Good day, Newsies! No opening remarks today because I am racing to finish so I can watch the Democratic National Convention!
There’s a lot going on, and it’s going to get more tense as we approach Election Day, so just remember what the Curlygirl always says — keep your eyes on the ball prize!
📫 Democrats Defend the USPS 📫
Judiciary Democrats call on FBI to launch criminal probe into Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, Igor Derysh, Salon, August 17, 2020.
Two Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee on Monday called for the FBI to launch a criminal inquiry into Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Board of Governors over operational changes which have slowed mail delivery.
Reps. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who serve on the Judiciary subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, which has oversight over the FBI, called for the bureau to look into whether DeJoy and USPS leaders "committed any crimes" related to recent moves at the agency which led to a mail slowdown. ✄
The lawmakers cited two laws: one which imposes fines and prison time for anyone who "knowingly and willfully obstructs or retards the passage of mail" and another which imposes criminal penalties on government employees using their official authority "for the purpose of interfering with, or affecting" an election.
Senate Dems Are On It too
Schumer et al putting pressure on the USPS board of governors:
Senate Democrats urge U.S. Postal Board to reverse service changes, David Shepardson, Reuters, August 17, 2020.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democrats on Monday urged the U.S. Postal Service board of governors to reverse a series of changes adopted by the new postmaster general that they say have led to mail service delays.
Senators Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, Gary Peters, Bernie Sanders, Ron Wyden, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith asked the board to act immediately saying Postmaster General Louis DeJoy ordered cuts to hours at some post offices, denied overtime to mail clerks and carriers, and required carriers leave some mail behind at post offices. A spokesman for the Postal Service did not immediately comment.
And States too
State officials rush to shore up confidence in Nov. 3 election as voters express new fears about mail voting, Amy Gardner and Seung Min Kim, Washington Post, August 16, 2020.
Thousands of voters have called government offices in recent days to ask whether it is still safe to mail their ballots, according to officials across the country. Attorneys general from at least six states are huddling to discuss possible lawsuits against the administration to block it from reducing mail service between now and the election, several told The Washington Post. State leaders are scrambling to see whether they can change rules to give voters more options, and Democrats are planning a massive public education campaign to shore up trust in the vote and the Postal Service.
And House Democrats on Sunday announced plans for an emergency hearing on mail delays later this month. ✄
The race to action comes amid escalating worries that even if the president does not succeed in blocking mail voting, he has created a dangerous crisis of confidence that could jeopardize whether Americans view the eventual outcome as legitimate.
“He has succeeded enough that everybody is working overtime to clean up the mess,” said Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a nonpartisan voting rights group.
📫 You can help the USPS 📫
Here’s a comprehensive article, with loads of helpful links to save you time and searching, on how you can help our USPS and our election:
What You Can Do About Trump’s Attack on the U.S. Postal Service, Claire Lampen, the Cut, August 14, 2020.
(There is a TON of useful information and ideas in this ^^article, even though Aug 14 is already slightly out of date — it only mentions the first scheduled hearing with DeJoy which was set for Sept. 19. Of course, now the hearing is scheduled for August 24 AND our Democratic-led House is convening on Saturday August 22 to vote on legislation to save and protect the Postal Service.)
🚨 🐘 Pubs in Panic 🐘 🚨
The Most Tremendous Reelection Campaign in American History Ever: Inside the chaotic, desperate, last-minute Trump 2020 reboot. Olivia Nuzzi, the New Yorker, August 16, 2020.
This was Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I was looking for the ground game. Have you heard about it? The campaign says it’s the greatest ground game to ever exist, that while you don’t see enthusiasm for the president reflected in the rigged polls, you do see it when you talk to his real supporters where they live in Real America. In fact, they talk about surveys of enthusiasm not just as though they are more reliable than real polls but as though they are the polls — as though the traditional kind simply don’t exist, or matter. I drove across the country last month, and I saw only two signs for Joe Biden the entire way. Is this meaningful? The Trump campaign is hoping that it is. In Pennsylvania, they’re making calls and knocking on doors — a million a week — powered by more than 1.4 million volunteers. Pennsylvania is uniquely important. Rural voters won the state for Trump by less than one percentage point in the last election. This time, Trump is behind Biden by a lot. To close the gap, the campaign says it’s hosting dozens of events here — more than in any other state. But good luck finding them.
