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

They have already gerrymandered the location of mail box removal.

The USPS had already warned that 46 states and DC were in danger of disenfranchisement with pandemic-based increase in mail-in voting, before DeJoy was even appointed to sabotage the service.

https://usmailnotforsale.org/save/

I filled that out. What else can be done?

gotta say, I really don't understand the "oh, the USPS thing will backfire on trump when everyone gets mad about their slow mail"; most likely they'll just blame the post office workers, and then use the delays as "proof" that USPS needs to be defunded

Libertarians 'well akshually'-ing the "USPS business model" are some of the dumbest people on Earth.

Libertarians 'well akshually'-ing the "USPS business model" are some of the dumbest people on Earth

Well... yeah.

I've mostly been disregarding Kanye's action in the campaign as in all things, but erm https://www.thedailybeast.com/kanye-west-says-he-and-jared-kushner-speak-almost-daily

Playbook this morning. We rarely see the kind on penetration the USPS story is getting. These are all front page headlines from across the country. pic.twitter.com/iVkebaGWFk

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) August 15, 2020

And you know who reads the morning newspaper!

well let me get my specs

I'm gonna go get the papers get the papers

Check out the front page of major newspapers in the six closest states Trump won in 2016. All had stories about the mail and voting. https://t.co/Xnddyt8IQMhttps://t.co/rq8TtlYnjahttps://t.co/oD38aDEwZahttps://t.co/yLuOn4YL0vhttps://t.co/NrU54fXF00https://t.co/Rgh25X93vx

— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) August 15, 2020

What if those papers were ... not delivered?

Harry Enten's a dog now

NYPD union endorsed Trump. I’m sure this is part of their neighborhood outreach plan.

Also, does anyone else see a potential problem with police unions - enforcement arms of the state with lethal weapons - promoting “preferred” candidates for office or is that just me? https://t.co/UlmigAuedh

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) August 15, 2020

No! What could be wrong with it?

New York City Cops...They Ain't Too Smart

Trump’s calculated dismantling of USPS proves one thing clearly: He is WELL AWARE that we do not want him as our president. He’s chosen to blatantly cheat and put millions of Americans’ lives at risk in an effort to hold on to power.

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) August 15, 2020

NYC cops are smart enough to know what side their bread is buttered on.

pish cops don't eat BREAD, there's carbs in that bruh

or who keeps the military hardware coming

the irony is they'll likely be 'fine' under Biden

I assume the ny police unions endorse republicans at every election but it does feel different when the republican is saying the quiet fascist stuff out loud and is also expected to lose the vote among the actual residents of NYC by more than any nominee in history (biden vote expected to be in the mid 80s).

Posted by a friend: "If the USPS can't handle 150 million ballots, what are they going to do with the same extra 2 billion letters and packages they get at Christmas? Trump going to ruin that too? No way in the world FedEx and UPS are going to be able to shoulder that load."

Good point! Talk about war on Christmas.

Seriously

Reminder that USPS makes more deliveries in sixteen days than UPS and FedEx combined ship in an entire year

— James Medlock (@jdcmedlock) August 15, 2020

caek, it's the first time the NYCPBA has made a presidential endorsement.

Huh

it's an existential gambit. trump, nypd, gop and any number of rampaging assholes have reached the point where the majority of americans don't want them around anymore so the antagonists gotta form an impermeable wall of shit to maintain power.

Well yeah. The whole entire fight right now is about trying to entrench minority rule before it's too late.

Re Newsweek

"the magazine’s recently hired opinion editor, Trump-backing conservative activist and attorney Josh Hammer"
https://t.co/X3jUySmUcs

— Soraya Nadia McDonald (@SorayaMcDonald) August 15, 2020

Guys did you know the whole USPS mess is BERNIE’S fault?

I was talking to my wife this morning, and she was talking about a time where she was at a family gathering and the adults wanted the kids to play a card game with a cousin of theirs, come on, it would be good for him, the kid has problems. So she tried but it was impossible, every fucking turn he would change the rules so that he would win and everybody else would lose. Eventually she got so frustrated she had to walk away.

The analogy is that the kid is the Republican Party - not Donald Trump, the entire Republican Party. The non-Republican political elites in this country are the kids' mom. They've failed catastrophically to raise a child who isn't a fucking monster, and pointing that out to them is rude, they'll be super glad to tell you how much it is Not their Fault. That's not a discussion I even want to have, I just wish they would quit trying to force me to play this stupid game with their son.

