Can You Take This Action, Please?

 This comes from Americans of Conscience.

Action 2: Time-sensitive: Oppose unconstitutional involvement in voting by the U.S. Postal Service before July 2.

Time to complete: 15 minutes

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The 30-day window to submit a comment closes July 2. The U.S. Postal Service has proposed a new rule that attempts to give the USPS unconstitutional oversight of elections in line with a recent unlawful presidential executive order already being challenged by voting rights advocates in at least four lawsuits. It would require each state to create a list of voters eligible to vote in federal elections and assign a unique ballot barcode to each voter. The USPS would then refuse to deliver ballots to anyone not on the list.

Send an email with a unique comment opposing this proposed new rule: PCFederalRegister@usps.gov, using the subject line “Ballot Mail.” Email comments must contain your name and physical address (you cannot comment anonymously).

Alternate: Send a letter with a unique comment opposing this proposed new rule:
Director, Product Classification
U.S. Postal Service
475 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Room 4446
Washington, DC 20260-5015

I sent off an email objecting to this proposed rule.

Will you consider doing the same or write a letter?

Bonkers!

The President Is Bonkers

What we can do about it

JENNIFER RUBIN JUN 10

READ IN APP

We should not be surprised that Donald Trump is mentally and emotionally imploding under the cumulative effect of plunging poll numbers, his disastrous Iran war (which constantly humiliates him as both Iran and Israel repeatedly defy his desperate attempts to control them and his phony prognostications of progress in peace talks), and an increasingly irritable Senate Republican caucus.

Trump recently suffered from supporters’ unraveling and/or disaffection (e.g. Trump’s Paramount/CBS allies’ embarrassing implosion, the defection of white working-class and male voters, another insult to faith groups reminded of white Christian nationalists’ religious bigotry), repeated legal defeats, and multiple legislative losses unprecedented for a president with majorities in both houses (e.g. a House vote to fund Ukraine, passage of the War Powers Act resolution, opposition to Trump’s sleazy slush fund, collapse of FISA Section 702 reauthorization because of outrage over the appointment of Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence).

Donald Trump and Meet the Press’s Kristen Welker in Wisconsin. (White House photo)

When you throw in the indignity of seeing his name physically scraped off the Kennedy Center building, the cancellation of musical has-beens from his cheesy, self-referential 250 Freedom bash, and the entirely expected torrent of boos from Knicks fans, you have the pathological narcissist’s worst nightmare: public humiliation. (Historian and fascism expert Ruth Ben Ghiathas explained that when their autocracies unravel, strongmen’s overwhelming fear of humiliation and loss of power compels them to lash out, grab more tightly to power, and make increasingly rash decisions in the vain hope of fending off decline.)

Certainly, Trump’s mental and physical disintegration has been on display for many years. However, it is easy to lose track of the velocity of Trump’s decompensation.

As a group of 36 mental health professionals recently explained in a stinging written statement, Trump’s outbursts are not “momentary lapses nor political theater”; they instead “reflect a rapidly worsening, reality-untethered, increasingly dangerous decline.” And this was before Trump’s explosion on Meet the Press, among the most cringeworthy presidential media appearances ever.

However, you do not have to be a medical professional to conclude Trump is getting much worse much more quickly. We should not avert our eyes from the indisputable evidence that Trump cannot cope with reality. When confronted with indisputable facts, he lashes out and retreats into denial. (As the New York Times reported, “President Trump, who campaigned on a central promise to keep the United States out of overseas wars, denied in an interview aired on Sunday that he’d ever made the pledge.”)

The “big blubbery baby man, enraged at his ebbing power” provided a disturbing image in his MTP interview, Democratic pollster and analyst Simon Rosenberg aptly noted, of an “an old, addled man clearly in profound decline.” His bloated, rage-filled, disheveled appearance and inability to engage rationally with anyone outside his cult tempt one to look away. Denial is natural when you fear nothing can be done to stave off an impending disaster.

But now is precisely the time to demand a robust debate in public, in Congress, and on the midterm campaign trail about the gravity of leaving a patently unfit, raving lunatic in the Oval Office. In light of the grave danger Trump poses, pro-democracy forces must educate the public, compel legacy media to cover his breakdown as vigorously and consistently as they did Joe Biden’s health after his 2024 debate, and pressure Republicans to remove or at least restrain him.

Democrats do not control Congress, although they do occasionally take charge of the House through discharge petitions. Nevertheless, they have successfully used so-called shadow hearings to expose urgent issues (e.g., ICE brutality). A serious, sober subcommittee (perhaps drawn from both the House Judiciary Committee and House Oversight Committee) with professional staff should conduct methodical public hearings and assemble a comprehensive report documenting Trump’s deterioration. In the laying out the circumstances and frequency of his mental/emotional breakdowns, the public should receive ample evidence that Trump’s increasingly severe meltdowns are not a function of simple aging or odd personality quirks (an absurd if not delusional interpretation of his conduct) but of dangerous mental and emotional dysfunction.

At the end of the process, Democrats (and any patriotic Republicans inclined to prevent grave harm to the country) should present a series of specific, feasible recommendations, including legislation to compel the release of all presidential medical records and to require independent medical evaluation of presidents and vice presidents. They should spell out rules to implement the 25^th Amendment. They also should make clear that once they have subpoena power after the midterms, they will supplement findings by calling witnesses to testify under oath as to his observable behavior. If Republicans defend his indefensible conduct and block common-sense measures, they will take on full responsibility for the wreckage that ensues from sheltering an unhinged, unwell president.

Next, Democrats must undertake a focused and robust push to present their findings to the press and the voters. If the president’s emotional and mental competency is not the most compelling issue of the moment, it is hard to imagine what would be. Republican House and Senate candidates need to be put on the spot in every public encounter: Do they think the president is of sound mind? What do they intend to do to, for example, protect nuclear codes? Why shouldn’t the public have full visibility into the health of a president whose conduct has been so obviously aberrant? Democrats should pound away at the issue in floor speeches, media spots, op-eds, and public forums.

If it were not obvious before, leaving Trump in power surrounded by spineless yes men unwilling to challenge him and a MAGA Congress that abets his increasingly erratic conduct and flights from reality is a recipe for disaster — and the most persuasive reason to elect substantial Democratic majorities in both houses. Nothing is more urgent to the survival of our democracy, national security, and collective well-being than to begin now to convince voters that stringent guardrails (if not, removal by 25^th Amendment or impeachment) are required to shield the United States from further harm.

Given the public’s rising disgust with Trump and his propensity to humiliate himself on a near daily basis, voters might well become convinced that extraordinary action is required to defuse the ticking time bomb in the White House.

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Hot!

 We have no AC so window shades are down, curtains closed to keep what coolness we had overnight inside.

No gardening in this heat.  

The bugs are bad too - black flies and noseeums. I was outside yesterday morning watering without my usual bug repellant because it was only going to be a short time.  Mistake! I have a nasty bite on my shoulder.

We were awakened last night with a terrific boom of thunder.  Quite the storm went through dumping a good amount of water.

I read the other day that we are still in drought status because of the status of the aquifers.  Rains like we had last night help the ground but don't do much for aquifer.  Don't quite understand what's needed for the aquifer to come back to normal.

A mostly inside day here to stay out of the heat.  I do have a massage appointment at 3:00 which will take me out. 

Biggest decision of the day will be what to make for dinner that won't add to the heat.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.