User-Supported News Commentary Hosted by Craig Crawford
Don’t Mess With Our Mail
Author: craigcrawford
Trail Mix Host. Lapsed journalist, author & retired pundit happily promoting nothing but the truth for Social Security checks.
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How many ways are there to say that this is not normal?
That it is not normal for a president to employ transparently racist and sexist attacks. Or pressure his attorney general to prosecute his foes with an election looming. Or resist money for the Postal Service in order to stop people from voting by mail. Or embrace a conspiracy theorist running for Congress. Or condemn American cities to “rot.”
President Trump, of course, long ago redefined what constitutes normal in the White House, but with 77 days left in a campaign that polls show he is losing, he is pushing all the boundaries at once. At the same time the champion of birtherism is again scraping the raw edges of America’s divisions over race, gender and national origin, he is propelling fringe ideas into mainstream conversation. And now, running as the incumbent, he has levers of power available to help salvage a flagging campaign.
Yet what once would have caused jaws to drop barely seems to register for long at this point because it is so quickly overshadowed by the next norm-busting statement or action. Five years after he originally kicked off his quest for the presidency, Mr. Trump has said and done so many things once considered out of bounds that his critics no longer even know whether to raise alarms or ignore another palpable bid for attention.
The US Postal Service is the entity that all Americans have interaction with on a regular basis.
Only 57 bottles on the wall until early voting starts in Texas. We’re turning this baby blue! My vote will finally matter in a general election.
Craig
Regarding that 4 point Biden lead CNN poll. I’ve been expecting it. The media was always going to have its horse-race. Of course, we have to assume we’re 4 points behind. Most likely close as most Republican’s i know are still voting Trump. They tell me if we want to have any economy at all. Nothing about the dead. Nothing about all Trumps corruption and lies. They know but they don’t care.
tony, you’re right about “we have to assume we’re 4 points behind” because, if again like in 2016 when hillary was the certain winner according to polls, too many folks will not take the time and effort to vote. they’ll be scared to come out in the viral midst, have no patience for standing in long lines for hours or afraid their employer won’t like them taking time off.
Pat, yep, I knew several people who said to me, I didn’t vote, I thought Hillary had it in the bag. I enjoy the polls, especially those showing Biden/Harris decimating Trump but after 2016 I trust none of them!
“The only thing that’s gonna change this is if you vote, and if you vote for [Joe] Biden and if you vote for Kamala Harris,” she said. “And the reason that’s going to happen is because with women in power, we will fight for our families. We will fight for people to live. And we will fight for people to get tested.”
Stone said the nations that have done best against the pandemic were the ones with women in leadership roles.
“Please vote,” she pleaded. “And please, whatever you do, don’t vote for a killer.”
Another reason I’m proud to tell anyone i voted for Hillary is women will fight for families. Hillary helped mine with CHIPS in the 90’s. I certainly like what i’ve been seeing and i hope woman are the future leaders of this country.
CNN and Hill/Harris polls are the same margin. H/H runs frequent presidential approval pools that tend to agree with or even surpass Rasmussen as far as job approval for D’ump goes. The RCP average is a 7.7% lead for Biden, 50.2 to 42.5. One nugget – Hill/Harris found that suburban voters approve of D’ump’s handling of the CV19 crisis at a rate of just 38%. Big disadvantage in the ‘burbs, and they don’t rely heavily on VBM
A photographer working for the National Basketball League got the boot after he posted a sexist meme about vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.).
Photographer Bill Baptist was ejected from the NBA’s competition “bubble” in Orlando for sharing an image on his Facebook page of a mock logo for the new Democratic presidential ticket. It read: “Joe and the Hoe,” apparently referring to Joe Biden and Harris.
[…]
But Trump isn’t the only Republican who’s been visiting with DeJoy, and DeJoy isn’t the only Postal Service leader who can thank Republicans for his sudden rise. As Yahoo! News reports, DeJoy is in “in frequent contact with top Republican Party officials.” Presumably that means Mitch McConnell. Which is quite the coincidence seeing that every single member of the current all-white, all-male Postal Service board of governors can thank McConnell for that role.
As it turns out, since 1970, members of the board of governors have served in staggered 9-year terms. The idea is to have a board whose membership is spread across multiple administrations and which owes allegiance to no particular White House. That should mean that about half those currently seated on the board are left over from Obama’s term in office, with others appointed by Trump. But that’s not what happened. In 2015, Obama re-nominated most of the existing board members for a second term, including those members appointed under Bush. Those six members should all still be on the board. None of them are.
