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

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.

I get so tired of "why won't Democrats DO SOMETHING?!?!“

me too I mean if it’s not obvious whose side they’re on by now where the hell have you been

I get so tired of "why won't Democrats DO SOMETHING?!?!" like (a) they haven't been

Action is limited, yeah, but it does end up reading like a shrug publicly. The other guy gets hours of rally time broadcast (illegally!) on multiple TV channels nearly every day; a different approach to the reins from Pelosi and Schumer could see rotating Democratic firebrands doing the same thing, to catalogue and denounce Trump's actions and violations each evening.

In electoral politics, repeatedly and loudly saying how and why the other side is bad, in between elections, is often very effective. Going on camera once to say "I've come up with a clever new name for him. It's 'Mister Make-Things-Worse'" is weak tea.

Are we ready for a national strike yet?

have you seen the state of unions lately?

i mean it would work anyway if we went for broke, but in Florida, if you're a teacher, despite having a union, if you strike, they can instantly fire you and take your teaching license, as well as your Florida pension.

the average person striking is also dealing with the knowledge that missing a paycheck or two could mean foreclosure or eviction from a home, esp now that we're without any relief deal until SEptember. the people have the least leverage ever in respect to striking.

I don't disagree with your general premise that a general strike would be great but it's never happening in 2020 America.

Maybe now would be a good time for the House to ram through a far-reaching USPS reform bill ensuring its safety and independence forever.

one thing that the dems in the house could easily do is END THE RECESS EARLY AND GO BACK TO FUCKING WASHINGTON

Like wouldn't it be some fairly potent messaging for the Dems in the house to get back to D.C. and keep hammering the GOP with pictures of their empty seats? Or am I just daydreaming again here?

not gonna disagree there, but i'm really fuckin' angry about there being no deal

thank fuck our county has started a rent relief program but it's first come first served

(not really for my fam but my friends)

i think it will be strong messaging to put a usps sticker next to the coexist one on my subaru forester

Trying to verify with some better sources, but I'm seeing on Twitter that Dejoy is actually having the removed sorting machines destroyed so, even if there was some additional funding figured out, they still wouldn't be able to ramp back up before the election. I'm furious that we're all watching this in real time and nothing is being done.

According to this, machines are actually being destroyed--meaning that they can't be put back into service even if the funding issue is resolved. https://t.co/65GN9Xlp5Y pic.twitter.com/1jflQDQJhw

— Ally (@newscat44) August 14, 2020

"xp yeah, definitely makes CHOP look pretty bad"

btw today there was an anti-mask / pro-Jesus rally on the CHOP site, with hundreds of ppl gathering without masks and publicly baptising each other, and at least one baby, in a grotty tub. The mayor didn't send in one single cop to break them up, let alone hundreds of cops and National Guard to tear-gas them, though, so it'll probably look pretty... good? when the NYT writes it up.

― Steppin' RZA (sic), Monday, August 10, 2020 6:41 PM (five days ago)

Since this ^, the police chief quit without yet being able to state who gave the order for the precinct to be vacated by the police who were starting riots every second night, and the National Guard who were standing in various rows behind them, after the city council reduced her $285,000 salary by 7%.

In the same session, the council also voted to defund the team that conducts homeless sweeps, and unanimously agreed to remove police from this task force altogether.

This morning, the mayor did send dozens of cops in riot gear to clear homeless people from the CHOP site and harass volunteer workers handing out masks for free.

Keep us posted on how this looks in the New York Times' coverage!

this seems doable

House Dems should pull a Benghazi on Trump and Republicans over this USPS voter suppression fiasco and hit them with hearings. That fake scandal won an election for the GOP. Imagine what raising hell over an actual scandal could accomplish.

— Adam Best (@adamcbest) August 14, 2020

I mean, this is it. He did it. Trump stole the election. It's fucking over. He did it. And we all just fucking shrugged our shoulders. I'm petrified of the future.

CNN's followup to the Motherboard coverage also says that sorting machines are being dismantled: https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/13/politics/postal-service-sorting-machines/index.html

"but we can still vote in person".

Fucking bullshit. We already saw how they shuttered all of the polling places in the primaries. It's done. He did it. Fucking terrible.

We already saw how they shuttered all of the polling places in the primaries.

where?

Wisconsin and Georgia are the two big ones that came to mind. I think Milwaukee ended up with what, like less than 5 actual open polls during the primary there?

wasn't turnout in areas where polling places were reduced still unusually large in some places anyway?

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/09/politics/georgia-primary-election-delays/index.html

I'm just outraged and I don't think it's safe for us to pretend the GOP won't pull more bullshit before November. It's not like they'll just stop fucking with things now that they've crippled mail-in votes.

they tried it and still lost. turns out "blatantly trying to steal the election" fires up the other side.

Ruining the postal service is bad for other reasons too

not clear on WI and GA, but closing polling places isn't bad for turnout if the ones they open are bigger/more accessible (which is what happened in KY and CA).

also, in some states, absentee/mail-in ballots can be dropped off rather than entrusted in the mail. granted, I know that doesn't address the problem of low income individuals who don't ahve a vehicle and can't easily get place to place, but...

also much of this happened during the first crescendo of the epidemic, and Milwaukee was very badly affected by it. Milwaukee had 6 polling places only, whereas Madison had 66.

it isn't as if entire states only had 5 places to vote.

making it hard to vote by post is bad for republicans in at least one state they basically have to win (florida)

Ruining the postal service is bad for other reasons too

― Steppin' RZA (sic), Friday, August 14, 2020 4:13 PM bookmarkflaglink

not least that it hurts businesses who are now dealing with a litany of complaints due to lost packages/slow service. I had packages in tow both before and after the Dejoy procedural fuckery and I saw differences in the timing almost instantly.

Being outraged is fine and appropriate, saying “that’s it, he’s done it, we’re doomed” is a bit much

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/04/09/wisconsin-election-milwaukee-had-5-voting-sites-while-madison-had-66/2970587001/