Neutrality in the face of fascism is cowardice

October 26, 2024

Jeff Bezos ordered the Washington Post Editorial Board not to make an endorsement in the 2024 presidential race. In a puerile op-ed justifying the Post’s decision, its publisher (and Rupert Murdoch acolyte), William Lewis, wrote the following:

Our job at The Washington Post is to provide through the newsroom nonpartisan news for all Americans, and thought-provoking, reported views from our opinion team to help our readers make up their own minds.

“Non-partisan” does not mean “amoral,” “cowardly,” or “complicit.” Neutrality in the face of fascism is cowardice—or worse. As publisher William Lewis acknowledges in his op-ed, Bezos's decision will forever be viewed as a “tacit endorsement” of one candidate—Donald Trump.

I will not belabor the point of why the Post should have condemned Trump's candidacy and endorsed Kamala Harris. But it is worth recalling the criminal corruption that has marked Trump's tenure—leaving aside gaping wounds like his mismanagement of the Covid pandemic.

Among Trump's other crimes, he

• Threatened to withhold US military aid to Ukraine as part of a bribe or attempted extortion to force Ukraine to fabricate politically damaging information about Joe Biden

• Engaged in “multiple acts” of obstruction of justice to interfere in Robert Mueller’s investigation

• Plotted and attempted a coup to stop the count of the electoral ballots in 2020

• Incited an insurrection to stop the count of the electoral ballots in 2020

• Made repeated false claims of election fraud in 2020

• Urged the DOJ to send a false letter to state legislatures claiming that widespread fraud justified overturning the will of the people

• Refused to return national defense documents after the FBI and National Archive demanded their return

• Lied about the nature of payments to an adult film star in the weeks before the 2016 election to mislead the American people about his lack of moral fitness to serve as president

There is more—including Trump's repeated threats to prosecute members of the media, his political opponents, and law enforcement officials who are prosecuting him. And let’s not ignore his threats to use the military against American citizens and to deport ten million immigrants.

In the face of the above record, William Lewis claims it would be “partisan” to publish an opinion that Donald Trump is unfit to be president. William Lewis is a liar who apparently believes the American people are stupid. As Santiago Mayor (@SSantiagoMayor) said on Twitter, “Funny how no newspaper had an issue with their editorial boards calling on Biden to withdraw.”

The Washington Post is not endorsing Kamala Harris because doing so would be contrary to Jeff Bezos's profiteering agenda. On the same day that Bezos ordered WaPo not to endorse Kamala Harris (which the Editorial Board was prepared to do), Trump met with representatives of Bezos’ struggling space flight company, Blue Origin. See The Verge: Donald Trump meets with Blue Origin execs the same day WaPo declines to endorse a presidential candidate.

Jeff Bezos is one of the world’s richest men but is afraid that one of his hundreds of companies might suffer financially under a Trump presidency unless Bezos grovels before Trump. That is all it takes to break Jeff Bezos—the fear of losing a small slice of his obscene fortune.

What a small and pathetic man! Like Elon Musk, Bezos’s wealth cannot conceal his deep character flaws and profound insecurity. Even if he managed to be the first human to step foot on Mars in one of his vanity spacecraft, he will forever be remembered as a coward who buckled before Donald Trump at the first sign of trouble.

The cowardice of the Washington Post feels like a gut punch. The number of media outlets willing to speak the truth about Donald Trump is rapidly shrinking. Losing the Post is a difficult blow.

CNN is a lost cause; see this brutal takedown of Anderson Cooper and CNN by podcaster Charlemagne tha God. While it is a long segment, it is worth watching to the end. Anderson Cooper ultimately disclaims any responsibility for imposing moral or ethical judgments in his reporting. He defends his amorality by saying, “I am just asking questions.” CNN could get a four-year-old to ask questions; we don’t need Anderson Cooper to do so.

The collapse of the LA Times, the Washington Post, and the New York Times makes it feel like we are fighting on our own.

Reporters and columnists at the LATimes and Washington Post are asking subscribers not to cancel because they fear for their jobs if their employers go out of business. That may happen in any event. Or the LATimes, WaPo, and NYTimes may become fulltime apologists for the first fascist regime in America.

If that happens, we will be okay. There are a hundred million Americans (and more) who will resist—and prevail. Fascism seems like a good idea to disaffected and angry voters until they realize they are the victims of the fascist regime—along with everyone else.

The energy, commitment, and enthusiasm unleashed by the grassroots movement that emerged in 2017 and was renewed in 2024 by Kamala Harris will not disappear. It is a permanent feature of American politics. It will prevail with or without gutless media outlets like WaPo, CNN, and the LATimes. It is not our job to save them; it is their job to rise to the challenge of MAGA fascism and a changing media landscape.

Readers have been asking me for advice about canceling their subscriptions to the Washington Post. I think it is reasonable to continue their subscriptions or to cancel. It’s a personal choice about tolerance of cowardly behavior vs. the utility of the positive parts of the Post. I have had enough. I cancelled my subscription to WaPo today even though that decision will make writing this newsletter more difficult.

Platforms like Substack will replace the legacy media outlets that surrendered to fascism. We should welcome the resignations of every news reporter and opinion writer from WaPo and LATimes to Substack. They will make this platform stronger and more liberal, tolerant, and fair-minded.

We must not allow the collapse of the Washington Post to distract or deter us. The election remains close—but we have momentum and enthusiasm on our side. Kamala Harris remains “on-message,” energetic, and joyful at the very moment that Donald Trump is descending further into darkness and delusion.

