Texas Hold-Up

The economy is tanking, Social Security is in trouble, and people are ticked off about the big ugly bill.  So what can Trump do now?  He might decide - no, he did decide - to tell Texas governor Greg Abbott to redraw the districts in the Texas U.S. House delegation so that the Republicans can gain five House seats and thwart any effort by the Democrats to win back the chamber in the 2026 midterms.  So Abbott, who was only too happy to oblige and called a special session of the Texas state legislature.  Democratic legislators quickly left the state and didn't come back until after the special session expired.  Abbott was thwarted, but like the bad guy in any dime-store Western novel, he'll be back.

And when he is, Gavin Newsom (above) will be there to meet him.  The California Democratic governor has vowed to get the California state legislature to find a way to gerrymander California's U.S. House districts if Texas gerrymanders its own.  Until Texas acts, California will stand pat, so if and when Newsom makes his move, he will be fighting back, not playing tit for tat.  Democrats are finally fighting back against Trump.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that none of them are serving in Washington.  and they might not be serving in Congress for much longer.  When they return after summer recess, Trump just might have them arrested and sent to a concentration camp.  He already has the National Guard running the place.

And if California successfully thwarts Texas . . . well, Trump is already looking to outlaw mail-in voting, and he plans to "investigate" voter irregularities in any states that do allow mail-in voting in the 2026 midterms . . . even if the governors and legislatures there don't have any basis to look into such charges and tell Trump not to interfere.  

Be afraid.  Be very afraid.

Going Postal

Louis DeJoy, the U.S. Postmaster General (below), took part in hearings before two separate congressional committees - one in the Senate, the other in the House - and he tried to put the best spin on the "reforms" that he has instituted at the United States Postal Service.

He more or less told both committees that his changes are meant to deliver the mail in a leaner, more efficient way, and he added that he would ensure the prompt dispatching of mail-ballots for the fall elections.  He even endorsed mail-in voting, saying he votes by mail himself, and he added that Trump's demonization of mail in voting was "not helpful." 

Neither was DeJoy's testimony.  For all of his rhetoric to bring a more business-oriented approach to the Postal Service, he still defended his wrongheaded efforts to eliminate collection boxes and sorting machines, and his commitment to offering overtime "as needed" to keep the mail moving contradicted his earlier efforts to getting rid of that too. And, this past Saturday, U.S. Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) was quick to point out that the mail slowdowns, which DeJoy blamed on the pandemic, actually started months after the country partially shut down - and right after DeJoy took over the Postal Service.  Also, under questioning from Representative Katie Porter (D-CA), DeJoy revealed that he didn't know the domestic postal card rate (35 cents) Nor could he answer her question of how many people voted by mail in the 2016 presidential election (139 million people).

Even more damning were some documents that came to the attention of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the committee that held this past Monday's heating, showing that mail delivery had indeed dipped after DeJoy took over. The documents had been withheld from public view, and the committee's chair, Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) accused DeJoy of withholding information and "concealing documents and downplaying the damage that you’re causing." Representative Maloney is threatening a subpeona for more inside documented information.

DeJoy, a logistics expert, is actually doing what any business CEO would do to keep a company going strong, but that misses the point.  As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been quick to point out, the post office is a government service.  Maybe a government service that pays its own way, but a government service just the same, and it isn't designed to run like a business like Federal Express (oops, excuse me -FedEx - the name was shortened to appease customers who can't spell) and United Parcel Service (which UPS still stands for).  Those companies ship and send mail for profit and only reach a limited clientele. The Postal Service, which is a directive of the original U.S. Constitution, is a universal institution designed to serve everyone, just like the Food and Drug Administration (another government agency being politicized by Trump) and the Treasury Department.  Because it's not just mail-in ballots that are on the line.  It's also prescription medications, bill payments, paychecks, and, yes, Christmas cards from Aunt Susan (I do have an aunt by that name, by the way, and she not only sends me Christmas cards every year, she sends me birthday cards every year!).  The Postal Service serves the public, not customers.  DeJoy ignores that distinction at the country's peril - and his own.

Can You Believe It?

While Kanye West continues his campaign for President with the help of Republicans who believe he could win enough popular votes to deprive Joe Biden of an electoral majority, Russian operatives are spreading rumors of a Biden connection to corruption in Ukraine with the help of Republicans who believe that they can launder the information from Russia to start an investigation of the innuendo.   Republicans believe they can also help Trump by aiding in trying to discourage or just plain stop mail-in voting even as they believe they can discredit Biden's eventual pick for Vice President.  If Biden picks Susan Rice, they believe they can tire her to Benghazi.  If he picks Kamala Harris, they believe they can play up her obsession with identity politics to fire up voters tired of all that.  If he picks California congresswoman Karen Bass, they believe they can use her past support for Cuba against her.

Is there anything the Republicans don't believe?  Yes.  They don't believe in helping the Democrats pass an economic relief package through Congress in the wake of a pandemic.  But Trump believes he can assume the role of Congress by extending unemployment benefits and providing tax relief all all by himself.  He's wrong.  He also believes this will help him in the election.  And he may be right.

Also, Trump attacked Joe Biden's belief in God.

I don't believe any of this!

I also can't believe I summed the past week's news in one short post!

Playing Post Office

It makes sense that, in the wake of a pandemic, Donald Trump would conspire to get his own choice for Postmaster General - a prerogative no U.S. President has had since 1969, when Nixon appointed Winton Blount before the Post Office Department became the Postal Service - into office, and then Louis DeJoy, said Postmaster General, would start making "reforms" to slow the mail down and make mail-in voting more precarious as Trump keeps shouting out loud how ripe for fraud it is.

