Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

Bark louder, little dog.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

You are here: Home / Elections / Biden For President / Monday Morning Open Thread: Save the Post Office!

Monday Morning Open Thread: Save the Post Office!

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Per the Washington Post:

… Democrats also warn that slowed postal delivery is delaying prescription medicines mailed to veterans and Social Security checks for the elderly.

“Alarmingly, across the nation, we see the devastating effects of the president’s campaign to sabotage the election by manipulating the Postal Service to disenfranchise voters,” Pelosi said in a letter to colleagues.

She warned that the “lives, livelihoods and the life of our American democracy are under threat.”

Pelosi wants the chamber to vote on a bill sponsored by House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) that would require the Postal Service to keep up its current delivery standards until the end of the year.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) also issued a statement calling on Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to bring the Senate back to act on legislation once the House passes it.

“I call on Leader McConnell to bring the Senate back into session to quickly act on the House’s legislation that will undo the extensive damage Mr. DeJoy has done at the Postal Service so that people can get their paychecks, medicines, and other necessities delivered on time, and to ensure our elections will remain completely free and fair,” Schumer said…

Reader Interactions

133Comments

  4. 4.

    Hunter

    So the House passes the legislation — if by some miracle the Senate actually acts on it and passes it, Trump will veto it.

  5. 5.

    debbie

    Is anyone else listening to NPR this morning? Did I correctly hear an Idaho state representative say that listening to experts was elitist and would lead to totalitarianism?  ?

  6. 6.

    JPL

    @Hunter:  nah.. He can see the writing on the wall.   What will happen is trump will say he got what he wanted.   It was all his idea.

  7. 7.

    SFAW

    So the first step was legislating voter suppression via registration and voting hurdles for various demographic groups. The next step is removing or suppressing the “physical” mechanism(s) through which people vote. What’s the next logical step, assuming the USPS attempted-destruction does not succeed? [Not a good assumption, I realize.] Preventing votes in certain areas from being counted? [Although that’s already been done, on a small scale, in 2000.]

  9. 9.

    SFAW

    @Spanky:

    “Patriots” “guarding” the polls, of course.

    I think I’ve seen that bandied about already, aided and abetted by the OK from either the SCOTUS or a lower Federal court.

    I was asking because, although they continually sink to new depths, I’m not a strategic enough thinker to pre-guess what those depths will be (in practical terms).

  12. 12.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    We have a choice this November. It’s a choice to vote for a man of character or a man without character. (link)

    — The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) August 17, 2020

    Lincoln Project posts heavy, tear jerking Biden ad (caution)  (link)

  15. 15.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @SFAW:

    He cannot physically do that.  The states do the counting.  The federal government is not involved.

    @Spanky:

    I’ve heard the ‘patriots guarding the polls’ threat every election for at least 12 years.  It never happens.  Republicans are lazy chickenshit cowards and would die for their cause as long as they don’t have to get out of their easy chairs or face any opposition to do it.  It’s big news whenever a small number of them get off their asses to do anything.

  16. 16.

    Brachiator

    @debbie:

    Is anyone else listening to NPR this morning? Did I correctly hear an Idaho state representative say that listening to experts was elitist and would lead to totalitarianism?

    From Boise State Public Radio. Evidently, if you are mentally strong and believe in liberty, the virus will not hurt you. Posting on the fly. Please forgive formatting issues.

    A group of Idaho lawmakers is pushing a bill that would strip the power of public health districts to close schools during an emergency or mandate masks to prevent the spread of disease.

    Members of the Education Working Group Monday overwhelmingly voted for the proposal. Many lawmakers said local school board members should be making these decisions, as opposed to public health district board members.

    Those board members are typically made up of county commissioners from the region that makes up a public health district. But board members from one part of the district can cast a vote that can affect residents in other parts of the district, similar to the Idaho legislature.

    “[Voters] have no recourse. They have no voice,” said Rep. Ryan Kerby (R-New Plymouth), a former school superintendent, who brought the proposal forward.

    Sen. Steven Thayn (R-Emmett) was among those who supported the measure. “We’re letting a few fearful people control the lives of those of us who are not fearful,” Thayn said.

