Daily Archives: September 15, 2020

Immigrants who have lived under true communism know a thing or two about government oppression. We know what its like to live in fear of absolute authoritarian rule. We know the pain of surrendering your liberty for the sake of the socialist collective. We know how it feels to have no future, no matter how hard you try to improve your life.

Those of us who were lucky enough to escape to the U.S. have also learned that the American Dream is very real. Or at least it used to be.

After years of studying and hard work, I achieved my own American Dream by becoming a family physician. As a mother of five, a small business owner, and a proud member of the school board, I was convinced that the best days for me and my family were yet to come.

In retrospect, I should not have been so quick to take my newfound liberties for granted.

The COVID-19 pandemic, while medically devastating, has become a social disaster for this country. For the past few months, I have been shocked to witness how more and more Americans are willingly surrendering their civil liberties to the government, doing everything that the state tells them to do in the name of public health.

I understand that extraordinary events and tragedies often require us to take extraordinary action. This country, after all, retooled its entire economy to help defeat Nazi Germany in WWII. Every single American understood the importance of fighting a common enemy, and giving our brave soldiers the tools that they needed to win. But does this pandemic really rise to the same level as a world war? Where will our political leaders draw the line between a recommendation and a mandate? If this virus lingers for years, will we ever see our liberties restored?

Of course, there are some Americans who are noticeably exempt from the rules and regulations that the rest of us have to follow. For the past four months, radical socialists have organized riots in some of our countrys largest cities, disobeying social gathering protocols while breaking long-established laws. Remarkably, the leaders of most Democrat-run cities in America were reluctant to criticize this political movement, even when these so-called protests resulted in violence, looting, and death.

Many schools and businesses across the country, meanwhile, remain closed because local authorities are determined to stop the spread of the coronavirus. When has a social cause become more important than educating our children or feeding our families?

Every morning, I wake up and wonder how many insignificant rights we will lose today, from not being allowed to eat inside a restaurant in Philadelphia, to not being able to go to the gym in New Jersey, to not being able to go to church in California. Every morning, I am briefly reminded of my life in Yugoslavia, and how eerily familiar America is becoming to my former homeland.

Luckily, President Trump the same man who has been repeatedly portrayed as an authoritarian by the mainstream press has steadfastly resisted the urge to exploit the crisis for the sake of obtaining power. Time and again, he has encouraged local leaders to safely reopen their economies, and loosen other needless restrictions that have proven to be ineffective.

Despite the fact America is heading down a dark path at the moment, I still believe that this magnificent country has a bright future. I hope and pray that the American people remember their history, recognize the threat of unlimited government authority, and choose to defend their civil liberties this November.

Dr. Katrina Lindley, DO is a family medicine physician in Brock, Texas

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LINDLEY: I Fled Tyranny Once; Now It Has Followed Me To America - The Hayride

HONG KONG For Ha Sze-yuen, the sea surrounding Hong Kong is more than just a backdrop for sunsets and beaches.

The 73-year old views the ocean as his route to freedom a means of escape from the oppression and poverty of communist China.

On the night of April 16, 1975, Ha and a friend slipped past Chinese border guards and plunged their homemade, inflatable rubber dinghy into the dark water of Shenzhen Bay.

They then started paddling toward the bright lights of Hong Kong, which at the time was still a British colony.

Ha said he had already been caught and jailed three times during previous failed attempts to swim across the water. After the third attempt, he said, guards beat him so badly his mother cried when she saw his wounds.

I was fighting for my freedom, Ha said. I was afraid, but compared to life in China the fear was nothing.

Ha said he and his mother, a school teacher, were persecuted during the Cultural Revolution, a period ofpolitical chaos and violence unleashed by Mao Zedong, due in part to the fact his father had been a Kuomintang military officer who fled Communist rule after his side lost the Chinese civil war.

During the worst decades of Maos rule, thousands of Chinesefled south into Hong Kong.

In photos taken after Has final, successful attempt to make it to the city, the beaming 28-year-old stands looking over Hong Kongs Victoria Harbor, dressed in bell-bottom trousers and a fashionable striped shirt.

But 45 years later, Ha no longer sees this historic port city as a sanctuary.

