Althouse: "Have you noticed how the left moves seamlessly from one batshit conspiracy theory to another, while calling the right paranoid?"

August 17, 2020

"Have you noticed how the left moves seamlessly from one batshit conspiracy theory to another, while calling the right paranoid?"

Asks Glenn Reynolds, linking to "The Manufactured Hysteria Over Mail Delivery."

It's the week of the Democratic convention — whatever that is. I'm afraid the party got hoodwinked into making the post office the big issue this week. Isn't it mostly a bargaining chip in a deal that will soon be closed? Shouldn't all of Trump's other many purported deficiencies be highlighted?

To convince me that the Democratic Party isn't making a mistake, you'd have to argue 2 things. First, that Trump's other supposed deficiencies really are not such a big deal, and second, that Trump is headed to victory and the Democrats’ best strategy is to undermine his second term with allegations that he cheated.

123 comments:

Mark O said...: I'll take door number 2, Ann.; 8/17/20, 9:48 AM
Ken B said...: I don’t think desideratum one is correct. I only have to argue his other deficiencies won’t elect a Democrat. The actual merits are irrelevant if we are assessing this as a tactic.

I agree it’s a mistake, I disagree with what needs to be proven to refute that.; 8/17/20, 9:53 AM
MayBee said...: Isn't it mostly a bargaining chip in a deal that will soon be closed?

Yes.
Looking at the Postal worker's union twitter feed, I believe it is a 'never let a crisis go to waste' moment. The post office has been losing billions for 13 years straight. Some of that, but not all of it, is because the pension fund had to be pre-paid. That was smart at one time, because we saw what happened to the pensions of United Airline retirees, and GM retirees medical care that they were supposed to have, but neither could afford.

Under Obama, there was a move to stop delivering mail on Saturdays in an effort to get the post office back on track. That was not allowed. So now we have a behemoth that is supposed to be self-funding, but actually runs on billions of dollars of debt, and a union. The new guy in charge is a logistics guy, who can probably turn the post office around. But the union doesn't want that, because they like over time and they don't mind the post office running poorly.

When COVID hit, our mail slowed down considerably. Packages that I was notified were going to be delivered that day simply didn't get delivered for weeks or months.

But all of this can easily be blamed now on a political opponent- Trump! Because he doesn't want mail-in voting! And all the people who in the last few years have been experts on kompromat and disease control are now experts in the number of mail boxes a city should have, and whether they should be locked, and what kind of sorting machines the post office needs.

And even Obama is playing along!!!; 8/17/20, 9:54 AM
MadisonMan said...: It does seem like Post Office Shenanigans (I'll call is POS) is just the latest thing thrown at the wall to see if it'll stick. Headline today: Pelosi calls House back to deal with this. Bad Politics IMO: Congress leaves without dealing with relief for people dealing with COVID, but comes back for latest Trump "terror": POS.; 8/17/20, 9:54 AM
Lewis said...: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04clpd7h0b0; 8/17/20, 9:56 AM
Greg The Class Traitor said...: The situation is that vote by mail makes cheating much easier

And it appears that teh Democrats are convinced they're going to need to cheat to have any chance of winning

The the Democrats appear to believe it's Door #2; 8/17/20, 9:57 AM
rehajm said...: ...and the Democrats best strategy is to undermine his second term with allegations that he cheated.

It could be the classic accuse of your opponent of that which you're guilty strategy. Both works for me, too...; 8/17/20, 9:57 AM
Aggie said...: After 5 years of spewing this non-stop nonsense, a steady production line of fluffed-up crises and faux scandals, the Progressive Party still hasn't figured out that the problem isn't Donald Trump. The problem is the way the left feels entitled to treat Donald Trump. Decent people object to it. Decent people see that, however gauche and confrontational Donald Trump may be, a lot of it is an act, for effect; They've been watching him on television, for years, using the same shtick.

But there is no doubt about the sincerity of the Progressive's hatred of Trump. And there is no doubt that they have squandered the power of their elected office to bring it all to bear on his annihilation. Do they think this is missed by their constituents? Do they imagine that their constituents, every last voting one of them, will think they've been well-served by these efforts, given Trump's evident success on fulfilling a good many of his promises, in spite of their efforts? Do they think their voting, tax-paying constituents are blaming Trump for their smoking debris piles, downtown?

78 days to finding out, assuming we have a psuedo-normal voting process.; 8/17/20, 9:58 AM
Freder Frederson said...: Batshit conspiracy theory? Trump came out and said on national television that he didn't want to fund the post office to prevent more vote by mail.

Granted, the administration has spent the last week trying to walk the statements back, but that is typical. Trump says the quiet part out loud, then has to pretend he never said it.; 8/17/20, 9:59 AM
Big Mike said...: @Althouse, why should I or anyone else try to convince you about anything? From where I sit you appear to committing the same blunder as you did in 2008, putting the Republican under a microscope looking for flaws you can magnify in your mind, while overlooking the personal and policy problems of his opponent.

How about you trying to convince me otherwise.; 8/17/20, 9:59 AM
Michael K said...: I have suspected for months that the Democrats know they are losing.

Their best chance is fraud but the record with mail ballots is not good.; 8/17/20, 9:59 AM
mezzrow said...: After door #1 and door #2, what's behind door #3?

That's the one we open after the election gets settled. I'm not smelling the love from this side of that door, no matter which way it is settled. Win or lose, the left has a lot of punishment left to hand out to America for being subjected to Trump in the first place. We're getting a really heavy dose of "nice country you have there, etc..." in all this.

If I was a Democrat, I'd be furious and deeply worried right now. Riots, conspiracies, and a candidate who can't leave his basement aren't the way I would build confidence in the face of Trumpism and a worldwide pandemic.; 8/17/20, 9:59 AM
Joe Smith said...: People haven't figured it out yet? Usually they react to something Trump wants them to react to, then he pull the rug out from under them.

It's all DNC-MSM driven collusion. And they pound it down our throats 24/7 and then move on to the next outrage.

