Category: Politics

everything to do with the execution of politics

The American Identity

There was a time in the distant past when Americans were of one mind and one action…..but then Reagan happened and the divisions started and continued with the evil Newt came into the limelight and the division started and has never let up for 30 years……

Let’s look at the term “American Identity”…..

The American identity is based on more than diversity, though. A fair judiciary, constitutional protections, and the ability to achieve the American dream are vital aspects of the national identity according to large numbers of Americans. And while sharing a language, customs, and values are also considered important to most Americans, fewer think an essential aspect of the American identity is a culture based on Christianity or European traditions.

Seven in 10 Americans think the United States is losing its national identity, while just 3 in 10 regard the country’s identity as secure, and these attitudes are related to threats to that identity and pride in several aspects of the country. While most Americans are proud of the American military and the country’s many scientific, creative, and athletic achievements, less than half express much pride in how democracy is working. More than half of the public says political polarization is a major threat to the country’s way of life, and nearly as many say the same about the nation’s political leaders.

http://apnorc.org/projects/Pages/HTML%20Reports/points-of-pride-conflicting-views-and-a-distinct-culture.aspx

IST has covered this division in our society on several occasions…..https://lobotero.com/2018/11/05/in-the-age-of-the-idiotarian/

Sociologist Orlando Patterson argues that the very idea of freedom has its roots in slavery. As he sees it, freedom stood as the antithesis to “the social death” imposed by the institution of slavery. It was the desire to undo bondage that gave rise to this ideal which is the strongest driving force for the Western cultures, the United States in particular. Yet, it is an appalling insult to draw parallels between the shelter-in-place orders and slavery. Protesters demand: Don’t cancel my golf season. Open our bars. I want a haircut. Being deprived of recreation, entertainment, cosmetics does not indicate social death.

Such an individualistic, materialistic understanding of freedom—as in the freedom to choose which consumer goods to purchase and leisure activities to pursue—points to something else entirely: enslavement to capitalism.

The Irony of American Freedom 

But no one seems to care one whit that our country is going from unity to massive divisions….

We are at an unprecedented moment in America.

For the first time in US history, white Americans are faced with the prospect of becoming a minority in their “own country.” While many in our multicultural cities may well celebrate the “browning of America” as a welcome step away from “white supremacy”, it’s safe to say that large numbers of American whites are more anxious about this phenomenon, whether they admit it or not. Tellingly, a 2012 study showed that more than half of white Americans believe that “whites have replaced blacks as the ‘primary victims of discrimination’.”

Meanwhile, the coming demographic shift has done little to allay minority concerns about discrimination. A recent survey found that 43% of black Americans do not believe America will ever make the changes necessary to give blacks equal rights. Most disconcertingly, hate crimes have increased 20% in the wake of the 2016 election.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/mar/01/how-americas-identity-politics-went-from-inclusion-to-division

I do not see the unity returning….and because I cannot see it…..all I can say is a cartoon from the 1700s….

EVRV2A-00083 (5882843) Framed Prints, Wall Art, Posters, Jigsaws

I fear that the US is looking at a dangerous time ahead….but it is not something we cannot overcome….that is if we as a people want to overcome……

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Some Election Predictions

Don’t worry I am not going to offer some world ending prediction….no this is the prediction for the coming election…..

85 days and counting……

Will it be Biden (hopefully) or will it be Trump (a sad situation) that will win the hearts and minds of the American public?

First this is NOT my prediction…I gave up being a seer to write a blog……

It’s possible we may not know the results of the presidential race for weeks after Nov. 3 … or this very moment, if you want to believe Allan Lichtman’s prediction. And you’d have good reason to. The New York Times calls him “the Nostradamus of presidential elections”—he’s called them correctly for four decades—and in a video op-ed for the paper, he explains why Joe Biden is going to take it. Lichtman took 120 years of US elections, from 1860 to 1980, and, along with a Russian earthquake expert, developed what he has dubbed “The Keys to the White House.” He explains: “We recast American presidential elections as stability, the party holding the White House keeps the White House. And earthquake, the White House party is turned out of power.”

