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

Wrong thread

I dunno, seems like the right thread.

for some reason i don't think nixon would use the word "endemic." i don't know why, it just seemed like a false note in that tweet.

personally I think the real Nixon would be dead

“Finally, I am pleased to report that one of the most successful efforts ever undertaken to improve world health will soon realize its goal-the global eradication of smallpox. This is an activity originally endorsed and consistently supported by the United States. The Eighteenth World Health Assembly in 1965, at the initiative of the U.S. Delegation, adopted a resolution declaring worldwide eradication of smallpox a major World Health Organization objective. When the program began in 1966, 45 countries reported smallpox. At the end of 1973, this number had been reduced to 11. In 1966, smallpox was endemic in 25 countries. Today it is endemic in only four. In the Americas, where smallpox was a devastating disease for centuries, not a case has been reported since April 1971.”

personally I think the real Nixon would be dead

Tell us another happy tale, please. Which level of hell is Reagan currently roasting in?

re: anecdotal postal data posted upthread

Our nieces 400 miles away mailed us 2 stamped envelopes 3 weeks ago and they have yet to arrive.

Arrived today. Postmarked 7/21. All throughout pandemic we'd received these letters in 2-3 days and these last ones took 3 weeks + 2 days to travel 400 miles.

Sent my MN primary vote by recorded fast five-day delivery from the UK on the 5th, showing up as ‘not arrived, not counted’ on Hennepin County voter website. FFS.

Per my dad, a devoted USPS employee – here's what's being done in the name of "efficiency": pic.twitter.com/S84JO2EhAY

— Daniel Rice (@daniel_b_rice) August 14, 2020

I know 538 but this is very useful if you’re trying to figure out how to vote (postal, early, etc.)

http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/how-to-vote-2020/

TRUMP: Mail is illegal now

DEMOCRATS: Fam, smash that RT if you agree someone should do something about this

— Jason O. Gilbert (@gilbertjasono) August 14, 2020

Holy cow: The *GAO* has determined that Chad Wolf was not lawfully named the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, and that @HomelandKen (who already is using an inappropriate title) wasn't lawfully appointed even to his *proper* position at DHS.

This is a remarkably big deal. https://t.co/qnR60CCbfs

— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) August 14, 2020

chad wolf

the brain drain is real - either the trump admin is missing the institutional knowledge that helps to avoid these kinds of mistakes, or the people that know better are letting it happen because they fucking hate him

In the long annals of what went wrong with the impeachment, I feel like "not expanding the inquiry to cover as many possible crimes as could fit" slots in right next to "rushing to get it resolved so the president could act with impunity in an election year."

— Kelsey D. Atherton (@AthertonKD) August 13, 2020

I agree with that but also think that Covid would have ended it anyway

forgive me for blowing your mind:

Oh.

President Trump and Melania Trump have requested mail-in ballots for Florida’s primary election on Tuesday, according to records on the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections website. Records show the ballots were mailed yesterday to Mar-a-Lago.

— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) August 14, 2020

well yeah, but that's because voting by mail is very good and safe in FL, only

It actually is! And we start counting the moment we get ballots. Our leaders put this solid system in place because of the number of seniors, and those seniors until this year.....voted Republican.

but how do you stop all the socialists from intercepting the mail and changing the votes? and what about USPS only delivering democratic ballots and "losing" the ballots from republican neighborhoods? i

This is a remarkably big deal.

Like, what does that even mean anymore? Does it mean they get an asterisk or something?

either the trump admin is missing the institutional knowledge that helps to avoid these kinds of mistakes, or the people that know better are letting it happen because they fucking hate him

Third option: They're doing what they want to do, they don't care, and they're daring anyone to do anything about it.

otm

xxpost Seriously. Remarkably big deals happen almost every day now and ultimately result in remarkably little.

it’s a combination of losing institutional knowledge AND not giving a fuck

TS: speaking ill of the dead vs. wishing dead of the ill?

President Donald Trump's younger brother, Robert Trump, has been hospitalized in New York and is "very ill," ABC News first reported on Friday.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told ABC that the president is planning to visit his brother, who she said the elder Trump has "a very good relationship" with.