Liberals are very easily led...very sheep-like, except sheep have an excuse because they're, well, sheep : ); 8/17/20, 10:00 AM
Tommy Duncan said...: Don't overthink this. It's all they've got. They are playing the hand they dealt themselves.; 8/17/20, 10:00 AM
MayBee said...: This on Medium is the best thing I've read about the Post Office.; 8/17/20, 10:01 AM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: "To the alarm of some government health officials, President Trump has expressed enthusiasm for the Food and Drug Administration to permit an extract from the oleander plant to be marketed as a dietary supplement or, alternatively, approved as a drug to cure COVID-19, despite lack of proof that it works.

Driving the news: The experimental botanical extract, oleandrin, was promoted to Trump during an Oval Office meeting in July. It’s embraced by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and MyPillow founder and CEO Mike Lindell, a big Trump backer, who recently took a financial stake in the company that develops the product."; 8/17/20, 10:01 AM
JPS said...: I don't have strong feelings about mail-in voting. I think people should vote in person, on election day, to the extent possible, but more and more people think otherwise. Oh well.

But there are enough stories of ballots going astray within more or less one-party states, on scales larger than the margin for error in a lot of states, that I don't much trust voting by mail.

My optimistic take is that at this point the parties are warning each other, Don't try it. We're watching and we'll raise holy hell if you do.

My realistic take is that whichever side loses will undermine the next presidential term with allegations of cheating.; 8/17/20, 10:01 AM
Amadeus 48 said...: They are making a mistake, and they are doing it because Trump's other supposed deficiencies aren't a big deal, and Trump is headed for a second term.

If the post office gag doesn't work, they can always say the refs were prejudiced against them.

Eventually, every small-time high school grievance finds its way into the Democrats' Weltanshauung.; 8/17/20, 10:01 AM
Gusty Winds said...: The post office was dying prior to any mail in voting scheme. I get EVERYTHING is terms of bills, house, finances etc… delivered electronically. The only thing the post office puts in my mailbox is junk mail. They didn’t reinvent themselves fast enough to compete with UPS and FED-X, and now Amazon.; 8/17/20, 10:06 AM
MayBee said...: Freder Frederson said...
Batshit conspiracy theory? Trump came out and said on national television that he didn't want to fund the post office to prevent more vote by mail.

The post office does not need this funding to handle voting by mail. They have said so themselves.; 8/17/20, 10:06 AM
Temujin said...: As bizarre as the Democrats have been for the past 20 years, they've topped anything we could have imagined over the past 4 years, but then went even further over this past 6 months. Nothing like tearing apart a country and telling the press you'd like to see more violence out there.

But you see- the press is the Democrat Party. And as long as they hold 95% of the press, social media, entertainment industry- they can continue to cover over what has been done, and bring to the fore whatever they like- seamlessly. Today it's the post office. Today voting by mail is not only sacred, it's honorable and the only safe thing. Tomorrow it'll be something else.

At some point, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will have to answer real questions from somebody they weren't expecting to have to talk to. They'll get a question that was not pre-approved. And the next Trump 'crisis' will have to move to the forefront to get Biden's answer off the news.; 8/17/20, 10:08 AM
Drago said...: Bundy Case Liar Freder: "Batshit conspiracy theory? Trump came out and said on national television that he didn't want to fund the post office to prevent more vote by mail."

The post office is already fully funded.

Freder = #POAnon; 8/17/20, 10:08 AM
MayBee said...: The post office has liquidity through August 2021, well after the election.; 8/17/20, 10:09 AM
Churchy LaFemme: said...: I get mail delivered from the Post Office on Sundays now. That struck me as kind of a big deal, but I don't recall any announcement about it.

On the other hand, apparently my carrier can't be bothered to stop by my box if I have my flag up. He only stops if he as mail to put into my box. I end up having to drop my outgoing mail in a blue box.; 8/17/20, 10:09 AM
Drago said...: I see Beijing Boy ARM has rapidly moved on to a brand new tempest in a teapot.

Given the polls showing his Beijing Boy-Buddy Biden collapsing in even the lefty polls (and AFTER the Kamala s***show rollout which led to even more blacks less likely to vote for Dementia Biden), I guess ARM has no where else to go.

tsk tsk

A once mediocre mind now reduced to, you know, far less than mediocre.; 8/17/20, 10:11 AM
Gusty Winds said...: The post office was dying prior to any mail in voting scheme. I get EVERYTHING is terms of bills, house, finances etc… delivered electronically. The only thing the post office puts in my mailbox is junk mail. They didn’t reinvent themselves fast enough to compete with UPS and FED-X, and now Amazon.; 8/17/20, 10:11 AM
Drago said...: Maybee: "The post office does not need this funding to handle voting by mail. They have said so themselves."

99% of Social Security recipients receive their payments electronically.

And have since 2010 when obama implemented it because, even then, Howard's Heroes were waiting at Post Offices and mail drops to assault and rob elderly recipients.....or as Howard would call it, fighting a modern "Battle of Bulge".

Here's a clip of obama lamenting the poor state of the post office and its services:
“UPS and FedEx are doing just fine... It’s the Post Office that’s always having problems.”
-- Barack Obama, 2009; 8/17/20, 10:15 AM
James L. Salmon said...: Embrace the power of AND Ann!

"Trump's other supposed deficiencies really are not such a big deal, ... AND ... Trump is headed to victory and the Democrats best strategy is to undermine his second term with allegations that he cheated."

Easy, peasy lemon squezzy.; 8/17/20, 10:16 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Russia stole the election from its rightful owner and the entire hack -D liar press - headed by creature Maddow - lied to us for 3+ years. Russia tricked me into hating Hillary. How could they!? bastards.

