Patrick Cockburn at Counterpunch nominates our soon-to-be-ex-President's greenlighting of Turkey's genocide against the Kurds for the dishonor of his "Worst Crime." "Tragedy on this scale blurs in people’s minds," it's true, and certainly we would do well to remember that our soon-to-be-ex-President's foreign policy has been little different from that of his predecessors, despite all the promises he made. I also feel compelled to point out that the Kurds have fought al-Qaeda as well as the Houthi rebels in Yemen, who also, strangely, seem to be far down our government's list of favorite world peoples.
Former Obama acting Solicitor General argues, before our Supreme Court, against holding American corporations liable for depending on foreign child slavery to make their products, which sure does remind us how disappointing the Obama Presidency was, does it not? Though we can make too much of guessing how our Supreme Court Justices will vote based on how they respond to answers, none of them (not even Justice Barrett, the anti-judge) seemed to like his answers. Trouble is, they didn't like the plaintiff's answers, either. You'd hate to think justice could be so dependent on good lawyering.
So when I read about right-wingers having "very serious concerns" about elections after they watch poll workers actually count votes, I feel compelled to note that a) this is obviously the first time they've watched democracy in action and b) they all obviously think "their" candidate got ripped off and thus c) their rhetorical questions make them all sound five years old. And of course, if people complain a story makes them "look bad" without challenging any of the story's factual assertions, then you must consider the possibility that they're just whining.
You've been hearing all about how Republicans would hate the idea of Neera Tanden as OMB Administrator, but you may not have heard that a lot of liberals hate the idea, too. Ms. Tanden has, in the past, embraced Social Security benefit cuts and opposed a $15/hour minimum wage; her disdain for the Sanders campaign isn't particularly material to me, but is to a lot of other liberals. I am a little puzzled that so many "liberal" media outlets are missing out on this opportunity to highlight liberal opposition, since that would give them the opportunity to blame us for Democrats underperforming expectations again.
Barack Obama says the "defund the police" slogan alienates people who might otherwise be sympathetic. Six months ago I would have agreed with him! But then police killed George Floyd, and in the wake of massive public protests afterward even Mitt Romney said "black lives matter" out loud, and I was reminded, again, that two kinds of people get alienated by such "sloganeering": people who'll come around eventually, and people who can't be reached anyway.
Finally, Maria Bartiromo's exclusive-for-a-reason interview with our soon-to-be-ex-President, in which she cheered him on as he heaped absurdity upon absurdity, exemplifies what both liberals and conservatives hate about our media -- namely, that our media don't challenge the powerful. But the article's author seems, well, betrayed by this performance, and I can't imagine why -- remember that time Ms. Bartiromo asked Anthony Weiner why he wasn't on Medicare if Medicare was so great ("because I'm 45," he responded)? Yeah, that was 11 years ago.
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