"The August 2020 US Politics Thread is highly thought of, but nobody likes me. It can only be my personality. That's all."

Friday Night Massacre at the US Postal Service, with Trump postmaster general getting rid of 23 USPS executives as a "sweeping overhaul of the nation's mail service." https://t.co/3lbWPJnt1e

— Ken Layne (@KenLayne) August 7, 2020

DeJoy and his wife, Aldona Wos, whom Trump has nominated to become ambassador to Canada, own between $30.1 million and $75.3 million of assets in competitors to the USPS

Is that a conflict of interest and is that enough to have him removed?
& is it too late to correct the mess he has created.

was wondering if there was any way of getting rid of the problem.
BUt has that meant that the election is already a bit screwed.

Who's going to remove him?

Conflict of interest is a positive as far as Trump is concerned.

The goodies who must be about to come riding over the hill, happens in all good westerns dunnit?

I mean one must maintain a belief in the goodness of teh law mustn't one? A lovely fellow like teh Attorney General must see the benefit of justice mustn't he?
& just being a wrecker of civilisation isn't an end in itself is it?
Or does it make a lovely pastime?

You hate to see it etc

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/08/trump-antagonizes-sheldon-adelson-phone-call-392688

This is the first thing that actually says to me he might really not want to win.

A direct quote from Maureen Dowd's column in today's New York Times (to which no correction has yet been appended):

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ee52LMiXkAA3JMt.png

I guess it does feel like about 36 years since November 2016...

lol wow

oh, Mo

Is it really so strange...

This description of what “antifa” is... is insane! Mind blowing that the NYT would publish this as facthttps://t.co/YnNZ6P04ax pic.twitter.com/yJgRoJzBc4

— Hamilton Nolan (@hamiltonnolan) August 7, 2020

that article is pretty terrifying though...

When a tall man in a trench coat and hiking boots walked over to question Mr. Khan, the man spread his coat open, revealing several pistols on harnesses around his chest and waist. He presented a badge on a lanyard that read “Black Lives Matter Community Patrol.”

His name is Rick Hearns and he identified himself as a longtime security guard and mover who is now a Black Lives Matter community guard, in charge of several others. Local merchants pay for his protection, he said as he handed out his business card. (Mr. Khan said he and his neighbors are now paying thousands of dollars a month for protection from Iconic Global, a Washington State-based private security contractor.)

Over the past couple of days I have seen references to both Trump asking how hard it would be to add a face to Mount Rushmore, and also Trump wanting to open up the Grand Canyon to mining or something. I have no idea if either of these things are remotely accurate, and that alone shows where we are.

xp yeah, definitely makes CHOP look pretty bad

he's wanted to open GC up to mining for the last 4 years

the uranium lobby (????) wants it iirc

xp yeah, definitely makes CHOP look pretty bad

In a way that walking around it every day didn't. You don't think Rancho Bravo would have done a month's worth of business every week if they'd been open?

^ especially during the riots, pre-CHOP

ok lol

Either @TimKaine and I had a very vivid shared hallucination four years ago or Maureen had too much pot brownie before writing her column again. https://t.co/J3SSwtkg7x

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 8, 2020

xp I mean, it already looked bad in a lot of ways - but particularly the store owner fighting off robbers, getting no help from the cops, and then blacklisted and harassed by protestors, that's some Fox News bait

either factchecking is cold and decomposed or Dowd is belatedly promoting "HRC is a man" meme

how terrible has the world become when a Clinton tweet is funnier than any Dowd column

So I guess in the original article it was "36 years since a man and woman ran on a ticket together", which prompted the Clinton tweet, and then the NYT changed it to "since a man chose to put a woman on the Democratic ticket with him"

I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder.

Maureen Dowd will keep earning six figures long after continents slide into the sea.

Wasn't the environmental bill that Teddy Roosevelt passed introduced to prevent exploitation of the Grand canyon back in whenever that was 100 odd years ago. I watched Public Trust the new film on public lands last week and i think that was a point made in that.
Overall feelgood film with every subsequent President signing vast areas into protected public land, some grassroots groups having fought for years to protect certain areas and finally getting legislation passed by Obama. Sudden sinking feeling as t comes into power and sets up various industry people to positions controlling departments they've been fighting.
Sounds like some good is happening at the moment so hope that does last.
Heard that the pipeline protest in Dakota thought it had won its recent battle and turned off the flow only to have it appealed and I think turned back on.

