America’s Authoritarians: The US political divide

 

How the spread of wild conspiracy theories has undermined democratic institutions and social stability in the US.

With guns in their hands and faith in God at their side, many Republicans in the United States continue to believe that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump.

As a result, the country remains deeply divided over the last contest for the White House – and the violent attempts at the Capitol that followed to overturn the result.

‘Foreign agents and extremists’: Russia’s attack on critics

 Critical journalists and dissidents in Russia face the latest threat to their survival. Plus, find out why young Turks are turning to YouTube to get their news.

In Russia, the political stakes are rising in the run up to election season – journalists are being branded as “foreign agents” and an opposition figure is labelled an “extremist”.

Leaders Consolidate Power Amid Virus

For some world leaders, the coronavirus outbreak is providing an opportunity to consolidate power. Hungary’s prime minister has invoked an emergency law, taking sole command of that country, and in Poland, the ruling coalition is pushing to hold a presidential election that is planned next month despite the lockdown preventing the opposition from campaigning.

Two Videos Showing Chinese Officials Forcibly Removing People From Their Homes

Can’t believe in my eyes!#coronavirus #wuhanvirus #CoronavirusOutbreak #Wuhan #china #HumanRightsViolations #TruthBeTold #WuhanCoronavirus pic.twitter.com/Be3QzPnTcr

— Chris Tran (@chrisphotogp) February 4, 2020

More Craziness From The Quarantine Zone In China
pic.twitter.com/uaxf6x5QaO
#coronavirus #coronaviruschina #CoronavirusOutbreak #WuhanVirus

— GABBAR TALKS 🌎 (News & Views) 🎥 (@GabbarTalksNews) February 9, 2020

Order A Journalist Killed: Receive A Public Holiday And A Gold Platted Machine Gun

Even though irrefutable evidence exists showing  Mohammad bin Salman ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi that hasn't stopped the government of Pakistan from declaring a public holiday, having him personally driven about in the Prime Minister's Official vehicle, but perhaps most appropriate was given a gold platted machine gun.  Nothing says free speech, free press and supporting human rights than a gift of a gold platted machine gun to the person who ordered Jamal Khashoggi's murder. But, hey. It's Pakistan the country that helped found and train the Taliban.  Along with providing support to know terrorist groups operating in India controlled Kashmir. Both these countries are considered important allies by the Trump administration. Why not?  Governments and their leaders who show and or support authoritarian rule are greatly admired by Donald Trump.

Mohammad bin Salman has been welcomed with a fighter jet escort, a gold-plated submachine gun and Pakistan’s highest civilian honour on the lavish first leg of an Asian tour aimed at rehabilitating the image of the Saudi Arabian crown prince five months after the killing of Jamal Khashoggi.

After being personally chauffeured from the airport by the country’s prime minister, Imran Khan, Prince Mohammed signed agreements worth $20bn on Monday, a crucial injection of funds for an ailing economy suffering a foreign-currency crunch and which is currently negotiating its 13th IMF bailout in 40 years.

The day was declared a public holiday in Pakistan, and pictures of the powerful royal dotted the capital Islamabad. In celebration, the Saudis announced the release of more than 2,000 Pakistani prisoners from their jails.

Robert Reich Lays Bare Trump's Four Techniques For Manipulating The Media

Robert Reich Warns: Donald Trump Moving America Towards An Authoritarian State (video)

Robert Reich wrote an article recently explaining the seven techniques that Donald Trump is using to undermine not only the media, but government itself.

“In many ways Donald Trump seems to be indifferent, at best, to the democratic process,” he said.

Goodman and Reich spoke to the ways that Trump has targeted the media, namely referring back to recent a post of Reich’s about the ways tyrants aim to crumble democracy by delegitimizing and taking power away from the free press.