It was 7 p.m. on July 23, and Team Trump had scheduled a training session for campaign volunteers in the area. Before I arrived, I had worried about my exposure to the virus. I imagined a scene that was part local political-party headquarters and part anti-quarantine protest. I imagined a lot of Trump supporters, maskless and seated close together, breathing heavily on a reporter leaning in to record their comments. But the office was quiet. I walked through the arch of books by right-wing personalities (Bill O’Reilly, Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh) and past the portraits (George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan) and maps of Pennsylvania voting precincts. I didn’t see anyone there.
In a blue room in the back, beneath an American flag with the words MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN printed in block letters inside the white stripes, a woman sat alone at the end of a conference table. She wasn’t participating in the volunteer training. She was the volunteer training. There just weren’t any volunteers.
Donny’s Sweating and Projecting
Trump Calls Kasich ‘Major Loser’ Ahead Of DNC Speech, Roberta Rampton, NPR News, August 17, 2020.
Ohio’s former Republican Gov. John Kasich, a fierce critic of President Trump who is a featured speaker in Monday night’s lineup for the Democratic National Convention, drew fire from the president ahead of his remarks.
Trump told reporters traveling with him on Air Force One that Kasich “was a loser as a Republican and he’ll be a loser as a Democrat. Major loser as a Republican.” ✄
Kasich told NPR’s Steve Inskeep earlier on Monday that he is reaching out to moderate Republicans who might be willing to support Joe Biden. “What I’m trying to do is, essentially, to tell people that, you know — the party doesn’t have to be your master. You can feel free to cross the aisle and vote for somebody else,” Kasich said.
The shot across the bow
Donny’s Former DHS COS Supports Biden
At Homeland Security, I saw firsthand how dangerous Trump is for America, Miles Taylor, Washington Post opinion, August 17, 2020.
The president has tried to turn DHS, the nation’s largest law enforcement agency, into a tool used for his political benefit. He insisted on a near-total focus on issues that he said were central to his reelection — in particular building a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico. Though he was often talked out of bad ideas at the last moment, the president would make obviously partisan requests of DHS, including when he told us to close the California-Mexico border during a March 28, 2019, Oval Office meeting — it would be better for him politically, he said, than closing long stretches of the Texas or Arizona border — or to “dump” illegal immigrants in Democratic-leaning sanctuary cities and states to overload their authorities, as he insisted several times.
Trump’s indiscipline was also a constant source of frustration. One day in February 2019, when congressional leaders were waiting for an answer from the White House on a pending deal to avoid a second government shutdown, the president demanded a DHS phone briefing to discuss the color of the wall. He was particularly interested in the merits of using spray paint and how the steel structure should be coated. Episodes like this occurred almost weekly. ✄
It is more than a little ironic that Trump is campaigning for a second term as a law-and-order president. His first term has been dangerously chaotic. Four more years of this are unthinkable.
Rs Are A Mess!
Why Republicans are failing to govern, Ezra Klein, Vox, August 17, 2020.
This is about the size of it.
Politically, the Republican Party’s current approach is so self-sabotaging that I figured I must be missing something. Someone must have a plan, a theory, an alternative. Chaos is Trump’s brand, but surely McConnell won’t walk passively back into the minority. And so I began asking Republican Hill staffers and policy experts for correction. What wasn’t I seeing? What was the GOP’s policy theory right now? What do Republicans actually want?
I posed these questions to Tea Party conservatives, populist reformers, and old-line Reaganites. The answer, in every case, was the same. Different Republican senators have different ideas, but across the party as a whole, there is no plan. The Republican Party has no policy theory for how to contain the coronavirus, nor for how to drive the economy back to full employment. And there is no plan to come up with a plan, nor anyone with both the interest and authority to do so. The Republican Party is broken as a policymaking institution, and it has been for some time.
“I don’t think you’re missing anything,” said a top Republican Senate staffer. “You have a whole bunch of people in the Senate posturing for 2024 rather than governing for the crisis we’re in.”
“There hasn’t been a coherent GOP policy on anything for almost five years now,” a senior aide to a conservative Senate Republican told me. “Other than judges, I don’t think you can point to any united policy priorities.”
