He's the only president in modern polling to have net negative rating
(Photo: Michael Vadon/flickr/cc)
President Donald Trump's job approval rating is a mere 44 percent, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll published Sunday finds, further documenting the skepticism with which the public views the former reality TV star's short time in the White House.
In fact, he has "the lowest approval ratings of any new chief executive in modern American history," CNBCwrites.
Forty-eight percent say they disapprove of Trump's performance as president, and 32 percent said his performance thus far shows he's not up to being president.
And while 63 percent of Republicans say he's off to a great start, NBC notes that Trump "is the only president in the history of modern polling to begin his first term with a net negative approval rating."
His net negative rating is -4 percent. His predecessor, in contrast, started off with a net positive 34 percent, while George H.W. Bush had a net positive of 45 percent.
The results of the poll, conducted February 18-22, come two days before Trump makes his first address to Congress.
The speech, the Associated Presswrites, gives Trump the chance "to reframe his presidency after a chaotic opening in which he's rattled world leaders, railed against leaked information, engaged in open warfare with the press, and seen his signature effort to halt some immigration thwarted by the courts."
In what Politicodescribes as an effort "to troll the new president in prime time," many Democrats will be bringing immigrants as their guests to the event.
Iranian graduate student Sara Yarjani, who was affected by Trump's now-halted travel ban, will be the guest of Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.). "Mr. Trump needs to see the people he has hurt," Chu said.
(This article was first published on Common Dreams).
During the times of Kabir in the 15th century, India simmered with communal tension, the reason why he wrote and sung so passionately about Hindu-Muslim unity. Like a huge flash in the pan, a riot would erupt quickly, consume what it could and die.
In India in the last few decades, this flash has been replaced by a slow burn inside a volcano –temperature continues to rise, but you don’t feel it until it’s too late.
15 years back, beginning this day in Godhra, Gujarat, one such volcano burst open and consumed at least 1044 (official figures) lives, mostly Muslims, in its wake. A critic would be right to point out that there have been worse communal carnage in modern India, Nellie (Assam) in 1983, Delhi in 1984, India post the demolition of Babri Masjid in Dec 1992 etc. In each of these cases more people have died than in Gujarat 2002, at least officially. The 1984 Sikh genocide even set a precedent that would become a norm. The party responsible for the genocide, Congress, not only gave tickets to some of the rioters, but people of Delhi elected them with record margins. How is Gujarat 2002 worse than these?
Because in no other riot, do you see a huge class of society justifying the slaughter of women, children and old people, the brutal rape and often murder of hundreds, and wear it like a badge of honour. India, especially Gujarat, is not only unashamed of the violence in Feb-May of 2002, but is actually proud of it. The pride has increased as the man at the helm of Gujarat government then – Narendra Modi – has risen to become the Prime Minister of the country.
Arguments like ‘it was important to teach the Muslims a lesson’, ‘it was necessary for Hindus to feel a sense of pride,’ ‘for once we got the better of them’ etc. are dinner table conversation around children to this day. Delhi 1984 had seen those justifications making the rounds for a while. Yet, never before in the history of India (not even during the most heinous Partition riots that claimed at least 200,000 lives from the Hindu, Muslim and Sikh communities) has the vilification and demonization of one community been done with such great fervour by such a large class of society in the country. While every other riot ended when the violence was brought under control, Gujarat 2002 continues to exist to this day tainting almost every sphere of our lives.
A 1000 years of history continues to be pushed down on the living bodies and minds of Muslims, attempting to bury them once and for all. In some Hindus segments, so degraded is their psyche that they can unite only under the umbrella of the hatred of Muslims. The love and devotion that Bhakti and Sufi cults espoused, that Hindu-Muslim peace that seers like Nizamuddin Aulia, Baba Farid, Kabir or Guru Nanak and more recently Mahatma Gandhi preached, is consistently undone by the hatred deliberately sown into people’s hearts by millions of cadres of various organisations under the Sangh Parivar, be it RSS, the ruling BJP or even its student wing ABVP who prefer to argue with sticks and stones rather than verbs and adjectives. It is a sign of great inner insecurity to be hostile to the unfamiliar, said Anais Nin.
