Revamping Kamala Harris, Analyzing Big Brother Starmer, and Additional Commentary
Conservative: Reinventing Kamala
“Can the Democrats and a collaborative media pull off their recasting of Vice President Kamala Harris” into “the holy trinity of Joan of Arc, Harriet Tubman and Margaret Thatcher we have been presented with in the past two weeks?” asks The Wall Street Journal’s Gerard Baker. This “may be the most audacious plan a political party has ever undertaken. It requires the effective deployment of the full toolkit of press and social media deception: selective editorial amnesia, gaslighting, memory-holing.” Derailing it demands “a focused, disciplined and relentless Republican campaign”: “If the election is decided on the issues, on voters’ perceptions of the state of the country,” she “is surely in as much trouble as Mr. Biden was.” But if the GOP bogs down in “pointless assertions about Ms. Harris’s racial identity” and other “diversions,” then “she may get away with skating past the realities of her past.”
From the left: Big Brother Starmer
In response to anti-immigrant riots after the killing of three girls in Southport, England, Prime Minister Keir Starmer held a press conference “shocking even by current neo-Orwellian standards,” thunders Racket News’ Matt Taibbi — “sounding like a starched cross of Dick Cheney and Justin Trudeau” as he laid out “as aggressive a vision of pre-crime enforcement as we’ve heard from a prominent Western politician” that would “stop people traveling, identify and prevent their patterns of behavior.” This “comes in the context of a growing international movement to combine expanded definitions of incitement with ‘preventive’ enforcement.” Oddly, “the press increasingly seems less interested in getting information than egging politicians on.” Indeed, “the troubling angle to the Southport story is how heavily authorities and the media emphasized ‘disinformation’ as the problem.”
From the right: Soft DAs Embolden Rioters
After the July 24 protesters “laid waste to historic monuments outside of Union Station,” some “were properly arrested,” yet “nearly a dozen have seen their charges dropped,” fumes Trey Hammond at City Journal. This, when “the January 6-ers have been prosecuted enthusiastically by federal officials. Why have criminal elements who have called for the death of Jews and the destruction of America, and engaged in similar mayhem, not faced similar penalties?” Prosecutors who “decline to enforce the law” signal “that vandalism and other criminal acts are acceptable,” which “emboldens those who would flout our laws.”
Libertarian: Maduro’s Black Eye for Uncle Sam
Team Biden’s focus on “negotiating sanctions relief for the [Nicolás] Maduro regime in exchange for promises to hold free and fair elections” failed, argues Jorge Jraissati at Reason. He’s claimed victory even as “governments around the world” denounce “the election as fraudulent.” Now “supporting the democratic aspirations of Venezuelans is crucial for U.S. interests,” as “should Maduro remain in power, migration to the United States from Venezuela is expected to surge.” Plus, “Maduro’s continued rule will also likely increase the presence of U.S. adversaries such as Russia, Iran, and China in the region.” Failing to counter Maduro imperils “U.S. national security, economic performance, and diplomatic standing.”
Media watch: Putin Propagandists at VOA
“The dangerous loopholes in security vetting of Voice of America (VOA) talent have finally come to the fore,” laments Ted Lipien at The Hill in light of the recent “Russia-West prisoner swap” that released “an alleged Russian spy posing as a VOA freelance journalist.” The spy “was a Voice of America freelancer, Pablo González,” aka Pavel Rubtsov, “whom Ukraine and Poland had accused of working for Russian military intelligence.” When arrested by Poland, “the initial Voice of America news report indicated no association” with Gonzalez. “Why would an American institution, chartered by Congress, hire this obviously unvetted propagandist?” Despite warnings, VOA has “hired even more former Putin media propagandists.” And, after several security-related scandals, the US Intelligence Service “revoked” VOA parent US Agency of Global Media’s “authority to conduct employee background investigations.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
