So, why did the LA Times and the WaPo decide not to endorse anyone this year for the presidency?
The easy answer would be: they hate Trump and his deplorable supporters, but they’re too embarrassed to endorse Kamala Harris because she’s performed so poorly.
Of course, that didn’t stop them from endorsing Joe Biden in 2020 or carrying water for him right up to the point of his disastrous debate in June with Trump. Nor has it stopped them from continuing to cover the news – including, of course, the presidential race – with their usual leftwing bias. So, why not an endorsement of Harris?
I don’t think it’s because they fear Trump retaliation if he’s elected. They probably realize that (a) he wouldn’t really be doing much to hurt them because in general his past threats have been just bluster, or (b) Trump already has plenty of motivation to do whatever he might be doing to them if he became president, and a Harris endorsement would hardly add anything to it.
So, what is it? The WaPo says it’s “returning to its roots” of non-endorsement prior to 1976. That’s nearly fifty years of endorsements, though. One would think that, since Trump is Hitler, the WaPo picked a funny time to end the endorsement practice. It really does seem a slap in the face to Harris, the only person who might have been reasonably expecting a WaPo endorsement for president this year.
Typical of other papers is this article in the leftist Guardian, in that they all seem to mention that owners Patrick Soon-Shiong (LA) and Jeff Bezos (Post) are billionaires. Well, yes, but they previously were billionaires who owned papers that endorsed Democrats for president. The Guardian writer, Margaret Sullinvan, opines:
All of this may look like nonpartisan neutrality, or be intended to, but it’s far from that. For one thing, it’s a shameful smackdown of both papers’ reporting and opinion-writing staffs who have done important work exposing Trump’s dangers for many years.
It’s also a strong statement of preference. The papers’ leaders have made it clear that they either want Trump (who is, after all, a boon to large personal fortunes) or that they don’t wish to risk the ex-president’s wrath and retribution if he wins. If the latter was a factor, it’s based on a shortsighted judgment, since Trump has been a hazard to press rights and would only be emboldened in a second term.
When Sullivan uses the term “press rights,” I believe it’s actually a code for “the right of the press to lie about Republicans and to suppress any news unfavorable to the left or deemed disinformation by the left.” Any actual free speech advocate, especially involving social media, is a great danger to the left.
However, there is a kernel of truth in the “Trump is a hazard to press rights” accusation, and that is that in 2022 Trump did advocate jail time in order to pressure reporters to reveal sources in cases of perhaps criminal leaks, such as the leak of the Dobbs draft long before the decision was officially issued. But reporters’ privileges to protect sources are not absolute; read this for a discussion of the legal issues. And quite a few reporters have indeed been jailed for refusing to reveal sources; one you might recall was Judith Miller. And I can’t find a record of any reporters actually jailed by Trump for anything during his administration.
More about the WaPo‘s decision [emphasis mine]:
Colleagues were said to be “shocked” and uniformly negative. Editor-at-large Robert Kagan, who has been highly critical of Trump as autocratic, told NPR he had resigned from the editorial board as a consequence.
Former Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron, who led the newsroom to acclaim during Trump’s presidency, denounced the decision starkly.
“This is cowardice, a moment of darkness that will leave democracy as a casualty,” Baron said in a statement to NPR. “Donald Trump will celebrate this as an invitation to further intimidate The Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos (and other media owners). History will mark a disturbing chapter of spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.”
“Democracy dies in darkness” – I guess Baron really took that slogan to heart. But it’s been quite a long time since the WaPo was “famed for courage,” and it’s interesting that that “courage” was demonstrated by the paper’s role in taking down a previous Republican president, Richard Nixon.
Doesn’t it say something about you if WaPo can’t choose between you and Hitler?
Today’s WSJ editorial page discusses Kamala’s “wealth tax.” This may be part of the motivation of Bezos and Soon-Shiong.
One of the sadder consequences of the last 8 years is that we now have to read American newspapers like they are Pravda. And one of the scarier things to contemplate is that this may have been true for much longer than the last eight years.