A society which can converge into agreement only on a point of hatred rather than love, is signing its own suicide pact. And more and more every day, India walks towards that precipice of hatred, ready to jump. Ask anyone in the administrative circles and they will tell you that no communal violence can go on for more than 24 hours without the collusion of the ruling dispensation. The anti-Sikh pogroms of Delhi 1984 went on for three days because the ruling Congress allowed it. The Nellie massacre in Assam where over 2000 people were killed was a matter of 6 hours. That the Gujarat pogrom went on for almost 3 months till KPS Gill was sent by Prime Minister Vajpayee, is proof of the collusion of the then ruling BJP dispensation which either turned a blind eye, or many times actively participated in it. The volcano had simmered for at least a decade in the hatred being poured into drawing rooms of Gujarat against Muslims, before it burst open. There are huge pockets of resistance against this hatred.
It is being led by all kinds of people – upper castes Hindus, the Dalits, those who once believed in the Hindutva ideology of hatred but now believe in the sarva dharma sama bhava – the equality of all religions, the philosophy of true Hindus. They have diffused many flashpoints through the ages. Yet, many small fires are being lit every single day these days in the hopes that they turn into a rampaging forest fire. It is for these reasons that we must not only remember, but commemorate our own failings as a nation. The memory of Gujarat 2002 must not be allowed to fade, neither that of Godhra on 27 February nor what happened in the next 3 months. It is important to tell millennials what happened then, without shame or rancour but with all honesty. It is important for the sanity not just of the nation, but the world. In order to truly rise as a global superpower, we must also remember our ancient Vedic idea of: Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – the whole world and all its inhabitants are my family. Not just in words – for us Hindus have a great, inclusive ancient ideology which we revere but conveniently forget – but practice it in actions and deeds.
Let us begin by two of Kabir’s dohas. “Pothi Padh Padh Kar Jag Mua, Pandit Bhayo Na Koye , Dhai Aakhar Prem Ke, Jo Padhe so Pandit Hoye.” (The study of a thousand books, will not a scholar make; as much as learning the four alphabets, that the word ‘LOVE’ makes.) “Bura Jo Dekhan Me Chala, Bura Naa Milya Koye, Jo Munn Khoja Apnaa, To Mujhse Bura Naa Koye.”
(I went in search of bad and found none around, when I looked inside my own mind there it lay abound.)
(Satyen K Bordoloi is a writer based in Mumbai. His written words have appeared in many Indian and foreign publications.)
In recent times, such attacks have targeted a variety of cherished sites and individuals in Pakistan. These have ranged from the 2010 bombing of the tomb of another Sufi saint, Data Ganj Bakhsh, to the murder of a popular Sufi singer, Amjad Sabri, in 2016.
As a scholar of Muslim and Hindu traditions, I’ve long appreciated the various and influential roles that Sufis and their tombs play in South Asian communities. From my perspective, the repercussions of such violence go far beyond the scores of bodies strewn around the damaged shrine and the devastated families in one geographical region.
Many Muslims and non-Muslims around the globe celebrate Sufi saints and gather together for worship in their shrines. Such practices, however, do not conform to the Islamic ideologies of intolerant revivalist groups such as the Islamic State.
Here’s why they find them threatening.
Who are the Sufis?
The origins of the word “Sufi” come from an Arabic term for wool (suf). It references the unrefined wool clothes long worn by ancient west Asian ascetics and points to a common quality ascribed to Sufis – austerity.
Commonly Muslims viewed this austerity as stemming from a sincere religious devotion that compelled the Sufi into a close, personal relationship with God, modeled on aspects of the Prophet Muhammad’s life. This often involved a more inward, contemplative focus than many other forms of Islamic practice.
