grab it and distribute it to multiple networks and messengers," said Deco.

Deco said objective content is still finding a way to break through even as Russia works to control information.

"Democracy dies in darkness. We want to keep the lights on, and we will champion and hope everybody else will do the same," said Deco.

They are providing this service free of charge as they pivot with their partners, who are navigating censorship and blocked access in Russia.

"This is the fight for freedom of the press and expression and basic human rights. And we're going to do what we can to help," Deco said.

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Redmond company fighting censorship in Russia amid Ukraine invasion - KING5.com

Bruce Lawson from Birmingham, England, has sent approximately 100 texts to strangers in Russia about the true extent of the war in Ukraine during the past week, he told Insider.

The software engineer said he has been copying chunks of prewritten Russian-language text provided by the Polish hacktivist group Squad303 and sending SMS messages to randomly selected numbers between business meetings.

"It's so easy to do," Lawson said. "I just get a new number, hit send, enter, get a new number, hit send, enter."

Lawson has been using 1920.in, an online tool designed to cut through Russian President Vladimir Putin's censorship, which The Wall Street Journal notes use a bank of nearly 140 million Russian email addresses and 20 million cell phone numbers.

Users can send texts, WhatsApp messages, or emails from anywhere in the world to inform Russians that soldiers and civilians are being killed in the deadly invasion of Ukraine that the Kremlin is trying to characterize as a "special military operation."

According to Squad303, who are connected to the Anonymous hacking collective, some 30 million messages have been sent to random Russians since the website was launched on March 6, Insider's Kieran Press-Reynolds reported.

Lawson started using the online tool last week, hoping that he might "change somebody's mind" and encourage a stranger to see beyond the lies that the Russian propaganda machine is pumping out.

So far, he's received a mixed response. "I've had a fair few, 'Fuck off, motherfucker,' messages," Lawson said. "But I've also had quite a few nice conversations with people who are saying, 'We don't want this either, and we're scared.'"

That's more than can be said for Nan, who asked to only be referred to by his first name due to the fear of being trolled. So far, the marketing executive from San Antonio, Texas, hasn't received a single response to any of his WhatsApp messages.

"Nobody wrote me back," he told Insider. "I'd say that about from the 14 people that I sent messages to, about 10 of them showed the double checkmark with the blue, which means they read it."

Nonetheless, Nan said he plans on continuing to send messages because he wants Russians to "really reconsider what they're hearing" about Ukraine from state media outlets.

A combination of censorship and propaganda is so effective the Ukrainians are struggling to persuade their relatives in Russia that their country is under attack, Insider's Mia Jankowicz reported.

Alexander Nielsen, a military analyst from Copenhagen, Denmark, was initially frustrated by the lack of responses to the deluge of texts he and his girlfriend had been sending. At first, he told Insider, he felt like he was sending messages "out into the void."

That was until he received a call from a number he had texted. Unable to speak Russian, Nielsen couldn't hold a conversation with the stranger, but, he said, it felt "empowering" to get a reply.

It made it clear that he spoke to "real people," he said. "It felt good to actually do something and be on the digital frontline," Nielsen added.

Energized by that call, Nielsen recruited his friend Kathrine Richter to join the international army of online volunteers sending messages via 1920.in.

Richter, who is Denmark's country-lead for the European political movement Volt Europa, told Insider that she has sent a handful of messages via the online tool and intends to continue doing so.

"Putin's Russia is being dislocated from the rest of the world, divorced from democracy, so we need more than ever to penetrate that and make some connections at a personal level with direct contact," Richter explained.

She said that sending these formulated texts to strangers might feel inconsequential but, Richter added, it still serves to make a difference.

"I think when we look at what's happening in Ukraine, we can't be complacent anymore," Richter continued. "We have to do everything we can, even if it's just a small thing."

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Meet the army of volunteers who are beating Putin's censorship by sending texts about the Ukraine war to Russian strangers - Business Insider Africa

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10.)

The fear of the Lord prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be shortened (Proverbs 10:27).

The reward of humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, honor and life (Proverbs 22:4)

It took me decades as a Christian even to begin to understand the meaning of the fear of God. Jordan Peterson isnt a believer, but I think he probably gets it better than I do. Better than just about any Christian Ive ever heard trying to explain it. I hear their answers and forgive me, but I cringe. It usually comes out sappy, and often completely meaningless.

No it doesnt mean you should be afraid of God, they say. It means you should reverence Him. Sorry, but thats no help. Aside from that awkward verbing of a noun (which is the way people always seem to word it), that answer tells me nothing. It just substitutes one mysterious, undefined word for another. What does it mean to reverence God? Does it mean thinking Hes really special? Really important? No, thats too small an answer by far. And Im having trouble thinking when Ive heard any better explanation, at least in casual conversations or even in small group studies.

Those who do not know the meaning of the fear of God do not know the meaning of the word God. They say the word, but they do not know what it means. They do not know who or what God is.

