I realize I didn't include a link to the Nevada Trump campaign lawsuit I discussed above.
https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/...4953.1.0_1.pdf

There have been more developments on the postal front:

Trump openly admits that he wants to hinder the postal service from functioning as a component of the electoral system.
https://factba.se/transcript/donald-...august-13-2020

Well they’re right, and it’s their fault. They want $3.5 billion for something that will turn out to be fraudulent, that’s election money basically. They want 3.5 trillion -- billion dollars for the mail-in votes, OK, universal mail-in ballots, 3.5 trillion. They want $25 billion, billion, for the Post Office. Now they need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. Now, in the meantime, they aren’t getting there. By the way, those are just two items. But if they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting because they’re not equipped to have it.
But how are they operationalizing sabotage? Well, this is certainly ominous.
https://www.axios.com/usps-pennsylva...bc83461d6.html

The U.S. Postal Service told Pennsylvania officials in a July letter that "there is a significant risk" that mail-in ballots may not be delivered on time for the November election because the state’s election deadlines are "incongruous with the Postal Service's delivery standards," according to a Thursday court filing.

Why it matters: The letter comes as President Trump has repeatedly attacked mail-in voting and vowed that he will block demands to fund mail-in voting and the USPS, claiming without evidence that the ballots produce widespread voter fraud.

The big picture: Pennsylvania's Department of State submitted the filing containing the letter to the state Supreme Court, asking it to order that mail-in ballots will remain countable as long as election officials receive them up to three days after the election, the Philadelphia Inquirer first reported.

The results of the presidential race in Pennsylvania, a battleground state, may not be known for days after Nov. 3 if the court agrees to issue the order.
What they're saying: Thomas Marshall, general counsel and executive vice president for the Postal Service, sent the letter to Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar on July 29.

In it, Marshall writes that "under our reading of Pennsylvania's election laws, certain deadlines for requesting and casting mail-in ballots are incongruous with the Postal Service's delivery standards."
"This mismatch creates a risk that ballots requested near the deadline under state law will not be returned by mail in time to be counted under your laws as we understand them."
The other side: Pennsylvania's Department of State told the court that Marshall's letter represented “a significant change to the outlook for voting by mail in the general election.”

"[T]he Postal Service had not indicated the likelihood of widespread, continuing, multiple-day mail-delivery delays presenting an overwhelming, statewide risk of disenfranchisement for significant numbers of voters utilizi
Add it to the list of the greatest impeachable offenses in American history. To be clear, this is subverting a national government institution, one of the most respected and non-partisan there is, providing one of the most vital services, in a naked attempt to fix the election. It's really hard to top this in the authoritarian playbook. Maybe - purging the military of the disloyal and secretly inducing the remaining leadership - financially or otherwise - to support a palace coup? The US can probably be categorized as a hybrid state at this point. Do Republicans want a Maidan? This is how you get a Maidan.

Meanwhile, the GAO has confirmed what has long been known, that for the past year Trump has illegally filled vacant leadership positions in the Department of Homeland Security (which is the parent organization of ICE). Wolf and Cuccinelli have not had their appointments confirmed by Congress, as is required. Trump could easily just have them confirmed, but he never even bothered to put them up before the Senate. It's almost a parallel to all the vacancies he's failed to staff at all (on top of all the vacancies created by firing professionals or driving them out of public service), except actively illegal. Trying to damage the independent civil service is one thing, but trying to circumvent it by centralizing power outside legitimate frameworks is a step beyond.

If you think violation of the Vacancies Reform Act or circumvention of the Senate's constitutional prerogative to advise and consent sound relatively unimportant compared to the other things, you misunderstand fascism. The impunity and the outlawry are the point.


Quote Originally Posted by rory_20_uk View Post
My point was that the Right's interests whilst often being mutually exclusive do not often actually get in each other's way where as often the Left's ideas are mutually contradictory. Hence one can appear more unified than the other.

Pursuant to your previous post, don't underestimate how Republican politicians and voters:

1. Prioritize social reaction and White grievance.
2. Reject the idea of a common good.
3. Truly have a maximalist belief in their worldview and interpretation of reality.

But regarding the second one, it can get more complicated in that now there are some trad-cons and alt-righters who - in seeking to turn the clock back onto the 19th or 18th century - are inching toward criticizing the modern financial/capitalist system. I say regarding the second one because these types will claim they're looking out for their own version of the communal good (as opposed to the bog standard plutocratists who either ignore or reject the concept in any definition).

If that ideological conflict gains prominence, it would be a much bigger contradiction than anything that comes with existing in a party-coalition comprising moderate socialists down to Euro-style Liberals.

Quote Originally Posted by Seamus Fermanagh View Post
As a Boomer, I had to have the latter term explained to me by my son. He suggested it is (started as?) some kind of alt-right code language. I will assume you meant it, given the Matrix reference, in the context of me finally having "seen the light" in my vehemence in opposing the current President of the USA. I will note, however, that I am in no way, shape, or form a proponent of the alt-right agenda. They are anathema to a conservative such as myself.

As you are no doubt aware, the underpinnings of my disdain for the current occupant of 1600 PA Ave are quite different than your own, though we have come to share a short term political objective for reasons of our own -- some similar, others I suspect not so.
Seamus, I was trying to approbate your commitment to defeating Trump above. I'm sorry to have used opaque language.
https://www.urbandictionary.com/defi...erm=red%20pill
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Based