Trump Has Gone Postal-- What Is Required Of Patriots?

Louis & Donald Fix The Post Office by Nancy Ohanian

The House hadn't voted since it passed the Pentagon budget on July 31. Then on Saturday, there were 4 votes on the post office, including a Republican motion to prevent a vote from taking place at all. That Republican vote to recommit failed 223 to to 182. The 144 who voted, all voted to recommit. 222 Democrats voted against that but eight less-than-worthless fake Democrats from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- protected by the DCCC-- voted with the Republicans, of course; they always do. The enemies of the people:

• Anthony Brindisi (Blue Dog-NY)
• Joe Cunningham (Blue Dog-SC)
• Jared Golden (Blue Dog-ME)
• Kendra Horn (Blue Dog-OK)
• Ben McAdams (Blue Dog-UT)
• Max Rose (Blue Dog-NY)
• Abigail Spanberger (Blue Dog-VA)
• Xochitl Torres Small (Blue Dog-NM)

When the bill itself hit the floor half an hour later, all 231 Democrats voted yes and 149 Republicans voted no. That doesn't add up to the 257-150 win. Well, Justin Amash, the conservative independent, was with his GOP buddies on this one. So that makes 150. But that doesn't account for 26 yes votes.

Ah-ha! 26 Republicans! Were there suddenly--out of the blue-- 26 mainstream Republicans unwilling to lend their names to Trump's and DeJoy's plans for fascist take-over? Well... that might describe Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Peter King (R-NY), Chris Smith (R-NJ), David McKinley (R-WV) and Will Hurd (R-TX). But the rest of them? All have something in common-- they are extremely vulnerable members petrified to be associated with Trump and his authoritarianism, even, if like Mike McCaul (R-TX), Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) and Sam Graves (R-MO), they are total Trump lap-dogs who never stray from the party line. LaMalfa was the most shocking of all. But he's feeling the heat in a big way from progressive Democrat Audrey Denney and decided he's more afraid of her than of Trump at this point. Yesterday Audrey told us that she was "pleased to see Rep. LaMalfa vote the correct way on this bill-- and for once do something that favors his constituents instead of his corporate sponsors. I think it signifies the mounting pressure he is feeling from our campaign. It appears the vote may have cost Rep. LaMalfa some support within his strongest base." She pointed out some Trumpists in her district who are fuming:

And then there's multimillionaire clown Michael McCaul in Austin. You'd have to get up pretty early in the morning to pull the wool over Mike Siegel's eyes. He nearly beat Trumpist shill McCaul in 2018 and, despite McCaul's one vote diverging from Trump Saturday, everyone in TX-10 knows what a puppet is and that it's time to get rid of theirs. "Michael McCaul's vote for USPS funding is a clear sign it's re-election time and our rally with NALC Letter Carriers and 50 constituents on Tuesday was a success," said Siegel, a public school teacher and civil rights attorney up against eight-term Rep. Michael McCaul. "McCaul has accepted over $50,000 in corporate PAC money from FedEx and UPS, which have a direct interest in gutting the Post Office. I'm not taking a dime of corporate PAC money. Our campaign has been running for years on a message to strengthen and expand the Post Office, including Postal Banking and infrastructure for universal broadband, to create thousands of good paying jobs."

Sam Graves was another lock-step Republican who surprised everyone who knows him by starting from the party line. But, like LaMalfa, he's feeling the heat-- from his constituents and from progressive Democrat Gena Ross. "As a proponent of the House Bill meant to provide necessary funding for the USPS, I am glad that Sam Graves voted approve it. As I’ve said before, funding the postal service should not be a partisan issue. For Democrats and Republicans alike, the postal service provides a crucial service. The right thing to do, regardless of party, was to vote yes. However, we cannot settle for someone who does the right thing just some of the time. I’m running for office to guarantee the Missourians in District 6 that if elected, I will always vote with their best interest in mind, and not just when it’s convenient for me. I’m running so that the people of District 6 will finally feel like their voices have been heard, and not like their concerns have been silenced. When elected, the people of District 6 will never have to worry about whether or not I’m serving them, or my own self-interest."

Like most Americans, rural and suburban Missouri voters do not want to see the post office wrecked-- but Jason Smith diverged with Sam Graves on this one. His opponent, Kathy Ellis: "Jason Smith should be ashamed of himself. If it wasn’t clear before how out of touch and ignorant he is, it’s crystal clear now. Smith’s vote against support for USPS-- on the heels of his vote against Coronavirus relief-- demonstrates, once again, that’s he’s unfit to represent Missouri’s 8th District. Our rural area relies on USPS for voting, business matters, communication, and medicine. And we deserve a real leader, not a rubber stamp for Trump and GOP policies. It’s time for him to go."

But in some ways the most interesting vote of all was from hereditary multimillionaire Chris Jacobs in western New York (NY-27). Jacobs voted to recommit and then, following the GOP party line like he always does (100%), he voted against the bill to save the post office. No one could possibly expect anything else from him, right? Well... apparently he got some negative feedback from voters in his district-- furious rural voters, particularly. Jacobs was so frightened, that he put out a statement claiming he pressed them wrong button when he voted and actually meant to vote against Trump and with the Democrats, something he has never done before. Let's allow Jacob's progressive opponent Nate McMurray, a vocal defender of the post office, to explain what ensued: "Saturday, thousands of letter carriers and postal workers in NY-27 went to bed believing that their congressman voted against their very existence as essential workers. Today, hundreds of thousands of voters woke up to wonder whether their congressman was even able to do his job. Chris claims he was 'distracted' during the vote and was on his way to the airport before he realized he had 'pushed the wrong button.' How could he allow that to happen? Could he have been eager to get home before his big fundraiser Monday morning? The truth is that this negligence would never have happened on a vote important to his big money donors. No matter his alleged intention, Chris Jacobs' actions have shown zero support for the USPS and zero ability to stand up to the President. Chris has been silent as Trump threatened our democracy, saying that no funding meant fewer mail-in ballots for November and a better chance for his re-election. He hasn't said a word about postmaster DeJoy stealing mailboxes and dismantling mail sorting machines here in Buffalo. I'm proud to be endorsed by the National Association of Letter Carriers, because they know I can't be distracted from the fight to protect our workers, unions, and democratic institutions. There is going to be another big vote in November, on inept politicians like Jacobs and Trump-- I know there are many former Jacobs voters in NY-27 who are ready to change their vote too."