Its taken me decades, as I said, but honestly, I think Im getting a taste of what it means. How do I know? Because for the first time it Ive actually felt it as fear. Ive discovered that the word means what it means. I realized and Ive said it often since then that those who do not know the meaning of the fear of God do not know the meaning of the word God. They say the word, but they do not know what it means. They do not know who or what God is.

I think I have begun to understand. A little. (I think Peterson may understand it better.) My first touch with came during a period when I was spending much time contemplating how utterly different God is from us, and we are from Him. The chasm of that difference is unspeakably awesome, far beyond anything I could speak. My grasp on that fear grew even more while I was studying to write my book Too Good to Be False, and came face to with Jesus goodness as Id never seen it before.

It wasnt that Jesus was so much better than I. I could have stood that. It was that He was too much better. Overwhelmingly better. Frighteningly better.

Nothing He did with His extraordinary powers was for Himself. All of it was an offering of love. And when He set aside His powers to suffer on the Cross, that became an offering of love greater than any other made by anyone, ever. So I see the the example He set. I see how far I fall short of it. And I find it utterly overwhelming. The blazing sun of His goodness reveals the dark of my not-goodness, and its honestly fearsome.

I have studied these things, and I have thought I was beginning to understand the fear of God. But then I saw Jordan Peterson agonizing with it. Its gripping. Its eloquent especially when he is so overtaken by it, he has no words to say at all. So I urge you to watch this video, released January 29, 20022. If knowing the meaning of God requires knowing the fear of God, Peterson can teach you something.

Hes got that part right, and I commend him admire him, even for it. If only he knew the rest of it. Im not so concerned about his apparent confusions over the place of church or religious practice in our lives. Such matters are small compared to his need to come to grips with the reality of Jesus love. The love that Jesus lived on earth, the same love that set a standard so high it literally frightens me, is also the same love he offers to Jordan Peterson. And to you, and to me. And by His love He draws us in where we could never come by any other means.

Peterson sees that God is great, and what he sees, he sees well; but he is seeing only half of it. He sees Gods power and his piercing omniscience, and you can literally see him quaking in view of it. He sees Gods goodness and wonders how a person would have to live if they really believed in it. What a great question that is! And what a troubling one. For there is no good answer; none from any human perspective or strength or power, that is. I hope Peterson does not remain stuck in searching for it there.

Because even though he has a certain grip on Gods greatness, he has not discovered the equally awesome greatness of Gods grace and love, love great enough to invite us into life with Him despite His utterly fearsome goodness. We have no standing there with Him, we who are so flawed, confused, conflicted, self-centered, rebellious. Peterson sees that beautifully, but he does not yet see that God knows it better than we do; that God sees it, and even judges it, but grants us entrance anyway, if we will simply come to Him on His gracious terms.

This is the reconciling power of the Cross of Jesus Christ; it is the life-giving power of His Resurrection. Here where we must own up to one thing Peterson seems absolutely ready to admit, and one further thing I hope we will yet come to know. These are the terms of approach, you might say.

The first is the act of humility that recognizes we are not good enough for God; that we fall not just a short, but infinitely far away, which leaves us completely hopeless and powerless before Him. I think Peterson is there. He has taken that step. From all we can see of him in this video, I am quite sure he sees that, feels it, knows it, owns it deep inside himself.

His second step toward God on Gods terms remains, though. This, too, is a descent into humility, perhaps even further and deeper than the other. It is the humility that gives up anxiety about oneself; that lets all fear and trying and worrying and striving go, and leaves us resting limp, surrendered, and trusting in the loving hands of God. God saves us from even the fear of Himself.

I have written of this hard step in the past,

There is something of a paradoxical insult in the way God loves us. If we could stand before Him and tell him, Thank you very much, God, for your love; and of course everyone can certainly see what Ive done to earn it if we could only say that, now that would be something to be proud of. We could really feel good about ourselves. But its His goodness, not ours, that motivates God to love us. We need not earn it; we never could earn it. It comes with just one condition: that we accept it on His terms, not on our own. Because our terms arent good enough. Only His are. Humbled? Insulted, even? Then you get the point.

I cannot say more than I can see, but in this video it seems Peterson is still struggling to know how he or anyone could be good enough for God. If he remains in that struggle he is still lost, despite what he knows of God. His only hope is to give it up and let God be good enough for him instead.

Christians, we can learn from Peterson. He has a better grasp on the fear of God than almost any Christian I know. He has much to learn yet, too, though. For while those who do not know the meaning of the fear of God do not know the meaning of the word God, the same is true for those who do not know the meaning of Gods love and grace. Peterson knows some of God. May he come to know all of Gods greatness.

Tom Gilson (@TomGilsonAuthor) is a senior editor with The Stream and the author or editor of six books, including the recently released Too Good To Be False: How Jesus Incomparable Character Reveals His Reality.

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Jordan Peterson Knows the Fear of God - The Stream