The way his 13 keys work is that each one is answered true or false. “True” indicates the White House party will retain power. Six or more false answers equal a political earthquake. Some of the keys are pretty basic political factors: Key No. 2, for instance: “There is no primary contest for the White House party.” True. Others are economic, like Key No. 6: “Long-term economic growth during this presidential term has been as good as the past two terms.” False. Others are societal, like No. 8: “There is no social unrest during the term.” False. Others are geopolitical, as with No. 10: “The White House has no major foreign or military failures abroad.” True “so far,” per Lichtman. And then there’s the nature of the candidates. No. 13: “The challenger is uncharismatic.” True, says Lichtman of Biden. His tally? Seven falses, meaning Biden has it—at least, according to the Keys.

There is more predictions about 2020 election…..

Of all the predictions about how Election 2020 might unfold, one seems safest of all: The night of November 3 is going to be a mess. Media writer Ben Smith of the New York Times writes that this year’s election night is going to be far different than any in modern history because of the extra time needed to count mail-in ballots or votes otherwise not cast in traditional Election Day fashion. After interviewing TV election analysts, execs, and hosts, he found that some are shrugging off the problem. But “I was alarmed by the near panic among some of the people paying the closest attention—the analysts and producers trying, and often failing, to get answers from state election officials about how and when they will count the ballots and report results.” The gist of his analysis is that Americans are not properly prepared for how this is going to play out.

“I don’t think it’s penetrated enough in the average viewer’s mind that there’s not going to be an election night,” says Brandon Finnigan of Decision Desk HQ, which provides results to media outlets. “The usual razzmatazz of a panel sitting around discussing election results—that’s dead.” There’s nothing inherently wrong with taking days or weeks to count ballots, writes Smith, but the format TV networks use to deliver results runs counter to that process. Drawing on advice from political scientists, Smith suggests the media should embark on an extensive educational campaign to start schooling people on the need for patience. Ditching traditional election-night features such as “percent of precincts reporting” might help, too, given that mail-in ballots might still be sitting in warehouses. Read the full analysis.

Any thoughts you would like to share?

I am listening!

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“lego ergo scribo”

Screw Those Old Farts! (Again)

Closing Thought–10Aug20

This is for all those old farts that still support the president…that would be Trump in case you are not sure…..

Trump has liberally used the power of the Executive Order when he cannot get his way from Congress and he has a new idea for his next EO.

A cut in payroll taxes,,,,yes it will give the worker more money but at the same time will begin the gutting of Social Security…..

An advocacy group representing more than four million American retirees warned Thursday that President Donald Trump took a dangerous step toward “single-handedly” dismantling Social Security by announcing he plans to sign an executive order suspending collection of the payroll tax as early as Friday afternoon.

With congressional negotiations over the next Covid-19 stimulus package still at an impasse, Trump told reporters Thursday that executive orders to suspend the payroll tax, extend boosted unemployment benefits, and reestablish an expired eviction moratorium are “being drawn now” despite questions over whether the president has the authority to unilaterally take any of those actions.

Trump said he expects to sign the orders “tomorrow afternoon or maybe the following morning” if White House negotiators and Democratic leaders don’t reach a deal. Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have rejected the idea of cutting the payroll tax, the primary funding mechanism for Social Security.

Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, said in a statement that “after learning that Democratic and Republican congressional leaders would not go along with his harebrained scheme to cut Social Security’s dedicated funding source, President Trump lashed out and announced he would begin dismantling the system single-handedly.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/06/retirees-vow-fight-attempt-gut-social-security-trump-announces-executive-order/

Once again the seniors will take a good screwing and yet they will continue to vote for the toads that are raping their benefits.

I am still working on where the logic in that sort of politics….

But I will admit I can see Trump’s point……his proposed EOs…..