    “Listening to experts to set policy is an elitist approach and I’m very fearful of an elitist approach,” he said. “I’m also fearful that it leads to totalitarianism, especially when you say, ‘Well. We’re doing it for the public good.’”

    https://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/post/idaho-lawmaker-listening-experts-elitist-approach-coronavirus-restrictions#stream/0

  17. 17.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    @SFAW: everyone knows cnn is fake news.

    seriously, 538 rates WaPo A+ and rates cnn’s polling service a distant B-/C+

  18. 18.

    RobertDSC-Mac Mini

    While they’re at it, how about removing that 75 year pension requirement that has put the Postal Service in such financial dire straits?

  19. 19.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Frankensteinbeck: And Republicans at the state level do his bidding. There is all kinds of fuckery they can and do engage in, from challenging absentee ballots to reducing polling locations/machines in DEM areas

  20. 20.

    SFAW

    @David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:

    Thanks. My ticker skipped a beat when I saw the story, but also considered that going from plus-10 to plus-4, with no other external driver (and the Israel/UAE thing is not sufficient, in my opinion), meant the purported drop was likely bullshit. But I was too lazy to check 538, so, thanks.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    I don’t know if this has been scientifically proven, but it always seemed to me that polls are worse for us in August.

  22. 22.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    What I don’t get is why does the postal service have to run in the black.   I mean the CIA has been running in the red since they lost their lucrative drug contracts with Noriega and the Laotian Golden Triangle and congress doesn’t whines about that.

  23. 23.

    Ken

    @RobertDSC-Mac Mini: As I understand it, USPS has met the pension requirement, so the question would become what to do with the fund if the requirement were removed. It might not be legal to move (some of) the funds back to the operating budget, though I guess Congress could fix that too.

    ETA: They could argue that it runs the USPS more like a business – the first thing any venture capitalists do when they take over is raid the pension fund.

  24. 24.

    SFAW

    @RobertDSC-Mac Mini:

    While they’re at it, how about removing that 75 year pension requirement that has put the Postal Service in such financial dire straits?

    Yeah, that’s a huge problem. I was saddened when I learned (a few years ago) that Henry Waxman was one of the drivers behind that.

  27. 27.

    Baud

    @David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:

    The budget status of the U.S. Postal Service has been a matter of both contention and confusion since the 1970 Postal Reorganization Act (PRA) put the Postal Service on a self-sustaining basis, exempting it from general budget and funding laws and denying the executive branch control over its finances. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Postal Service was sometimes included and sometimes excluded from the president’s budget by administrative decision often hinging on whether it was running a surplus or a deficit. When it was on budget, the Postal Service was commonly caught up in deficit reduction squabbles, and took on obligations belonging to the Treasury.
    In the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989, the Postal Service won a hard-fought legislative battle, at some cost, to put its funding permanently off budget. Congress agreed that mail delivery was a self-financing business whose operations should not be scaled up or down depending on national budget considerations. For the past two decades, only the Social Security Trust Funds have shared off-budget status with the Postal Service

  28. 28.

    WereBear

    @Brachiator: AND I just had a surge of gratitude that, at the beginning of my adulthood, I was able to flee to a very blue state, and made a life there.

    Or, right now, that state I fled from would be trying to kill me.

  29. 29.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    but it always seemed to me that polls are worse for us in August.

    Well, I think there’s a natural letdown after the BNC convention. Plus, everyone knows/knew you’d be the nominee in January, so there’s no buildup to you getting the nom.

    You ARE talking about the Baud!/Someone Else! 2020 ticket, right?

  30. 30.

    SFAW

    @Ken:

    though the new practice of seizing oil tankers might be a step in that direction.

    Thank FSM they didn’t try to seize the property of a certain powerful person working to destroy the US Government — i.e., Trump — or they’d be even more in the red.

  35. 35.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @OzarkHillbilly: And Republicans at the state level do his bidding. There is all kinds of fuckery they can and do engage in, from challenging absentee ballots to reducing polling

    This is Trump, do you really see Trump sitting in meeting after meeting going threw state by state were the GOP has fiddle with the vote just enough so it wouldn’t be obvious? They were saying up until July Trump assumed he was going win easily in November.