Trump roadie Alex Mooney (R-WV) was one of the Republicans who voted against Saturday's bill to provide $25 million in USPS funding, even as one of West Virginia's other Republican Congressmen, David McKinley, voted for it. The postal service employs nearly 4,000 West Virginians. "On-time mail delivery is a basic public service, and is particularly critical in a rural state like West Virginia," said Cathy Kunkel, Mooney's challenger. "We urgently need to fund the postal service to get through the November election. Beyond that, Congress must repeal the bill that required the Postal Service to pre-fund retiree medical benefits, which has put an unnecessary strain on its finances. It is deeply disappointing that Congressman Mooney voted against funding for this fundamental institution of our democracy."

Republicans without serious challengers-- and also Republicans who still can't get their heads out of Trump's ass-- just toed the party line (without making up stories like Jacobs did to evade accountability). The most foolish votes against the interests of their own constituents were by two crooks, Roger Williams (R-TX), Mike Garcia (R-CA) and Ken Calvert (R-CA). I asked Julie Oliver, Williams' opponent how Williams' vote can re explained, since people in central Texas like and depend on the postal service. Like Mike Siegel, Julie is also based in Austin and also running in a gerrymandered Republican district. And like Mike, she's looking like a winner. But in her case, her corrupt opponent, Roger Williams, refused to vote for the post office. "After taking $20,000 from UPS and Fedex, Roger Williams voted against funding the United States Post Office," said Julie. "It's about corruption, plain and simple. And it's not just a disservice to veterans, seniors, and rural Texans who rely on USPS for last-mile delivery. It's un-American."

The bill itself, likely to be buried in the Senate by Moscow Mitch, would prevent DeJoy from making any changes to postal operations that could slow delivery of mailed-in ballots for this fall’s elections and would force him to reverse the decisions he's already made to slow down the mail until the pandemic is over-- like removing mail-sorting machines, restricting overtime pay, destroying post boxes and handling election mail as anything other than first-class for prioritized delivery. In line with what was requested by the Republican postal service board of governors, the legislation also approved $25 billion in funding for the service. Trump's says if Moscow Mitch fails to stop it, he'll veto it.

DeJoy will be grilled by members of the House Oversight Committee this morning and with members like Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Ro Khanna (D-CA), AOC (D-NY), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Katie Porter (D-CA)-- plus neo-Nazis Gym Jordan (R-OH), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Jody Hice (R-GA), Glenn Grothman (R-WI) and Clay Higgins (R-LA)-- you can count on the hearing being a lot more exciting than Trump's hodgepodge tribute to himself that starts tonight.

Yesterday, conservative Republican #NeverTrumper Steve Schmidt wrote in a Business Insider OpEd that because of Trump's post office agenda, American democracy is in grave danger, "an attack on the right to vote... Trump's scheme to cause chaos at the US Postal Service and undermine faith in our voting system-- in the midst of a pandemic no less-- must be met with a rededication by all Americans who love this country to vote the president out of office."

Trump is causing chaos in America. He has attacked and weakened our most vital institutions for the past four years, and now, he has decided that he will stay in power by any means necessary, even going as far as to muse about running for an unconstitutional third-term in 2024.

Trump is trying to steal the election using a voter suppression scheme that confuses Americans and undermines the very basics of voting.

The US Postal Service has been selected by Trump to be the unwitting bludgeon as he assaults our free and fair elections process. He has installed a crony at the head of the USPS to make changes that will sow confusion and slow mail service, threatening the ability of the USPS to deliver mail-in ballots on time.

And it's not only the election. Imagine our fellow citizens, seniors, and veterans, who need their medications right now. The inescapable reality is that more Americans will die needlessly as the result of yet another cold, calculating, and calloused decision by Trump.

The USPS is as old as the nation and shares with it a storied history. The first US Postmaster General was Dr. Benjamin Franklin. He understood that mail delivery is amongst the very highest priorities and requirements of a functioning national government.

From the daring days of the Pony Express, to the pioneering Air Mail pilots at the dawn of aviation, to the men and women who walk a route today and know our kids' names and always have a treat for the dog, the USPS has been a vital part of our country. We cannot let Trump and his appointees threaten it.

As has been the case for the past four years, Trump's assault on our country's institutions is made possible by the silence of his collaborators in this plot against America.

What are we supposed to call it when one of America's two political parties succumbs fully to the siren of power at the expense of the American experiment? Freedom is on the line.

...We must defend freedom. We must vote. We must organize. We must participate. We must never ever let any person or any nation threaten our right to vote. It is an inheritance paid for in blood. We will never surrender it.

Donald Trump is a name that will live in ignominy for all time. His depravities, incompetence, and malice will be repudiated by the American people in a decisive vote that Trump will be unable to stop.

In the end, we are Americans. We decide who leads. We will vote.

Any and every Republican elected office who doesn't stand up to Trump on this, is complicit and should be voted out of office. The folks at the Lincoln Project know the stuff in this ad is true-- most of them were the ones who created or applied these right-wing strategies in American political campaigns to begin with:

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

I wouldn't mind watching Comrade Trump drive off a cliff, especially if he was holding hands with Moscow Mitch and they were pulling a Thelma And Louise, but the death would be too quick, barely fitting the crimes. Besides, he's got America in the back of that truck so it would be best if we could rescue America first.

We Get Letters, We Get Letters-- Or At Least We Used To... Before Trump Hired Louis DeJoy To Destroy The Post Office

Louis & Donald Fix The Post Office by Nancy Ohanian

I'm absolutely positive that Trump gave DeJoy a blanket pardon before DeJoy went for work for him. Either that or DeJoy is plum loco. On Tuesday DeJoy issued a disingenuous official statement on his disenfranchisement shenanigans, acknowledging that the postal service which he has been systematically disrupting, "will play a critical role this year in delivering election mail for millions of voters across the country... I want to assure all Americans of the following:

• Retail hours at Post Offices will not change.
• Mail processing equipment and blue collection boxes will remain where they are.
• No mail processing facilities will be closed.
• And we reassert that overtime has, and will continue to be, approved as needed.

