Video - #DailyShow #JonahGoldberg #Throwback Jonah Goldberg - "Suicide of the West" and Preserving the American Experiment | The Daily Show

#Colbert #ALateShow #Monologue A Terrified President Throws His Riot Mob Under A Bus To Save His Neck (And Get Back On Twitter)

From China: OPINION - EDITORIAL: The US is its own enemy on democracy: Global Times editorial

After riots broke out in the US Capitol, both elites and mainstream media outlets in the US and Western world quickly voiced a common "consensus" - the attackers failed to achieve their goals, and Congress confirmed Joe Biden's win in the US presidential election, proving democracy in the US remains strong. They also pointed their fingers at China, with some claiming the "enemy of democracy" will be happy to see and gloat over the chaos in the Capitol, in an attempt to provoke Americans and mobilize people's will to unite.

This is a true portrayal of US political weakness. As the only superpower in world, the US is meant to be open-minded, tolerant and inclusive. Its own development and self-management should be calm and orderly, and it should leverage its abundant domestic resources to achieve balanced self-management. But now, whenever an unwanted domestic incident occurs, the US cannot wait to find ways to shift the blame to either China or Russia. Its narrative of self-superiority and complaints over the damage it suffers from outside forces combine, creating a very weird ideology.

US President Donald Trump's administration has been adamant that China exported COVID-19 to the US and resulted in the latter's great failures in controlling its domestic epidemic. Trump has now been abandoned by mainstream US elites, but his political logic of using China as a scapegoat has become a common ploy in Washington, and an abusive excuse used to promote so-called US democracy.

How to handle China has become a compulsory question to be answered in US political circles. An increasing number of people are seeking to have Trump removed from the country's highest office, but in truth it is Trump himself who has taught them to think the way they do when it comes to China.

Something has gone wrong with the US political system, it goes without saying. Chinese people are not gloating at the chaos in the Capitol; they are simply unhappy with the US supporting the mob who attacked the Hong Kong Legislative Council. From the perspective of the Chinese people, the attacks in Hong Kong and Washington are very similar. Both were anti-democratic and anti-rule of law. Chinese people hope US elites can learn to put themselves in other's shoes this time, ending their foul game of double standards.

The US used to be idolized by Chinese people, but its image has collapsed. Isn't it the same for the American people? What about Europeans? Hasn't trust in the US from WHO members and Paris climate deal been jeopardized? The Capitol riots are not an isolated incident. The US failed in reining in COVID-19. Despite this, it still arrogantly tells other countries how to handle their own affairs. The US image as our idol collapsed. It does not mean that we think the US has collapsed as a country. It maintains its substantial strengths and advantages. For example, its social structure still features a strong tolerance toward various crises. However, US elites are denying everything led by the Communist Party of China. They believe that even China's achievement of controlling its epidemic, as well as its subsequent economy recovery, is "unclean." If we just compare the objectivity and tolerance in the two sides' mentalities, the US has already lost.

The US will only see its tragedy when it loses its hysterical sense of superiority. The fight between its two main political camps is tearing apart its society. They attack each other, painting the "other side" as being good for nothing. At the same time, they are unable to carry out a trans-partisan reflection on their country's real problems. Because of this, US politics continues going round in circles.

Launching a new cold war against China will not help the US restore its previous balance. Using "democratic pride" to cover up its real problems will only deceive itself.

The true vitality of a country's economy mirrors whether its democracy is real and effective. A country's performance against the current public health crisis, and the numbers of infections and deaths are all important indicators of actual humanitarianism. The US does not dare face these numbers, while shouting aloud about its advanced democracy. Yet its Capitol was attacked, and over the past 24 hours, it recorded almost 4,000 COVID-19 deaths. How long can the country's elites keep fooling their people?

Whether Washington can eliminate its paranoia and restore a spirit of scientific rationality on political issues is key to reversing long-term decline. It built an ideological trap, with which it has trapped itself. Let's wait and see whether Joe Biden will carry out adjustments and make a change.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202101/1212254.shtml

#AmericanDemocracy - 'He's on his own': Some Republicans begin to flee from Trump

Two days after thousands of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, President Donald Trump sits at the most isolated moment of his presidency.

