Good-bye, Washington Post

After an increasingly acrimonious relationship, I divorced the Washington Post yesterday, after 40+ years. (Due to previous financial commitments, the final separation will not take place until March 15.)

 

https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/04/media/washington-post-layoffs

https://montgomeryperspective.com/2026/02/05/democracy-dies-in-darkness-at-the-washington-post/

 

There was, of course, Bezos squashing the already-written 2024 Presidential election endorsement. The reduction in the number of op-ed columns, and the departure of most of my favorite opinion columnists. The increasingly snarky tone of the Editorial Board, with its unhealthy fixation on Zohran Mamdani and its apparent conclusion that the biggest threat to the U.S. is “progressives” and “socialists”, not Trump and MAGA.

 

While yesterday’s layoffs of virtually everyone in the Sports department hit me the hardest personally, the cuts to the Metro and International staffs were also devastating, none more so than the axing of Lizzie Johnson in the middle of her courageous stint in Ukraine.

 

How To Beat Donald Trump

Just a few things to get off my chest, mostly in random order, before I get back to blogging about music and Nats games.

 

Jobs 1A/1B: Reclaim the words Strength and Fight. (Getting back Patriot wouldn’t hurt, either.) “Real Strength, Fighting for You” wouldn’t be a bad campaign slogan.

 

Couple good examples of real strength from Joe Biden: putting his life back together and continuing his public service after the tragedy that killed his wife and infant daughter and injured his two young sons. Also, the grace and strength required to accept that he was no longer the best messenger to carry on the fight against Donald Trump.

 

Call Trump out as a bully. Everyone knows a lot of adults – family members, co-workers, club members, those who share a place of worship, etc. How many of them engage in the sort of juvenile name-calling that Trump enjoys so much? (Little Marco etc.) Most of us, relatively early in our childhood, gain the emotional maturity to move past that stage. I have to admit, whenever I think of Donald Trump, one of the first things that comes to mind is that wonderful Trump Baby balloon. Probably because both the balloon and the real thing are filled with hot air. And certainly throw in a reference to A Christmas Story and the fate of Scut Farkus. Bullies aren’t strong, they’re weak. They’re the sort of people who have to recruit professional wrestlers and UCF executives as convention speakers in an attempt to prove how strong and macho they themselves are.

 

When the going gets tough, strong people get going. When the going gets tough for Donald Trump or one of his companies, he declares bankruptcy. [Pick an instance and throw in some stats about the cost to innocent, everyday former employees and creditors.] Bankruptcy is meant to protect working folks who’ve hit a run of bad luck, not to be abused by the likes of Donald Trump.

 

Scoff at the Republicans’ so-called “unity” convention. It’s a ridiculous idea that the most divisive president in recent history, who loves only those who love him while belittling and attacking those who oppose him, could possibly unite the country. As for the former president, the “new improved” Trump seems to have lasted only about 5 days, ending about 45 (?) minutes into his interminable acceptance speech.

 

[Catherine Rampell wrote a Washington Post column earlier this month about how many Democratic policies are actually more popular than Biden.] That’s what we’re going to be fighting for (list some that are especially popular). Meanwhile, the Republicans will continue their opposition to these common-sense ideas, while fighting for those that primarily benefit the rich and powerful. (“Trickle-down economics” is still a good attack line.) But don’t over-promise to actually accomplish what you might not be able to deliver in a divided country and Congress.

 

Foreign policy – make the phrase “Neville Chamberlain” trend. Trump and Vance will sell Ukraine down the river to Putin just like Chamberlain tried to appease Hitler by giving him a chunk of Czechoslovakia. And how did that work out? That’s not strength, that’s weakness. Trump’s foreign policy is to pick fights with our friends and praise authoritarians. He calls his buddy Putin “tough and strong”, and said admiringly of Xi Jinping that “he controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist”. Why the admiration? Because Trump wishes he had that kind of absolute power and will try everything he can to get it.

 

Democrats will fight for lower prices, e.g. prescription drugs. Trump & his allies will fight against these efforts, and proposed universal tariffs on all foreign goods, even those produced by friendly nations, will increase prices for Americans and invite retaliation.

 

J.D. Vance – whatever happened to this guy? Praise his military service and best-seller, repeat some of his insightful comments about Trump. Then what? He apparently decided that power was more important than principle, first realized that he’d need Trump’s approval to get elected to the Senate, and then joined the long parade of Vice-Presidential wannabes. We all know that there were two main qualifications for being Trump’s running mate: absolute loyalty, and kissing his rear end as often as possible. (Apparently Vance landed the most smooches.) In terms of blind loyalty, Trump would do anything to avoid another Mike Pence, whose only sin was putting loyalty to our Constitution above blind obedience to the President. J.D. Vance has already said he would have done the opposite and supported Trump’s illegitimate attempts to remain in power.

 

Also attack Vance’s role in the 2023 Ohio abortion ballot measure. He not only opposed the measure itself, but he supported the midsummer attempt by state Republicans to change the rules in the middle of the game to increase the threshold required to approve the actual ballot initiative. Of course, there are also his past statements regarding abortion.