When he said "mail processing equipment and blue collection boxes will remain where they are," he meant in the land-fills they've already been dumped in.

And when he said "overtime has, and will continue to be, approved as needed," he meant by his own lackeys who are have basically two jobs:

• Destroy public trust in the post office so it can be sold off and privatized.
• Disenfranchise Democratic voters to help Trump steal the election.

Not part of the public statement, though, was the order he gave not to reconnect and mail sorting machines and not to reinstall any blue boxes he had ordered removed. This was a memo from one of DeJoy's stooges, Kevin Couch the national director of Maintenance Operations:

Please message out to your respective Maintenance Managers tonight.

They are not to reconnect / reinstall machines that have previously been disconnected without approval from HQ Maintenance, no matter what direction they are getting from their plant manager," wrote Kevin Couch, Director of Maintenance Operations. "Please have them flow that request through you then on to me for a direction."

A follow up e-mail to every regional maintenance manager read: "We are not to reconnect any machines that have previously been disconnected." This was (in part), Pelosi's statement after she met with DeJoy on Wednesday: "The Postmaster General’s alleged pause is wholly insufficient and does not reverse damage already wreaked.  The Postmaster General frankly admitted that he had no intention of replacing the sorting machines, blue mailboxes and other key mail infrastructure that have been removed and that plans for adequate overtime, which is critical for the timely delivery of mail, are not in the works.  All of these changes directly jeopardize the election and disproportionately threaten to disenfranchise voters in communities of color.  At the same time, we are highly concerned that the slowdown of the delivery of medicines to veterans is not being sufficiently addressed."

90 Members of Congress-- all Democrats-- sent the 6 members of the Postal Service's board of governors a letter calling for the dismissal of DeJoy, also on Wednesday. "We write to urge you to immediately remove Postmaster General Louis DeJoy," they began, "using your powers under 39 U.S. Code § 202. Mr. DeJoy has used his time as Postmaster General to sabotage the United States Postal Service (USPS) and he must be removed immediately to protect this critical institution. Despite recent claims by Mr. DeJoy that implementation of certain changes may be delayed, he has already done considerable damage to the institution and we believe his conflicts of interest are insurmountable.

And that brings us to a worrying assertion by top investigative journalist Greg Palast that voting by mail with DeJoy running the post office "is playing Russian Roulette with your vote." He recommends that "since voting in-person on Election Day can kill you, to avoid the pitfalls of vote by mail, get your absentee ballot from your local county Board of Elections and return it there. Or, use drop boxes in states that have them. Otherwise, ask for your ballot at least 8 weeks before the election. In most states, you can take the mail-in ballot to an early polling station-- and safely drop it off."

Palast told radio host Mike Papantonio that an MIT study found that even pre-Trump 22% of all vote by mail ballots don't get counted. One in 10 people who ask for absentee ballots never get them and one in 5 mailed-in ballots get junked. When Papantonio asked him "How safe is vote by mail," he responded that it isn't. "you can have all these jerks in Hawaiian shirts, the Boogaloo Boys, the Proud Boys, they're going to go in… Trump’s calling for 50,000 volunteers. It's not an intimidation army. People have that wrong. The real danger’s that are going to go in and say, I don't like that signature on that ballot. That ballot was taped shut instead of a sealed shut by licking the envelope. I'm not kidding. And if you think it's just Republicans who do that, in New York this past last week the Democratic Party challenged the counting of 28,000 mail-in ballots-- the Democratic Party. Once they established that precedent, how many ballots do you think Trump's people will challenge? How many millions I should say. So it's not safe to mail in your ballot."

He reminded his listeners that the Democratic Party in California shafted Bernie out of 553,000 votes in the March primary. "That's what the Democratic Party did. But nationwide, what you have is a mass wipe out of voters by the Republicans. We've had a big purge of the voter list. 16.7 million people, according to the federal government, have been erased from the voter rolls. They're going to have a tough time getting their mail-in ballots if you're not on the voter rolls. And the Republicans have learned from the Democrats in New York and the Democrats in California and throughout the nation they're going to be challenging every single mail-in ballot that comes in."

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Trump and DeJoy Boy have gone postal! Their deliberate disruption/destruction of the USPS isn't just about the coming election. Sure, if Trump loses, he will use the chaos he has created at the post office and elsewhere as an excuse for branding the election as illegitimate. There's a method to his madness. But the chaos is also about pleasing his psychopathy. It's about destroying the lives of Americans by destroying their credit when their bill payments don't arrive on time or the bills don't arrive at their homes in time. It's about destroying the small businesses that they have worked so hard to build. It's also about Americans who depend on medications to lead productive lives, including American veterans, vets he knows make him look bad just by comparison to himself, not getting their medications on schedule, but when did Trump or any of his henchmen and staff ever really care about our quality of life or whether we even live or die. To Trump and his people, American lives are a political negotiating tool and that is all. This is Republicanism given free reign.

The truck pictured in tonight's meme says "We Deliver For You." What people like Trump and his personal Postmaster General deliver is what they aim to deliver; human suffering and misery. People like them run on it. It fuels them.

Not that I ever expect Washington to do the right thing but it's always worth illustrating the difference between what is right and how Washington sells out the Constitution and the country at nearly every opportunity. Washington takes care of its own, thus making it two cities; a city that says it is one thing and a city as it really is. The glint of gold blinds the former. Set up the tribunals! Oil up the blades! Order up the baskets for the D.C. deplorables! I'll bring my knitting!

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

First they erected a wall around the White House. Now they've erected a wall around your neighborhood mailbox. Next they will build a wall around you. Republicans don't like our taking down statues of their racist traitors like Robert E. Lee who they idolize, so now they are erecting what amount to industrial art pieces that symbolize their goal of fascist totalitarianism. That's exactly what tonight's meme shows.

