On the one hand ...

1. I watched the launch of the Mars mission this AM.  Flawless, simply flawless.  The big Atlas 5/Centaur blasted into the sky exactly on time from Canaveral.  First Stage burnout and jettison was flawless, Centaur performed its two burns perfectly.  The first to take the bird into an earth orbit and the second to take the payload out of Earth's gravity well and send it on its way to Mars.  As one engineer said on TeeVee, "we have left the building."  Having done its thing, Centaur disconnected from the Perseverance payload and went into a parking orbit out beyond the moon where it will stay until someone may retrieve it, someday. The Mars bound spacecraft will make a few course corrections during the transit to Mars in order to land (or crash) it in Jezro Crater.   A word about the nuclear battery on the rover.  During the trip it will be supplying power to the spacecraft and its functioning life will be at least 15 years.

2.  The GDP of the US contracted (shrank) by a third in the 2nd Quarter.  This hit the markets like a ton of bricks.  Ugly.

3.  Just to make things worse Trumpy tweeted that the November election should be postponed because there is a serious chance that the mail in voting proposed in a number of states will be riddled with fraud.  firstly, the US Constitution makes federal elections the responsibility of the states.  Trump has no authority that I know of with which to postpone an election.  His desire to do so demonstrates the wisdom of the Framers.  This may be the final fatal misstep for him.

4.  Pompous the Great claims that DoJ can postpone an election?  Well, he was "first in his class" at WhooPoo.  pl

 

Comments

[Deap]

Not to worry. Trump intentionally gets Dems into a froth, while he is doing something far more important on the sidelines. A magicians trick. Assume this means the Durham report is ready to unload, while the Dems lose concentration over this election day ruse.

C'mon, this is in the same category as the LA Teachers unions saying they won't open schools until they get Medicare for All, free housing and food for everyone and open borders.

Trump is just exercising the art of the deal - he just raised the Democrats one, who are trying to hold the entire nation hostage with their craven stunts.

[Deap]

Keeping in mind one point of faux outrage during the Barr hearing was the claim Trump had zero proof of mail-in election fraud.

Trump just created national attention on this issue now, which means he already has his ducks all in a row. Flush the Democrats out, let them dig in and own their argument there is no proof of vote by mail fraud for a few more days. Then unload the mountains of proof on their sorry tails.

Part of the art - let the opposition bury themselves under their own lies.

[Barbara Ann]

He's gone and pinned that tweet too. Hard to see what possible thinking could have led to the idea that threatening to delay the election would improve Trump's re-election prospects. Makes me wonder again whether improving his prospects is the real goal.

[EEngineer]

Trump is just playing the reverse logic game with the left. At this point he could say the sky is blue and they would froth at the mouth that it had polka-dots. So by saying delay them he gets them to reflexively say the opposite. Good move since some of the coronapocalypse crowd have started to make noises about doing so.

[scott s.]

"The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes; which day shall be the same throughout the United States."

So two aspects to this: 1. the time of choosing electors and 2. the day that the electors vote.

The practice had been to hold the canvass on various days, leading to controversy over claims of "voter fraud" in 1840 and more-so in 1844. This led Congress in 1845 to establish a uniform day across the country for the canvass for the 1848 election. The date in November was selected based on the need to accommodate South Carolina which required its legislature to be in session and directly appoint its electors (no popular vote in SC for US Pres and many other offices). (As an aside, it wasn't until the election for terms beginning 1873 that Congress mandated a uniform day for election as representative.) The 1845 Act was codified as Title III Section 131 of the Revised Statutes in 1873, and Title III Section 1 of the US Code in 1948. I don't see any provision for an "emergency declaration" allowing for a change in date. There are provisions in section 2 for state legislatures to appoint electors on a "subsequent" date. So I don't see any presidential authority to modify section 1 date. In any event it seems pretty clear that at the end of term, if electors have not met and given their vote, neither President nor Vice President would have "qualified" under Amendment XX and section 19 would be invoked. Can you say "Madam President"?

[Diana Croissant]

I am confused by the controversy over mail in ballots. Perhaps it's because I live in a state where mailing in a ballot has been a person's choice for some time now. Some people go to the PO or Clerk and Recorder's off ice on the day of election to turn them in.

I spent two years working for my County Clerk and Recorder as some of us openened the ballots and checked to see if they had been fill out properly, Others ran them through the counting machines for the parts of the ballot that could be counted by machine. Some were using an electronic system to double check the signatures to the several examples of that person's signature on the state computer system--signatures for getting a driver's license, for signing up to vote, and for other various reasons.

(Usually the signatures that did not match were for college students away from home at college. The parents were called in and told if they signed for their son or daughter again, they would be charded with voter fraud.)

