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Do you think Jeff Bezos should sell the Washington Post? Sign the petition!

https://chng.it/qXvrY9YPhX

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Oct 30·edited Oct 30

I knew we had a serious problem when Biden and Garland did not go after Trump for Jan 6th! WTF?

they just hoped he would go away. This weakness was exploited to the max. Inabilty to inderstand that Trump would break any norms that had to be ENFORCED. Serious failure of Joe Biden. The ELITES didnt want to prosecute one of their own. Obama let off Bush and Cheney for war crimes too. Here is the result.

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The even sadder part to add to this this piece is that a) it was completely predictable (even I, a non-journalist, saw this coming), and b) why did it take this particular situation for some - still not all - to wake up?! People, instead, chose to stick their fingers in their ears the past several years going "la, la, la", or opined that "this could never happen here". But now the US is at the intersection point where the toxic blend of willful ignorance and exceptionalism is about to literally break the country.

The world is holding it's breath right now and predictably will be for the next two months minimum.

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Every journalist in America should be outraged at Mr. Bezos' repression. Is this the prelude to the Washington Post becoming another Fox outlet? It is so sad that making more money is more important than democracy. What a wimp is Jeff Bezos to take orders from the likes of Donald Trump.

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I canceled every piece of business I ever had with anything Amazon-owned (Audible, music, Prime, Whole Foods). I already don't use a lot of the things it owns, but... MGM?! Gah. That's tough to avoid. And I know it won't hurt Bezos, but I couldn't in good conscience give him any more of my money.

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If you want to have some effect, find out what companies Amazon owns and boycott them See. https://www.smbcompass.com/everything-owned-by-amazon/

Unsubscribing to the Washington Post will just hurt a good newspaper. I have used Amazon once in the last 8 years and never go to Whole Foods or buy from Zappos. It is not a big deal to use other retailers besides Amazon etc. Try hurting Jeff Bezos in his pocketbook. He is obviously a coward and doesn’t care about journalism. Maybe if the 200000 people who unsubscribed to the Post would just disengage from anything that makes this billionaire more money, there might be some chance of getting him to understand the perfidy of his actions.

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Well said. Unfortunately, if we disengage from Bezos enterprises, or any oligarch's, they will not feel the pain, they've made too much money at this point. But the people that make a living at their businesses will. There's no easy answer. I unsubscribed from the Post, but I'll probably resubscribe. I made my point (along with 200000 others) but Bezos will not feel the pain. Sometimes making our voice heard is all we have. Vote!!

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I'm still not using Northern Quilted toilet paper (feels odd typing that) since circa 2016. The owner (Georgia-Pacific) is Koch. We're two people. It's not hurting us and it sure as heck isn't hurting koch. I agree with you. Boycotts used to work they have no impact now. So what do we do since fascism copies countries with fascism? Say yes to the dictator as Gessen says or don't acquiesce or acquiese in advance? god only knows but I agree not as confidently in the past, V O T E and hope.

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founding

Just getting around to reading this piece. Thank you, JVL. It's been a tough year, and this last week signals a new low. But you are right, we can't remain silent.

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Women are too naive to be brave sometimes. So in this case may save our democracy.

And when abortion and healthcare is on the line, they have too much to lose to sit back and watch it happen. Especially black women who are more inclined to get raped and to be poor, so not as healthy as they could be. And I believe that there are enough men who are real men, so don't have to rape women ever. Or spank hard their own teenage daughters. Because a real man is loved by his daughter since infancy.

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I will love to see Donald Trump losing too abundantly to cheat and lie about it.

To a woman that's he has treated with such disrespect like kamala harris. But as you say, that is just the first step, the struggle doesn't end there. We must make better laws that correct the wrongs that allowed amen, like donald trump to become president in the first place.

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Oct 28·edited Oct 28

Kamala Harris needs to give a speech about why music matters.

She could talk about her playlist and make obvious jokes about Trump's bizarre choices. Trump steals artists' music. And this is the year Kat Williams said it all was going to come out on Club Shay Shay. Diddy's estates were raided in March and he's in Rikers right now. CNN showed the leaked video of Cassie being brutally beaten, on Cable TV, and SDNY has indicted and arrested him. Lawyers are vetting victims.

