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OPINION: - The Ascension of Bernie Sanders

BY MAUREEN DOWD

I want to talk to Bernie about Balenciaga. And Britney. And Dua Lipa, Sha’Carri Richardson and Joe Manchin’s houseboat. And whether he prefers red or white horseradish on his gefilte fish. And the state of capitalism, and the absurd price of a Birkin bag.

We settle into a retro yellow booth at Henry’s Diner and I pull out a thick sheaf of questions. Eyeing it suspiciously, he asks with that booming Brooklyn accent, “You givin’ a speech?”

He reaches into his shirt pocket and pulls out his own piece of paper, a list of items written in his loopy scrawl. These are the only things he’s here to talk about.

At 79, Bernie Sanders is a man on a mission, laser-focused on a list that represents trillions of dollars in government spending that he deems essential. When I stray into other subjects, the senator jabs his finger at his piece of paper or waves it in my face, like Van Helsing warding off Dracula with a cross.

“Maureen, let me just tell you what we’re trying to do here,” he says. “We’re working on what I think is the most consequential piece of legislation for working families since the 1930s.”Sanders, long a wilderness prophet in Washington, a man who wrote a memoir bragging about being an outsider, admits that it is strange to be a key member of The Establishment. As the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, the democratic socialist is now pulling the levers in the control room.He has changed the whole debate in the nation’s capital. He is the guy trying to yank his party back to its working-class roots and steer President Biden in a bolder, more progressive direction.Mirabile dictu: A president and senator who are both pushing 80, men who were underestimated and dismissed for years in Democratic circles, are now teaming up to transform the country. It’s the Bernie and Joe show.

Sanders passionately believes that the only way to undo the damage done by Donald Trump and Trumpism is by showing that government can deliver, that good policy can overcome dangerous conspiracy theories and lies.

“I would have loved to run against him, to tell you the truth,” he says of Trump. “He’s a fraud and he’s a phony. That’s what he is, and he has to be exposed for that.”

Even with Trump out of office, Sanders feels we are still on the precipice. Democrats need to speak to the struggles of the white working class, he says, something that “sometimes part of the Democratic elite does not fully appreciate.” He adds: “We’ve got to take it to them. I intend, as soon as I have three minutes, to start going into Trumpworld and start talking to people.”

“It’s absolutely imperative if democracy is to survive that we do everything that we can to say, ‘Yes, we hear your pain and we are going to respond to your needs.’ That’s really what this is about. If we don’t do that, I fear very much that conspiracy theories and big lies and the drift toward authoritarianism is going to continue. You got all these folks out there who are saying, ‘Does anybody pay attention to me?’”

Sanders is a purist who doesn’t like to acknowledge how intertwined the personal and political can be. Yet he and Biden have a bond that could have a profound effect on the lives of Americans.

While the two men disagree on a lot of things, the former Senate colleagues and 2020 rivals share a mutual respect. Sanders has easy access to the White House. It is a big difference from the way he was treated in 2016 by Clinton, Inc. Not only did Hillary’s henchmen run a nasty campaign and try to rig the primaries; Hillary herself would later say about him in a 2020 documentary: “Nobody likes him. Nobody wants to work with him.”

Sanders says he gives the president a lot of credit for looking at the budget not just as numbers on a spreadsheet but as a chance to reshape the American identity.

“Who denies the realities of what he is taking on?” Sanders says, digging into some eggs over easy and white toast. “Does anyone deny that our child care system, for example, is a disaster? Does anyone deny that pre-K, similarly, is totally inadequate? Does anyone deny that there’s something absurd that our young people can’t afford to go to college or are leaving school deeply in debt? Does anybody deny that our physical infrastructure is collapsing? Does anybody except anti-science people deny that climate change is real? Does anyone deny that we have a major health care crisis? Does anyone deny that we pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs? Does anyone deny we have a housing crisis? Does anyone deny that half the people live paycheck to paycheck?”

Sanders, who has talked about spending up to $6 trillion on the reconciliation package, says he will not support a two- or three-trillion-dollar bill. “That’s much too low.”

What about grumbling coming from members of the progressive wing that they want Sanders to stay a hell-raiser, not be a bridge-builder who gives Biden and the center-left cover?“You know politics,” he answers with a shrug. “You can’t please all of the people all of the time.” He adds that he sees this moment as a chance to “address concerns progressives have had for decades.”

Sanders was a lonely voice on democratic socialism for decades; now he has a squad to keep him company.

He lights up talking about “Alexandria, Rashida, Ilhan, Pramila, Ayanna from Massachusetts,” noting that “they really came from very much the same place that I was coming from, and they all came from different parts of the world.” Still, Sanders is not in lock step with the most progressive members of his party on everything. He says, for example, that he prefers “fundamental reform” to defunding the police.

“A cop’s life is a difficult life,” he says, sounding like the mayor he once was. “Schedules are terrible. Salaries, in many cases, are inadequate. It’s a dangerous job. It’s a job with a lot of pressure. We need to significantly improve training for the police. In certain communities, what is going on is absolutely unacceptable. It must be changed, period. We cannot have racism in policing. If you go to Black communities or Latino communities, they want this protection.”

When I ask Sanders if he thinks A.O.C. could be president someday, out comes the list.

“That’s not what I want to get into,” he barks. “I want to get into what this legislation is about.”

“You don’t want to discuss ‘Free Britney’?” I ask.

“No.”

But I get him on the American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson being suspended from the U.S. Olympics team because of marijuana use.

“I think it speaks to the problems of the so-called war on drugs,” he says. “So I have a problem with that.”

Sitting across from Sanders in this little diner in this little town, it’s wild to contemplate that the 79-year-old has become an icon of popular culture, beloved by people under 30, featured in this month’s Vanity Fair cover story as a friend of pop star Dua Lipa, and that he was an inspiration for a Balenciaga show in Paris in 2017.

He rolls his eyes at fashion. “I’m not chic,” he says. “I’m the least chic person in the world. Trust me.” He’s also unimpressed by billionaires and their toys.

“You have the richest guys in the world who are not particularly worried about earth anymore,” he says. “They’re off in outer space.” People are sleeping on the streets, but “Mr. Bezos is worth $200 billion and now he wants to get a spaceship. That’s very nice. That’s what this legislation is about, Maureen. I want to talk about this legislation.”

But wait, what does he think of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s lurking around A.O.C.’s office and calling her “a little communist”?

“You’re getting off the subject here,” Sanders chides, before relenting: “Look, she is the future of a segment of the Republican Party which is delusional, which tends toward violence.” He adds: “It’s not just Jan. 6. It’s taking place at state capitols. There’s people walking around with guns.”

If he were not a senator, he says, he might want to do something in media, helping journalists relate to the working class and correctly define political terms like “liberal”: “Liberals want to do nice things. And progressives understand that you have to take on powerful special interests to make it happen.” Before the senator leaves to work the phones, he returns to his list with one last directive: “Tell people what we are trying to accomplish.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/10/opinion/bernie-sanders-interview-maureen-dowd.html

Joe Biden, 20th Century Trustbuster

 Antitrust lesson 101: Big government often makes big business bigger.

President Biden has modeled his spending agenda on the Great Society and New Deal. Now he wants to take antitrust policy back to the early 20th century. Or at least that’s how it looks from his executive order on Friday to regulate competition and impose more government control over the private economy.

“In the early 1900s, Teddy Roosevelt’s Administration broke up the trusts controlling the economy—Standard Oil, J.P. Morgan’s railroads, and others—giving the little guy a fighting chance,” his summary states. Mr. Biden now wants to use regulation to break up Big Tech, finance, agriculture and healthcare companies, among others.

At least two parts of his order are encouraging. He directs Health and Human Services to let hearing aids be sold over the counter, which would offset federal rules that make the devices more expensive than necessary. He also encourages the Federal Trade Commission to ban unnecessary occupational licensing, which is long overdue. These are the government barriers to entry that stymie entrepreneurs, often minorities, in services like hair-braiding or plumbing.

These are deregulatory actions, but the rest of his order is about enhancing government power. Courts for more than a century have applied antitrust law based on the “rule of reason.” Scholars and judges across the political spectrum, including Phillip Areeda and Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, have shifted antitrust focus from market concentration to economic analysis and consumer welfare.The new Brandeisians in the Biden Administration led by the National Economic Council’s Tim Wu (godfather of net neutrality) and FTC chair Lina Khan want to replace the rule of reason with the rule of politics. Mr. Biden’s order includes 72 directives that mostly aim to shackle businesses.Consider railroads. Government regulation of railroad rates was among the great failures of the 20th century. It reduced private investment and service and drove many carriers into bankruptcy. Congress abandoned it in 1980, but Mr. Biden wants to revive it. His order summary says there are only seven Class I freight railroads compared to 33 four decades ago. Yet freight prices have dropped 44% since 1981. Mr. Biden wants to force railroads to hand over freight traffic to competitors, which would reduce private investment and shipping efficiencies.