I can agree that mail in ballots if not processed correctly could be used by someone with a political agenda to steer an election one way or another. That is why it's absolutely important to have observors watching throughout the vote counting process.

It all dempends on the honesty a n integrity of the County Clerk and Recorder in each county. Having a system of observors at all vote counting sites from both parties is probably something that should always be mandatory.

I haven't stood in line to go into a avoting booth to vote for several decades in my state. That was always a gruelling process, with many people forming the line all around the outside of the building, and I do remember one time standing in rain in order to vote before mail-in ballots were used.

[ked]

A Race to Mars w/ the Chinese would be a great way to buffer & redirect much of the stress of our tired Empire while giving the Chinese something useful (& expensive!) to do - aside from copying our last year’s model of a planetary exploration vehicle.

As to the Constitution, there seem to be four major modes of thought;
a) Originalists,
b) Living Constitutionalists (or Loose Constructionists),
c) Ignorists (“just a piece of paper”), &
d) Gamers (“manipulate law, policy & people by gaming the damned thing for short-term victory”).

I’m thinking things will clear up when fresh ones are devised for planetary states. ‘Course, their moons will argue for their own flavor.

[Bob Blake]

Point Number 2 - If you read the entire report you will find that the second quarter shrank 9.5%. Facts in this time are essential to get correct. 9.5% is still horrendous. Misinformation is not only dangerous but feeds on itself.

[robt willmann]

The Democratic primary election of 23 June in New York between Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who has been in Congress since 1992, and Suraj Patel, is still up in the air, although she is pulling ahead by mail-in ballots, also known as absentee ballots.

https://queenseagle.com/all/2020/7/17/thousands-of-absentee-ballots-tossed-in-tight-maloney-patel-house-race

https://nypost.com/2020/07/23/nyc-rep-carolyn-maloney-ahead-of-suraj-patel-in-mail-ballot-vote/

https://www.salon.com/2020/07/25/mail-in-snafu-democrats-at-odds-in-new-york-city-primary-that-refuses-to-end/

I think Maloney was originally in Congress from the 14th District of New York, and she is now from the 12th District.

[Antoinetta III]

So what happens if, say half the states decide to postpone the elections, and the other half don't? Do we have half of an election, or what?

Antoinetta III

[Vegetius]

Trump is trolling to knock that GDP story out of the headlines.

He's got maybe 2 plays in his playbook but they still work, like Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown.

[akaPatience]

At this point there are far too many Trump tweets to remember which I thought would sink his political viability. I haven't been right yet so I'm loathe to write him off over this latest. Anyway, it was just a suggestion, not an edict, wasn't it? This could be yet another instance wherein he's delighting in pushing his opponents' buttons. Having said that, I acknowledge his behavior and that of his campaign may be reflecting there's some truth to his dismal poll numbers. On the other hand, the very same thing occurred in 2016, so it's hard to say with certainty. We shall see.

I hope the $600/wk COVID employee bonus lapses, as it facilitates lingering unemployment while it also emboldens those who keep pushing for extended lockdowns, school closures, etc., etc. It's unconscionable for people, especially bureaucrats, media and everyone else who haven't missed a paycheck, to be so cavalier about the economic devastation their restrictions are causing.

[blue peacock]

Col. Lang

The uglier number is the number of people not working. The lockdown has decimated many small businesses. Yelp estimates that half of the businesses that list with them that are temporarily closed will not reopen.

[turcopolier]

ked

"the damned thing" Many of us here swore to defend the "damned thing" against all enemies. Does that include you?

[ked]

Col, Absolutely! & No Question About It.
Instilled in me from the get-go by example, not indoctrination. Dad had deep but quiet devotion to Country (joined prior to Dec 7), it’s opportunity, worked hard, cared for his airman (grd crew & pilots) + scrupulous ethics. Very few were aware he’d been awarded 2 DFC’s,13 Air Medals, 6 Battle Stars & assorted Campaign, Victory & Service Medals over two wars & a revolution.
I cannot not give a damn for the Constitution, formal oath or not.
I’ve mentioned before I’m a relativist, contrarian & realist. I have “evolved” to have little regard for ideology - they are analytical tools - not the thing itself - misused in the hands of the unskilled and dishonest. We probably disagree about fewer things than we agree about (such as Jefferson ... a warrior of the mind more than the field). I truly appreciate your tolerance for my seeming / being a smart ass (has to be the Irish side, not Dad’s Welsh) and especially your dedication to run SST as you have since I discovered it during the reign of Bush the 2nd. Please push through your memoirs - it will be a hit & of real value to the nation you love. The kids need perspective. All-the-best,

[J]

The one does not look good. Seems that the ANTIFA State of California aka ANTIFA-Land, are now confiscating legally owned firearms because a person's Constitutional Right To Keep and Bear Arms offends the ANTIFA crowd.