That’s because McConnell did what he did so often—blocked those nominations. By the time Trump stepped in, the number of remaining Bush- and Obama-appointed board members was exactly zero. Then, as with federal judges, McConnell abruptly got out of the way. That means that every single current member of the United States Postal Service board of governors was appointed by Donald Trump. That board then officially ousted lifelong Postal Service employee Megan Brennan, and replaced her with Republican fundraiser Louis DeJoy.
Those thinking that McConnell might rise up to fight against Trump aren’t just backing the wrong turtle. They’re backing the guy who co-owns this mess.
THE REAL JOE BIDEN EXPOSED!
This ad shies away a little from the politically charged ads The Lincoln Project is known for
August 17, 2020 – As the Democratic National Convention gets underway, The Lincoln Project today released an ad painting a different picture of former Vice President Joe Biden than what is typically considered common knowledge. While most people know the Biden who served for 36 years in the U.S. Senate and eight years as Vice President under President Obama, many are unaware of the personal sacrifices and the commitment he made to be there, no matter what, for his children.
“This ad shies away a little from the politically charged ads The Lincoln Project is known for to peel back some of the onion skin and show voters the kind of man Joe Biden really is,” said Reed Galen, co-founder of The Lincoln Project. “It is about his character, his hardships, and his humanity. It shows the viewer what shaped him into the man he is and that despite tragedy, Biden has always had his priorities in the right place.”
The ad will run through the convention on cable in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Michigan and will continue to run digitally after that.
As the virtual Democratic National Convention opens, Biden holds a 12 percentage-point lead over Trump among registered voters, 53-41%, and a similar 10 points among likely voters, 54-44%, with two and a half consequential months to go.
Beneath that result is an underlying shift: the share of Biden supporters who are very enthusiastic about supporting him has grown from 28% in March to 48% today. He still has a wide deficit on this gauge compared with Trump, with 65% strong enthusiasm, but it’s eased considerably. It’s a measure to watch because enthusiasm can encourage turnout, especially given the extra effort needed to vote in many states this year.
Why the high participation rate in mail-in balloting by Repugs? Because the ‘man of the house’ fills in the ballots, except for signature, for all members of the extended family then stands over the members as they sign their ballots, insert them in the envelopes, then seal ’em. As a courtesy, the Head will put the stamps on them before making sure they’re in a postal worker’s hands. Mission Accomplished. Truly Repugnant.
Many years ago when I was walking doing door to door for candidates, Colorado was in the early phase of all mail balloting. I was walking to talk to those voters who had received a ballot but it was not received by the clerk yet. Every now and then I would get a troglodyte male who did tell me that he did the voting and his wife or “woman” would sign the envelope. I was doing only Dems, but the husband would be repub. I would wonder if the wife ever had thoughts of enjoying single life if something happened to the husband while hiking in the mountains.
Just need to keep reminding everyone that we hold an Electoral College election not a popular vote election. Just need to keep nagging anyone and everyone to vote, particularly those living in toss up and red states. Trump is hated enough that we could turn purple to blue.
It was Nate Silver’s nonsense “percentage chance of winning the Presidential election” statistic that seduced me. Remember? It was something like, “%67HRC/%33trump”?!
https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/17/dan-patrick-texas-confederate-monuments/
Dan let-grandpa-die Patrick is a huge a-hole. Huge. Finger pointing to deflect from solving the problem, again.
Let’s worry about the future of the confederate monuments? Take the damned things down and lock ‘em up until you figure out where you can stick them.
Minnesota. The land of 10,000 lakes and Michele Bachmann. The murder of George Floyd and the protests are going to deeply figure into it. I hope Biden has a good team on the ground.
A reporter with a solid use of analysis and statistics is Phillip Bump. I have been reading him for many years and he presents a lot of information to support his analysis. He does go deep at times, and he can present graphs which take an hour or two to grasp, but he does do good thinking.
peter baker today in NYTimes:
77 days on the wall
77 days to go
tear off a page
in a fit of rage
to tell trumputin “NO!”
The US Postal Service is the entity that all Americans have interaction with on a regular basis.
Only 57 bottles on the wall until early voting starts in Texas. We’re turning this baby blue! My vote will finally matter in a general election.
Craig
Regarding that 4 point Biden lead CNN poll. I’ve been expecting it. The media was always going to have its horse-race. Of course, we have to assume we’re 4 points behind. Most likely close as most Republican’s i know are still voting Trump. They tell me if we want to have any economy at all. Nothing about the dead. Nothing about all Trumps corruption and lies. They know but they don’t care.
tony, you’re right about “we have to assume we’re 4 points behind” because, if again like in 2016 when hillary was the certain winner according to polls, too many folks will not take the time and effort to vote. they’ll be scared to come out in the viral midst, have no patience for standing in long lines for hours or afraid their employer won’t like them taking time off.