The workweek came and went without a deal in Congress for pandemic relief, and that’s despite a two-hour meeting Friday with Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Treasury’s Steven Mnuchin, and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Afterward, the latter two said they would recommend that Trump issue executive orders, and the president pledged to do just that in a Friday evening press conference, reports USA Today. Details are scarce—including on where the money would come from—but Trump said he planned to tackle four main issues, per the Hill:

  • Pay enhanced unemployment benefits through the end of the year
  • Defer student loan payments and forgive interest for the near future
  • Reinstate a federal moratorium on evictions
  • Defer the payroll tax until year’s end

Gridlock brought this about……

Trump signed four executive orders to act where Congress hasn’t, contending Washington’s gridlock had compelled him to act as the pandemic undermined the country’s economy and imperiled his November reelection hopes. Perhaps most crucially, Trump moved to continue paying a supplemental federal unemployment benefit for millions of Americans out of work during the outbreak.

However, his order called for up to $400 payments, one-third less than the $600 people had been receiving. Congress allowed those higher payments to lapse on Aug. 1, and negotiations to extend them have been mired in partisan gridlock, with the White House and Democrats miles apart. Now, Trump, who has not spoken with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi since last year, sought to play the role of election-year savior, with the $400 weekly assistance, as well as a deferral of payroll tax and federal student loan payments and the continuation of a freeze on some evictions during the crisis. “It’s $400 a week, and we’re doing it without the Democrats,” Trump said, asking states to cover 25% of the cost.

This according to the conservs of Lincoln Project……

This defunds Medicare.

This defunds Social Security.

Tax collection is just deferred.

You’ll still owe these taxes next year.

Stop calling it Washington gridlock…it is the Senate that does nothing and I mean NOTHING….

Image

I still think the payroll tax thing is the beginning of the assault on Social Security and Medicare……I give Trump his props for doing what the Congress could not….but I still question his motives.

Something to think about……

President Donald Trump on Saturday afternoon openly vowed to permanently “terminate” the funding mechanism for both Social Security and Medicare if reelected in November—an admission that was seized upon by defenders of the popular safety net programs who have been warning for months that the administration’s threat to suspend the payroll tax in the name of economic relief during the Covid-19 pandemic was really a backdoor sabotage effort.

Announcing and then signing a series of legally dubious executive orders, including an effort to slash the emergency federal unemployment boost by $200 from the $600 previously implemented by Democrats, Trump touted his order for a payroll tax “holiday”—which experts noted would later have to be paid back—but said if he won in November that such a cut would become permanent.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/08/trump-just-admitted-live-television-he-will-terminate-social-security-and-medicare

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White Like Them

Sorry but I have go to the eye doctor so he can check his handiwork on my eyes…..since that is always a trip in waiting I felt I would re-blog one from my op-ed blog, Gulf South Free Press….hopefully I will return soon…until then please enjoy chuq

Gulf South Free Press

Years ago I had this debate with a group here in the South…..it all began when I heard someone bitching about Black music and how irritating it was…..

But it began when a couple of men were talking about mixed race marriages and their offspring…….their big question was which culture is the best to bring up their children?

My first question was what did they mean by culture.

After a few minutes of bumbling and stumbling they moved their conversation to the music.  (okay I got a chuckle out of their awkwardness)

I immediately jumped on this with blaming segregation for these so-called “ills”…..

Here in the South segregation was a enforceable social event.  Blacks were herded into enclaves in cities and towns…..they had the own medical services, education, lingo and music.

Then when segregation was overturned whites began wanting to include the Afro-American people into the land of the…

View original post 496 more words

Closing Thought–07Aug20

Recently my state of Mississippi has removed its offensive flag https://lobotero.com/2020/06/27/mississippi-flag-again/ ……..and is in the process of trying to design a new one…..

These are the designs to choose from……

The Commission to Redesign the Mississippi State Flag has received nearly 3,000 submissions that meet the legislative criteria. View the flags here.

My choice is here…

16 Best Mississippi Flag Concepts images | Mississippi flag ...

That one design should not offend the sensibilities of anyone.