In some instances, Sufis challenged contemporary norms in order to shock their Muslim neighbors into more religiously intentional lives. For example, an eighth-century female Sufi saint, known popularly as Rabia al-Adawiyya, is said to have walked through her hometown of Basra, in modern-day Iraq, with a lit torch in one hand and a bucket of water in another. When asked why, she replied that she hoped to burn down heaven and douse hell’s fire so people would – without concern for reward or punishment – love God.
Others used poetry in order to express their devotion. For example, the famous 13th-century Persian poet and Sufi leader Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī relied upon themes of love and desire to communicate the yearning for a heartfelt relationship with God. Others, such as such as Data Ganj Bakhsh, an 11th-century Sufi, wrote dense philosophical tracts that used complicated theological arguments to explain Sufi concepts to Islamic scholars.
Rumi, for example, founded the famous “Mevlevi” order best known as “whirling dervishes” for their signature performance.
This is a ritual in which practitioners deepen their relationship with God through a twirling dance intended to evoke a religious experience.
Some Sufis – men and, sometimes, women – came to gain such a reputation for their insight and miracles that they were seen to be guides and healers for the community. The miracles associated with them may have been performed in life or after death.
When some of these Sufis died, common folk came to view their tombs as places emanating “baraka,” a term connoting “blessing,” “power” and “presence.” Some devotees considered the baraka as boosting their prayers, while others considered it a miraculous energy that could be absorbed from proximity with the shrine.
So, why do some groups like the so-called Islamic State violently oppose them?
I argue, there are two reasons: First, some Sufis – as illustrated by Rabia, the Sufi from Basra – deliberately flout the Islamic conventions of their peers, which causes many in their communities to condemn their unorthodox views and practices.
Second, many Muslims, not just militants, consider shrine devotion as superstitious and idolatrous. The popularity among Muslims and non-Muslims of tomb veneration alarms many conservative Muslims.
However, Islamist groups such as the Taliban reject shrine worship as well as dancing and singing as un-Islamic (hence their assassination of the world-famous qawwali singer Amjad Sabri). In their view, prayers to Sufis are idolatrous.
Success of Sufi traditions
Sufi traditions reflect a vastly underreported quality about Islamic traditions in general. While some revivalist Muslim movements such as the Wahhabis and other Salafis see only one way of observing Islam, there are others who embrace its diversity.
Many Muslims proudly defend Sufi customs such as shrine devotions because they are so integral to Muslim and non-Muslim communities, not only in South Asia but throughout the world. For many, these sites offer an Islamic expression of what it means to love God.
In fact, historically, in many regions of the world Sufis have been highly successful in adapting Islamic theologies and practices to local customs for non-Muslims. For this reason, Sufi traditions have been credited for the majority of conversions to Islam in South Asia.
It is only with the global expansion of Islamist revivalist groups in the last century that the urge to absolute conformity has become so strong. Even then, a majority of Muslimsaccept such divergent Islamic practices.
Given the popularity of Sufis, it’s no wonder IS objects to such models of Islamic pluralism.
Gurmehar Kaur, a young daughter of a Kargil martyr, had recently started a Facebook campaign ‘I’m not afraid of ABVP’ has received rape threats supporters of the BJP and the ABVP.
Kaur made the sensational disclosure of rape threats on NDTV show when she said, “I’ve been getting a lot of threats on social media. When you open the profile picture that I changed, there are people who keep threatening me and calling me anti-national.
I got rape threats for calling out #ABVP, says Kargil martyr’s daughter
“I think it’s very scary when people threaten you with violence or with rape. There’s a guy called Rahul and he’s given a very detailed explanation in a comment on how he would like to rape me. That’s very scary.”
The rape threat against Gurmehar did not come in isolation. Among those wishing for a rape also included an active BJP worker Veeramachaneni Chaitanya, who posted the similar remarks on his Facebook page.
Chaitanya, reportedly a member of BJP’s Vijayawada Social Media team, whose Facebook profile proudly flaunts a photo with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a display image, wrote, “What this Sickular girl will say if someone rapes her? No abusive comments please.”
