Democrats went for a soundbite that still somehow over-estimated the intelligence of the American public, while still missing the entire meal

"Trump commingled the personal and the national not just on trade questions but across the whole field of national security. I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my White House tenure that wasn’t driven by re-election calculations.

These and innumerable other similar conversations with Trump formed a pattern of fundamentally unacceptable behavior that eroded the very legitimacy of the presidency. Had Democratic impeachment advocates not been so obsessed with their Ukraine blitzkrieg in 2019, had they taken the time to inquire more systematically about Trump’s behavior across his entire foreign policy, the impeachment outcome might well have been different."

it's almost like having a racist tyrant-wannabe in power matters

"According to our interpreter, Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do. The National Security Council’s top Asia staffer, Matthew Pottinger, told me that Trump said something very similar during his November 2017 trip to China."

also someone with a "reflex to try to talk his way out of anything, even a public-health crisis"

"The NSC biosecurity team functioned exactly as it was supposed to. It was the chair behind the Resolute desk that was empty."

policy of the world's superpower is based in narcissism and weakness

"Most important of all, will Trump’s current China pose last beyond election day? The Trump presidency is not grounded in philosophy, grand strategy or policy. It is grounded in Trump. That is something to think about for those, especially China realists, who believe they know what he will do in a second term."

there is no form of black protest that white supremacy will sanction

It is easy to dismiss the rock thrower; Attucks himself was accused of throwing sticks. But those who rebuke violent responses to injustice should ask themselves: How should the oppressed respond to their oppressors? How should the nation respond to political dissent? How do the oppressed procure power?

A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

"The lament one reads repeatedly is that they were "unfairly" forced to fund retirement benefits -- though what we're really talking about is retiree medical benefits which the Post Office neither prefunded nor accounted for at the time of benefit accrual, until the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. As reported in The Week in 2018, in an article the title of which ("How George Bush broke the Post Office") makes clear the author's point of view:"

if there's no chance of rescinding these benefits, and the USPS is backstopped by the Treasury, there should be no need to fully pre-fund these liabilities.

"Now, one might point to the private-sector practice of leaving retiree medical liabilities unfunded as justification for doing the same here, so that they sit as an expense item and a balance-sheet liability but don't require any cashflow, but, at the same time, a private-sector company can justify its lack of funding because they can eliminate these benefits at any time; can the Post Office realistically do the same?"

unnecessarily harsh in the execution due to short phase-in period, and additional restriction to invest only in US Treasuries.

"But all this being said, why do I say that Ocasio-Cortez is only "mostly" rather than "wholly" wrong in her statement? Based on private-sector precedents, the 10 year requirement for the plan to fund its retiree liabilities was unusually harsh. In the original 1974 ERISA legislation, plans were given 40 years to fully fund plans that had previously been pay-as-you-go, and 30 years to fund plan enhancements."

"In addition, the retiree medical fund is required to invest exclusively in U.S. Treasuries (see the Postal Service 10-K, page 35-36), and, as a result, the discount rate used in the valuation is considerably lower than a private-sector plan would be obliged to use, in the latter case based on high-quality corporate bonds."

I agree it's difficult to assign malice. but with the modern republican party, it's been borne out that even benign ideas like "addressing election security" are underpinned by malice (to lower voter turnout, in this case). if something smells of malice, what are the odds it isn't?

He'll throw a shit fit to protect 30,000 coal jobs but could give a fuck about 500,000 USPS employees.

More than that, the post office is an enemy because they would facilitate absentee and mail-in voting.

This is exactly it.

The GOP want the outbreak to last until November or at least cause another flair up at that time. Wisconsin was their test case. They want it so only the absolute crazies that have words painted all over their cars about Jesus will vote. Sure, you can vote...if you don't mind lining up 2 days before in only 52 polling stations across the whole country.

Republicans aren't fucking around any more. The fake democracy is over. They are cashing out and preparing for permanent dictatorship run by them.