Mueller should be arrested.; 8/17/20, 10:18 AM
MayBee said...: Yes, people are obviously using Trump's (and reality's) hesitance about vote by mail to get progressives on board with giving the post office more money and eliminating the guy who could fix it. In the meantime, the union calls Trump a fascist and nobody seems to notice that might not be great for vote-by-mail in GOP districts.; 8/17/20, 10:18 AM
Nonapod said...: At this point analyzing the various machinations and gesticulations of the Dems and their MSM handmaidens is like trying to visually follow the flight path of a gnat. They wildly lurch and swing from one crisis to another every other day. It seems as if they're ceaselessly beset by conflicting emotions of fear and overconfidence, certainty and uncertainty, excitement and dread. At one moment you'll read how they're absolutely certain that they're going to win, just look at those polls!!! And the next they're whinging and fussing about something Trump Tweeted or said during a presser. It's like witnessing a collective slow motion nervous breakdown.; 8/17/20, 10:20 AM
tim maguire said...: The Post Office is a fake issue. There's no reason to move to voting by mail and doing it properly would require years of preparation, starting with cleaning up the voter roles--which Trump tried to do but was thwarted by Democratic governors.

So the Democrats themselves, in 2017, guaranteed that voting by mail today would be a shit show.; 8/17/20, 10:21 AM
h said...: THere's a very short video clip floating around of Obama asking rhetorically, "Why can private firms like FedEx and UPS do just fine, and all the problems are in the Post office?"; 8/17/20, 10:25 AM
The Godfather said...: I was in my local Post Office this morning, and a customer asked one of the clerks if there’d be any problem handling the volume if everyone voted by mail this election. The clerk laughed. No problem at all, he said. Somehow that viewpoint didn’t make it into the ABC network news.; 8/17/20, 10:27 AM
clint said...: There's a saying about litigation -- if the facts are on your side, pound the facts; if the law is on your side, pound the law; if neither is on your side, pound the table.

I think we could make an analogous observation about electioneering: If you have a great candidate, put the candidate front and center; if you have a great issue, put the issue front and center; if you have neither, attack the other candidate; and if there's no hope at all, attack the validity of the election.

I wouldn't assume that the Democrats are making a mistake. I think they don't have a strong candidate, don't have winning issues, and don't expect to win the election. The post office conspiracy is a twofer for them -- it continues the "Fascist Trump" narrative and can also serve to undermine the validity of the election if/when he wins.; 8/17/20, 10:28 AM
Drago said...: James L. Salmon: "Trump's other supposed deficiencies really are not such a big deal, ... AND ... Trump is headed to victory and the Democrats best strategy is to undermine his second term with allegations that he cheated."

To this day democratics and their fully trained and obedient LLR-lefty lap poodles claim W Bush stole the elections in 2000 and 2004. So really, was it such a big leap for the Freders and ARM's and Inga's and Howard's to move to Trump stole the election eleventy!11!1!!!111!; 8/17/20, 10:28 AM
Drago said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/17/20, 10:28 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Why Do Most Countries Ban Mail-In Ballots?: They Have Seen Massive Vote Fraud Problems; 8/17/20, 10:30 AM
Skeptical Voter said...: Interesting editorial in the WSJ this morning. This whole flapdoodle started with a letter from the Postal Services General Counsel. In light of the Post Office's general low level of service, he said that states should allow at least 7 days for delivery either way. Thus they should set a deadline for posting mail in ballots 7 days before the election. And they should expect that it might take 7 days for the Postal Service to deliver a request for a mail in ballot. As Bill Parcells said, "It is what it is." And as grunts in Viet Nam once said, "There it is." The Postal Service all too often moves at a snails' pace, but that's reality. And reality bites.

At least one state said that a voter could ask for a mail in ballot on the Friday before the Tuesday election. That gives four days (two of them on a weekend) to mail out the ballot, vote, and mail it back. Ain't gonna happen.

Pelosi can have the House of Representatives vote that a spavined delivery burro is actually the winged god Mercury--but physics and bureacratic and postal service inertia will make the vote meaningless.; 8/17/20, 10:32 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: BLM mob beats white man unconscious after making him crash truck: video

a vote for the democrat party is a vote for antifa terror.; 8/17/20, 10:33 AM
Jaq said...: I was thinking about that very thing when Howard started going off on some postal service conspiracy theory as if it were as established as the fact that the whole collusion dossier thing was manufactured in a DNC think tank in DC. Oh, that's conspiracy elucidation, once you get evidence, Howard loses all interest. Theories, hypotheses, hypothetical possibilities, baseless conjecture, those are the daily bread of the believing liberal.

"So really, was it such a big leap”

The actual leap they made was that stealing elections is justified on their part.; 8/17/20, 10:41 AM
Jaq said...: "fighting a modern "Battle of Bulge”.”

That’s just Howard thinking about fighting over which billionaire he wants to blow today, even if only metaphorically. They are better than us. Howard is like Fitzgerald in that famous exchange. Sorry Howard, Hemingway was right. They just have more money. The more you rub elbows with rich people, the better you like the guy making an honest living fixing your septic tank.; 8/17/20, 10:44 AM
Kevin said...: How about: the Dems are hoping their batshit policy proposals will be blocked by the Post Office talk and won’t reach the American people.

They’re literally counter-programming their own convention.; 8/17/20, 10:48 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Trump is putting postal workers in cages!; 8/17/20, 10:49 AM
rhhardin said...: SmartPost is the way to go. Let Fedex pick up your ballot and deliver it to a nearby post office. Some Amazon sellers use it and it always adds a week to delivery time.; 8/17/20, 10:50 AM
Kevin said...: If the Dems didn’t want the Post Office talk to run over their convention, Pelosi would not have just given the issue new life.; 8/17/20, 10:51 AM
Kay said...: JPS said...
My optimistic take is that at this point the parties are warning each other, Don't try it. We're watching and we'll raise holy hell if you do.

My realistic take is that whichever side loses will undermine the next presidential term with allegations of cheating.
8/17/20, 10:01 AM

Sounds right to me.; 8/17/20, 10:52 AM
Narayanan said...: Big Mike said...
@Althouse, why should I or anyone else try to convince you about anything? From where I sit you appear to committing the same blunder as you did in 2008, putting the Republican under a microscope looking for flaws you can magnify in your mind, while overlooking the personal and policy problems of his opponent.

How about you trying to convince me otherwise.
-----------======
remember : you are addressing "rage emerita professors" ! a concern for public funded retirement pension will do that to anyone ever; 8/17/20, 10:53 AM
rhhardin said...: Scott Adams points out that the idea is to make the election result not credible, rather than to get a specific candidate to win.