Now I feel like freedom is being taken away gradually, he said, referring to an ongoing crackdown on political opposition in the city by the government and Chinese authorities, who recently imposed a national security law on Hong Kong, which has further limited space for dissent and left many activists fearing arrest.

The arrests of close to 10,000 anti-government protesters over the past year and the increasing targeting of opposition politicians and activists have created a phenomenon that would have been considered unimaginable to many just a few years ago.

Some Hong Kongers are now taking great risks to flee the city, even choosing to try to smuggle themselves out by sea to Taiwan.

Some Hong Kong activists are starting to see parallels between the current situation and the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, when hundreds of mainland Chinese protesters were smuggled by land and sea to Hong Kong via an organized pipeline called Operation Yellowbird. At the time, Hong Kong authorities did not return dissidents to mainland China.

This time, the territory we need to escape from (includes) Hong Kong, and Taiwan becomes the destiny of people, the hope of Hong Kong people, said Eddie Chu, a pro-democracy lawmaker.

Chu plans to resign his position in Hong Kongs Legislative Council, after the citys government recently postponed elections by at least a year on public health grounds.

As authorities crack down on dissent in Hong Kong, a cottage industry of small businesses and organizations supporting the citys protest movement is springing up in Taipei.

Aegis is a coffee shop decorated with giant murals depicting helmeted, goggled protesters as manga-style superheroes. Patrons are welcomed by a so-called Lennon Wall of Post-it notes with handwritten messages like Stand with HK and Free HK, a once-ubiquitous sight in Hong Kong at the height of last years protest movement.

The business employs activists who have fled Hong Kong.

According to the Taiwanese government, the number of Hong Kong residents settling in Taiwan more than doubled during the first six months of 2020, compared to the previous year.

One of the most famous recent emigres is Lam Wing-kee. For years, he ran Causeway Bay Books, a small store in the heart of Hong Kong specializing in sensational works critical of the Chinese leadership.

But in 2015, he and four of his colleagues disappeared from Hong Kong for months only to reappear on Chinese state TV in a televised confession admitting to illegal book trading.

In a 2016 interview with CNN, Lam accused Chinese security forces of kidnapping him to the Chinese mainland and forcing the confession.

Three years later, Lam left Hong Kong for good, and started a new Causeway Bay Books in Taipei.

Taiwan is a lot safer than Hong Kong, Lam said. I left a place where I may lose my freedom to a place where I have freedom.

He spoke to CNN sitting beside the cash register in his shop, where he also sleeps at night to save rent. His desk is draped with a flag bearing the slogan Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of our Time.

The term has since been declared subversive by Hong Kong authorities, and those who use it could be prosecuted.

CNN has spoken to several frontline protesters who recently fled to Taipei to escape criminal charges in Hong Kong.

One 19-year-old man, who asked not to be identified, said he boarded a commercial flight to Taiwan in January, before the coronavirus pandemic triggered a lockdown.

Its hard for me, said the teenage exile, adding he felt homesick and wanted to return. I still want to (take part in) the political movement (but) theres no room for that in Hong Kong right now.

Other exiles in Taiwan said they had heard of fellow activists trying to escape by sea.

Right now everyone somehow is trapped in Hong Kong, said an older activist, who flew to Taiwan in July 2019 after participating in the storming and vandalizing of Hong Kongs Legislative Council.

I cant think of how we should keep fighting, or what young protesters should be doing now, he added. If we have a chance, we should escape.

The rest is here:

Activists Are Fleeing Hong Kong By Boat To Taiwan - WIBC - Indianapolis News & Politics

Abdul Salam Hanafi (right), a member of the Taliban negotiating team, heads to the opening session of peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, on Saturday. Hussein Sayed/AP hide caption

Abdul Salam Hanafi (right), a member of the Taliban negotiating team, heads to the opening session of peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, on Saturday.

Afghanistan's warring factions have officially begun what is likely to be a long and arduous process of negotiating a peaceful and prosperous future after nearly two decades of war.

Representatives for the Afghan government and the Taliban met in the capital of Qatar on Saturday to discuss their aspirations and decide on a framework for a lasting peace. The Trump administration paved the way for the negotiations the first direct talks between the two sides when it inked a peace agreement with the Taliban in February.