The specific details surrounding the younger Trump's condition remain unknown.

i honestly can't remember where i was listening/reading this last night - here on ILX, in a dream, something on twitter - but wasn't someone just talking about the importance of "rules" in the face of fascism? like one of the most important things is to not forget the "rules" and to keep mentioning them even if it feels hopeless because they're the first things that fascists try to dispose of?

not saying i agree with that. despite not remembering where i heard that or who said it, i do remember thinking "cool idea bro but we're way past that point with trump".

i didn't wish ill on bob trump until i read that he had a good relationship with fuckface. now i assume he's one of the worst people in whatever state he lives in

Chance: Bob Trump has covid, Bob Trump does of covid, Bob Trump has and dies of covid and gives it to his Asshole brother.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told ABC that the president is planning to visit his brother, who she said the elder Trump has "a very good relationship" with.

i like that she felt the need to clarify that he has a good relationship with his brother, because everyone just assumes he doesn't

Is there any trump that’s cool? People hold out hope for barron but it’s still to be seen. You’d think he’d have one sibling at least who has been critical of him from the start.

They used to say tiffany hated him but she spoke positively of him at the convention. Uncool

it is useful to know if it's the part of the family that is cool with profiting from decades of fraudulent real estate cons, or the part that is cool with writing books about how bad that other part of the family is

Is there any trump that’s cool?

Mary Trump just released a book a couple weeks ago. she's relatively "cool" relevant to most filthy rich people

speaking of books, i kinda can’t wait for michael cohen’s.

yeah feel that one will go beyond the whole "Trump's a moron who doesn't listen to anybody and does illegal shit all the time" shtick all the rest of these books have

p4reene's podcast did an episode last week on "bad Trump books"

the thing is, trump didn't even know cohen, though, barely met the guy, maybe once at a party.

Seriously can the watchdog even do anything about that GAO finding or is it another "cool tell me when my jail term starts lol"

i honestly can't remember where i was listening/reading this last night - here on ILX, in a dream, something on twitter

David Roberts of Vox on the twooter FYI

Everyone in the Executive Branch works for the President and mostly "serves at the pleasure of..." By design. The check on that is to have the other branches do their thing. One has already tried, at great expense and waste of time for very little tangible benefit. The other branch is unwilling or unable to; doesn't matter which.

Can the president fire whoever he wants to? Yes. By design. Can the president appoint someone who actively hates and wants to demolish the agency he or she has been appointed to lead? Yes. Can the president staff the postal service entirely with arsonists and identity thieves? Yes.

Can an IG report or GAO finding or whistleblower accusation derail the president's actions? Well, the answer depends on how many Army divisions the IG or GAO or whistleblower commands. Oh yeah sure, bring the Capitol Police over to compel the White House Chief of Staff to testify. "Oh, how cute, they're waving a subpoena!" Who has more guns?

As long as there are no enforcement teeth, it may as well be a Washington Post editorial or a House censure resolution. All of which will be ignored and stonewalled as long as the Orange One holds the levers of power.

I get so tired of "why won't Democrats DO SOMETHING?!?!" like (a) they haven't been and (b) there is some yet-undiscovered cache of unbeatable doomsday weapons in Pelosi's desk drawer that she just hasn't felt like bringing out.

right you are!! to me, that is amazing memory recall, i'm impressed!

xp

Watchdogs can a) watch and b) bark their heads off iirc.

Is there any trump that’s cool?

thank you comrade trump for systematically undermining DHS

as I understand it the GAO findings re: Wolf and Cooch mean that anything they did relying on the DHS Secretary’s authorities under Title 6 are fodder for new legal challenges in the courts. It all depends on how the ACLU et al. want to use that ammunition.

it would def not surprise me at all to see a bunch of bad trump shit get immediately ripped to shreds if/when his admin is out just due to the sheer ineptitude

and we're back to the woodchipper

think I just posted on the trump thread something that I was reminded of by comment here.
I bet the word trump gets used pretty broadly and negatively in his wake. Seems like some of th usages are already in use for years though.
like trump for fart
or trumped up for made up as in charges or built up way bigger than the original reaction should have been, mountain out of a molehill type.

Like if you fictionally came up with a character taht was a narcisstic baby and then had to come up with a name for them this one would like really fit. Shame he isn't ficti8onal though.

or the game top trumps which was really popular when I was a kid. that idea of everything as oneupmanship.