President Trump just handed the Postal Service veto power over your mail-in ballot, and Chad and Cara can't agree on whether that's chaos, overreach, or both. This episode, the crew untangles what the USPS's new ballot rule actually does, why the Supreme Court's ruling this week is more limited than the headlines suggest, and why Cara thinks Republicans are abandoning their own Tenth Amendment principles to get it.

From there, the conversation shifts to California, where a new constitutional amendment, ACA 24, could guarantee every voter regardless of party the right to participate in publicly funded elections, and where Cara lays out exactly how Democratic and Republican operatives quietly teamed up to try to kill the state's open-primary system after record-breaking turnout. The hosts also dig into the Pentagon's firing of Stars and Stripes' editor-in-chief and a Middle East reporter after they defended the paper's editorial independence, a First Amendment fight with deep roots in military history. Stick around for the final few minutes, where a resurfaced 2013 courthouse video turns into one of the pettier storylines of the Texas Senate race.

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Chapters:

00:00 – What the USPS Ballot Rule Actually Says

02:28 – Where Are the Tenth Amendment Conservatives?

05:06 – The Supreme Court Didn't Do What You Think

08:13 – Hyperbole vs. Real Risk to Your Ballot

10:49 – Take a Breath, the Rule Isn't in Force

14:24 – California's New Right to Vote Amendment

17:50 – Colluding to Lock Out 6 Million Voters

23:08 – What ACA 24 Would Actually Guarantee

29:36 – The Pentagon Fires Stars and Stripes

33:04 – Ken Paxton, Closed Primaries, and a Stolen Pen