Howdy, Modi!

 

I’ve been making dinner and listening to the huge “Howdy, Modi!” rally in Houston with President Trump and Prime Minister Modi. It’s pretty enjoyable. It appears to be a huge crowd, and the Fox youtube clip I’m watching begins with awesome pounding drums.

After the drums stopped in a fabulous climax, a lovely young woman sang “The Star-Spangled Banner.” When she finished, the crowd burst into chants of “USA! USA!” After the Indian anthem, the crowd began chanting “Modi! Modi!” as the president also applauded.

Huge cheers and applause for the president, for Modi. Huge cheers when the president spoke of the NBA coming to Mumbai, and asking Modi if he could come for it. Huge applause and cheers for Trump’s line on opposing Islamic terrorism.

At the conclusion of Trump’s remarks, he says that he will leave and let the audience listen to the wisdom of Modi, who is a very wise man. That’s just beginning as I finish up writing this post, so I haven’t heard the wisdom yet, which will not be translated, so I can’t understand most of it anyway.

I don’t know that any American president previous to President Trump has had a massive campaign rally with a foreign head of state. It was a great way to spend the dinner prep, but I wonder what you all might think of it?

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  1. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    Pretty sure he’ll be speaking English. As I understand it, the many Indian dialects are so disparate, they only understand each other in English. It is their national language. Imagine that.

    • #1
  2. CB Toder aka Mama Toad Member
    CB Toder aka Mama Toad
    @CBToderakaMamaToad

    Nope, his final remarks are not in English, but now there is a translator speaking with his remarks, although not at the beginning of his speech.

    • #2
  3. CB Toder aka Mama Toad Member
    CB Toder aka Mama Toad
    @CBToderakaMamaToad

    By the way, dinner is a porchetta roast, baked taters, and brussels sprouts. Yum. An apple crisp will be ready in about 5…Catch you after my meal!

    • #3
  4. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    CB Toder aka Mama Toad (View Comment):

    By the way, dinner is a porchetta roast, baked taters, and brussels sprouts. Yum. An apple crisp will be ready in about 5…Catch you after my meal!

    Why wasn’t I invited? 😜

    • #4
  5. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    CB Toder aka Mama Toad (View Comment):

    Nope, his final remarks are not in English, but now there is a translator speaking with his remarks, although not at the beginning of his speech.

    Huh, I’ve been misled. 

    • #5
  6. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    Thanks for pointing this out. I’ll watch it later. 

    • #6
  7. PHCheese Inactive
    PHCheese
    @PHCheese

    CB Toder aka Mama Toad (View Comment):

    By the way, dinner is a porchetta roast, baked taters, and brussels sprouts. Yum. An apple crisp will be ready in about 5…Catch you after my meal!

    What no Curry?

    • #7
  8. RightAngles Member
    RightAngles
    @RightAngles

    It was a great rally, and it was good to see the enthusiasm of the audience. I loved Modi’s introduction to Trump.

    • #8
  9. CB Toder aka Mama Toad Member
    CB Toder aka Mama Toad
    @CBToderakaMamaToad

    I did too. I was laughing as I listened; it was so enjoyable and surreal, and made Papa Toad listen to it with me again when he came in. I don’t really know what to think about Modi. He’s very skillful, as a politician, it seems. He won pretty decisively I think his second parliamentary election to stay on as prime minister, and he was very popular with the crowd. I just don’t know what I think of the president and the prime minister seemingly endorsing each other. Is there another head of state Trump could/would do this with?

    • #9
  10. CB Toder aka Mama Toad Member
    CB Toder aka Mama Toad
    @CBToderakaMamaToad

    Arahant (View Comment):

    CB Toder aka Mama Toad (View Comment):

    By the way, dinner is a porchetta roast, baked taters, and brussels sprouts. Yum. An apple crisp will be ready in about 5…Catch you after my meal!

    Why wasn’t I invited? 😜

    I wanted leftovers! With only three offspring living at home, leftovers are once again on the menu! (’cause I still am cooking for eight…)

    • #10
  11. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    CB Toder aka Mama Toad (View Comment):
    Is there another head of state Trump could/would do this with?

    Or should?

