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By Antonio lvarez Ramirez | 03/06/17 6:22pm | Updated 03/06/17 6:22pm

This article originally appeared in The Eagle's Feb. 24, 2017 special edition.

On April 27, 1989, students across the Peoples Republic of China took to the streets in an act of defiance against the repressive totalitarian government under which they lived.

Initially, the student-led protest centered its demands on the development of democracy, the destruction of corruption and the opening of social institutions like the press and higher education. Student leaders had organized and mobilized their campus in a massive and powerful demonstration against the state.

Their passion and courage began to inspire wider support. Soon, workers parties joined the student protesters in support of their ideals of anti-corruption and decentralization of power.

This incredible demonstration of popular dissent and courage forced the government into a general state of emergency and immediately began a negotiation process. Although it may seem like a completely abstract and distant reality, universities and institutions of higher education have a long history of political dissent and mobilization. Students have led famous actions that have inspired millions to act, leading to concessions from governments and even the toppling of regimes.

In an era of political tension in our country, the University and especially its progressive liberal student population must embody this spirit of mobilization and stand in opposition to an increasingly racist, xenophobic, sexist, ableist and power hungry regime. The resistance movement is failing.

On Feb. 3, No Lost Generation, an organization dedicated to informing the student body about refugee issues, hosted a demonstration called AU Stands Up: Rally for Refugees and Immigrants. Despite the Facebook event having 296 people going, 648 people interested and 1,200 people invited, the actual attendance never exceeded 30-40 people. This is not a commentary on the organizing skills or effort of No Lost Generation but on the woeful state of mobilization on AUs campus.

Standing out in the cold with a few dozen others listening to students give their personal experiences as refugees and immigrants, I couldnt help but wonder why the hundreds of students walking by us, most of whom I am sure are self-described liberals, progressives or Democrats, wouldnt stop for at least a few minutes and listen.

This lack of action could be a result of disinterest, too much trust in the electoral system or an abundance of privilege. Whatever the reasons, I call on our campus to do better.

For the many of us who exist in a position of extreme privilege compared to those impacted by the incoming regimes proto-fascist policies, we cannot sit by and let these actions stand. Students can be the foot soldiers for important movements that demand change and resist oppression. We can be the organizers that spark the next popular resistance movement.

If you are able to, it is not enough to say you are a liberal, or to say you are against racism, or to share Huffington Post articles whose content amounts to Trump: Sad Face Emoji. If you are able and truly believe in equality and justice, you must mobilize and agitate.

Demonstrative opposition to the Trump regime and to the rise of far right powers across the world is the only thing which will stop us from conceding ground to the rise of global fascism. Groups like the College Democrats, who have not organized any events whatsoever in response to racist and Islamophobic executive orders, are complicit in the administrations ability to act without punishment or response from the populace.

Of course, when I urge folks to come out and mobilize, I am not referring to those who for various reasons cannot do so. Our undocumented, Muslim/Muslim passing, mentally ill, trans, low income and Black siblings and peers are often at special risk in these movements.

I direct my call of action at the majority of AU students that are white. I challenge the men, the able bodied and minded, the wealthy and financially stable and the non-black people of color. All of us should stand in solidarity with those who will be punished more harshly for standing up and fighting for their rights.

I implore you as an AU student, as a self-described liberal, as a leader of a student organization. Organize protests, sit-ins and actions. Educate yourself about student activism. Mobilize your peers and friends to act. Embody the revolutionary spirit of your predecessors and peers throughout history. Most importantly, do better. The future is counting on you.

Antonio lvarez-Ramirez is a sophomore in the School of International Service and College of Arts and Sciences. He is the Economic Development Policy Expert at the AU Roosevelt Institute and a Director on the AUSG Diversity and Inclusion Working Group.

Original post:
Straight from print: AU liberals are failing - The Eagle

It is clear that today what passes for news is essentially opinion. The left-leaning media (so called liberal) have shown more intolerance than what is essentially called right-wing by them. They hate to lose. And when they do, the savage attacks on the non-liberals show their intolerance.

Take the case of Shazia Ilmi not being allowed to speak at her Alma MaterJamia Millia Islamia on a seminar on Women empowerment. Though she was invited, the invite was withdrawn at the last minute without explanation. General Bakshi and Tarek Fatah were invited to a prestigious club in Kolkata for a seminar and Mamata Banerjee made the institution cancel the event.

None of the liberals had massive rallies against such acts against Freedom of Speech. In fact, most news channels did not even carry this.