The electorate is about 50/50 so which wins doesn't matter much as far as democratic will is concerned. But if nobody trusts the result, that's a win for the chaosists, which is to say the progressives.; 8/17/20, 10:53 AM
Kevin said...: The Progressives have gone postal.; 8/17/20, 10:53 AM
Biotrekker said...: Liberals scream to defund the local police, local institutions, but never federal institutions (with the exception of the military (though this is situational - NATO/Ukraine good, Israel/Central America bad) and, recently the INS. Notice that there are no calls defund the CIA or FBI - in fact, these agencies, which once fought the extreme Left, are now glorified by the Left, since their police duties have been de-emphasized and they now serve more to support the goals of Mencius Moldbug's Cathedral/Blue Empire.; 8/17/20, 10:54 AM
Earnest Prole said...: Shouldn't all of Trump's other many purported deficiencies be highlighted?

Trump ruins everything, especially his enemies.; 8/17/20, 10:56 AM
clint said...: One more possibility: Democrats know that mail-in ballots will create chaos, and are preparing to blame Trump for it.

It's the usual "if not for the wreckers!" excuse for why communism hasn't worked anywhere it's been tried, but they're deploying it preemptively.; 8/17/20, 11:00 AM
minnesota farm guy said...: A brief example of how voting by mail can be easily screwed up- whether you call it fraud is up to you.: A, B, and C are students that lived in an apartment at 123 Main street; all three registered and voted in 2018; since then B and C have graduated, moved out of the state and registered to vote in their new domicile; the state decides to send ballots to all registered voters; the voting rolls have not been updated since 2010 - if ever; ballots are sent to 123 Main street for A, B, and C; A now has three ballots, while B and C plan to vote in their home districts. Is it fraud if A uses all three ballots that were mailed to his address, or just a "vagary" of the mail in ballot decision.

You see the problem. Multiply this situation by the number of students in a graduating class all across the county and you are talking about millions of " surplus" ballots. That's only one example of what will happen mailing ballots to "registered voters" whose registrations are not kept up to date - which I suspect is very precinct in the country. The folks at Tammany Hall would have loved this scenario.

I am sure you can think of several dozen variations on my scenario that would result in 10's of millions of "surplus " ballots in circulation.; 8/17/20, 11:01 AM
Francisco D said...: Slightly OT

Ronald Reagan's prediction about socialized medicine was made over 40 years ago: It will have all the compassion of the IRS and the efficiency of the Post Office.

If I recall correctly, Ronnie was also literally worse than Hitler when he was POTUS.; 8/17/20, 11:02 AM
Leland said...: I can't argue the Dems aren't making a big mistake, but I do think they are trying to come up with the replacement of Russia Gate and the Covid lockdowns in order to block Trump when he wins again in November.

Besides the USPS being a huge mistake; the Covid lockdown hysteria will continue to hurt Democrat causes. Live entertainment is non-existent, and those people tend to be liberal voters by nature. The teachers unions are creating an environment that makes private schools preferable to more and more parents. Remote working is convincing people they don't need to live in crowded metropolitan areas. And BLM is simply creating more crime and death in already impoverished Democrat strongholds. The only positive for Democrats is the people fleeing to a better life won't realize their voting mistakes of the past, and deep red counties will turn blue. That won't help this election.; 8/17/20, 11:07 AM
rhhardin said...: One should not dismiss ahead of time the claim that one should not dismiss ahead of time the reasoning of a woman. The trouble is that the reasoning of a woman is so often about effects (here, dismissed reasoning). The claims of a man tend to go into causes and effects. That gives men the advantage of being interesting even when not correct.; 8/17/20, 11:11 AM
Jupiter said...: It works on Freder.; 8/17/20, 11:14 AM
Bob Boyd said...: And another thing! Why are we putting children in hotels when we have all these surplus mailboxes standing empty?; 8/17/20, 11:17 AM
Narayanan said...: MayBee said...
Yes, people are obviously using Trump's (and reality's) hesitance about vote by mail to get progressives on board with giving the post office more money and eliminating the guy who could fix it. In the meantime, the union calls Trump a fascist and nobody seems to notice that might not be great for vote-by-mail in GOP districts.
---------==========
nobody seems to notice that might not be great for vote-by-mail in GOP districts.
---- this makes me wonder if the vote by mail scheme is to keep D poll-watchers out of harms way? and R poll-watchers in target zone?; 8/17/20, 11:18 AM
Oso Negro said...: I’ve crossed to the dark side. I want vast numbers of people dead, especially in big cities. I want the world to GIVE you something to rage about! Oh, the Post Office. Unbearably fucking sad. The view of the Bosporus is lovely this afternoon.; 8/17/20, 11:21 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: We've been lamenting disappearing postal collection boxes because its been going on for 15 years or more as population patterns change. I used to go to X and drop off mail. (Our box on the street is not secure enough for most outgoing mail.) Then the USPS moved the collection box about 7 years ago. When we moved here I was forced to use a box nearby that seemed to be abandoned (and took forever to get delivered) then switched to the collection box at the post office then they moved THAT box inside so we have to only mail stuff between 9 and 5 weekdays. Why couldn't they leave the freaking box at the curb? Is it really too much to have them walk 60 feet to collect mail?

As far as ballots, the USPS is a red herring. EVERY state that is suddenly switching or has regulated absentee balloting also allows drop off at your local voting place. You don't have to wait in line (usually) to drop your ballot off and you know it was collected properly. Rage over the USPS is misdirection to keep us from wondering why they want to mail ballots to cats and dead people and then "harvest" them later.

You want ballot integrity? Vote or drop-off IN PERSON.; 8/17/20, 11:23 AM
Sebastian said...: "manufactured hysteria"

Among progs, is there any other kind?

But the Post Office seems like an odd choice even for them.; 8/17/20, 11:23 AM
Sebastian said...: "manufactured hysteria"

Among progs, is there any other kind?

But the Post Office seems like an odd choice even for them.; 8/17/20, 11:25 AM
iowan2 said...: When can we stop the intentional ambiguity???

