In India on Friday, main opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was expelled from parliament after being recently convicted of defamation over a 2019 comment in which he called dictator Narendra Modi one of a group of “thieves,” another sign of democracy eroding in a country already torn by economic and religious strife. The expulsion came before Gandhi was given a chance to appeal his two year prison sentence on the conviction. “They are destroying the constitution, killing it,” said Gandhi ally Srinivas BV, leader of the Indian National Congress Party’s youth wing. “The court gave Mr Gandhi 30 days to appeal against the order, and hardly 24 hours have passed since.”
Meanwhile in Israel, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara on Friday warned far right dictator Benjamin Netanyahu that his comments in a Thursday night speech – in which “Bibi” basically told Israelis protesting his planned coup of the country’s judicial system to go fuck themselves – was “illegal and tainted by a conflict of interest,” as Netanyahu is currently facing trial on corruption charges. Separately, the Israeli parliament on Friday passed a bill that states that only the prime minister himself or the cabinet, with a two-thirds majority, can declare the leader unfit for office, further protecting “Bibi” from removal by the judiciary. So things are pretty fucked there.
In the United States, Modi and Netanyahu’s ally Donald Trump threatened “death and destruction” on Friday if he’s indicted in Manhattan on a charge he illegally concealed a 2016 hush money payoff to a pornstar he had 45 seconds of sex with. This was actually the least bad of potential criminal charges against the twice-impeached former president as he also faces prosecution at the state level in Georgia and at the federal level for his post-2020 election coup attempt, plus another federal investigation over his theft of classified documents following his defeat. He’s plainly not having as much fun as his murderous Islamophobic buddies in Israel and India. All he can do at this point is plan his revenge on the justice system – particularly Alvin Bragg – if he returns to power.