Be it the Indian, American or British media all seem to have a markedly liberal point of view that does not allow any dissent. Talk about freedoms. Only the Left it seems has the freedom to speak and rally.

The word intolerance is used all the time when there is a blowback on whatever the liberals say or do. No matter how innocuous the subject, such as spreading yoga worldwide, the liberal left will have something unpleasant to say about it.

The people have pretty much told the liberal media that they dont rule the dialogue and the social media is, thus, thriving. Whether it is the New York Times or the New Yorker, very few read them and many think they are biased towards the extreme left.

Change in spite of the media has happened in India, Britain and USA and will follow in most European countries. One has stopped watching Indian TV news as once again there is little news but a great deal of debate. What passes for news is the opinion of the anchor or the owners of the channels who have their own agendas.

Yesterday, I watched the news briefly and saw an event, that made me think:Arun Purie congratulating his daughter for India Today TV getting the award for best English and Hindi news. To me an award is a self-perpetuating exercise by an organisation where they form a club of sorts and give each other awards. Whether it is the Oscars, Grammys, etc. They form a small cabal who decide who gets an award. Is this the peoples choice? No! The people are not consulted and mostly unaware of how and who chooses these awards.

Newspapers, magazines and such organisations pump up their reader/viewership to garner more advertising revenue, so their own statistics are always suspect. So, are these awards really relevant? Are the best reporters getting awards? Is there even such a thing as investigative reporting left in India?

I saw a portion of The big fight where the issue being debated was Is free speech being curtailed now. Well, in fact no. When the Congress realised that Modi was a potential threat way back in 2004 a sustained campaign was launched to discredit him this is a long story and much has been written on this. The US media did the same for Trump. The people lost trust and switched to social media. And voted Trump as president, in spite the hundreds of negative articles that appeared on him by CNN, New York Times, New Yorker, Washington Post and many others. They switched off.

So, I looked up once again at media viewership and came up with this revealing data on TV news viewership.

Top 5 English news channels viewership (BARC data week Feb 2017):

Times Now 798,000 India Today 498,000 CNN-IBN 404,000 NDTV 376,000 BBC 184,000

Hindi News Channels (Feb 2017)

Simply put two million people watch the top five English channels put together. And 485 million people watch the top five Hindi news channels.

The conclusion is most of what we see in the English news channels is really not relevant in the context of forming public opinion. A viewership of just two million in a country of 1.3 billion is too small to be of any significance. Wake up reporters and anchors. Your air- conditioned environment plus huge salaries and popularity are at stake. Beat the streets and start feeling the pulse of all Indians not just the Liberals and their cronies.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

Read more from the original source:
The liberals and their false angst on intolerance - Times of India (blog)

The first problem with these kinds of arguments is that the alt-left doesnt actually exist, at least not in the way that the lefts opponents would have it. As The New Republics Sarah Jones pointed out, the alt-rights goal, shared by neo-Nazis like Richard Spencer and the White Houses infamous Steves (Bannon and Miller), is to implement a white supremacist state. In contrast, the goals of the alt-left are not too different from that of a New Deal Democrat. Universal health care and a $15 minimum wage are not the lefts version of a Muslim ban, even if the rhetoric of the left is combative, uncompromising, and, yes, sometimes obnoxious.

As Eric Levitz points out at New York, one of the main problems with Wolcotts piece is that he cherry-picks a number of voicesmany of whom barely intersectto speak for a perceived group. Among them are a few writers he apparently dislikes (Michael Tracey, Freddie deBoer, Connor Kilpatrick), Susan Sarandon, Mickey Kaus, and Oliver Stone. While criticisms can be made of many of Wolcotts targets, to lump them together as representative of the alt-left is nonsensical. It conflates being Loud Online with actual politics. And crucially, unlike members of the alt-right, who are being actively wooed by the GOP, these people have almost no power.

Blair is positing a more dangerous idea: that liberalism should essentially reorient itself as a globalized technocracy, in opposition to anti-elite populism.

A graver sin is the adoption of a term that was created by conservatives to smear the left and discredit criticisms of the growing clout of the racist right. Richard Spencer coined the term alt-right for his own movement. In very stark contrast, alt-left is a strawman invention of far-right websites. As The Washington Posts Aaron Blake pointed out in December, The difference between alt-right and alt-left is that one of them was coined by the people who comprise the movement and whose movement is clearly ascendant; the other was coined by its opponents and doesnt actually have any subscribers. When alt-left is deployed by the likes of Sean Hannity on Fox News, it is a form of propaganda used to conflate groups like Black Lives Matter with the Ku Klux Klan. For Wolcott to ascribe to this notion only gives this right-wing smear more credence.