There are two separate processes.

1)Absentee voting

2)Vote by mail

Use the term you mean. I know the leftist here are only present to troll. Let’s shut down their idiocy; 8/17/20, 11:36 AM
Bay Area Guy said...: The Democrat Party condones lying and violence. Biden lied about Trump's comment in Charlottesville. They lied about "hands-up don't shoot" with Michael Brown.

The NYTimes repeatedly lied in its leftwing "1619" project to smear America, as noted by many historians.

So, now, they are lying about the post office. They honestly believe lying is justified to get Trump out of office.

The FBI (Clinesmith) lied to a federal court to spy on Trump and try to remove him from office.

Lying about toxic racial issues, can get innocent folks badly beat up and/or killed (see Portland trucker, see Chicago Magnificent Mile looting, see increase murder rates in NYC).

I wish it was just batshit conspiracy theories for Dems, but it's much worse than that.; 8/17/20, 11:37 AM
Meade said...: Bob Boyd said...
Trump is putting postal workers in cages! And another thing! Why are we putting children in hotels when we have all these surplus mailboxes standing empty?

😆😆; 8/17/20, 11:41 AM
wendybar said...: Barack Obama saying the Post Office has ALWAYS had problems..
(WHY didn't Saint Obama fix it??? https://twitter.com/i/status/1295084574784081920; 8/17/20, 11:43 AM
Sam L. said...: Yes. YES, I have. It's "what they do."; 8/17/20, 11:44 AM
Sam L. said...: They've been claiming Trump has done illegal things since 2015. Liars, they are.; 8/17/20, 11:46 AM
Narayanan said...: minnesota farm guy said...
... I am sure you can think of several dozen variations on my scenario that would result in 10's of millions of "surplus " ballots in circulation.
------------===========
historians will marvel at the sudden and significant increase in level of voter participation against / during the reign Trumpus Maximus; 8/17/20, 11:47 AM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: The Democrats want, and are willing to make every effort to achieve the most chaotic, dubious election in history. Whatever the numbers end up being they intend to continue the chaos until results can be sculpted, dragged and beaten into the result they want. Along the way, if they can imply that their obstructionism and mendacity proves that Trump is a cheater, they will use that to try to get him put in prison. The Democrat party is an anti-constitution terrorist organization that should be disbanded.; 8/17/20, 11:47 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/17/20, 11:52 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: My wife is Lithuanian, and we live in New Jersey.

A Lithuanian friend who lives in Virginia asked my wife to mail her some stuff. The friend said she would mail a check to my wife.

I mailed the package on the morning of Monday, July 27. The receipt estimated that the package would be delivered on Thursday, July 30.

The package was delivered on Saturday, August 8.

I had a tracking number, so I could see that the package did not move from July 29 through August 6.

Meanwhile the Lithuanian friend in Virginia mailed a check to my wife. She mailed it on around July 28, and we received it in New Jersey on about August 12.

I foresee big problems with the mailing of ballots in November.; 8/17/20, 11:52 AM
Stephen said...: First, why is this a bad thing to be talking about. Trump said publicly that he was against postal funding because it would underwrite fraudulent universal vote by mail. Since the fraud part is undocumented, and the universal vote by mail not true in any swing states (its all standard no excuse absentee, the kind that Trump is doing himself), isn't the fair inference that he is seeking to use the post office to reduce Democratic turnout and win the election. And isn't that both a good rallying point for Dems and a good talking point for people who rely on the postal service more generally?

Second who says that this is the only thing Dems will be talking about? Some others that will surely feature are Trump's handling of coronavirus, his tone deafness on George Floyd, his sending in federal law enforcement where it is neither wanted or needed, his suggestion to postpone the election, etc. etc.

Third, why is the only case in which it makes sense to talk about this the Trump wins scenario? Why isn't it enough that the election will be close, and that poor performance by the post office could either undermine the Democrats or provide Trump with a talking point for his resistance to the outcome?; 8/17/20, 11:56 AM
Yancey Ward said...: The Democrats are in the process of committing a huge political error, in my opinion. By continuing the COVID panic/mail-in-voting drive, they are simply convincing their own voting base to not go to the polls in November and vote in person. Whatever it is they hope to gain with mail-in-voting, they are going to lose in in-person voting by terrorizing their own voters.

I predict Trump and his campaign, and the Republicans in general are well prepared to harvest the mail in vote just like the Democrats did in 2018, and that mail in voting, ignorning fraud, will likely just be a wash in the election. I will just point out that physical mail is an old person thing, and old people skew conservative by a large margin. I am 54 myself, and all mail addressed to me goes into the waste bin or the shredder. Anyone younger than me that is going to be even more true.; 8/17/20, 11:57 AM
Gahrie said...: Fed Ex and UPS exist for a reason. Both companies are doing well, while the USPS is in a death spiral.; 8/17/20, 12:01 PM
Original Mike said...: "They’re literally counter-programming their own convention."

Probably an explicit strategy on their part.; 8/17/20, 12:03 PM
Todd said...: Bob Boyd said...

And another thing! Why are we putting children in hotels when we have all these surplus mailboxes standing empty?

8/17/20, 11:17 AM

Good point! It is amazing how many 1 year olds you can get in a postal box, with the proper Ikea shelve system!; 8/17/20, 12:24 PM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: Vote-by-mail is much more complex than poll-voting. For poll-voting, you:
- Sign in.
- Receive your ballot
- Mark your ballot
- Put it in the counting machine. DONE.

Mail-in voting:
- County auditor mails your ballot.
- Postal worker transports it to post office.
- Post office sorts the mail, requiring multiple stops
- Postal worker delivers it to your mailbox.
- You get it out of your mailbox, provided your mailbox hasn't been looted by a homeless person
- Mark your ballot.
- Put it back in your mailbox for pickup, or take it to the post office/ballot collection box
- Postal worker transports it to post office.
- Post office sorts the mail, requiring multiple stops
- Postal worker delivers it to county auditor.
- Your signature is validate (maybe?)
- Your vote is counted.