Stay strong. Be confident. We aren’t going away. Our nation needs us and we must remain steadfast in its defense—regardless of what the cowards at WaPo and LATimes do.

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Kamala Harris’s rally in Houston

Kamala Harris held a campaign rally in Houston, Texas to stump for Colin Allred and to promote reproductive freedom. The arena held 30,000 people and was packed to the rafters. Harris was preceded on the stage by Colin Allred, Willie Nelson, Kelly Rowland, and Beyoncé (among many others).

This clip includes the introduction by Kelly Rowland and Beyoncé, as well as Kamala Harris’s speech: Rally on Reproductive Rights in Houston.   

Colin Allred’s remarks are here: Colin Allred speaks at Houston rally on reproductive rights.

As in prior appearances, Kamala Harris was energetic and passionate—perhaps more so than usual as she spoke about the damage caused by Texas’s total abortion ban and bounty on healthcare providers. She made a special appeal to younger voters by pointing out that they will have fewer rights than their parents.

She also appealed to men in general, saying,

Men across America do not want to see their daughters, their wives, and sisters and mothers put at risk because their rights have been taken. I see the men here. I thank you. The men of America do not want this.

In a particularly powerful line, Kamala Harris noted that the Texas attorney general is suing Texans for out-of-state healthcare records to see if they have had an abortion “while Donald Trump won’t let anyone see his medical records.”

Meanwhile, during a rally in Michigan, Trump again called for CBS to lose its broadcast license. And that was the exact moment that CNN cut away from Kamala Harris’s rally to Trump's rally—just in time to hear a wannabe fascist dictator threaten the independence of the press. Trump also described journalists who criticize him as “enemies of the people.” I hope CNN is proud of its programming decision! CNN could not have picked a better transition to Trump to make the point that CNN’s soft-pedaling of Trump will threaten their existence and independence.

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President Biden formally apologizes for US policy of “Indian boarding schools.”

In a disgraceful chapter of US history, the federal government made a concerted effort to extinguish the culture of indigenous Americans. On Friday, President Biden apologized for that policy and the damage it inflicted. See The Guardian, Biden formally apologizes for Indian boarding schools: ‘a blot on US history’.

The Guardian article describes the US policy and its effects as follows:

Indian boarding schools were run with the express goal to “kill the Indian in him, and save the man”, a phrase coined by the army officer Richard Henry Pratt, who founded Carlisle Indian boarding school, the first federally run Indian boarding school. From 1819 to 1969, in what Biden called “one of the most horrific chapters in American history”, the US government directly managed or funded Indian boarding schools in nearly 40 states.

The schools, at which formal education was limited, forcibly and systematically stripped Indigenous children of their culture by removing them from their families and communities, forbidding them from speaking their languages, and, typically, violently punishing them if they resisted.

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Freedom Caucus member calls for North Carolina legislature to award electoral delegates to Donald Trump

A member of the Republican Freedom Caucus called on the North Carolina legislature to award the state's electoral delegates to Donald Trump without waiting for the election results. See Politico, Freedom Caucus leader endorses radical proposal for North Carolina to hand its electoral votes to Trump.

 The threat is a publicity stunt. North Carolina has existing statutes that say that its electoral delegates are awarded based on the popular vote. The state legislature has no power to change that method of selecting electors after voting has already begun! To do so would constitute a massive disenfranchisement of those who have (or will) vote in reliance on the existing law and would constitute a due process violation of immense proportions.

The proposal is based on the unsupported notion of “independent state legislatures”—which the Supreme Court refused to endorse in Moore v. Harper.

Ignore the chatter; it is a pipe dream and a cynical tactic to set up baseless claims to overturn the election.

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Opportunities for reader engagement

Focus for Democracy

On Monday, October 28th, Focus for Democracy is hosting a special gathering as the community unites for the final time this election season. Join them to get an exclusive first look at their developing strategy for what lies ahead.

Monday, October 28th

5:00pm PT / 8:00pm ET

Register at this link

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Concluding Thoughts

Here’s a thought experiment: Suppose you were a Republican operative who was not constrained by the truth. You know that the election will be close, but Democrats have the edge with enthusiasm and momentum. What would you do?

Obviously, you would attempt to dampen Democratic enthusiasm by spreading lies about polling, the state of the race, internal Democratic fears of losing, and the significance of early voting.

Sound familiar? It should. That is exactly what is happening. Ignore the noise. It is bad-faith disinformation designed to raise doubts and dampen enthusiasm. Focus on driving votes to the polls. That is all that matters at this point.

Talk to you tomorrow!

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Daily Dose of Perspective

I set up my telescope tonight with an auto program to capture three targets. Let’s see what happens. I include another vacation photo in this newsletter as filler—with a hidden message bonus!

My wife and I drove down the Mississippi from Minneapolis to New Orleans in the spring of this year. Somewhere along the Great River Road, we pulled off at an abandoned “scenic view” photo point. It bordered railroad tracks and featured a battered old terrestrial telescope to gaze across the Mississippi at the town on the opposite bank. Like any self-respecting amateur photographer presented with a wide landscape and a leading line, I snapped about 60 photos and moved on.

Tonight, I was looking through vacation photos for this section (as I replenish my astronomy photos). I came across the image below, taken from the scenic point along the Mississippi with the battered telescope. Only then did I notice the hidden message—which seems appropriate for this moment filled with distractions! Enjoy!