Comment by Riaz Haq on March 14, 2021 at 8:31am

#African-#American Councilman in #SanFrancisco on anti-#Asian violence: “People are right and justified to feel beset upon because Asian folks are othered in America. But you can’t fight racism with racism.” #COVID-era violence shines light on 2 minorities https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/21/black-and-asian-uni...

Some, including Asian movie stars and celebrities, have called for greater recognition of the racism that targets Asian Americans. Some have demanded quick police action. And some have pointed the finger, not at the white political leaders who have long trafficked in xenophobic rhetoric, but at another minority group.

The suspects in some of these attacks were Black men, and some Asian Americans have responded with stereotypes of their own, blaming supposed anti-Asian sentiment from the Black community for the crimes. This narrative, which has not been supported by evidence, has nevertheless shoved a new wedge into age-old cracks between Black and Asian immigrant communities in the US.

“People want to have a Black villain and scapegoat,” said Carroll Fife, a longtime San Francisco Bay Area activist and Oakland city councilmember, who is Black. “People are right and justified to feel beset upon because Asian folks are othered in America. But you can’t fight racism with racism.”

Organizers in the Asian and Black communities have been quick to denounce this rhetoric and call for solidarity. Last weekend, hundreds gathered in the Bay Area to call for solidarity and pay homage to the victims, wearing shirts emblazoned with “Black and Asian unity”.


“Supporting our Asian community is not about dividing us. This support is for all of us suffering under white supremacy. We need to understand that so we can triumph and have public and personal safety,” said Eddy Zheng, an Oakland organizer and youth counselor.

But the issue is complicated and plucks at years of racial divisions.

Some Asian Americans are frustrated that discussion of attacks on Asians are being used as a teachable moment to discuss anti-Black racism. Others agree with Black Lives Matter activists that calling for more policing is the wrong approach to increasing community safety, and poses a threat to people of color.

Organizers in both communities are now battling to balance the pursuit of justice for the crime victims with the broader goals of fighting racism in the US and increasing understanding and solidarity between Asian and Black communities.

“We all need to understand that it is possible to hold multiple realities at once,” said Cynthia Choi, co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action in San Francisco. Communities can uplift and support the survivors of these attacks, she said. They can acknowledge complicated – and, at times, racist – feelings and educate people on the origins of racial divisions within each community without pitting communities of color against one another

Comment by Riaz Haq on March 18, 2021 at 1:03pm

#Cherokee County Sheriff’s official Capt. Jay Baker who said spa shooting suspect who's white had ‘bad day’ posted shirts blaming ‘CHY-NA’ for virus. Suspect is accused of killing 8 people, including 6 #Asian women. #AsiansAreHuman #HATEISAVIRUS https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/17/jay-baker-bad-day/...

The backlash began with the sheriff spokesman’s statement to reporters that the mass shooting suspect was having a “bad day.”

“He was pretty much fed up and kind of at the end of his rope. Yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did,” Cherokee County sheriff’s office Capt. Jay Baker said Wednesday. He was describing the 21-year-old man accused of killing eight people, mostly Asian and almost all women, in a rampage across three Atlanta-area spas.

Then — as the violence stirred fears in an Asian-American community that already felt under attack — Internet sleuths and journalists found Baker’s Facebook posts promoting shirts that called the novel coronavirus an “IMPORTED VIRUS FROM CHY-NA.”

One person’s reaction on Twitter: “I think Capt Jay Baker is going to have a really bad day.”

Baker’s comments and social media history fueled long-running concerns about racism in law enforcement, capping a year in which many warned that phrases like “China virus” were inciting sometimes violent prejudice against Asian Americans. For critics, they undermined trust in authorities’ work on an attack that seemed to many inseparable from the race and gender of its victims, even as authorities say the motive remains unclear. And they downplayed the actions of a White suspect who, according to Baker, may have visited the spas before, claimed to have a “sexual addiction” and said he wanted to eliminate a “temptation.”

Baker is not just any employee of the sheriff’s department, some noted, but its spokesman, who shapes public knowledge of the attacks that unfolded Tuesday in his county and then at two businesses in Atlanta.

“All of us have experienced bad days,” tweeted Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.). “But we don’t go to three Asian businesses and shoot up Asian employees.”

Baker, whose Facebook profile is public, did not respond to The Washington Post’s request for comment, nor did Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds.

Reached by the Daily Beast, Reynolds, who is friends with Baker on Facebook, said he did not know about the post.