He also instructs the Federal Communications Commission to restore the Obama -era “net neutrality” rules that regulated broadband providers like railroads. Investment fell after the FCC imposed net neutrality, then surged after the Trump FCC liberated carriers. Broadband last year cost 20.2% less and was 15.7% faster than in 2015.

One reason is fierce competition. Democrats opposed the T-Mobile-Sprint merger in 2018, but it has boosted wireless competition and investment. The tie-up shows how business consolidation can improve consumer welfare. Economies of scale can reduce prices. Size also gives businesses more leverage to negotiate lower prices with suppliers.Prescription drug prices have fallen 2% since 2018 as the Food and Drug Administration has approved more generics and second-line therapies. Competition is working. But Mr. Biden nonetheless orders Health and Human Services to “issue a comprehensive plan within 45 days to combat high prescription drug prices and price gouging.” Translation: Government price controls, which will reduce innovation and investment in new treatments.

It’s no coincidence that consolidation has been greatest in the two industries that have experienced the biggest increase in regulation over the last decade—finance since Dodd-Frank and healthcare since ObamaCare.

Bigger businesses can more easily absorb regulatory costs. After ObamaCare limited insurer profits, Aetna and Cigna merged with more remunerative pharmaceutical benefit managers. Medicaid expansion and low government reimbursement rates have driven hospitals to consolidate to augment their pricing leverage with insurers.

ObamaCare’s “accountable care organizations” gave hospitals an incentive to acquire physician practices. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, primary-care-practice market concentration in metropolitan areas increased 29% between 2010 and 2016. A bigger government makes big business bigger.

Mr. Biden especially has Big Tech in his bull’s eye. His order decrees “greater scrutiny of mergers, especially by dominant internet platforms.” But many tech acquisitions increase competition and benefit consumers. Amazon’s purchase of PillPack drove retail pharmacies to offer free prescription drug shipments. Specific Big Tech behavior, such as Google’s digital ad practices, may deserve antitrust scrutiny. But breaking up companies merely because of their size will take years to litigate with uncertain consequences and could help foreign companies more than consumers.

That was the hard-earned antitrust lesson of the 20th century, and it appears Mr. Biden wants to doom us to repeat it.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-biden-20th-century-trustbuster-11625869633?mod=trending_now_opn_sf_pos2

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World Media Reports: #Afghanistan #Taliban Afghanistan🇦🇫 on The Brink: Taliban Advances as a Defeated US Withdraws (Ex-Afghan Amb. To China)

Pakistan: Why RSF deems PM Khan a 'press freedom predator'

Daniel Bastard, Asia-Pacific director at Reporters Without Borders (RSF), told DW that Pakistani authorities are trying to censor and intimidate journalists who dare to not toe the government's line.

Pakistan, After Rooting for Afghanistan’s Taliban, Faces a Blowback

 By Saeed Shah

Islamabad wants a negotiated agreement, fears that outright Taliban takeover would galvanize Pakistani jihadists.

For two decades, a large part of the Pakistani security establishment rooted for the Taliban in the Afghan war. Now that the Taliban are taking over vast tracts of the country and seem to be on the cusp of seizing power, panic is spreading through Pakistan’s halls of power.

Ever since the 2001 U.S. invasion ousted the Pakistani-backed Taliban regime in Kabul, Pakistan’s powerful military has unofficially provided carefully calibrated support to the group, allowing Afghan insurgents to operate from its territory. Pakistan wanted to bolster the Taliban as a counter to the influence of its enemy—India—in Afghanistan and to have a potent proxy there after a U.S. departure.

Formally an American ally since 2001, Pakistan’s government denies backing the Taliban, but says it has some limited influence over the group.

With the Taliban sweeping through a third of Afghanistan’s districts following the U.S. military withdrawal and surrounding the country’s major cities, Pakistani authorities have to grapple with the unintended consequences of their policies. A total takeover by the Taliban or a new civil war in Afghanistan would backfire against Islamabad’s national interests, senior Pakistani officials say.

“We are so closely intertwined with Afghanistan, ethnically, religiously, tribally, that whenever there is civil war, Pakistan gets sucked in automatically,” said Pakistan’s former defense minister, retired Lt. Gen. Naeem Lodhi. “Civil war [in Afghanistan] is the last thing that Pakistan would like to happen.”

The fear in Pakistan is of a flood of refugees across the porous border that would add to the 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees already living in the country. Worse, a triumphant Afghan Taliban would galvanize Pakistan’s own Islamist militants whose power has waned as a result of successive military operations in the country’s tribal border areas.

“Our jihadis will be emboldened. They will say that ‘if America can be beaten, what is the Pakistan army to stand in our way?’” said a senior Pakistani official. “War does not suit us at all. We’ve seen it for 40 years.”

Islamabad says it no longer wants to be the main backer of a pariah regime, as it was when the Taliban controlled Kabul from 1996 to 2001. Instead, Pakistan is aiming for a negotiated peace settlement that would see the Taliban handed a major share of political power in Kabul, along with international legitimacy and funding. Peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government and politicians in Doha, Qatar, have largely stalled, with Afghan officials saying the insurgency seeks to use negotiations to legitimize its military conquests.

“Pakistan is a bit stuck,” said Laurel Miller, a former acting U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan who now heads the Asia program at the International Crisis Group.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/pakistan-after-rooting-for-afghanistans-taliban-faces-a-blowback-11625822762?mod=searchresults_pos2&page=1

Music Video - کل بھی بھٹو زندہ تھا،آج بھی بھٹو زندہ ھے

@BBhuttoZardari - کسی بھی پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی کے کارکن کو مریم شریف صاحبہ کیلئے غلط زبان استمعال کرنے کی اجازت نہیں ہو گی -

آج کل مریم شریف صاحبہ کشمیر الیکشن مہم پر ہیں
کسی بھی پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی کے کارکن کو مریم شریف صاحبہ کیلئے غلط زبان استمعال کرنے کی اجازت نہیں ہو گی
مخالف کی خواتین کو نشان بنانا گالم گلوچ کرنا پیپلز پارٹی کی سیاست نہیں @BBhuttoZardari pic.twitter.com/kjbesh4Pnc

— Raja Sheryar (@sheryarppp49) July 9, 2021

Video - #PPP - Vote for Teer

Women’s access to family planning and reproductive health services in Sindh have increased in rural and remote areas by an addition of more than 1 million users – Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that balancing resources and the population is crucial in developing a nation. Population control transforms a country into a vibrant equal-opportunity society with peace, tranquility, and prosperity.

In a statement issued from the Media Cell Bilawal House, on the occasion of World Population Day scheduled to be celebrated worldwide on Sunday, July 11, PPP Chairman felicitated the people of Pakistan on commemorating the World Population Day. The theme of the event this year is, “Rights and Choices are the Answer: Whether baby boom or bust, the solution to shifting fertility rates lies in prioritizing all people’s reproductive health and rights.”

Discussing issues relevant to changes in population, Chairman PPP stated, “On one hand, there are countries that witness low fertility rates. In these countries, the older population is more,” he explained. “On the other hand, a large number of developing countries are facing the challenge of high fertility. This means there is a high number of dependent population; adolescents and young people. The result; issues of unemployment, education, and an absence of health services,” he added.

Chairman PPP pointed out that Pakistan is one of the countries with a high level of fertility and low use of contraceptives. This results in population growth. “The Census result of 2017 (though disputed) has shown that Pakistan’s population has grown at a higher level of 2.4% per anum with more than 208 million people,” lamented Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. “One of the major factors is that out of 100 married women of reproductive age, only 34 are using contraception.”

He also said that 18 more women in this category intend to use contraceptives but do not have access to them. “Pakistan People’s Party and its government in the Sindh province have reservations on the Census results,” Chairman PPP declared. “However, as far as balancing the population growth is concerned, we have been providing support on fertility and family planning issues on a country level,” he stated. Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari further said that PPP was committed to initiatives like Recommendations of the Council of Common Interest (CCI) i.e., establishing federal and provincial taskforces; ensuring universal access to family planning and reproductive health services; committing finances; introducing legislation; initiating advocacy and communication; inculcating life skill-based education through curriculum and training; ensuring contraceptive commodities security; and support of opinion makers and ulema.

