The United States is not a democracy. It's a constitutional republic.

Not everybody considers that to be a good thing though.

For the purpose of creating conflict and confusion, some in the Fake News Media are saying that it is the Governors decision to open up the states, not that of the President of the United States & the Federal Government. Let it be fully understood that this is incorrect....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 13, 2020

Yeah, that ship has sailed. You elect a Trump, you get a Trump.

Part of the reason I am against the GOP is because it wants to nationalize every issue. Local power is important, IMO.

I think it's worked pretty well for 231 years. A lot of "democracies" have risen and fallen in a much shorter period of time. The checks and balances that prevent the popular will from overreacting to short term events has served us well in my opinion. Others may disagree.

re: Trump's tweet about the states.

He wants to take absolutely no responsibility. But he can't stand the idea that he does not have the power.

50% of the country loves this guy and will be very sad if he isn't in charge of us next year.

Its going to be an interesting election.

I am really up in the air. Neither of these guys do anything for me. Trump is acting more and more bufoonish every day. Biden is getting accused of sexual assault in a time when that is a hot button issue. No viable 3rd party candidates.

Another damn election of the lesser of 2 evils. Whatever happened to the time when we had dynamic, energetic, competent people running for president?

Well y'all (the general y'all) didn't want to vote for Warren or Rubio (I picked Rubio as the one that fits those buckets for 2016 Republicans) ;).

Again, these are the rules, isn't a good answer to the question, why do fewer votes get more power than more votes? If the party with more votes consistently can't get power through the system, the system will be overturned.

Maybe we're not close to the system breaking, but I'm sure we get closer to that every time power is withheld from the party that gets the most votes.

I believe what is going to break the system is the country being so divided and the idiots both parties throw up in every election and the corporations actually running the country. These are the factors that will break the system, not the fact that the Dems cant get a foot hold in areas that are determining the EC.

Citizen's United is probably the worst Supreme Court decision in the past 60 years. We'll probably see more bad rulings since the court's are stacked in 1 party's favor and nearly every vote right now is 5-4. The fact that we have an administration abusing the Supreme Court isn't helping.

We have a minority party running things and stacking power in their favor as demographics continue to turn against them. We're going to reach a point where either the GOP breaks things so bad they can't be fixed or the demographics change to the point that they struggle to win national elections. It's a race to see which happens first right now as the GOP leadership realizes their time in power is limited so they're taking everything they can right now with no regard to the future of the country. As they see it, a future without GOP ideals isn't a country worth saving anyway.

This literally should have no bearing when the other guy literally admitted to grabbing women by the P*&$% while the person you reference has denied it all. This is going to piss e off to no end when I heard die hard Christian women around me in my industry absolving Trump of the Sexual assault admission with a waxing of "locker room talk" yet now will try to hang their coat on the Biden might've done it too? Fuck me, where's justice Kavanaugh when you need him? Oh yeah, he's busy raping someone too... or did he? Depends on if your narrative is colored Red or Blue. A big fuck you to every single person who waivers from one side to the other on this depending on your bend. Youu either believe them or don't. When Trump admitted to it that was it. He admitted it. At least Kavanuagh had the smarts to deny and will hopefully deny until the day he's dead.

Jon would say something along this line of thinking, but only in more colorful and much more aggressive.

When people tell you who they are listen to them.

For years, they have been saying that they'd rather destroy the country than not be in charge of it.

They aren't lying. They were never lying. We share some fault for not believing them. They've never been bashful about it.

Hoyer says that barring an emergency the House won't come back until May at the earliest.

Hard to imagine what an emergency might be if this doesn't qualify.

They really need to institute virtual voting.

The US Postal service seems to be run well. I can send a letter to someone across the country for 50 cents. What would it cost FedEx to do the same?

Never understood the argument that the post office needs to be profitable. It's a service. No one complains that the fire department isn't profitable. Or the local park isn't profitable.

If there are ways to make if more efficient, I'm all for it. But I feel it's a valuable service to all Americans and worth paying for. We spend more on fighter jets that can't even fly than we do on the postal service.

Difficulty: they can't do that by unanimous consent because you know one GOP Representative would object. They'd have to come back in session to vote to implement it.

Catch-22.

Checks and balances stopped working when Mitch McConnell hijacked judge confirmation, first in refusing to hear Obama's pick for the Supreme Court, then removing the filibusterer on judges and ramming through completely unqualified people into the judiciary. There are no more checks and balances. The Executive ignores congressional oversight, and subpoenas. They are using a favorable court to destroy voting rights. We are seeing this democracy failing.

