Blog Catalog

Showing posts with label USPS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label USPS. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

This President Attacks Our Own Government

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Breaking today, this afternoon:


Not done there, this, too.


And that's only two.

This is a President who has openly attacked our 

--US Postal Service
--Social Security
--Medicare
--Medicaid
--Military
--Census
--Department of Justice
--FBI

Tell me again why he should be reelected?

86 45

BYEDON



Tuesday, August 25, 2020

An Open Letter to Missouri's Senator Josh Hawley


A note, a request, to our Missouri Senator Josh Hawley--


Make yourself useful, Senator Hawley. Please. Work on this. 


Instead of TikTok or the NBA, which isn't remotely in MIssouri and which you've railed on for weeks, work on fixing funding for the USPS. 

See to it mail boxes are put back. 
Make certain all the mail sorting machines are back in place and functioning. 

We're not a Third World backwater. We're the United States of America. We shouldn't need to remind you. We're supposed to be the wealthiest nation in the world. Our Postal Service should work and it should be functioning for all of us, all the time. We're not some leader's banana republic for his reelection.

Do your work.

Do this work.

Please.

Then, after that, there's this thing called a pandemic?  You may have heard of it...


Monday, August 17, 2020

On Trump Trying to Dismantle the USPS--and Likely Our Democracy. And Nation


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So here is what's going on with this many-layered situation. First this.


Followed, also, amazingly, by this.


An internal US Postal Service document obtained by NBC News reveals plans to remove 671 high-volume mail processing machines from postal facilities across the country. The document, circulated in June, is broken out by region and city/state.

Heck, our own Kansas City Star reported it did, in fact, happen here locally.


Can you imagine working for the Postal Service, walking in and seeing the mail sorting machine gone? Where does that happen? In what industry do they REMOVE automating equipment? Anywhere?

Then this came from the Orange Man's mouth himself.


Trump admitted that he is trying to stop mail-in votes from being counted with USPS sabotage during a Thursday Fox Business interview.

Once again, this President shows he wasn't/isn't smart enough, bright enough to even keep his mouth closed, keep quiet about his plans, nefarious and blatant as they are.

With all that, this is where we are now.


The House Oversight Committee is calling for Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to testify at an "urgent" congressional hearing later this month amid growing concerns about whether cost-cutting measures will leave the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) ill-equipped to handle a rise in mail-in voting.

It seems the Trump's Postmaster General may have some significant conflicts of interest.


USPS head Louis DeJoy reportedly owns millions of stock in mail processor

With this President trying to under-fund or de-fund the Postal Service and the House Democrats planning to have the Postmaster General this coming week, here are some things I'd like to ask the head of the Postal Service, that Postmaster General, just now:
  • Do you deny that 671 mail sorter machines--or some number--have been ordered out of our postal service facilities across the nation?
  • Why are they being taken out? 
  • How does taking mail sorting machines out make any sense at any time but especially now when we need the postal service and all you do for this most killing pandemic in over 100 years?
  • Why are post office mailboxes being carted away?
  • How can anyone think this isn't to keep people from voting this Fall?
  • Can you testify now, under oath, that you own no other investments that have to do with mailing or shipping of any sort in our nation?
  • Can you testify here under oath that you would in no way benefit from having our United States Postal Service ceasing to exist?
  • Can you testify here, now, under oath that it is not now nor will be in the future your goal or the goal of your boss, this current President, to end the existence of the United States Postal Service?
I hope someone asks them.

This, however, is how and where it gets difficult.


No matter what Trump says, the USPS has the money and the capacity to handle a huge surge in mail-in ballots. But new restrictions could disrupt the election.

President Donald Trump and his allies might well succeed in undermining the United States Postal Service’s ability to handle an expected surge in mail-in ballots this fall. But the biggest immediate threat to voting by mail isn’t blocked funding.

Trump acknowledged yesterday that he opposes a major stimulus deal with Democrats in part because he wants to stop an infusion of $25 billion to the Postal Service ahead of the election. “They need that money in order for the Post Office to work, to take in these millions and millions of ballots,” Trump said in an interview with Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo. But the president doesn’t want more voting by mail, and he doesn’t want the Postal Service to have any more money to help with it. “If we don’t make a deal, that means they don’t get the money. That means they can’t have universal mail-in voting. That means they can’t have it.”

Democrats see the president’s comments as slam-dunk evidence of what they have been charging for weeks: that Trump is sabotaging the November election by purposely degrading the ostensibly independent Postal Service. They have assailed the appointment as postmaster general of a Trump donor, Louis DeJoy, who has moved rapidly to reorganize the Postal Service’s leadership and institute cost-cutting measures that have already resulted in slower mail delivery. Those service changes, rather than the congressional fight over funding, are what alarm advocates for mail-in voting the most. At stake is nothing less than the integrity of the election itself, which to a large degree rests on whether tens of millions of ballots can get into mailboxes and then back to their precincts in time to count.

