Ellie Kaufman, Marshall Cohen, Jason Hoffman and Nicky Robertson, Reporters - CNN
Stephan: You have probably already heard multiple stories about how Trump and his orcs are gutting the Post Office, to stop Democrats from voting him out of office. Most of these stories are about mail-in ballots. But gutting the post office means a lot more than mail-in ballots. I live on an island and we have limited shopping so my wife and I, like most of the people we know, order meds, supplements, and a host of other things through the mail. And all of that is being sabotaged. Do you know someone, or have a family member in military service aboard or aboard a ship? Are you a mom who sends your son or daughter favorite cookies, or family pictures to them through the mail? Do you depend on the mail to get the checks upon which your income depends? Is that how the VA sends you your meds?
This gutting of the Post Office by Trump and his orcs is perhaps the most blatant authoritarian anti-democratic move he has made. And the silence and lack of action from the Congress I find breath-taking.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that he opposes much-needed funding for the United States Postal Service because he doesn’t want to see it used for mail-in voting this November.By directly linking USPS funding to mail-in voting, Trump is fueling allegations that he is trying to manipulate the postal system for political gain. The pandemic has led to record-shattering levels of voting-by-mail, but Trump has tried to restrict the voting method because he says it will hurt his re-election and Republicans across the board.During an interview on Fox News, Trump said that if USPS does not receive the additional $25 billion funding request that Democrats included in the ongoing stimulus negotiations, then he believes the Post Office won’t be able to handle the influx of mail-in ballots in the upcoming election.”They want three and a half billion dollars for something that’ll turn out to be fraudulent, that’s election money basically. They want three and a half billion dollars for the mail-in votes. Universal mail-in ballots. They want $25 billion, billion, for the Post Office. Now they need that money in order […]
Stephan: Trump doesn't want you to vote by mail, and he willing to do literally anything to see that you can't, but he and his wife have voted by mail before, and want to do so again in November. You just couldn't make the hypocrisy of Trump any clearer.
The day before publicly opposing funding to accommodate an expected surge in Americans voting by mail in this year’s presidential election, President Donald Trump requested a mail-in ballot to vote in Florida’s upcoming primary.
The elections website for Palm Beach County, Fla., where Trump is registered to vote, shows that mail-in ballots were requested for the president and first lady Melania Trump on Wednesday. The news was first reported by USA Today.
The ballots, according to the county’s supervisor of elections, would have to be picked up in person as the deadline has already passed for them to be mailed. Unlike some states where ballots can be post-marked by election day in order to be counted, the Trumps must return theirs by next Tuesday’s primary date.
Trump railed against voting-by-mail on Thursday, saying he opposes crucial funding for the U.S. Postal Service as part of an effort to discourage Americans from voting by mail in November.
The president has repeatedly demonized mail-in voting as governors across the country have sought to expand it amid the coronavirus pandemic, but has previously […]
Stephan: Here is the introduction to Michael Cohen's soon to be published book Disloyal. Coupled with his niece's book I think we are seeing the real Donald Trump, and it is going to be uglier than anyone could imagine. It will be interesting to see how Republican voters respond to the truth. Whether any level of corruption, crime, racism, sexism, and incompetence will repel them. That will tell us a lot about America.
The President of the United States wanted me dead.
Michael D. Cohen, second from left, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, with Michael T. Flynn, left, and former Gov. Rick Perry of Texas at Trump Tower in December. Mr. Cohen delivered the peace plan to Mr. Flynn a week before Mr. Flynn resigned as national security adviser. Credit: Sam Hodgson/ The New York Times
Or, let me say it the way Donald Trump would: He wouldn’t mind if I was dead. That was how Trump talked. Like a mob boss, using language carefully calibrated to convey his desires and demands, while at the same time employing deliberate indirection to insulate himself and avoid actually ordering a hit on his former personal attorney, confidant, consigliere, and, at least in my heart, adopted son.
Driving south from New York City to Washington, DC on I-95 on the cold, gray winter morning of February 24th, 2019, en route to testify against President Trump before both Houses of Congress, I knew he wanted me gone before I could tell the nation what I know about him. Not the billionaire […]
Stephan: I was trying to think if there was a precedent for a significant population supporting something blatantly against their own self-interest and wellbeing, as the Trumpers continue to support their hero even as he trashes their lives. It turns out there is: the women who opposed giving women the vote. This excellent piece by Washington Post reporter Samantha Schmidt , describes this almost unknown chapter in American history.
Susan B. Anthony stood on a stage in Upstate New York, asking a crowd to support the suffragist cause, when someone in the audience asked a question: Do women actually want the right to vote?
Her answer was hardly unequivocal.
“They do not oppose it,” Anthony replied vaguely.
She had little reason to believe otherwise, as recounted in Susan Goodier’s book, “No Votes for Women: The New York State Anti-Suffrage Movement.” It was 1893, and suffragists were traveling across New York to build support ahead of a constitutional convention, when lawmakers would decide if the word “male” should be removed from the wording of the state constitution. Until then, most of the opposition to women’s suffrage had been dominated by men.
But as the suffragists would soon learn, women would play a crucial role in attempting to prevent women from gaining the right to vote. As the suffragist movement gained momentum, women mobilized committees, circulated petitions, and created associations to oppose women’s suffrage in New York and Massachusetts. Thousands of women would eventually […]
Stephan: The EPA has been gutted by Trump and turned into an agency in support of the carbon energy industries. Here is the latest obscenity from EPA. As this article reports, even people in those industries are appalled.
A gas flare in Loving County, Texas. By some estimates, methane has 80 times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide, though it dissipates faster. Credit: Angus Mordant/Reuters
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is expected in the coming days to lift Obama-era controls on the release of methane, a powerful climate-warming gas that is emitted from leaks and flares in oil and gas wells.
The new rule on methane pollution, issued by the Environmental Protection Agency, has been expected for months, and will be made public before Friday, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke anonymously to avoid publicly pre-empting the official announcement.
The rollback of the methane rule is the latest move in the Trump administration’s ongoing effort to weaken environmental standards, which has continued unabated during the coronavirus pandemic.
In April, the E.P.A. weakened rules on the release of toxic chemicals from coal-fired power plants, loosened curbs on climate-warming tailpipe pollution and opted not to strengthen a regulation on industrial soot emissions that have been linked to respiratory diseases, including Covid-19.