Poll-voting is much more secure. Mail-voting has far more failure points.; 8/17/20, 12:33 PM
Drago said...: Francisco D: "If I recall correctly, Ronnie was also literally worse than Hitler when he was POTUS."

The dems have called every single republican running for the Presidency a literal "Hitler" since 1948.

Truman also called Dewey a literal "Stalin".

And that was 1948 and every single election thereafter.

Every. Single. One.

But history began about 15 minutes ago for our Althouse lefties/LLR's (a distinction without a difference).; 8/17/20, 12:33 PM
LilyBart said...: For people who only watch CNN or MSNBC, they've been convinced these are not crazy things. I always recommend that people on both sides find a relatively sane source of reporting from the other perspective and dip into that regally. You need to hear both sides or you'll just be fodder for propaganda.; 8/17/20, 12:38 PM
buwaya said...: Paranoia is just good sense.

Everything that goes on in politics and public affairs in general really is a conspiracy. Often, or usually, very insider garbage of no public relevance, but everything that is relevant is also in those systems of secret dealings.

I've said this many many times.

All the real machinations go on behind the theater curtain. We only see what the conspirators want us to see, plus bits where something gets out by accident.; 8/17/20, 12:50 PM
JAORE said...: To convince me that the Democratic Party isn't making a mistake, you'd have to argue one thing, that a substantial number of voters are morons that think Maddow's pronouncements are akin to Moses delivering the ten commandments.; 8/17/20, 12:52 PM
Browndog said...: If you had "Trump is stealing all the mailboxes so nobody can vote" as the next big conspiracy to bring down Trump--congratulations. I think. Most sane people find it impossible to predict what the left will come up with next.

There's still time for 2-3 more of these to go before the election.

What will it be next....; 8/17/20, 12:55 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: The mail-in voting works both ways for corruptocrats/corrupt media.

It might help Biden win - because - count-to-win helps dems.
If Trump manages to win - they can say the vote-count is illegitimate.

I'm in agreement with Scott Adams.; 8/17/20, 1:01 PM
madAsHell said...: The neighborhood where my mother lives is part of the post-WW2, veterans-returning-from-war housing expansion.

The neighborhood doesn't do email. They pay by check, and keep paper records.

I drive my mother to the Dr's every month, and on the way, we drop letters in the mailbox.

In May of this year, we noticed that the familiar mailbox was gone. It was missing during our June excursion as well.

Did I mention all the elderly in the neighborhood? In July, the familiar mailbox was returned after many complaints.

Trust me, Trump doesn't want to suppress those votes.; 8/17/20, 1:12 PM
hstad said...: Well why is anyone surprised? The Dems are panicking because the polls are tightening and in the swing states the polls are withing the margin of error. Till election day you will see more headline grabbing of 'Oh Look our New Shiny Bauble'. Misdirection, is the only strategy they have. Shades of Hillary 2016 - no energy, arrogance, and no message. My view the 'Riots and Crime' are killing the Dems with average voters. Trump is killing Biden, who doesn't appear to have the energy to campaign.; 8/17/20, 1:39 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Issue worth mentioning perhaps?
(maybe already, but I've not read every comment here)

Have you been to your local USPS or even UPS office to drop off or mail a parcel?

The lines are usually long, and the drop-off counter is stacked a mile high with "returns."
Probably to amazon. Bezos is richest man on earth now.

Why? because covid.

We were all addicted to amazon and on-line ordering before covid - now it's off the charts.
All mail, post, and delivery services are smothered - and hiring.; 8/17/20, 1:40 PM
Jim at said...: But there is no doubt about the sincerity of the Progressive's hatred of Trump.

They don't hate just Trump. They hate each and every person who voted for him.
They hate you.; 8/17/20, 1:50 PM
Bob Boyd said...: Trump should tell the vote counters, um...I mean the postal workers they can have 6 months off with full pay and benefits starting in 2021 if he wins the election.
And no more piss tests for marijuana.; 8/17/20, 1:50 PM
Calypso Facto said...: Mike said ... "Mail-voting has far more failure points."

And if you are convinced you can meaningfully influence the election through manipulation of those failure points, mail-in voting becomes very attractive.

You might even start by trying to pollute the opinions of the postal workers themselves against your opponent, so that they become willing accomplices. For instance.; 8/17/20, 1:52 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Put on a mask and go vote. Fin.; 8/17/20, 2:18 PM
iowan2 said...: Mike @ 12:33

Your description is fo vote by mail. Lots will think it is just the same as Absentee voting. There is a big difference. Absentee voting has many more anti fraud steps.; 8/17/20, 2:21 PM
Drago said...: BTW, have you noticed how Dementia Joe can't ever seem to remember how many grandchildren he has?

From today:

“You’re telling me? I’ve got four kids, five grandchildren — c’mon, I’m an expert, I understand about kids, the most important thing [is] they come first.”--Joe Biden

Joe Biden actually has 7 grandchildren....but he only has 5 fingers. So "5" it is!

Now when does the tapioca get delivered?; 8/17/20, 2:23 PM
mikee said...: The unspoken, unmentionable, almost secret premise of the Postg Office crisis mongering is that universal mail in voting is a done deal. It is not a done deal, court cases may limit it.

The premise of the crisis is also a Big Lie, leaving unstated the proposition that everyone wants fraud-capable universal mail-in voting without those tried and true protections of absentee voting. Say it often enough, even Biden will start to parrot it.