Kamala prosecuted crimes against women. Joe fought for and signed the Violence Against Women Act into federal law. This is the year when we decide if musicians matter when it comes to politics. Look what the Trump family has done to artists' rights' like Tom Petty, the White Stripes, Celine Dion. Trump steals artists' music. The GOP steal artists' music. The "businessman" Vivek got a cease-and-decease from Eminem and when he came out for Obama. MAGA rap fans freaked out even though Em has always been liberal. Then Kid Rock responded to Em's coming out for Obama to quiet MAGA and it was actually an amazing video.

People always say, who cares what a celebrity says? Music is more than celebrity. Fame often maims them. We care about what they have to say because we listen to their music. Music bridges the emotional and rational. Kamala could say that artists' autonomy should be protected without wading into copyright. Brittany Spears if free. And Taylor Swift is re-recording her Masters and challenging Ticket Master. And best of all Bezos and Zuckerberg are in a war with Spotify and Tim Cook over the new ownership of musical streaming. This would be a subtle reproach to them. She might have to take a hit at UMG. This could touch a bunch of places in our society. Kendrick Lamar vs Drake is the authentic vs commoditized. Kamala should also give back all of Diddy's donation money. That would matter.

Bruce, Taylor, Beyonce. All these singers and artists are coming out for freedom.

Kayne, Elon, Trump.

They really are very weird human spectacles. Let's not put them on. Bad Bunny, Megan thee Stallion, Hanumankind are the new generation. Hanumankind released an incredible music video of the Circus Wall of Death, dropping the hit, Big Dog, on Def Jam India. Hanumankind is an Indian rapper who worked for Goldman Sachs in 2014 and grew up in Texas as an Oil Baby. Gen Z loves him. He represents the best of globalization, props and not appropriation.

He left it all at Sachs for the sake of music. "Pushing culture baby, got that product you can’t measure."

https://youtu.be/hOHKltAiKXQ?si=DjBPJUI95btSCUFs

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JVL, this is dark, very dark. Thank God we have Judge Juan Merchan in NYC. He’s scheduled Trump’s sentencing for Nov. 26. Or am I whistling through the graveyard of democracy?

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JVL, thank you for this great article. Now, let us "all" as a solid Bulwark Community, make sure that Trump and his 2025 gang cannot and should not win this election. Voting for Harris is America's safeguard from Trump: his attitude of Tyranny, Authoritarianism, disrespect for Democracy, his scarring the "holy hell out of Bezos" continually threatening the "Putin treatment" for all of his "enemies" are enough garbage for us to no longer allow nor accept. Tump's rally yesterday, was the ultimate presentation in evilness; a disgrace to American politics in any form!

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No downside to a Trump presidency for oligarchs? If the 1990s Russian analogy is true, Bezos had better start staying away from windows!

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Maybe that's why here today in the US feels like Russia did when I was there in 1994.

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I hope a Harris win will forestall, at least for a time, this dire trajectory for our country...but I fear that's all it will do. The lack of appreciation for truth and expertise is overwhelming. Facts are literally meaningless to almost half of the population. How can a society function when half of the population lives in an alternate universe? And, in my opinion, the enfeebling of the rule of law is reflective of an even broader breakdown in societal rules and norms. This breakdown has been percolating, but exploded during covid when resisting common sense health protocols was considered "patriotic" by this faction. Today, this resistance is seen across society. Sigh...in practical terms, I'll still be pulling a triple-shift on behalf of Harris and local Dems at my polling place, I'm still phone banking, I'm still fighting...but at night I fear for the country my grandchild will grow up in.

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I fear you're right. T**** appeared in the golden shower, I mean escalator precisely because Obama was president. He was the backlash (and he fomented it, of course, with the birtherism bullsht). Harris is gonnna need 100 million votes to thoroughly squash his movement,,,

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A sad truth. Thank you for the stark reality. It is now well past the beginning of our downslide as history turns the page for us. Such is what lack of consequences breeds. The once happy denizens of this land have absolutely no concept of what is to befall us.

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