“It’s disappointing that the selected Prime Minister has been avoiding chairing the Federal Taskforce on Population, despite the Supreme Court decision on suo moto,” he stated, condemning PM Imran Khan’s lack of interest in controlling the population of Pakistan. “The President of Pakistan chaired all four meetings of the Taskforce,” he continued. “Thus, the Council of Common Interest (CCI) recommendations in terms of resources and implementation have not materialized. Out of the allocation of Rs. 10 Billion of the population fund by the Federal Government, only Rs. 1 Billion could be allocated.”Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also said that PPP and its government in Sindh are leading from the front on initiatives regarding population growth and maternal and child health. The Chief Minister Sindh, too, chairs a multi-sectoral Sindh Taskforce on population. He added that Sindh was the first province to formulate its flagship Costed Implementation Plan (CIP) on Family Planning in 2015 due to the global FP2020 initiative announced at the London Summit, 2012. The CIP is being implemented and transformed into FP2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and FP2030 global agenda.

He further reminded the nation of PPP’s stance to control the population and help women in need by mentioning the Lady Health Worker’s program introduced by Prime Minister Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. This workforce has been refocused on family planning, whereas the health and population departments are functionally integrated after the landmark 18th Constitutional Amendment led by President Asif Ali Zardari.

“Sindh has since then, enhanced its allocations more than 8 folds by its Population Welfare Department,” stated Chairman PPP. “Women’s access to family planning and reproductive health services have been increased in rural and remote areas by more than 1 million users thus, doubling the rate of annual women who use contraceptives. Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey shows a four percent increase in FP in Sindh during five years.” Appreciating the Progressive laws such as Reproductive Health Rights Act, 2019, Child Marriage Restraint Act 2013, and the Prohibition of Domestic Violence passed by the Sindh Government, Chairman PPP highlighted that a Marital Counseling Bill is underway.

“PPP is committed to the empowerment of women, gender equality, their right to have access to informed choices; and the rights of adolescents and youth,” concluded Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, assuring the nation that PPP will introduce such reforms in Pakistan when elected. https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/25247/

Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s message on the occasion of World Population Day

Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that balancing resources and the population is crucial in developing a nation. Population control transforms a country into a vibrant equal-opportunity society with peace, tranquility, and prosperity.
In a statement issued from the Media Cell Bilawal House, on the occasion of World Population Day scheduled to be celebrated worldwide on Sunday, July 11, PPP Chairman felicitated the people of Pakistan on commemorating the World Population Day. The theme of the event this year is, “Rights and Choices are the Answer: Whether baby boom or bust, the solution to shifting fertility rates lies in prioritizing all people’s reproductive health and rights.”

Discussing issues relevant to changes in population, Chairman PPP stated, “On one hand, there are countries that witness low fertility rates. In these countries, the older population is more,” he explained. “On the other hand, a large number of developing countries are facing the challenge of high fertility. This means there is a high number of dependent population; adolescents and young people. The result; issues of unemployment, education, and an absence of health services,” he added.

Chairman PPP pointed out that Pakistan is one of the countries with a high level of fertility and low use of contraceptives. This results in population growth. “The Census result of 2017 (though disputed) has shown that Pakistan’s population has grown at a higher level of 2.4% per anum with more than 208 million people,” lamented Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. “One of the major factors is that out of 100 married women of reproductive age, only 34 are using contraception.”He also said that 18 more women in this category intend to use contraceptives but do not have access to them. “Pakistan People’s Party and its government in the Sindh province have reservations on the Census results,” Chairman PPP declared. “However, as far as balancing the population growth is concerned, we have been providing support on fertility and family planning issues on a country level,” he stated.

Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari further said that PPP was committed to initiatives like Recommendations of the Council of Common Interest (CCI) i.e., establishing federal and provincial taskforces; ensuring universal access to family planning and reproductive health services; committing finances; introducing legislation; initiating advocacy and communication; inculcating life skill-based education through curriculum and training; ensuring contraceptive commodities security; and support of opinion makers and ulema.

“It’s disappointing that the selected Prime Minister has been avoiding chairing the Federal Taskforce on Population, despite the Supreme Court decision on suo moto,” he stated, condemning PM Imran Khan’s lack of interest in controlling the population of Pakistan. “The President of Pakistan chaired all four meetings of the Taskforce,” he continued. “Thus, the Council of Common Interest (CCI) recommendations in terms of resources and implementation have not materialized. Out of the allocation of Rs. 10 Billion of the population fund by the Federal Government, only Rs. 1 Billion could be allocated.”

Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also said that PPP and its government in Sindh are leading from the front on initiatives regarding population growth and maternal and child health. The Chief Minister Sindh, too, chairs a multi-sectoral Sindh Taskforce on population. He added that Sindh was the first province to formulate its flagship Costed Implementation Plan (CIP) on Family Planning in 2015 due to the global FP2020 initiative announced at the London Summit, 2012. The CIP is being implemented and transformed into FP2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and FP2030 global agenda. He further reminded the nation of PPP’s stance to control the population and help women in need by mentioning the Lady Health Worker’s program introduced by Prime Minister Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. This workforce has been refocused on family planning, whereas the health and population departments are functionally integrated after the landmark 18th Constitutional Amendment led by President Asif Ali Zardari.

“Sindh has since then, enhanced its allocations more than 8 folds by its Population Welfare Department,” stated Chairman PPP. “Women’s access to family planning and reproductive health services have been increased in rural and remote areas by more than 1 million users thus, doubling the rate of annual women who use contraceptives. Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey shows a four percent increase in FP in Sindh during five years.”

Appreciating the Progressive laws such as Reproductive Health Rights Act, 2019, Child Marriage Restraint Act 2013, and the Prohibition of Domestic Violence passed by the Sindh Government, Chairman PPP highlighted that a Marital Counseling Bill is underway.

“PPP is committed to the empowerment of women, gender equality, their right to have access to informed choices; and the rights of adolescents and youth,” concluded Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, assuring the nation that PPP will introduce such reforms in Pakistan when elected.

https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/25249/

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Opinion: Mitch McConnell, naked and afraid

 

By Dana Milbank

On rare occasions, Mitch McConnell can summon the ability to mimic human emotions.

Ten days ago, for example, the Senate Republican leader was asked, at a Chamber of Commerce event, to imagine: “You’re stranded on a desert island and you can only have one companion. Your choices are Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter. Who do you choose?

McConnell had little hesitation. “Biden and I did four bipartisan deals during the Obama administration. I consider him a personal friend,” he said. “I was the only Republican who went to his son Beau’s funeral. So that would be an easy choice. I think Biden is a first-rate person.”

McConnell’s desert-island answer gave me the unfortunate mental image of the two septuagenarians competing together on Discovery’s reality TV show “Naked and Afraid,” in which an unclothed pair are dropped in the wilderness for 21 days with only one survival item apiece. For reasons of good taste, I picture our contestants clothed: marooned Biden wearing Ray-Bans and shirtsleeves and marooned McConnell in pinstriped suit. Biden’s survival item is a cup for boiling water. McConnell’s survival item is a filibuster. Instead of squabbling over campsite placement, they’re bickering about covid relief.

That’s just what our two castaways did this week. At an event in his home state, McConnell complained about Biden’s “wildly out of proportion” $2 trillion American Rescue Plan — while in the same breath mentioning what a boon it will be for Kentucky: “Not a single member of my party voted for it,” he said. “I didn’t vote for it. But you’re going to get a lot more money. Cities and counties in Kentucky are getting close to seven or 800 million dollars. If you add up the total amount that’ll come into our state, $4 billion, that’s twice what we sent in last year.”

I hate this windfall that will be so awesome for my constituents!

McConnell’s struggle for coherence prompted Biden to needle his desert-island pal. “Mitch McConnell loves our programs,” he teased. “He’s bragging about it in Kentucky.”

The confusion isn’t limited to covid relief. McConnell takes every opportunity to undermine this “first-rate person” and “personal friend” — both politically and personally. McConnell waited more than five weeks before acknowledging Biden’s victory, allowing Donald Trump and his allies to delegitimize Biden — and the election — in the eyes of tens of millions of Trump supporters. McConnell didn’t speak up because he wanted Republicans to win Senate runoffs in Georgia. “Look, we need the president in Georgia and so we cannot be frontally attacking him right now,” McConnell told the attorney general, according to Jonathan Karl of ABC News.

McConnell withheld support for the new Senate’s organizing resolution for weeks, delaying consideration of his friend Biden’s nominees.

Asked about Trump’s election lies, McConnell instead attacked his friend. “One hundred percent of my focus is on stopping this new administration,” he said, also tagging friend Biden with the “socialist” moniker.

McConnell vowed to fight the covid relief legislation “in every way that we can.” He filibustered bipartisan legislation to create a commission to examine the Jan. 6 insurrection. He filibustered equal-pay legislation requiring employers to show that they don’t discriminate against women. He filibustered voting rights legislation and upended bipartisan talks on legislation to address police brutality.

He has so far failed to endorse bipartisan infrastructure legislation, while saying he would wage a “hell of a fight” if Democrats go it alone.