India’s right-wing Hindutva brigade also received support from former India cricketer, Virender Sehwag, in hounding the daughter of Capt Mandeep Singh, who died fighting for India in Kargil war.
In a dig at Gurmehar’s old Facebook video message saying ‘Pakistan did not kill my father, war did,’ Sehwwag posted his own photo with a placard that said, “I didn’t score two triple century, my bat did.”
Sehwag received instant social media condemnation for his ‘cheap’ shot at a vulnerable young girl just because she dared to stand against the violence of the RSS’s student wing ABVP.
Meanwhile, Gurmehar has been receiving plenty of support on social media both from ordinary users and former soldiers.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal too condemned the rape threats issued to Gurmehar by BJP supporters. In a series of Twitter posts, Kejriwal said that he was disgusted by such people. He said, “Just listen to this. THIS is BJP. They will destroy our country. Everyone must rise against their goondaism”
Ramjas College had on Wednesday witnessed bloody scenes as the members of the Left-affiliated AISA found themselves at the receiving end by the RSS-backed ABVP workers, who with the support of Delhi Police thrashed even journalists covering the event.
The genesis of the clash was an invite to JNU students Umar Khalid and Shehla Rashid to address a seminar on ‘Culture of Protests’ which was withdrawn by the college authorities following opposition by the ABVP.
The Delhi Police has acknowledged “unprofessional” conduct on the part of some of its personnel during the clash and suspended three policemen.
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act — the AFSPA — is not the medicine for militancy and it is there to “extract resources” from Manipur, Irom Sharmila’s party PRJA has said.
To drive home the point, the Peoples’ Resurgence and Justice Alliance (PRJA) said that there were only four insurgent groups when the draconian AFSPA was introduced in Manipur in the 1980s and the number has gone up to 32 since.
Image courtesy:countercurrent.org
The PRJA, which was formed by Sharmila after she ended her 16-year-long hunger strike against the AFSPA in August last year, is making its electoral debut in this Assembly polls, fielding candidates in three of the state’s 60 seats. “The AFSPA is not about militancy and counter-insurgency.
It is something beyond that. To deal with militancy and counter-insurgency, you may need laws and programmes but the AFSPA is not one of them.
“In the 1980s when the AFSPA was introduced in Manipur, there were only four insurgent groups and in 2016 there were more than 32 groups reported… The AFSPA is not the medicine for militancy. It has clearly multiplied the disease. The AFSPA is there to extract resources from Manipur,” PRJA convener Erendro Leichombam said in an email interview to PTI.
He said that his party would work towards the removal of the Act, which gives sweeping powers and immunity to the army in conflict-ridden areas, from Manipur first and “then move Parliament to repeal it from all places across India”.
Asked whether the electoral fight this time was “symbolic”, the 33-year-old leader said, “Absolutely not. I think one PRJA MLA is worth 60 other MLAs. We are going to create so much ruckus inside the Assembly and expose the lies that people are going to ask for more.”
Asked whether the party would support either the Congress of the BJP in case of a hung verdict, Leichombam just said, “We are not going to ally with the Congress.”
On the possibility of a future alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in view of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s appreciation of Sharmila, he said, “We are a very new party, we are barely five months old. We want to make sure we establish our own identity and foundation and once we are assured of the party strength, only after that we will be looking at an alliance.”
Besides removal of the AFSPA, the nascent party is fighting the election on the planks of ending corruption, reducing unemployment, implementing Lokayukta, and ensuring a harmonious and inclusive Manipur.
Manipur is going to polls in two phases on March 4 and March 8 and the counting will be held on March 11. The Okram Ibobi Singh-led Congress dispensation has been in power in Manipur since 2002.
Asked about the party’s take on the economic blockade by the United Naga Council and its impact to the economy of the state, he said, “Every day, people are struggling because of the economic blockade. The Congress and the BJP are in power in the state and at the Centre, respectively. It is their job to resolve this at the earliest but they are just taking political mileage out of this.