Hat tip Powerline:
https://connect.xfinity.com/appsuite/api/image/mail/picture?folder=default0%2FINBOX&id=82553&uid=49cade08a2064e7c8a5a607a7de9ec74%40open-xchange.com
My Facebook feed today is full of furious posts by my liberal, female D.C.-area friends and friends of friends, announcing that they canceled their WaPo subscriptions because of its “cowardly” decision not to endorse Harris. As a matter of principle, I don’t post politics on Facebook. But if I did, I would suggest to these friends that, if Jeff Bezos is thinking about his newspaper’s bottom line, which he’s a billionaire, so of course he is, he probably WANTS Trump to win.
Remember how Trump’s 2016 win boosted the fortunes of the NYT, which had previously been heading toward irrelevancy, losing readers right and left? Here we are in 2024, and we know that the WaPo has been bleeding readers so badly that earlier this year the paper tried to bring in a whole new editorial viewpoint and warned its most rabid “woke” employees that they might be working in the wrong place. Wouldn’t a Trump victory help a lot in turning this around?
I am going to bet that if Trump wins, all of those liberals who are canceling their WaPo subscriptions will hasten to sign back up, for the comfort of four more years of lies and bashing.
J.J.
Hat tip Powerline:
Link doesn’t work
Sorry about that, Gringo. I just tried it and it worked for me. Here’s the url again:
https://connect.xfinity.com/appsuite/api/image/mail/picture?folder=default0%2FINBOX&id=82553&uid=49cade08a2064e7c8a5a607a7de9ec74%40open-xchange.com
Hope it works now.
I still get a “Bad request” page on your link, J.J.
How many people would actually vote based upon a recommendation from their newspaper? I don’t think very many anymore, if at all, and possibly these papers just didn’t want to back an obvious loser?
The spoiled children masquerading as “journalists” need to understand that newspapers are–first and foremost–businesses. The owners–not the “reporting” and “editorial” staffs–dictate corporate policy and strategy. If you don’t like the employer-employee relationship, quit. Or even better, start your own newspaper.
The beauty of being Neo is that she’s both owner and reporter/editorial writer. It’s not even a little bit clear to me why the newspaper business should be any different from the oil business (corporate managers–not geologists–decide which wells to drill) or the car business or the airline business. If you deliver a high quality product at a fair price, everyone wins. If you deliver liberal tripe that no one wants to read, your paper loses money and eventually goes out of business (and there’s a lot of evidence that such is the case in the news business).
I can’t wait until Jen Rubin resigns from the WaPo (but, of course, we already know that her “principles,” like Groucho Marx’s, are situational (i.e., principled people at the LA Times should resign–but she needs to hang onto her undoubtedly overpaid gig to “fight fascism”)).
They’re either:
1. Afraid of being mocked as fools if the stock market soars and Putin and Chi decide to play nice, and the Middle East settles down if Trump wins, or;
2. Afraid of being associated with a five-alarm dumpster fire if he doesn’t!
I’ll bet on 2.
Sorry about the link. Must be something about different OSs. It’s a cartoon from the Powerline week in pictures. Punch line:
“Breaking News!!! In an election race between Hitler and Kamala Harris, the LA Times and WAPO will not endorse Harris.”
The LAT staff wanted Elizabeth Warren in 2020. Soon-Shiong stopped them from endorsing her in the primaries. He let the paper endorse Biden in the general election. Was it something he wanted or was he just letting the staff have their way? I think he’s more of a business guy than any kind of ideologue.
Jeff Bezos does have political leanings, but Amazon is involved in a lot of things and Bezos has to worry about how the government will treat it. Not that Trump’s a vindictive guy, but maybe Bezos doesn’t want to take chances with how any administration would treat his companies.
My theory is that both papers need to do some significant downsizing and it is far cheaper if you can get the employees you need to get rid of quit rather than buy out their contracts.
@J.J.Sorry about the link. Must be something about different OSs.
