"Private bone spurs" just pissed off a very powerful group with his attack on the Post Office - our veterans.

The ad in the link below has a powerful ending message:

AFTER FIVE DRAFT DEFERMENTS AND BONE SPUR EXCUSES, DONALD TRUMP HAS FINALLY GONE TO WAR WITH THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE — YEAH, THE POST OFFICE, THE ONE THAT AMERICAN TROOPS HAVE RELIED ON FOR OVER TWO HUNDRED YEARS TO BRING NEWS FROM HOME AND DELIVER OUR ABSENTEE BALLOTS SAFELY BACK HOME, AND WHEN OUR SERVICE WAS THROUGH, TO DELIVER LIFE-SAVING PRESCRIPTIONS ON TIME FROM THE VA… DONALD TRUMP KNOWS IF THE MAIL DELIVERS BALLOTS TO AMERICA’S VETERANS, WE’LL DELIVER A MESSAGE RIGHT BACK: YOU LOSE.’

https://bipartisanreport.com/2020/08/13/u-s-veterans-abandon-trump-over-post-office-sabotage-with-new-video-release/

Heather provided an interesting contrast last night between Biden/Harris and Trump:

In their first campaign appearance together, Biden and Harris seemed quite deliberately to offer a contrast to the Trump administration, not simply in their careful language about an inclusive America, but also in their demeanor.

They walked onto a stage in a high school gym in Delaware wearing masks. Then, standing in front of American flags and state flags, Biden spoke about his admiration for the women he had interviewed for the vice president slot and his defense of a multicultural America. Noting that today is the third anniversary of the events at Charlottesville, Virginia, when white supremacists rioted, attacking Black Americans and killing Heather Heyer, he said it was Charlottesville that convinced him he must help reclaim equality of opportunity as the American dream.

Then he turned the microphone over to Harris. Even the simple act of letting someone else take center stage was a striking contrast to Trump’s recent press conferences. Harris blamed Trump’s poor handling of the pandemic for the economic crash, and said that the country is also “experiencing a moral reckoning with racism and systemic injustice.” “America is crying out for leadership,” she said. “Yet we have a president who cares more about himself than the people who elected him.”

Enthusiasm for the Biden-Harris ticket brought 150,000 new donors to the Democratic campaign. In the 24 hours after Biden announced that he was tapping Harris as his vice president candidate, the campaign raised an eye-popping 26 million dollars.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, image via Fox8 CNN.com outed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy for continuing to hold a stake in a company that the United States Postal Service uses as a contractor.

Reporting Wednesday, CNN revealed that DeJoy’s investment in XPO Logistics is a serious conflict of interest.

“Outside experts who spoke to CNN were shocked that ethics officials at the postal service approved this arrangement, which allows DeJoy to keep at least $30 million in XPO holdings,” said the report. “Raising further alarms, on the same day in June that DeJoy divested large amounts of Amazon shares, he purchased stock options giving him the right to buy new shares of Amazon at a price much lower than their current market price, according to the disclosures.”

https://progressivepartyusa.com/politics/trumps-postmaster-general-caught-making-cash-off-of-post-office-contracts-report/#:~:text=Trump%E2%80%99s%20Postmaster%20General%20Caught%20Making%20Cash%20Off%20Of,stake%20in%20a%20company%20that%20the%20United%20States

Woodward's latest book about Trump, "Rage" will be released on September 15.

Trump reportedly refused to be interviewed for “Fear,” in which Woodward painted a picture of the president’s aides stealthily attempting to dampen his wildest impulses. Trump later dismissed the book as “a piece of fiction” and a “con of the public.”

In contrast, Woodward has reportedly interviewed Trump at least twice for the follow-up.

In the early months of Trump’s presidency, he exchanged insults with Kim. The leaders called each other derogatory names, such as “Little Rocket Man” and “Dotard.” By 2018, however, Trump claimed they were friends.

“And then we fell in love, OK?” Trump told a rally in Virginia. “No, really. He wrote me beautiful letters, and they’re great letters. We fell in love.”

Trump has met with Kim three times, most recently in June 2019 when he became the first U.S. president to (briefly) set foot in North Korea.

Some of the current problems with the Post Office Board of Governors stem back to actions taken (or not taken) 6 years ago.The article below is from July of 2014.

"Currently there are five vacancies on the USPS Board of Governors. By the end of this year it could possibly be EIGHT vacancies (not counting the PMG and DPMG) due to Senate inaction."

On Monday, July 14th, Chairman Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Ranking Member Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) held a public hearing to consider the nominations of Hon. James C. Miller III (R) , Stephen Crawford (D) , David M. Bennett (D), and Victoria Reggie Kennedy (D) to be Governors of the U.S. Postal Service. If all nominees are confirmed that would leave the Board of Governors at 4 Republicans and 4 Democrats.

By law, no more than five Governors can be members of the same political party.