Blair invokes the specter of a dangerous left for different reasons. By equating the populist lefts hostility toward big business and the 1 percent with the populist rights hostility toward migrants and people of color, he is creating a false equivalence that undermines progressivism as a whole. The ultra-wealthy patrons of the Republican Party (and, to a lesser extent, the Democratic Party) are, in fact, much to blame for deep inequality we see in the United States. Globalization did gouge the working and middle classes in the West, most notoriously during the Great Recession, even as it lifted millions out of poverty in other parts of the world. Political elites did fail us, from the Iraq War to the financial crisis.

Yet this is how Blair frames the debate over these issues:

Today, a distinction that often matters more than traditional right and left is open vs. closed. The open-minded see globalization as an opportunity but one with challenges that should be mitigated; the closed-minded see the outside world as a threat. This distinction crosses traditional party lines and thus has no organizing base, no natural channel for representation in electoral politics.

The last half of Blairs op-ed argues for achieving radical change by reaching for voters who remain in the big space in the center. Tellingly, he calls for an alliance between Silicon Valleyan industry of socially liberal economic elitesand public policy. In his closing line, Blair states that we must build a new coalition that is popular, not populist.

There are two ironies in Blairs column. The first is that Blair himself was partly responsible for his Labour Party losing a large chunk of its core working-class voters, thanks to the Iraq War and the Great Recession. The second is that huge pillars of Blairs British-style moderate liberalismsuch as universal health careare totally in line with what the American populist left is demanding. The populist left, in other words, is well within the mainstream of Western democratic tradition; it is apparently their anti-elitist rhetoric that really rubs Blair the wrong way. He is, after all, an elite himself.

One big lesson from Hillary Clintons loss to Donald Trump was her campaigns over-reliance on the mythical moderate voter. (Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer encapsulated this line of thinking in an infamously bad projection: For every blue-collar Democrat we will lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two or three moderate Republicans in the suburbs of Philadelphia. It didnt quite work out that way.) Wolcott and Blair do not address this problem. In different ways, they make a case for the center based on a bad-faith argument that the populist left is the same brand of scourge as the nationalist right.

In American politics at least, the political center is the space between a functional liberal democratic party and one hijacked by white nationalists. This is not a promising ground on which liberals can build out from, as Blair puts it. Whether he likes it or not, the case remains that the Democratic Party will need its left wing to mobilize working-class and young, progressive voters; the left will need institutions like the Democratic Party if it wants to win elections. Over the next few years, there will be time for arguments over strategies and priorities. But there is no time for liberals to try to delegitimize the populist left; it will only cut their own legs out from under them.

More here:
Liberalism Needs the Alt-Left - New Republic

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne speaks during a press conference in Toronto on Thursday, March 2, 2017. (Frank Gunn/THE CANADIAN PRESS) Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne speaks during a press conference in Toronto on Thursday, March 2, 2017. (Frank Gunn/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Allison Jones

TORONTOThe Canadian Press

Published Monday, Mar. 06, 2017 7:19AM EST

Last updated Monday, Mar. 06, 2017 12:01PM EST

Ontarios budget watchdog is planning a report examining the Liberal governments plan to lower hydro bills.

Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown has written to the financial accountability office, asking them to investigate the plan with a full costing analysis.

A spokeswoman for the office says theyll take Browns letter under consideration, but they had already been planning to examine the hydro plan.

The recently announced 17-per-cent reduction in hydro bills comes this summer thanks to a move the Liberals say is like refinancing a mortgage over a longer period of time.

Premier Kathleen Wynne has acknowledged it will cost ratepayers more in the long run, but she says savings are needed now because people are struggling.

She has said the extra interest costs related to the plan would amount to $25 billion over 30 years, but the Tories say theyre not clear on how the Liberals arrived at that number.

Wynne defends Ontario hydro rate cut (The Canadian Press)

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Link:
Ontario budget watchdog to examine Liberals' hydro relief plan - The Globe and Mail

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Posted: Mar 06, 2017 12:01 AM

This story has gotten so old, its sad that even conservative media spends time dissecting the insanity of the regressive, retreating left to promote this false narrative.

I was hoping that after Election 2016, the secular, globalist, demonic Left would finally get a hint and go away.

How nave I was.

President Trump faces the hardest fight yet against every corporate interest dedicated to turning the United States into a second-world placeholder or a third-world hellhole.