    • #11
  12. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    CB Toder aka Mama Toad (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    CB Toder aka Mama Toad (View Comment):

    By the way, dinner is a porchetta roast, baked taters, and brussels sprouts. Yum. An apple crisp will be ready in about 5…Catch you after my meal!

    Why wasn’t I invited? 😜

    I wanted leftovers! With only three offspring living at home, leftovers are once again on the menu! (’cause I still am cooking for eight…)

    Yeah. My mama learned to cook for the whole Confederate army. There were always leftovers for late-night snacks.

    • #12
  13. CB Toder aka Mama Toad Member
    CB Toder aka Mama Toad
    @CBToderakaMamaToad

    Arahant (View Comment):

    CB Toder aka Mama Toad (View Comment):
    Is there another head of state Trump could/would do this with?

    Or should?

    Yeah, I guess I’m asking if he should even be doing it with Modi. 

    Even while totally enjoying the spectacle of 50,000 people all cheering for Trump and for Modi. And the drums…

    • #13
  14. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    CB Toder aka Mama Toad (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    CB Toder aka Mama Toad (View Comment):
    Is there another head of state Trump could/would do this with?

    Or should?

    Yeah, I guess I’m asking if he should even be doing it with Modi.

    Even while totally enjoying the spectacle of 50,000 people all cheering for Trump and for Modi. And the drums…

    I wrote about President Trump’s skilled use of walk out music with “Sandman” Mariano Rivera. I’m just going to say here that these drummers beat the whole Metallica band as walk out music.

    • #14
  15. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    Joe Biden is wondering how the 7/11s were kept open this Sunday.

    • #15
  16. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    The autogenerated close captioning is hilarious once PM Modi gets rolling!

    I do want to see a real translation, especially after this analysis in the Hindustan Times:

    The first target, make no mistake, was Donald Trump.

    […]

    The first target, make no mistake, was Donald Trump.

    […]

    The second target was Pakistan. Modi deployed an elaborate, but extremely, shrewd rhetorical device to do.

    […]

    Modi’s third audience was the broader US establishment, Democrats, and the liberal intellectual ecosystem. India recognises that US is deeply polarised, and that a substantial element of the country broadly subscribes to a liberal worldview.

    […]

    The fourth audience was US business. Modi spoke of India as a modernising country…

    […]

    The fifth audience was the Indian-American community, present in thousands in the stadium, and watching the event closely elsewhere in the US. By recognising their power, their presence, their contribution, Modi was instilling a sense of pride in the community.

    […]

    And finally, like any smart politician, Modi was addressing his own domestic audience back home. The rally, telecast live on all Indian news television channels, and live-streamed across platforms, was widely watched.

    You can see, without understanding a word that this is a seriously skilled politician.

    • #16
  17. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    The Hindu has a summary of the Modi speech. I especially note Modi’s strategic switching among languages, truly communicating directly at multiple audiences.

    “Data is the new oil. Data is the new gold.”

    Mr. Modi begins speech. Howdi My friends, he begins and switches to Hindi. “We’re witnessing new history being made and a new chemistry”.

    Plays with NRG, energy and synergy. 

    Everything is fine in India, he says in different languages. “Our many languages are identity of our liberal and democratic society. Diversity is basis of our democracy.”

    PM goes on on to talk about the mandate of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls: Most women voters, most women MPs, return of a government after full majority. “Recent elections showcased Indian democracy’s greatness across world, 61 crore people, twice U.S. population, voted.”

    “India working day and night to realise its goal of new India; we are challenging and changing ourself,” he says.

    Who made it possible? Crowd chants Modi, Modi.  But he says it was possible because of every Indian.

    He now goes on to list out achievements of Modi 1.0.

    We are leveraging Digital India for ease of living. Empowerment is the way to achieve ease of living, he says.

    Data is the new oil, he says adding when it comes to oil Houston knows better.

    Data is the new gold, he says and adds India has the cheapest data rates in the world.  World average of 1GB data cost is 25-30% higher than in India’s, he says.

    Now in India, one can register a company in 24 hours. Tax returns and tax refunds have become breeze, he says quoting that 50 lakh people filing I-T returns online on a single day on August 31. 

    We are bidding a farewell to filthy, outdated laws and complicated tax structure and brought in GST, he says. “India will bid farewell to open defecation on October 2.”