  37. 37.

    Ken

    @germy: Trump’s mail plan is like if the Democrats came up with a way to keep all of those boaters at sea on election day.

    Only if that plan somehow also simultaneously prevented veterans from getting medications, harmed small businesses across the country, caused chaos in the legal systems that rely on timely notifications of proceedings, and damaged the credit ratings of millions of people by causing “late” payments.

  38. 38.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Baud: The GOP has their convention last and their candidate gets week of good numbers and then it dies down.

  39. 39.

    germy

    Supposing that the Postal Service should be 'profitable' is categorically strange. This is a form of collective provisioning that we have been doing since before the Declaration of Independence. Ask yourself why we don't demand 'profitability' of the police or the military.

    — Robert Hockett (@rch371) August 16, 2020

  42. 42.

    JPL

    @SFAW: They took a lot of grief from the trumpettes for their last poll, so I wonder if they polled more republicans.   I haven’t seen the internals though.   John Berman did point out the ABC poll which has a double digit lead.   Can’t imagine why he did that.. hmmm

  46. 46.

    Eric U.

    It bothers me that Reuters frames the USPS issue as “Democrats say.”  Trump said he was hurting the USPS to limit mail-in voting

  47. 47.

    Gin & Tonic

    @germy: Aren’t there a lot of small-town or rural-county police or sheriff’s departments that *do* in fact make a profit? Drug-related property seizures are a big business, from what I’ve read.

  48. 48.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I see Pelosi is calling the House back “likely on Saturday” to work on USPS issues. Love that she waits until after the D convention (such as it is) but will have the House in session during the R convention (such as it is).

    The R convention supposedly features Trump every night. That will horrify a lot of the public. The more they let him out, the worse he looks. Also I heard that one night they’re featuring “cancel culture.” Most of their voters will never have heard the term which seems to be mostly an online one. But they’ll recognize the grievance.

  49. 49.

    patrick II

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    They had a court stay against them for the past twenty years.  It ended this year.  I expect to see many more and more aggressive republican poll watchers.

  50. 50.

    germy

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Yes, I was thinking about that.  Lots of revenue from asset seizing.

    Lots of places in this country I’d be reluctant to drive through, and it isn’t in the scary liberal cities.

  51. 51.

    artem1s

    @Hunter:

    So the House passes the legislation — if by some miracle the Senate actually acts on it and passes it, Trump will veto it.

    How many GOPers up for re-election are going to risk voting to delay delivery of prescription drugs to seniors and vets?  Appear to participate in suppressing the vote of one of their core voting blocks?  Moscow Mitch may not care what it looks like, but even Joni Ernst can see this is a lose/lose for them. They vote for – they get TeaPartied by rabid Trumpers – vote against – their constituents turn on them. They have a choice, jump or go down with the Trumptanic.  Problem is – all the lifeboats are gone and they are going into the water no matter what.  In this case, Nancy will make the optics work for us. Tic-toc MFs

  52. 52.

    patrick II

    Donald Trump probably knows about two-foot putts. Or does he cheat on those too?

    That’s a rhetorical question, right? A guy wrote a whole book on don’s golf cheating.

  53. 53.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: C’mon, trump doesn’t do anything himself and that includes his thinking. He blurts shit out and his minions rush to figure out what he is talking about. When it comes to vote suppression, he doesn’t have to instruct them in anything, the GOP has been doing it a long time already. The stop ‘vote by mail’ by destroying the USPS? That is the classic trump/Kushner fuckup, in that not only is it obvious, it hurts their GOP voters just as much if not more.

  56. 56.

    Betty Cracker

    @germy: The only thing remotely relatable about the Third Lady is her visceral hatred of Trump. She’s an awful person too, but she obviously despises him. After he’s kicked out of office (please FSM), I wonder if she’ll wait for him to croak so as to maximize the payout or cut her losses and serve him with divorce papers immediately.

    Hell, maybe he’ll throw her over for a younger model. He’s never been married to a person over 50 until now. There’s that one attractive youngish woman who works in the White House occasionally who looks like she might be trying out for the musical chairs game that is “Be the Widow Trump.”

