I feel like a lot of media outlets are feeding off the negativity and anxiety that surrounds this election. Dems were getting similar coverage in 2022 when everyone was panicking over the red wave.
2024 U.S. Elections | Trump v Harris
- Thread starter Raoul
- Start date
I feel like a lot of media outlets are feeding off the negativity and anxiety that surrounds this election. Dems were getting similar coverage in 2022 when everyone was panicking over the red wave.
This is a cherry picked hit job tweet by a right leaning account.
That said, Harris was pretty woeful the other night.
Amazon is a major US govt contractor; the decision was announced by the publisher not the editor, the public and media mood has changed from exceptionalizing Trump in his first term (which outside certain instances was mainstream GOP governance) to normalising him since, and Bezos has put his lossmaking WaPo workforce on a diet (with the immplicit threat of further layoffs), all factors facilitating this change in stance with no pushback.
To add to what @berbatrick already said, the owner of the LA Times is a South African billionaire who is a friend of Musk and were considered for a job in Trump administration in 2017. He explicitly ordered the non-endorsement and the chief editor of the paper's editorial board has resigned in protest.
This is the direct consequence of the press getting taken over with ideological or compromised by interest owners, it happened with Fox, with Sinclair, with talk radio, and now with printed press.
I haven't seen any evidence of Bezos interfering in anything in fact, most people don't even know who owns Wapo because their coverage has been the same for decades.
I believe the LA times bit since the guy seems to have a business interest in not pissing Trump off. Bezos, despite not interfering, doesn't care what Trump thinks of him. He occasionally visited the WH for business roundtables, even though Trump continued to criticize the Wapo throughout his entire first term.
The Supreme Court gave him full immunity, the Senate is significantly more MAGA, the people Trump hires to lead the Justice Department wont have any qualms about carrying out his order, everybody with eyes can see in real time how increasingly unhinged and unfiltered he is.
The risk calculation is different this time, there's no guardrails left.
You may have mentioned that previously alright.
I'm sure we will handwave this away as well, because it doesn't line up with the idea that Bezos is too powerful for Trump to touch, right?
Now with the backing of half the Dem talking heads on CNN.
Yes, I know he doesn't own the LA times.
If you have not noticed by now, Trump is out for revenge.
Amazon have huge government contracts, especially via AWS.
Very timely @Raoul
Bezos is fearful of Trump's retribution. Just the same at Zuck.
When Trump creates his oligarchy, they don't want to be on the outside looking in.
Well there's a chance. Biden had 10-15M more votes than a normal Dem candidate, and Trump as incumbent had 15M more than a normal GOP candidate. 2020 was definitely an abnormality. In normal election cycles 60% of the country votes, and in 2020 it was up to a record 67% - That isn't happening again. Assuming 60-62% votes that's 134-150 million voters - we know that around 62M are hard-core Trump+ GOP voters and a Dem candidate will get around 65M votes more or less guaranteed at the current population level. I think we can safely assume Trump lost a few votes with Jan 6th and everything after - but he probably didn't lose more than 2-6 million.
If Trump comes anywhere close to 68-72M, then Kamala needs 4-8M who normally don't vote. Which is also probably why she is hammering the Hitler thing - it was the fear of Trump that was the biggest motivator for 10M of Biden's voters, and she needs most of them to turn up this time too.
This is basically misinformation. Axelrod was very complementary about her ability to answer questions on the economy, abortion rights, long term care for the elderly. After the "clip" he was quite complimentary of our ability to contrast Trump's enemy list and her "to do" list. Van Jones was very complimentary of her as a leader - pointing out that "doing town halls isn't the job". In addition to that they also pointed out weaknesses and areas of improvement in what was a sub-par town hall. What they did was present a fair an balanced analysis of her performance.
Scott Jennings wasn't on that panel - and is a GOP strategist. David Urban is a GOP strategist. Two of those clips (Scott Jennings and the last David Urban one) is not from the same time as the rest - can't really figure out where they are from - but the first one is put in there to seem like it is from the same panel, when it clearly is not. Jennings and Urban are also known to be "Trump apologists".
I don't even think it's about fear.
- Trump's tax code is expiring, it's absolutely in his interest to want another round of it
- He had a public spat on Twitter with Biden back in 2022, and while a Harris's administration is much more likely to be pro-business, she's still associated with Biden's administration and there's no love lost after that episode
- Lina Khan's FTC just passed new regulation against predatory subscription services, his exact business model.
