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Bernie Sanders has launched a withering attack on Donald Trump, accusing him of being a pathological liar who is driving America towards authoritarianism.

In an interview with the Guardian, the independent senator from Vermont, who waged a spirited campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, gave a bleak appraisal of the new White House and its intentions.

He warned that Trumps most contentious outbursts against the media, judiciary and other pillars of American public life amounted to a conscious assault on democracy.

Trump lies all of the time and I think that is not an accident, there is a reason for that. He lies in order to undermine the foundations of American democracy.

Sanders warning comes 50 days into the Trump presidency at a time when the country is still reeling from the shock elevation of a real estate businessman and reality TV star to the worlds most powerful office. In that brief period, the new incumbent of the White House has launched attacks on former president Barack Obamas signature healthcare policy; on visitors from majority-Muslim countries, refugees and undocumented immigrants; and on trade agreements and environmental protection programs.

Speaking to the Guardian in his Senate office in Washington DC, Sanders said that he was concerned about what he called Trumps reactionary economic program of tax breaks to billionaires and devastating cuts to programs that impact the middle class. But he reserved his most excoriating language for what he believes are the presidents authoritarian tendencies.

He charged Trump with devising a conscious strategy of lies denigrating key public institutions, from the mainstream media to judges and even the electoral process itself, so that he could present himself as the sole savior of the nation. The aim was to put out the message that the only person in America who stands for the American people, the only person in America who is telling the truth, the only person in America who gets it right is the president of the United States, Donald Trump.

Trumps fragile relationship with the truth has been one of the distinguishing features of his fledgling administration. He astonished observers by calling a judge who issued a legal ruling blocking his travel ban a so-called judge, accused Obama without producing any evidence of wiretapping Trump Tower, and claimed falsely that up to 5 million votes had been cast illegally in the November election.

Sanders, however, suggested the lies all serve a purpose. To underline his point, Sanders compared the 45th president with the 43rd. George Bush was a very conservative president, I opposed him every single day. But George Bush did not operate outside of mainstream American political values.

While the media spotlight remains firmly on Trump and the daily bombardment of his Twitter feed, quietly and largely unmarked, Sanders, the self-styled democratic socialist senator, is spearheading a nationwide resistance to the new administration. The Brooklyn-born politician is working in tandem with, though at arms length from, former senior advisers in his presidential campaign to rouse for a second time the vast army of young people who flocked to his cause in 2016.

He said that despite what he sees as the virulent threat of Trump, he finds comfort in the evidence that the resistance is already in full swing. You are seeing a very active progressive movement. Our Revolution a group which came out of my campaign other groups, the spontaneous Womens March, thats all an indication of the willingness of the American people to fight back for democracy.

Trumps end goal was to end up as the leader of a nation which has moved in a significant degree toward authoritarianism, he said. The only way to defeat that trend is for massive grassroots resistance, and clearly we are seeing that right now.

As examples of what he meant, Sanders pointed to the 150 rallies in 130 congressional districts that were held in one recent weekend alone. The events mobilized tens of thousands of people demanding meetings with their members of Congress to protest against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

Sanders made a specific appeal to his Republican colleagues in Congress to join him in this resistance. He addressed himself directly to those Republicans who believe in democracy, who do not believe in authoritarianism. It is incumbent upon them, in this moment in history, to stand up and say that what Trump is doing is not what the United States is about, its not what our constitution is about. They have got to join us in resistance.

He added: I hope in the coming months to be working with some conservative Republicans, who I disagree with on every economic and environmental issue you can imagine, to say to this president that you are not going to undermine American democracy.

The Vermont senator also remarked on the ongoing inquiry into alleged connections between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russian government under Vladimir Putin. Intelligence agencies have accused the Kremlin of trying to distort the presidential election in Trumps favour by hacking into Democratic email accounts.

Russia played a very heavy role in attempting, successfully, I think, to impact our election. That is unacceptable, Sanders said.

We need to know what kind of influence the Russian oligarchy has over Trump. Many people are astounded. Here he is, seemingly in strong disagreement with Australia, with Mexico, with long-term allies; but he has nothing but positive things to say about Mr Putin who is an authoritarian leader.

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'Trump lies all the time': Bernie Sanders indicts president's assault on democracy - The Guardian

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March 10, 2017 BeijingIt was a striking end for South Korean President Park Geun-hye.Only six of the eight justices on the South Koreas Constitutional Court needed to support the impeachment motion filed by lawmakers for her to be formally removed from office. When the court announced its ruling on Friday, it was unanimous, making her the countrys first democratically elected leader to be forced from office.

"The negative effects of the president's actions and their repercussions are grave, and the benefits to defending the Constitution by removing her from office are overwhelmingly large, acting Chief Justice Lee Jung-mi said at the hearing, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap.

The corruption scandal that led to Ms. Parks ouster has plunged South Korea into political turmoil. It has coincided with a resurgence in the Norths nuclear program and an escalation in regional tensions over an advanced US antimissile system being deployed south of Seoul.