    There was a challenge in front of the country for 70 years. We gave bid farewell to that also, he says . Crowd roars. He asks: do you understand? Crowd goes mad. “Article 370!!!”

    Now J&K’s people have the same rights the Constitution guarantees to citizens in other States, he says.

    Now, he seeks and receives a standing ovation for the parlimentarians who passed the Article 370 abrogation bill.

    “India’s decision on Article 370 has troubled some people, who can’t handle their country, who support terrorism,” he says without naming Pakistan, while referring to 9/11 and 26/11.  He says Mr. Trump deserves a standing ovation for standing against terror. Crowd gives standing ovation 2.

    He addresses Mr. Trump: Let our friendship take the shared dreams and bright futures of our two countries to a new high.

    Concludes his speech with an invitation to Mr. Trump to visit India and a may god bless you all.

    • #17
  18. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    CB Toder aka Mama Toad (View Comment):

    Nope, his final remarks are not in English, but now there is a translator speaking with his remarks, although not at the beginning of his speech.

    I did not get the translator on any of the video recordings I could find.

    I do note PM Modi has and uses a YouTube channel effectively:

    https://www.youtube.com/user/narendramodi/videos

    • #18
  19. CB Toder aka Mama Toad Member
    CB Toder aka Mama Toad
    @CBToderakaMamaToad

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):

    CB Toder aka Mama Toad (View Comment):

    Nope, his final remarks are not in English, but now there is a translator speaking with his remarks, although not at the beginning of his speech.

    I did not get the translator on any of the video recordings I could find.

    I do note PM Modi has and uses a YouTube channel effectively:

    https://www.youtube.com/user/narendramodi/videos

    In the video I linked from Fox’s YouTube channel, President Trump finishes speaking around 44:24. Then there’s applause and Trump shakes a bunch of hands, then Modi starts speaking around 46:10, and says, “Thank you President Trump, thanks a lot. Howdy my friends!” and then begins speaking in a different language than English. At 58:10 the translators to English come in and begin speaking over the prime minister, and that continues to the end of the video.

    • #19
  20. CB Toder aka Mama Toad Member
    CB Toder aka Mama Toad
    @CBToderakaMamaToad

    Listening to the president’s remarks when he visited the Coast Guard in Houston yesterday, I hear him say at about 8:30 that Modi asked Trump about 4 weeks ago to come to the rally in Houston and make a speech.

    “I asked him what it was about, and he said it’s a very big deal for India. And I’m very close to the folks from India,  the folks that love India, ’cause I love India, and I have a lot of respect and a great friendship with the prime minister. He said, ‘Would it be possible to do it?’ and I said, ‘I’ll make it possible,’ so, and I thought that while I was here I wanted to see the Coast Guard, I wanted to see FEMA.”

    So that explains how it happened… That’s interesting. 

    • #20
  21. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    CB Toder aka Mama Toad (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    CB Toder aka Mama Toad (View Comment):

    By the way, dinner is a porchetta roast, baked taters, and brussels sprouts. Yum. An apple crisp will be ready in about 5…Catch you after my meal!

    Why wasn’t I invited? 😜

    I wanted leftovers! With only three offspring living at home, leftovers are once again on the menu! (’cause I still am cooking for eight…)

    Darn it!  I was going to call “dibs” on the leftovers . . .

    • #21
  22. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    CB Toder aka Mama Toad (View Comment):

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):

    CB Toder aka Mama Toad (View Comment):

    Nope, his final remarks are not in English, but now there is a translator speaking with his remarks, although not at the beginning of his speech.

    I did not get the translator on any of the video recordings I could find.

    I do note PM Modi has and uses a YouTube channel effectively:

    https://www.youtube.com/user/narendramodi/videos

    In the video I linked from Fox’s YouTube channel, President Trump finishes speaking around 44:24. Then there’s applause and Trump shakes a bunch of hands, then Modi starts speaking around 46:10, and says, “Thank you President Trump, thanks a lot. Howdy my friends!” and then begins speaking in a different language than English. At 58:10 the translators to English come in and begin speaking over the prime minister, and that continues to the end of the video.

    Ah, I missed the hyperlink in the subtle style, it would really be nice if links stood out on the page.

    • #22
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