It’s how you are getting to the link; I think you are giving us something that tries to open your email. Check the address of the link you posted
https://connect.xfinity.com/appsuite/api/image/mail/picture?folder=default0%2FINBOX&id=82553&uid=49cade08a2064e7c8a5a607a7de9ec74%40open-xchange.com
and compare it with the original
https://www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2024/10/Screenshot-2024-10-25-at-4.12.43%E2%80%AFPM.png
Links to Powerline pics of the week never work now for many months running. AesopFan used to link them last Spring/Summer and they wouldn’t process, so . . . it ain’t you or your link, it’s Powerline’s doing.
Fwiw
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/10/26/la-times-non-endorsement-of-kamala-harris-is-due-to-biden-harris-admins-stance-on-gaza-war/
Just when you think they have any sensible attitude
The Bottom Line is speaking to the publishers, and the publishers are speaking to the editors. I think that the polling – the ones that are conducted in order to gain intelligence on the actual social trends, not to create or steer the preferred ones – are telling them that voter sentiment has shifted. And voter sentiment is upstream of subscriber sentiment. To me, it seems clear that the newspapers are sensing a change in the waters, and are adjusting their tack and their sails in hopes of surviving the seas ahead.
Miguel, I’m guessing that’s his wacky daughter’s wishful thinking.
As I’ve said, I think these backtrackings are last-minute efforts to salvage the credibility of these Great Media that they weren’t totally in the tank for Democrats. Though, of course they were,
Even the rich owners didn’t interfere with all the “Democracy Dies in Darkness” and “Trump is Hitler” malarkey.
Now they are not endorsing Kamala, since they see some unpleasant Writing on the Wall.
We’re not in the tank! We are Hard-hitting True Journalists Telling It Like It Is!
Right? Right?
In the words of Carole King and the Shirelles:
Will you still believe us tomorrow?
Interesting Miketas C. I still get the cartoon when I click on my link. When I click on the link you provided, I get an Error 101.
The mysteries of Tech. Makes me want to go back to smoke signals or the telegraph. 🙂
@J. J.:When I click on the link you provided, I get an Error 101.
Powerline doesn’t allow hotlinking, so you can’t click the link, but if you paste it into your browser it works.
My suggestion for the PowerLine picture link snafu:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/10/the-week-in-pictures-hitler-homecoming-week-edition.php
Include all the pictures.
Good plan, Gringo. I’ll do that next time.
Glad to hear someone ask the question, ” how corrupt was the Nixon takedown?”. Let us not forget that Hillary cut her take-down teeth on that show! It is a thought that has been gnawing at the back of my mind for several years now, but I have never heard anyone else questioning that soul-searing days long event. I believe it was a real turning point in our history.
@Anne:Glad to hear someone ask the question, ” how corrupt was the Nixon takedown?”
I’ve certainly needed to reexamine the Received Narrative for other events in our history, as well.
Neo:
Don’t mess around with Neo! Like one of my professors said, “brief, concise, and to the point.”
Bezos is between a rock and a hard place w regard to the WaPo. He is losing, IIRC, $100 million per year on WaPo operations. The WaPo’s hard-core partisanship has chased off subscribers of a more moderate or centrist bent. It is doubtful that they are coming back, even with the non-endorsement. At the same time, the non-endorsement has alienated the WaPo’s leftist/Democrat subscriber base, which has already responded by cancelling some subscriptions. Will the WaPo continue to lose subscribers? When Trump was President, the WaPo and NYT gained subscribers who agreed with the newpapers’ Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Regarding Bezos and the future of the WaPo, I don’t know. The WaPo has alienated more centrist, less partisan people who were once WaPo subscribers. At the same time, my understanding is that circulation jumped during the Trump presidency, as Trump Derangement Syndrome sold papers and gained subscribers. When Biden became President, subscriptions went down. TDS no longer kept subscriptions up when Trump was no longer President.
The WaPo’s non-endorsement will alienate its Democrat/lefty base. How far subscriptions will fall is anyone’s guess. I doubt that the non-endorsement will cause more moderate or centrist people to subscribe: the WaPo has done too much to already alienate them. Maybe they can be won back if the WaPo sheds its WOKE journalists.