  57. 57.

    catclub

    @Frankensteinbeck: 

    I’ve heard the ‘patriots guarding the polls’ threat every election for at least 12 years. It never happens.

    up until 2018 the GOP was under a court order not to do voter suppression via off-duty police ‘monitoring’ elections. The recent Supreme court okayed the GOP going back to that voter suppression technique.

  58. 58.

    rp

    @Betty Cracker: If she has any brains she’ll get out the moment he leaves the White House. I wouldn’t want to be left holding the bag when he croaks and the creditors come calling.

  61. 61.

    catclub

    @artem1s: Appear to participate in suppressing the vote of one of their core voting blocks? Moscow Mitch may not care what it looks like, but even Joni Ernst can see this is a lose/lose for them. They vote for – they get TeaPartied by rabid Trumpers – vote against – their constituents turn on them. They have a choice,

     

    or McConnell never brings bill up for a vote, and the media attention span lasts about a microsecond.

  62. 62.

    germy

    @rp:

    Dual citizenship for herself and her son, the only two people she cares about.  Oh, and her parents.

    They’ll all flee like Imelda Marcos.

  64. 64.

    Raoul Paste

    There are nationwide demonstrations at local post offices planned for next Saturday at 11 am

  66. 66.

    germy

    Trump praises his late brother Robert for his lack of "jealousy" of him. Whether he "had the number one show," a great real estate deal or was becoming president, Trump says, Robert didn't show the jealousy that sometimes exists in families.— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) August 17, 2020

    Trump's tribute to his late brother is all about him: "He was my biggest fan. People would tell me all the time, 'I spoke to your brother and your brother was so thrilled.' And so thrilled at what was happening. And what was happening for the country, he was so angry with China." pic.twitter.com/jTWkAL4dwW— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 17, 2020

  67. 67.

    SFAW

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    — Mob Enforcer

    It’s about goddam time. Where the hell have you been, in a witness protection program? There’s been some “Subaru Dianne” chick trying to horn in on your action.

  68. 68.

    montanareddog

    @rp: Given his history of bigging up his assets in loan applications, and undervaluing them in tax returns, what’s the odds he tells the divorce court that he is flat broke should Malignia bolt and sue.

  69. 69.

    TS (the original)

    @Kay:

    Good. They’re going out of their way not to address any actual problems.

    They also have no policies – wonder if anyone in the media will ask about that.

  71. 71.

    SFAW

    @germy:

    Not surprised that the Murderer-in-Chief made it all about himself, not his deceased brother, but it’s still pretty disgusting.

  72. 72.

    germy

    Has anyone mentioned that the new ambassador to Canada is the wife of the Post Master General that's trying to sabotage the USPS?

    — Scoot (@ImpeachmentHour) August 15, 2020

  73. 73.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @SFAW:

    Where the hell have you been, in a witness protection program?

    I could tell you, but then I’d … well, you know.

  74. 74.

    Gin & Tonic

    @germy: Ain’t no way they’re going back to Slovenia. I mean, Jesus, if you’re willing to fuck Donald Trump to get your green card, you clearly will go to any lengths at all to stay away.

  81. 81.

    MomSense

    @debbie: 
    Either we are both hallucinating the same thing or yes, he did say that. Also WTF – why do media outlets give a platform to people who spew garbage?

  82. 82.

    Betty Cracker

    Think I’ll give the Kasich DNC speech a miss:

    “I think both parties have to have new ideas, and I think this country is moderate,” said Kasich, winding up to a gentle criticism of Ocasio-Cortez. “People on the extreme, whether they’re on the left or on the right, they get outsized publicity that tends to define their party. You know, I listen to people all the time make these statements, and because AOC gets outsized publicity doesn’t mean she represents the Democratic Party. She’s just a part, just some member of it. And it’s on both sides, whether it’s the Republicans or whether it’s the Democrats.”

    Such bullshit. If we have to have a goddamned Republican speak at our convention, I’d rather hear one who understands that spaghetti vs. tire rims and anthrax aren’t equivalently sane dinner orders.

  87. 87.