Oh. Well, then.
So, perhaps we can not fret too much about schemes like this:
And RonJohn’s skullduggery is not going unanswered by Democrats:
🌊 ☑️ Election News ☑️ 🌊
Possible Election 2020 Surprises?
Our own WIneRev remarked yesterday that he predicts a surprise on election night from either Alaska or Utah, and next is a good news story which supports that prediction!
Latter-day Saints laud Joe Biden at national event, say he reflects their values better than Trump, Lee Davidson, Salt Lake Tribune, August 15, 2020.
Dr. Robert Taber, co-chairman of LDS Democrats, said Democrats in the church will likely hear “a lot this election from supporters of the Republican president about tradition and how that means we, as Latter-day Saints, must support him,” as most members have voted Republican for decades.
But he said church tradition also includes those members who flooded the airport in Salt Lake City a few years ago to protest Trump’s ban on immigration from Muslim countries, and more recently members who marched for “school safety, fairness for women, and Black lives.” He said it also includes former Arizona GOP Sen. Jeff Flake, who announced he will vote for Biden. ✄
(Atlanta attorney Bryndis) Roberts said the election “gives us the chance to move forward on women’s rights, pay equality and reasonable day care for working parents. It gives us the right to move forward for good, decent, affordable housing for all and to adjust an inhumane immigration system where we no longer keep children in cages.”
“Immigration and refugees align greatly with what our church has focused their efforts on,” said LDS Democrats-Idaho Chairman Jordan Morales.
Good News For Voting Rights in Missouri
Curbside KC is helping voters figure out how to vote early, vote absentee and they are helping with one of the biggest impediments to absentee voting in MO — the requirement for a notary signature on an absentee ballot. They’ve simplified the process with clear instructions at the link embedded in the quote below. Here is a link to the podcast discussing the initiative:
For Kansas City Voters, Finding A Notary To Validate Mail-In Ballots Just Got Easier, NPR in Kansas CIty, (podcast), August 14, 2020.
Missouri requires that most mail-in ballots be notarized before being returned to local election boards via United States Postal Service. To help ease that process, Curbside KC is partnering with local coffee shops and restaurants to make notaries more accessible to voters.
And Good News in Kentucky
Surprising support for voting rights from a Republican secretary of state (even if he does sound a little bit “poor me” about it, I’ll take it):
⚖ Justice ⚖
More good news in Missouri: the state legislature had drafted a new ballot initiative hoping to gut the very redistricting reforms that voters had approved in Nov. 2018 and the wording was...ahem...”misleading”, to say the least. The way they wrote the measure summarizing SJR38, it sounds like further reforms — when in fact, it’s all a load of bull meant to hoodwink MO voters into OKing the repeal of the very redistricting reforms they just approved in 2018! The judge ruled in favor of the petitioners (MO citizens) and she didn’t mince words:
“Stated succinctly...the legislature’s summary fails to inform voters that adopting SJR38 would eliminate the legislative redistricting rules Missourians overwhelmingly adopted just two years ago to combat political gerrymandering and replace them with a redistricting process similar in substance to the one they just voted to abandon. The legislature’s summary instead seeks to entice voters to adopt the measure by misleadingly overstating a modest $5 reduction in allowable lobbyist gifts and a $100 reduction to Senate campaign contribution limits. Where, as here, the legislature seeks to override the recent, clearly expressed will of Missouri voters on a matter as important as redistricting, the law requires that voters be plainly informed what they are being asked to consider.” (full 10 page opinion at link below)
Nifty note: The judge also ordered new wording to be used which clearly states the purpose of the ballot measure and eliminates the obfuscation. Check it out, it is beautiful!
meanwhile, in michigan
And in Illinois
My governor ain’t playing It's now a felony in Illinois to assault a retail worker who is enforcing face mask rules, Grace Hauck, USA Today, August 11, 2020.
Assaulting a worker who is enforcing face mask policies can now be prosecuted as aggravated battery in Illinois – a felony charge.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law Friday that expands the definition of aggravated battery to include attacks against a retail worker who is conveying public health guidance, such as requiring patrons to wear face coverings or promoting social distancing.