Let absentee balloting proceed nationwide, and stomp on any and all attempts to loosen up the requirements for obtaining those precious ballots.; 8/17/20, 2:28 PM
pacwest said...: What Pelosi hopes to get from mail in voting imo:
1. More votes from low info voters influenced by the MSM. People to lazy or uncaring to show up at a polling place or get an absentee ballot. Closer to the goal of just pressing a button on your phone. The further the Dems can get from an informed electorate the better for them.
2. Ballot harvesting and 'incidental' fraud. The ACORN model of busing to polling place is outmoded. Much easier to transport votes instead of people. I think Trump's ground game is going to suprise them in this regard though. Casting a ballot at home is going to be subject to more peer pressure than the secret ballot at a polling place. "Grandma, you're not voting for that terrible man are you?" As for fraud you need look no farther than which states are fighting cleaning up the voter rolls. Anyone that thinks that the Dems aren't counting on at least a couple of tenths of fraud rolling in their direction is not paying attention.
3. Creating a clusterfuck in ballot counting. You can see them laying the groundwork for this with the "we'll have to drag him out of the Whitehouse" narrative. They will also be able to go the Franken route with trunks of found ballots. They're well aware of the problems that mail in creates. It's a feature not a bug to them. Illegitimate election!
4. Watch the upcoming USPS hearings. (Or Impeachment #3. Or #4, I lost count). Voter suppression by the Orange man of course, but there will be attacks on Trump's Postmaster General trying to make the USPS more efficient. To do that he will have to decrease the union workforce and benifits. Hence, Trump is trying to destroy civil service unions in general.
The hearing will also focus on how the USPS is so critical to rural and the elderly, and how Trump is trying to destroy it, trying to eat into some of his base.
5. Get as much of the vote out before Biden's dementia is totally exposed, or Harris can be publicly vetted. And mitigate anything coming out of Durham and Barr before voting "Too late to change your vote now." Vote early! And often.

Think of Pelosi as a master baiter and the MSM as willing paramours and you can't go wrong.

$.02; 8/17/20, 2:36 PM
Gk1 said...: The mail boxes disappearing, mail in vote suppression, phony, non story that is short lived the minute you use google.

These hoaxes feel like they are trying to fly a kite during a windless day. They get up a good head of steam messaging across their sympathetic media, running like crazy and the kite may dance a few feet in the air but them come tumbling down the minute you stop running. That's what's happened with the last couple of hoaxes these past few months. I think the democrats/media are a bit winded after Collusion, Ukrainian hoaxes & Fauci worship/covid. They just no longer have the staying power so they need to switch to a new hoax week after week.

Half of the country has already tuned them out and it's really about keeping the base at this point. All I can think is they sure don't act like Biden is 10 points ahead nationally. Are the polls wrong this time?; 8/17/20, 2:48 PM
narciso said...: I guess other broke girl, isn't that popular,

https://dailycaller.com/2020/08/17/kasich-bloomberg-molinari-democratic-national-convention-ocasio-cortez/

but a fannie mae flack is,; 8/17/20, 2:55 PM
Joanne Jacobs said...: "Trust the Post Office" is not a great campaign slogan.

In college towns, the issue is not just that students who voted in 2016 have graduated and left their old addresses. Even those who are still enrolled are now back home taking online classes.

Even among non-students, I'd guess more people have moved due to lockdowns than in a normal year.; 8/17/20, 3:39 PM
Tom said...: So, Kamala Harris sent 1900 people to jail for pop offense in Cali. Imagine that a commercial that has 100 of those 1900 people (Mostly of Color) all talking about how Kamala destroyed their lives is going to be epic. “How’s your life been since Kamala Harris put you in jail for a victimless crime?” “I cant’ get a job.” “I can’t see my kids.” ‘I was repeatedly raped in prison - by prisoners AND guards.” “I’m homeless.”.

You know Trump is gathering as many of her victims as possible. He’ll also get the innocent people who she withheld exculpatory evidence.

He’s basically going to put her on trial for war crimes and paint Biden has her enabler.

And the democrats deserve every ounce of this treatment.; 8/17/20, 3:53 PM
Yancey Ward said...: "Joe Biden actually has 7 grandchildren....but he only has 5 fingers. So "5" it is!"

Any number above 5 is Hrair.; 8/17/20, 4:19 PM
charis said...: Democrats Hoodwinked? I doubt it. Last week the Trump administration concluded an historic Middle East peace agreement, the kind of achievement that wins a Nobel Prize for anyone other than Donald Trump. Yet the response of Democrats and the Media is to have a toddler tantrum over mailboxes. There is no explanation for their response, except to say they are toddlers. Trump can be toddlery too sometimes, but more often than not he seems to be the adult in the room.; 8/17/20, 4:55 PM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: Drago said...

"Joe Biden actually has 7 grandchildren....but he only has 5 fingers. So "5" it is!"

Does that include Hunter's Arkansas "love child?"

It's understandable that Joe doesn't want to remember that kid. That still leaves one more gramps forgot. Must be a middle child.; 8/17/20, 5:37 PM
roesch/voltaire said...: Miles Taylor a senior Trump administration official most of the criticism isn't conspiracy based but factual:"What we saw week in and week out, for me, after two and a half years in that administration, was terrifying. We would go in to try to talk to him about a pressing national security issue -- cyberattack, terrorism threat -- he wasn't interested in those things. To him, they weren't priorities,"; 8/17/20, 5:38 PM
Clues? said...: and dip into that regally.

We are not amused. We shall dip into some Nate Silver.; 8/17/20, 5:41 PM
readering said...: SAVE THE POST OFFICE!--DJT 8/17/20.; 8/17/20, 5:56 PM
gbarto said...: "But there is no doubt about the sincerity of the Progressive's hatred of Trump."

Oh, I doubt their sincerity. They hate Trump's voters and want them dead. The only really hated Trump after they realized he actually planned to stay with his people after riding their voice to power. If he'd dropped the wall, opened the borders and agreed that the government needed more control over healthcare, they'd have welcomed him to the fold quickly enough.; 8/17/20, 6:33 PM
roesch/voltaire said...: Interesting to note where all the high speed sorting machines were moved from, and how the cult can ignore the obvious.; 8/17/20, 6:45 PM
bagoh20 said...: And our resident lefties jump right in and prove the headline in spades.

""To the alarm of some government health officials, President Trump has expressed enthusiasm for the Food and Drug Administration to permit an extract from the oleander plant to be marketed as a dietary supplement or, alternatively, approved as a drug to cure COVID-19, despite lack of proof that it works.""