Hundreds of people in Kansas City joined a peace march and prayer vigil, celebrating the life of Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla cut short in a senseless triple shooting incident at a pub in an apparent hate crime.
Marchers held pictures, banners and shouted, “We want peace”; “We love peace”; “Let us not leave our children”; “Unity is part of community, together we stand, divided we fall”.
Image courtesy: fox4kc.com
Many of them carried candles and signs reading, “We don’t support politics of hate.”
The march for peace and the prayer meeting was attended by friends of Srinivas. Alok Madasani, another Indian who was wounded in the shooting on Wednesday, was on his crutches.
The sisters of the third man, an American identified as Ian Grillot, injured that night when he intervened during the argument with the shooter US Navy veteran Adam Purinton, Lt Governor Jeff Colyer, US Congressman Kevin Yoder, Olathe Mayor Mike Copeland, Olathe Police Chief Steven Menke, and other state officials also joined the march and the prayer meeting.
The travel company Frommer’s has revealed the shocking effect Donald Trump’s election has had on tourism in America, an industry that contributed 1.47 trillion dollars to GDP in 2014. Frommer’s reports that,
“Experts across the travel industry are warning that masses of tourists are being scared away from visiting the United States, and the loss of tourism jobs could be devastating.”
The phenomenon is being called the ‘Trump Slump’ because it is a direct result of Trump’s election and policies, most notably his now defunct ‘Muslim-ban’ which blocked travelers from seven majority-Muslim countries. Tourism from the countries that were affected is down 80% despite the ban being lifted.
Even countries without a significant Muslim population are sending fewer tourists. Right now all foreign tourism is down nearly 7%. Online searches for flights from foreign countries to America have fallen by 17%, according to Frommer’s.
If this trend continues, the U.S. will lose billions of dollars of foreign tourism and hundreds of thousands of American jobs in industries ranging from restaurants and hotels to transportation and stores.
Trump’s “America first” attitude and rhetoric are making foreigners feel unwelcome. By ignoring America’s deep and inextricable involvement in a globalized economy, Trump is sacrificing a tremendous amount of money that boosts GDP and employs hundreds of thousands of citizens within America’s borders.
Trump has been focusing on saving domestic manufacturing jobs a few hundred at a time, but he needs to consider the larger picture. Globalization supports a large chunk of the American population and neglecting global ties will ultimately harm those people.
Trump’s misguided policy ideas stem from a profound ignorance of America’s role in the world. His ineptitude is already on track to wreak havoc on the U.S. economy.
A Counter-Appeal to a manipulative administration to respond to students’ demands or vacate the unprincipled occupation of administrative posts
The JNU student community “makes a fervent appeal” to the administration “to desist from the unlawful occupation and blockade of” top administrative posts in view of the fact that these posts are established to serve public interests and not for gaining political mileage and fuel personal egos.
Fifteen days have passed since “the students who have been sent by their parents from different parts of the country to study and research in JNU” have been engrossed in a blockade to protest against the May 2016 UGC Gazette; however, the Vice Chancellor has not addressed the students even once! Despite several letters from Teachers and Students requesting a meeting, the Vice Chancellor has refused to engage in any dialogue and instead of communicating a concrete time and date for such a meeting, he has only engaged in creating a facade of appeals and requests by misusing the university website, student mailing lists and the media for personal media attention!
The student community feels that the Vice Chancellor and his counsel must step down in view of the confusion they are creating through their appeals. In one appeal (14-2-2017), the Vice Chancellor claims: “Any individual faculty member or student interested in meeting the VC and the JNU administration are most welcome to meet and share their views”. However, when so many students of his university express their desire of “meeting and sharing their views with the VC”, his registrar says in the next appeal (21-2-2017) that “The best of dialogues can take place only between student representatives and Administration officials. But the agitating students are insisting that the Vice Chancellor must come and answer questions at mass gathering of students!” He goes on to call this desire to meet “unreasonable and quarrelsome”: “It is like asking for public trial of the Vice Chancellor for seeking to implement the UGC Gazette notification on M. Phil/PhD admission!”(23-2-2017) The JNU Student community is “aghast” at these attempts at playing victim and creating unnecessary panic. The “laughable” appeals are “condemnable” as it is already clear to the student community that rather than engaging in any productive dialogue to resolve the present crisis, the administration is more interested in staging a drama to show fake concern over the dysfunctioning of the administrative block!