“I am not aware of that,” Reynolds told the outlet. “I will have to contact him but thank you for bringing that to my attention.”

Baker posted photos of the shirts blaming China for the pandemic in March and April, as Asian American leaders and advocacy groups were already sounding alarms about rhetoric tying the coronavirus to China and Chinese people.

“Covid 19,” the shirt reads in a font resembling the logo of Corona beer. “IMPORTED VIRUS FROM CHY-NA.”

The words echoed those from politicians and especially from former president Donald Trump, who used offensive terms like “kung flu” and went out of his way to use the phrase “Chinese virus.” At one point, a Post photographer snapped a picture of the president’s notes in which “corona” was crossed out.

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 6, 2021 at 10:00am

#US seen as bigger threat to #democracy than #Russia or #China, global poll finds. The poll is based on 50,000 respondents in 53 countries. The results will make stark reading for the #G7Summit of foreign ministers holding a final day of talks in #London https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/05/us-threat-democracy-r...

Half the people surveyed (48%) say the power of big tech companies, as opposed to the simple existence of social media, is a threat to democracy in their country. Among democracies, the US is the most concerned about big tech (62%), but wariness is growing in many countries compared with last year, reflected in broad support for greater regulation of social media.

Voters in Norway, Switzerland and Sweden are most confident their country is democratic, but so are the Chinese, where 71% agree that China has the right amount of democracy. In Russia only 33% think their country is democratic. Global support for Joe Biden’s plans to stage a Democracy Summit is high in every country save China and Russia.

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The US faces an uphill task presenting itself as the chief guardian of global democracy, according to a new poll that shows the US is seen around the world as more of a threat to democracy than even Russia and China.

The poll finds support for democracy remains high even though citizens in democratic countries rate their governments’ handling of the Covid crisis less well than people in less democratic countries.

Inequality is seen as the biggest threat to global democracy, but in the US the power of big tech companies is also seen as a challenge.

The findings come in a poll commissioned by the Alliance of Democracies Foundation among 50,000 respondents in 53 countries.

The results will make stark reading for the G7 foreign ministers as they hold a final day of talks in London in which they have collectively assumed the role as bulwarks of democratic values determined to confront autocracy.

The survey was carried out by the Latana polling company between February and April, so a hangover effect of Donald Trump’s “America first” foreign policy may linger in the findings. Overall the results show perceptions of the US starting to improve from last year.

Whereas in the spring of 2020 people in both more democratic and less democratic countries were equally satisfied with their government’s pandemic response (70%), a year later the approval ratings have dropped down to 65% in less democratic countries, but in more democratic countries the rating has fallen to 51%. In Europe the figure is 45%. Positive ratings reach 76% in Asia.

In perhaps the most startling finding, nearly half (44%) of respondents in the 53 countries surveyed are concerned that the US threatens democracy in their country; fear of Chinese influence is by contrast 38%, and fear of Russian influence is lowest at 28%. The findings may in part reflect views on US comparative power, but they show neither the US, nor the G7, can simply assume the mantle of defenders of democracy.

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 6, 2021 at 7:26am

Long list of Pakistani grant recipients from NED (National Endowment For Democracy), a well-known CIA front:

https://www.ned.org/region/asia/pakistan-2020/

The list includes several journalist organizations.

Media Matters for Democracy

$125,000

To strengthen the knowledge and capacity of information producers, journalists, and the public to identify and counter online disinformation. The grantee will conduct research on digital disinformation and develop a toolkit and an online resource hub. The organization will conduct trainings to help participants identify disinformation online and teach techniques to verify information and detect digital manipulation. The project will also involve the creation of an alliance of journalists and academics that will organize initiatives to counter digital disinformation such as fact checking and media and information literacy campaigns.

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Global Neighbourhood for Media Innovation

$40,000

To strengthen journalists’ skills in fact-checking, investigative journalism, and their ability to identify and counter disinformation in both traditional and digital media. The organization will develop an online media capacity-building project to increase journalists’ skills to counter disinformation and carry out responsible, ethical fact-based reporting. In addition to training for media practitioners, the group will also organize webinars on the dangers of disinformation in digital media and produce videos to promote freedom of expression and independent media.
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Digital Rights Foundation

$66,500

To strengthen digital security and safety for journalists and promote gender sensitive media. The organization will provide trainings on digital security for journalists and advocate for stronger legal protections for journalists and freedom of expression. The project will also include online trainings to promote ethical media reporting on issues such as gender-based violence, discrimination, and harassment. To amplify women’s voices, the group will also produce an online magazine featuring content produced by women on issues of freedom of expression.

