Ross K Baker/USA Today:
Trump defames US mail system as vulnerable to vote fraud, lays groundwork for coup d'etat
The Founders and Abraham Lincoln understood a Postal Service was important to national unity — especially when that unity is threatened, as it is now.
But the most omnipresent components of the USPS are the letter carriers who deliver the mail to our front doors in all seasons while dodging aggressive dogs and staggering under the avalanche of pre-holiday catalogs. These men and women are the face of the USPS, and we get to know them well. I can recall the first names of every letter carrier who brought my mail in the various places I lived during my adult years. Even those fearful of anyone but a family member appearing at their front door welcome the letter carrier. And the gold standard of promissory statements is “the check is in the mail.”
The pressure matters, as Postmaster General Louis DeJoy now says no procedural changes prior to the election for appearance’s sake. But will changes be rescinded? Remember, they’ll try to blow it all off as “Y2K paranoia” (attention to which addressed the issues). Hearings Friday (Senate) and Monday (House), with legislation in House planned for Saturday preceding the hearing.
Pretty interesting night 2 of the DNC, we’ll talk about it in the comments. But the virtual roll call was great (especially OH, NC and RI and of course, WY). The health care segment with Ady Barkan. And the very normal, very relatable Joe and Jill Biden, from an empty classroom. And (thank god) short speeches. Decency sells, even digital decency.
Overtime will continue “as needed”. Hmmm..
Politico:
They felt the heat. And that's what we were trying to do, make it too hot for them to handle,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said, reacting to the announcement during a POLITICO Playbook interview.
Earlier Tuesday, a group of state attorneys general announced they were filing a lawsuit over the changes at the USPS, arguing the changes were made unlawfully and without following proper procedure. A spokesperson for Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh told POLITICO “our suit moves forward,” after DeJoy’s announcement.
Barbara McQuade/USA Today:
After Trump: All the ways the next president can restore trust in the Justice Department
Sally Yates is a career federal prosecutor who stayed on as acting attorney general during the early days of the current administration. Her assumption that the Department of Justice would be governed by the rule of law turned out to be a bad match for President Donald Trump’s vision. But her attempts to hold to that principle earned her a speaking slot Tuesday night at the Democratic National Convention.
While many Americans may not be familiar with Yates, those of us who devoted our careers to serving the public at DOJ will recognize her. What we barely recognize is the current incarnation of the only Cabinet agency named for an ideal. That’s why some of us have put together a blueprint for reviving trust there.
It’s harder to state it more clearly than this:
This was a bipartisan finding. That Republican Intel Senators knew this but refused to call for witnesses or convict on impeachment is another story. And that this is still going on is another story, indeed.
Guardian:
Louis DeJoy: is Trump's new post office chief trying to rig the election?
Since taking office in June, DeJoy has executed sweeping changes at the struggling USPS, leading to delays in mail delivery – and fears mail-in ballots won’t arrive on time
About a month ago, a United States Postal Service (USPS) mail carrier named Mark arrived at his post office in central Pennsylvania and got some shocking news from his station manager. Mark and his coworkers were told they would have to depart the office for deliveries a few hours earlier each day, even if that meant leaving behind much of the day’s mail.
In the weeks that followed, higher-ups at the station instructed carriers to abandon hundreds of pieces of mail in order to depart a mere 10 or 20 minutes earlier. As the days went on, the excess mail started to pile up, and now Mark estimates there are thousands of undelivered letters and packages sitting in his station.
“The supervisors are cracking the whip, making sure we leave,” Mark told the Guardian. “Meanwhile carriers are walking by and saying, ‘Look at all this fucking mail we’re walking past, it’s just sitting there.’”
Keep in mind the new Republican talking point is that it’s all postal efficiency, and not the ‘fevered election stealing’ that Democrats are making up. But that’s what happens when you only talk to management and not labor. It’s really a twofer: sabotage the USPS to go private, and slow ballots down as a bonus.
Miles Taylor/WaPo:
At Homeland Security, I saw firsthand how dangerous Trump is for America
The president’s bungled response to the coronavirus pandemic is the ultimate example. In his cavalier disregard for the seriousness of the threat, Trump failed to make effective use of the federal crisis response system painstakingly built after 9/11. Years of DHS planning for a pandemic threat have been largely wasted. Meanwhile, more than 165,000 Americans have died.
Niskanen Center:
Niskanen Center/JMC Analytics and Polling Survey of Rural Voters on USPS & COVID19
Despite a party breakdown of 56% Republican, 34% Democrat in this survey, reflecting the rural Pennsylvania congressional districts sampled, 57% of these likely 2020 voters report they’d be less likely to support a candidate who reduced the budget for the U.S Postal Service, or privatized theagency, including 43% of Republicans.
52% of these likely voters report they are “not likely at all” to vote by mail this fall, driven almost entirely by Republican voters’ strong rejection of the option. 68% of Republicans report they are“not at all likely” to vote by mail while 53% of Democrats say they are “very likely.”
53% of rural voters say they are “very” or “somewhat” reliant on USPS service. Rural Republicans profess much less reliance on USPS than rural Democrats -- just 17% of Republicans report being“very” reliant while 43% of “Democrats” say the same, indicating a party effect.
Greg Sargent/WaPo:
Trump’s unhinged Twitter meltdown shows Michelle Obama drew blood
President Trump unleashed a torrent of rage tweets about Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic convention that was spectacularly cringeworthy even by his standards — but it only underscored how effectively the former first lady made the case against him, in ways that are significant but not immediately apparent.
The strength of her scorching indictment of Trump — delivered on Monday night — resides in the fact that everyone, or at least a majority, knows it is true. As Trump’s meltdown shows, his only available response is to swap in an entirely invented tale, one hermetically sealed off from reality in just about every conceivable way.
Her case, boiled down, is that Trump inherited a country that, for all its deep problems and lingering inequalities, was on the mend following another previous crisis. Trump proceeded to utterly wreck the place through his incompetence, malevolence, corruption and depraved conviction that stoking as much civil conflict and racial incitement as possible helps him.