President Donald Trump s steadfast grip on Republicans in Washington is beginning to crumble, leaving him more politically isolated than at any other point in his turbulent administration.

After riling up a crowd that later staged a violent siege of the U.S. Capitol, Trump appears to have lost some of his strongest allies, including South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. Two Cabinet members and at least a half dozen aides have resigned. A handful of congressional Republicans are openly considering whether to join a renewed push for impeachment.

One GOP senator who has split with Trump in the past called on him to resign and questioned whether she would stay in the party.

“I want him out,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told The Anchorage Daily News. "He has caused enough damage.”

The insurrection on the heels of a bruising election loss in Georgia accomplished what other low points in Trump's presidency did not: force Republicans to fundamentally reassess their relationship with a leader who has long abandoned tradition and decorum. The result could reshape the party, threatening the influence that Trump craves while creating a divide between those in Washington and activists in swaths of the country where the president is especially popular.

“At this point, I won’t defend him anymore,” said Ari Fleischer, a former White House press secretary for George W. Bush and a GOP strategist who voted for Trump. “I won't defend him for stirring the pot that incited the mob. He's on his own.”When the week began, Trump was without question the most dominant political force in Republican politics and a 2024 kingmaker, if not the GOP’s next presidential nominee himself. On Friday, there was a growing sense that he was forever tarnished — and may be forced from office before his term expires in 12 days.

The Independent would like to keep you informed about offers, events and updates by email, please tick the box if you would like to be contacted Read our full mailing list consent terms hereAbsent a resignation, calls for a second impeachment on Capitol Hill grew louder on Friday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress would proceed with impeachment proceedings unless Trump leaves office “imminently and willingly.”

President-elect Joe Biden isn't putting his weight behind the effort yet, suggesting there's not enough time between now and his Jan. 20 inauguration to pursue impeachment or any other constitutional remedy.

“I am focused now, on us taking control as president and vice president, on the 20th and getting our agenda moving as quickly as we can,” Biden told reporters.

Trump still has supporters, especially among the many rank-and-file Republican voters and conservative activists beyond Washington.

On Thursday morning, there was loud applause and shouts of “We love you!” when Trump phoned into a breakfast meeting of the Republican National Committee in Florida.

“The vast majority of the committee is in full denial,” said Republican National Committee member Bill Palatucci, of New Jersey, who attended the breakfast. “They’re willing to condemn the violence, but without any reference to the president’s role in any of it." The president insists he did nothing wrong. He continues to tell aides, privately at least, that the election was stolen from him. Republican officials in critical battleground states, his recently departed attorney general and a series of judges — including those appointed by Trump — have rejected those claims as meritless.Trump had to be convinced to record the video released Thursday night in which he finally condemned the rioters and acknowledged his November defeat for the first time, while initially pushing back at the prospect of speaking negatively of “my people."

He ultimately agreed to record the video after White House counsel Pat Cipollone warned that he could face legal jeopardy for inciting the riot. Others, including chief of staff Mark Meadows and his daughter Ivanka Trump, urged Trump to send out a message that may quell the talk of his forcible ouster from office, either by impeachment or constitutional procedures outlined in the 25th Amendment.

And while Trump acknowledged in the video that a new administration would take over on Jan. 20, he also said Friday that he would not attend Biden’s inauguration. That makes Trump the first outgoing president since Andrew Johnson 152 years ago to skip the swearing-in of his successor.Trump has no plans to disappear from the political debate once he leaves office, according to aides who believe he remains wildly popular among the Republican rank-and-file.Lest there be any doubt, Trump’s false claims about voter fraud in his November loss resonated with hundreds of thousands of Republican voters in Georgia's Senate runoff elections this week. About 7 in 10 agreed with his false assertion that Biden was not the legitimately elected president, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 3,700 voters.

Leading Republican pollster Frank Luntz has had extensive conversations with grassroots voters and Republican officials about Trump's standing since the siege.