Former Republican National Committee Deputy National Finance Co-Chair Louis DeJoy, now Trump's Postmaster General, has temporarily stopped "stealing" mailboxes from the nation's street corners but highly efficient mail sorting machines are still being disappeared in preparation for stealing or disappearing your ballots and the 2020 election itself. Since the machines can sort up to 36,000 pieces of mail per hour, there is no reason to get rid of them right before a presidential election other than to gum up the works at a madman's behest. This is exponentially way beyond the unpatriotic anti-democracy efforts of Flor-i-duh Governor "Jeb" Bush and his personal Secretary of State Katherine Harris during the 2000 election and that was bad enough.

Tonight's meme is a manifestation of what DeJoy and Trump have been cooking up in their many no longer secret oval office meetings and phone calls where they obviously strategize how to sabotage the United States Post Office and achieve their goal. What it amounts to is an affront to our Constitutional rights, the right to vote, and human decency itself, but that's what republicans are all about. They even admit it proudly now, right out in the open on national television. The Mailbox Graveyard, however, is a physical monument to what Trump and the Republican Party stand for. Hey, it's not Mt. Rushmore but it is a monument to Trump and the authoritarian government designs he and his henchmen such as Louis DeJoy, Moscow Mitch, Chuck Grassley, Stephen Miller, and Ron Johnson have for our country.

Meanwhile Congress skipped town and again skipped their responsibilities to we the people when they should have dragged DeJoy, in chains if necessary, into the House Of Representatives for questioning immediately. It took Speaker Nancy Pelosi until Sunday to announce that she would issue the callback. There's also a USPS Board of Directors, 6 of them, who should also be summoned to talk about, among other things, the 23 postal officials who DeJoy dumped so that he could be the USPS strongman and Trump's next "Medal Of Freedom" winner. Doing this immediately last Friday should not even have been a question or discussion but the only art the Democrats really ever show us is the art of hemming, hawing, procrastinating, and meekly treading lightly. I expect that we will get just the usual meaningless dog and pony pantomime for the masses and no removal or eventual imprisonment of DeJoy and no revisitation of Comrade Trump's treasonous and extremely impeachable abuses of power which grow by the hour. Democrats have the power to do at least some of what events call for but they have the power to do lots of things they avoid doing. Burn down their phone lines and knock on their doors, very loudly. Not that it will get the righteous result but: No justice. No peace. No Removal. No peace. No arrest for treason. No peace. Some people just need to be beaten into action. A commission on Trump's War On America needs to be established by noon today. Anything else is being complicit and an accomplice.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

U.S. Code 10307:

No person acting under color of law shall fail or refuse to permit a person to vote who is entitled to vote... or willfully fail or refuse to tabulate, count, and report such person's vote.

Well here's a wanted poster that belongs on the walls of every post office in the land. Of course, we'll never see the day but I can tell you that, if in some alternate reality, you elect me as your president on 11/3, you would not only see it but there would be an APB out for this traitorous cretin and no panic room in his ridiculous mansion in Greensboro would keep him from the weighted leg irons of justice.

Just who the hell is Louis DeJoy? How'd he get the job of being Comrade Trump's Postmaster General? Easy. He bought it for a measly $1,000,000 in contributions to Trump's campaign but he claims that he's not a traitor and he's not beholden to Trump. Just wait 'til he starts trying to sell off post office buildings for the land so his buddy Trump can erect some money laundering Trump Hotels and Trump Casinos.

So far, he has come up with a sick variety of ways to please his boss by sabotaging the ability of the U.S. Postal Service to process our mail with an eye towards making sure that mail-in ballots are not received by voters in time to vote in this year's election or be processed on time with the necessary postmark and relayed on to the proper place for counting at all. DeJoy is, in effect, designing a system of sabotage that will cause ballots to either disappear or be disqualified because of a late postmark or no postmark at all. The latter is of course assuming that the ballots ever get to voters so they can fill them out in the first place. DeJoy's methods to achieve this Trumpian goal include the firing of 23 top organizational and supervisory personnel with the express purpose of centralizing everything under himself only, thus making himself a postal strongman. DeJoy is also denying overtime needed to get the job of timely sorting and delivery done, removing truckloads of mailboxes from street corners, and literally ordering mail sorting machines to be thrown away. He's in an obvious rush to do this for an equally obvious reason. Like Trump, he is a long time republican dream come true.

I believe that, technically, DeJoy Boy may not have yet committed a federal crime in his manipulations of the mail but he is skating closer and closer to violations of civil rights laws, voting rights laws, equal protection laws, violation of the Administration Procedures Act, and various violations of several state Constitutions if he hasn't already crossed the lines. In the case of the most obvious federal violation, DeJoy would technically, have to be a member of the Trump campaign. See what he and Trump have done here? He's contributed 7 figures (actually a little more than that but I rounded it off in a fit of generosity and kindness) to the campaign but, supposedly that kind of money doesn't make you a full-fledged member of said campaign. It only makes you a henchman in an authoritative dictatorial takeover of the United States Of America. There oughta be a law but when did that ever stop Trump and Bill Barr? The Democrats? They barely even act when there is a law, at least not seriously. Instead, we see daily abuses of power on the part of Trump and in behalf of Trump and no one does anything other than write memorandums to various smirking officials and say "Vote them out on November 3rd." As if it won't be too late by then. Hopefully, their memorandums are not being sent via the post office. If so, they've probably already been circular filed in DeJoy's office or maybe he reads them to Trump or Barr for laughs.

So here we are: Trump has Putin and who knows who else working "the interwebs" and now he has this new guy messing with the ol' snail mail. Sweet deal. All the bases covered. Khrushchev would be proud and Stalin would be envious. After all, it was he who said:

Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything.

Trump and his henchmen are beating that Stalin game. By November 4th, they'll be saying:

"Votes? What votes? We ain't even seen any stinkin' votes!"

