As fires continue to rage in Southern California, causing more than 100,000 people to flee their homes, a Bay Area app has become the go-to provider of real-time information and a voice against a wave of MAGA-led misinformation. Watch Duty, created by Santa Rosa-based nonprofit Sherwood Forestry Service, tracks fire risk and firefighting efforts in real time and as of Wednesday morning had overtaken ChatGPT as the top free app in Apple’s App Store.
The Watch Duty app has been around for several years now, but as this San Francisco Standard article notes, its role has expanded with the flagrant deceit being spouted by Trump and amplified by Musk and the rest of the cult. The disgust we should aim toward the Maga crowd should pale next to our admiration for volunteers who work to help people. Consider a donation.
Sadly, the Amazon-Melania deal has much the same flavor as the rest of these relationship-repairing moves – not just by Bezos but by others of his ilk. Amazon, it turns out, wasn’t the only one in the running for this dubious prize. Paramount and Disney reportedly were outbid. “The billionaires are all lined up on one side, on the side of billionairedom, begging for the right to throw money at the decadent final years’ potentate,” wrote Josh Marshall in his Talking Points Memo. “It’s the powerful versus everyone who doesn’t want to lick the boot of power.”
Our corporate media barons are not going to challenge Trump world, as this piece makes clear (again). They are joining it. Understand the journalism their companies produce in that context. And please, please support independent journalists* and smaller organizations, many of which are not-for-profit, working to tell Americans exactly what is going on and how we can act to turn this around.
*Some people I otherwise respect greatly – including the author of the Guardian commentary above – have chosen to publish newsletters on a platform, Substack, that I consider one of today's media villains. My objections: It is a) trying to monopolize the newsletter market; b) funded by Silicon Valley venture capitalists who turned out to be Trumpists, and c) run by people who see nothing wrong with helping right-wing extremists monetize their vile beliefs. A few of the journalists I want to support offer alternative payment options, which I have used in those cases. But I will not support Substack in any way. (Note: This newsletter is published on the Ghost platform.)
Getting ready: Difficult, but not hopeless, times ahead
Powerlessness does not, however, imply surrender. Quite the contrary. The republic is in the hands of Democrats and mainstream and progressive institutions. They, we, must fight harder than ever. It’s just going to be maddening, watching a convicted felon president tell lies and corrupt our values. We have to believe that a day of reckoning will come. Without that belief, he wins.
I felt sick watching the state funeral for Jimmy Carter the other day, sad-sick at the loss of a great man whose life should be an inspiration to everyone, and puke-sick watching Barack Obama chatting with Trump in an apparently friendly way. I thought of that as I read this New Republic piece, which lays out the stark reality of a presidency that will have almost no guard rails.
I don't believe for a minute, contrary to the estimable author's assurance, that the Democrats in Congress or most "mainstream" institutions – especially traditional media – have enough integrity to fight the fascist trend. Almost nothing in their recent history suggests they do. (Key progressive policies still have majority support in America, and could be the core of genuine opposition, even if Democrats are too afraid to say so.)
I'll be focusing on the exceptions in Democratic and mainstream institutions, the ones who have the guts to defend democracy and human rights and capitalism with rules to protect competition and so much more. They will need our support, moral and otherwise, and if they don't have it the "day of reckoning" will assuredly not arrive for decades to come.
My election postmortem boils down to these observations, which I—while not confident in my ability to predict electoral outcomes—nevertheless believe to be true and applicable, and perhaps helpful for winning elections. I'll name them, then spend a few paragraphs on each. 1) Defending a people-eating system is an electoral liability. 2) You don't win fights if you don't fight. 3) You aren't the opponent of those you won't oppose. 4) If you don't lead, you're not a leader.
This newsletter post offers advice to a feckless political party – the Democrats, as you'd guess – that seems more determined than ever not to learn from its failures. The author (whose work I highly recommend in general) deploys common sense, a quality that seems to be lacking in most political commentary as well. Here's a quote from the first of the points he reinforces: "Every act of progress was a fight—a long, hard, frequently bloody fight—against the institutional supremacy codified in our laws and etched in the supremacist American spirit. It also teaches us that fighting for change works to create it, if we are willing to pay the cost of a fight, which makes fighting for change a hopeful thing."
Hope again. There is little reason for optimism right now, but there are endless reasons for hope. Please remember that, and act on it.
How I put this together
This newsletter is a compendium of the reporting and commentary that best explains the America's political, economic, and social conditions – and, most important, how we can find a way back from the dark days ahead. You will rarely find anything here from the New York Times or Washington Post or any of the other Big Journalism companies that failed us so completely during the 2024 elections and are now sucking up – even more than usual – to Donald Trump, his cult, and corporate oligarchs. My focus will be on smaller, more honorable outlets (and individuals). I hope you'll support them with your attention and your money. For more details, please read my About page.
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