“The professionals are running away from a sinking ship, but his own supporters have not abandoned him, and they actually want him to fight on,” Luntz said. “He’s become the voice of God for tens of millions of people, and they will follow him to the ends of the earth and off the cliff.”

And because of the voters' continued loyalty, elected officials in deep red areas must remain loyal to the outgoing president as well, even if his own Cabinet does not. In the hours after this week's riot, 147 Republicans in Congress still voted to reject Biden's victory, including eight senators.

The dramatic split in the party is reflected within the divergent paths adopted by the early slate of 2024 Republican presidential prospects.

Sens. Josh Hawley, of Missouri, and Ted Cruz, of Texas, embraced Trump's calls to reject Biden's victory before and after the mob attack. Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton resisted Trump's wishes, drawing an angry tweet from the president earlier in the week.

Such attacks didn't carry as much weight at the end of the week as they once did given Trump’s weakened political state. On Thursday, Cotton chastised Republican colleagues like Hawley and Cruz, who had given voters “false hope” that Trump's November loss could be overturned.

Nikki Haley, who served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, tried to toe the line as she condemned Trump's actions this week during a closed-door meeting with the Republican National Committee.

She lauded some of Trump’s accomplishments but predicted that, “His actions since Election Day will be judged harshly by history."Meanwhile, there is no clear path for the Republican Party without Trump. Speaking to reporters on Friday, even Biden raised concerns about the health of the GOP.“We need a Republican Party,” Biden said, noting that he spoke with Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, a leading Trump critic. “We need an opposition that’s principled and strong.”Meanwhile, Trump has been plotting ways to retain his political clout once he moves from the White House to his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, later in the month.

Believing his supporters will stick with him no matter what, he has continued to discuss encouraging primary challenges against Republicans who haven't been sufficiently loyal to him. And he has hinted publicly and privately that he will likely challenge Biden in a 2024 rematch.

Doug Deason, a Texas-based donor who s

erved on the Trump campaign's finance committee, said this week's events have done nothing to shake his confidence in the Republican president.

“He has been the best President in my lifetime, including Reagan,” Deason said.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/hes-on-his-own-some-republicans-begin-to-flee-from-trump-donald-trump-republicans-joe-biden-senator-lisa-murkowski-b1784740.html

#NYT - By The Editorial Board - Awe and Shock How the world reacted to the Trumpist mob that sacked the heart of American democracy.

Around the world, the shock of Wednesday’s assault on Capitol Hill brought into sharp focus a question that has been smoldering for four years among America’s allies and adversaries. “And again the doubt,” wrote Emma Riverola in El Periódico de Catalunya, a Barcelona daily, in painfully graphic terms. “Is this just a final burst of pus? Or has the infection spread, now threatening to cause a sepsis of the entire system?”

Was Donald Trump an aberration or the ominous onset of decline in the world’s premier democracy? The question echoed in democracies beset in recent years by populist movements nurtured by the same blend of far-right nationalism and blue-collar grievances as President Trump’s following. “That evening will be remembered,” wrote Austria’s Kleine Zeitung, “as an evening when even the oldest and longest-existing democracy clearly saw the edge of the abyss.” If this could happen in Washington, with its rock-solid democratic institutions, no one was immune.

From the other end of the geopolitical spectrum, entrenched authoritarian regimes exulted in the disarray in a superpower accustomed to hectoring and sanctioning them over their suppression of democratic and human rights. What we saw in Washington, declared President Hassan Rouhani of Iran, was “above all how fragile and vulnerable Western democracy is.” The same American leaders who now condemned the mob in Washington had hailed demonstrators who invaded the Hong Kong legislature as “heroes,” noted the Chinese foreign ministry: “The contrast deserves profound reflection.” Similar sentiments sounded in Moscow, which inherited a tiresome reliance on “whataboutism” from the Soviet Union.