Republicans Starting To Panic As Public Anger Grows Over The Post Office

This week's most predictible endorsement went to Biden and Harris yesterday from the National Association of Letter Carriers, a 300,000 member union. With Trump and the congressional Republicans full steam ahead on trying to destroy the post office-- Trump so he can prevent widespread voting and the congressional Republicans as part of their privatization mania.

It isn't just the big postal workers union endorsement-- this whole war against the post office is hurting Trump. Otherthan doctrinaire Republicans, the public doesn't like it. As Jonathan Bernstein put it in his Bloomberg News column yesterday "The thing is that Trump, by opposing money for the U.S. Postal Service and supporting 'reforms' that have slowed it down, is just handing former Vice President Joe Biden yet another easy campaign issue. Democrats may or may not be able to overturn new procedures that are causing significant problems, but they certainly can make sure that anyone who’s waiting on a letter or a package thinks that Trump is responsible when it doesn’t show up on time. And that’s not the kind of thing politicians want voters to blame them for."

Erin Cox, Elise Viebeck, Jason Bogage a d Christopher Ingham reported that Trump's corrupted Postal Service warned 46 states-- as it slows down mail deliveries-- that some votes sent my mail may not be counted. "Anticipating an avalanche of absentee ballots, the U.S. Postal Service recently sent detailed letters to 46 states and D.C. warning that it cannot guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election will arrive in time to be counted... The letters sketch a grim possibility for the tens of millions of Americans eligible for a mail-in ballot this fall: Even if people follow all of their state’s election rules, the pace of Postal Service delivery may disqualify their votes. The Postal Service’s warnings of potential disenfranchisement came as the agency undergoes a sweeping organizational and policy overhaul amid dire financial conditions." Those dire financial conditions were entirely and purposefully created by conservatives.

"Cost-cutting moves," the Post quartet continued, "have already delayed mail delivery by as much as a week in some places, and a new decision to decommission 10 percent of the Postal Service’s sorting machines sparked widespread concern the slowdowns will only worsen. Rank-and-file postal workers say the move is ill-timed and could sharply diminish the speedy processing of flat mail, including letters and ballots."

Yesterday, when asked by Ayman Mohyeldin on MSNBC if the American people will have a free, fair and credible election in November, Pelosi say "Not if the president has anything to do with it... a domestic assault on our Constitution."

Petrified of the growing anger of voters-- and his open conference-- Kevin McCarthy lied his ass off, telling the public that Republicans do not support withholding funding from the Postal Service. "The Postal Service will have the funding that it needs. We will make sure of that. We want to make sure we have an accurate election. I think any Republican that gets their ballot in the mail should vote and make sure their vote is counted." People are wise to his word games as he licks Trump's boots, as even members of his own caucus are saying now.

Jessica Piper reported for the Bangor Daily News that Susan Collins-- losing her reelection bid and absolutely desperate to show she isn't joined-at-the-hip to Trump (which she is)-- found something she can oppose him on. Trying to sound like she just woke up and is suddenly on Mainers' side, she said that "efforts by the U.S. Postal Service to cut costs could backfire amid reported mail delays in Maine and across the country and reiterated support to increase funding to the embattled agency." Has she told Trump and McConnell?

Mitt Romney, somewhat more credibly than Collins, broke with Trump on this too, telling the Sutherland Institute that "politicians"-- a reference to McConnell and Trump-- "attacking the vote by mail system are threatening global democracy but stopped short of criticizing President Donald Trump, who has been openly against an expected surge of mail-in ballots. The United States must stand as an example to more fragile democratic nations to show that elections can be held in a free and fair manner, Romney said. He urged the federal government to make every effort to ensure that people are able to vote in the general election this November... Romney said he has seen no evidence that voting by mail has led to fraud and that this voting method may be even more secure than electronic voting because it’s less likely to invite hacking interference by foreign entities. He said he would support providing additional funds to states to strengthen their voting systems."

And this is the letter my friend Rod wrote to each of them this morning. Maybe you want to consider doing one like it too?

Gentlemen of the USPS Board of Governors:

Mr. DeJoy is engaged in a blatantly partisan exercise to cripple the institution you oversee ahead of November 3. With it, he seeks to effectively destroy American democracy. It is incumbent upon you to intervene to halt this treasonous activity.

Please do your job and remove him immediately!

One very concerned citizen,

Rod Colburn

P.S. You each appear to be white males. You don’t look at all like America, do you?!

Trump Is Blocking A Pandemic Relief Package To Prevent Congress From Keeping The Post Office Alive

On Wednesday, Trump, lying, tried stampeding Congress and bending it to his will by declaring there won't be a pandemic relief package. The Washington Post reported that " A new attempt to restart economic relief negotiations between the White House and Democrats ended just minutes after it began on Wednesday, with President Trump appearing to cast doubt on the whole process by announcing a deal is "not going to happen." The sociopath in the White House said "The bill’s not going to happen because they don’t even want to talk about it, because we can’t give them the kind of ridiculous things that they want that have nothing to do with the China virus."

The Reuters story made it clear what he's up to: trying to wreck the U.S. Post office in the hope of being more easily able to steal the election in November. Patricia Zengerle and David Morgan reported that on Thursday he said "his team was rejecting Democrats’ bid to include funds for the U.S. Postal Service and to shore up election infrastructure in a new coronavirus relief bill, as he vowed to block money to facilitate mail-in voting. Señor Trumpanzee: "The items are the post office and the $3.5 billion for mail-in voting. If we don’t make the deal, that means they can’t have the money, that means they can’t have universal mail-in voting. It just can’t happen." Zengerle and Morgan reminded their readers that "Roughly one in four U.S. voters cast their ballots by mail in 2016, and Trump himself has voted by mail. But Trump and his fellow Republicans have criticized state efforts to make voting by mail more widely available, saying without evidence it could lead to widespread fraud. Election exerts say mail voting is as secure as any other method."

Pelosi said any coronavirus relief bill should include billions of dollars to protect not just Americans’ right to vote but also essential services, like mailing prescription medicines, during the pandemic.