How does that phrase go again? The Left never stops, never rests, never sleeps.

Indeed.

But Trump supporters are restless, and have no interest in backing down.

For the past two months, I have counter-protested with Los Angeles for Trump along with We the People Rising throughout Southern California. Fascist, race-baiting hate groups have stormed LA streets and arranged protests to shame, stun, or scare of Trump supporters.

But even in Los Angeles County, Republicans for Trump will not be stumped.

In Downtown, mid-February, protests against ICE and in favor of illegal aliens marched throughout Downtown Los Angeles. One of the organizers asked to speak to me. Why are you here?

I support my President, I support his policies, and I want to represent against the negative protests which lie about him.

Then as soon as I asked him what he was doing there, he told me You are a racist.

Normally, people want to get into a war of proofs and logic on this. That is the wrong approachcompletely.

Instead, I just asked him to explain: Why am I racist?

Because you are racist. Yes, that was his answer.

I didnt let it stay there, though, so I asked Are you discriminating against me because Im white?

His answer: Yes.

Done. His little racist retort has gone viral since then. I am not surprised that another organizer behind him told the liberal, pro-amnesty swarms invading the thoroughfares Do not interact with the Trump supporters. They only want to get attention. Do not talk to them.

Since when have protesters taken to the streets and expected not to get any attention? Seriously.

The real reason for the more level-headed protesters to tell the aggressive leftist to be quiet? So that they do not expose to the world how ignorant and just plain foolish they are.

Too late!

Another man reached out to me when Los Angeles for Trump was staking a claim on First and Spring Street. He told me that his parents were immigrants and he does not oppose the ban. He asked me why I was there. After I gave him my set answers, he proceeded to tell me that he opposed President Trumps wall and the travel ban.

All he could tell me was that he opposed it. When I asked him to explain why he opposed it, he struggled for words, then I moved away.

What is it with these silly liberals? They dont know what they believe, and they cant explain why they hate President Trump. Of course, Hollywood liberals have gotten away with saying I dont like Reagan, Bush, Trump etc.

They got away with this middle-school mentality for the past thirty years since the only news media anyone watched was the Big Three and CNN. Clinton News Network is hitting the skids, and the rest of us our journalists in our right. No one can take that away.

Now I announce the biggest reason I show up to Trump rallies and counter-protest liberal protests:

1. I am tired of the lies.

2. I am sick of the media giving the liars full press while the truth-seekers and tellers get pushed to the margins.

3. I am determined to counter the false narrative with the truth.

Trump supporters cannot disappear, go back to their homes, and pretend like everything is going to flow smoothly from this day forward.

These liberal, pussycat creepy-hat wearing liberals have gotten away with their ignoble temper-tantrums for years, and they had full run of the national playground with Barack Obama in the White House for eight years.

I was a school teacher, I even subbed for a few years. If the full-time teacher was indulgent, I spent the entire day disciplining kids. They werent used to someone saying NO! to them. Once a group of students understood they werent going ot get away with abusive antics in the classroom, they stopped acting upit wasnt worth the risk.

Liberals will not stop their Trumper-tantrums until We the People teach them that we will stand our ground and shout them down. We cant coast on our President to do all the fighting. He will only serve eight years, anyway.

When the left-wing crazies want to take over, we need to hold them accountable for what they say, post, and chant.

At the California Republican Party convention in Sacramento, I confronted a group of pro-Obamacare protesters. They want to save Obamacare? Really?! After about fifteen minutes going back and forth, they stopped shouting, started listening, then went away.

Thats how you do it!

Which leads me to one final anecdote. LA for Trump helps out demonstrations all over Southern California. Last weekend, we joined Ventura County Republicans. One lady had a poster with Donald Trump in a null sign with a swastika in his hair. First I pressed her to explain why Trump is a Nazi. Then I went for the jugular. Are you telling me that Trump helped exterminate 6 million Jews? Seriously?! Donald Trump has been the most vocal proponent of the state of Israel, and his nominee for ambassador is an Orthodox Jew who rejects the lop-sided Two-State solution.

For the next 15 minutes, fellow activists with me followed her and demanded that she defend her offensive insinuations. She could not, and she ran away from us.

Thats how you do it! Liberals will say stupid things, but we need to hold them accountable, for as long as Trump is in office, and long after Trump is no longer President.

More here:
How to Get Liberals to Stop Saying Silly Things Like "Obamacare is Great" and "Trump is a Nazi" - Townhall