The Presidency of the Joes, part II: lol documents

Well the recent voting maps decisions sure seem partisan (Bama and Wiscy)

Yeah Iā€™m just saying if your argument is that Trump could legally fire DeJoy and Biden couldnā€™t, then why are we talking about the Geneva Convention?

Biden: Hey conservative Board of Governors appointee, want to be the ambassador to ______?

Biden, a few minutes later: Oh look, a vacancy on the USPS Board of Govenors!

DeJoy remains because the establishment Democrats like the way heā€™s running the USPS. Full stop.

Theyā€™re willing to risk him trying to rig another election because they think theyā€™re smarter than he is and the upside of him running the USPS in a capitalist-friendly way (aka trying to eventually run it out of business in favor of FedEx and Amazon) is way better to them than the downside that he might help the GOP steal the next election.

2 Likes

The Alabama decision was partisan. The combination of the two is beyond partisan. Itā€™s absolute fucking hackery. Itā€™s basically ā€œlol fuck youā€ level riggage.

1 Like

They also donā€™t want large scale participation in politics because then anybody might get elected. The stupid public nearly voted for bernie sanders, one of the worst politicians in history. They had to pull out all the stops to prevent that. Canā€™t let any old moron have political agency. Who knows what might happen.

1 Like

By law, no more than five members of the board of governors can belong to the same political party, so youā€™d have to replace a non-Democrat with a non-Democrat. The legal requirement that at least four governors have experience managing an organization/corporation with at least 50k employees provides an additional constraint.

One of the Democrats that Trump appointed is pro-DeJoy. Maybe there are some anti-DeJoy Republicans. Like I said, failure of imagination.

The current board of governors has:
4 Republicans (including DeJoy)
1 Trump Democrat
2 Biden Democrats
2 Biden Independents

So itā€™s 3D, 2I, 4R. Even if you replaced a non-DeJoy Republican with a D, thatā€™d make it 4D, 2I, 3R. Then you could still replace DeJoy and be at 5D, one of whom is the Trumper.

You could also make the first offer to the Trump Dem and leave the Trump Republicans. You could also replace DeJoy with an Independent, or replace the Republican youā€™re enticing off the Board with an independent.

The GOP could potentially sue and claim that all the Independents are Democrats because they were appointed by Biden, but then the Dem appointed by Trump has to count as an R. Or you can have the national party kick him out, then heā€™s an Indy appointed by Trump.

Again, the reason that Louis DeJoy is still the Postmaster General is that the Biden Administration and establishment Democrats like the job heā€™s doing!

The reason that DeJoy has a job is because Biden and establishment Dems have a basic faith in the American system of government and fear revolution.

I think itā€™s actually a third option: They donā€™t care.

If the USPS is a little slower, it doesnā€™t affect their day-to-day lives at all (see also: everything else that there is inaction on).

Is there some important legal distinction between the Postmaster and the director of the CFPB where firing the former represents a break with the basic foundation of the American system of government and portends revolution but the latter is fine and legal?

Completely done with their excuses, literally scrolled past all that, simply do not care. Theyā€™re in on it, completely useless, Iā€™ll take comfort in watching them be the first ones loaded onto the trains and live in a state of perpetual disgust in the interim.

Nah they could easily remove him without breaking any laws or norms. The main thing DeJoy was criticized for when he was appointed was that he was a shareholder in Amazon and UPS and there were accusations he wanted to run the USPS into the ground because he, like many conservatives, wanted to let the free markets handle shipping services so that corporations could profit.

That type of undercutting of the USPS continues to this day, and itā€™s the reason eDems arenā€™t gunning for him. Heā€™s doing the work they want him to do because they, too, cash huge checks from corporate donors.

Whenever something doesnā€™t make sense, follow the incentives, follow the money.

In terms of SCOTUS rulings, the difference is that the CFPB is a single-director agency while the USPS has a board of governors. The former seems to be purely executive in nature, while the latter has both executive and legislative functions, so thereā€™s an argument that the difference is related to the principle of separation of powers, which some people think is fundamentally important.

As far as I can tell, there are four ways to remove DeJoy. He can retire and remove himself. He can die or otherwise become incapacitated. He can be impeached. The board of governors can replace him. I donā€™t think there is any other path.

I donā€™t think the last one is realistic anytime soon. You seem to disagree.

Of course, the genesis of this problem comes from Trump being able to appoint a ton of governors. I think DeJoy maybe doesnā€™t become postmaster general if Bernie Sanders doesnā€™t block two Republican Obama nominees, leading to McConnell blocking three Democratic Obama nominees.

AFAIK, ā€œfor causeā€ is a pretty permissive standard. I doubt Biden would have to manufacture anything. Iā€™m sure DeJoy hs already done a ton of stuff that could justify removal.

I would expect them to interpret ā€œfor causeā€ the way a union would want it interpreted against one of its members. I would also expect them to strenuously avoid firing someone for purely political reasons without an ironclad pretext.

DeJoy canā€™t be removed for cause, just the other members. So the strategy would be to remove enough of them for cause and then appoint new members willing to remove DeJoy. In theory it works, but in practice itā€™s going to be hard. First, the board members can challenge their removal. Second, the new board members have to be approved by Senate, and I could see Manchin/Sinema not being happy with this type of move.

1 Like

I agree itā€™s not realistic. Itā€™s not realistic because establishment Democrats donā€™t want to remove him because they like the job heā€™s doing. It would be trivially easy to remove him without breaking any laws or norms.

I think Manchin will be fair-minded and accept a governor being removed for truly legitimate reasons that we would accept if they were being used by a Republican president getting rid of a Democrat.

Thereā€™s some chance Sinema makes her decision with the aid of a magic eight ball.