We're all the players, and most of what I seem to be doing lately is convincing others of us that we should walk away and play a different game. People are afraid of that. The kid isn't really emotionally stable. He got behaviour problems, we just walk away and he might attack us, and his mom will blame us for "provoking" him, and the other adults will nod sagely and say "It takes two people to make a fight". And a different game? His game is the only one in the house! We're supposed to just make up our own fucking game? What if it sucks?

I'd say the GOP intentionally created monsters; it's been so since 1964 and really took off starting on January 1981.

Bloomberg QuickTake
@QuickTake
The New York Police Benevolent Association (@NYCPBA) endorses Trump, a first for the union which represents over 50,000 active and retired New York City police officers

this is really not cool.

why don't the nypd officers on patrol around columbus circle and central park wear masks by the way? it's been bugging me more and more. nearly every regular new yorker in my neighborhood wears them, but not these guys.

Good morning!

bc acab tree

the house should hold hearings on this postal service issue

_Bloomberg QuickTake
@QuickTake
The New York Police Benevolent Association (@NYCPBA) endorses Trump, a first for the union which represents over 50,000 active and retired New York City police officers_


this is really not cool.

why don't the nypd officers on patrol around columbus circle and central park wear masks by the way? it's been bugging me more and more. nearly every regular new yorker in my neighborhood wears them, but not these guys.

I'd say the GOP intentionally created monsters; it's been so since 1964 and really took off starting on January 1981.

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

personally i tend to agree but i don't want to argue with somebody's mom about why they're a horrible parent, particularly since it's not an argument i feel like i can ever "win" ("winning" = convincing them to quit being an awful abusive parent)

the house should hold hearings on this postal service issue

― treeship., Sunday, August 16, 2020 10:28 AM (forty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Coming soon:

The House Oversight Committee will hold an emergency hearing on mail delays and concerns about potential White House interference in the U.S. Postal Service, inviting Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and Postal Service board of governors Chairman Robert M. Duncan to testify Aug. 24, top Democrats announced on Sunday.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/08/16/postal-service-mail-democrats-hearing-dejoy/

nice

they should subpoena trump this time too

taniel is on the case

North Carolina absentee ballot requests are wildly surging, according to 👀 numbers from @OldNorthStPol.

among Ds: 9,360 in 2016 to 119,216 today (12.7 times more)
among Rs: 8,975 in 2016 to 38,279 today (4.3 times more)

(Useful context for why Trump is so focused against USPS)

— Taniel (@Taniel) August 16, 2020

boom/mic drop/checkmate

If Postmaster General DeJoy doesn’t testify before Congress next week as Speaker Pelosi and I have requested, he should be stamped, returned to sender, and removed from his position.

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) August 16, 2020

The Nazi youth running to fill mark meadows’ seat in NC has just been accused of multiple instances of sexual assault so I guess I’ll get to see if my state somehow sucks worse than Alabama, who at least narrowly kept out Roy Moore.

What's his name again? Crag Gryffyth?

Sorry, it's equally laughable: Madison Cawthorn. Didn't he also say that visiting Hitler's palace was on his "bucket list"? The kid is a fascist creep.

If Postmaster General DeJoy doesn’t testify before Congress next week as Speaker Pelosi and I have requested, he should be stamped, returned to sender, and removed from his position.

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) August 16, 2020

boom/mic drop/checkmate

one thing that's REALLY aggravating me right now, building on something I said earlier, is all of these memes from actual political action groups in various states saying "don't mail your vote! states allow you to drop it off at a drop box or the local registrar, check with your county"....when there are multiple states that do not allow this at all, like Tennessee (who require any absentee or mail-in ballot to be mailed and will not accept dropoff, as confirmed on their own web site). a bunch of people from affected states were flooding these posts saying "it's not like this if you live in <state>, please disregard this!"

we have it in my county, and I may do it that way, but this assuming "it's like this in my state so it's like this everywhere and I'm going to give you all advice based on how it is in my state" shit can give people a lot of bad info. wish they'd just suggest people familiarize themselves with their local rules and consider the fact that mail might not be a sure bet and decide accordingly.