Democracy Dies in Anticipatory Compliance

Issa, Gunderson Refuse to Commit to Certifying 2024 Election

It’s not surprising to hear that San Diego Congressman Darrell Issa is among California Republican House members who won’t commit to certifying the results of the electoral college in the 2024 presidential election. 

After all, he was among the Congress members legislators who voted to support at least one of the objections to certifying the 2020 elections following the mob insurrection that overran the Capitol building.

It’s a bit more surprising that Matt Gunderson, the so-called moderate Republican seeking to unseat Democrat Mike Levin in the 49th Congressional district is also refusing to commit to witnessing the counting of already state certified electoral votes.

Gunderson, a former car dealer, is running in the purple district as a “pro-choice” Republican. Given that refusing to certify is a scenario that will only play out if Donald Trump comes up short, his decision commits to an administration with a playbook (Project 2025) inclusive of actions to erode the right to choose even in states (like California) allowing abortion. 

Democrats have already produced an audio recording of the wannabe Representative calling Californians’ successful effort to enshrine reproductive rights into the state constitution “disgusting.” 

Issa and Gunderson are part of a rapidly expanding “anticipatory obedience” crowd, people and institutions covering their asses to avoid consequences should Trump win the election. For elected officials, it’s thought that loyalty to Trump will be the deciding line between disaster assistance or burn, baby, burn. 

Democrats, on the hand, are just offering up more Medicare, Child Care, more taxes for the uber wealthy, and the right for women to choose.

There’s little doubt that Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong's decision to block an editorial endorsing VP Kamala Harris is practicing anticipatory journalism. If you’re a reader of the paper, you wouldn’t know that three members of the LA Times editorial board have resigned, since the supposedly independent news division is refusing to cover the controversy.

Semafor Editor Smith (which broke the story) told NPR that “Soon-Shiong, like many media owners, has other business interests that can be directly affected by government actions. As a physician and medical inventor, Soon-Shiong has medical products subject to review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and applies for patents to federal regulators as well.”

Media critics are also pointing out NBC’s decision to delay an in-house documentary about the effects of Trump’s policies on migrant families separated at the southern U.S. border until early December, a month after Election Day. (The network says that’s not the case.)

Over at the Washington Post, owner Jeff Bezos has decreed that the paper will no longer endorse in presidential contests. An editorial already written endorsing Kamala Harris has gone in the round file.

As my favorite internet sarcasm peddler Mrs. Betty Bowers commented on the decision: "Democracy Dies in Anticipatory Compliance."

Via David Folkenflik at NPR:

• The last time The Post did not make an endorsement for president in the general election was 1988, according to a review of archives. The Post has been endorsing candidates for local office this fall. The New York Times endorsed Harris on Sept. 30.

• Post owner Jeff Bezos is the founder of Amazon and space company Blue Origin, both of which have contracts with the federal government. During the Trump administration, the Pentagon had to scrap a $10 billion cloud computing contract with Microsoft after Amazon filed a lawsuit alleging it had been passed over to punish Bezos for the Post’s reporting.

• Trump had said publicly that he, personally, had been reviewing the contract, which Amazon had previously been expected to win. Ultimately, four companies, including Amazon and Microsoft, were awarded parts of the contract.

This is yet another reason why billionaires shouldn’t exist. At least tax them down to being millionaires.

South African immigrant Elon Musk has used his platform to become the biggest promoter of anti-immigrant conspiracies. I’m sure this has nothing to do with the intricate financial connections between the US government and Space X.

I should also note that there’s coverage today asserting that Musk regularly speaks with Vladimir Putin, and did him a solid on behalf of Chinese leader Xi by refusing StarLink connections to Taiwan.

I get it. Lots of people and institutions are afraid of what a second term in office for Trump would mean for them. Fear of the unknown is driving decisions assuming the destruction of the rule of law. It’s not like bad things didn’t happen during the 2017-2021 period. 

Adam Klasfeld and Ryan Goodman at Just Security detailed a dozen instances, some of which never received media coverage, where former President Trump used the power of his office to retaliate against perceived political enemies during his term.

The Supreme Court’s vagary about the potential for criminality while serving as chief executive certainly doesn’t help matters.

An NPR investigation found that since 2022, when he began preparing for the presidential campaign, Trump has issued more than 100 threats to investigate, prosecute, imprison or otherwise punish his perceived opponents.

There is one bit of good news regarding this topic today, coming via Politico, with the headline Ex-Trump aides emerge to back Kelly’s harsh warnings:

• “The revelations General Kelly brought forward are disturbing and shocking. But because we know Trump and have worked for and alongside him, we were sadly not surprised by what General Kelly had to say,” the letter states.