Right, I know. But I was speaking more as a general pandemic and/or disaster Continuity of Operations Plan.

I saw a Fed Ex employee say it would cost a minium $11.50 to just send a post card cross country.

And they would probably just hand it off to the USPS anyways.

My brother feels the same way. That we're headed towards a demagogue-like autocracy for a while where one party rams through whatever they want until there's some sort of popular uprising at the polls to overcome it all. he prays it wont be too late.

Those USPS guys are pretty impressive, I've got to admit. If you want to save time, fast forward to 3:30 to witness some of their skills.

I can't wait to drive for 45 minutes to some industrial shithole FedEx/UPS/OnTrac/DHL warehouse to pick up my mail every week, because there's nobody at my home at 11am on Mondays.

I've noticed that both my local UPS and FedEx have moved from attempting deliver 3 times, to exactly one attempt, before they dump your package at some random spot miles away. Oh I'm sorry, I thought I had paid to have this "delivered".

Okay, I've been with USPS for several years now, so here's my big dumb #SaveThePostOffice thread. I don't know how many tweets it's gonna take for me to ramble through my thoughts, so stick with me. Or don't, whatever.

— Dingus J McGee, ESQ*, OBE* (@DingusJMcGee) April 10, 2020

The amazing thing about it, like so many other things with Trump supporters, is they will be the ones this impacts most.

If you're lucky they'll actually knock. Hell sometimes they don't even bother with an actual delivery attempt but log it as a failed delivery.

A couple of years ago I ordered a TV off of amazon. It was shipped Fed Ex. My son was home all day and we got a failed delivery notice with online tracking, but no paper notice on the door. The next day I stayed home, called amazon to complain, and while on the phone with amazon the amazon rep told me another failed delivery notice was logged. While I'm at home. On the phone with amazon.

I've also had UPS send a package to their warehouse with 3 failed delivery attempts, but when I picked it up from the warehouse there was no tracking info on the package showing delivery attempts.

That's not even getting into the seasonal hires who are just as likely to make a package "disappear" as they are to delivery it if it's anything of obvious value.

My in laws live on a farm. It is a bit of a walk from the side of the house to the front door. I would say 80% of the time they leave their packages along the side of the house, often directly under where the gutter drains.

I had amazon drop off 2 packages yesterday. One mine, the other for a house across town. Street names not even remotely close. Not sure is it was incompetence or laziness. Both the level of inexcusable.

Ha!

Yes, where else can you get a piece of paper delivered to Alaska for 50 cents in 3 days?

Yeah, F the USPS. If this dies, our country is in trouble.

My personal rankings of the delivery services based on my experiences over the past several years:

1.) USPS - not always the fastest but I know the package is going to either get here or where I sent it

2.) Amazon - bonus points because I've twice had a driver call my cell and ask if it's ok to leave a package at the door because I'm not home

3.) UPS - meh, I've had some problems but not as many as the others. Gets worse than Fed Ex during the holidays

4.) Fed Ex - 50/50 whether I get a shitshow or not.

The rest:

On Track - No idea how these guys are in business. Look, I know we said by 8pm, but 11pm with no knock is the best we can do.

DHL - Delivered to the wrong house the one time I recall receiving something from them. It was my son's baseball pants that he needed the next day. I had to go door to door at around 9pm looking for the package. The people weren't home at the place the package was left at so I had to explain to the neighbor sitting on his front porch what I was doing. Good times.

FedEx is usually OK with business stuff if you're using express. But their residential delivery is a shitshow.

"When somebody is President of the United States, the authority is total."--Donald Trump, a few moments ago

Must be time to get rid of the 2nd amendment, because we trust in the feds.

Time to go buy a couple guns. I think that is what Im using my stimulus check for.

That campaign style video as well :lol: :eek: :crazy:

Based off my twitter feed I am glad I stopped watching those shit shows

I do think that CNN is playing into his hands, though, with making the snarky Chryons.

When you stoop to his level, he wins. He is better at a name-calling gutter fight than you will ever be.

Why? That's literally all Fox ever does. You can't play fair with a bully. The only thing you can do is pummel them with their faults.

Im buying guns with my stimulus check

Something about pigs and mud.

SI

I LOL'd

WWE deemed 'essential business' in Florida, mayor says


Given that many of the local strip clubs aligned themselves with the pastor that was arrested locally because they also wanted their "freedom to assemble", I can't wait to find out which category RAW is in.

Ahh Florida,

SUCK IT GOP

Wisconsin Supreme Court election: Jill Karofsky wins over Daniel Kelly

Today in Florida Part 2.