The gang of authoritarians would do well to ponder that Mr. Trump has been voted out of office, while in the time-honored tradition of disgraced demagogues, his once-staunch acolytes were fleeing through the cracks. Yet their schadenfreude does underscore the great damage done by Wednesday’s spectacle to America’s proud claim to be the leader of the free world, and to the hope and support its voice offered to people fighting for democracy.

To friends and foes, and through triumphs and crises, the United States has stood as the standard of democracy and freedom since the last two world wars. When it was criticized and even reviled — whether over the Vietnam War, the arms race of the Cold War or the Watergate scandal — it was over its failure to live up to its own standards, and Americans were always quick to reassure its allies “We’re better than that,” a cry heard often among Mr. Trump’s detractors today. The Soviet Union and tyrants of all stripes paid a perverse homage to the American model by feigning democratic elections and concocting high-sounding constitutions that they never intended to follow.

The certainties were fraying even before Mr. Trump came to office and launched his assault on democratic practices and the media, as he systematically belittled allies, courted dictators, ripped up treaties and shape a political base out of lies, conspiracy theories, racism and grievance. Hungary’s authoritarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, proudly rejected liberal democracy to full-throated support from Mr. Trump.

Yet even after four years of all that, the images of thugs in the faux-military or clownish costumes favored by violent radicals the world over invading the Congress came as a profound shock. This was not supposed to happen here.

“The United States has fallen to the level of Latin American countries,” was the self-disparaging verdict of Brazil’s O Globo.

In graphic, immediate terms, the assault on the Capitol touched the darkest memories and fears of democracies the world over. Among the allies, Germany in particular found haunting parallels between the scenes in the Capitol and its own history, both the hijacking of a weak democracy by Adolf Hitler and the more recent attempt in August by a far-right mob protesting coronavirus restrictions to rush the Reichstag, the German parliament building in Berlin. Chancellor Angela Merkel, raised in the East German police state and a sharp critic of Mr. Trump from the dawn of his administration, declared that the images “made me angry and sad,” and did not hesitate to put the blame on Mr. Trump.

President Emmanuel Macron of France, who had initially tried, and failed, to befriend Mr. Trump, underscored the gravity of the moment in a speech, delivered partly in English, in which he declared that the “temple of American democracy” had been attacked. “A universal idea — that of ‘one person, one vote’ — is undermined,” he declared. Boris Johnson, the British prime minister who had seen a promising ally in Mr. Trump, decried the “disgraceful scenes” in Washington.

For Richard Haass, a long-serving diplomat and president of the Council on Foreign Relations, it was nothing less than the end of an era. “We are seeing images that I never imagined we would see in this country — in some other capital, yes, but not here,” he tweeted. “No one in the world is likely to see, respect, fear or depend on us in the same way again. If the post-American era has a start date, it is almost certainly today.”

The shock will wear off. The inauguration of a president more in tune with the democratic world’s perception of an American leader will be a strong demonstration of the resilience of American democracy, and President-elect Joe Biden has promised rapid action to undo the worst damage done abroad by Mr. Trump. The raging coronavirus pandemic will resume its proper place at the top of the global agenda.

But the depth and anguish of the world’s reaction indicate that something very basic in America’s relationship with the world has been broken. It will take more than Mr. Biden insisting “We’re better than that” to convince democratic friends or dictatorial adversaries that the assault on the heart of American democracy by Mr. Trump’s zealous followers was just a temporary malfunction.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/opinion/world-capitol-attack-trump.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

Video - #imrankhan #Balochistan عمران خان کی طرف سے بلوچستان کے مقتولین کے لواحقین پر بلیک میلنگ کا الزام ؟

Video - #KhabarSayAagay #NayaDaur #Hazara I Will Not Be Blackmailed: Imran Khan On Hazara Dharna

#HazaraGenocide - 'Truly heartless': PM Imran draws ire for suggesting 'blackmail' by Hazaras

 

People from all walks of life criticise PM for "insensitive" remarks equating grieving protesters with corruption politicians.

Amidst countrywide protests, and with political pressure snowballing, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday once again urged the Shia Hazara community in Balochistan to bury the bodies of coal miners killed in a gruesome attack in the Mach area over the weekend.