Keeping in mind this, overall, from our own Constitution.

8 U.S. Code § 1701.Obstruction of mails generally

Whoever knowingly and willfully obstructs or retards the passage of the mail, or any carrier or conveyance carrying the mail, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 778; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(1)(B), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2146.)

I would never have thought a President, even this one, would attack and try to dismantle, destroy our Postal Service.

Unreal where we are.

Then this President said this.


Have we become, are we already some Third World banana republic backwater?

Are we going to tolerate this?

I'm sure as Hell not if I can do anything about it.

First, we can't respond to a pandemic---but all other nations can---and now this?

Oh, Hell no.

Once again, one more time, thanks, Republicans.


Saturday, August 15, 2020

Quotes of the Day -- Hopeful, Presidential Edition


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First this:

Bill Pascrell, Jr. @BillPascrell

Tonight I’ve made a criminal referral to the New Jersey Attorney General asking him to empanel a grand jury to look at subversion of NJ election laws by donald trump, louis dejoy, and other trump officials in their accelerating arson of the post office.

5:21 PM • 8:14 PM

Pascrell represents New Jersey's 9th Congressional District.

Then this one:

Rep. Eric Swalwell @RepSwalwell

I don’t say this lightly: when we escape this Trump hell, America needs a Presidential Crimes Commission. It should be made up of independent prosecutors who look at those who enabled a corrupt president. Example 1: Sabotaging the mail to win an election. #SaveThePostOffice

6:14 PM • 8/14/20

Links:


And here's precisely why this President wants to dismantle the USPS:


This is as it should be in the middle of the worst, most killing international pandemic in the last more than  100 years.

Then check this out.


Trump and the Republicans will turn us into a banana republic backwater yet.


Friday, August 14, 2020

Ten Reasons We Should be Able to Vote by Mail

 You would think the largest, most killing international pandemic in over 100 years would be enough by itself, wouldn't you?


Meanwhile, we have this excuse for leadership, doing this.


Disgusting.

Un-American.

Thanks, Republicans.

Contact your Congressional representatives---especially your Senators--and especially you, Missourians, since they're both Republicans.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

From the "betcha' didn't know" file



















In 1913 it was legal to mail children. With stamps attached to their clothing, children rode trains to their destinations, accompanied by letter carriers. One newspaper reported it cost fifty-three cents for parents to mail their daughter to her grandparents for a family visit. As news stories and photos popped up around the country, it didn't take long to get a law on the books making it illegal to send children through the mail.

Monday, December 5, 2011

What do the US Postal Service and The Kansas City Star have in common?

Unfortunately, the cost of both is going/has gone up and the service/product keep getting worse. What does that tell you? Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/post/postal-service-cuts-will-mean-slower-mail/2011/12/05/gIQAroYfVO_blog.html#TID=&TData=

Monday, August 22, 2011

On the US, "heroes" and our non-functioning systems

From yesterday's New York Times Sunday Review section: "As the national narrative shifts from the war on terror to the specter of decline, the uniform performs another psychic function. The military is can-do, the one institution — certainly the one public institution — that still appears to work. The schools, the highways, the post office; Amtrak, FEMA, NASA and the T.S.A. — not to mention the banks, the newspapers, the health care system, and above all, Congress: nothing seems to function anymore, except the armed forces. They’re like our national football team — and undisputed champs, to boot — the one remaining sign of American greatness." --William Deresiewicz, essayist, critic and author of "Solitude and Leadership", an address delivered at West Point in 2009 and widely taught in the armed forces. Link to original post: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/opinion/sunday/americas-sentimental-regard-for-the-military.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=our+sentimental+regard+for+soldiers&st=nyt

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Two things we need to do, as a nation

Two big  things we need to do as a country, it seems, at minimum are, for once and for all, create a very real energy policy we can all support and get behind for time to come, Left and Right and all political parties.  


There's too many things we'd gain from this:  We could get out of the Middle East and all their wars and tribal fighting which we need to do so badly; we could, hopefully, stop hemorrhaging money to that same region; we could get into clean, renewable energy which will be so important for the next century and, finally, we could also hopefully pollute far less than we do now, whether we choose to believe in global warming or not.


The second big thing we need to do as a nation is come up with a way to phase out the United States Postal Service.  From the news today:


U.S. postal service says default possible, billions lost


WASHINGTON – The Postal Service is continuing to hemorrhage money, reporting a loss Tuesday of more than $2 billion over the first three months of the year and warning it could be forced to default on federal payments.