Reich listed the seven techniques that Trump has already employed to do so, which include the following:

1. Berate the media
2. Blacklist critical media
3. Turn the public against the media
4. Condemn satirical or critical comments
5. Threaten the media directly
6. Limit media access
7. Bypass the media and communicate with the public directly

How Do You Subvert Democratic Rule? Through The Courts

Several governments in Asia use the court and legal system to quash dissent and disenfranchise smaller political parties.  This is particularly prevalent in Malaysia and Singapore where the ruling parties have used the courts and legal system to jail political opponents or financially ruin them through libel laws.  All done in the name of elective representative government or just outright authoritarian rule under the guise of egalitarian rule.   China has decided that using those methods against pro independence legislators in Hong Kong. It gives the veneer of following the rule of law while suppressing dissent.        


Government to file lawsuit against Lau Siu-lai, who took 10 minutes to read her 77-word oath of allegiance

The Hong Kong government will seek to ban a third member of the city’s parliament, expanding a campaign to remove pro-democracy advocates after two pro-independence legislators were barred from taking their seats.

The government will file a lawsuit against pro-democracy Lau Siu-lai this week or early next week, alleging she was not sincere when she took the oath of allegiance last month.

America Elects A Demagogue : Donald Trump

In a complete repudiation of good governance and what can only be seen as a longing for an authoritarian ruler  American voters elected Donald Trump President.

Here's a person who's embolden racists, isolationists and bigots of all stripes.  A man who has no understanding of how the American government works or how policy is implemented.  A man who doesn't understand or want to know any of the basic concepts affecting domestic and foreign policy.  In the area of domestic policy Donald Trump has advocated for the deportation of all 11 million people living in America who are undocumented  and for building a wall along America's southern border.  (The Berlin Wall lives.)  In the area of foreign policy he has on several occasions stated that America's military wouldn't just go after the world's terrorists but their families as well, stating they should also be killed. (That's a war crime.)  As for America's military alliances? Well, you'd better pay up.   He once pronounced NATO as obsolete and that America's continued involvement would be predicated upon member states paying fees to America.  Can a like a protection racket.   Donald Trump thinks that South Korea and Japan should have their own nuclear arsenals even though neither country wants them. He also wonders why America can't  just use its nuclear weapons simply because the U.S. has them.


During the second Presidential debate Donald Trump stated that if elected he would arrest and imprison Hillary Clinton even though she's never been charged with any criminal offense.  Authoritarian rulers do that not American President's unless you're  Donald Trump.

He's called America's press liars and claimed they were biased against him.  During the campaign Donald Trump has advocated going after those media outlets he believes have broadcast or printed unfavourable stories about him.  Will he go the way of Turkey's Erdogan and start shutting down opposition media  outlets and arresting and imprisoning journalists?  To say that he won't would be a fool's errand.  

Donald Trump has no business leading America or the world.  He's incapable of doing so because he's thin skinned,  can't handle criticism, views any slight as a personal attack and if wronged has the extremely bad habit of wanting revenge and won't stop until he has it.

Welcome To Donald Trump's America.

What's Donald Trump Campaigning For? Dictator In Chief

When Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign it wasn't with a patriotic flourish or story about how America helped him to fulfill his dreams of success.  Instead he offered a highly racist and bombastic screed against undocumented Mexicans living in the U.S. accusing them of being drug smugglers, murderers, rapists and being unintelligent.  Continuing down that same line of reasoning and without any empirical evidence to backup his stated that the Mexican government was pushing its recently released criminals to immigrate to America.

This type of rhetoric plays well within the Republican party's activist base as shown by his popularity in the polling following his announcement.

On the CBS News program Sixty Minutes he told presenter Scott Pelley that he would round up the 11 million undocumented Mexicans currently in America and deport them. According to him it would all be "very humain."  Those comments and what they imply reminds one of Stalin's forced internal exile programs when he was Premier of the Soviet Union. 

What has really brought forth his authoritarian ambitions is the issue of Syrian refugees following the attacks in Paris.  His rhetoric on the refugee issue and on Muslims in general have reached a point where you are reminded of Hitler's rise to power in 1930's Germany. Where he demonized those he saw as beneath the German people.

Here are some examples:

He would monitor mosques as believes that's where and how Muslims become radicalized.  Even though there is no clear evidence of this. What's next? Closing them all down because he, Donald Trump is a religious bigot.

Creating a database on Muslims. Gee if that doesn't sound like something straight out the 1930's dictators guide book what does?