On a personal level, I think Bezos probably don't think at all highly of Trump, but when we are talking abour risk/reward calculations, the incentives is entirely on wanting him in office. If it was Vance at the top of the ticket, I reckon that would be the endorsement, instead of neutrality. Trump is just so repellant that an endorsement for him would tank Post's reputation
Believe Jennings was on the panel iirc. There was the Jake Tapper instant reaction panel with Bash, Collins, and Abby Phillip, and there was the in studio reaction panel with Erin Burnett, Axelrod, Farah, Ashley Allison, and Jennings.
Piers Morgan is such a douche. Glad Pakman calls him out for his bs. Also- one of Piers' contributors is a friend of Baron Trump. That's the claim to fame. Wtf.
A lot of this is presuming Trump would be completely off the rails in his second term and go after his political opponents as if in a third world banana republic. We simply don't know what will happen, whether it will be unhinged or more like his first term. There are still plenty of Republicans in the Senate who oppose Trump on specific policy (Ukraine for example) and despite supporting him now for reelection, are not likely to sit around and let him attempt to end the Ukraine war (spoiler alert: he can't end it by himself), or allow Trump to attempt to withdraw the US from NATO. This is of course assuming Trump wins, which is still a 50/50 proposition at this point.
Why would Bezos give a feck about whether Trump withdraws the US from NATO or ends Ukraine aid? My point was he profits tremendously more from Trump's fiscal and regulatory policies (or lack of) and that's a pretty uncontroversial opinion, if not fact.
That wasn't in reference to Bezos, rather to the sky is falling mentality that a 2nd Trump term has people quivering in their boots about Trump becoming a dictator, and as such, hedging their behavior now to mitigate him attacking them later.
Then don't quote me if you aren't going to address my point.
You were very quick to jump in saying that its unlikely Bezos had anything to do with the decision, given that now it's been pretty much confirmed that he DID order it, what's your stance now?
If someone says they re gonna do something and they we are voting to give them the power to act on it - then everyone should take that serious. I really feel some people had their heads in the sand during his first term because the volume of scandals and damage he did to this country was so enormous that only someone with blinders on can ignore it.
Glad to see common sense still prevail a bit.
The Dems are far from ideal, and I 100% understand voters of Arab descent who are refusing to vote, or going 3rd party. The ones I do not understand are the ones switching to Trump. Extremely idiotic.
My stance is that Bezos must think Trump wins and doesn't want to upset the Orange Buffoon
1. Which part of Trump's expiring tax code would Bezos be concerned about?
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/which-provisions-of-the-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act-expire-in-2025/
The corporate tax rate is permanent, although there is the potential to further decrease under Trump.
2. A nothing burger.
3. Lina Khan may be one of the only holdovers should Trump take office. Vance is a fan....
https://reason.com/2024/07/16/reminder-j-d-vance-thinks-lina-khan-is-doing-a-great-job/
How many CEOs have come out and backed Trump? Very few. Why? The economy is purring, the markets are at an all time high and CEOs hate uncertainty, which is what Trump brings.
Only an opinion, but I think Bezos just don't want to be on the enemy list. He doesn't want Amazon to be further under the crosshairs of antitrust regulators. He doesn't want Trump and his new "Head of Government Efficiency", Elon Musk to pull his AWS contracts.
And the WAPO endorsing Vance? That is a joke mate. They have never endorsed a Republican so they wont start with a Christian Nationalist like Vance.
High quality discussion from Piers Morgan as usual. Talking about the issue that impact Americans most....
Did Harris work at McDonalds?
Is Harris black?
Trans Athletes.
Harris is proposing a 28% corporate tax rate, and notwithstanding that, Trump is already promising to decrease it further to 15%
Calling out the US President on social media isn't a nothing burger, doubly so when he had literally never got into any argument of the kind before, in that manner.
There's 0 chance of that happening, Vance can lie through his teeth but the fact is Congressional Republicans have been repeatedly hostile towards her, there's no chance Trump would ever fought them and by extension the donors over a Biden's appointment.
The stock market were at an all time high under Trump as well, they aren't overly concerned about that, most of them even profited tremendously from his bungled Covid response.
That's one of the motivation, for sure.
Everything has a first. They did just break a 36 years tradition in a presidential election when a candidate is a fascist, kinda goes against the whole 'Democracy dies in darkness' they have running.
