On Friday, the Washington Post’s publisher, Will Lewis, announced that the paper would no longer make endorsements for president—after its journalists had already drafted an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. The decision was made by Jeff Bezos, the paper’s owner.

Over a period of several weeks, a Post staffer told me, two Post board members, Charles Lane and Stephen W. Stromberg, had worked on drafts of a Harris endorsement. (Neither was contacted for this article.) “Normally we’d have had a meeting, review a draft, make suggestions, do editing,” the staffer told me. Editorial writers started to feel angsty a few weeks ago, per the staffer; the process stalled. Around a week ago, editorial page editor David Shipley told the editorial board that the endorsement was on track, adding that “this is obviously something our owner has an interest in.”

“We thought we were dickering over language—not over whether there would be an endorsement,” the Post staffer said. So journalists at the Post, in both the news and opinion departments, were stunned Friday after Shipley told the editorial board at a meeting that it would not take a position after all. This represents the first time the Post has sat out a presidential endorsement since 1988.

"A Maryland Republican who leads a right-wing coalition in Congress says North Carolina’s legislature should consider awarding Electoral College votes to former President Donald Trump before citizens’ votes are counted, according to Politico.

Rep. Andy Harris, the chairman of the Freedom Caucus, made the comments at a dinner on Thursday, saying the idea “makes a lot of sense” because the western part of the state, a rural area where Trump is popular, is still dealing with the impact of Hurricane Helene."

"Black Insurrectionist,” the anonymous social media persona behind some of the most widely circulated conspiracy theories about the 2024 election, can be traced to a man from upstate New York.

He’s also white.

With a profile photo of a Black soldier and the tagline “I FOLLOW BACK TRUE PATRIOTS,” the account on the platform X amassed more than 300,000 followers while posting dubious claims about Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Some were amplified by former President Donald Trump, his running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance, and their Republican allies in Congress. The most salacious claims have come in the closing weeks of the campaign.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/21790946

Michelle Goldberg Oct. 25, 2024

The reason this is relevant is because he has spent the better part of a year complaining about “illegal immigrants” who are “invading” the country. But an old video from 2013 resurfaced on Saturday that appears to show the billionaire admitting he was at one point building his small business in the country illegally, describing it as a “gray area.”

*Edit: typo

It will bring recession, possibly collapse, as a result of retaliation, and lost allies.

The guy at the register where we paid was wearing a Superman T-shirt.

$35 to dress like a person who's a really big fan of Spirit Halloween, but does not work there.

"Backsass dampeners are offline, Captain!"

#AbsoluteCandorJaneway

Conservative MP Neil O'Brien has set out a list of policies to make Britain "vaguely civilised again" including "large and instant fines" for passengers playing music on public transport and a "crackdown on spitting".

The Leicestershire MP also called for action to stop e-scooters being " dumped across pavements" and a push to plant trees on every residential street "where this is remotely possible".

O'Brien was a minister in the previous Conservative government and is an influential thinker in the party, as the former head of the Policy Exchange think tank.

In a Substack article,, external O'Brien argued the desire to live in a "civilised, orderly society" was "one of the most under-discussed and under-appreciated things in politics".

"It is something often promised by politicians - but in my lifetime it has not been delivered."

...

Speaking to the BBC, O'Brien singled out street artist Banksy for criticism. He said his work was "valorising" graffiti.

"Graffiti is not art, it's a massive nuisance, it creates a really disorderly atmosphere.

"People have done everything they can to make their place, perhaps a business or shop, nice then some moron sprays paint all over it."

...

Matt Ashby, a crime science lecturer at University College London, says many of the actions O'Brien proposes would require "substantial investment in public services".

...

O'Brien acknowledged in his piece that the Conservative-led government cut the number of police and although the overall levels were later restored, Ashby says cuts to Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) were not.

"Compared to 2010, right now we only have 44% of the PCSOs."

And yes, I'm also shocked and saddened that there is a Caillou fandom site.