The idea is that if DeJoy slows the mail down enough, the ballots mailed in for the 2020 presidential election won't arrive in time to be counted and that some ballots sent out for filling in won't make it back at all.  So now we have to worry if the Postal Service leadership is in cahoots to get Trump returned to office in a sham election.  I'm as worried about this as I am about the tropical storm due in my area tomorrow, not to mention catching COVID-19.

I've already seen the mail slow down.  I seem to get magazines I subscribe to a little bit later than usual, and, as I'm paid by mail for my job, I'm getting those much later.  My boss mailed my most recent check a week before it was postmarked.  This is the challenge anyone who votes by mail this year due to of COVID-19 faces.    

I went third party for President in 2016, my first time ever, and now in 2020, I hope to again do something for the first time ever by voting by mail.  I haven't ruled out voting in person, because COVID-19 is pretty much under control in my state and my town, but if I do vote by mail, I want to get my ballot as quickly as possible and I want to mail it as quickly as possible so it gets to its intended destination - I assume that would be my county court house - before November 3.  If it takes ten days to get there, I'll mail it twenty days before Election Day. DeJoy is smart.  Voters supporting Joe Biden have to be smarter.

There is a silver lining to Trump's war on mail-in voting: Republicans are likely to be at a disadvantage given that his supporters tend to be older and whiter and likely more afraid to vote in person due to a pandemic.  And there are a lot of young people in the Democrats' rainbow coalition who are ready to vote in person even if they have to camp out at the polling places to do so.  But with three months to go, anything can still happen.  Like maybe another late-October superstorm like Sandy.  Don't think meteorological history can't repeat itself.

I'm worn down by Trump fatigue.  A lot of us are.  I think people are ready to do the heavy lifting to send him packing.       

Block The Vote - 2020 Edition

The Republican National Committee and other Republican groups are suing the state of California for attempting to expand mail-in voting for the November elections this year.  If Donald Trump weren't pushing the idea that mail-in voting - which he's taken advantage of in the past - is a bad thing, this suit would be utterly ridiculous.  But its utterly serious.

The courts are likely to side with California for expanding voting by mail, since several other states use it already, and Trump won't be able to stop any state from going forward with such plans.  Thanks to his efforts to make voting by mail look susceptible to voter fraud - despite the fact that the charge itself is a fraud - none of that matters.  If he gets enough people to suspect voting by mail as illegitimate, then he could successfully claim that the election was rigged should he lose to Joe Biden in the fall based on more mail-in ballots thanks to the COVID-19 crisis.  And spreading the idea that mail-in voting is fundamentally flawed might discourage some people from voting by mail or, because of the pandemic, voting altogether.  He wants to get people to doubt the process and get people to believe that the process only works if he manages to get re-elected.

This isn't utterly serious, it's utterly dangerous.  Mail-in-voting activists have felt under siege and de-legitimatized by Trump's antics and his efforts to discredit the electoral system.  Now is not the time for them to knuckle under.  Mail-in balloting may not have the same solemnity as showing up to vote in person, but it's an important part of expanding the franchise.  Hopefully, voting by mail can be upheld in the near future.  Assuming, of course, that the United States Postal Service is around by November.   

The Michigan Rag

With floods ravaging the central area of Michigan's Lower Peninsula - centered around the Midland, the headquarters of Dow Chemical - Trump has tried to use federal funding to deal with the flood damage, caused mainly by failing dams, to get Governor Gretchen Whitmer to stop distributing applications for mail-in ballots.  He confused the applications with actual ballots, saying that what Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, below, was doing was illegal (it's not) and threatening to withhold funding to help with the Midland disaster if Benson persisted.

Benson fired back, explaining that what she did was perfectly legal and perfectly bipartisan.  "In November of 2018," she told MSNBC's Chris Hayes, "citizens voted overwhelmingly to give themselves this right to vote by mail. It was supported by citizens on both sides of the political spectrum, and it's something citizens on both sides of the political spectrum have done."  Indeed; other states, such was Republican-dominated West Virginia, have pursued voting by mail.  Trump himself votes by mail.  But he is trying to deny voters in Democratic states, and in swing states like Michigan, the opportunity to do so in a presidential election where Trump is behind in the polls but in which Democrats are reluctant to vote in person in the middle of an interminable pandemic.

Trump clearly has Michigan in his sights, as he visited the state this past week and toured a Ford factory making ventilators to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak.  He reportedly did not violate the policy requiring to wear a mask at first, but only wore it briefly.  Later - unmasked - Trump, who has long since bene unmasked for the rotten leader he is, praised the Ford Motor Company for its contributions to American economy and praised company founder Henry Ford for his good bloodlines.  Henry Ford was a vicious anti-Semite who believed there was a Jewish conspiracy aiming to take over America and the world.

So who won this round?  Apparently, Michigan's mostly female Democratic leadership.  This past Thursday, Trump approved Governor Whitmer's request for federal aid to deal with the flooding in Midland this past Thursday despite his threats to cut off aid.  The Federal Emergency Management Association is now authorized to direct all equipment and resources necessary to handle the flooding, with emergency protective measures to be provided at 75 percent federal funding.  And the ballot applications got sent out.

Meanwhile, as Ford continues to make ventilators in the Ypsilanti, Michigan plant that Trump visited, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused two Ford factories - one of which was making Ford F-150 pickup trucks - to temporarily shut down when workers tested positive for the disease.  Sort of appropriate karma for a car company that, while no longer promoting anti-Semitism, now promotes the purchase of gas-guzzling pickups and truck-based monster wagons.