• “We applaud General Kelly for highlighting in stark details the danger of a second Trump term. Like General Kelly, we did not take the decision to come forward lightly. We are all lifelong Republicans who served our country. However, there are moments in history where it becomes necessary to put country over party. This is one of those moments” the letter states. “Everyone should heed General Kelly’s warning.”

• The letter was signed by Trump administration officials, including Kevin Carroll, former senior counselor to Kelly; former deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews; former assistant secretary of homeland security Elizabeth Neumann; former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci; former chief of staff at the Dept. of Homeland Security Miles Taylor; former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham; former press secretary to the vice president Alyssa Farah Griffin; and former national security adviser to vice president Pence, Olivia Troye.

Way too many of the targets of his abusive language have failed to push back. And then there are the captains of industry, etc., who stay in their corners, lest anybody be offended by the notion of democracy and fair play.

Here’s Timothy Noah at The New Republic: 

• The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for powerful people to lack courage. That’s where we are, 11 days before an election that Donald Trump may win. Most of America’s leadership class understands that Trump’s reelection would be catastrophic in the manifold ways with which readers of this publication are well familiar. But a surprisingly large number of them are afraid to endorse Kamala Harris.

• When I say “America’s leadership class” I don’t mean those Republican Party quislings, starting with Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, who initially identified Trump as evil (“reprehensible,” “cultural heroin,” “America’s Hitler,” etc.), then later capitulated. For an appropriately pitiless roundup of key Republicans who surrendered their party to Trump, I refer you to Mark Leibovich in the September issue of The Atlantic.

• I have in mind a different group of leaders who in most cases bear no particular allegiance to the Republican Party. It may be a stretch to call them “good men” (they’re all men), but they’re astute enough to recognize the danger Trump poses, even as they decline to give Harris their public support. If Trump wins, it will be an exaggeration to say they caused it. But history will record that at a moment in their lives—in most cases, the only moment in their lives—when circumstances required them to show courage, they failed the test. Indeed, that silence may be the only thing succeeding generations will know about them. Let’s call them the Fraidy-Cats.

In his 2017 book On Tyranny, historian Timothy Snyder (who has been quoted a lot recently) says we must not "obey in advance." Bowing down to Trump’s perceived interests may offer short-term safety, but poses long-term risks to the very fabric of democracy. 

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Friday Finds in the News World

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Mysterious Monument On Capitol Hill 'Honors' Jan. 6 With A Bronze Turd by Kevin Robillard and Jennifer Bendery at HuffPost:

• The monument depicts an emoji-style pile of poop sitting on a desk with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) nameplate next to it and a plaque underneath that reads:

• This memorial honors the brave men and women who broke into the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 to loot, urinate and defecate throughout those hallowed halls in order to overturn an election.

• President Trump celebrates these heroes of January 6th as “unbelievable patriots” and “warriors.” This monument stands as testament to their daring sacrifice and lasting legacy.

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DOJ lawyers slam 'glaring gap' in failure to investigate potential Israeli crimes by Ryan Lucas at NPR:

• The DOJ attorneys' letter points out that U.S. courts would have jurisdiction over Israeli soldiers or officials who travel to the U.S., as well as the more than 23,000 U.S. citizens who it says are currently serving in the Israeli military.

• The same rigor that has been applied to holding Russian and Hamas perpetrators to account should be applied “where the perpetrators are acting on behalf of a political ally and the victims are stateless,” the letter says. “The disparate treatment of conduct by Israeli actors, reflected both in public statements and in charges the Department has brought, risks the precise implication you warned against—that our department has become ‘an apparatus of politics.’”

• The department should open investigations into the killings of Americans and potential Israeli war crimes, if it has not already done so, the letter says, and state publicly that it is investigating. The letter also suggests that DOJ and FBI create a webpage for collecting evidence of potential Israeli war crimes, similar to what was set up for collecting evidence of possible Russian war crimes.

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Freedom Caucus leader says North Carolina should consider giving Trump its electors before votes are counted via Politico

• The chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus says the North Carolina Legislature should consider allocating the state’s presidential electors to Donald Trump even before votes are counted in the swing state.

• Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) said Thursday that such a step by North Carolina’s Republican-controlled Legislature “makes a lot of sense” given the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene in the western part of the state. Counties in that region are expected to vote heavily for Trump.

• Potential difficulties with voting in the hurricane-damaged area would be a basis for the state Legislature to declare in advance that Trump should win the state’s 16 electoral votes, Harris said at a Republican Party dinner in Maryland’s Talbot County.