This one is another that I like…

Magnolia Flag (@MagnoliaFlag) | Twitter

The commissioners will each choose twenty-five flags by August 7, narrowing the entries to a maximum of 225. Commission members will then rank their top ten choices.

During the next meeting on August 14, the commissioners will select five flags for final consideration. These five flags will be placed on the MDAH website for public comment.

Read more about the process here.

See one you like?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

That Short List

For months now the media has been trying to drum up a story out of the possible VP pick of Biden….

We have Warren, Harris, Rice and on and on…….and a few virtual unknowns……

And now the media has something to talk……

Joe Biden’s announcement of his running mate has to come soon—the Democratic convention gets underway in less than two weeks on August 17. As the vetting process winds down, Biden has dropped a few hints, including that four Black women are on his short list. But now the buzz is focusing on two of those women in particular, Sen. Kamala Harris and Susan Rice, former UN ambassador and national security adviser to President Obama. Coverage, including a controversial post about the process by a Virginia mayor:

  • Down to two: Axios, while tacking on the caveat that only Biden himself knows for sure, reports that the choice has indeed narrowed to Harris and Rice. It has another Black woman, Rep. Karen Bass, in third. The piece notes that the selection of Rice would come with a bonus—”the enthusiastic presence of both Barack and Michelle Obama on the campaign trial.”
  • Ditto: Conservative pundit Ben Shapiro also has Harris and Rice as the final candidates, per Fox News.
  • GOP preference? Politico reports the Trump campaign wants Biden to pick Rice. “She is absolutely our No. 1 draft pick,” says an anonymous Trump campaign official. The idea is that she will fire up the GOP base by become a “‘deep state’ villain,” writes Anita Kumar. For example, expect the Benghazi controversy to be fully revetted, though Axios notes that Rice would try to mitigate that by raising the issue herself and explaining that misstatements she made were the result of faulty intelligence she received.
  • Tucker, too: Fox’s Tucker Carlson opened his Monday show with a rant against Rice, and he also is out with an opinion piece against her. He sees Rice as the top candidate at the moment.
  • Mayor’s post: Amid the widespread speculation that Biden will pick a Black woman, the mayor of Luray, Virginia, reposted a meme on Facebook reading, “Joe Biden has just announced Aunt Jemima as his VP pick.” The backlash has been furious, but Barry Presgraves tells the Page Valley News, “Hell, no, I’m not resigning.” He deleted the post and says he doesn’t understand the “fuss” it’s caused. “I saw it last week, and I thought it was funny,” he says. City council members may censure him or ask him to resign. The meme also plays off the news that Quaker Oats was ditching its Aunt Jemima log
  • And sexism: The AP has a story about how all the female candidates are being subjected to stereotypes: For example, Rice has been told she doesn’t smile enough, and Harris has been faulted for being too ambitious and not apologetic enough for earlier attacks on Biden. “The fact is that although we’ve come really far in the last 100 years, we haven’t come far enough for women candidates to be treated with the same level of decency as the male candidates are,” says Donna Brazile, a former Democratic National Committee chair.

Now the drama builds around those two…..

Rice would give Trump and the RNC lots of ammo because of her involvement in the Benghazi thingy…..

Harris is a screaming centrist and would be the better pick of the two in question…IMHO.

Why?  Biden is a screaming centrist and the closest he ever got to progressive was by using the word in is political lies.

If it were me I would pick someone that the media did not know about……give them something to do …….

I know I have been really critical about Biden and his campaign….I will be explaining why in upcoming posts about me and my thought processes.

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Russia Returns To Afghanistan

Back in the 80s the old USSR had this war going on in Afghanistan…..and since it was the Cold War the US would send cash and weapons to the “rebels” that were fighting the Soviets.

Does any of this sound familiar?

In case you are too young to remember anything past the first Iphone….then this should help…..

https://youtu.be/FDQLHFBp4aM

Or read a history…….https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2014/08/the-soviet-war-in-afghanistan-1979-1989/100786/

In this conflict the US helped create the Taleban and the Northern Alliance to fight the Soviets….and today we, the US, are fighting the very same group we armed and paid in the past…..

