I've been remiss in noting that we've scored a major foreign policy victory lately, after President Biden ended all logistical and military support for "offensive operations in the war in Yemen." It doesn't end the war, by any stretch of the imagination, but it does end our unconstitutional involvement therein. And with the UAE also making noises about getting out of this mess, we may one day be able to say we actually used our immense power for good -- by not using our immense power for evil.
One day after Smarmatic files its massive defamation lawsuit against Fox News and several of its "personalities" including Lou Dobbs, the Fox Business Channel cancels Mr. Dobbs's show. As you know, Mr. Dobbs passed along "election fraud" lies on his show like they were hot potatoes; Fox News pretends they planned this cancellation all along, but we know better, for the demises of Roger Ailes and a certain legendary 8pm blowhard remind us that nothing gets Fox News to move like a lawsuit. To think there was a time (the summer of 2008, to be precise) when it looked like Lou Dobbs could go either way! Then Barack Obama became President, and Mr. Dobbs got on the birther train, and that dream died.
On the occasion of Jeff Bezos stepping down as Amazon CEO, FAIR finds our "liberal" media too anxious to lionize him without mentioning that our Federal Trade Commission just caught Amazon stealing tips from delivery drivers and forced them to cough up nearly $62 million as restitution. We're generally too quick to call executives "self-made," not just because they generally get ahead on the backs of their workers, but because they too often get ahead by cheating those workers, as evidenced by the FTC settlement.
In a peripherally-related note, our National Labor Relations Board (or NLRB) has ruled that Amazon can't require workers at its Bessemer, Alabama warehouse to vote in-person at a union election, which means workers can vote by mail. This increases chances that the Bessemer workers will vote in favor of organizing, and lest we attribute this ruling to Joe Biden's election, fairness forces me to concede that our NLRB has consistently ruled in favor of voting-by-mail in union elections throughout this pandemic, which began, contra what Fox News would like you to believe, under President Trump. As a side note, Amazon's union-busting tactics will piss you off -- even "stay friendly" looks less like an exhortation to workplace civility than a threat.
My Pillow CEO/martial law enthusiast Mike Lindell produces a two-hour documentary, confidently titled Absolute Proof, which is chock full of bogus "election fraud" claims. And apparently One America News Network has been running it a lot -- but with a disclaimer at the beginning saying this is all Mr. Lindell's "opinion." I doubt that disclaimer will save them from lawsuits, but at least we can observe the difference between the big bully on the block and the upstart -- when Fox News gets sued, they fire people, but if OANN got sued, they'd probably have to shut down.
Finally, what to make of the news that Rep. Lauren Boebert (Q-CO) paid off almost $20,000 in unpaid insurance-related liens on her infamous restaurant just a few weeks after claiming a little over $20,000 in campaign-related "mileage reimbursements." I suppose it is remotely possible these two events are completely unrelated, but I'd be a schmuck to accept that notion at face value, and the whole thing makes me think (once again!) that, even with the most strident right-wingers, the grift really is the point.
Comments