Exhibit A for my comment in the poll thread about when we open up.

Florida should social distance until a vaccine exists — even if it’s next year, surgeon general says

it's almost as if they should have let more people vote

Oh, that is so, so sweet. The GOP saying the election was invalid in 3, 2, 1....

Isn't it great that the party for limited federal control and states rights now has a leader who says he has supreme authority and that the state and local authorities can't do anything without his approval?

Gee I wish we had his own words to refute his own words...

Sen. Burr is filling up his financial crimes Bingo card.

Good thing we have a President who is draining the swamp.

The weird thing about the press conferences is how long they go. Don't these people have jobs to do? 3 hours in front of a camera plus the prep time and half your workday is shot.

edit: wrong thread

Its like carrying around a clipboard. You know it makes you look busy.

The breathless headlines announcing the record total with that explanation buried six paragraphs deep will be fun

Whatever it was you wrote, it can't have been as much "wrong story at the wrong place at the wrong time" as what Trump did yesterday.

Trump is talking about cutting the funding to the WHO (basically using them as a scapegoat).

Trump cannot fail, he can only be failed. (IE, it's never his fault)

lol

Trump said he'll authorize governors to pick when they reopen.

I hope he authorizes the sun to rise, too.

Again - he accuses everyone else of things he's done.

Is there any reason we should be funding WHO?

Look at their treatment of Taiwan. WHO is a Chinese mouthpiece nowadays.

Well, if that money was now instead spend on the CDC or on anything to do with healthcare/healthcase science, maybe not. But since that seems doubtful and it is more likely he'll buy a few shiny planes with it, the question should be a different one.

Meanwhile, making sure nobody forgets who to thank in their prayers for the awesome situation they find themselves in: https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...2b7_story.html

Coronavirus: US to halt funding to WHO, says Trump - BBC News


I didn’t see the full press conference: I assume that he followed it up by requesting that all funds to the White House be cut for the same reasons?

No, he cut off China from travel before others were calling for it. Just ask him, he'll tell you. That's far more important than using the bully pulpit to encourage people to take the virus seriously instead of lying about it and calling it a hoax, having any vague semblance of a plan, preparing the country in terms of resources/hospital capacity, or ensuring we are ramping up quality testing as much as possible.

Vince McMahon knows. To have a great BabyFace you must have a great Heel.

I think he needs Vince to be the next WH Press Sec. I mean it would fit with literally everything this admin has done.

If you're getting a physical $1200 check from the government, it will be delayed by a few days as they change the printing process to include Trump's signature.

Seriously.

"Sir, here's a list of 25 things we need to be doing to save American lives over the next three months."

"Are any of them racist?"

"No, not really."

"What's the most racist thing on the list?"

"Uh, well, I guess you could call limiting travel from China kind of racist since it would disproportionately affect nonwhite people. I mean, that's not the purpose, but it does have a pretty racially discriminatory effect."

"OK. We'll do that. And then I'll do the opposite of the other 24 things on the list."

And the crazy thing is that that was the most productive White House meeting in three years.

That's what happens when you have a little neo-Nazi like Stephen Miller in the President's ear all the time.

SI

And the funny thing this is likely closer to the truth than anything that comes out of Trumps mouth on any given day, ever.

Who still has the most punchable face in America by the way.

Are we sure that anyone has seen the thug who killed Mikey Tandino in “Beverly Hills Cop” in the same room as Stephen Miller? pic.twitter.com/SPdiHBgPPt

— Ben Lewis (@benelou) January 8, 2018

Joke I heard:

How can Steve Miller and Donald Trump look at each other every day and still believe in the genetic superiority of the white race?

You just can't make this shit up... it truly writes itself:

I apologize for giving certain elements of the media too much credit.

US coronavirus: Highest number of deaths in a day recorded after several days of a downward trend

Doesn't mention the extra deaths added into at least New York's count yesterday anywhere, never mind burying it.

The NY additional deaths weren't part of that total. Not sure if or when they are listing it. Maybe they are backdating to the actual date of death? The high death total seems to be how we were normally tracking.

Worth pointing out that Tuesdays seem to be the worst day reporting wise because some of the weekend deaths lag in reporting.

That's true. I thought NY extras had been included, so I stand corrected.

Missing:

- That is the biggest Iceberg
- This Iceberg is going to go away on it's own.
- People will know about this in a 100 year, just the best anyone ever hit an Ice Berg

And stealing from John Oliver:

"I want to congratulate everyone. These lifeboats have become so popular ! A few weeks ago, noting. Now they are moving like hotcakes, it's really a tribute to a well-run ship !"