And he stands by as his staff portrays Biden as senile. McConnell aides “have taken to describing the White House chief of staff as ‘Prime Minister Klain,’” the Hill reported, attempting “to undercut public perception of Biden as a leader who is totally with it.”

With friends like these …

McConnell is not a man you’d want in your foxhole — or on your desert island. But his treachery would make for good television. I propose a “Naked and Afraid” spinoff: "In the Swamp.”

Episode One: Biden erects a tent. McConnell knocks it down. Biden builds a hut. McConnell burns it down. Biden digs a shelter in the ground. McConnell fills it with scorpions and snakes.

Episode Two: The survivalists go fishing. Biden spears a fish. Biden goes foraging for kindling to cook the fish but returns to discover that McConnell has eaten the whole fish raw. McConnell blames Biden for his upset stomach. Episode Three: McConnell introduces Biden to an orangutan he has befriended with blaze-orange fur. The orangutan destroys their camp, eats all their food, contaminates their water supply, then attacks the Discovery camera crew. But McConnell tells Biden he cannot stop the orangutan because there is a Senate runoff in Georgia.

Episode Four: Biden “taps out” and calls for a helicopter evacuation. McConnell, chased by the orangutan, clambers aboard, too. The men have survived only three days together. Each ends with a PSR (Primitive Survival Rating) score of zero.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/09/mcconnell-biden-desert-island/

OPINION: THE EDITORIAL BOARD - We’ve Come So Far With Vaccines, America. Now Keep Going.

For all the missteps during its early days, the American coronavirus vaccination campaign is poised to go down as a triumph of science and public health. Seven months after the first shots were authorized for emergency use, 66 percent of adults — more than 100 million people — have received at least one dose. That’s not the 70 percent President Biden was aiming to reach by July 4, but it’s close, and it’s an impressive figure.

This progress has enabled the nation to edge its way back to something resembling normal. Daily case counts and death tolls are falling steadily in most places. Restaurants and theaters and barbershops are open. Mask mandates are being lifted. So far, most of the vaccines seem to work well against the dangerous Delta variant and all of its known cousins. What’s more, the latest research suggests that for most people, vaccine boosters will not be needed anytime soon.

It’s worth pausing to acknowledge this triumph. Last summer, the nation was praying for vaccines that would be at least 50 percent effective, and no one was sure whether or when they might arrive. This summer, millions of Americans have been inoculated with vaccines that are more effective than many dared to hope for.

But it’s too soon to declare total victory. The world is still locked in a desperate race between the coronavirus’s ability to evolve and society’s ability to vaccinate, and America’s lead in that race is precarious. The virus is evolving quickly and efficiently. Given enough time and enough susceptible hosts, it could still mutate its way around the human immune response and beyond the ability of existing vaccines to help. If that happens, the United States, and any other nations that have made such progress, will be forced backward.

The only way to prevent such a grim outcome is to vaccinate as many people as possible, as quickly as possible — not just in the United States but everywhere.

There are still many barriers to accomplishing this goal. Vaccine hesitancy is rampant and in some cases baffling: Health care workers witnessed the ravages of Covid-19 firsthand, but some of them are still resisting vaccination and even suing to block vaccine mandates. Some teenagers who want the shots have found that the biggest obstacles are their parents who worry about side effects that have yet to emerge. Many young adults are skipping vaccination because they don’t see the urgency. Vaccine hesitancy is not the only problem. In most states, Black and Hispanic people have received fewer vaccinations relative to their share of cases and their share of the total population, according to surveys by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The reasons for this disparity are innumerable, but systemic racism and income inequality play huge roles. Many marginalized groups are leery of a government that has failed them time and again. Some people have been stymied by a lack of paid leave or by transportation issues or by simple misunderstandings; for instance, not all people have been made aware that they are not supposed to be charged for shots. In Latino communities, the fear of immigration enforcement at vaccination sites looms large.

In other countries, the trouble is both more straightforward and much more dire: There are simply not enough shots to go around. Part of the problem has to do with hoarding, as wealthy nations have gobbled up much of the vaccine supply. But also, vaccine makers are producing only a tiny fraction of what’s needed to begin with. The result is a profound global vaccination gap. While the United States has vaccines for anyone who wants them, most other countries are still struggling to inoculate even their most vulnerable residents, including frontline health care workers and older people. In Indonesia, where the Delta variant is surging, fewer than 5 percent of residents have received any vaccine.

As the second pandemic summer progresses, it will be crucial to tease these strands apart and address the roots of each one.

Much of the growing mistrust of vaccines can be traced to an anti-vaccination movement that is well funded, politically connected and media savvy. Its efforts have succeeded to such an alarming degree that vaccine hesitancy ranked as one of the world’s leading global health threats well before the Covid pandemic emerged. But it’s important to remember that this contingent makes up a small portion of unvaccinated people. A large majority of Americans are not opposed to vaccines, only hesitant. That means they can still be won over.

The Biden administration has started a multimillion-dollar campaign to dispel vaccine misinformation and educate Americans about the benefits of getting the shots. Among other things, it has partnered with WhatsApp to reach Spanish-speaking communities and with NASCAR and the Christian Broadcasting Network to get the message out to other groups. Those are smart and crucial moves. It will be equally important for officials to act locally, because the best vaccine ambassadors are likely to differ from one community to the next. Younger people might be swayed by celebrity influencers. Older people might trust their religious leaders above all others. Parents might want to hear only from doctors, doulas or other parents.

Those who study vaccine hesitancy and science communication say that the most important thing such ambassadors can do is listen. Showering doubters with facts doesn’t work. But hearing them out, validating their underlying concerns and addressing those concerns whenever possible can make a huge difference.

No matter how successful these efforts are, they will be wasted in the long run if the rest of the world is not also vaccinated. In the past two months the Biden administration has donated or promised to donate tens of millions of vaccine doses to countries that need them. Mr. Biden has also supported a global patent waiver that would make it easier for countries and companies to make vaccines themselves. Those are welcome and urgently needed steps. But much more is still needed. To beat this coronavirus, and to prepare for the next pandemic, the United States and other wealthy nations will have to help the world increase its capacity for making and distributing vaccines. That will require a concerted effort and clear leadership.

In the meantime, every unvaccinated person is an opportunity for the virus to spread, multiply and mutate — and every mutation is a chance for it to penetrate all our best defenses. If you have access to any of the coronavirus vaccines and your immune system is not compromised, the single most important thing you can do for yourself, your loved ones and your country is to get vaccinated right away.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/03/opinion/covid-vaccine-us-hesitancy.html

Video - Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari addresses the massive public gathering of PPP in Mirpur.

پی ٹی آئی اور ن لیگ کی طرح یو ٹرن لینے والے نہیں، بلاول بھٹو

 پیپلز پارٹی کے چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے تحریک انصاف اور ن لیگ کو

یوٹرن لینے والی جماعتیں قرار دے دیا۔

آزاد کشمیر میں جلسے سے خطاب میں بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے الیکشن میں مدمقابل حریف جماعتوں پر تنقید کی اور کہا کہ ہم پی ٹی آئی اور ن لیگ کی طرح یو ٹرن لینے والے نہیں ہیں۔

انہوں نے کہاکہ سلیکٹڈ وزیر اعظم لوگوں سے روٹی کپڑا اور مکان چھین رہا ہے، آپ کو کشمیر کو تباہی سے بچانا ہے

پی پی چیئرمین نے مزید کہاکہ کشمیر کے مستقبل کا فیصلہ کشمیری عوام کریں گے، یہی پیپلز پارٹی کا فلسفہ رہا ہے۔

اُن کا کہنا تھا کہ ہم نے پرویز مشرف کو بھگایا اور نواز شریف کا مقابلہ کیا، جیالے اس کٹھ پتلی حکومت کو بھگائیں گے اور کشمیر کا سودا نہیں ہونے دیں گے۔

بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے یہ بھی کہا کہ عوام کےساتھ مل کر نالائق اور نااہل سلیکٹڈ حکومت کا مقابلہ کریں گے، نااہل حکومت کو بھی ایسے بھگائیں گے جیسے سب کو بھگایا ہے۔

انہوں نے کہا کہ کلبھوشن جادھو کو این آر او دینےکےلیے رات کی تاریکی میں آرڈیننس جاری کیا گیا، کیا آپ اس کٹھ پتلی حکومت کو اجازت دیں گے۔

پی پی چیئرمین نے واضح طور پر کہا کہ عمران خان نے کلبھوشن جادھو کو این آر او دینا ہے تو خود ہی دیں، اس معاملے میں پیپلز پارٹی ملوث نہیں ہوگی۔

اُن کا کہنا تھاکہ جو رات میں ایک اور دن میں دوسری بات کرے، ایسا وزیر اعظم ہمیں قبول نہیں، ایسے شخص کو حق نہیں ہونا چاہیےکہ وہ وزیراعظم کی کرسی پر بیٹھے۔

https://jang.com.pk/news/954202

Another Discriminatory Job Advertisement Published in #Pakistan

 According to local reports, another discriminatory job advertisement has been documented in Pakistan stating that only Muslims are allowed to hold positions of leadership.