“You would think they’d have a little sensitivity, but so obsessed are they to undermine absentee voting that this is their connection there,” Pelosi told reporters. “So the president says he’s not putting up any money for absentee voting and he’s not putting up any money for the Postal Service, undermining the health of our democracy.”

...New Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who has donated $2.7 million to Trump and his fellow Republicans since 2017, has ordered operational changes and a clampdown on overtime in a bid to fix the financially troubled Postal Service, which reported a net loss of $2.2 billion in the last quarter.

Cost-cutting measures put in place by DeJoy have led to mail delays across the country, raising concerns that they could complicate mail-based voting. State election officials have scrambled to expand mail-voting capacity as experts say the pandemic could prompt up to half of all U.S. voters to cast their ballots by mail.

The Postal Service in recent months has encouraged election officials to send their ballots using regular first-class mail, rather than the cheaper and slower bulk mail rate that many states use, to ensure ballots are delivered in a timely manner.

In the past, the Postal Service has generally treated all election and political mail as if it were first-class, the service’s internal watchdog said in a 2019 report. That has caused some Democrats to accuse DeJoy of trying to undermine mail-in voting.

GOP sleaze-bags Steven Mnuchin and Mark Meadows are leading the charge for Trump. Lisa Mascaro reported for AP that "With talks stalemated, Trump has resorted to bypassing Congress, issuing the executive actions that Meadows warned would come if the White House failed to reach a deal. The president’s orders for jobless aid and other actions are only expected provide modest relief to some 20 million Americans at risk of eviction and even more who are out of work, halving unemployment assistance to $300 a week. On a conference call with Republican senators, Meadows and Mnuchin left the impression there are no new talks scheduled with Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi."

CNN went right to the point: Trump "opposes much-needed funding for the United States Postal Service because he doesn't want to see it used for mail-in voting this November. By directly linking USPS funding to mail-in voting, Trump is fueling allegations that he is trying to manipulate the postal system for political gain. The pandemic has led to record-shattering levels of voting-by-mail, but Trump has tried to restrict the voting method because he says it will hurt his re-election and Republicans across the board."

Biden's campaign manager, Andrew Bates: "The President of the United States is sabotaging a basic service that hundreds of millions of people rely upon, cutting a critical lifeline for rural economies and for delivery of medicines, because he wants to deprive Americans of their fundamental right to vote safely during the most catastrophic public health crisis in over 100 years."

This is a highly unpopular stance by Trump and Democratic congressional candidates are increasingly using it to beat up on the Trump enablers they're running against. Few members have been more slavishly devoted to Trump than Omaha's Donald Bacon and progressive Democrat Kara Eastman took him to task yesterday for his refusal to denounce Trump's efforts at sabotaging the post office (and the election). She noted that The US Postal Service employs over 600,000 Americans, including almost 100,000 veterans and that people of color comprise 40% of the USPS workforce. "Congressman Bacon, this continued attack on the Postal Service is undermining workers and serving to promote voter suppression," Eastman said. "The US Postal Service is an American institution, protected by the Constitution. Donald Trump and Republican politicians like Don Bacon have been trying to undermine it for years and are now sabotaging it to rig the election. This attack on the USPS is an attack on American service and values. It’s time for Bacon to stand up to his party and stop these attacks on one of our most basic and fundamental institutions."

"We cannot allow this administration to sabotage the Post Office so they can cheat the election. Folks across the nine counties of the Texas 10th district need the Post Office to safely vote by mail, get prescription medications delivered, or run their small business," said Mike Siegel, a public school teacher turned civil rights attorney running in the gerrymandered central Texas district to unseat Republican corporate crony Michael McCaul, an unabashed Trumpist. "My opponent has taken over $50,000 from corporate PACs with a direct interest in gutting the post office. I am not taking a dime of corporate PAC money."


Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) sits on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, where he serves as the chairman of the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and is on 2 other subcommittees-- the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus and the Subcommittee on Government Operations, which is where all the action is on the Republican Party play to destroy the post office. "The GOP attack on the Post Office," he told me today, "is definitely a sinister attack on the 2020 Election itself and we must do everything we can to stop it. But it’s also more broadly an effort to kill American democracy. The Post Office has been a central crossroads and symbol of American communications, culture, and political community from the beginning of the Republic. In the name of our first postmaster Benjamin Franklin and all the other great Americans who worked for the Post Office, including Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman, we must take down the campaign to destroy the Post Office. This is the struggle of our lifetime."

Southern California congressman and realist Ted Lieu wasn't sugar-coating the dire nature of this disaster. He told me today that "This election is too important for me to promise things to make you feel better but won’t actually happen. The stark truth is the House cannot adequately fund the Post Office without the consent of Trump. The only option is a veto override with the Republican controlled Senate. That is not going to happen. That means our only solution is to empower the voters. We need you to spread the word that if people are going to vote by mail, they need to mail their ballot at least 10 mailing days out from Nov 3, which would be Oct 22. That’s how we win."

Adam Christensen is the progressive Democrat trying to flip Ted Yoho's north-central Florida district blue. Much of that district is rural and dependent on the post office. "This attack on one of governments best run and organized agencies," he told me, "is an attack on rural America. It is an attack on small business owners and those that rely on USPS everyday for shipping. It is an attack on our towns and our neighbors who are tired of paying outrageous fees for basic services. Attempting to destroy good paying jobs in our community and replace them with corporate monopolies is what has killed our town centers for the last 30 years. The Republican party is dying but it appears that they want to finalize the destruction of the middle class on their way out."