-----------------

Promoting Democracy through Citizen Journalism and Digital Storytelling

Interactive Resource Centre

Supplement$73,000

To cultivate the capacity of youth and civil society activists to use digital storytelling and citizen journalism for the promotion of human rights, civic engagement, and democratic values. The grantee will conduct citizen journalism and visual arts trainings for youth; organize an annual documentary film festival and a conference for political cartoonists; and produce video content that promote democratic values and civic participation as well as highlight human rights issues.

----------------

Freedom of Information

$100,000

To promote freedom of expression and enhance media freedoms through independent reporting and citizen journalism. The project will support a media platform that features independent media reporting, investigative journalism, and digital content produced by citizens. The content will focus on issues of human rights, government accountability, and gender equality that are censored or ignored by mainstream media outlets. In addition, the media outlet will launch digital campaigns on public interest issues such as women’s rights.

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 6, 2021 at 7:36am

Raza Rumi is a fellow of National Endowment for Democracy (NED), believed to be a CIA front.

https://www.ned.org/fellows/mr-raza-ahmad-rumi/

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Naya Daur is a propaganda outfit setup by NED (CIA front) operative Raza Rumi in order to promote the narrative of “democracy under threat” & pave way for foreign interference in Pakistan.

https://twitter.com/KhurramDehwar/status/1334236583717986304?s=20

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 22, 2021 at 7:44am

America’s Democratic Model Tarnished, yet Still Powerful
Trump’s election claims and the Jan. 6 riot damaged U.S. reputation, but that view shifted toward the positive since President Biden took office

https://www.wsj.com/articles/americas-democratic-model-tarnished-ye...

When President Biden began last week’s trip through Europe that culminated in a summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he said a main mission was to prove the power of democracies over dictatorships: “We have to discredit those who believe that the age of democracy is over, as some of our fellow nations believe,” he said.

Which raises the question of how America is doing as a democratic model for the rest of the world. And on that front, there is some work to do. The model is tarnished—badly tarnished by some measures.

The good news, though, is that some of the old shine is still there, despite all the U.S. has done to diminish it in recent years. Indeed, the democratic model’s enduring power actually may be breaking through.

Both the short-term damage and long-term hope are on display in a remarkable survey released this month by the Pew Research Center. Pew compiled the results of interviews on perceptions of America with more than 16,000 citizens from 16 advanced economies in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

The most depressing findings are the ones showing the damage done by recent years’ vicious polarization, former President Donald Trump’s ongoing claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, and the actions of the violent mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. In 14 of the 16 nations surveyed, majorities of respondents said democracy in the U.S. used to be a good example, but hasn’t been in recent years. And that sentiment was nearly a majority opinion in Italy and Greece, the only countries where it fell just below 50%.

-------------

The reality, though, is that neither Russia nor China has much in the way of real friendships around the world. The Russians intimidate their neighbors into acquiescence, and the Chinese use their economic power to buy ad hoc alliances, as they have with Pakistan and in Africa.


As former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel points out, nobody is in the streets of foreign capitals clamoring for the adoption of a Russian or a Chinese model of authoritarian rule in their land.

By contrast, people are still clamoring for democracy. When police in Hong Kong, acting to enforce a Chinese-inspired security law, last week arrested five top editors and executives of a pro-democracy newspaper, citizens of Hong Kong lined up to buy the newspaper in a demonstration of support. The Apple Daily increased its press run fivefold to keep up with the popular demand, the Associated Press reported.

So, while U.S. politicians seem to be doing their best to diminish the American model, it may be enduring anyway.

Comment by Riaz Haq on July 16, 2021 at 1:38pm

It's not just #Trump supporters on the far right but liberal icon Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is an Anti-vaxxer Icon. Before his Instagram was shut down, RFK Jr. posted a photo of his father speaking with Martin Luther King Jr. #Covid_19 #vaccine https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/05/how-robert-f-kennedy-jr-bec... via @VanityFair