    Kay

    If Republicans were honest they’d give QAnon a night at the convention. A substantial part of their base now belong to a cult. QAnon has school board candidates now. They aren’t going to be able to deny this forever.

  88. 88.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SFAW: Huh. I thought he said trump’s BM was 29 and I thought “That’s no way to talk about someone’s illegitimate child.”

    ETA: I really don’t like the phrase “illegitimate child” but the only alternative I could come up with was ‘love child’ and that just doesn’t go together with trump. If somebody has a better term, please insert.

  89. 89.

    Betty Cracker

    @germy: He probably will — it’s his entire shtick these days. Maybe he can make a difference on the margins with persuadable voters, and if so, it makes sense to let him speak. I guess? Still pisses me off. ETA: I wonder if vaudeville hooks were really a thing? Hilarious if true!

  91. 91.

    JMG

    CNN’s polls average out as reliable, but for whatever technical reason (ask Nate Silver, not me), their pollster SSRS shows way more volatility in the electorate than other polls. Since April, it’s shown Biden +11, +5, +14 and now +4. I sincerely doubt there were two 10 point swings in the course of three months, but there you are.

  92. 92.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: The more I read about the Q lunatics, the more I think you’re right that they’ll take over that party. They’re everywhere! I think one of my former neighbors whom I still keep in touch with may have fallen down that loopy rabbit hole. Just mind-boggling.

  93. 93.

    snoey

    @Betty Cracker: Don’t think he is there to convert as much as to reaffirm the converted.  That’s what most beer, truck, detergent etc. advertising is.  Bud and Biden – mainstream assurance that they are solid no regrets choices.

  96. 96.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Also I heard that one night they’re featuring “cancel culture.” 

    LOL We all know members of the *checks notes* federal government are the real victims.

    Assclowns.  All of them. ??

  98. 98.

    chopper

    @debbie:

    having just been through idaho on the way to and from glacier, i can attest that this yahoo is truly representing his constituents. covid is a joke to people there.

  99. 99.

    mrmoshpotato

    @debbie:

    Is anyone else listening to NPR this morning? Did I correctly hear an Idaho state representative say that listening to experts was elitist and would lead to totalitarianism?  ? 

    When we get them silly bastards down in that rock pile, it’ll be some fun, they’ll wish their fathers had never met their mothers. When they start takin’ their bottoms out and slamming into them rocks, boy!

  104. 104.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Just saw this at Digby, and O. M. G.

    [Trump ex-wife Marla] Maples, who dabbles in wellness influencing, has periodically mentioned the global pandemic to her Instagram following of 114,000—recommending Vitamin C IV drips, morning prayer, and an idiosyncratic hand-washing method in which she pours a mug of water on her hands without soap. But Tiffany Trump’s mother has stayed largely quiet on the political dimensions of the virus, including how her ex-husband has handled it. Her Thursday post, spotted by CNN’s Betsy Klein, fed into the unfounded, but widely-held belief that Bill Gates has hatched a plot to implement tracking devices on billions of people under the guise of a COVID-19 vaccine. (Maples did not respond to requests for comment).

    Tiffany doesn’t have a chance.

  105. 105.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Ken:

    Minor polemic quibble – is Trump without character, or is it just that his character is bad?

    And is it even possible to defame someone whose character is as bad as his?

  106. 106.

    Matt McIrvin

    @SFAW: I saw Amanda Marcotte posting the CNN poll results with a comment that it was inevitable and that it shows Trump is on track to win because of our complacency. But it’s inconsistent with other polls taken over the same time period.

  107. 107.

    mrmoshpotato

    @germy:

    Stealing all the mailboxes to make sure you become president sounds like the plot of a Dr. Seuss book. 

    Oh The Soviet Shitpiles You Will See!

  113. 113.

    MomSense

    @Betty Cracker:

    We are not his target audience.  We are working to persuade voters at the margins and if he needs to say this to save face with those voters and pull a couple percentage points of them to vote D – then I can live with it.

  114. 114.

    SFAW

    @Emma from FL: 

    What the hell happened to her? I vaguely remember a mostly sane person. Or was I drinking at the time?