Still, the ruling on Friday offers a sign of how far South Koreas young democracy has evolved since it was first established in the late 1980s. It follows months of peaceful protests that drew millions of people into the streets, as well as the legislative impeachment vote in December that suspended Parks presidential powers.

South Korea's ruling and opposition parties both said they would accept the courts decision ahead of its announcement on Friday in another sign of the countrys maturing political institutions.

The courts ruling shows that in any circumstance Korea's democracy is still solid, including the president's impeachment, Lee Won-jae, a prominent economist and political commentator, says in an email from Seoul. Its historic because it tells us that the people have power superior to the president the most powerful person in the country.

Park was South Koreas first female president and the daughter of the military dictator Park Chung-hee. Nostalgia for her fathers conservative rule led her a sweeping electoral victory in 2012.

In the aftermath of her dramatic downfall, political power is expected to shift in the direction of the liberal opposition. Among the oppositions major policy proposals are its calls for more engagement with North Korea and defusing tensions with neighboring China.

The courts ruling on Friday, which was met with protests by hundreds of Park's supporters, brought an end to Parks nearly five years in power. But the corruption case is far from over. Prosecutors have accused her of extortion, bribery, and abuse of power in connection with allegations that she conspired with a confidante to extort tens of millions of dollars from large companies. Park has maintained her innocence throughout.

Prosecutors have already identified Park as a criminal suspect. Now that shes no longer immune from prosecution, they can make a stronger push for indictment. Their investigations have led to the arrests of former government officials as well as Lee Jae-yong,the de facto leader of Samsung who is accused of bribing Park in return for business favors.

Meanwhile, South Koreans are required by law to elect a new president within 60 days. The acting president, Hwang Kyo-ahn, will remain in office until the election, which is expected May 9.

Moon Jae-in, a former opposition party leader who lost to Park in the 2012 election, is the front-runner in opinion surveys. He has stressed the need for dialogue with Pyongyang and has said Seoul should reconsider its plans to deploy THAAD, the US missile-defense system.

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In President Park's dramatic ouster, a test of South Korea's young democracy - Christian Science Monitor

Chinas state council says protests against Donald Trumps election win showed that rights were not protected by the US political system. Photograph: Kevin Hagen/EPA

The US election was full of lies and a farce that exposed the hypocritical nature of its democracy, one-party China has claimed in its annual inquiry into the human rights record of its geopolitical rival.

Each year the state council information office, the propaganda wing of Chinas cabinet, publishes a summary of alleged US human rights abuses as a means of hitting back against Washingtons criticism of Beijings own record.

This years report, which is almost entirely based on reports by news groups whose coverage of Chinese human rights violations Beijing routinely attacks or blocks, paints a wretched portrait of the US political system.

In 2016, money politics and power-for-money deals had controlled the presidential election, which was full of lies and farces, its introduction says. There were no guarantees of political rights, while the public responded with waves of boycott and protests, giving full exposure of the hypocritical nature of US democracy.

Chinas report lays a raft of accusations at the gates to the White House, accusing the US of posing as an international judge of human rights while simultaneously committing abuses at home and abroad.

Wielding the baton of human rights, [the US] pointed fingers and cast blame on the human rights situation in many countries while paying no attention to its own terrible human rights problems, it says.

The reports authors decry a widening income gap, deteriorating race relations, the repeated shooting of black Americans by white police and Americas worrisome treatment of children, women and the elderly.

With the gunshots lingering in peoples ears behind the Statue of Liberty, worsening racial discrimination and the election farce dominated by money politics, the self-proclaimed human rights defender has exposed its human rights myth with its own deeds, it says.

The inquiry hones in on what it describes as Americas spiralling crime rate, citing Donald Trumps inaccurate claim that crime is out of control, and rapidly getting worse in a section lamenting the continuous infringement of civil rights in the US.

Finally, Chinas report castigates US foreign policy, accusing Washington of continuing to trample on human rights in other countries, causing tremendous civilian casualties in places such as Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

Allegations of internet snooping drew vast criticism from the international community.

Beijings inquiry claims it findings are built on concrete facts, nearly all of which have been extracted from stories published by international news organisations groups such as the BBC, CNN, the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Guardian.

In spite of this, the Chinese report finds space to bemoan the poor quality of journalism being produced by such outlets.

During last years historic election the US media published a lot of biased reports and commentaries fully demonstrating their failure in staying objective or impartial, it claimed.

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US election was a farce that exposes 'hypocritical' democracy, says ... - The Guardian

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Restore American Democracy Mobilize Your National Network Common Dreams We can break the grip of powerful individuals on Congress and restore democracy of, by and for the people. But if we want to win, you and I must mobilize. A new approach, FiftyNifty.org, makes this not just possible, but actually easy. How is any ...

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Restore American Democracy Mobilize Your National Network - Common Dreams