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Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Where is Bashar al-Assad? [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-12-08  

We begin today with Ruth Michaelson of Guardian reporting that Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad has fled Damascus, bringing the rule of the al-Assad family in Syria to an end.

The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, is believed to have fled the country his family has ruled over for 50 years as rebels said they had captured the capital after a lightning advance completed in just under two weeks. [...] The Syrian leader had been publicly absent as Islamist militant insurgents spearheaded a sweeping offensive that began in a small enclave in north-western Syria, and within 11 days appeared to have toppled Assad’s rule. In their first announcement on state television following the offensive that took the world by surprise, rebels said they had ended Assad’s 24-year authoritarian rule. [...] A group of people were shown at the state television news studio, with one reading a statement from the “Damascus conquest operations room” announcing “the liberation of the city of Damascus and the fall of the tyrant Bashar al-Assad and the release of all the unjustly detained from the regime prisons”, calling on fighters and citizens to safeguard the “property of the free Syrian state”.

I’ve been trying to chase down as yet unconfirmed media reports that Assad has died in a plane crash. What seems certain is that the plane carrying Assad disappeared from radar soon after it left Damascus.

Hugo Bachega of BBC News says that the end of Assad’s rule in Syria will fundamentally alter the balance of power in the Middle East.

Iran, again, is seeing its influence suffer a significant blow. Syria under Assad was part of the connection between the Iranians and Hezbollah, and it was key for the transfer of weapons and ammunition to the group. Hezbollah itself has been severely weakened after its year-long war with Israel and its future is uncertain. Another Iranian-supported faction, the Houthis in Yemen, have been repeatedly targeted in air strikes. All these factions, plus militias in Iraq and Hamas in Gaza, form what Tehran describes as the Axis of Resistance, which has now been seriously damaged. This new picture will be celebrated in Israel where Iran is viewed as an existential threat. Many believe this offensive could not have happened without the blessing of Turkey. Turkey, which supports some of the rebels in Syria, has denied backing HTS.

Hyunjoo JIn and Josh Smith of Reuters report that with the failure of Saturday night’s vote to impeach South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korean officials, including members of Yoon’s own party, continue to seek ways to effectively prevent Yoon from exercising his presidential powers.

Yoon survived an impeachment vote in the opposition-led parliament late on Saturday, prompted by his short-lived attempt to impose martial law on Tuesday, but the leader of his own party said the president would effectively be excluded from his duties before eventually stepping down. That proposal, which appeared to win tacit approval from the Yoon-appointed prime minister on Sunday, drew condemnation from opposition lawmakers who said it was another unconstitutional power grab to delegate authority without resignation or impeachment. Thousands of people rallied in front of the parliament in Seoul on Sunday, calling for the impeachment and arrest of Yoon and the disbandment of his ruling party. [...] The leader of Yoon's People Power Party, Han Dong-hoon, told a press conference alongside the prime minister on Sunday that Yoon would not be involved in foreign and other state affairs before his early resignation.

Tim Ross and Andrei Popoviciu of POLITICO Europe explain why Romania’s Constitutional Court has abruptly canceled Romania’s presidential election.

This Sunday, Romanians were due to vote in the second-round runoff election for their next president. They had two candidates to pick from: center-right small-town mayor Elena Lasconi; or Călin Georgescu, a far-right independent who was catapulted from obscurity into the lead in the first round of voting on Nov. 24. On Friday, Romania’s Constitutional Court decided the first round of the election was so badly damaged — by an alleged Russian operation to influence the result — that the whole process needed to be scrapped and started again. Current President Klaus Iohannis has been forced to extend his term, political candidates are trying to regroup and preparing to rerun their expensive campaigns, and millions of voters are wondering whether they can trust the process at all. No date has yet been set for the new votes — but that will have to happen soon.

Helen Lewis of The Atlantic says that the “mainstream media” is no longer synonymous with “legacy media.”

Somehow, the idea that the mainstream media is made up of major corporations has persisted, even though the internet, smartphones, and social media have made it possible for anyone to reach an audience of millions. Two of the most important information sources of this election cycle have a job that didn’t exist even a decade ago: Acyn Torabi and Aaron Rupar, who watch hours of political rallies and TV appearances in order to clip them for social media. These “clippers” can drive days of discussion, particularly when the context of a remark is disputed—such as when Vance’s 2021 remarks characterizing Democrats as “childless cat ladies” went viral. [...] The main beneficiary of our outdated ideas about the “mainstream media” is the political right. Not so long ago, conservatives resented their exclusion from the MSM, because they thought it painted them as extreme: Sarah Palin complained about the “lamestream media,” while the late Rush Limbaugh preferred to call it the “state-controlled media” or the “drive-by media.” But that’s changed. Being outside the mainstream is, today, seen as more authentic, more in tune with Real America. Trump’s constant criticisms of the “fake-news media” have been enthusiastically embraced by his downballot copycats. Complaints about alleged liberal media bias have been amplified by commentators who are themselves overtly partisan: Tucker Carlson, Russell Brand, Dan Bongino, Megyn Kelly, Charlie Kirk, Alex Jones. The underlying premise is that all media skew toward one side or another, but at least these people are honest about it. That allows them to speak alongside Trump at rallies (Kelly), embrace bizarre conspiracy theories (Jones), talk about their encounters with demons (Carlson), and continue to work despite multiple allegations of sexual assault (Brand, who has denied the claims)—all things that would be out-of-bounds for actual journalists.

Lewis’ provocative thesis is largely correct, IMO, or, at the very least, the term “mainstream media” needs to be properly defined for the current times.

William Audureau of Le Monde in English writes that the trolls and disinformation wars have reached the increasingly popular Twitter/X alternative Bluesky.

Over the past few weeks, a number of manipulative or biased statement enthusiasts have taken up residence here, such as the boss of controversial site Francesoir.fr, Xavier Azalbert, who was at the forefront of anti-vax rhetoric and reassurance at the height of the Covid-19 crisis. Or far-right activist Pierre Sautarel's press review, "Fdesouche," a collection of miscellaneous facts with a xenophobic subtext. Some newcomers even specialize in fabrication, like the conspiratorial duo of publicist Aurélien Poirson-Atlan and Zoé Sagan, who fed the myth of Brigitte Macron's supposed transsexuality or a conspiracy by fact-checkers – journalists specializing in fact-checking.

Finally today, Álvaro Sánchez of El País in English examines the instability in financial markets that may be caused by Trump’s social media outbursts.

Stockbrokers pay almost $30,000 a year per user for a subscription to a Bloomberg terminal, which provides them with real-time financial data. It’s a basic tool to help make investment decisions and react quickly whenever something happens in the world. In an ecosystem like that of the financial markets — where a seconds-long delay can make the difference between making or losing millions of dollars — the subscription is an expense that’s considered to be a basic necessity by some 350,000 clients around the world. Now, that being said, there are two other instruments in the investor’s toolkit that shouldn’t be discarded since Donald Trump’s election victory: X (formerly Twitter) and Truth Social. On both social media accounts, the Republican pours out his comments at any time of the day or night. And his unpredictable, blunt statements are capable of immediately shifting currencies and stocks — even when he still hasn’t returned to the Oval Office. This use of social media is unprecedented among previous presidents, creating turbulence for those who work in the financial sector. “It’s not a marginal issue. The tariff policy that he announces on social media directly affects inflation and, as a result, the yield curve and the currency,” says Ignacio de la Torre, chief economist at Arcano Economic Research. This means that — according to De la Torre — those who work “with bonds and interest rate derivatives” have to closely pay attention to what the president-elect posts online.

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