I bring all this up because the Neocons are bitching about the Russians sending aid to the Taleban…..

Hardly a week seems to pass without some new crisis in Russian-American relations. The most recent was the revelation that U.S. President Donald Trump had ignored intelligence about bounties supposedly paid by Russian operatives to the Taliban in exchange for killing American soldiers. The veracity of this particular intelligence is questionable, in my view, but there is plausible evidence that Russia has been providing arms to the Taliban as Moscow seeks to play a more active role in Afghanistan. What to make of this? Some commentators in the U.S., including intelligence analysts and military commanders, see Russia’s policy as primarily aimed at pushing the U.S. out of what Moscow considers its neighborhood. Commenting on the most recent allegations, U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff suggested that Russia should be “pushed out of the community of nations.” For Schiff, Russia’s Afghanistan policy is further evidence of a consistent anti-American agenda. This kind of zero-sum thinking says more about the American foreign policy consensus regarding Russia than it does about Russia’s view of the region or of relations with Washington. Russia’s engagement with the Taliban is not, primarily, about punishing the U.S. or getting revenge for Washington’s support to the mujahedeen fighting Soviet troops in the 1980s. Rather, Moscow is pursuing a pragmatic policy aimed at securing stability and security in Central Asia. 

https://www.russiamatters.org/analysis/russian-moves-afghanistan-are-about-regional-stability-not-revenge-us

This is all so silly….the Neocons are all up in arms because Russia is aiding the Taleban……think about that for just a moment……

This illustrates the hypocrisy of American foreign policy….the arrogance….”we can do it but no one else can”

I wish that we could find a new foreign policy….but sadly little will change with the next election.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Lincoln Project After The Fall

Closing Thought–05Aug20

Many of us have been exposed the the ads of the Lincoln Project. It is true Repubs and conservs that are not down with the silliness of the RNC and its defense of the toad Trump.

Their anti-Trump ads have become the stuff of legends.

The Lincoln Project?

President Abraham Lincoln led the United States through its bloodiest, most divisive and most decisive period of our history. He fought not because he wanted to, but because he knew the dual goals of preserving the Union and the end of slavery would be achieved only through armed conflict. Lincoln always kept the enormous human cost of the struggle in the front of his mind. At Gettysburg, he implored us not to forget those that had given “their last full measure of devotion” to preserving the American experiment. As it became clear that the Union would be victorious, Lincoln’s thoughts turned to how the nation would “bind up its wounds” and move forward together.

Today, we find ourselves divided again – sectionalism in the country and factionalism in government has led to ever uglier examples of how our political system is failing. President Donald Trump and those who sign onto Trumpism are a clear and present danger to the Constitution and our Republic. Only defeating so polarizing a character as Trump will allow the country to heal its political and psychological wounds and allow for a new, better path forward for all Americans.

https://lincolnproject.us/

A couple of the political ads from the Lincoln Project…..

These are excellent ads with a strong message.

Everyone is talking about the effect that the Lincoln Project is having on the GOP.

They may well be the best thing to happen to Joe Biden and they could be the very thing he needs to get himself elected in 2020.

Amid all the noise of an election involving Donald Trump – all the inflammatory tweets and shadowy Facebook posts – one set of ads has somehow managed to break through.

There’s the one of the US president shuffling down a ramp that declares that the president “is not well”. There’s the whispering one about Trump’s “loyalty problem” inside his White House, campaign and family.

There’s the epic Mourning in America that remakes Reagan’s election-defining 1984 ad, turning the sun-bathed suburbs into a dark national portrait of pandemic and recession. On Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, those three ads alone have racked up more than 35m views.

The Lincoln Project, run by a group of renegade Republican political consultants, has crystallized one of the core narratives of the 2020 campaign in ways that few other political commercials have in past cycles.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/01/lincoln-project-donald-trump-republicans-campaign-ads

We can enjoy the fact that Trump may well be gone from the White House in January 2021…..and the Lincoln Project will be the real cause that Trump was defeated.

