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Jeff Bezos gutted the Washington Post today like he was cleaning a fish. 

Here is a letter from the head of Meidas Touch — independent journalist. 

Dear Jeff Bezos and the leadership team of The Washington Post,

As you know, I am Ben Meiselas, the co-founder and chairman of the MeidasTouch Network, now the largest independent news network in the world.

I never thought I would need to write this letter.

The Washington Post was once a standard-bearer for American journalism. It stood for fearless investigative reporting, for holding the powerful accountable, and for the simple but radical idea that democracy cannot survive without a free press.

That institution is now being destroyed.

Roughly one-third of your reporting staff has been eliminated. Some of the most respected journalists in the profession—people with decades-long careers devoted to serious investigative work—were discarded. Not with dignity. Not with gratitude. But with a cold, generic letter from human resources.

That level of callousness tells us everything.

Let’s be clear about what this really is. This is not restructuring. This is not belt-tightening. This is not a difficult but necessary business decision.

This is capitulation to authoritarianism.

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The candles get trippier by the day

Tonight's menorah

Here we go! 

Tonight's menorah!

 As the year winds down, and I am finishing work today for the holidays, I am thinking about things and I think I will try and do more journaling in the new year. I have let my blogs go dead and think I will do more here. I love posting my Hanukkah pics and think I have thoughts to put out here. Especially about the current state of things in the United States which are very troubling. So I will post more or some at least. 

I hope you all are having a good holiday season this year. We are troubled here in the United States. It is disturbing here to be honest. I will share more of what is going on. I feel like I am in a bit of a liberal bubble here in California - surrounded by like minded people where I live and work - but I still have trouble believing we have a fascist in the White House and that they paved over the Rose Garden - and tore down the East Wing of the White House - it's unbelievable to me and don't get me started on healthcare. I really cannot believe it. I do think that Trump has dementia and is not well and that he is not really in charge - that is my theory. He is not all there. 

Anyway - I have problems with all of what is going on here and really am disturbed by it. 

I am staying in Berkeley for the holidays - I could not afford the airfare prices for Christmas travel. I am planning an East Coast trip over the summer to visit. I love visiting in the Summer so will do that. 

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Here I am with last night's pic!

last night's pic

<img src='https://phyncke.dreamwidth.org/file/26255.jpg' alt='' title='Hanukkah 2025 night 3' />

Tonight's menorah

<img src='https://phyncke.dreamwidth.org/file/25660.jpg' alt='' title='Hanukkah 2025 Night 2' />

And I open my candles to find that some of them are warped. I will just have to roll with it and go with the curvy candles. It will be fine - lol. I got a good deal on the candles anyway - I always by them after Hanukkah on sale - this is what happens.

You guys — it's almost Hanukkah! It starts on Sunday. I will try and post my menorah pics this year. It is like my favorite time of the year — I love posting it. Hope you enjoy it. 

Woo hoo! 

From Heather Cox Richardson - Letters from an American - Dec 05, 2025

Late last night, the Trump administration released the 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) of the United States of America. It did so quietly, although as foreign affairs journalist at Politico Nahal Toosi noted, the release of the NSS is usually accompanied by fanfare, as it shows an administration’s foreign policy priorities and the way it envisions the position of the U.S. in the world.

The Trump administration’s NSS announces a dramatic reworking of the foreign policy the U.S. has embraced since World War II.

After a brief introduction touting what it claims are the administration’s great successes, the document begins by announcing the U.S. will back away from the global engagements that underpin the rules-based international order that the World War II Allies put in place after that war to prevent another world war. The authors of the document claim that the system of institutions like the United Nations, alliances like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and free trade between nations that established a series of rules for foreign engagement and a web of shared interests around the globe has been bad for the U.S. because it undermined “the character of our nation.”

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In a clear message to the Administration in power the Democrats swept this week's election - winning just about everything. Here is Heather Cox Richardson talking about Zohran Momdani winning the mayoral race of NYC - he is a social democrat.

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New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a member of both the Democratic Party and the Democratic Socialists of America, began his victory speech last night with a nod to Eugene V. Debs, labor organizer and Socialist candidate for president at the turn of the last century.

“The sun may have set over our city this evening, but as Eugene Debs once said: ‘I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity.’”

The 34-year-old mayor-elect’s speech went on to deliver something that was more than a victory speech. It marked a new era much like the one that had given rise to Debs himself. After more than forty years in which ordinary Americans had seen the political system being stacked against them and, over time, forgotten they had agency to change it, they had woken up.

Mamdani began by lifting up New York City’s working people, noting that “[f]or as long as we can remember,” they “have been told by the wealthy and the well-connected that power does not belong in their hands…. And yet,” he said, “over the last 12 months, you have dared to reach for something greater.”

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So I am going to share this email I got from Robert Reich today because he has all the posts in here from Trump and Musk as they flame each other on social media. They have broken up and it is glorious. Gloriously dramatic and in the public sphere. I figured this would happen as they are two really irrational people and this was bound to happen. They both suck and they are sucking out loud. It's so great to see. I hope they keep going and do all these things they are threatening. I want to see it really implode.

begin paste -

Dear Friends - I’m trying not to be too delighted about the new reality TV show starring Elon and Donald, but the dialogue is truly extraordinary (I’m quoting them verbatim but putting their volley in what appears to be its intended order).

ELON (February 7, 2025): “I love @realDonaldTrump as much as a straight man can love another man.”

ELON (June 3, 2025, four days after leaving the Trump regime): “[Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill is a] disgusting abomination” and “shame on those who voted for it” and “In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people”

DONALD (June 5, 2025): “You saw a man who was very happy when he stood behind the Oval desk. Even with a black eye. I said, do you want a little makeup? He said, no, I don’t think so. Which is interesting, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will any more.”

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