The Fascist Pig Is Stealing The Election In Plain Sight And Democracy Seems Incapable Of Protecting Itself-- The US Postal Service

I've thought all year that the reason Trump squealed like a stuck pig about the postal service was because he and his Russian allies had the electronic voting machines rigged in enough counties to throw him another electoral college win. Vote by mail would kill that. So he had to kill the post office, conveniently, an institution, Republicans hate anyway. "Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee have taken to the courts dozens of times as part of a $20 million effort to challenge voting rules," wrote Politico's Anita Kumar, "including filing their own lawsuits in several battleground states, including Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Nevada. And around the time Trump started musing about delaying the election last week, aides and outside advisers began scrambling to ponder possible executive actions he could take to curb mail-in voting-- everything from directing the postal service to not deliver certain ballots to stopping local officials from counting them after Election Day... [I]t has allowed Trump to present himself as a fighter on an issue that many of his most fervent supporters have taken up in the last few months. Trump fans, said John Fredericks, a conservative radio host who serves on the Trump campaign’s advisory committee, 'think Trump is going to win legitimately, but the Democrats are trying to steal the election by manipulating mail-out ballots. They want the president to jawbone enough so there’s a level of outrage to get rid of these ballots.' Just because Trump’s claims of rampant mail-in voting fraud aren’t supported by evidence doesn’t mean election experts aren’t concerned about problems holding a presidential election during a pandemic. It’s unknown whether the United States Postal Service can handle a surge of mail-in ballots in a timely fashion."

Writting for the Washington Post yesterday, Jacob Bogage reported about how Louis DeJoy, Trump's crooked new postmaster general is working quickly and ruthlessly to destroy the U.S. postal service from within. "DeJoy unveiled a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s mail service, displacing the two top executives overseeing day-to-day operations... The shake-up came as congressional Democrats called for an investigation of DeJoy and the cost-cutting measures that have slowed mail delivery and ensnared ballots in recent primary elections. Twenty-three postal executives were reassigned or displaced, the new organizational chart shows. Analysts say the structure centralizes power around DeJoy, a former logistics executive and major ally of President Trump, and de-emphasizes decades of institutional postal knowledge. The reshuffling threatens to heighten tensions between postal officials and lawmakers, who are troubled by delivery delays-- the Postal Service banned employees from working overtime and making extra trips to deliver mail-- and wary of the Trump administration’s influence on the Postal Service as the coronavirus pandemic rages and November’s election draws near."

Ted Lieu, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, is watching closely-- and very realistic. "Democrats," he told me last night, "are going to do everything we can to stop voter suppression, including by the Post Office. At the same time, here is the truth: with conservative control of the Supreme Court, the White House, and the Senate, most if not all of the efforts by Democrats will not succeed in the next three months. That means voter suppression will occur. And the best way to overcome it is to prepare voters. That means we need to educate people that if they are going to vote by mail, they need to vote early. If they decide to vote on November 3, they need to prepare for long lines. Bring a meal, a lawn chair, a game, whatever is necessary to wait in a potentially long line to cast the vote. That is how we win, by preparing voters to overcome obstacles instead of promising actions we can't deliver on in the next three months."

DeJoy is at war with congressional Democrats and there's no doubt in my mind that if Pelosi and Schumer could, they'd throw him in prison. But they can't. Bogage reported that Jerry Connolly (D-VA), chair of the House subcommittee responsible for postal oversight, called the reorganization "a deliberate sabotage" to the nation’s mail service and a "Trojan Horse." Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), a member of the subcommittee, told me yesterday that "All the Oversight Committee Democratic Members have been focused on defending the Post Office against right-wing attack ever since Trump came to power. The defense of the Post Office now assumes paramount importance and urgency as it will be a central transmission belt for delivery of ballots and votes in Nobember. Trump and his team have been making overtly hostile moves to undermine postal capacity, so expect intensive oversight hearings, demands for information and legislative action to stop Trump’s unfolding sabotage of the Post Office and 2020 presidential election."

The Postal Service will implement a hiring freeze, according to the reorganization announcement, and will ask for voluntary early retirements. It also will realign into three “operating units”-- retail and delivery, logistics and processing, and commerce and business solutions-- and scale down from seven regions to four.

The structure displaces postal executives with decades of experience, moving some to new positions and others out of leadership roles entirely, including McAdams, Williams and chief commerce and business solutions officer Jacqueline Krage Strako, who previously held the title of executive vice president and chief customer and marketing officer.

...[T]he changes worried postal analysts, who say the tone of DeJoy’s first eight weeks and his restructuring have recast the nation’s mail service as a for-profit arm of the government, rather than an essential service.

“He keeps referring to the USPS as ‘our business.’ But he’s been appointed postmaster general. You don’t run a business,” said Philip Rubio, a history professor at North Carolina A&T State University and a former postal worker. “He’s not accountable to shareholders. He’s accountable to the American people and Congress.”

Earlier Friday, congressional Democrats demanded an investigation of DeJoy’s cost-cutting initiatives, which postal workers blame for delivery slowdowns.

A letter signed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) and seven other Democrats, including Connolly, urged Postal Service Inspector General Tammy L. Whitcomb to examine how DeJoy came to implement policies that prohibit postal workers from taking overtime or making extra trips to deliver mail on time, and how such delays specifically affect election mail.

“Given the ongoing concerns about the adverse impacts of Trump Administration policies on the quality and efficiency of the Postal Service, we ask that you conduct an audit of all operational changes put in place by Mr. DeJoy and other Trump Administration officials in 2020,” the letter states.

It also asks Whitcomb to review the finances of DeJoy and his wife, Aldona Wos, the nominee for ambassador to Canada. The couple’s holdings include between $30.1 million and $75.3 million in assets in USPS competitors or contractors, according to a financial disclosure Wos filed with the Office of Government Ethics when she was nominated. Postal Service mail processing contractor XPO Logistics-- which acquired DeJoy’s company New Breed Logistics in 2014-- represents the vast majority of those holdings. Their combined stake in competitors UPS and trucking company J.B. Hunt is roughly $265,000.

DeJoy had 30 days from taking over the agency to disclose any assets that present a conflict of interest, according to the Postal Service. DeJoy in a statement said he had “done what is necessary to ensure that I am and will remain in compliance with those obligations.”

“We would welcome the Inspector General to look into the steps we are taking to make the Postal Service more efficient,” Postal Service spokesman David Partenheimer said. “She will find that much of what we are doing is designed to address recommendations that her office has made in recent years.”

Agapi Doulaveris, a spokesperson for the Office of Inspector General, said the department had received the letter, but could not comment on ongoing work.

“I would absolutely hope the inspector general would look into why the mail is being slowed, because that’s outrageous,” Rubio said. “Especially during the pandemic and with America about to vote, this is the worst time to be changing policies.”

