WTF Just Happened Today

Thursday, August 13, 2020

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• ???? Dept. of “We Have It Totally Under Control.”

• Global: Total confirmed cases: ~20,729,000; deaths: ~752,000

• U.S.: Total confirmed cases: ~5,237,000; deaths: ~167,000

• Source: Johns Hopkins University

1/ Trump vowed to block funding for the U.S. Postal Service so Democrats “can’t have universal mail-in voting” during the coronavirus pandemic. On Wednesday, Trump told reporters he would not approve $25 billion in emergency funding for the Postal Service, or $3.5 billion in supplemental funding for election resources. And then on Thursday, Trump directly linked Democrats’ coronavirus relief spending proposal to his continued baseless claims that increased mail-in voting would perpetuate “one of the greatest frauds in history,” saying “if they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting because they’re not equipped to have it.” Trump added: “They don’t have the money to do the universal mail-in voting. So therefore, they can’t do it, I guess. Are they going to do it even if they don’t have the money?” States, meanwhile, are working to increase their capacity for mail-in voting with a surge of Americans expected to vote by mail this fall because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump also threatened to veto an earlier, $2 trillion round of coronavirus relief spending for unemployment benefits, small businesses, and national security industries if it included any direct funding for the Postal Service. (HuffPost / Washington Post / New York Times / Business Insider / Axios / Bloomberg / Washington Post / CNN)

• The United States Postal Service has removed some mail sorting machines that would likely be tasked with sorting ballots without explanation or reason. At least 19 mail sorting machines from five processing facilities around the country have either already been removed or are scheduled to be in the near future. USPS has not announced any policy, explained why this is happening, what will happen to the machines or the workers who use them. (Vice News)

• A former top official at the USPS warned that recent operational changes by Postmaster General Louis Dejoy could “disenfranchise” voters. Ronald Stroman, who stepped down earlier this year as the second in command at USPS, said the changes being implemented just months ahead of an election in which a record number of Americans are expected to vote by mail is “a high-risk proposition.” (The Guardian)

• The Supreme Court rejected an emergency request by the Republican National Committee and the Rhode Island Republican Party to block state voters from...

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