And the peasants danced!

Please do not rejoice to soon.

WHY?

After Trump loses these people will revert back to the GOP and the Dems will be their targets….the very effective ad process will have a new foe and that foe is the Democrats.

All those creative juices that help defeat Trump will now be there to help Repubs regain their former glory.

Be warned and start NOW looking for a counter to the Project’s effectiveness.

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Political Correctness Is Destroying America

The term “political correctness” very popular in this age of social media and the use of disinformation…..but what does the term mean exactly?

….the avoidance, often considered as taken to extremes, of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.

All sides accuse the other of political correction……but where is the true culprit?

Spend some time and learn where the actual political correctness can be found…..it is not where you think….

America today faces a terrifying danger: political correctness. It is an existential threat not just to the United States, but all of human civilization.

By this, obviously, I mean right-wing political correctness.

Maybe you’re surprised to hear this. In the U.S. media, there’s no shortage of lamentations about political correctness and how it chills debate — but they’re almost always about the threat of left-wing PC.

In reality, political correctness, or cancel culture, or whatever it’s called, is not a phenomenon of the left, right, or center. It’s a phenomenon of human nature. All humanity’s infinite tribes are prone to groupthink and punishing heretics. That’s why the principle of free thought has to be defended: It is, unfortunately, a weird and unnatural fit for humans.

There absolutely are examples of ugly political correctness from the U.S. “left,” whatever that means in a country that, by historical standards, doesn’t have a left. But the vast, vast majority of political correctness in America is conservative. Conservative PC is so powerful in the U.S. that much of it is adopted by both political parties and all of the corporate media. Indeed, right-wing political correctness is so dominant that it’s politically incorrect to refer to it as political correctness. Instead, we call it things like “patriotism,” or simply don’t notice its existence.

A full examination of America’s conservative PC culture would take the rest of your life to read. So let’s limit this to four areas where the right’s PC causes some of the most harm: religion, foreign policy, the Republican Party, and police.

https://theintercept.com/2020/07/18/political-correctness-destroying-america/

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Your Mail-In Vote

There is a problem these days….voting will be a bitch and the solution that many have offered is that of a mail-in vote and of course that will not fit into the plan for Trump….he and his ilk are saying that a mail-in vote would be riddled with fraud.

He much prefers absentee voting.

Think about that for a minute.

Your ballot comes in the mail ……you fill it out…..then you mail it in…..

Do I need to let that sink in?

Let me help and explain a bit about mail-in voting…..

Vote-by-mail, mail-in voting, and absentee voting are essentially the same thing. We use these terms interchangeably. They all mean that a voter is submitting a ballot through the mail.

The process is fairly standard. First, a voter needs to apply for an absentee ballot if one has not automatically been sent in the mail. Once local election officials receive the request for an absentee ballot, the ballot is mailed to the voter. 

Lucille Wenegieme, spokesperson for the National Vote at Home Institute, told WhoWhatWhy that offering voters the opportunity to cast a mail-in ballot provides a sense of confidence because the voter has more time with the ballot.

“When I talk to somebody about vote-by-mail, somebody that hasn’t done it for the first time, I like to tell them that it really offers a level of convenience,” Wenegieme said.

America Decides 2020: Voting by Mail, Explained

Since this idea during the pandemic is gaining in popularity what can be done to thwart this process?

Slow the mail down!

Mail is piling up at post offices, and employees are worried that November election ballots could be delayed. The backlog has been building since the new postmaster general and President Trump ally, Louis DeJoy, enacted changes at the Postal Service this month that were billed as needed to cut costs, the Washington Post reports. They include turning off mail sorting machines early, requiring letter carriers to leave without some mail to avoid making extra trips or late deliveries, and ending overtime pay. Trump, who has called the post office “a joke,” this week floated the idea of postponing the election rather than having widespread voting by mail. He cited the potential for fraud, but workers and union officials say the new changes could at least bring chaos. “I’m actually terrified to see election season under the new procedure,” said a union local president in New York.