Wow, he's really broke
1. the corporate tax code isn't expiring, only the personal ones
Is he now? Bezos is smarter than Musk, in that he generally doesn't talk politics, but would it surprise anyone if he supports republicans behind the scenes?
Now, Bezos hardly pay anything in taxes as it is, but im sure he won't mind further deregulation so he can screw his workers even more.
Ultimately, i don't think he cares that much who wins.
@Raoul does not need the defense of anyone. But the accusations against him are unfair.
I VOTED for Kamala Harris two weeks ago, 4 weeks or so before Election Day. That was never in doubt. Yet, I believe that her town hall, from the parts that I watched, was bad. I couldn’t keep watching.
Now, Trump has always been graded differently than everyone else, and that’s part of the problem. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t say that Harris didn’t do well in a certain situation/event. I praised her during the convention and after the debate, and I believe that she has improved since 2020. I also said that she has done pretty much all that she could to win. It’s just that she didn’t do well with CNN this week.
I’m not like the brainwashed Trumpians who think that Trump is perfect. Harris is much better than Trump, but she’s not perfect, and that’s OK.
I VOTED for Kamala Harris two weeks ago, 4 weeks or so before Election Day. That was never in doubt. Yet, I believe that her town hall, from the parts that I watched, was bad. I couldn’t keep watching.
Now, Trump has always been graded differently than everyone else, and that’s part of the problem. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t say that Harris didn’t do well in a certain situation/event. I praised her during the convention and after the debate, and I believe that she has improved since 2020. I also said that she has done pretty much all that she could to win. It’s just that she didn’t do well with CNN this week.
I’m not like the brainwashed Trumpians who think that Trump is perfect. Harris is much better than Trump, but she’s not perfect, and that’s OK.
You said...
- Trump's tax code is expiring, it's absolutely in his interest to want another round of it
What Kamala plans is another matter, so you should have said that in the first instance.
Their twitter "spat" is a nothing burger because Biden never actually made the biggest companies pay more. Will Harris? It is yet to be seen.
One point you could have made though, but you didn't, was Harris proposal around unrealized capital gains for those with a net worth of 100mil+. That would impact Bezos.
The S&P peak under Trump was 3300. We are now at 5800. That is an unprecedented rise under Biden. Which CEO wants Trump to come along and upset that, than have to answer to their shareholders that the the guy they endorsed fecked up their record profits?
Zero chance of Lina Khan staying? There is zero chance of almost nothing in this world. Why would Vance lie when praising her? He has Trump's ear far more than congressional Republicans. Vance seems to be stumping for her already...
https://nypost.com/2024/10/15/us-ne...-admin-i-agree-with-them-both-on-some-issues/
and was doing so before he was made VP...
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4491363-vance-biden-ftc-chief-is-doing-a-pretty-good-job/
We don't know for sure, but if this was a conventional Republican, who doesn't have an enemies list and hold petty grudges, then the WAPO would have endorsed Harris.
The Trump and Harris polices are not too dissimilar to that of Trump v Biden in 2020, so it is not down to tax raters or policy. The only difference now is that Bezos can see that if Trump gets in, he will be out for vengeance and there are few guardrails to stop him.
I don't intend to. I meant it will be infuriating for left-leaning people who do decide to watch it.
fecking Cotton yikes
Haha Rasmussen gave Kamala a one point national lead. Probably Trump's worst poll in a while.
I the the crisisist of Harris on CNN is harsh. It wasnt bad. It was a 6/10 performance at a time when she needed a 10/10.
You said you didn't watch all of it. That is like watching only part of a United game, not knowing the result, then saying we played like crap.
When in a conversational environment, Harris isn't great on the economy or the border. It feels like she is trying not to make a mistake.
She is excellent on social justice issues and abortion, which is where she has spent most of her energy in the Senate.
When put into a more confrontational environment, like the debate or when getting grilled by Bret Baier, I think she shines. Maybe that is the prosecutor in here and maybe in hindsight should should have put herself into those environments more.
Trump winning the popular vote is electoral college landslide territory.
Haha go get kindly fecked - For a good couple of years, Biden's stumbles and slip-ups were hard to ignore, yet even the slightest mention of cognitive decline was met with fierce media backlash (and a torrent of abuse in places like this very thread!). Media and the Admin kept pushing this "sharp as a tack" story, telling us he was the best Biden yet, completely lying to the public because they're fake and lack morals. Which is why now that they're crying wolf none gives a shit and we're about to end up with an Orange Clown for 4 more years.
Feck the media