Yancey Ward
That is a good point.
“So, why…?”
Maybe because they understood they didn’t really have to….
“Here Are States Where The Biden-Harris Admin Blocked Efforts To Ensure Only Citizens Vote In Elections”
https://thefederalist.com/2024/10/26/here-are-states-where-the-biden-harris-admin-blocked-efforts-to-ensure-only-citizens-vote-in-elections/
H/T Instapundit.
…And counting…
If they’re losing $77 million a year, maybe Bezos will take the market’s hint and shut it down.
“…a great danger to the Left,…”
Indeed, what are the chances of articles like the following appearing in any of the Left’s respective versions of Pravda???
“Bombshell Judiciary Report: Joe Biden, Kamala Harris Execute ‘Quiet Amnesty’ for Nearly a Million Illegal Aliens“—
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/10/25/bombshell-judiciary-report-joe-biden-kamala-harris-execute-quiet-amnesty-for-nearly-a-million-illegal-aliens/
“With such Elon;
“On Elon Musk & his critics”—
https://newcriterion.com/article/with-such-elon/
H/T Powerline blog (for both).
“Sorry about the link. Must be something about different OSs. It’s a cartoon from the Powerline week in pictures. Punch line:
“Breaking News!!! In an election race between Hitler and Kamala Harris, the LA Times and WAPO will not endorse Harris.”” The other commenter’s link doesn’t work either.
But what this means is that they don’t really think Trump is Hitler.
Victoria Nuland’s husband resigned? If he really thought Trump was coming after people he would have kept the job to help pay for defense council.
yes, he was the one that wrote the op ed, basically accusing trump of being an emperor, as his father was one of the leading classical historians, the late donald kagan, he learned nothing from the exercise,
if people were more learned he would have used cleon or alcibiades, but then again they were all about war,
of course woodwards cracked fairy tale about nixon, was ridculous, the tale told by someone with a clear conflict of interest, the film version of the felt story was played by liam neeson! based on that last exercise in limited hangout, not max holland’s careful examination, which lays the fable bare,
I looked into Woodwards latest fable of the wise old man called biden, a fair editor would have stabbed himself in the jugular,
yes an industrial base is a prerequisite to a thriving economy, financialization is the bane of a decrepit regime, we saw this in previous hegemons like Spain and the UK, without the former we could not have won the wars on the western front, if you credit the Soviets with winning the East, we couldn’t have supplied them with the lendlease equipment, there were other tools, but this was the biggest one in our arsenal, and over half a century, we have handed it over to China, and they paid us back with fentanyl with poisoned dog food, with a virus of indeterminate frequency, etc etc and the compradors like kissinger paved* the way, as well as Carter who recognized the dragon emperor a little too diligently, this was part of the realpolitik against the Soviet Union, that leaves a bitter taste in our mouth,
*Hitchens hated kissinger for all the wrong reasons,
of course, Mao gave gave to Deng who had a cold calculus as to how to acheive the 100 years plan as Pillsbury notes,
the chandlers in the era of Nixon’s initial rise, believed in America, as with the original crew around Luce, they have long since discarded that pretense, long before the new owner,
While it’s true that a much smaller proportion of Americans work in manufacturing jobs, and it’s a smaller percentage of GDP, it is also true that America produces more manufactured goods than ever.
Manufacturing in America is still growing, it is not shrinking, from $1.4 trillion in 1998 (16.1% of GDP) to $2.5 trillion (10.6% of GDP) in 2021 (dollars adjusted for inflation), averaging 3% annual growth in constant dollars.
The rest of the economic pie has been growing faster, certainly. Manufacturing is a growing piece of pie, but a smaller share of a pie that has grown even faster.
The US is the #2 manufacturing nation, 60% of China’s output but with a small fraction of China’s population. Japan is #3, less than half the US.
