Stephan: Part of Trump's attempted coup has involved gutting of the U.S Postal Service assisted by his faithful orc Louis DeJoy. There is so much criminality and democracy destruction going on that the demolition of the post office has faded from center stage, but that doesn't mean it is not still going on. Here is the latest, and it is pretty much what you would expect.
Louis De Joy, Trumpian orc Credit: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Bloomberg
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told a judge the U.S. Postal Service can’t reassemble the hundreds of high speed mail-sorting machines that were taken apart this year, a project that more than a dozen states allege was intended to undermine the upcoming election.
A nationwide injunction issued last week in Yakima, Washington, should be amended to acknowledge that the machines can’t be put back together, DeJoy and the USPS said in a filing in the case on Wednesday. The machines, dismantled under a DeJoy initiative, were stripped for parts to improve or repair other machines, they said.
“It is therefore not possible to return such machines to service,” the USPS and DeJoy, a major Republican donor, said in the filing.
The Sept. 17 injunction granted by U.S. District Judge Stanley A. Bastian, requires the USPS to reverse disruptive operational changes implemented by DeJoy, including restrictions on overtime and changes to the handling of election mail, such as absentee ballots applications. The order was sought by a group of Democratic state attorneys […]
Robert Cardillo, Retired Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency - Dever Post
Stephan: There are still brave Americans who are willing to step forward into the light and to speak the truth of the experience of dealing personally with Donald Trump. The other day it was Olivia Troye and, now, Robert Cardillo. Do you notice that they all tell the same story of an egomaniacal psychopath whose only priority is "What's in it for me?" I think this says as much about Trumpers as about Trump himself. If you are a Trump supporter you are by definition not a rational person.
I spent over 300 mornings in the Oval Office briefing the president and his senior staff. I had the privilege to manage, edit and deliver the president’s Daily Brief a summary of the most timely and critical intelligence threats to the U.S. from 2010 to 2014.
As a Deputy on the National Security Council, I spent over 1,000 hours in the White House Situation Room providing the intelligence assessments which informed critical U.S. national security policy decisions — including the raid that rendered justice for the victims of 9/11.
Since I have been eligible to vote, I have never registered with a political party. I remain an independent with a history of voting for candidates I believe in — I focused on their policy and not their party. Before this election, I have never spoken out for or against a candidate for any office.
But I can be silent no longer.
In the summer of 1976, I was 14 years old and new to Colorado, my father took command of the Western Region’s National Guard. I enrolled in the brand-new […]
Hannah Beech, Southeast Asia Bureau Chief - The New York Times
Stephan: I got two emails today that so depressed me. One was from Slovenia, the other was from Norway. Both had the same message. As the Slovenian reader put it, "As I read your media, and listen to the international news I can hardly believe what I am hearing. How quickly America has gone from the leading nation in the world to a country so sad I can only pity you. I feel safer in Slovenia than my brother-in-law says he does in Chicago."
Myanmar
BANGKOK — Myanmar is a poor country struggling with open ethnic warfare and a coronavirus outbreak that could overload its broken hospitals. That hasn’t stopped its politicians from commiserating with a country they think has lost its way.
“I feel sorry for Americans,” said U Myint Oo, a member of parliament in Myanmar. “But we can’t help the U.S. because we are a very small country.”
The same sentiment prevails in Canada, one of the most developed countries . Two out of three Canadians live within about 60 miles of the American border.
“Personally, it’s like watching the decline of the Roman Empire,” said Mike Bradley, the mayor of Sarnia, an industrial city on the border with Michigan, where locals used to venture for lunch.
Amid the pandemic and in the run-up to the presidential election, much of the world is watching the United States with a mix of shock, chagrin and, most of all, bafflement.
Stephan: I agree with this poll's conclusions. The Electoral College was created to resolve a struggle between the slave and non-slave owning states and should be abolished. The election should be determined by popular vote.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
61% prefer amending Constitution to use popular vote to elect president
89% of Democrats, 23% of Republicans favor popular vote
Democrats’ preference for popular vote highest in two decades
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Heading into the 2020 presidential election, three in five Americans favor amending the U.S. Constitution to replace the Electoral College with a popular vote system, marking a six-percentage point uptick since April 2019. This preference for electing the president based on who receives the most votes nationwide is driven by 89% of Democrats and 68% of independents. Far fewer Republicans, 23%, share this view, as 77% of them support keeping the current system in which the candidate with the most votes in the Electoral College wins the election.Americans Favor Using Popular Vote to Elect PresidentThinking for a moment about the way in which the president is elected in this country, which would you prefer — to amend the Constitution so the candidate who receives the most total votes nationwide wins the election, or to keep the current system, in which the candidate who wins […]
Stephan: California is joining with most of Europe to eliminate petroleum-powered vehicles. States controlled by Republicans, in contrast, like Trump don't buy the reality of climate change, and either promote petroleum or are indifferent to its regulation. This, in essence, is promoting a crime against humanity
Transportation remains California’s largest source of planet-warming emissions, accounting for roughly 40 percent of the state’s greenhouse gases from human activity. Credit: Ben Margot/Associated Press
California plans to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars statewide by 2035, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday, in a sweeping move aimed at accelerating the state’s efforts to combat global warming amid a deadly and record-breaking wildfire season.
In an executive order, Governor Newsom directed California’s regulators to develop a plan that would require automakers to sell steadily more zero-emissions passenger vehicles in the state, such as battery-powered or hydrogen-powered cars and pickup trucks, until they make up 100 percent of new auto sales in just 15 years.
The plan would also set a goal for all heavy-duty trucks on the road in California to be zero emissions by 2045 where possible. And the order directs the state’s transportation agencies to look for near-term actions to reduce Californian’s reliance on driving by, for example, expanding access to mass transit and biking.
“This is the next big global industry,” Governor Newsom said at […]
![The bridge between Sarnia, Ontario, and Port Huron, Mich. The border between the United States and Canada [...]
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