Yesterday, President Obama broke the possible gridlock by nominating current Board of Governors chairman Mickey Barnett, a REPUBLICAN whose term ended in 2013. To recap, if all nominees are confirmed The USPS Board of Governors will be like the U.S. Supreme Court in the hands of Republicans.

http://www.postal-reporter.com/blog/obama-puts-usps-board-of-governors-in-hands-of-gop-by-nominating-mickey-barnett/

Back in March, President Trump seemed to blurt out the real reason he opposes expanded voting by mail in the 2020 election. Referring to provisions in the Democrats’ coronavirus stimulus bill to vastly increase funding for voting by mail, he said on Fox News that the bill had “levels of voting that, if you ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.”

He’s doing it again.

Speaking with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business Network on Thursday morning, Trump appeared to confirm that he opposes Democrats’ proposed funding for mail-in balloting and the U.S. Postal Service in order to make it more difficult to expand voting by mail.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/08/13/trump-blurts-out-his-true-motive-blocking-post-office-funding-mail-in-voting/?hpid=hp_hp-banner-main_fix-ballots-10am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday became the latest lawmaker to demand the immediate resignation or removal of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major Republican donor to President Donald Trump whose brief tenure as head of the most popular government institution in the U.S. has brought major nationwide slowdowns in package delivery less than 90 days before an election that could hinge on mail-in ballots.

Sanders joined a growing chorus of lawmakers and ordinary Americans calling for the swift removal of DeJoy, a former North Carolina logistics executive with tens of millions invested in USPS competitors. In statements over the weekend, Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Alma Adams (D-N.C.) said DeJoy should be removed from his post for threatening "the voting rights of millions of Americans" to "aid Trump's reelection efforts."

Additionally, more than 330,000 people have signed a MoveOn.org petition urging the USPS Board of Governors to oust DeJoy over "actions that are disrupting the mission of the United States Postal Service." The board—which appointed DeJoy in May despite his complete lack of experience at the Postal Service and potential conflicts of interest—has the authority to remove a sitting Postmaster General with a majority vote.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/11/sanders-joins-calls-resignation-or-removal-postmaster-general-over-efforts-suppress

Ideally, the Board of Governors has 11 members, but has not been fully staffed since 2010. Currently, the board is down to six members, ALL OF WHOM WERE APPOINTED BY TRUMP. 4 of the 6 are Republicans.

In addition to pressure to step aside, DeJoy is also facing a Senate investigation into his operational changes barring overtime and prohibiting postal workers from sorting mail ahead of their morning deliveries—policies that have alarmed USPS employees and union leaders. Last week, as Common Dreams reported, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) spearheaded a call for the USPS inspector general to launch a probe into DeJoy's actions as well as his potential conflicts of interest.

Warren repeated the demand for an investigation in a tweet Monday, writing that "there is nothing normal about a Trump campaign megadonor with at least $30 million invested in USPS competitors being appointed as Postmaster General to sabotage our mail delivery and threaten our elections."

"The USPS inspector general must investigate this corruption now," Warren added.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_Governors_of_the_United_States_Postal_Service

NPR just interviewed the president of the Iowa Postal Workers Union, who confirmed that mail sorting equipment is being removed in her state. However, she believes that the Post Office will still be able to perform its function during the upcoming election.

https://www.npr.org/2020/08/11/901219097/how-are-postmaster-general-dejoys-changes-affecting-workers

Schmidt:

She'd be perfect as Secretary of State since she was the ambassador to the United Nations from 2009 to 2013, and National Security Advisor from 2013 to 2017. Unlike the Secretary of State or National Security Advisors for Trump, she would likely serve a full four years in the position.

Trump has had FOUR Secretarys of State (Tom Shannon, Rex Tillerson, John Sullivan, and Mike Pompeo.)

He's also had SIX National Security advisors (Michael Flynn, Keith Kellogg, H.R. McMaster, John Bolton, Charles Kupperman, and Robert O'Brien).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Rice

Schmidt Wrote:

"Biden nailed it" -- Barack Obama

That says a lot (for me).

Schmidt:

All of the article that I have read this morning have convinced me that Kamala Harris is absolutely the best choice for the #2 slot.

As usual, Heather Cox Richardson went into a lot more detail, but here's a few noteworthy items:

Harris was born in Oakland, California. Her mother was an endocrinologist who immigrated to the U.S. from India; her father is an economist from British Jamaica who is now retired from the Stanford University economics department.

She spent seven years as the District Attorney of San Francisco, then six as the Attorney General of California. Both are elected offices, and in both she developed a reputation as a tough prosecutor.

It seems likely that Biden himself would have preferred former National Security Advisor Susan Rice, with whom he has a close relationship, but her association with the attack on Benghazi, Libya, would be prime fodder for Republican attacks.

She is crackerjack smart, a quality that many Americans would like to see in an administration. She is seen as a defender of the rule of law at a time when it seems under attack—she caught Attorney General William Barr in a falsehood at his confirmation hearing, noticeably throwing him off and forcing him to avoid her question out of fear of perjury

The Republicans are clearly hoping to convince voters that Harris is an extremist. It will not be an easy charge to make stick to a former prosecutor, especially on a day when a Republican candidate who supports QAnon conspiracy theories won a congressional primary in a solidly-Republican district in Georgia, virtually guaranteeing that she will go on to Congress.