It is true we don’t manufacture the same things as we did in the 1980s, and fewer people work in manufacturing since then, but it is not true that manufacturing in the US has shrunk. Whatever manufacturing has been “shipped to China” has been more than replaced with something else.
you notice the percentage of GDP went down 50 percent, from 1998, so I don’t think thats something to crow about, what explains this the most favored nation trading status to china, which stripped more of our industrial base, the rising financialization seen in lehman brothers a decadelater, low grade financial product to boot, which lead to the collapse of a flagship of American finance, I don’t think the repeal of Glass Steagal was as significant, but the product they were trading certainly was, a product certainly prompted by government nudges if not direct fiat, the economic version of the tulip or the South Sea land bubble,
“Trump’s dangers”? Someone tabulate these, please.
I personally view the Democratic Party as our greatest danger.
getting back to woodward’s latest cracked fairy tale, it opens with january 6th, the most hackneyed intro since current Marvel films, somehow most of the entreaties that Biden made to Putin are left out, the retreat from Afghanistan, is almost left on the cutting room floor, then they have a comment from Fiona Hill enabler of the fraud danchenko, about Russian interference or something,
Woodward seems to think a perfunctory statement about hostages after October 7th to the Emir of Qatar, seems to mean a hill of beans, ‘he says the Al Thani is shrewd, the enabler of the return of the Taliban and the sanctuary of the Hamas ruling class is shrewd, there’s other words I could use, the fact that Putin walked right into the Donbass, and Trump kept him at arms length, well that somehow is not noticed or focused on, in so many ways, he has a mr Magoo perspective on this regime’s follies at best, malfeasance at worst, I didn’t check but I’m sure there was plenty of shade against Netanyahu, because he didn’t surrender at first instance,
thi first part is as cringey as that terrible hagiography by foer, which I have almost forgotten the name of. the politician,
These people have no idea what they have unleashed.
@miguel:you notice the percentage of GDP went down 50 percent, from 1998, so I don’t think thats something to crow about
If your income went from 10% of $1 million to 5% of $5 million you’d have something to crow about.
which stripped more of our industrial base
What kind of “stripping” results in more manufacturing than ever?
One thing I’m always hearing about the Right vs the Left is that we prefer facts to narrative… but people are more alike than different.
you can look at categories of how many products are no longer manufactured in this country, not only in china but in mexico,
so we have reverted to increasingly more of a service industry, that is not a recipe for an enduring economy, that’s just one element that comes to mind,
yes sullivan who used to be the Times
onbudsperson, has lost her ever loving mind, her concerns are ‘first world problems’ of a rather extraneous nature, piling together the mountain of hoaxes into some semplance of a hallucination,
To exagerate a little, we haven’t outsourced sand and gravel (industrial minerals), not yet anyway. Steel, sheetrock (gypsum wallboard, lumber, ….. Where are those Apple gizmos made again?
but those are raw materials from textiles to electronics there are swath of American enterprise which have faded, hence it leaves a big gap in that part of the economy, that are not symbolic analysts, those who work with their hands who build things, and the supplier to say they are a fickle party is an understatement,
The latest word is that Soon-Shiong’s daughter vetoed a Harris endorsement because she didn’t like Harris’s position on Gaza. I don’t know if that’s true, but if so, it indicates that there’s always a wild card in the deck that can make analysis difficult.
________
Donald Kagan wrote a massive four-volume history of the war between Athens and Sparta. I doubt his son got much out of those books. Otherwise he’d have realized that crusades for democracy don’t always turn out well. Sometimes, not getting involved and not becoming overextended is the right move.
Latest from Soon-Shiong’s team is the daughter’s comments are her own personal comments and she had no involvement with any editorial decisions and was not part of any meetings.
Related…most unfortunately…
‘If You Have Time for One Book Between Now and Election Day, Make It “Disappearing The President” by Lee Smith;
‘Disappearing The President is the first comprehensive account of the Shadow Network systematically undermining the American republic and supplanting democratic institutions.‘—
https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/10/if-you-have-time-for-one-book-between-now-and-election-day-make-it-disappearing-the-president-by-lee-smith/
+ Bonus (in the comments to the above link):
‘ China Acknowledges That Boxship Caused Balticconnector Pipeline Breach’—
https://maritime-executive.com/article/china-acknowledges-that-boxship-caused-balticconnector-pipeline-breach
Niketas, I think you underestimate the value of manufacturing to a country.
The Finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing sector is the largest sector in 2023 at 20.7% of GDP, followed by Professional and Business Services at 13%; Government at 11.4%; and Manufacturing at 10.3%.
One manufacturing plant affects the jobs in other manufacturing plants, as well as shipping, warehousing, etc. A plant employing 1,000 workers will employee hundreds of additional jobs in support companies as well as warehousing, transportation. That 1,000 person plant might produce a total of 1,500 jobs.
That same product imported will produce a few jobs in the import process, but nothing like the number produced when manufactured here.
Manufacturing jobs tend to be good paying in a community most often with benefits. And it employees the type of people that are best suited for this type of work.
I don’t think any other sector creates the additional jobs as manufacturing.
I don’t think it’s a good long-term strategy to make banks, insurance, service jobs and government employees the main producers of income.
@Brian E:Niketas, I think you underestimate the value of manufacturing to a country.
I seem to be the only one who has actually cited the value over time. I’m not saying manufacturing is low-value. The only thing I said, is that manufacturing is not shrinking. It is, on the contrary, growing, and it has been for decades. Producing more products with fewer people doesn’t make us poorer, it’s the opposite, in fact.
Something like 90% of us were farmers in 1900, and now hardly of us are, and we produce more food than ever. It’s not that different a situation from manufacturing.
If you want to maximize jobs, there’s any number of schemes for that, but I’m not seeing what national problem is solved by pushing American workers out of cubes and onto assembly lines, or onto farms for that matter.
Maybe it’ll help ‘em stay off Fentanyl…or other drugs, for that matter…(like social media?)…
Niketas, there’s a place for cubes– but not everyone is suited for that type of work.
Plus, in most cases, it’s not value added, unlike manufacturing.
I don’t think your argument is persuasive that manufacturing is growing– more slowing than other sectors, but still not shrinking.
But there is also a place for people that enjoy building things. Not every manufacturer can/will come back here– but Trump’s idea of lowering corporate income tax for those companies building their products here is brilliant.
The company I worked for the last 13 years tried to do an inversion, as the corporate income tax made it impossible to be competitive here. The inversion was quashed by the Obama administration. But a 15% rate would make American products competitive in developed countries around the world. We can reinvigorate manufacturing here and the benefit will be substantial to the economy.
@Brian E:I don’t think your argument is persuasive that manufacturing is growing
It’s not an argument. It happened.
1998: $1.4 trillion
2021: $2.5 trillion
after adjusting for inflation.
$2.5 trillion / $1.4 trillion = 1.79, so it almost doubled.
1.79^(1/23) = 1.026, 2.6% annual growth.
I’m sure there’s things wrong with manufacturing in America or things that can be done better but manufacturing in America is not shrinking.
I’m sure Trump has some ideas that can help make manufacturing in America more attractive, but manufacturing in America is not shrinking.
There’s really nothing else to say on that point. You can’t point to a number bigger than a previous number and say it’s smaller. Well, you CAN. But it doesn’t change reality.
Niketas, I don’t think I’ve ever said manufacturing is shrinking currently. Why I’m not persuaded with your argument is that growing from a 10% baseline will still result in a lower number than growing from a 16% baseline.
I don’t think we’re in disagreement. But if you go back to the early 2000’s manufacturing jobs did shrink.
One analysis found “We find that the U.S. has lost 3.82 million total jobs due to the trade deficit with China. Manufacturing accounts for 2.89 million jobs lost, 75% of the total job loss due to China.”
Giving China most favored nation status and membership in the WTO was an incredibly short sighted policy decision. But then that pretty sums up American politicians view on nearly everything– short sighted.