DeJoy met Wednesday with Pelosi, Schumer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to discuss the new mail-handling procedures and the Postal Service’s tenuous financial position. The agency is projected to run out of money between March and October 2021, though it just accessed a $10 billion Treasury loan authorized last week in an early coronavirus relief package.

During the USPS’s quarterly board of governors meeting Friday, DeJoy said he negotiated the loan terms with Mnuchin. Upon accessing the loan, the Postal Service, subject to confidentiality restrictions, will hand over proprietary contracts for its 10 largest service agreements with private sector shippers. Those businesses use the mail service for “last mile” package delivery from distribution centers to consumers’ homes or businesses.

Mnuchin had sought sweeping operational control of the Postal Service in previous loan terms, including provisions that would allow the Trump administration to approve senior postal personnel decisions, service contracts with third-party shippers, collective bargaining negotiation strategies and high package prices.

In April, shortly after Congress authorized the loan, Trump called the Postal Service “a joke” and said he would not approve any emergency funding unless the USPS quadrupled package delivery prices, a move analysts said would quickly bankrupt the agency by chasing away customers to private-sector competitors.

DeJoy, at the governors meeting Friday, said that though he has a “good relationship” with Trump-- he’s donated more than $2 million to the Trump campaign or Republican causes since 2016, and chaired the finance committee for the 2020 GOP convention-- he does not take direction from Trump on postal issues.

“While I certainly have a good relationship with the President of the United States, the notion that I would ever make decisions concerning the Postal Service at the direction of the President, or anyone else in the administration, is wholly off-base,” he said. “I serve at the pleasure of the governors of the Postal Service, a group that is bipartisan by statute and that will evaluate my performance in a nonpartisan fashion.”

Coronavirus funding for the Postal Service-- and Schumer and Pelosi’s demand that DeJoy roll back the cost-cutting policies-- emerged as a sticking point between Democrats and the White House in negotiations on a “Phase IV” relief package. The House passed a package with $25 billion for the Postal Service that does not need to be repaid to replace the Treasury loan. The Trump administration has objected to any direct aid to the Postal Service.

On his Bradcast radio show Friday, Brad Friedman warned "Never mind the pre-election polling numbers you are hearing. Given the way Donald Trump and his Administration and acolytes around the country are actively working to undermine this year's November 3rd general elections, you'd make a mistake to place Joe Biden's odds of being declared the winner at any better than 50/50 at best at this point. Disturbing comments from our guest today only underscore that concern yet again." Even as Trump, reported Friedman, continues to make false claims about absentee voting (after fraudulently doing so himself!), his recently appointed Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, is now undermining the U.S. Postal Service itself in advance of what will be, by far, the largest Vote-by-Mail elections in all 50 states in the nation's history. "The Republican Trump mega-donor DeJoy, with no previous USPS experience, issued several directives upon taking office in June that have resulted in the slow down of mail delivery. And while both DeJoy and other leadership at the 250-year old Postal Service (whose first Postmaster General was Benjamin Franklin) have claimed the new directives are not aimed at slowing down mail or doing Trump's bidding to undermine absentee voting, our guest today, Mark Dimondstein, President of the American Postal Workers Union and Postal Service worker since 1983, charges that is exactly what is happening. The new directives purportedly meant as efficiency measures to curb overtime costs, 'can't do anything but slow down mail,' says Dimondstein. 'Our understanding is that it's really happening all over the country, and it needs to be reversed. It needs to be stopped.' The APWU chief, representing more than 200,000 postal workers, charges the new measures, which direct carriers to leave mail behind at sorting stations if waiting for it will delay their route, 'runs counter to our DNA. Our DNA as a postal worker is to serve the customer, leave no mail behind, treat it as if it is our own.'"

The USPS is in crisis mode now, as coronavirus lockdowns have severely curbed regular mail delivery-- though package delivery has increased, he tells me, helping to mitigate that loss somewhat. The Post Office is funded entirely by postage, not tax payer dollars, but its Republican-dominated Board of Governor's, he says, unanimously voted to request a $25 billion emergency bailout from Congress earlier this year. While almost every other company in the nation has received crisis funding during the pandemic, Republicans in Congress and the White House have continued to block the request. "The Post Office does not run on tax dollars in normal times, it runs off the revenue. So if the revenue is not there, then the Post Office will run out of money," Dimondstein warns. "It's not a question of if, it's a question of when."

..."Vote-by-Mail is nothing new for postal workers. We've been doing this for generations. Military personnel have been voting by mail since the days of the Civil War...And of course now, with the pandemic, it's a question of access to the ballot box at all for tens of millions of people who want to vote safely," he tells me, noting ironically that "Trump trusts us to deliver his mail-in ballot!"

..."The idea that the Postal Service is a joke is an insult to every dedicated postal worker. 600,000 plus strong," says Dimondstein. "Out here in this pandemic, on the front lines, can you imagine how we all feel hearing that? And it's an insult to the customers. 91% of the people in this country, in the latest Pew Research Poll [support USPS]. The Postal Service always rates the highest. This year, it was the highest ever, I think out of a deeper appreciation for the role of postal workers in this pandemic."

"The country just laid to rest John Lewis," Dimondstein notes. "His historic role in this country, courageously done, was the question of voting rights for African-Americans in the South of the United States. And it was courageous. He was almost beaten to death. Voting rights now is right here at the epicenter of what's going on right now, and the Post Office is right in the middle of this thing. Because without Vote-by-Mail, people aren't going to be able to vote. It's as simple as that. Tens of millions of people, from seniors to young people, just will not be able to vote during this pandemic if they don't have good access to Vote-by-Mail and don't have the states step up. We have to worry about some of these states that don't want people to vote. That's the reality."

When asked how long before Election Day Dimondstein would advise voters get their absentee ballot into the mail to ensure it arrives n time to be counted, he recommends that if you haven't mailed it by the Tuesday or Wednesday before Election Day, you'd be wise to try and drop it off in person at your precinct or local County headquarters.