Fascists making jokes:

It seems like a rushed editorial process led to the publication of an Op-Ed that did not meet the New York Times's standards. pic.twitter.com/h4JMlUgh3y

— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) August 8, 2020

Dowd is a self-made joke.

President Trump said if he is re-elected, he will look into terminating the payroll tax permanently! No explanation of how he would fund Social Security.

Also, will anyone contest in court the executive order to give out $400 (down from $600) in unemployment benefits via money that the White House is claiming they can shift from unpsent funds

tbf, the op-ed page is a joke

even if dowd were good, you can't expect her to deliver something (apparently without editing) interesting twice a week for 25 years. krugman can at least go wonky if necessary, but the whole edifice is self-perpetuatingly rotten

The thing is, Cotton thinks he's calling out hypocrisy but he's basically right, the same shitty process that led the Times to institutionally think it was required to let him wipe his ass on their page didn't go away is still in place shoveling other shit into our faces regularly

along with other stuff that is good

There is no positive balance to any op-ed page, abolish them all.

Dowd makes Gail Collins read like Molly Ivins

Executive Order and memos

1/ Evictions: No eviction moratorium or new rental $, asks HUD to "consider" if evictions should stop

2/ Unemployment: Uses $44B from FEMA to cover $300/week benefit for ~5 more weeks

3/ Taxes: Option to defer payroll tax payment, but w/o new law they'll still be due

FEMA money during Hurricane Season

I guess we can just Nuke the 'canes then.

IIUC the $300 only happens in states that chip in an extra $100

Triple Matched!

“The pen-and-phone theory of executive lawmaking is unconstitutional slop,” Sasse said in a statement. “President Obama did not have the power to unilaterally rewrite immigration law with DACA, and President Trump does not have the power to unilaterally rewrite the payroll tax law.“

Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R) offered less harsh comments, saying that while he appreciated the president’s orders, he “would much prefer a congressional agreement.” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), blamed Democrats for failing to reach an agreement, but indicated he didn’t support the president circumventing Congress.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/511202-some-gop-lawmakers-express-discomfort-with-trump-executive-orders

President Trump said if he is re-elected, he will look into terminating the payroll tax permanently! No explanation of how he would fund Social Security.

Hey, remember Tulsi Gabbard? Well, you can forget about her.

BREAKING: Kaiali'i Kahele wins Democratic nomination for U.S. House in Hawaii's 2nd congressional district. #APracecall at 7:22 p.m. HST. #Election2020 #HIprimary https://t.co/lGfinkb1KC

— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) August 9, 2020

wow

Well, she wasn't running.

tulsi has already left her old career as a legislator and launched he next career as a media figure. maybe she can join the Home Shopping Network as a presenter.

maybe she can be a proactive spokesperson (ok that was very bad)

why do evangelicals vote for trump, part 10334: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/09/us/evangelicals-trump-christianity.html

typical stuff, but this conversation jumped out at me:

The years of the Obama presidency were confusing to her. She said she heard talk of giving freedoms to gay people and members of minority groups. But to her it felt like her freedoms were being taken away. And that she was turning into the minority.

“I do not love Trump. I think Trump is good for America as a country. I think Trump is going to restore our freedoms, where we spent eight years, if not more, with our freedoms slowly being taken away under the guise of giving freedoms to all,” she said. “Caucasian-Americans are becoming a minority. Rapidly.”

She explained what she meant. “If you are a hard-working Caucasian-American, your rights are being limited because you are seen as against all the races or against women,” she said. “Or there are people who think that because we have conservative values and we value the family and I value submitting to my husband, I must be against women’s rights.”

Her voice grew strong. “I would say it takes a stronger woman to submit to a man than to want to rule over him. And I would argue that point to the death,” she said.

She felt freer as she spoke. “Mike Pence is a wonderful gentleman,” she said. “This is probably a very bad analogy, but I’d say he is like the very supportive, submissive wife to Trump. He does the hard work, and the husband gets the glory.”

There's a photo in that article showing a family, heads bowed in prayer, about to eat. A gallon of milk rests on the table. It's the saddest photo I've ever seen.

I am never leaving the city (I know, I know)

From the start it appeared an impossible contradiction. Evangelicals for years have defined themselves as the values voters, people who prized the Bible and sexual morality — and loving your neighbor as yourself — above all.

Donald Trump was the opposite. He bragged about assaulting women. He got divorced, twice. He built a career off gambling. He cozied up to bigots. He rarely went to church. He refused to ask for forgiveness.

It has to be tough for the author to pretend he's never met an evangelical.