DeJoy took office in June. In announcing the changes, Vice points out, he said the Postal Service will trade delayed mail in exchange for saving money. A spokesman said the changes are necessary after decades of financial problems. Any delays are temporary, he said, adding that DeJoy was appointed by a bipartisan board and doesn’t take his marching orders from Trump. But a union president representing 200,000 workers and retirees put his objections on the record in a meeting with DeJoy. “It’s wrong for the people of the country, it’s wrong for the public Postal Service,” he said. “It drives away business and revenue.” Four Democratic senators asked DeJoy for more information this week, saying his lack of transparency “only increases concerns that service compromises will grow in advance of the election.”

This is an obvious attempt to try and alter the outcome of the election……

And the president just cannot let this go…….

President Trump escalated his criticism of mail balloting in a big way on Monday, first in a press conference in which he hinted at using executive action to curtail it and also in an interview. Coverage:

  • Two months: In a sit-down with Axios on HBO, Trump said widespread mail voting would lead to chaos. “You know, you could have a case where this election won’t be decided on the evening of Nov. 3. This election could be decided two months later.” He added: “Lots of things will happen during that period of time. Especially when you have tight margins. Lots of things can happen. There’s never been anything like this.”
  • Executive order: At his White House press conference Monday, Trump said some kind of executive order on mail voting is within his authority. “I have the right to do it,” he said, per Politico. “We haven’t gotten there yet, we’ll see what happens.” Trump didn’t provide specifics about what is under consideration.
  • Nevada: Trump also said the White House would sue Nevada after lawmakers there passed a bill to provide mail ballots to every voter ahead of the election, reports Reuters. “We will be suing in Nevada. And that’s already been taken care of, we’ll probably file something tomorrow,” he said.
  • The evidence: Trump continued to assert that mail balloting is vulnerable to fraud, while news stories (including this one at the AP) continue to assert that he has no evidence to back that up. Politico calls cases of fraud “exceedingly rare” but adds that mail voting might have higher risks if proper safeguards are not in place.
  • A GOP worry: The Washington Post reports that GOP leaders around the US are worried about an unintended consequence of the president’s campaign against mail voting—his supporters are refusing to embrace the practice. “As a result, state and local Republicans across the country fear they are falling dramatically behind in a practice that is expected to be key to voter turnout this year,” write Amy Gardner and Josh Dawsey.

This bit of theater has a new twist….

President Trump is OK with voting by mail … in one state, at least. “Whether you call it Vote by Mail or Absentee Voting, in Florida the election system is Safe and Secure, Tried and True,” he tweeted Tuesday. “Florida’s Voting system has been cleaned up (we defeated Democrats attempts at change), so in Florida I encourage all to request a Ballot & Vote by Mail! #MAGA.” It’s quite a shift from his typical stance on mail-in voting, which he has for weeks claimed will lead to voter fraud—CNN calls it “one of the most epic reversals in recent political history.” But he has said in the past that he is OK with absentee voting, and a spokesperson for his campaign said that’s what the tweet reflects: “What most states call ‘absentee voting’ has long been termed ‘vote-by-mail’ in Florida—it’s been that way for years, and it works,” she said.

“President Trump is fighting to make sure every valid vote counts—the exact opposite of what’s happened in New York’s and California’s train wreck primaries, where we saw Democrats’ rush to implement a faulty universal vote-by-mail system,” the campaign statement continued. At a White House briefing later Tuesday, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany added that Trump has “been unmistakably clear that when you have this mass mail-out voting like what Nevada wants to do, the consequences are real.” (PolitiFact said last month that “there is no objective difference between absentee voting and voting by mail.”) The Hill notes that some on the right are concerned Trump’s harping on mail-in voting will end up suppressing the GOP vote, and adds that polls show Trump lagging behind Biden in Florida, a battleground state.

Does anyone else see how silly this whole thing is?

Not worry it can all end soon….but only if you VOTE!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”