This would have been just like appeals many other political leaders have issued to the grieving Hazaras— except the premier's choice of words today, suggesting the protesters were "blackmailing" him by refusing to bury their loved ones until he visits them, sparked a fresh social media storm.

"We have accepted all of their demands. [But] one of their demands is that the dead will be buried when the premier visits. I have sent them a message that when all of your demands have been accepted [...] you don't blackmail the prime minister of any country like this," the prime minister said while speaking at a ceremony in Islamabad and as calls for him to visit Quetta grew louder.

 "Anyone will blackmail the prime minister then," he emphasised, adding that this included a "band of crooks" — an apparent reference to the opposition. "This blackmail has also been ongoing for two-and-a-half years."

Imran also asked the protesters to first bury the miners' bodies, saying he would visit them as soon as they do so.

The remarks quickly set off a furore on social media where analysts, politicians, journalists and citizens alike criticised Prime Minister Imran for being "insensitive" and "lacking empathy" for the Hazaras who are continuing their protest for the sixth straight day on Friday. Besides other hashtags criticising the government response, #ApatheticPMIK was the top trend on Twitter in Pakistan.

Accompanied by the coffins of the slain miners and braving the biting cold, the mourners, including women and children, have refused to leave Quetta's western bypass area until the premier visits and the killers are brought to justice.

Following are some reactions to the prime minister's latest comments:

Journalist Amber Rahim Shamsi said Prime Minister Imran after suggesting he was being blackmailed had "negotiated" with the Hazaras, asking them to bury their dead first.

"As if the most marginalised mourners should be told how to mourn, how to protest, how to seek comfort," she wrote on Twitter.

She also shared pictures of the distraught protesters, saying the premier had equated these "blackmailers" with leaders of opposition parties.

Journalist and Dawn Islamabad resident editor Fahd Husain termed the prime minister's remarks "a very poor choice of words".

"Such framing lacks empathy and insults those already devastated by tragedy. PM should take the words back," he said.

MNA Mohsin Dawar said he was shocked by the premier's "callousness", but not surprised. "The Hazara community has suffered a lot, They continue being targeted & killed & when they mourn their martyrs our PM calls them blackmailers," he said.

Senior journalist Hamid Mir commented that the people participating in the protest sit-in along with the deceased miners' coffins were "no less than corpses themselves", asking "how could they blackmail anyone?"

Referring to Prime Minister Imran's remark that he would visit Quetta only when the protesters buried the miners' bodies, lawyer and legal adviser Reema Omar said, "Going by this logic, [it] appears as if it is the PM who is 'blackmailing' the families of the martyrs and the persecuted Hazara community by making his visit to Quetta conditional upon the burial of the deceased.'

Author and columnist Nadeem Farooq Paracha said the government had suggested that "a besieged community asking for sympathy equals to it resorting to blackmail".

"What else has this community left — to be heard and seen — apart from refusing to bury its murdered members? Nothing."

Analyst and columnist Mosharraf Zaidi said the premier through his remarks had "[turned] the tables on the families of those killed in a terror attack".

"What great negotiating skills. What empathy," he wrote sarcastically.

TV presenter and journalist Saima Mohsin was also critical of Imran for suggesting the Hazaras were blackmailing him and for "aligning" them "corrupt politicians".

"Who is advising him and where is his own conscience? ill-advised," she tweeted.

Writer Sajjad H. Changezi said the prime minister had "insulted our bereaved mothers who have been sitting with the bodies of their sons whose throats were slit ruthlessly".

He also announced a hunger strike to protest the premier's remarks.

Journalist and TV host Zarrar Khuhro tweeted that Prime Minister Imran's comments reflected "not an ounce of empathy. Just narcissism it seems. What a fall from the strident tones of 2012."

Researcher and journalist Rabia Mehmood remarked that if Muslims in France or India had been targeted in an incident like the Hazara and demanded that French President Emmanuel Macron or Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visit them, Prime Minister Imran "by now, would have tweeted threads, issued statements [and] written to the UN over their refusal to go for condolence".