Wouldn't rule out warrantless searches.  Which is a complete violation the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Thinks special ID cards for Muslims would be great.  What's next sewing a green M on to their clothing?


Would bring back waterboarding.  According to the United Nations waterboarding is torture. Just ask those the United States prosecuted following World War II.


This type of political rhetoric helps to inflame those prone to bigotry, hatred and learned biases  against those considered to be others.  What Donald Trump is doing is reminiscent of those who have sought dictatorial powers. By demonizing a particular minority or minorities thus making them your enemy justifying the need to imprison them or for their forced removable from the lands where they live because you, the demagogue as created a nonexistent enemy.  

The Prime Minister Is Coming; The Prime Minister Is Coming What Do We Do? Glue The Cotton Back On

In September the Prime Minister of Uzbekistan was scheduled to drive through a small village in that country. Into insure that all was beautiful and right with the world the local farmers were ordered to glue the just picked cotton back onto the bushes.

When word came that the Uzbek prime minister would be driving past their village, local officials wanted to impress him with roads lined by snowy white fields of cotton.
The only problem was that the cotton had already been picked.
So, locals say, farmers were told to glue cotton balls back on the bushes to give an impression of a bountiful harvest of the country’s most important crop.
Ahead of the expected visit by the prime minister, Shavkat Mirziyaev, at the end of September, some 400 men and women in the village of Shaharteppa in Ferghana province were reportedly pressed into service along the main road where the official convoy was expected to pass.
“Some of them were applying glue inside the bolls and others were putting cotton on the bolls, while another group was attaching cotton capsules onto stalks in the front rows of the cotton field,” a resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity,told RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service.

Beijing Determined To Prove Protests In Hong Kong Unpatriotic: Violent clashes break out in Hong Kong after counter-protesters storm sit-in

While echo's of Tienanmen square my not waffle through the air the government is oppressed wit showing democracy demonstrators in the city as anti-government, influenced by outside forces and pro western all in an effort to undermined the rule of law.

General principles

• The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is part of the People's Republic of China.^[3]

• The region has a high degree of autonomy and enjoys executive, legislative and independent judicial power, including that of final adjudication.^[3] An implication is that the former judicial recourse by appealing to the United Kingdom's Judicial Committee of the Privy Council would no longer be available. Instead, the Court of Final Appeal was established within the HKSAR to take up the role.

• The executive authorities and legislature of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall be composed of permanent residents of Hong Kong in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Basic Law.^[3]

• The socialist system and policies shall not be practised in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and the previous capitalist system and way of life shall remain unchanged for 50 years.^[3]

• The laws previously in force in Hong Kong, that is, the common law, rules of equity, ordinances, subordinate legislation and customary law (such as Chinese clan law) shall be maintained, except for any that contravene the Basic Law and subject to any amendment by the legislature of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.^[3]

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall protect the right of ownership of private property in accordance with law.       
 Remember China's Communist government agreed with the conditions as laid out above. They also agreed to Hong Kong's eligible voters would have a voice in the selection of the cities administrator which was to be enacted in 2017.  This was nullified in August of this year when Beijing announced that they would ultimately have say in the selection of the cities governance.  Rather than the voters as promised.

Violent scuffles have broken out in one of Hong Kong’s most famous and congested shopping districts, as supporters of Chinese rule stormed tents and ripped down banners belonging to pro-democracy protesters.

In the gritty, bustling district of Mongkok – considered one of the most crowded places on Earth with its high-rise apartment blocks packed closely together over neon lights, bars, restaurants and open-air markets – about 1,000 Beijing supporters clashed with about 100 protesters on Friday, spitting and throwing water bottles.

Hong Kong’s mass pro-democracy protests had ebbed on Friday morning after the chief executive offered talks to student representatives minutes before their midnight deadline for his resignation.
But hundreds remained in Mongkok and around government offices in the city’s downtown, angered by Leung Chun-ying’s refusal to quit and deeply sceptical that dialogue will win any changes to Beijing’s plans for elections in the region.

Police formed a human chain in Mongkok to separate the two groups amid the wail of sirens.

 Kinda of reminds you of Egypt without the camel charges. All in the name of preserving the dictatorship.