Despite the newfound glut of vaccine information, Kennedy has made it his mission to spread “awareness” firsthand through his website, and at private fundraising events like the one held at the Malibu Fig Ranch near Point Dume—an area he knows well. In 2014, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. married former Curb Your Enthusiasm star (and longtime Los Angeleno) Cheryl Hines at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, in a ceremony attended by various family members, including Kennedy’s brother Joe and mother Ethel, as well as Larry and Cazzie David, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The bridal party included Kennedy’s six children and Hines’s daughter. Kennedy had previously lived in the Mount Kisco area of Westchester, New York. Soon after their wedding the couple purchased a Point Dume compound comprising a four-bedroom primary residence, two guesthouses, a pool house, and a two-story treehouse, in a community that includes Julia Roberts and Chris Martin, where residents bump down manicured streets on golf carts to the keyed-access beach Little Dume. When they sold that home three years later for more than $6 million, it was described as “reminiscent of a Connecticut compound with mature trees and beautiful landscaped flat grounds.” Their new house in Brentwood, reportedly purchased for $5.2 million, is a “Monterey colonial.” Hines, while active in fundraising for cerebral palsy research—and a one-time star of a pro-whooping cough booster vaccine PSA—has seemingly remained quiet about her husband’s stance on vaccinations. Through a representative, Hines declined to comment.

“It is imperative for us to come together as we face the loss of so many of our personal freedoms,” wrote Denise Young, the executive director of the Children’s Health Defense’s California chapter, in an email to Malibu Fig Ranch event attendees, obtained by V.F. Those freedoms, she wrote, include “our choice over what we put into our bodies, uncensored media, and the right to transparency on the full effects of 5G and wireless products.” (The last is one of Kennedy’s newer crusades.) Malibu was a bastion of anti-vax sentiment long before COVID-19; in 2014, a local whooping cough outbreak aligned with a seriously lowered rate of vaccinations among children at Santa Monica and Malibu schools; that year and the next measles outbreaks also hit California hard. (For context: From 1956 to 1960, before the introduction of the measles vaccine, an average of 450 Americans died of the virus each year, at a rate of about 1 in 1,000 reported cases. Between October 1988 and May 2021, just 19 petitions for compensation for an alleged measles vaccine-related death were filed.)

“The way we promote health, and the way public health agencies promote health, is to really focus on individual level solutions,” says Jennifer Reich, a professor of sociology at the University of Colorado Denver, and the author of the 2016 book Calling the Shots: Why Parents Reject Vaccines. “People are told that their personal behaviors can mitigate disease risk. What I’ve heard from parents a lot was, We’re really healthy. We eat organic food, I breastfed my children, which provided immune protection. This idea that somehow personal behaviors and hard work—or even vigilance to pay attention to who might be seemingly infected—could successfully prevent infectious disease is just scientifically untrue.”

Comment by Riaz Haq on July 16, 2021 at 1:38pm

The U.S. Constitution is hopelessly outdated. It’s time to re-envision it
Americans view the constitution as a sacred text, even as its flaws are becoming more glaring

https://www.salon.com/2020/12/10/the-us-constitution-is-hopelessly-...

The electoral crisis, the decline of trust in government, and gross income inequality in the United States may seem like separate issues. But they have a surprising, common origin: the US Constitution, or more accurately, its shortcomings. Indeed, the depth of multiple crises in our nation in 2020 — if not their existence entirely — are all rooted in our flawed Constitution and the judicial decisions that it has facilitated.

If you don't believe us, consider the following:

The electoral crisis would not have occurred if the Presidential winner was based on the popular vote instead of the Electoral College — an institution born of slavery.

The human impact of the pandemic would be less severe if health care, food, housing and income were deemed inalienable constitutional rights.

Declining public trust in government, a political situation caused by candidates being more beholden to wealthy funders than voters, is due to the Supreme Court ruling that political money in elections is First Amendment–protected "free speech."


Corporate influence in federal politics, including disproportionate receipt of CARES Act funds by large corporations and rules that let corporations get away with not having to list toxic chemicals on food labels, would have been impossible if courts didn't grant multiple constitutional rights over decades to corporate entities ("corporate personhood").

The social justice crisis of ongoing police brutality against people of color and mistreatment of immigrants on our border would not have happened if the "We the People" line in the constitution actually included all people.

The Supreme Court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett would have been less contentious if Supreme Court Justices weren't constitutionally appointed for life and had not granted themselves the ultimate power of "judicial review" – to review any legislative or executive action.

And the fires, floods, hurricanes and other increasing destructive impact of human-caused climate change would have been far less severe if our constitution affirmed basic rights to nature.

And that's just the beginning.

Constitutions at their best reflect national inspirations and aspirations. They define the legal framework of how people structure their societies. Moreover, constitutions are moral or ethical documents — designating what is right and wrong — with profound implications on literally every aspect of people's lives, their communities, country and the natural world.