Pat, yep, I knew several people who said to me, I didn’t vote, I thought Hillary had it in the bag. I enjoy the polls, especially those showing Biden/Harris decimating Trump but after 2016 I trust none of them!
Another reason I’m proud to tell anyone i voted for Hillary is women will fight for families. Hillary helped mine with CHIPS in the 90’s. I certainly like what i’ve been seeing and i hope woman are the future leaders of this country.
CNN and Hill/Harris polls are the same margin. H/H runs frequent presidential approval pools that tend to agree with or even surpass Rasmussen as far as job approval for D’ump goes. The RCP average is a 7.7% lead for Biden, 50.2 to 42.5. One nugget – Hill/Harris found that suburban voters approve of D’ump’s handling of the CV19 crisis at a rate of just 38%. Big disadvantage in the ‘burbs, and they don’t rely heavily on VBM
excerpt from dailykos:
516K subscribers
what LP says about its “Dad” ad
Why the high participation rate in mail-in balloting by Repugs? Because the ‘man of the house’ fills in the ballots, except for signature, for all members of the extended family then stands over the members as they sign their ballots, insert them in the envelopes, then seal ’em. As a courtesy, the Head will put the stamps on them before making sure they’re in a postal worker’s hands. Mission Accomplished. Truly Repugnant.
https://www.today.com/video/sen-elizabeth-warren-post-office-cutbacks-are-fundamentally-wrong-90180677812?playlist=mmlsnnd_todayarchivesmonday
trump goes postal…
Many years ago when I was walking doing door to door for candidates, Colorado was in the early phase of all mail balloting. I was walking to talk to those voters who had received a ballot but it was not received by the clerk yet. Every now and then I would get a troglodyte male who did tell me that he did the voting and his wife or “woman” would sign the envelope. I was doing only Dems, but the husband would be repub. I would wonder if the wife ever had thoughts of enjoying single life if something happened to the husband while hiking in the mountains.
538 is saying that CNN 4pt poll is an outlier. Hope they’re right but still — overconfidence is not an option.
new thread for convention tonight (which starts at 8pmET)
Randy Rainbow bringing on the knights in shining armor, It’s Kamala
538 already broke my heart, once. Never again!
Bink
Just need to keep reminding everyone that we hold an Electoral College election not a popular vote election. Just need to keep nagging anyone and everyone to vote, particularly those living in toss up and red states. Trump is hated enough that we could turn purple to blue.
jamie, randy hits another one outta the park. we’ll be hearing that ditty for days. probably become the 2020 earworm.
kam a la
kam a la
for voters in the mood
tired of being screwed
it’s kam a la, kam a la
It was Nate Silver’s nonsense “percentage chance of winning the Presidential election” statistic that seduced me. Remember? It was something like, “%67HRC/%33trump”?!
Never again!
Five Thirty Deep Six
Trump in Minnesota just now boasted that thanks to him people get “PHDs from crummy colleges”
Oh, my God- just witnessed a genuinely terrifying sight:
a school bus.
i had heard “they” were opening up schools, but i didn’t want to believe it.
https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/17/dan-patrick-texas-confederate-monuments/
Dan let-grandpa-die Patrick is a huge a-hole. Huge. Finger pointing to deflect from solving the problem, again.
Let’s worry about the future of the confederate monuments? Take the damned things down and lock ‘em up until you figure out where you can stick them.
Minnesota. The land of 10,000 lakes and Michele Bachmann. The murder of George Floyd and the protests are going to deeply figure into it. I hope Biden has a good team on the ground.
A reporter with a solid use of analysis and statistics is Phillip Bump. I have been reading him for many years and he presents a lot of information to support his analysis. He does go deep at times, and he can present graphs which take an hour or two to grasp, but he does do good thinking.
Jamie – Randy Rainbow killed it! This was not Biden v SFB, it was Harris v the world.
I googled “PHDs from crummy colleges” and up popped ads for apu, capella and walden.
Apparently, “trump u” wasn’t good enough to be rated ‘crummy.’
MN is safe for Biden, Sen Tina Smith, and my Rep Angie Craig.
The 6thCD, formerly mis-represented by michele bachmanniac, is safe for tom emmer (r), who is only half as crazy as michele, but twice as stupid.
Glad they’re highlighting, “We the People”!!!
Glad Bernie talked about Dictator!
Too bad the Dems went first. The repubes will come up with fake crap and the Dems won’t be able to refute it.
They’re playing For What It’s Worth! Good!