Academic and columnist Umair Javed said the prime minister could not "even feign empathy", terming his remarks "truly heartless".

Reflecting on the premier's remarks today, prominent religious scholar Allama Shahenshah Hussain Naqvi said: "Imran Khan has refused to budge against the oppressed."

Lawyer and activist Jibran Nasir in a tweet said: "The elder of a family is often awaited for the funeral of a deceased but the elder of our home is so ungenerous that he thinks of this wait as blackmail."

While commenting on the premier's choice of words, journalist and anchor Sana Bucha said: "The people who get blackmailed by lifeless bodies are those who are alive themselves."

Policy analyst and communications consultant Dawar Butt, while comparing Prime Minister Imran with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who was widely praised for visiting Muslims in Christchurch soon after the 2019 mosque attacks in her country, wrote sarcastically: "Jacinda Ardern got blackmailed. We won’t!"

Filmmaker and journalist Hasan Zaidi in a tweet said the prime minister "can’t manage economy. Can’t do governance. Now he doesn’t even want to do empathy. What exactly is his selling point, remind me again?"

Stand-up comedian Shehzad Ghias Shaikh said Prime Minister Imran allegedly thought of Hazara protestors as blackmailers "because he never believed in any of the causes he protested for. Imran Khan always used his protests as a way to blackmail the government, so naturally he thinks everybody else does the same."

---

https://www.dawn.com/news/1600397/truly-heartless-pm-imran-draws-ire-for-suggesting-blackmail-by-hazaras

#HazaraGenocide #کچھ_تو_شرم_کھاؤ_عمران_خان #ImranKhan - PPP demands an apology from Imran Khan

  Secretary General Pakistan Peoples Party, Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari has demanded an apology from Imran Khan for calling the bereaved families of Hazara martyrs blackmailers.

In a statement Nayyar Hussain Bukhari said that calling people in grief blackmailers represents the low mentality of Imran Khan. This statement of Imran Khan is height of insensitivity. He has shamed the entire Pakistani nation with his despicable personality. Imran Khan should ask for an apology from the Hazara community and the nation, Bukhari demanded.
In a separate statement information secretary PPP, Faisal Karim Kundi has said that the egoistic Imran Khan should be ashamed of his words and he demands of Imran Khan to immediately take his words back. He said that treating a grieving community with such disdain represents a sick mind. It seems that the selected Prime Minister Imran Khan has embarrassed his selectors as well. The selectors must be reviewing their choice, he said. Kundi said that the Hazara community should not pin hopes with such a hopeless puppet prime minister. The entire nation is grieving and mourning the Machh tragedy but the egoistic person who suffers from illusory perception of himself is calling the mournful community blackmailers. Nothing could be more disgraceful than this narrative, Kundi said.

https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/24281/

وزیراعظم عمران خان کے بیان پر ہیومن رائٹس کمیشن کا شدید حیرت کا اظہار

ہیومین رائٹس کمیشن (ایچ آر سی) پاکستان نے وزیراعظم عمران خان کے بیان پر شدید حیرت کا اظہار کردیا ہے۔

اپنے بیان میں ایچ آر سی نے وزیراعظم کے کوئٹہ میں ہزارہ برادری کے دھرنے سے متعلق بلیک میل کرنے کے بیان پر شدید حیرت کا اظہار کیا ہے۔

ایچ آر سی نے مزید کہا کہ کوئٹہ کی ہزارہ برادری نسل کشی کی حد تک مظالم کا شکار ہے، ایسی مظلوم برادری کو بلیک میلر قرار دینا ہتک آمیز ہے۔

بیان میں یہ بھی کہا کہ ہزارہ متاثرین کا تحفظ اور ان کے مطالبات ماننا وزیراعظم عمران خان کے فرائض منصبی میں شامل ہے۔

ایچ آر سی کا کہنا تھاکہ ریاست ہزارہ برادری کے تحفظ اور آزادیوں کے لیے فوری اقدامات کرے۔

https://jang.com.pk/news/869616