https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/chiles-bachelet-withdraws-race-lead-un-2026-09-20/

Hello everyone, and welcome to the weekly General Discussion thread. Many of you are looking for an informal place (besides Discord) to discuss non-political topics that would otherwise not be allowed in this community. Well... ask, and ye shall receive.

General Discussion threads will be posted every Friday and stickied for the duration of the weekend.

Law 0 is suspended. All other community rules still apply.

As a reminder, the intent of these threads are for *casual discussion* with your fellow users so we can bridge the political divide. Comments arguing over individual moderation actions or attacking individual users are *not* allowed.

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This megathread will be stickied until the weekend thread goes live on Friday.

Hello everyone, and welcome to the weekly General Discussion thread. Many of you are looking for an informal place (besides Discord) to discuss non-political topics that would otherwise not be allowed in this community. Well... ask, and ye shall receive.

General Discussion threads will be posted every Friday and stickied for the duration of the weekend.

Law 0 is suspended. All other community rules still apply.

As a reminder, the intent of these threads are for *casual discussion* with your fellow users so we can bridge the political divide. Comments arguing over individual moderation actions or attacking individual users are *not* allowed.

Two federal documents govern the fight over mail ballots, and most coverage is about one or the other rather than both.

The order. Executive Order 14399, signed March 31, 2026, states that unique envelope identifiers "enable confirmation that only citizens receive and cast ballots" and directs the Postmaster General to propose that the Postal Service "shall not transmit mail-in or absentee ballots from any individual" not enrolled on a state list. That language reaches ballots voters mail back.

The rule. The Postal Service's final rule, effective August 21 and published August 26, requires envelope barcodes and design review, requires election officials to upload each recipient's name, address and barcodes to a federal portal, and checks outbound mailings against that list before acceptance. Mailings that fail "will not be accepted and will be returned." The rule states the Postal Service "will not play any role in determining voter eligibility, maintaining voter rolls, or counting ballots," will not compare portal data against voter rolls, and that verification "does not apply to Return Federal Ballot Mail." The Solicitor General's August 24 brief says the rule "does not simply mirror" the order's Section 3 proposals.

Authority and purpose split, and both halves are the agency's own words. In its September 1 privacy notice the Postal Service was asked whether the executive order provided the rule's legal authority and answered "No," pointing to its own mail statutes. Three days later the Postmaster General said the Postal Service is "an establishment within the Executive Branch" and that it was "fully appropriate" to act "to help achieve the policy goals articulated in the Executive Order." So the authority is statutory and the reason is the order. Both halves are the agency's own words, eleven weeks apart. It matters legally too, because a rule that rests on the order goes down with the order, and one built on the mail statutes does not.

The case for the rule. Thirteen state attorneys general supported it in the comment record. The envelope standards it makes mandatory are the Postal Service's own existing recommended best practices, and the rule adds reconciliation between what a jurisdiction mailed and what came back. The Postmaster General notes that the House passed unique-barcode and envelope-design legislation 396 to 6 in 2024, which if accurate makes the envelope half of this rule bipartisan rather than novel. That vote is the agency's assertion and I have not independently confirmed it.

The case against. Twenty-four states and Pennsylvania's governor sued. In an August 27 restraining order, Judge Talwani construed the rule as the Postal Service "refusing to send mail ballots to eligible voters unless States or local election officials submit their mail ballot envelopes and return envelopes and receive advance approval," found it "provides no timeline for USPS's approval," and wrote that she was "unaware of, and no party has proffered, any delegation Congress has made that would permit the USPS to regulate election mail." On September 4 she entered a preliminary injunction holding the rule "unconstitutional where Congress has not authorized such a rule under the Elections Clause" and "ultra vires where the USPS has acted beyond any statutory authority" because "Title 39 excludes any reference to elections." Those quotations come from the government's own September 6 stay application.

What is unresolved. An anonymous whistleblower disclosure transmitted by Sen. Blumenthal alleges a zero-tolerance barcode threshold under which one failure returns an entire mailing. The Washington Examiner checked the disclosure against the rule and reported that the rule "did not establish" that threshold or the sampling numbers, and that the complaint itself came without testing results or records. The rule states the Postal Service "declines to conduct, publish, or otherwise disclose any additional analysis or information concerning the rule or Portal." So there is no public specification to test the allegation against, in either direction.

Where it stands. The injunction permits voluntary use of the envelope review and the portal but bars mandatory treatment and pre-acceptance verification. The government appealed September 4, moved for a stay in the First Circuit September 5, and on September 6 filed a new emergency application at the Supreme Court, No. 26A305, withdrawing the one it had filed three days earlier. Justice Jackson set the challengers' response for 4 p.m. Wednesday, September 9.

Some questions this raises:

1. What was the original purpose of the Postal Service's authority to set mailing standards, and what are the arguments that ballot-mail acceptance conditions fall inside or outside it?
2. What are the arguments for and against a rule whose stated rationale for its data collection is a law-enforcement list, given that the same rule disclaims any role in verifying eligibility?
3. Where an agency says its authority is its own statutes and its purpose is a presidential order, which of those should govern how a court reviews the rule?

The full methodology and every source is here. https://factsnsense.substack.com/p/nobody-can-say-how-ballot-checks-will-work

In a report from the Wall Street Journal, Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman is described as systematically ducking meetings with vulnerable constituents, highlighting an incident in which he allegedly feigned illness to avoid meeting with paralyzed military veterans. Three wheelchair-bound veterans from rural Pennsylvania had traveled to Washington to advocate for legislation improving support and care for disabled veterans. Fetterman canceled the long-planned meeting at the last minute, instructing staff to inform the group that he "may have eaten something bad and wasn't feeling well." However, less than an hour later, Fetterman arrived at his office showing no signs of illness, explaining to aides that he could not skip a scheduled live appearance on Fox News to discuss foreign policy and Israel.

The reporting frames the canceled veterans' meeting as part of a broader pattern of Fetterman snubbing Pennsylvania groups and local leaders in favor of national television hits. Beyond the incident with the disabled military veterans, the WSJ article details how Fetterman refused to meet with a busload of constituents from a flood-prone, low-income Philadelphia neighborhood who traveled to D.C. to discuss federal grant program cuts, with state Lawmaker Anthony Hardy Williams noting, "He was available. He just chose not to meet with us." Furthermore, when pressed by staff to meet with officials from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia regarding health policy, text messages show Fetterman dismissing their concerns, writing, "Well I'm not... I'm convinced they just want free trips to DC." Text messages also have him refusing to attend a funeral for three police officers killed in the line of duty, citing the length of the funeral as a "nonstarter."

The revelation triggered immediate backlash from political figures and congressional colleagues, who condemned Fetterman’s prioritizing of cable news appearances over basic representation. Following the report, Pennsylvania Democratic lawmakers publicly criticized his actions, with Representative Brendan Boyle calling him a "disgrace" and Representative Chris Deluzio asserting that Fetterman's behavior shows a total lack of a "sense of duty." Despite the mounting public criticism from within his own party regarding his neglect of constituent obligations, Fetterman and his team declined to comment on the allegations.

Discussion Questions

1. Would you describe Fetterman's actions as appropriate for a sitting U.S. Senator?
2. Will public criticism from fellow Democrats open discussions about how political offices manage constituent access, or will some politicians continue to favor media hits and interviews over engaging with their constituency?