The talks in the city of Doha come 19 years after al-Qaida killed nearly 3,000 people in the Sept. 11 attacks. The attack was the deadliest act of terror in U.S. history and sparked war in Afghanistan, as the U.S. and its allies overthrew the Taliban regime for harboring the terrorists. But in the years since, Taliban militants have reclaimed control of much of the country.

Several concessions were made to reach today's peace talks. In exchange for a Taliban promise to renounce al-Qaida and prevent terrorist attacks, the U.S. and its allies have promised a complete troop withdrawal from Afghanistan by next spring.

When it signed the peace deal with the Taliban in February, the U.S. had approximately 12,000 military personnel in the country. Officials say the U.S. is on track to reduce its presence to 4,500 troops by the end of November. At its peak, the U.S. had 100,000 troops in the country.

For its part, the Afghan government has promised to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners in exchange for Taliban release of 1,000 Afghan security forces.

Abdul Ghani Baradar, one of the Taliban's founders, said he envisions an Islamic system that embraces all Afghans. At the opening ceremony, he urged patience on both sides.

"The negotiation process may have problems, but the request is that the negotiations move forward with a lot of patience, with a lot of attention, and it should be continued with such kind of attention," he said. "With full honesty, we continue the Afghan peace negotiation, and we try for peace and tranquility, we will pave the ground in Afghanistan."

Abdullah Abdullah, who heads Kabul's High Council for National Reconciliation, said that even if all sides can't agree on every detail, they will be "peace heroes" if they can create a political system based on Islamic principles that preserves the rights of all people.

In a video message to open the negotiations, U.N. Secretary-General Antnio Guterres said the talks present a "major opportunity to achieve the long-held aspirations of the people of Afghanistan for peace."

"Afghans themselves must determine the content and nature of the negotiations," Guterres said. "An inclusive peace process, in which women, youth and victims of conflict are meaningfully represented, offers the best hope of a sustainable solution."

The negotiations will endeavor to establish a framework for a peaceful postwar society after American troops return home. Gender equality and the rights of ethnic and religious minorities will be front and center, as the two sides confront a history of oppression by the Taliban.

The U.S. won't be directly involved in the peace talks. But the U.S. is still willing to offer suggestions for what a postwar Afghanistan could look like. In remarks at Saturday morning's opening ceremony, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the two sides to consider adopting a democratic form of government.

"In the United States, we have found that democracy notably, the principle of the peaceful rotation of political power works best," Pompeo said, according to prepared remarks. "Democratic systems reflect the choices of the majority while protecting the rights of the minority. This model has yielded great peace and prosperity for us and other democratic nations."

The two sides are under heavy pressure from the people of Afghanistan to come to an agreement as quickly as possible. U.S. special adviser Zalmay Khalilzad, who helped facilitate the talks, acknowledged that won't be easy. "There's a lot of mistrust," he told reporters Saturday. "This war has been going on for a long time, and compromise has not been easy historically in Afghanistan."

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Peace Talks Begin Between Taliban And Afghan Government - NPR

Friday, September 11, 2020

Thousands of demonstrators gathered in Minsk on Saturday at the spot in the Belarusian capital where a protester died in clashes with police, calling for the country's authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, to resign after 26 years in power. The protests have gone on for one month since the results of the presidential election in which election officials say Lukashenko won a sixth term in office but which is reality were fraudulent.

Despite harsh police action against the protesters, including the detention of 7,000 people, the demonstrations have swelled into the largest and most sustained wave of protest since Lukashenko took power in 1994.

The Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, has used his first interview since mass protests erupted against his rule to say he does not plan to step down soon. Lukashenko spoke to a group of pro-Kremlin Russian journalists including the editor-in-chief of Russia Today, Margarita Simonyan, and made it clear he plans to fight to cling on to power.

Lukashenko is in power shamelessly by bribing the army and the police for using to suppress the people. He is in power rigging the election and terrorising the people. Against his own people he is inviting Russian military help also.Unfortunately Putin has decided to send in special forces from Russia--perhaps thinking that a friendly dictator is better than a non friendly democratic government, no matter that Lukashenko has no popular legitimacy to remain in power. It is useless talking human rights when one can continue in power with the power of the gun and no popular election.

