Obsidian Wings

Rarely is the question asked: Is our reporters learning?

by liberal japonicus

A thread to discuss the topic du jour, Biden's cancer diagnosis. To plant my stake, this is Hillary's emails redux, reporters jumping up and down on a topic that they can put themselves at the center of, while the rest of the world burns. Have at it.

They are sending their best

by liberal japonicus

It's possible that this wouldn't piss me off at other times, but as Russell noted earlier, tis the season of rants. Still, seeing this interview with Cornelis Piet 'Pete' Hoekstra, the new US ambassador to Canada, makes me realize 1) how truly rotten this administration is and 2) how much this shit is baked into the system. Hoekstra was the ambassador to Holland in the first Trump administration, where he immediately stepped in it. (reported second hand is this now favorite question by a reporter of whether the ambassador could name a politician who had been set on fire in recent years) and this report gives some other details. Reading the interview, I got the impression of the blowhard in a restaurant that has you asking for the check and skipping your coffee and desert. And this loser is an immigrant. That he has been able to float in the right wing ecosystem makes one realize that the whole enterprise is a clogged toilet.

I have thoughts

by liberal japonicus

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

it's been a bit since there was a post and the most recent comments, centered around Starmer's volte-face about migrants, seems to suggest that would be a good topic.

As the Lazarus poem suggests, I'm pretty sympathetic to novakant's anger and disgust about the Starmer and what he has been saying. I'd also observe that this seems almost totally driven by gains made by Reform in local elections, and Starmer wants to co-opt. This can be seen as another knock on effect of Brexit and if Starmer really wanted to kneecap Reform, working on reversing Brexit might be a lot better. This isn't to claim that the EU is just letting migrants through to punish the UK for Brexit, if you step out of the room where stuff is being negotiated, don't be surprised if your interests aren't represented.

I also look at Australia and Canada, with both countries affirming an approach that celebrates more diversity and wonder why Starmer doesn't consider trying to act in a similar way. Is it because the Brexit debacle has made trade with the EU toxic, so they have to run to the embrace of the US?

And, while I definitely think that Starmer's turn is pretty horrible, I am left wondering if Japan, which has a fetish with maintaining homogeneity in the face of a lot of liberal criticism, wasn't on to something. For sure, there are a lot of very problematic things with Japan's regime, but the larger framework looks a lot better if it avoids the excesses of an ICE regime or the UK riots of 2024. Lots of stuff to parse here, so I'm hoping to work this out more in the comments.