CAR SAGA CONTINUES & PUTIN FLEXES HIS BICEPS
PRIVATE OR PUBLIC, CAR SAGA CONTINUES
The problem with the law and lawyers is that they haven’t quite been able to join the age of quantum physics. It is one field that is still finding it difficult to cope with the complexities of life and tends to use the biblical defense that the law is the law. It’s what Moses said. It does not seem to have the innate flexibility to deal with variations as science, medicine, even accountancy do. So it ends up being in the realm of chaos theory. Isn’t chaos theory the same as quantum theory, some might ask, but I am talking of human chaos theory. Life has to bend to the law and not law adjust to life.
So, we have the ongoing saga of whether a car is a private space or a public space. A couple of weeks ago, the Delhi court decreed that the inside of a car on a public road is not a private space, hence a driver can be stopped for not wearing a mask. “ A vehicle which is moving across the city, even if occupied at a given point in time by one person, would be a public place owing to the immediate risk of exposure to other persons under varying circumstances,” the judge said in the court.
Some police officers with this newfound or newly declared public space when it was once thought the interior of a car is a private space, decided to barge into a car and confiscate a load of drugs and of course the driver.
‘Can’t do that’ said me Lords wearing black in memory of Queen Anne. Lawyers started wearing black in the fifteenth century when Queen Anne died in England, hence even further evidence that they are mentally still in the medieval age.
No can do! said the Supreme Court because the interior of a car is not a ‘public space’ under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS Act). It is in fact private property. The SC acquitted three men of possessing poppy.
The only way a police officer can confiscate the drugs is by having a warrant to enter private property or under the law that permits the officer to act as if he has a warrant.
So, if the driver is not wearing a mask in his car on a public road, then the interior of his car is not private but public space as he could be infecting the bacteria in his car with his virus. But if the driver is gingerly transporting a ton of cocaine from Wagah border to Connaught place, then it is a private space and needs a warrant or officer with warrant powers to stop and search for the packets of coke that could damage hundreds of lives even if sitting there for everyone to see. The law is the law. Work that out, Rubik. Chaos theory. Perhaps lawyers were really there before scientists discovered it.
PUTIN DON’T MESS WITH ME– PUTIN FLEXES HIS BICEPS
Strong man Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia has sent a clear message to all those midget Western countries who hide behind American frock and say in squeaky voices to Putin, ‘Behave yourself’.
Flexing his famous biceps, he has told them in no uncertain terms, ‘Don’t cross the “red line” because such a move would trigger an “asymmetrical, rapid and harsh” response. He has accused the west of always ‘picking’ on Russia.
He said some western countries were like jackals trying to please the US. To drive home his point he used an example the English will well relate to, ‘Just like jackals behave with Shere Khan in Kipling’s tale The Jungle Book’.
So this message is aimed at the Brits or rather the English. Putin likes to use metaphors and references that the intended party and many kids in Russia can understand through imagery.
But sending a warning like that to the English is like a red rag to a bull. The English and wars are made for each other. England always feels lost without some war to engage in. But reality also sinks in. Britain is a bit too tiny against mighty Russia, so it tries to co-op the USA in its confrontations.
Here it gets more complicated. After initially wagging the finger at Putin, Biden has then sent a conciliatory note confusing his own side.
Accusing Putin of having interfered in American Democracy, although Trump clearly denied it and even drafted an official report to back that, Biden told Putin that he will be taking ‘retaliatory action’ for interference in the 2020 presidential election and cyberattacks. It seems he has forgiven Putin for the 2016 election when Putin managed to install his man at the White House, quite a feat and possibly revenge for US interference in the Soviet Union Gorbachev period.
Biden has put sanctions on eight individuals for actions associated with Russian action in Crimea and 32 for attempts to influence the 2020 US presidential election. But Putin isn’t on the list. That’s interesting as no one would have done anything without orders from the head poncho (using Putin-style reference) himself.
But then Biden then went on to say that he proposes a summit in Europe between himself and Putin to de-escalate
It is not difficult to see why Putin isn’t taking all the British saber-rattling seriously as he amassed some 150000 troops on borders of Ukraine. But he brought them back, saying it was an exercise. Perhaps Biden’s olive branch persuaded him to throw something on the table.
Before that Putin said, ”We don’t want to burn bridges, but if somebody interprets our good intentions as weakness, our reaction will be asymmetrical, rapid, and harsh”. In other words, he is threatening more cyberattacks, interference in elections, and possibly even a coup or two somewhere. But he did leave the interpretation of red lines with some flexibility, “We’ll decide for ourselves in each case where the red line is”.
The message from both the USA and Russia to the small flag bearers of western power, without the power, is, back off and neither are going to be trapped into another unnecessary conflict to satisfy lost imperialist dreams of European and British. Biden has done the minimum that could be done to give his lot a little bit of honourable retreat. While Putin has warned them to stay away or he could get nasty. He has already shown he can change the top man in their leader, USA. That’s what he means by asymmetrical war.