Americans view the the US Constitution and its framers with a reverence that is almost religious, as if it were a stone tablet delivered by Moses descending from Mt. Sinai. The constitution's perceived sacredness implies that it is only to be minimally and periodically amended, overseen by legal priests with exclusive knowledge of what should and should not be altered.

Overlooked in the centuries-long myth and lore of the perceived hallowed document has been the fact that the white, male, property-owning (including enslaved human beings) framers originally established rules favoring property rights over human rights – and made it nearly impossible for the public to change the rules.

Yet, our Constitution's most democratic features, the ones that reflect our highest collective moral aspirations – the Bill of Rights, and expanding inalienable rights to freed slaves and women through various Amendments – were the result of successful social movements organized by people who weren't so-called Founding Fathers.

Comment by Riaz Haq on October 31, 2021 at 1:24pm

TUCKER CARLSON GOES FULL 1/6 TRUTHER IN NEW FOX DOC
The Fox News star came under fire for framing the Trump-incited Capitol attack as a false flag operation, with colleague Geraldo Rivera calling “bullshit” and Liz Cheney urging Rupert Murdoch to step in.
BY CALEB ECARMA

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/10/tucker-carlson-january-6-tr...

“The helicopters have left Afghanistan, and now they’ve landed here at home.” While discussing the three-part series on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Fox’s most popular host said that he believes “it answers a lot of the remaining questions” regarding the Capitol riot. “Our conclusion? The U.S. government has in fact launched a new war on terror. But it’s not against al-Qaida, it’s against American citizens,” he added.

On this week’s edition of Carlson’s Fox Nation program, he went as far to say that “you can see why the people who showed up in Washington on January 6 were mad,” and in September, he said that “the vast majority of people inside the Capitol on January 6 were peaceful. They were not insurrectionists, they shouldn’t have been there. They weren’t trying to overthrow the government. That’s a total crock.” Carlson’s remarks echo those of Republican lawmakers who have tried to downplay the deadly attack perpetrated by Trump’s supporters and fueled by his lies—with one congressman even characterizing the riot as a “normal tourist visit.”

In an interview with The New York Times, Fox News host Geraldo Rivera criticized his colleague’s new project. “Tucker’s wonderful, he’s provocative, he’s original, but—man oh man. There are some things that you say that are more inflammatory and outrageous and uncorroborated,” he said. “I worry that—and I’m probably going to get in trouble for this—but I’m wondering how much is done to provoke, rather than illuminate.” He continued: “Messing around with January 6 stuff…. The record to me is pretty damn clear, that there was a riot that was incited and encouraged and unleashed by Donald Trump.” When asked whether or not he would advise the network against airing Carlson’s series, Rivera declined, saying, “That’s not my job. He’s my colleague. He’s my family. Sometimes you have to speak out about your family.” Though Rivera was willing to call “bullshit” on Carlson’s false flag claims in a Thursday-morning tweet.

Fox News did not respond for comment on criticism of Carlson’s series, which was flowing on Twitter.

Comment by Riaz Haq on November 9, 2021 at 11:12am

"This Is the Story of How #Lincoln Broke the (1787) #US #Constitution" by @NoahRFeldman . President Abraham Lincoln replaced it with the “moral” 1865 Constitution with 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, making a decisive break with #slavery. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/02/opinion/constitution-slavery-lin...

First, he waged war on the Confederacy. He did this even though his predecessor, James Buchanan, and Buchanan’s attorney general, Jeremiah Black, had concluded that neither the president nor Congress had the lawful authority to coerce the citizens of seceding states to stay in the Union without their democratic consent. Coercive war, they had argued, repudiated the idea of consent of the governed on which the Constitution was based.

Second, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus unilaterally, without Congress, arresting thousands of political opponents and suppressing the free press and free speech to a degree unmatched in U.S. history before or since. When Chief Justice Roger Taney of the Supreme Court held that the suspension was unconstitutional, Lincoln ignored him.

Lincoln justified both of these constitutional violations by a doubtful theory of wartime necessity: that as chief executive and commander in chief, he possessed the inherent authority to use whatever means necessary to preserve the Union.

Third, and most fatefully, Lincoln came to believe that he also possessed the power to proclaim an end to slavery in the Southern states. When he finally did so, issuing the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863, he eliminated any possibility of returning to the compromise Constitution as it had existed before the war.

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