The Third Slip: Issue 178 - Mah-end-era Singh Dhoni
Hello, Slippers! Welcome to The Third Slip - the weekly newsletter that’s like a Dhoni story. It is completely unorthodox, leaves everything to the last minute, packs in way more than you think is possible in 5 minutes, and when it ends you ask yourself - “Wait it was not over long ago aa”
This is issue 178. 178, of course, is 7 inside 18 - Dhoni’s jersey number inside Kohli’s, a tribute to how Kohli might have been the captain on the outside, but it was MS who was always running the show. Kind of like how it appears that we keep The Third Slip going every week without fail, but it’s actually the news...
Home sweet home
Contempting fate
Surely, the top duties of a court in 2020 shouldn’t be “being condescending and checking for Kaun dissenting”. For some reason, the Supreme Court of India has found Prashant Bhushan in contempt of court for a couple of tweets.
You know when you ask a colleague where the office stapler is and he angrily replies WHY ARE YOU ASKING ME AS IF I STOLE THE STAPLER AND USED IT TO KILL OUR COLLEAGUE WHO IS ONLY MYSTERIOUSLY ABSENT TODAY? Well, when the SC charges you with contempt of court saying “The tweet clearly tends to give an impression that the Supreme Court, which is the highest constitutional court in the country, has in the last six years played a vital role in destruction of the Indian democracy.” you know you should look elsewhere for office supplies. What do you mean that makes no sense at all? Good, good. Please come by as a witness when we plead the insanity defence when puns are found to be disrespectful or something.
Just Deserts: is the answer to what you can see a lot of in Rajasthan and also what a prominent dynast will do to the incumbent government in Rajasthan. This week, in a surprise twist to previous instances, the Ashok Gehlot government won a trust vote with the support of Sachin Pilot and gang.
This is like a comical run out miss where one batsman has left the other stranded down the middle of the pitch, but the wicket keeper fails to collect the throw and the ball runs down to the boundary for five overthrows. Sure, the two batsmen come together in the middle of the pitch to fist bump, but you know they’re going to be wary of each other for the rest of the innings.
Traumatic Post Stress Disorder:What has 73 years of democracy brought us? Come forward and collect your prize if you answered “thin skins and trigger-happy mobs”. In Bangalore, sorry we mean Bengaluru please don’t start, an allegedly “derogatory” Facebook post about Prophet Mohammed triggered a riot against a Congress legislator. The Muslim mob burned several cars and a bar (one which was set very low we assume) and led to 3 deaths in the ensuing police firing. The silver lining is that this riot doesn’t seem state-sponsored at least. Small blessings and all that.
Stealth is wealth: FWIW, a National Digital Health System was launched. Laudable idea, but given the emphasis on launch and glitz rather than (yawn) implementation, we won’t be waiting with bated breath. Oh, and don’t look now but it includes provisions for a completely voluntary (LOL) digital health database of citizens and all. We’ve hit policy bingo!
Ankhi see, Ankhi don’t do: An investigation by the Wall Street Journal has shown that Facebook is basically scared of the ruling political dispensation in India, or in cahoots with them. Apparently, Facebook’s top public policy executive in India - Ankhi Das - stopped it from removing hate speech against Muslims. Don’t hold your breath for extensive reporting of this from the stellar Indian media - their balls have long been juggled by the aforementioned political party and media juggernaut.
We don’t know enough, period: Zomato is giving up to 10 days of additional paid period leave for its women employees. This has sparked debates and we are not sure about anything except it’s not our place to weigh in on this.
Corona Corner
You know the depressing stuff about the virus, so let’s just tell you the good stuff.
Checkin’ lababdar: CSIR is looking at repurposing and using megalabs in India to improve and increase Covid testing.
Trial and error: SC will hear a plea on Covid mismanagement by the government, led by Prashant Bhushan. Hopefully they won’t find him showing contempt for the virus.
Host style takeover: Airbnb removed a host for hosting a party during an effing pandemic.
Holy Moscow!: Meanwhile in the fight against covid, plasma therapy is looking like an increasingly viable option. Covaxin, India’s first covid vaccine seems safe. But, this week Russia became the first to release a vaccine for Covid. And if you thought they were mucking around, Putin’s daughter got a shot of it and better still it’s called Sputnik V. That’s right, it has V Putin in it.
Illustration by Harini Kannan
Global
Read it and Veep: Kamala Harris is Joe Biden’s VP pick! The VP debate between her and Pence should be mouth-watering. Her campaign’s digital savvy will come in handy during this time, as will her support among Silicon Valley. Possible Prez candidate in 2024, facing off against Nikki Haley (another Indian-American woman) and as a WaPo editorial says, “It’s almost worth electing Biden to ensure that we get the Harris-Haley showdown.”
Whitemail: All of the above holds good only if Biden wins. Trump is threatening to block postal funding since mail-in voting is likely to benefit Democrats.
Meddle East Israel & UAE sign historic new ties, in which Israel would put on hold its annexation plan of parts of Palestine. This is something Trump might have actually done right (or at least, take credit for). Will it lead to less violence in that part of the world is another question - already enough complications.
FortnightmareApple kicked Fornite out of the App Store, and the latter retaliated with a parody of the iconic 1984 ad. Google did, too (er, kick the game out, not make an ad parody). Players are angry. And FB is using this moment to position itself as app-friendly.
Barking up the Hong tree: Another Apple in trouble is the China-critical Apple Daily tabloid in Hong Kong, whose founder has been arrested because of the new Law, as China amps up its bullying of HK, sparking off more protests.
Power to the people
Every time we’re depressed with what our elected idiots are doing, we turn to see what ordinary people are up to (offer not valid for USA and UP).
Step down transformer: In Lebanon, following the massive blasts last week, ordinary Lebanese stepped up like anything and the full government stepped down! Imagine having concepts like accountability while in power and all. Wild!
Anticipatory Bela ruse: And in Belarus following a sham of an election, there are long lines of protests, and of course the dictator shut down the internet.
Here comes the sun: So far, our go-to party fact involving Australian exports is how it supplies sand and camels to Saudi Arabia (yeah, really). It seems something more incredible could happen soon - Australia could export solar power to a pan-Asian grid.
Bzzkill: Meanwhile Mississippi will not have a flag with a mosquito on it, even though the proposed design sneaked past level one filtering.
LinkedOut
Meet the Lincoln Project, a group of Republicans who are anti-Trump enough to relentlessly troll him (and supporters) with ads.
Here are 20 inventions that will shape 2020-2040. And digital reality (like hanging out in Fortnite) is going to become a thing.
The hustle economy is in. On that note, support us? :)
Capitalism is better at solving wants than needs. Wonderful perspective, pitting the US against Cuba.
Yes. Animals are socially distancing. Learn, Americans.
On India’s 74th IDay, we must protect our liberties.
That’s all for this week. If you’d like, you can get in touch: Instagram (Chuck | Tony), Twitter (Chuck | Tony), email. And again, if you REALLY like us and can afford to, consider supporting us on UPI, Instamojo or Patreon. Until next week, may people from your past life somehow discover and marvel at the new you. Bye!