Iranian troops are in Syria, fighting against militias that support al-Qa'ida.

As long as they are not fighting the revolutionary Kurds, I won't feel much outrage. The sad thing about Syria, since several years ago, the main military powers are all monsters.

Obama has deftly rebuilt US global influences, mending relationships with countries that were hardened enemies. Unfortunately, some of the steps also build the influence of multinational corporations that the US bows down to.

Reducing Chinese influence is to a large extent a good thing, when you consider the pervasive corruption and deepening political repression of the Chinese state. But the US is not immune to these things; industries including fossil fuel extraction, pharma, medical care, publishing, and plenty of others have corrupted the US government, while massive surveillance threatens US democracy. We can't take for granted that the US will be better than China.

A woman in the UK has been convicted of sexual assault because she had told her lover she was male.

Whatever we think of this pretense, it clearly was not "assault". If they want to make gaining sexual consent via misrepresentation a crime, they should pass another law and call it something else.

But what kinds of misrepresentation should be criminalized? Claiming to be over 16? Claiming to be under 30? Claiming to be a virgin? Claiming lots of experience? Claiming to be unmarried? Claiming not to have other lovers? Claiming to have been at work the previous Tuesday night? Claiming a high income? Spending like a person with a high income? Claiming to have read a certain book? Pretending to have read it but without an explicit claim? Wearing a padded bra or platform shoes? Wearing a wig? Dyeing hair? Cosmetics?

If a prostitute lies about what is on offer, that is false advertising, but not assault.

Ending US and Australian subsidies for coal would slash carbon emissions.

The UK anti-union bill, that would make strikes nearly impossible, is a militant attack on workers.

But this approach is typical of today's right wing. The Tories don't admit they intend make poor people homeless; they do it with a bunch of cuts and pressures. They don't say that they intend to make disabled people starve if they can't work, rather than find excuses to punish them by denying them disability support. They claim to support greenhouse gas emission reduction while launching a series of attacks against programs to achieve this.

Likewise, the US right wing, since it can't block abortion by prohibiting abortion, creates arbitrary requirements that are impossible for clinics to meet.