In 2023 there was a bill in the Senate to revoke that status.
https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-colleagues-introduce-bill-to-end-chinas-permanent-normal-trade-status
https://prosperousamerica.org/post-pntr-3-8-million-jobs-lost-due-china/
I think that the Trump campaign masterfully summed up the essence of the attack, aims, and targets of the Left and Democrats when it released an early campaign ad consisting of a picture of Trump, and written below his picture, these words–
“It’s not me they’re after, it’s you. I’m just in the way.”
As noted by Abraxas and Miquel Cervantes, there is reporting that the reason LA Times ownership is withholding a Kamala Harris endorsement is that the Biden-Harris administration has not been sufficiently supportive of Gaza.
That is clearly the opinion of the owner’s daughter, Nook. From,
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/la-times-endorsement-kamala-harris-donald-trump-2024-presidential-election :
“[O]n Saturday, [Patrick] Soon-Shiong’s daughter, 31-year-old Oxford University student Nika Soon-Shiong, threw another position into the mix. She claims that her family decided as a unit not to allow the paper to issue a recommendation for who is most fit to occupy the highest office in the land due to concerns over US support of Israel in the war in Gaza. But according to a spokesperson for her father, that statement—which she has repeated a number of times via social media—isn’t true at all.”
Also from Vanity Fair, we get this quote of Patrick from his “X” account:
“The Editorial Board was provided the opportunity to draft a factual analysis of all the POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE policies by EACH candidate during their tenures at the White House, and how these policies affected the nation. . . . The Board was asked to provide their understanding of the policies and plans enunciated by the candidates during this campaign and its potential effect on the nation in the next four years. In this way, with this clear and non-partisan information side-by-side, our readers could decide who would be worthy of being President for the next four years.
“Instead of adopting this path as suggested, the Editorial Board chose to remain silent.”
The Vanity Fair article makes clear that Patrick asserts that Nika had no control over his decision, and that the decision has nothing to do with Gaza.
The interesting thing is that the LA Times employees had, and have, no intention to logically support the endorsement they wanted to issue.
31 year old student = failure to launch?
Brian E on October 27, 2024 at 8:28 pm:
You have been providing some great commentary on this thread, but I think this sentence needs a re-do. ” … there’s a place for cubes [i.e., information and services work] – but not everyone is suited for that type of work. Plus, in most cases, it’s not value added, unlike manufacturing.”
If it was not value added, no one would pay for it, and it would no longer be supplied or required. The reasons why mfg is so valuable to a society is 1) support for national defense if/when needed; and 2) “persistence of value”, assisted by applying automation and other productivity improvements. Typically manufactured goods retain their value longer than most services, so instead of immediately repeating the manufacture of the same good for use by the same consumer, a new good is made that benefits a new consumer (and thereby also expands society wealth). Clearly some consumable goods have short value life cycles, and quite a few services have long term value (legal contracts, etc.), but many services supply value only during the interactions between supplier and consumer [where any value retained afterwards mostly resides in the data captured during said interaction — receipts, records, graphics or artwork, etc.].
The whole history of economic advances has been the incorporation of capital in lieu of labor [granting that capital is actually prior labor + prior capital] to improve productivity, even in service oriented tasks and jobs. This includes those situations where we really desire close support and attention from a service provider, such as for the care given in hospitals, nursing homes, and hospice.
The issue of people having satisfying and challenging and remunerative employment is really outside of that discussion, becasue it involves values different from economic value, but it is an important topic in its own right. Finding the right balance between near shoring, on shoring, training for new skills, government support for R&D and/or for industrial policies of one sort or another, UBI, etc., is an ongoing challenge.
On the positive side, when you say “… Trump’s idea of lowering corporate income tax for those companies building their products here is brilliant.” I would suggest all corporate taxes should go to $0, as customers, employees, and shareholders are the actual people paying those taxes. That source of government income should be extracted openly from them (mostly from the shareholders) with higher personal rates, not hidden in corporate taxes taking their real income before they get to see it. This would make American mfg and businesses in general more competitive. If they grow as a result, there is more for the shareholders net on balance, too. And a boost to employement. Costs to their customers would come down, too.