Police Confiscate Man's Firearm After Anonymous "Antifa" Members Accuse Him of Being a "Racist"

https://www.unz.com/estriker/police-confiscate-mans-firearm-after-anonymous-antifa-members-accuse-him-of-being-a-racist/

[TonyL]

Colonel,

"firstly, the US Constitution makes federal elections the responsibility of the states. Trump has no authority that I know of with which to postpone an election. His desire to do so demonstrates the wisdom of the Framers. This may be the final fatal misstep for him."

Trump does not know that he has no authority in this matter. That's the problem. What we see is what we get with Donal Trump. It is not 5-D chess like a few commenters here seem to think he is capable of.

Personally, I hope not to see that he will really be pushing for this "fatal misstep". Because it is a dangerous move on his part, where he could lead us to a constitutional crisis and chaos.

[turcopolier]

ked

Before Christmas. you will find it odd. I was formed by the example of my family as much as anything else.

[Leith]

Regarding Pompous the Great, or Pom-Pom as I call him. In testifying before Congress, when questioned about troops being redeployed from Germany to elsewhere he stated: "This is personal for me. I fought on the border of East Germany when I was a young soldier>"

Fought? Where was the fighting against East Germany when he was there in the late 1980s & early 90s? There was none. If there had been it would definitely not have been at Merrell Barracks in Nuremburg where Pom-Pom was stationed, which BTW is 50 or 60 miles from the Czech border but nowhere near the East German border. Sounds like a case of stolen valor. He never served in the Gulf War either, although there were claims at the time of his nomination that he had.

[Deap]

Here is how "vote by mail" works in California, along now with same day voter registration and provisional voting ballots.

The result is vote-harvesting, where partisan operatives, mainly pubic sector union agents, go to skid rows or senior homes and "help" people fill out their "provisional" ballots or any mail in ballots they may still have laying around. They virtuously call this "increasing voter participation.

Plus in our last primary we had an extra ballot for those who were registered in one party who wanted to vote at the last minute for another party on election day to influence the other party's, not their own party's, primary choices. Registered Democrat voting now temporarily in GOP primary sort of thing.

The partisan thugs then "harvest" these ballots and are are allowed to drop them off by the hundreds at the polling places - no in person voting at the polls necessary.

Because many of these last minute registrations and provisional ballots are faulty, the final counting now takes weeks, while partisan government workers sift through the mountains of ballots received at the last minute that must each be checked, instead of just counting the ballots received on election day.

If you have ever worked at a polling place, there are so many ways to defraud the system even with F2F ballots. Just overwhelming the system with now thousands of provisional ballots and last minute registration is fraught with error.

For the record, many GOP candidates "won on election night, but ended up losing after all the "provisional" and late count vote by mail ballots finally got counted weeks later. It feels pretty slimy.

But no protests are allowed because that means we are denying people their right to vote. They are just trying to make it easier for everyone, including their own partisan victory laps. One more reason California is deep ink blot blue.

BTW: our voter turnout has not improved even though they claim the changes were necessary to increase voter turn out .Too many people have simply given up in this state, and now far too many offices run with zero opposition - as a result of all our voter reform in California - you just can't beat the teacher union thugs in this state when they gang up against you.

[FakeBot]

Hello Diane,

Did you observe any of the ballot harvesting that was alleged to have taken place in the 2018 mid-terms? That is perhaps what drives the paranoia that the mail-ins will be susceptible to fraud.

[rho]

"The GDP of the US contracted (shrank) by a third in the 2nd Quarter."

Colonel,

In the USA, the convention is to report the GDP numbers in an "annualized" fashion. That means you take the quarterly change and then extrapolate it over a whole year to report how much GDP would have changed if the same growth/contraction had continued for a whole year.

The actual quarter-by-quarter change in GDP is roughly 1/4th of it, i.e. US Q2-2020 GDP is about 9 percent lower than Q1-2020 GDP.

That is actually pretty good, the hardest hit European countries are expecting GDP declines of 15 percent (non-annualized) this quarter, that would be (0,85^4)=0,52, i.e. GDP "shrinking into half" if you annualize it in the way you are accustomed to in reporting in the USA.

Annualizing the numbers is really silly in this case, because nobody believes that the growth trend of the past quarter will persist over a whole year because of the lockdowns that happened in Q2-2020. In our current situation, it makes much more sense to look at quarter-by-quarter comparisons without annualizing anything.

Please keep this in mind when you read the statistics, it is very easy to get mislead with these GDP numbers.

[Barbara Ann]

"Before Christmas" is good news indeed.

[turcopolier]

rho

Thanks. Very enlightening.

[turcopolier]

Leith

Is a puzzlement! It sounds like he has gone mental. This is worrisome since he has such a bloody minded desire to play soldiers everywhere.