On July 1, the Punjab Public Service Commission published an advertisement regarding 12 vacant positions in different departments. Specifically, the advertisement stated, “According to clause (5) of the Punjab Waqf Properties Ordinance 1979, no person be appointed an officer unless he is a Muslim.”

The discriminatory advertisement singles out Muslims as the only religious identity able to be appointed to positions of leadership at the Punjab Public Service Commission. In effect, this advertisement relegates religious minorities, including Christians, to non-leadership positions and feeds into a biased narrative that say Christians cannot hold positions of leadership over Muslims.

In April and June, International Christian Concern (ICC) documented two other instances in which discriminatory job advertisements were published. In both cases, the advertisements specifically called for the hiring of religious minorities to vacant sanitation positions.

Widespread discrimination often relegates Pakistani Christians to the lowest rungs of society. Discriminatory hiring practices, that see Christians overrepresented in the lowest positions of the workforce, only reinforces the low social status of Pakistani Christians.

In Pakistan, Christians make up between 80% to 90% of the sanitation workforce, including the country’s street sweepers, janitors, and sewer workers. This percentage is an extreme overrepresentation as Pakistani Christians make up less than 2% of the country’s overall population.

https://www.persecution.org/2021/07/07/another-discriminatory-job-advertisement-published-pakistan/

Religious Affairs Minister Makes False Claims of Religious Harmony in Pakistan

Pakistan’s Minister for Religious Affairs, Dr. Noor-ul-Hug Qadri, claimed during a Paigham-e-Pakistan ceremony that all Pakistani religious minorities enjoy complete religious freedom as guaranteed by the constitution of Pakistan. The statement comes at a time when international attention has increasingly focused on the plight of Pakistan’s religious minority community. Horrific stories of the forced conversions and marriages of religious minority girls are all too common, but even more systematically the country’s notorious blasphemy law is used to suppress freedom of religion across society.

The international community has brought continued attention to the blasphemy law, citing numerous cases where the law was misused by the Muslim religious majority community to suppress or silence Christians and religious minorities. Members of the Muslim majority community will use the threat of blasphemy accusations as leverage over religious minorities in interpersonal conflict and business dealings.

The United States Commissions on International Religious Freedom recommended that Pakistan be designated as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) in their latest report. The Biden Administration should accept this recommendation and continue with the CPC designation for Pakistan, but also implement economic consequences in the form of Global Magnitsky sanctions to encourage behavior change in Pakistan.

The United States must lead on religious freedom and hold Pakistan accountable for their atrocious human rights record.

https://www.persecution.org/2021/07/08/religious-affairs-minister-makes-false-claims-religious-harmony-pakistan/

#Pakistan - Imran Khan is waiting for a call from Joe Biden. The phone still hasn’t rung

NAILA INAYAT

Earlier it was Indian PM Narendra Modi who wasn't taking Imran Khan's calls. Now it is US President Joe Biden who is refusing to call. 

Around mid-year, one starts assessing how the year could have looked up had things gone a certain way or if a powerful friend had kept some of the promises they made at the start of the year. Now, what if that powerful friend lives in the White House? Getting an invite is door ki baat, even a telephone call means a lot. But things don’t always go as you plan.

US President Joe Biden must be among those having mid-year regrets. How he could have done things differently, arranged a couple of playdates, or at least made one “important” long-distance phone call to Pakistan. To whom? You already know. It is Prime Minister Imran Khan.

It so happened that ever since taking control of the Oval Office, Biden hasn’t telephoned the PM. What? Who does that? While Biden could say he had better things to do, most Pakistanis are clear that nothing can be better until PM Imran Khan’s phone has rung. Let the record show that Pakistan isn’t waiting for a Biden phone call because, after all, what’s in a call in the age of Snapchat et al. Let the record also show that Joe Biden now faces the wrath of those he never cared to find out about. Tough luck, Biden. You are on your own now.

A matter of ‘shame’

Imran Khan may have been gracious enough to say that Biden can call him whenever he has time, clearly, Biden doesn’t have time and has other priorities. But others in Pakistan aren’t as forgiving. It turns out that not getting a call from the White House has become a cause to shame the prime minister with taunts and whatnot. Opposition’s Bilawal Bhutto Zardari asked Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood to focus on arranging PM’s phone call with President Biden given its strategic importance in Pakistan’s politics: “It is a matter of shame that our premier doesn’t even get a phone call.”

Now, when you attach shame to national ghairat (honour), then be ready to get a befitting.

In parallel Pakistan

Taking the action-packed fight to Biden’s house were the regime YouTubers, upping the ante just a bit too much. They were now convinced that Biden had taken “direct panga” with the wrong man, that the US had angered Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and that the days of America were numbered. How, they didn’t say. But the best was still to come: “Biden becomes furious, he will now only give eent ka jawaab patthar se (answer brick with a stone),” drawing reference from the US’ inclusion of Pakistan and Turkey in the Child Soldier Recruiter List this week. However, Imran Khan’s trumpet blared across the US, we are yet to find out but why. According to these Pakistani prodigies, all this is the net result of Pakistan saying ‘no’ to giving air bases to the US. And yet, in the parallel universe of Pakistan YouTube, the American president was defeated this week and is scared of who else but the Dabanng Khan. They are a perfect match to the warriors on Facebook, where every day is Israel’s last day, all thanks to the universe that works in mysterious ways. Lost in populist public discourse between saying “no” and not caring about “doing more”, the journey continues. But spare a thought for Imran Khan. Earlier it was Indian PM Narendra Modi who wasn’t taking his calls; now it is US President Joe Biden who refuses to call him. It’s becoming a pattern for a world leader who claims that his foreign policy has been nothing but exemplary. It is ‘absolutely not’ you, Imran; it is them. Them who don’t make the call, take the call, or care about the call. Perhaps, the friendship that Imran Khan started in 2019 with a feeling like “winning the world cup” after meeting Donald Trump appears to be ending with Biden not listening. Or are you listening, Biden?

PS: Till the filing of this article, Joe Biden still hadn’t called Imran Khan and the parallel universe in Pakistan continued to be on fire. https://theprint.in/opinion/letter-from-pakistan/imran-khan-is-waiting-for-a-call-from-joe-biden-the-phone-still-hasnt-rung/692704/

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Video - Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari addresses the massive public gathering of PPP in Haveli.

Why both the Russians and Americans got nowhere in Afghanistan

LEONID BERSHIDSKY

Both Russia and the US stepped into Afghanistan with too little forethought and too much arrogance and confidence — and knew from the start that they couldn’t stay.

The story of two superpower invasions of Afghanistan is all about the similarities that end up erasing the undeniable differences.

As the Soviet Union prepared to leave Afghanistan in 1988, it stepped up economic and military aid to the government of Mohammad Najibullah, even though it knew the requests for more weaponry were often larcenous, based on wildly inflated numbers of Afghan servicemen. Mikhail Gorbachev and his Politburo felt guilty about the withdrawal and wanted to compensate their “Afghan friends,” as official documents of the era referred to Najibullah and his people, for leaving them alone to face the fury of the U.S.-trained, -armed and -funded opposition.

Gorbachev was also conscious of a certain dignity issue. “He said several times that we cannot just pull up our pants and make a run for it, like Americans in Vietnam,” his foreign policy adviser Anatoly Chernyaev recalled in 2009.

The Soviets took more than three years to leave after the decision was made. As they handed over garrisons and military equipment, the proceedings were elaborate, with the new local owners receiving spruced-up barracks and freshly tested weapons, all signed off on receipts. General Boris Gromov, who presided over the withdrawal, recalled in his 2019 memoir, “The Limited Contingent,” how the Jalalabad garrison left its barracks:

The beds were neatly tucked in. Even the bedside floor mats were in the regulation spots, and there were slippers under the lockers. The barracks had all the necessary equipment. Water supply worked without a hitch.

As the U.S. pulls out in 2021, it aims to finish the withdrawal mere months after President Joe Biden made the decision to leave. It appears somewhat more concerned than the Soviets about having its weaponry fall into the hands of Afghanistan’s possible new masters, so it’s destroying some equipment. Some of what U.S. troops do leave is, deliberately or not, unusable — for instance, cars and trucks abandoned without keys. Nor does the U.S. appear to believe in elaborate goodbyes, at least if one judges by its unannounced nighttime departure from the Bagram Air Base; the Americans shut off the power (which cut off the water supply) and were gone.

