Name: Trump requested his mail-in ballot 1 day before publicly opposing USPS funding due to mail-in voting
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Trump requested his mail-in ballot 1 day before publicly opposing USPS funding due to mail-in voting

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MenuSee More Speed ReadsPresident Trump and first lady Melania Trump for Florida's primary next Tuesday, according to the Palm Beach County elections website. This would be the in Florida this year. On Thursday, Trump told Fox Business News he because that would allow for the expected surge in mail-in voting, which he .The Trumps missed the deadline for their ballots to be mailed, so they will have been delivered to Trump's private club in Palm Beach, Mar-a-Lago, then delivered to the White House. To be counted, the ballots have to be returned to the Palm Beach County election office before 7 p.m. Tuesday. "There’s no word from the White House if they are entrusting the task to the recently maligned U.S. Postal Service," wryly.Trump has been railing against mail-in voting for months, claiming falsely that widespread vote-by-mail will be riddled with fraud. He did make an exception for Florida, though, tweeting last week that Floridians should request mail-in ballots. Florida's "state Republican Party happens to have a very robust and long-term vote by mail program — which, I'm sure, was in danger because Trump has now convinced a number of rank-and-file Republicans that voting by mail is bad," . In fact, "Trump doesn't seem to actually have anything against mail balloting, except that it seems in this election to be something that's important to Democrats.""We’ve been talking for months about how big a role mail balloting was going to have to play in the 2020 general election," . "The idea that the Postal Service potentially wouldn't be able to handle it is a fairly recent development — and that being a result of and, as Trump said, a lack of new funding, is pretty remarkable.""Symptoms of anxiety disorder and depressive disorder increased considerably in the United States during April–June of 2020, compared with the same period in 2019," . Just over 40 percent of respondents in a June 24-30 survey reported at least one adverse mental or behavioral health condition, ranging from anxiety disorder to increased substance use to cope with the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic.And 10.7 percent of respondents reported having seriously considered suicide over the previous 30 days because of the pandemic. That's a high number, but it was especially prevalent among certain groups.For example, 25.5 percent of young adults age 18 to 24 said they had considered suicide in June, versus 16 percent of respondents age 25-44 and 3.8 percent of those 45 to 64. Other groups with high rates of suicidal ideation included essential workers (21.7 percent), people with less than a high school diploma (30 percent), Black (15.1 percent) and Hispanic (18.6 percent) respondents — 7.9 percent of white respondents said they had considered suicide — and unpaid adult caregivers (32.9 percent). Men (12.6 percent) were more likely to have considered suicide than women (8.9 percent)."Community-level intervention and prevention efforts, including health communication strategies, designed to reach these groups could help address various mental health conditions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic," . The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, for those needing help, is 1-800-273-8255.Newly installed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a to President Trump and other Republicans, has made at the U.S. Postal Service right before it is called on to , and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) about the resulting service delays."I write to request that you promptly address the delays in mail delivery that have occurred following recent operational changes at the United States Postal Service (USPS)," on Thursday, released soon after Trump laid out his opposition to funding for the USPS that Collins supports. "Following these operational changes," she wrote, "Mainers are experiencing delays in delivery of needed prescriptions, personal protective equipment, such as masks, and payments sent through the mail. While I support efforts to improve the USPS's financial condition, I am concerned that the reported changes will have the opposite effect, reducing service to the public and driving away customers."Along with slashing overtime and , DeJoy removed two of the top USPS officials in charge of day-to-day operations and reassigned 23 other postal executives. He has portrayed them as cost-cutting measures. The USPS has lost money since 2006, when Congress — — passed a law making the Postal Service for future benefit payments. The pandemic has .House Democrats have approved $25 billion to help the USPS stay solvent during the pandemic, and Collins co-sponsored a similar measure in the Senate, "but few other Republicans seem to be on board and the bill has not progressed so far," . Collins faces her toughest re-election fight in November; a Bangor Daily News poll released Tuesday showed her challenger, state Rep. Sara Gideon (D), .Welcome to the "K-shaped" recovery.The U.S. stock market has recovered most of its sharp losses since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. economy in February, housing prices are reaching new highs, and "jobs are fully back for the highest wage earners," , citing an analysis of Labor Department data by Opportunity Insights. "But fewer than half the jobs lost this spring have returned for those making less than $20 an hour," the federal supplemental unemployment checks have run out with , small businesses are shutting down nationwide, and lower-income renters are ."This has been a very clear K-shaped recovery," economist Peter Atwater at the College of William &amp; Mary . "The biggest and wealthiest have been on a clear path toward recovery. Meanwhile, for most small businesses and those worst off, things have only become worse. The contrast is piercing: One group feels better than ever while the other borders on hopelessness."Employment for those making $14 an hour or less is still 20 percent below pre-pandemic levels, , and Labor Department data shows that Black workers have recovered only about 20 percent of the jobs they lost during COVID-19, versus 40 percent for white men and 45 percent for white women. Households with children have also been , the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found, especially single parents, 23.2 percent of whom lost their jobs during the pandemic.President Trump has focused on the "tremendous" rebound on Wall Street. "We're in the middle of a pandemic and yet we're going to be hitting records," on Thursday. The stock market recovery is driven mostly by Big Tech firms like Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook, whose huge market values "carry the most weight in the S&amp;P 500," . "The corner bars, the family restaurants, the hair salons, and other small businesses across the U.S. that are teetering or closing for good aren't listed on the stock market."In fact, former Trump economic adviser , "the stock market continues to reflect big businesses increasing their market share during #COVID19. If a small business closes, a larger business fills the void. We need to contemplate what this means for Main Street USA going forward. Is this really the future we want?"The Senate adjourned on Thursday until September 8 without reaching a deal on the next coronavirus relief bill, reports.The next stimulus package is now likely weeks away, leaving millions of unemployed Americans without jobless benefits that were provided from the early days of the pandemic until the end of July when the CARES Act expired without a replacement bill lined up.Democrats have argued the $600 weekly boost should continue, while Republicans say it should be reduced. Both sides have accused the other of refusing to compromise. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has said Democrats are willing to cut their proposed $3 trillion bill by $1 trillion if Republicans are willing to add $1 trillion to their $1 trillion bill. Democrats are seeking additional aid for absentee voting and remote learning.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said if lawmakers manage to make a deal while on recess, senators will return to work to vote. Read more at .The Trump campaign launched a lawsuit against two Iowa counties on Wednesday, suing the counties for making it easy to vote by mail, reports .The Democratic-leaning counties had distributed absentee ballot request forms that had pre-filled boxes with voters' names, dates of birth, and voting pin numbers. The idea was that voters could just sign and return the forms to get mail-in ballots ahead of November's election.But the Trump campaign says tens of thousands of ballot applications should be invalidated because the process wrongly includes personal information, violating Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate's instruction that the request forms should be mailed blank to "ensure uniformity." Pate, a Republican, isn't suing the counties, but said his office is investigating.Linn County Auditor Joel Miller, a Democrat, said the applications were pre-filled to avoid common mistakes. "I'm just trying to protect people in my community from the pandemic," he said, arguing the move was within his authority.As Obama campaign manager and former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina put it, the attempt to "disenfranchise voters" isn't likely to earn the president many brownie points in a state where he's already walking .The Trump admin. f***ed up the COVID-19 response so badly that the Iowa faithful won’t have college football this fall and now the campaign is trying to disenfranchise voters in 2 of the Hawkeye State’s biggest counties? Gotta tell ya, that’s an interesting campaign strategy...— Jim Messina (@Messina2012)Notably, the Trump campaign is not suing a Republican-leaning county in Iowa that did the exact same thing. Read more at .The creators of Fortnite are headed to war against Apple.Epic Games, the company that developed Fortnite, on Thursday said it had filed a lawsuit against Apple shortly after the online game was removed from the App Store, .The App Store removal was prompted by Epic Games in Fortnite in an attempt to avoid Apple collects on in-app purchases, allowing players to buy the game's "V-Bucks" for a discounted price if they did so through this "Epic direct payment" rather than through the App Store. That didn't go over well with Apple, which within hours removed the game from the App Store and blasted Epic Games for introducing the feature "with the express intent of violating" its guidelines, . The payment system was also introduced on Android.This is the exact thing you do in your app when you know what is going to happen and want to file a lawsuit over it.— Matthew Panzarino (@panzer)Epic Games clearly anticipated Apple's move, as it announced a lawsuit almost immediately afterward. The complaint describes the App Store removal as "yet another example of Apple flexing its enormous power in order to impose unreasonable restraints and unlawfully maintain its 100 percent monopoly over the iOS In-App Payment Processing Market." It also accuses Apple of becoming "what it once railed against: the behemoth seeking to control markets, block competition, and stifle innovation," with Epic Games saying it's bringing the lawsuit in an effort to "end Apple's unfair and anti-competitive actions."And that's not all: Epic Games soon within Fortnite itself parodying Apple's famous "1984" commercial, calling on players to help "#FreeFortnite."Epic Games has defied the App Store Monopoly. In retaliation, Apple is blocking Fortnite from a billion devices.Visit and join the fight to stop 2020 from becoming "1984"— Fortnite (@FortniteGame)It's not just business as usual at the United States Postal Service.While President Trump is for the USPS so that Democrats can't achieve their goal of expanding mail-in voting across all states ahead of the November election, the Postal Service is also facing some internal changes.reported Thursday that USPS is quietly removing mail sorting machines — the very machines that are responsible for sorting ballots. There's no official explanation for the changes, and it's unclear why the machines would be removed rather than simply not used when not needed. The removals and planned removals are reportedly affecting several processing facilities across the U.S."It'll force the mail to be worked by human hands in sorting. Guarantees to STOP productivity," a Post Office source The Washington Post's Jacqueline Alemany. "On top of cutting the overtime needed to run the machines, can you imagine the [overtime] needed to do this [the] old hard way?"Postal workers say equipment is often moved around or replaced, but not usually at such a rate, and not in such a way that would affect workers' ability to quickly process large quantities of mail. Local union officials have no idea what's going on. "I'm not sure you're going to find an answer for why," one union president told , "because we haven't figured that out either."A USPS spokesperson said the move is routine. "Package volume is up, but mail volume continues to decline," said the spokesperson. "Adapting our processing infrastructure to the current volumes will ensure more efficient, cost effective operations." Since there is an expected influx of mail as Americans begin sending in ballots, postal workers urged voters not to wait until the last moment to avoid overwhelming the dwindling number of sorting machines. Read more at .2020 The Week Publications Inc., All rights reserved.

MenuSee More Speed ReadsPresident Trump and first lady Melania Trump for Florida's primary next Tuesday, according to the Palm Beach County elections website. This would be the in Florida this year. On Thursday, Trump told Fox Business News he because that would allow for the expected surge in mail-in voting, which he .The Trumps missed the deadline for their ballots to be mailed, so they will have been delivered to Trump's private club in Palm Beach, Mar-a-Lago, then delivered to the White House. To be counted, the ballots have to be returned to the Palm Beach County election office before...

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The Week is a weekly news magazine with editions in the United Kingdom and United States. The British publication was founded in 1995 and the American edition started in 2001; an Australian edition was published between 2008 and 2012. A children's edition, The Week Junior, has been published in the UK since 2015.

Trump requested his mail-in ballot 1 day before publicly opposing USPS funding due to mail-in voting

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