News roundup: Fetterman performance shows why we have debates in the first place
Debate puts candidates in stark display as Pennsylvania votes decide race that may determine control of Senate
Good morning, readers! This news roundup, the second for the Weekly Dystopia, is coming to your inboxes the day after the debate in U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania between John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz. There's no shortage of news and takes on the struggling performance by Fetterman, who had a stroke earlier this year, and how that shakes up a tight race that could potentially decide control of the U.S. Senate.
Here's my two cents: The exposure of Fetterman having difficulties with basic communications and even general coherence, gleefully pounced on by opponents (and perhaps rightfully so) as evidence he's incapable for the job as a U.S. senator, is an example of institutions at work. In this case, having the debate — the traditional way by which American voters are able to size up their choices of candidates — put Fetterman's difficulties right out in the open, giving clarity to his condition for Pennsylvania voters as make their decision in the race.
Free flow of information and discourse wins the day. It's a shame, therefore, the debate is the only televised one between Fetterman and Oz, as well as its timing less than two weeks before Election Day. Peter Savodnik, writing Common Sense with Bari Weiss, has a good summary of the debate and its implication for the race, pointing out 500,000 voters have already cast their ballots, therefore weren't unable to have the debate inform their decision.
The debate comes after NBC News reporter Dasha Burns, who's been the covering the race, was pilloried after she pointed out after an interview with Fetterman he had difficulties with basic communications. The debate certainly vindicates her. As Savodnik writes, "If anything, Burns, who has covered the race extensively, understated just how bad Fetterman’s condition is."
Just about every major media outlet has reporting on the debate. The WaPo's Colby Itkowitz and Amanda Morris have a good summary with various angles included, including Fetterman's struggling performance.
Other clips in recent days on news at home and abroad:
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION SEEKS MIDDLE GROUND ON IRAN: I wrote last week about the need to respond to Iran amid reports it's helping Russia with the Ukraine invasion, not just through ballistic missiles and drones, but military personnel help to train Russian troops to operate them.
At the same time, the entire world has seen widespread protests in Iran, which appear to have stemmed from the oppressive nature of the regime, including its treatment of women.
Amid open calls for regime change in Iran, however, the Biden administration has opted to take U.S. global leadership toward a more cautious approach. A report in Politico characterizes it as "a middle path — one that voices support for the Iranian protesters and helps them through both easing and imposing some sanctions, but which falls short of an all-out pressure campaign to isolate Iran’s government or abandon nuclear talks with the regime."
More from Politico's Nahal Toosi:
This week, the administration is expected to unveil more sanctions on Iran related to the protests. Among the possible targets are mid-level Iranian police commanders who have abused demonstrators.
The overall strategy is likely to disappoint many in a complex constellation of activists whose voices are driving much of the public debate about the Iranian regime. It also could make crafting U.S. policy toward the Middle East even harder, especially if Iran’s regime snuffs out the protests and emerges more emboldened to pursue a nuclear program and cause trouble in the region.
REPUBLICANS SEEK ANSWERS FROM PAYPAL ON MISINFORMATION BAN. One important follow up to PayPal's reversal after it was revealed to have plans to fine its users engaging in misinformation, a development I called in a post upon the launch of this newsletter a victory for free speech.
A group of seven Republican senators, in a letter led by Thom Tillis of North Carolina, wrote a letter to PayPal seeking information on the company practices, as reported early this week by the conservative news website the Daily Wire.
“Greater encroachment by large technology and financial companies into public speech will only exacerbate Americans’ increasing mistrust of such institutions,” the lawmakers wrote. “Policies that empower companies to punish individuals’ beliefs by acting as arbiters of fact in our ever-changing news and public debate environment represent poor business decisions. Instead, large technology and financial institutions should focus on serving the needs of their customers without bias.”
More from the Daily Wire, which had reported on the internal plan within PayPal to sanction users $2,500 for spreading misinformation:
Citing the report from The Daily Wire, Sen. Tom Tillis (R-NC), Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), and five Republican colleagues pressed PayPal CEO Dan Schulman in a letter asking him to explain the “processes and values” in place that allowed the retracted policy to move forward.
“PayPal has consistently spread the dubious claim that this provision was ‘never intended to be inserted in our policy’ as stated by a company spokesperson,” the lawmakers wrote. “If accurate, this statement indicates an astonishing lack of internal oversight at PayPal.”
BOYS LEFT BEHIND AS FEMINISM WINS IMPORTANT VICTORIES. The long struggle for women's rights has made for key wins, including more prominent roles for women in job placement and education opportunities. In the modern world, however, things aren't going as well for men.
Richard Reeves, in a recent piece over the weekend in Common Sense with Bari Weiss, has a summary of the statistics on challenges men are facing in the contemporary world, suggesting a movement of their own is needed in a world of globalization and automation:
This rise of women has been accompanied by male decline. The statistics here are equally startling. There is the bad economic news: most American men earn less today (adjusted for inflation) than most men did in 1979. This is not because of the mass entry of women in the workplace, but because of the hollowing out of traditional male jobs — factory worker, steelworker, coal miner — as a result of free trade and automation.
But male troubles are not just economic. Almost one in four school boys are diagnosed as having a “developmental disability.” One in five fathers is not living with his children. Men are at three times greater risk than women from the epidemic of “deaths of despair,” from suicide, alcohol, and drugs.
JUDGE RULES FOR NYC WORKERS LAID OFF FOR BEING UNVACCINATED. Judge Ralph Porzio in Staten Island on Tuesday ruled in favor of New York City workers fired for not taking the COVID-19 vaccine, which top health official once indicated to the American public would be effective in keeping people safe from virus transmission.
From ABC News:
The ruling came in a case brought by 16 sanitation workers who were fired earlier this year over their refusal to get vaccinated but who claimed they had natural immunity because of prior infections.
"Though vaccination should be encouraged, public employees should not have been terminated for their noncompliance," Porzio wrote in the ruling. "It is time for the city of New York to do what is right and what is just."
New York City workers who were laid off due to the coronavirus mandate, as part of the judge's ruling, were to be reinstated and given back pay. The city is appealing.