Credit must be given where it's due. The VSG made the right move announcing in this afternoon's press conference that the US is going to eliminate policy exemptions for Hong Kong now that it's no longer autonomous. his rhetoric made clear that China has served notice that it's one of the world's bad guys.
This is going to make life inconvenient for US-headquartered companies with business ties to Hong Kong, but a stand had to be made.
Likewise, the World Health Organization has shown by the way it has soft-pedaled China's role in the global spread of the coronavirus that it is not without biases that run counter to its ostensible mission.
It is not nitpicking, however, to note that Trump did not say a word about the George Floyd murder and the ensuing now-nationwide urban unrest. A call for things like healing and justice would have been a much-welcomed way to start off the presser. And it might have been useful as a way to start walking back that awful "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" tweet.
Also, his executive order that seeks to create new regulations on social-media companies is off-base in several ways. Any such regulation would need to come from the legislative branch. More fundamentally, Twitter et al are privately owned organizations and in no way beholden to anybody but their shareholders. (Can you tell I've been hanging out with libertarians lately?) And to those who would immediately retort that they're so big and influential that they pretty much constitute public utilities, I would reply by saying that acting in a responsible manner and keeping blatant lies, vicious invective and threats off of their sites is good for the bottom line.
Memo to the Trumpists: calling for regulations is not a conservative way of proceeding.
A typical day in Trumpworld: a good move, two bad moves.
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