Ha Alex!

President total authority is threatening to adjourn congress.

What exactly does that mean?

Adjournment = preventing Congress from being in session/meeting for legislative business/whatever other phraseology you want to employ.

He's managed to find a new Constitutional axe to grind. He does have the authority to do it theoretically (Article II, Section 3). It's an interesting situation where everybody's wrong. It's not meant to be used so he can do recess appointments; it's for 'extraordinary occasions' and AFAIK has never been done. At the same time, Congress should vote up or down his appointees as well.

Yet another example in my mind of there being nobody large enough for this moment in history.

Trump wants to make recess appointments: “I will use my constitutional authority to adjourn both houses of Congress” if they don’t adjourn themselves. #TrumpPressConf

— Andy Grewal (@AndyGrewal) April 15, 2020

Put the "Adjournment Clause" on the list of "things I would have died not knowing ever existed but for Trump."

dola: his tweets following up the one I linked to get into it a little more.

1st, Trump is a coward and it's always safe to assume anything is just bluster.

2nd, Trump's power, as we've seen, is whatever the GOP Senate and SCOTUS say it is.

But, assuming things work normally, the House and Senate have agreed on a date for adjournment, Jan. 3 2021. Recess isn't the same as adjournment, and SCOTUS told Obama, unanimously, that he couldn't play games and get around the Senate blocking recess appointments.

It's also really fucking rich to complain about appointments when your party runs the Senate.

This tantrum was over 1 particular person he nominated that both parties have express doubts about. Rather than nominate someone else Trump has held him limbo trying force a formal hearing and vote rather than act within our norms.

The fact is the vast majority of his openings are either because he hasn't nominated someone or because McConnell has put approving judges above all else for the past 3+ years.

I don't necessarily disagree with that, but it doesn't change the fact that Congress has a duty to advise and consent. Not to stall. Everyone deserves a hearing and vote if the President wants them to have one. I said the same thing under Obama, and Bush before him, and so on. The process isn't complicated. We've just made it so because we want to constantly play political football with appointments as a country.

The Dems can't stop any nominee. They are delaying as much as they can, but as Mitch has shown with judges, anybody the GOP wants to get through, gets through.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/u...imes&smtyp=cur


If Trump had a brain in his head he would make sure this happens, then claim credit for it happening. Would buy him a ton of goodwill. Of course he is stupid so he won't.

READ: Frank Luntz Responds to Republicans Believing Trump Has More Power over States than Governors: 'C'mon, Republicans. This Is Textbook Federalism.' - Second Nexus

hahaha he thinks they care

Wait , they only care about power?

Oh, well. MAGA.

Likely originated naturally but a good tactic for Trump. Find a bogeyman to blame and China is the right target. If he can find some "evidence", there are plenty of US voters & countries that will fall behind someone leading the "blame game".

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/15/polit...lab/index.html

From what I've read, the science doesn't say that it's likely it occurred naturally; it says that it's pretty much a certainty. It might be a good tactic for Trump, but I can't think of much that would do more to ensure I vote D for the first time in my life instead of going third-party again.

Then the conspiracy will pivot towards China allowed it to spread beyond its borders with their X, Y, Z (in)actions. The blame game will help Trump politically and I don't see a lot of downside here for him (assuming he stays on message about this ... which I know is not a sure thing).

Lol thinking the US right now has that much more credibility than China among other countries so that they will 'fall in line' and adopt the stance they manufactured it because of some flimsy 'evidence' not based in science, that's cute :)

People and countries are/will be critical of Chinas handling of it, but not because the US says so.

Germany and rest of EU will be critical in words only, not deeds. It's in their best interests and/or nature not to be that confrontational.

Trump has shown a willingness to engage China in words and deeds. Maybe not most EU countries, but Trump has an opportunity to turn Asia, possibly Africa, unsure about South America against China if (and it's not a given) he is willing to lead the way.

I've stated before that blaming China for this mess will help him politically. There are many countries uneasy about China's influence. Trump has been given an opportunity to exploit these fears. Will he is a different question.

Give Tucker and company a couple days, they'll be right there with the "of course he can dissolve Congress, that's what a President has to do..." don't worry.

Yes, he totally engages China and is so tough. How brave and forward thinking.

China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 24, 2020

Except Africa is already big into the US bringing the virus to China right now. China owns a /lot/ of Africa right now because of the belt and road initiative and they've been spreading that one around there for a few weeks now.

SI