The main problem for Belarus is that Russia may try to prop up Lukashenko so he can stay in power. He has been able to resist Russian interference for 20 years but the danger is that if Lukashenko realises that he can't stay in power he may encourage Russia to prop him up. Russia has previously used chances like these to annex territory--like it did in 2015 when it annexed the Crimea but may instead help Lukashenko to remain in power. To stick to power for some people is like drug addiction and they will be saved by foreign power to keep their own people as slaves.

So what does the future hold for Belarus--rule under Lukashenko is probably the worst thing which can occur. It is time that Lukashenko realizes that he has outlived his usefulness to the Belarusian people and just go quietly. Oppressing them with his security forces and faking election results for the umpteenth time will not endear him to the people. He must not act like his godfather Putin and cling on to power. He must realize that the people can throw him out and go.

Modern dictators with the support of the army and the police have become too power for the people to change. The people's election is not necessary for government to be legitimate. Only international community can ensure that the government must have popular legitimacy.

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International action against oppression of illegitimate government in Belarus is urgent - thedailynewnation.com

Former Aligarh MuslimUniversity(AMU) student leader has written a public letter weeks later after he was arrested by UPs anti-terrorist squad (ATS) and subsequently released. TwoCircles.net reproduces the letter in its entirety.

Salam

I thank each one of you for praying for me and my family. It is only because of your support and prayers that I am able to write to you all. It was not possible for me to write from jail. In a country that celebrates the writings of its leaders which were written in jail, political prisoners are not allowed to own pen and paper. I had to wait to write to you.

Wait is a generous word, it demands one to stay where one is until a particular time or event. It denotes impatience and commands patience. To wait is the right thing to do, most of the time. We, however, arent living in a time that can be included in most of the time. We are in fact past all the fields that could hold us back to wait for the trouble to end. The cost of waiting is too much, perhaps more than everything we own. But what do we own? Nothing that could be summed up as a dignified living. To wait is also a choice we make. Everything we own, we lose depends on the choices we have made. We choose what is convenient, most of the time. But, as I said, we arent living in a time that can be included in most of the time. To not choose what is convenient is sacrifice. To sacrifice is even more generous than waiting. It is to give up something valuable. Now, I urge, is the time to give up waiting.

Ever since the Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power, Muslims in India have faced a systematic, yet chaotic form of cruel oppression. Our membership in the India society has been cancelled, informally, and the cancellation is lined up to be formalised with the duo of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizenship (NRC). The manifestation of our informally cancelled membership from the Indian society is multifold. From the ongoing witch-hunting of activists, students and citizens by the Indian law enforcement agencies, to the dominantly hateful Hindutva cultural symbols, to the ongoing and unending lynchings it all is to warn us of the declaration that our lives and everything related to our lives is of no value. Forgive me for revealing that what possesses no value is taken for granted.

Our response to this unjust calculation is convenient. It must also be unsatisfactory, I suspect. Rohit bhai in his last letter wrote the value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind. Our valuation is even worse. A number in a list with the header total deaths. A thing with no value, and no life. I apologize for being repetitive but everything we own and we lose depends upon the choices we have made. This is where I have disagreements. I have disagreements with our affinity for our convenient response. We also call it our fight while describing it.

Our response altogether has been of an abiding citizens. To a government that does not consider your being, and has proactively worked to ensure that your life be taken for granted by your fellow citizens; we respond by being law abiding. In close quarters, we also wait. Wait for all of this to get over. We secretly, and collectively pray that this government is defeated in the upcoming elections. Even if this government is mysteriously defeated, there exists no immediate cure for the alarming mass radicalization of Hindus. We also try to fool ourselves by repeating everything would be alright, we have people on our side, we have allies over and over again into our own ears. We might as well have the whole world on our side, but that would mean nothing if our entire response is to wait. With our allies, we patiently wait.