Recognising that academic, financial and other academic work (related to fellowships, PhD Viva, Mark sheets and Degree Certificates, salary bills, and essential services like medical bills) were getting affected due to the blockade, the students decided to open the Ad block phase wise till the 2nd March. However, the Vice Chancellor directed the staff to not enter the premises till he and his counsel are allowed to enter. The Student Community is quite amused to see this display of egoism which just shows that the VC is himself interested in continuing the blockade and delaying important work and decisions to gain media mileage as a victim of agitating students!
This only pushes the student community to wonder: Does the Vice chancellor even “care for the thousand plus contractual labourers who have suffered” because of his silence on the UGC Gazette issue? Does he wish to resolve this issue or just wants to “continue shedding crocodile tears by invoking “social justice” arguments” in his appeals? Does he worry at all “when the university has lost huge sums of money, that that are actually the country’s taxpayers’ money” due to his silence on the UGC Gazette issue and his unprincipled blockade of communication and democratic procedures? Does his office “respect academics, when official papers of faculty and students related to their academic engagements in India and abroad are not processed” due to his denial of communication with agitating students? Who will be responsible when students from marginalised communities will not be able to apply to JNU because of the implementation of the UGC Gazette? Who will be responsible when the three part exam will completely dilute the quality of research in JNU? Who will be responsible when the high viva-voce weightage will continue to encourage discrimination against students from different social backgrounds? All these repercussions “are ironically not considered law and order problems” by the JNU Administration!
Hence, the JNU Student Community is of the opinion that the Vice Chancellor and his office have made a mockery out of all ‘democratic’ procedures and modes of communication. They are only interested in spreading myths about democratic dialogue while being absolutely rigid and resolute to pursue their own agenda, that is, ignore the Abdul Nafey Committee recommendations and implement the anti-student May 2016 UGC Gazette. In the past 15 days, they have only insulted adult, conscientious students of their university by calling them “unruly”, “unreasonable” and their demands “ridiculous”, “illogical”, “mindless” and “unwarranted”.
“Before the students, teachers, staff and karamcharis of the university lose their current level of tolerance and patience” at an administration that is so unresponsive to their demands, the Vice Chancellor should abandon the unlawful path of conceit and accept their demands in a reconvened Academic Council meeting:
– Implement the Nafey Committee Recommendations – Scrap the draconian UGC Gazette Notification – No seat cut at any level of admission – Roll back fee hike – Reject 3-level qualifying exam for M.Phil/PhD. admission – Implement minority deprivation points – Implement reservations in direct PhD. Admission – Implement OBC reservations in faculty posts
“JNU has been a great source of inspiration to millions of students and teachers of other educational institutions of the country for decades”. “But the mode of…” administrative highhandedness that the Vice Chancellor and his counsel have been demonstrating for close to a year “…is anything but inspiring”! It has only pushed students to engage in strong forms of protest like gheraos, protests and blockades and the administration is solely responsible for creating such an environment. Hence, the JNU Student community yet again makes an appeal to the administration to keep the interests of students above narrow political gains, personal media mileage, alleged victimhood and opportunism and pay heed to the demands of students from diverse social and economic backgrounds, and immediately end the occupation and blockade that the administration is hell bent on imposing on different levels of higher education!
“JNU Student Community” *This appeal simply reworks the numerous appeals issued by the administration towards a more truthful account of what has been happening in JNU since 10th Feb 2017. All the quotations are from appeals on www.jnu.ac.in.