And yet the more things seem different, the more they stay the same. The spotless Soviet garrison town in Jalalabad was looted hours after the Russians left, and “all the more or less valuable property — televisions, audio equipment, air conditioners, furniture, even army beds — was sold through the city’s market stalls,” Gromov wrote. The same happened to Bagram minutes after the Americans went — looters went in and grabbed anything they could find of value.

The Soviet Union went into Afghanistan to prop up a Communist-led coup as part of an expansionist Cold War strategy. The U.S. did so in an attempt to purge al-Qaeda in the wake of 9/11 — arguably a more honorable justification. The Soviets lost some 15,000 personnel in less than 10 years, the Americans (the Pentagon and private military companies together) fewer than half of that number over twice the time. The USSR achieved nothing by getting into its Afghan war — pouring resources into the conflict’s bottomless pit only quickened the end of the Communist superpower; the Americans, who spent a mind-boggling $2.26 trillion on the war, can live with that, and they did at least manage to break al-Qaeda’s back and kill Osama bin Laden, albeit not in Afghanistan itself.

The Pakistan factor But again, it’s hard to focus on these differences when the similarities are even more powerful. In early 1989, according to Gromov, the “opposition” — a catch-all term for various Islamist groups and self-serving warlords — controlled “207 out of 290 districts.” The number of districts is rather fluid in Afghanistan, and it’s being reported that the Taliban now controls about a third of the country’s “421 districts and district centers”; that number keeps growing. So both superpowers knowingly left behind beleaguered governments and a feeling of gloom and doom on the territories these governments still controlled. When the Taliban emerged as a righteous force pledging to end warlords’ internecine fighting and seized control of Kabul in 1996, they hanged Najibullah, by then long out of power; Afghan leaders who cooperated with the U.S. could well face the same fate if they fail to flee.

And in both cases, Pakistan played a critical role in thwarting the superpowers’ ambitions of holding back Islamist radicalism. As the former high-ranking Central Intelligence Agency officer Bruce Riedel wrote bluntly for the Brookings Institution earlier this year.The war against the Taliban is impossible to win as long as Pakistan provides sanctuary and safety, training, equipment, and funds for the Taliban. We cannot defeat Pakistan, which is a nuclear-armed state and has the fifth largest population in the world.In 1989, Pakistan was the party that flouted the agreements on Afghan national reconciliation, which served as the basis for the Soviet withdrawal. The Afghan rebels, including fighters who would end up with the Taliban, maintained bases in Pakistan and recruited Afghans in local refugee camps. Weapons and cash also flowed from the neighboring country into the fighting areas, facilitated by the U.S. and its Western allies; like the U.S. today, the Soviet Union was unprepared to take on Pakistan militarily.

In other words, no matter what your values, no matter how much time you spend or how many soldiers you lose, no matter whether you’re on the winning or the losing side in geopolitical battles, what you’ll leave behind in Afghanistan is scenes of looting, a weak regime too dependent on your support and unlikely to hold out much longer, tough local fighters who feel vindicated for years of hardship, and gloating Pakistani generals across the border. Another constant: Afghanistan’s flourishing opiate industry, which neither the Soviets nor the Americans could undermine.

These enduring circumstances have less to do with the stubborn magic of the place than with the simple fact that, as much as the Soviets of the 1980s and the Americans of this century’s first two decades differ from one another, both stepped into Afghanistan with too little forethought and too much arrogance and confidence — and knew from the start that they couldn’t stay. Both were certain of their superior military might and their superior values. Both found evidence that some locals liked what they brought — each their own brand of secular progressivism — and took that to mean those values could take root. But neither could stick around forever; colonization just isn’t done anymore, and Gorbachev was no more prepared to entertain it than Joe Biden. Afghanistan hasn’t been worth holding on to for either of them, given its hefty human and financial cost.

To the Taliban, though, just as to the assorted Afghan rebels before them, their entire purpose and meaning were in staying there forever. The local fighters felt in 1989, and still feel in 2021, that they stand for the country and its way of life. The Taliban can be particularly convincing about it. If you’re not going anywhere no matter what happens, what price you’re forced to pay over how long, you can outlast superpowers. Attachment to a place and a way of life is a powerful constant that, as Afghanistan’s example shows, creates other constants.- Bloomberg

https://theprint.in/opinion/why-both-the-russians-and-americans-got-nowhere-in-afghanistan/692259/

Pakistan Should Stop Looking to Leverage the Taliban

By Mihir Sharma

Trading its influence over the militants for relief from painful reforms will cost the country’s economy.

Pakistan’s founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, was convinced his fledgling nation’s most valuable asset was its location. In an interview a month after independence in 1947, Margaret Bourke-White of Life magazine painted a vivid picture of Jinnah’s expectations: “‘Pakistan is the pivot of the world, as we are placed’ — he revolved his long forefinger in bony circles — ‘at the frontier on which the future position of the world revolves.’”

In 1947, the world was just entering a cold war. Bourke-White explained that Pakistanis expected the United States to pay handsomely for a strategically located ally’s development — and to fund its military as well.

Decades later, tragically little has changed. As the U.S. follows through on President Joe Biden’s ill-considered abandonment of Afghanistan, Pakistani leaders are convinced they can use their leverage over the Taliban to win concessions from the U.S. Seven decades of geopolitical stratagems of this sort have not helped Pakistan, its citizens or its economy. Islamabad shouldn’t expect them to work any better this time.

U.S. combat troops will have left Afghanistan by September. That’s also when the International Monetary Fund conducts a much-delayed review of its $6 billion bailout of Pakistan. The IMF wants Pakistan to step up the pace of macroeconomic reforms, particularly in its troubled energy sector.

Prime Minister Imran Khan, on the other hand, is very conscious that elections are only two years away. So, the budget his government presented last month didn’t quite meet the IMF’s demands. While the budget did include a few tiny steps towards balancing Pakistan’s books, even those set off a political storm. One — a tax on mobile data usage — was immediately withdrawn. Khan doesn’t want to abandon the Islamist welfare state he promised voters in 2018. He has also pledged that his “new Pakistan” will stand up to the West more. Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, defending the budget that was supposed to placate the IMF, thus insisted that Khan had “stood his ground” against the lender and, in fact, was expanding the welfare state.

The IMF won’t be happy. And if it isn’t, Pakistan’s other big multilateral lenders, particularly the Asian Development Bank, won’t step in to help either.

That’s where the U.S. comes in. In that 1947 interview, Jinnah claimed that “the United States needs Pakistan more than Pakistan needs the United States.” Similarly, the Financial Times recently reported that the government hopes that the U.S. need for help in stabilizing Afghanistan after the withdrawal should give Pakistan “some space,” particularly when it comes to the IMF. (Tarin denied the report.)

Speaking to the New York Times, Khan claimed he was ready to cooperate with the U.S. and “do everything except use military action against the Taliban.” Yet, as one former Pakistani diplomat has pointed out, it’s hardly helping now. The Taliban’s leaders continue to live safely in Pakistan, even as they slow-walk negotiations with the Afghan government and continue to seize territory.

Playing such games has not served Pakistan well. The last time Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, Pakistan had to deal with a flood of refugees and the permanent destabilization of its Pashtun-majority border areas. Worse, the Taliban have incubated and inspired other extremist movements, including in Pakistan itself. Between 2008 and 2016, the Pakistani version of the Taliban struck at will across the country — most horrifically, killing 132 schoolchildren in an army school in Peshawar in December 2014.

Geopolitical conditions are also less favorable now. Pakistan’s early leaders prospered from picking the American side in the cold war. But a world increasingly shaped by disputes between the U.S. and China doesn’t look to be as profitable.

Khan told the New York Times that what he really wanted was for the U.S. and China to “get on and trade with each other” — perhaps so his government could receive handouts from both. But Beijing isn’t exactly rushing to fill the gaps in Islamabad’s budget. Meanwhile, the U.S. doesn’t trust a Pakistan that it fears will use bailout money to pay bondholders linked to the Chinese state.