Oh my God!. People might be able to try a possible treatment IF THEY WANT TO! Nothing terrifies a lefty like people having a choice. I bet if you had Covid, you'd want to try it yourself, and you wouldn't be waiting for no damned proof of efficacy from the FDA. You know very well that the FDA is not going to approve anything as a cure that way, even if it worked, and so does the reporter who wrote the story. It's just more Orange Man Bad bullshit. Just stop it. It got old three years ago.; 8/17/20, 7:45 PM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: The high speed sorting machines have been getting removed for years, r/v, you dolt. That started in the early '00's because the volume of mail handled by the USPS has dropped so dramatically since people pay checks and bills online now - it's a thing - and packages are delivered via UPS and Amazon.

But, but what about those mailboxes Trump SABOTAGED in Wisconsin:

https://twitter.com/garyhe/status/1295360446795583491

Gary He

OK so everyone has seen the "viral" photo going around of the piles of mailboxes in Wisconsin being used as evidence that Trump is sabotaging USPS. Problem is, they have been there for years: Hartford Finishing Inc. powder coats and refurbishes the old mailboxes. "

You really are a gullible old dullard. Your students are dumber because they had you as a teacher.; 8/17/20, 7:45 PM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: r/v, ARM and Inga just prove Reynolds' point - they drop one phony scandal and run to another like toddlers chasing fireflies around a yard.; 8/17/20, 7:48 PM
Original Mike said...: "Interesting to note where all the high speed sorting machines were moved from, and how the cult can ignore the obvious."

Please educate us.; 8/17/20, 8:19 PM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: https://twitter.com/Recursion_Agent/status/1294713957442367489

A thread about the Post Office "scandal" that should be read by stupid people, but r/v won't read it because he's stupid.

As Voltaire said: "It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere."

You certainly revere yours, r/v.; 8/17/20, 8:22 PM
Michael K said...: roesch/voltaire said...
Interesting to note where all the high speed sorting machines were moved from, and how the cult can ignore the obvious.

I'll bet R/V was cheering on Twitter as they suspended Babylon Bee, newspaper opf record, for its Mailbox baseball post.

Another crazy.; 8/17/20, 8:44 PM
Michael K said...: R/V has a big scoop about a kid who used to work at DHS and is now jumping on the Biden bandwagon.

White House adviser Jared Kushner dismissed Taylor as "a nice kid" in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room" and claimed he wasn't up to the job.
"It makes a lot of sense to me that he's endorsing Joe Biden because when he was working at the Department of Homeland Security, no wall was built and the border was wide open. That's why the President changed up the team there," Kushner, who is Trump's son-in-law, said.
In the video, Taylor accuses Trump of directing FEMA to withhold disaster funding to California following devastating wildfires in that state because voters in that state had not voted for him for President.

The kid has to find a job and this might be his best bet.; 8/17/20, 8:47 PM
cyrus83 said...: It's a mistake, but the problem for the Democrats is that they're trapped in a media echo chamber in which they only hear the voices of yes-men, the voices that could tell them this is a bad idea are either silenced or ignored. So yes, at the moment when Democrats are supposed to be advancing their best arguments for voting for them and the media coverage should be about the convention and the speeches, the story that will suck up all the oxygen is a dumb USPS non-issue. It's almost like they don't want people focused on the convention at all.

I am no great fan of the USPS, but the mail comes every day except Sundays and holidays and presumably will continue to do so between now and the election. Voters will wonder what the fuss is about as they continue to receive mail uninterrupted.

Dealing with the USPS retail outlets can be an exercise in frustration, but even there the problem tends to be ignorant customers who can't be bothered to look up the instructions on how to mail things and instead need the clerk to spend 5 minutes to explain everything.; 8/17/20, 10:21 PM
DeepRunner said...: So...Dems and their media allies want to use USPS to increase their chances in November. Of course they're making a mistake using the USPS issue as the face of focusing on Orange Man Bad in this case.

BTW, the only real surprise coming from the convention this week is if Sloppy Joe remains at the top of the ticket. Remember him? He's the presumptive nominee for President. He got lost like a letter in the USPS system with all the attention to Kamala Harris.; 8/17/20, 11:59 PM
Bob Loblaw said...: ...and second, that Trump is headed to victory and the Democrats’ best strategy is to undermine his second term with allegations that he cheated.

The Democrats have certainly been acting like internal polling shows Biden losing. Biden is in a bind: He's losing his mind and can't debate Trump, but to refuse to debate Trump is to let everyone know he's not up to being president. The Democrats have their lackeys in the press spinning the debate question, but I don't think it's going away, and you can expect Trump to keep hammering away.; 8/18/20, 2:09 AM
mikee said...: The only benefit from multiplying the crises and faux scandals is that as election nears, the Dems can point to their years of flibbertigibbetting and say,"See all the problems he's had!"; 8/18/20, 9:32 AM
Bilwick said...: Francisco D: Reagan also raised the crucial question in modern American politics: what do we value more than liberty? State-fellators rise up and shout in one voice: FREE STUFF!; 8/18/20, 10:36 AM
Sam L. said...: "To convince me that the Democratic Party isn't making a mistake, you'd have to argue 2 things. First, that Trump's other supposed deficiencies really are not such a big deal, and second, that Trump is headed to victory and the Democrats’ best strategy is to undermine his second term with allegations that he cheated." Not gonna argue those things.; 8/18/20, 11:12 AM
KellyM said...: I think the issue is more insidious than the "lack of mailboxes" trope. It's more to do with the Post Office workers' union and their desire for the Dems to win so they can get back to business as usual.

Certainly TPTB in the Post Office union are well aware which districts vote R versus D in each and every state. I'll bet they have maps in their sorting facilities that are quite detailed, right down to the street level. Do you not think there would be a financial - or otherwise - incentive for the workers to conveniently "lose" those mail-in ballots from districts that are likely to be solid Trump-voting districts? We all know our neighborhood mail carrier, and by virtue of what they deliver to our homes, they know all about us.

I seem to recall in a recent primary run-off in a district here in CA, the Dems in that district went out of their way to limit the polling places (citing COVID concerns, of course) in order to gain the edge for their candidate over the Republican challenger via mail-in. It didn't work. The polling places were overwhelmed because voters refused to be dictated to and came out in droves. As a result, the district flipped back to red.; 8/18/20, 1:33 PM