    She’s fine. Among other things, she noted that the RCP and 538 averages have shown a tightening of the race. One of her points was that Trump will cheat, and the pandemic may depress Dem votes. Her main point was that we should continue to behave as if Trump were 8 points ahead, not 8 behind.

  115. 115.

    Philbert

    If it hasn’t been covered, regarding goons at the polls, the GOP did this in NJ(?) years back and signed a consent decree to stop doing that. They were passing themselves off as government but were Party.  The consent decree expired last year or so and they are planning on thousands of ‘monitors’.

  117. 117.

    WaterGirl

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: You don’t think they would bend the rules for Trump?  I do.

    If he had died of anything but COVID, they would be shouting the cause of death from the rooftops.  Their silence is deafening.  Of course it was COVID.

  119. 119.

    Yutsano

    @WaterGirl: I mean right now they’re completely ignoring his voter fraud. Why not be totally ignorant of everything regarding this maladministration and let him do whatever he has to in order to “win”?

  120. 120.

    Geminid

    I saw a poll of the 5th Va. Congressional District race that showed Democrat Cameron Webb trailing “biblical conservative” Bob Good by 2 points. Its Webb’s first political race. Good served a couple terms as a supervisor for Cambell County, near his job at Liberty U. In 2018, the Democratic candidate in the 5th lost by 7 points. Webb is a doctor, and was in Obama’s White House Fellow program. Sharice Davids (D-KS) and Colin Allred (D-TX) flipped districts in 2018, and were White House fellows.

  122. 122.

    schrodingers_cat

    I don’t see why having Kasich speaking is giving the Rose Twitter vapors?Didn’t Rs when they were more savvy have Zell Miller at their convention? And wasn’t the tribune of the masses happy to get a Joe Rogan non-endorsement, endorsement?

  123. 123.

    PaulWartenberg

    For what I know, states with mail-in ballots should have return boxes in front of the county election offices that DeJoy can’t shut. However, do not put it past trump and his people to figure out how to put those return boxes out of commission as well.

  126. 126.

    blacque_jacques

    That slur by Limbaugh…I wondered where Michael Berry, Houston’s Dollar Store Rush had gotten that from. He didn’t seem smart enough to think of it by himself.

    @schrodingers_cat: Zell Miller, That’s a name I haven’t seen in decades. I remember him telling some CNN reporter he wished he could challenge him to a duel. He sounded like this guy in the “Cambodian Refugee” prank call.

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfpIqlbImUI

  127. 127.

    Yutsano

    @A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan):

    Nothing about government is a profit center except the IRS!

    Uhh…the last thing you want is your tax agency to be self funding. :P The IRS pulls in a lot of money true. But if we were actually funded at a rate where we could get the really high end tax cheats we could put a more severe dent in the deficit. Part of the reason for the deficit (besides tax cuts to the rich) is the IRS is woefully underfunded and kept that way by the Republicans. To wit: we were in charge of collecting the Individual Shared Responsibility Payment but were given no enforcement mechanism to actually collect it. So if you never pay it and you always break even or slightly owe on your taxes oh well that will just sit there. It was ridiculous. And if/when it gets restored it needs to have real teeth behind it. Let the rugged individualists complain.

  129. 129.

    Geminid

    @blacque_jacques: I happened to catch Limbaugh repeating the insult. He thought he was being sly by “reporting” a story about the Houston Rockets photographer who lost his job after posting the slur on social media, but Limbaugh made a point of repeating it over and over. Despicable is too good a word for this asshole.

  132. 132.

    Bill Arnold

    @WaterGirl: 

    If he had died of anything but COVID, they would be shouting the cause of death from the rooftops. Their silence is deafening. Of course it was COVID.

    Some doctors are prescribing blood thinners for COVID-19 patients to reduce the probability of the random clots that can cause heart attacks, strokes, etc.
    He was said to have suffered a cerebral hemorrhage purportedly caused by a fall while on blood thinners. I don’t know if the blood thinners were a long-term thing for him, could be, or not.
    NYTmes:

    Robert Trump, who took blood thinners, had experienced brain bleeds, which began after a recent fall, according to a family friend. President Trump went to Manhattan on Friday to see his brother at the hospital.

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