"It's clear there is still an even greater need to get people to wear masks – especially to protect front line workers, whether they’re at the front of a store asking you to put on your mask or whether they’re responding to 911 calls to save those in distress," Pritzker said in a statement.
Social Justice
The tide for justice in all forms is steadily rising, and even the last desperate outrageous behavior of the old white guard cannot stop it. Check out these kids; they have found their power:
High school students are demanding schools teach more Black history, include more Black authors, Hannah Natanson, Washington Post, August 17, 2020.
Students have advocated for curriculum reform before in American history. But this moment is unique in several ways: For one thing, it’s taking place in the midst of a pandemic that has plunged the nation into crisis. Still, the shifting of human interaction online has actually played into students’ hands — more adept at social media than adults, teens are making canny use of sites such as Facebook and Instagram to plan reforms, put pressure on school officials and draw inspiration from other activists.
This effort is also being led by a younger cohort than previous pushes, many of which took place on college campuses. But what’s most striking, historians said, is the scope of the movement — while past advocacy focused on a particular high school or district, today groups of students are popping up everywhere. Although no one is tracking exact numbers, #DiversifyOurNarrative, a California-based initiative that helps students push for curriculum reform by offering them email templates and suggestions for anti-racist texts, said it has signed up more than 3,500 students in 250 U.S. school districts since its founding in June.
“It’s this sort of, how to put it, national constellation,” said George Mason University assistant professor Mark Helmsing, who teaches a class on education reform.
Late-breaking social justice Good News
Trump rule on transgender health blocked at the 11th hour, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, AP News, August 17, 2020.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge blocked the Trump administration on Monday from enforcing a new regulation that would roll back health care protections for transgender people.
Finalized days after the Supreme Court barred sex discrimination against LGBT individuals on the job, the regulation from the federal Department of Health and Human Services was to have taken effect Tuesday.
Monday’s preliminary injunction from U.S. District Court Judge Frederic Block in Brooklyn bars the administration from enforcing the regulation until the case can be heard in court and decided. Block indicated he thought the Trump administration’s so-called transgender rule is invalid in light of the Supreme Court ruling in June on a case involving similar issues in the context of job discrimination.
💪 🐎 Dems Are in Array 🐎 💪
The Democratic National Convention — the “unconventional convention” — began last night and so far I am quite liking this format! I know traditionalists will be missing the views of a crowded stadium and all the signs and noise and long pauses between speakers or musical performances, but I warmed right up to this zoom-style convention as soon as I saw those 50+ young people dressed in red, white and blue singing the national anthem. From that point on, I was hooked. :-) But the most anticipated thing about the evening was Michelle Obama’s speech.
Michelle Obama Calls Biden ‘A Profoundly Decent Man’ In Prerecorded Address, NPR, August 17, 2020.
Former first lady Michelle Obama is set to highlight Joe Biden’s background and character in her speech tonight.
“I know Joe. He is a profoundly decent man guided by faith,” Obama says in a prerecorded video excerpt released by the Democratic National Committee.
“He was a terrific vice president. He knows what it takes to rescue an economy, beat back a pandemic and lead our country. And he listens. He will tell the truth and trust science. He will make smart plans and manage a good team. And he will govern as someone who’s lived a life that the rest of us can recognize,” the former first lady adds.
Update: OK, that speech was amazing. Here is an article on it and the speech video is embedded in the article:
Michelle Obama’s Speech Was the Heart and Soul of the DNC’s Opening Night, Becca Andrews, Mother Jones, August 17, 2020.
Donny’s an incompetent loser-
“it is what it is.”
When it came to discussing President Donald Trump’s tenure outright, she got straight to the point. “Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country,” Obama said steadily. “He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is.”
She was also unwavering in her support for her husband’s former vice president. “Now, Joe is not perfect, and he’d be the first to tell you that,” she said. “But there is no perfect candidate, no perfect president. And his ability to learn and grow—we find in that the kind of humility and maturity that so many of us yearn for right now. Because Joe Biden has served this nation his entire life without ever losing sight of who he is; but more than that, he has never lost sight of who we are, all of us.”
She continued: “If you take one thing from my words tonight, it is this: if you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me, they can; and they will if we don’t make a change in this election. If we have any hope of ending this chaos, we have got to vote for Joe Biden like our lives depend on it.”