There were only 5 polling stations in Milwaukee out of the usual 180. 5. Out of 180. There were lines literally over a mile long. Some of my friends waited for hours. I really hope that Jill gets that SC win. Wisconsin needs that right now.

Reagan literally rebuilt the Republican party in his image, I mean shit he literally helped build the right wing media infrastructure or at least early perfected the Rush Limbaugh-esque radio programming in the early 70s.

Reagan's presidential legacy above all else should be the"Unitary Executive" theory

, Ed Meese the AG under Reagan was aided in writing theory up by several Alex P. Keaton - young conservative movement type characters, such as Bill Barr, wrote up the theory that's essentially answered the Nixonian question of "whatever the president does isn't illegal.

The UET has opened the door for all proceeding administrations since Reagan to basically have unchecked power and namely most harmfully used by the Bush and Trump administrations. I think that the rise of the UET can be the key to understanding the sixth party system
that we are currently operating in.

I blame Newt.

The Man Who Broke Politics (Newt Gingrich)- https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/11/newt-gingrich-says-youre-welcome/570832/

But few figures in modern history have done more than Gingrich to lay the groundwork for Trump’s rise. During his two decades in Congress, he pioneered a style of partisan combat—replete with name-calling, conspiracy theories, and strategic obstructionism—that poisoned America’s political culture and plunged Washington into permanent dysfunction. Gingrich’s career can perhaps be best understood as a grand exercise in devolution—an effort to strip American politics of the civilizing traits it had developed over time and return it to its most primal essence.

And his Padawan?

Pundits, aghast at the brazenness of the strategy, predicted backlash from voters—but few seemed to notice. Even some Republicans were surprised by what they were getting away with. Bill Kristol, then a GOP strategist, marveled at the success of his party’s “principled obstructionism.” An up-and-coming senator named Mitch McConnell was quoted crowing that opposing the Democrats’ agenda “gives gridlock a good name.” When the 103rd Congress

adjourned in October, The Washington Post declared it “perhaps the worst Congress” in 50 years.

"our democracy is a democracy in name only"

likelihood of policy passing insensitive to public support, but very sensitive to support by economic elites and interest groups

China and the US have each made big mistakes. But the US failure to create widely shared prosperity at home, and its bellicosity abroad, are proving crippling. The dismal presidency of a malevolent incompetent is one result.

Worst of all, argues veteran anti-corruption campaigner, Frank Vogl, is a $500bn fund for big corporations likely to be under Mr Trump’s unsupervised control, which is contrary to the will of Congress.

A government at war with science and its own machinery is now very visible to all.

For those of us who believe in liberal democracy, these US failures hurt: they give credence to the idea that autocracy works better.

analysing breakdown of the US democracy as an industry, which I think has been thoroughly shown requires regulation and oversight to ensure competitiveness

"We are not political scientists, political insiders, or political experts. Instead, we bring a new analytical lens to understanding the performance of our political system: the lens of industry competition. This type of analysis has been used for decades to understand competition in other industries, and sheds new light on the failure of politics because politics in America has become, over the last several decades, a major industry that works like other industries.
We use this lens to put forth an investment thesis for political reform and innovation. What would be required to actually change the political outcomes we are experiencing? What would it take to better align the political system with the public interest and make progress
on the nation’s problems? And, which of the many political reform and innovation ideas that have been proposed would actually alter the trajectory of the system?
Politics in America is not a hopeless problem, though it is easy to feel this way given what we experience and read about every day. There are promising reforms already gaining traction including important elements of the strategy we propose. It is up to us as citizens to recapture our democracy—it will not be self-correcting. We invite you to personally
engage by investing both your time and resources—and by mobilizing those around you—in what we believe is the greatest challenge facing America today.
It is often said that “We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.”1 Today the challenge for Americans is to participate not only as voters, but also to participate in the reform of the political system itself. This is our democracy, and the need is urgent.
This report is about politics, but it is not political. The problem is not Democrats or Republicans or the existence of parties per se. The problem is not individual politicians; most who seek and hold public office are genuinely seeking to make a positive contribution.
The real problem is the nature of competition in the politics industry."