Sunday Issues-October 27, 2024
Notes from the Garbage Can.
Donald Trump may be 78 years old and declining rapidly, but he has not yet exhausted his creativity. While he has run out of new slurs and nicknames to direct at Kamala Harris, he came up with a zinger at a Tempe, Arizona, rally last Thursday—he compared the United States to a garbage can.
Here’s what the man who could be our next president said:
We’re a dumping ground. We’re like a garbage can for the world. That’s what’s happened. That’s what’s happened to our — we’re like a garbage can. You know, it’s the first time I ever said that. And every time I come up and talk about what they’ve done to our country, I get angrier and angrier. First time I’ve ever said ‘garbage can.’ But you know what? It’s a very accurate description.
Trump, of course, is suggesting that immigrants are garbage. That is newsworthy and cringeworthy.
Will the comment cost Trump the election?
Over 40 million of us have already voted, including many Trump voters. How many open-minded voters are left out there, undecided? Not many, I suspect. The opportunity for either candidate to do or say something that will win or lose the election for them is disappearing rapidly. As you read this, one candidate most likely has already won the White House. (I say “most likely” because if Trump loses the election, he likely will attempt to “win” it through other means).
If you support a candidate who acknowledges that Biden won the presidency in 2020, agrees to accept the results of the 2024 election, and enjoys a clean criminal record, be sure to vote. If you are weary of democracy, hate people of color, believe that laws are meant to be broken, believe that soldiers killed in battle were “suckers,” and think Harvey Weinstein got “schlonged,” please don’t vote.
Other developments.
While the 2024 election is creating a pandemic of ulcers among many of us, the election is not the only deeply troubling thing in the news. Here are a few on my radar screen:
North Korea has sent troops to Ukraine to aid Putin.
Russia has been proven to have provided satellite images and other intelligence to the Houthis to help them disrupt shipping in the Red Sea. The Houthis are not above attacks on U.S. warships in the area. Thus, Putin is supporting military action against U.S. forces.
Israel shows no signs of ending its bombing of Gaza and Lebanon. Netanyahu wants to kill every member of Hamas. The next U.S. president will face the dilemma of whether to continue to support what some see as genocide in Gaza or of breaking the long-standing commitment of the U.S. to support Israel. We know Trump will support Israel, but how far will he go? What would President Harris do?
Israel has retaliated against Iran. Experts are relieved that civilian targets were not chosen. Is that a positive sign? Yes. A broader, less focused attack would have further escalated an already escalating war.
After more than four years, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) have written to Attorney General Garland to ask that a special prosecutor be appointed to investigate Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his relationship with Saudi Arabia. The legislators believe Kushner may have violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
An investigation is called for based on what is known about Kushner’s business dealings with Saudi Arabia, especially dealings that took place while Kushner was on the White House staff. I want to know why it took the Democrats four years to demand an investigation.
Count on Trump to kill any investigation of Kushner two seconds after becoming president (assuming the Attorney General acts on the Wyden-Raskin letter).
Newspapers Die in Darkness: Bezos and The Washington Post
When billionaire Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post, promises were made that he would not interfere with the paper’s editorial policy. For a while, I believed that. Now it appears that I was mistaken. If various reports are true, Bezos directed the paper to announce it would not endorse a presidential candidate in 2024. The paper added, perhaps as a fig leaf, that it was returning to its roots and would never again endorse a presidential candidate.
I smell a rat, and that rat is Bezos. Trump’s threats against the media may have convinced him, at a time when The Post is already facing challenges, to avoid Trump's ire in case he gets elected. Another theory is that Bezos feared Trump terminating federal contracts with his businesses if The Post endorsed Harris. Bezos’ space exploration company, Blue Origin, has a contract to land astronauts on the moon later this decade.
My guess is that if Harris were 15 points ahead in the polls, the Post would have boldly advised its readers to vote for her. She’s not.
The Post’s decision has spurred subscribers to cancel their subscriptions and opinion writers to resign.
Read Publisher William Lewis’ explanation of the decision here. It doesn’t ring true to me.
Read columnist Ruth Marcus’ take here.
And here is what 16 other Post opinions columnists had to say:
The Washington Post’s decision not to make an endorsement in the presidential campaign is a terrible mistake. It represents an abandonment of the fundamental editorial convictions of the newspaper that we love. This is a moment for the institution to be making clear its commitment to democratic values, the rule of law and international alliances, and the threat that Donald Trump poses to them — the precise points The Post made in endorsing Trump’s opponents in 2016 and 2020. There is no contradiction between The Post’s important role as an independent newspaper and its practice of making political endorsements, both as a matter of guidance to readers and as a statement of core beliefs. That has never been more true than in the current campaign. An independent newspaper might someday choose to back away from making presidential endorsements. But this isn’t the right moment, when one candidate is advocating positions that directly threaten freedom of the press and the values of the Constitution.
Thank you.
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