☀️ Ray of Sunshine ☀️
National Zoo awaits birth of pandemic panda cub, Ashraf Khalil, AP News, August 17, 2020.
Zookeepers at Washington’s National Zoo are on furry black-and-white baby watch after concluding that venerable giant panda matriarch Mei Ziang is pregnant and could give birth this week. It’s a welcome bit of good news amid a pandemic that kept the zoo shuttered for months. ✄
Although so-called “phantom pregnancies” are common with pandas and other large bears, Baker-Masson said an ultrasound scan revealed a “really strong-looking, fantastic fetus” that could be delivered this week.
The zoo posted a video from the ultrasound on Instagram. “Keep your paws crossed!” the zoo posted, reporting that the fetus was “kicking and swimming in the amniotic fluid.”
The announcement of the pregnancy has already touched off a fresh round of panda-mania for one of the zoo’s feature attractions. Viewership on the zoo’s panda-cam has increased 800%.
You Knew It Was Gonna Happen
John Kasich at a crossroad (or two diverging paths? idk, whatever, it was a pretty heavy-handed visual metaphor) ... was just too memeworthy:
⚡️ Lightning RoundUp ⚡️
⚡️ Poll perspective: CNN has Trump nipping at Biden’s heels. ABC has Biden cruising. The truth is in the middle. Aaron Rupar, Vox, August 17, 2020.
⚡️ People are taking Trump's USPS cheating seriously — and we have impeachment to thank, Amanda Marcotte, Salon, August 17, 2020.
⚡️ Terrific piece on the history and importance of the USPS: We Can’t Afford to Lose the Postal Service, Casey Cep, the New Yorker, May 2, 2020.
⚡️ Also not new, but helpful: How Congress Manufactured a Postal Crisis — And How to Fix it, Sarah Anderson, Scott Klinger, Brian Wakamo, Institute for Policy Studies, July 15, 2019.
⚡️ Good explainer (but infuriating): The Post Office: Inside The Radical Republican War, Erik Sherman, DC Report, August 17, 2020.
⚡️ Great historical perspective: Socialism Is as American as Apple Pie, Bruce Bartlett, New Republic, August 17, 2020.
⚡️ Food for thought: Unplug from the Matrix, Greg Hurwitz and Marshall Herskovitz, the Bulwark, August 16, 2020.
⚡️ Thoughtful, validating piece: The life you thought you were going to have is gone, Lori Fox, Globe and Mail, August 14, 2020.
🔗 Helpful Links 🔗
Here’s a bunch of links to help you stay involved from home:
Joe Biden’s Action Website
Act Blue — fundraising for Democratic candidates in one easy site.
Vote Forward — whether organizing an effort to encourage voter registration, including providing addressees with voter registration forms — or working toward the BIG SEND (millions of letters to voters arriving in mailboxes in late October),this is one of several “do it at home” projects through which many of us can really make a difference. Voter to voter initiatives have a track record of increasing voter turnout. The Vote Forward letter system is ideal for those who want to contribute but can’t write too much. The letter templates are provided and all you do is put in a line or two of your own and make sure the letters get to the voters on your list!
Postcards to Voters!
Postcards to Voters — Our own gnusie, Progressive Muse posts most days with information about PtV and updates on current campaigns and progress. This is the ideal “do it at home” contribution especially suited to those who enjoy getting a little creative and connecting with fellow voters around the country.
Powered By People — Beto O’Rourke’s virtual phone bank center for flipping Texas BLUE!
Fair Fight — Stacey Abrams’ initiative which has already made a difference in several elections! Find out how you can help out at this link.
Spread the Vote — wonderful organization which works hard to help eligible voters obtain valid ID so they can register and vote.
⭐️ And finally, for one-stop all-purpose voter information (check your registration!):
Everything you need to know to vote — Vote.org — This site covers everything any eligible voter needs to know, from how to register, how to check that you are still registered, how to obtain an absentee ballot and what to do if your right to vote is challenged or you are stopped from voting.
💙 RoundUp WindDown 💙
Gotta rush to watch the convention!
Let’s soak up the positivity and the hope for a better future, Gnusies, and then let’s get to work! I’m so glad to be doing this work with all of you!
Happy Tuesday!