The agency says the $2.2 billion loss covers Jan. 1 to March 31, 2011 — sharply higher than the net loss of $1.6 billion for the same period last year. The post office also said it will have reached its borrowing limit, set by Congress, of $15 billion by the end of the fiscal year.
Unless Congress intervenes, the Postal Service said, the agency won't have the cash for certain payment to the government, such as billions for a trust fund to provide health care benefits for future retirees.
Total mail volume, about 41 billion pieces, was down 3.1 percent for the January to March period, compared to the same time a year earlier, the Postal Service said. A modest increase in revenue from standard mail wasn't enough to offset the revenue loss from fewer pieces of first-class mail.
In the last three years, the agency has cut over 130,000 jobs. And it's making more cuts, with the elimination of about 7,500 administrative jobs in regional offices.
And before you get hot under the collar about "our tax dollars being wasted", know this:
The Postal Service does not receive tax money for its operations.
We know virtually everything is going digital, what with our computers.  We need a good plan to transfer the USPS from the behemoth it is to phasing it out.  
It won't be easy and it won't be pretty but how much more handwriting on the wall do we need?

Next up:  Universal health care.


I'm not holding my breath.

Monday, February 28, 2011

What does it tell you when a media blog drops the local paper?

Fascinatingly enough, I saw this morning where the blog Bottom Line Communications is dropping their Kansas City Star subscription.

Yowza.

What's that tell you?

The Star is looking more and more like Blockbuster Video--a company that is old technology--and going down.

Just as BLC laments, I hate to see this happen.

They ask a great question over there:  "What business model features increased prices and reduced quality and hopes to survive?"

And the only answer to that question is the US Postal Service.

And we all know how that's going to turn out.

It really is sad.

I wrote about this earlier here.

I want to take the paper and I want it to be relevant but it has to be both relevant and a good value and it's just not.  As they point out over there at BLC, the price keeps going up, up, up and the content and quality of that same content keeps getting worse and worse.  I don't think anyone could deny that.  Well, they couldn't unless they're on the staff of the Star.

It does't portend good things for society, either.  We used to all have this base of information we began with, whether it was Walter Cronkite or the local newspaper or whatever.  Now, fewer and fewer people are even remotely aware of current events locally, regionally, nationally or internationally and if they do read or watch things, they are usually sources that merely reinforce their own preconceived opinions.

It doesn't bode well for us as a people and country.

There is an article out today at Alternet, pointing out that the Southern Poverty Law Center registered a 22% rise in "radical Right-wing hate, 'patriot' and militia groups" last year and a 40% rise the year before.  I would submit that there is at least a partial correlation between a lack of information and hard data, and the growth of these groups.  I don't think it's a coincidence.  Things are changing, radically in the US and people don't understand.  They want things back "like they used to be"--an old high school friend of mine said as much to me earlier this year, on Facebook.

We need, as a country and as a people, to be calm and informed.

Once again, I call out for a renewal of the "Fairness Doctrine" in our government over media.

And as soon as possible.

A media blog ending their subscription to the local newspaper.

It's nearly inconceivable.

Nearly.

Links:  http://www.bottomlinecom.com/kcnews/biddingadieutokcstar.html
http://www.alternet.org/rights/150069/number_of_radical_right-wing_hate,_patriot,_and_militia_groups_exploded_in_2010



Saturday, February 7, 2009

Topsy-turvy

At some point, in a regular capitalistic business world, when someone doesn't any longer need a service or product, the product likely gets less and less expensive, as much as it can, until it no longer makes a profit, and it disappears. It goes out of business.

That's in the regular world.

In the government world, like in postage and the postal world, as computers come further into our lives and we email more and more and need the mail service less and less, the costs of these things just keep going further up and up.

It makes no sense.

The federal government needs to recognize the situation for what it is and ready the whole system to, one day, go out of business and go away.

Postage. Postage stamps. Postage meters. Mail-persons, mail trucks, the whole thing.

They need to plan for its disintegration.

Maybe not in 2 or 3 years but soon.

It only makes sense.

It's already begun.

People are mailing less and less all the time.

We'll benefit by this, too, as a society.

We'll use less paper and papers and envelopes--the whole thing.

It's going to get more and more expensive to use the regular paper mail system, as people use it less and less, because they're going to want to keep their profits as high as in the past, to keep the whole thing going.

And the more expensive it gets, the less people are going to use it. And computers, by comparison, are already falling in price terrifically.

And young people are going to use these new, much cheaper computers more and more and more, as we already know.

We need a plan to get rid of this United States Postal Service and up to now, we don't have one.

Mind you, it doesn't rank up there with saving our current economy but it would be good to tell them, if you're President, to get a plan.