I am not sure if it has to be spoken out loud, but, I feel that now is the time to be rogue. Nobody cares about the law abiding attitude of the persecuted in a excellently functional lawless society. Muslim activists do not exist to count the dead bodies of their fellow brothers and sisters, to pressurise the government to release every next person incarcerated, and then celebrate their release after several months of illegal imprisonment. In case we didnt notice, with every one person released, there are dozens going in. One can only pressurise someone who cares. This particular government, my dear people, does not care. Students, in their college, sit on hunger strike against a new rule because they have faith that the college administration would not let them die. The same is not the case with this government.

We cannot pressurise oppressors to not oppress. We can only compel them, force them. Fifty years from today, if our history is written accurately, we will find two sets of people in our community. The bad ones and the good ones. The bad ones would be those who remained silent throughout our persecution, the good ones would be those who waited for the persecution to happen only to condemn it with empty slogans, colorful posters and routinely boring hashtags. Fifty years from now, people would not be very pleased with even the good ones such as me.

I urge you to give up on waiting. I urge you to join the fight while you can. I urge you to present before this government and its followers an option to mass-arrest and mass-lynch hundreds or thousands or whatever number of people who are willing to actually fight back. That is the choice weve to make. If this is not possible today, let us all work to make it possible whenever it can be possible. This oppression is not going to end anytime soon. Hindutva must be defeated for a just society to exist. We need civil disobedience.

Js khet se dahqan ko mayassar nah roz,Us khet ko har Khosh e Gandum ko jal do.

In solidarity,Sharjeel Usmani

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Since Modi came to power, Muslims have faced systematic, chaotic form of cruel oppression: Sharjeel Usmani - TwoCircles.net

CNN anchor Jake Tapper was accused of "gaslighting" his Twitter followers over a post suggesting that President Trump has beencomplicit in the human rights abuses that are being committed by the Chinese government againstUyghur Muslims.

On Sunday's installment of "State of the Union," Tapper condemned Disney for filming its live-action remake of "Mulan" in Xinjiang, where Uyghur Muslims are being held in concentration camps, and thanking eight Chinese government entities in the film's end credits. He also called out the NBA over reported human rights abuse allegations from the league's training academies in China.

He also blasted President Trump over remarks he allegedly told Chinese President Xi Jinping approving the existence of such Muslim concentration camps, according to claims made in former national security advisor John Bolton's book.

CNN'S JAKE TAPPER PESTERED GOP CANDIDATE SEAN PARNELL FOR STATEMENT DISMISSING SCANDALOUS DM: SOURCE

Future generations will be ashamed to read how companies that consider themselves progressive such as the @NBA and @Disneyjoined with conservatives including @realDonaldTrump to sanction concentration camps and human rights abuses by the Chinese government against Muslims.

However, critics fact-checked Tapper, claiming the Trump administration has done far more to condemn China's treatment ofUyghur Muslims than the newsman suggested to his 2.6 million Twitter followers.

"Jake is using word 'sanction'here to mean 'give permission to'- apparently referencing Bolton book allegations - but the tweet omits that Trump (with support of conservatives & Congress) sanctioned (other definition) numerous CCP officials & entities for oppression of Uyghurs," Washington Examiner reporter Jerry Dunleavy said.

CRITICS BLAST CNN'S JAKE TAPPER FOR 'LYING' AFTER CLAIM ABOUT GOP CANDIDATE SEAN PARNELL

"President Trump signed the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act into law back in June and put sanctions on several members of the CCP for their human rights abuses against Uighurs, as well as several Chinese corporations complicit in Uyghur detainment back in July," Daily Caller's Greg Price similarly said.

"Well Trump just issued a set of sanctions blocking goods from Xinjiang. So technically Disney is less proactive on human rights than Trump is," journalist Zaid Jilani wrote.

"This is gaslighting I never expected from you. This is so beneath you," podcast host Lyndsey Fifield told the CNN anchor.

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Tapper has been under fire in recent weeks over his attempt to convince GOP congressional candidate Sean Parnell to not run against Democratic incumbent Rep. Conor Lamb.

Multiple sources alleged that the CNN anchor has been pestering Parnellto issue ajointstatement with him in an attempt to downplay his involvement in the Pennsylvania race.

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CNN's Jake Tapper blasted for 'gaslighting' over tweet accusing Trump of approving Chinese concentration camps - Fox News