More importantly, handouts would only perpetuate the boom-bust-and-bailout cycle that’s hampered the Pakistani economy for years now. If Khan really wants his country to prosper, he should focus on the tough structural reforms the IMF is demanding and put the economy on a more sustainable path. He may worry about the political cost. The price of continuing to coddle extremists would be much higher.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-07-06/pakistan-shouldn-t-look-to-profit-off-u-s-withdrawal-from-afghanistan

کچھ لوگوں کی روزی روٹی کا سبب اور ذریعہ صرف آصف علی زرداری کی کردار کشی کی مہم چلانا ہے، سابق ڈپٹی چیئرمین سینیٹ سینیٹر سلیم مانڈوی والا

سابق ڈپٹی چیئرمین سینیٹ سینیٹر سلیم مانڈوی والا نے کہا ہے کہ کچھ لوگوں کی روزی روٹی کا سبب اور ذریعہ صرف آصف علی زرداری کی کردار کشی کی مہم چلانا ہے۔ جعلی اکاﺅنٹس کی طوطا کہانی گھڑنے والے سند یافتہ جعلساز ہیں۔ یہ وہی جعلساز ہیں جنہوں نے صدرآصف علی زرداری کی گورنر ہاﺅس لاہور سے گرفتاری کے وقت گورنر ہاﺅس سے 70کروڑ روپے اور سونا برآمد کرنے کا جھوٹا دعویٰ کیا تھا۔ اس طرح آصف علی زرداری کے حوالے سے 33ارب روپے ملنے کا دعویٰ سراسر جھوٹ اور میڈیا ٹرائل کا حربہ ہے۔ 

سینیٹر سلیم مانڈوی والا نے کہا کہ صدر آصف علی زرداری گذشتہ 33سال سے پیپلزپارٹی کے نشانے پر ہیں۔ کبھی کسی بخاری کی ٹانگ میں بم باندھنے کی طوطا کہانی گھڑی جاتی تھی تو کبھی ان پر منشیات کا جھوٹا مقدمہ داخل کرکے ان کا میڈیا ٹرائل کیا جاتا تھا مگر صدر آصف علی زرداری نے عدالتوں میں ان جھوٹے الزامات کا سامنا کیا اور باعزت بری ہوکر عوام کے سامنے سرخرو ہوتے رہے ہیں۔ سینیٹر مانڈوی والا نے کہا کہ حقیقت یہ ہے کہ صدر آصف علی زرداری 1988ءسے بھٹو دشمنوں کے نشانے پر ہیں۔ سینیٹر مانڈوی والا نے کہا کہ آصف علی زرداری پر جھوٹے الزامات لگانے والے ماضی میں شرمسار ہوتے رہے ہیں اور مستقبل میں بھی شرمندگی ان عناصر کا مقدر ہے۔

https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/25245/

 

ہم سب کا ایک نعرہ ہے کہ کشمیر کا سودا نامنظور, چیئرمین پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی بلاو ل بھٹو زرداری

 چیئرمین پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی کے بلاو ل بھٹو زرداری نے آزاد کشمیر کے انتخابات کی پارٹی مہم کے سلسلے میں جمعرات کے روز حویلی کے مقام پر ایک عظیم الشان جلسے سے خطاب کیا۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ انہیں اس بات کی نہایت خوشی ہے کہ اسی مقام پر شہید ذوالفقار علی بھٹو نے 1974ءمیں ایک بہت بڑے عوام اجتماع سے خطاب کیا تھا ۔ اس وقت پیپلزپارٹی کے سپاہی اور شہید محترمہ بینظیر بھٹو کے وفادار ساتھی ممتاز راٹھو بھی ان کے ساتھ تھے اور آج ان کے صاحبزادے فیصل راٹھور اپنے والد کے نامکمل مشن کو پورا کرنے کے لئے یہاں موجود ہیں۔ 

چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا کہ جب تک کشمیری عوام ان کے ساتھ ہیں کوئی بھی پیپلزپارٹی کو ختم نہیں کر سکتا۔ قائد عوام نے ہر محاذ پر کشمیر کاز کے لئے جنگ لڑی۔ ہمارا تین نسلوں کا رشتہ ہے۔ قائد عوام نے عوام کے حقوق کے لئے آواز بلند کی۔ قائد عوام ذوالفقار ہی وہ لیڈر تھے جنہوں نے کشمیر کے لئے ہزار سال لڑنے کا ارادہ ظاہر کیا تھا۔ وہ او آئی سی کے چیئرمین تھے۔ انہوں نے پاکستان کو ایٹمی صلاحیت دی۔ جب وہ سٹرائیک کی کال دیتے تھے تو مقبوضہ اور آزاد کشمیر دونوں میں ہر چیز بند ہو جاتی تھی اور کاروبار زندگی رک جاتا تھا۔ ان کی صاحبزادی محترمہ بینظیر بھٹو نے کہا تھا کہ جہاں کشمیری بھائی بہنوں کا پسینہ گرے گا وہاں اپنا خون گرائیں گے۔

 کشمیریوں نے ہمیشہ ان کی حمایت کی اور انہوں نے کشمیری بھائیوں اور بہنوں کو ملازمتیں فراہم کیں۔ یہ بدقسمتی کی بات ہے کہ اس وقت پاکستان میں ایک کٹھ پتلی سلیکٹڈ اور نااہل وزیراعظم ہے۔ جو کشمیر کے تاریخی حملے پر کہتا ہے کہ میں کیا کروں؟ اگر قائد عوام آج ہوتے تو وہ کشمیر کا کیس لے کر اقوام متحدہ جاتے۔ اس کٹھ پتلی کا جواب تو یہ تھا کہ کشمیر ہائی وے کا نام بدل کر سری نگر ہائی وے رکھ دیا ہے اور کشمیر کے نقشے میں اپنے پین سے تبدیلی کر دی ہے۔

 عمران خان کشمیروں کی امنگو پر پورا نہیں اترتا۔ ہم سب کا ایک نعرہ ہے کہ کشمیر کا سودا نامنظور۔ ہم دہلی یا اسلام آباد سے ڈکٹیشن نہیں لیں گے بلکہ جو آپ کہیں گے وہ کریں گے۔ قائدعوام کا نعرہ تھا کہ ہمارا نعرہ سب پہ بھاری، رائے شماری، رائے شماری۔ ہمیں ایک ایسا وزیراعظم نہیں چاہیے جو انتخابات کے لئے مودی فتح کی دعا مانگتا ہو اور نہ ہی ایسا وزیراعظم چاہیے جو اپنی شادی کی تقریب کو اپنے گھر کی شادی میں مودی کو مدعو کرے۔ وزیراعظم عمران خان کو جنرل مشرف اور مودی کا پولنگ ایجنٹ تھا۔

 پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی ہی وہ واحد پارٹی ہے جو کشمیر کا کوئی سودا نہیں کر سکتی کیونکہ اس کی بنیاد ہی کشمیر کے مسئلے سے پڑی تھی۔ ہم اقوام متحدہ کی قراردادوں پر یقین رکھتے ہیں۔ چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو نے کہا کہ عمران کی تبدیلی کا اصل چہرہ غربت، مہنگائی اور بیروزگاری ہے۔ پیپلزپارٹی نے اپنے دور حکومت میں سرکاری ملازمین کی تنخواہوں میں 120فیصد اضافہ کیا، پنشن میں 100 فیصد اضافہ کیا اور دہشتگردی کے لئے لڑنے والے فوجیوں کی تنخواہوں میں 175فیصد اضافہ کیا۔ اب 25جولائی کو ایک جیالا وزیراعظم منتخب ہوگا اور اس حکومت کا پہلا اقدام تنخواہوں اور پنشنوں میں اضافہ ہوگا۔ پیپلزپارٹی ہمیشہ غریبوں کے لئے کام کرتی ہے اور جس وقت دنیا شدید کساد بازاری کا شکار تھی اس وقت ہماری حکومت نے بی آئی ایس پی شروع کیا۔ یہ حکومت احساس احساس کی رٹ لگائے رکھتی ہے لیکن احساس سوائے بی آئی ایس پی کا نام بدلنے کے اور کچھ نہیں۔

 یہ حکومت ہماری پالیسیاں چوری کرتی ہے اور نہ صرف بی آئی ایس پی کو چوری کیا بلکہ ہماری خارجہ پالیسی کو بھی چوری کر دیا۔ عمران خان جھوٹ بولتے ہیں کہ یہ ان کا فیصلہ ہے کہ وہ امریکہ کو فوجی اڈے نہیں دیں گے جبکہ یہ فیصلہ ہماری حکومت کا تھا جسے ہم نے پارلیمان سے منظور کرایا تھا۔ چیئرمین بلاول نے کہا کہ قائد عوام کا نعرہ تھا کہ روٹی، کپڑا اور مکان مانگ رہا ہے ہر انسان لیکن اس کٹھ پتلی حکومت نے غریب عوام سے یہ تینوں چیزیں چھین لی ہیں۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ جب تک کسانوں اور مزدوروں کو خوشحال نہیں بنایا جاتا اور نوجوانوں کو روزگار مہیا نہیں کیا جاتا اس وقت تک ملک ترقی نہیں کر سکتا۔ انہوںنے کہا کہ اس مجمعے کو دیکھتے ہوئے وہ کہہ سکتے ہیں کہ جیالوں نے کٹھ پتلی اور دیگر پارٹیوں کو ہر ا دیا ہے اور فیصل راٹھور اس حلقے سے جیت چکے ہیں۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ فیصل راٹھور اسلام آباد سے کشمیر ایکسپریس وے کو حکومت میں آکر مکمل کرائیں گے اور یہ پیپلزپارٹی کی جانب سے کشمیری عوام کے لئے تحفہ ہوگا۔

 چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا کہ وہ شہید ذوالفقار علی بھٹو اور شہید بینظیر بھٹو کے مشن کو مکمل کرنے کے لئے میدان عمل میں موجود ہیں۔ جیالے نہ صرف اس کٹھ پتلی کو بلکہ دیگر پارٹیوں کو کشمیر سے بھگائیں گے۔ میں اس پارٹی کو کہتا ہوں کہ وہ بلی نہ بنے اور بھاگے نہیں بلکہ شیر کی طرح کھڑے ہو کر اس کٹھ پتلی کا مقابلہ کرے۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ پیپلزپارٹی نے ہمیشہ عوام کا ساتھ دیا ہے اور 25تاریخ کو عوام پیپلزپارٹی کو ووٹ دیں گے اور تیر پر ٹھپہ لگائیں گے۔

https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/25241/

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Dilip Kumar, Film Star Who Brought Realism to Bollywood, Dies at 98

By Baradwaj Rangan

One of India’s earliest Method actors, he was the last survivor of a triumvirate of actors who ruled Hindi cinema in the 1950s and ’60s.

Dilip Kumar, the last of a triumvirate of actors who ruled Hindi cinema in the 1950s and ’60s, died on Wednesday in Mumbai, India. He was 98.

His death, at a hospital, was confirmed by Faisal Farooqui, a family friend, who posted a brief statement on Mr. Kumar’s official Twitter account.

In post-independence India, Mr. Kumar and two other stars set about defining the Hindi film hero. Raj Kapoor reflected the newly minted Indian’s confusion: his signature role was that of the Chaplinesque naïf negotiating a world that was losing its innocence. Dev Anand, known as the Gregory Peck of India, embodied a Western insouciance that still lingered; he became a stylish matinee idol.

Mr. Kumar, though, delved deeply into his characters, breaking free from the semaphoric silent-movie style of acting popularized by megastars like Sohrab Modi and Prithviraj Kapoor.

As one of the country’s earliest Method actors, he was often compared to Marlon Brando, another early adopter of the technique, even though Mr. Kumar claimed he had used it first.

“I learned the importance of studying the script and characters deeply and building upon my own gut observations and sensations about my own and other characters,” Mr. Kumar said in his autobiography, “The Substance and the Shadow” (2014). “The truth is that I am an actor who evolved a method.”

His preparation for roles became the stuff of legend. For his death scene in the 1961 megahit “Gunga Jumna,” he ran around the studio so that he could enter the set at the point of exhaustion. For a song sequence in the 1960 film “Kohinoor” (“Mountain of Light”), he learned to play the sitar. For emotional sequences in the 1982 movie “Shakti” (“Power”) and the 1984 movie “Mashaal” (“Torch”), he drew from memories of when his brother died, recalling the pain that registered on his father’s face.

Mr. Kumar was born Yousuf Khan in Peshawar (then part of British India, now in Pakistan) on Dec. 11, 1922, the fourth of Ayesha and Mohammad Sarwar Khan’s 12 children. His father, a fruit merchant, moved the family to Bombay, now known as Mumbai, and then to Deolali, in west India, where Dilip attended the Barnes School before enrolling in Khalsa College in Bombay.

He wanted to play soccer or cricket professionally, but the family’s economic situation forced him to look for work elsewhere. For a time he was an assistant at an army canteen in Poona (now Pune).

A chance encounter with a former teacher changed his life. When he said he was looking for a job, the teacher introduced him to the pioneering Indian actress Devika Rani, who, along with Himanshu Rai, had established the Bombay Talkies studio. The idea was to get a job, any job, but Ms. Rani asked if he would consider becoming an actor.Mr. Kumar, who had seen only one film in his life — a war documentary — was flummoxed, but the money persuaded him. Ms. Rani said that taking on a Hindu screen name to obscure his Muslim background would help his career. He became Dilip Kumar.His first film, “Jwar Bhata” (“Ebb and Flow”), released in 1944, was a flop; Baburao Patel, the acerbic critic of Film India, called him “anemic.” But three years later his performance in “Jugnu” (“Firefly”), alongside Noor Jehan, received more favorable attention. By the time “Shaheed” (“Martyr”) was released in 1948, Mr. Patel was singing his praises: “Dilip Kumar steals the picture with his deeply felt and yet natural delineation of the main role.”

The hits kept coming, including “Nadiya Ke Paar” (“Across the River”), “Shabnam” (“Dewdrops”) and Mehboob Khan’s “Andaz” (“Style”), in which Mr. Kumar was cast with Mr. Kapoor and the actress Nargis. In 1954, Mr. Kumar won the newly instituted Filmfare Award for best actor for his performance as an alcoholic in the tragic love story “Daag” (“The Stain”). He won seven more Filmfare statuettes for best actor in addition to a lifetime achievement award. Guinness World Records honored him on his 97th birthday for his “matchless contribution” to Indian cinema.

Many of his early films had him chasing unattainable women. The 1950 melodrama “Jogan” (“Nun”) ends with him weeping at his lover’s grave. That same year, he played a Heathcliff-like character in “Arzoo” (“Desire”), one of three variations on “Wuthering Heights” in which he acted.

He earned the nickname Tragedy King after appearing in a series of dramas that a psychiatrist later said took a toll on his health. In the 1951 movie “Deedar” (“Sight”), he played a blind man whose eyesight is restored through surgery but who blinds himself again when he realizes that he and the surgeon are in love with the same woman. (To prepare for the role, Mr. Kumar observed a blind beggar at the Bombay Central railway station.)

One of Mr. Kumar’s best-known tragedies is Bimal Roy’s “Devdas” (1955), about a man who becomes an alcoholic when his childhood sweetheart deserts him.

Mr. Kumar’s love life made news; he had relationships with the actresses Kamini Kaushal, Madhubala (they co-starred in the 1960 blockbuster “Mughal-e-Azam,” about thwarted lovers, long after they broke up) and Saira Banu, whom he married in 1966 when he was 44 and she was 22. In the 1980s, while still married to Ms. Banu, Mr. Kumar married the socialite Asma Rehman in secret. The news quickly came out, and the marriage became a scandal, but Ms. Banu stuck with Mr. Kumar, who ended the second marriage.

He is survived by Ms. Banu.

Professionally, Mr. Kumar’s record was spotless, with films that have not only been successful but have left a lasting impact. Films like “Naya Daur” (“New Era”) in 1957, “Yahudi” (“The Jews”) in 1958, “Madhumati,” also in 1958, and “Ram Aur Shyam” (“Ram and Shyam”) in 1967 are still remembered.

Mr. Kumar found fewer roles in the 1970s, with younger, more agile actors being cast as heroes, and he took a break.

He returned in 1981 with a blockbuster, “Kranti” (“Revolution”), which reshaped his screen persona as an older moral center. He had similar roles in star-heavy mega-productions like “Vidhaata” (“The Creator”) in 1982, “Karma” in 1986, Saudagar (“The Merchant”) in 1991 and especially “Shakti,” in which he was cast for the first time opposite the reigning Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan. Mr. Kumar’s last film was “Qila” (“Fort”), released in 1998. By then, a reviewer wrote in India Today, his style felt “more than just outdated, it’s prehistoric,” adding, “Dilip Kumar’s long-drawn-out dialogue delivery is out of sync with the times.”

Mr. Kumar received the Padma Bhushan, one of India’s highest civilian awards, in 1991; the Dadasaheb Phalke, India’s highest award for cinematic excellence, in 1994; and the Padma Vibhushan in 2015. From 2000 to 2006, he served as a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament. But these honors from the Indian government consumed far less newsprint than the decision by the Pakistani government, in 1998, to confer on him its highest civilian honor, the Nishan-e-Imtiaz. Amid heightened religious tensions, Mr. Kumar was branded an anti-national by Hindu politicians who asked him to return the award to Pakistan. He did not. He said in his autobiography that returning it “could have only soured relations further and produced bad vibes between India and Pakistan.”

Those words proved that Mr. Kumar was a tactful diplomat off screen.

On the screen, his characters would launch into more rebellious rhetoric. In the 1974 period drama “Sagina,” when labeled a traitor, his character responded, “If you’ve drunk your mother’s milk” — meaning, if you’re man enough — “then come get me.”

Even in this larger-than-life context, there was a dash of the realism that defined him.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/06/world/asia/dilip-kumar-dead.html