[If you want to be picky, maybe they should pay a 1 or 2% tax to support federal and state judicial enforcement of contracts and/or arbitration??]
Niketas’s position on a declining mfg employment % with increasing mfg output is well established from several sources (although I don’t recall any specifics myself right now.) But he must also have sources he could cite since he is providing numbers.
Destructive tribalism and national/global crisis is THE GOAL of our illustrious elites—this, because the current system (and humankind in general) is so unstable and prone to catastrophic decisions (such as WAR, the absolute horror of free choice…freedom of speech…economic freedom and freedom of religion and religious-based morality…IOW the entire concept of TRUTH).
Yes, THE GOAL; so that in the ensuing world-wide chaos, the WTF/WEF and like-minded, overarching, global “elites”—in the form of the EU, UN, WHO, UK’s Labor Party, America’s Democratic Party, Canada’s Labor Party, CHINA, and other fellow travelers (all aware of the gravity of the situation…and the need to CREATE CHAOS in order to “solve” “the problem” ONCE AND FOR ALL—will sweep up the smoldering pieces and force them into some kind of global, totalitarian whole (for the good of everyone, of course, especially Gaia, praise her and bless her).
So that unlikely as it probably is, just maybe, the LA Times and the Washington Post (and others?) having begun to understand just how destructive that goal is and to what extent they have helped to foist it upon the nation…are having second thoughts….
No, wouldn’t want to put my money on it…but…maybe…
“Gad Saad Survived War in Lebanon. He’s Warning About One in the West”—
https://blazingcatfur.ca/2024/10/27/gad-saad-survived-war-in-lebanon-hes-warning-about-one-in-the-west/
R2L, In that context value added was the wrong phrase. The multiplier effect was the term I should have used.
Here’s what I was trying to convey:
There is also a pay/benefit premium to manufacturing jobs.
https://camoinassociates.com/resources/the-multiplier-effect-which-industries-are-the-biggest-job-creators/
https://www.epi.org/publication/manufacturing-still-provides-a-pay-advantage-but-outsourcing-is-eroding-it/
One of the effects of offshoring was the creation of rust belts– where former manufacturing plants left, leaving a hollowed out economy and trapped Americans in poverty.
It’s easy to suggest the workers leave and look for jobs elsewhere, but consider that in man instances these workers biggest investment/equity was in their homes, if they were homeowners.
With the declining economy, home values declined, leaving the workers trapped.
The jobs that remained were lower wage service jobs.
The CPA survey estimates that laid-off manufacturing workers suffered a 19.2% fall in their standard of living, and many of the service jobs offer little or no benefits.
https://www.industryweek.com/talent/article/22028380/the-abandonment-of-small-cities-in-the-rust-belt
Niketas @ 5:10,
If you want to contemplate it truthfully use neo’s Amazon link to purchase Ashley Rindsberg’s book, “The Gray Lady Winked.”
Who needs WaPo and NYT endorsements when you can have the Bee’s?
https://babylonbee.com/news/the-babylon-bee-editorial-board-officially-endorses-kamala-harris-for-president
The crazy thing is that everything they say about her is true (true-ish?) — which makes the satire doubly ironic.
Brian E on October 28, 2024 at 12:30 am
That discussion of multiplier impacts “from” mfg helps provide better context for your comment.
But multiplier effects also present something of a circularity or chicken/egg situation.
To enhance the productivity of all those people doing service/cube tasks also requires a supply of the goods/hardware for networks, computers and displays, databases, bar code/Q code scanners, facilities, transport, etc. And much more interdependence across the economy beyond that (insurance, banking, infrastructure, etc.).
As we recognize, the beauty of the free market is that pricing signals help manage all of this without a formal centralized controller/manager [plus government assist for some infrastructure, which is also planned and supported based on some estimate of demand].
And of course mfg inself involves considerable “information and cubicle” work before the first item leaves the factory loading dock. Design (of products, tooling, facilities, automation, testing, + product data mgmt); production planning, inventory, and control; procurement; finance; etc.
Overall, a great discussion/comment thread.