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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump Is Rigging The Postal Service To Get Himself Re-Elected
And now with Trump proposing to delay the election itself, the stakes are higher than ever before.https://thebanter.substack.com/p/trump-is-rigging-the-postal-service
WASHINGTON, DC -- When and if the votes are counted and we have a new president, Donald Trump and his fascist co-conspirators have to be held accountable for the unprecedented and entirely despotic actions theyve taken since and even before the 2016 election. And now, with Trump proposing to delay the election, the stakes are higher than ever before. As Ive said repeatedly: the only way we can prevent another Trump is to forcefully slam the door behind this administration -- the door in this metaphor being a series of legislative reforms, constitutional amendments, and, yes, prosecutions of everyone who participated in the subversion of our democratic republic in the name of propping up our first presidential dictator. One of the top shelf items on the list isnt being discussed a lot, but it should be. You may have heard that Trump and his Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, are busily crippling the U.S. Postal Service. Why? Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, second quarter 2020 revenues for the USPS grew by more than $300 million from the second quarter of the previous year, totalling $17.8 billion. Likewise, 2019 revenues for the entire year were up more than half-a-billion dollars over 2018. It turns out, e-commerce from corporations like Amazon has significantly helped the USPS, with operative profits growing every year since 2012. Are people mailing fewer letters these days? Sure. Is it seriously damaging the USPS? Not really.
The major issue plaguing the USPS right now is a good problem to have: and thats meeting its pension obligations to its retired workers. Solutions, however, include debt forgiveness from Congress and a $25 billion modernization grant. Given Congresss spending on bailouts and tax cuts, $25 billion to help the USPS isnt that much of a burden in the grand scheme. However, Trump, responding to the proposal, said, The Postal Service is a joke. Back in March, a bipartisan bill to infuse the Postal Service with $13 billion was killed by Trump. So, why then, did DeJoy decide to cut overtime for USPS workers, effectively slowing down mail delivery in the middle of a pandemic in which people rely more on at-home deliveries than ever before? And he did it at a time when the USPSs profits are growing. Its all about Trump, of course. First, Trump hates Jeff Bezos, mainly because hes jealous of Bezoss ridiculously ginormous wealth. Plus, the Mad King is pissed that The Washington Post, owned by Bezos, is mean to him -- you know, by printing the truth about what Trump is up to. The head of the American Postal Workers Union, Mark Dimondstein, recently observed, These changes are happening because theres a White House agenda to privatize and sell off the public Postal Service. But since the USPS is still quite popular, theyre afraid to do it in one big move. Instead, theyre rigging the game by holding back deliveries and pissing people off. Then, when the time is right, boom. Itll be fully privatized. Put another way: slowing down service actually hurts profits, and thats the point. Starve the beast. If people are pissed off about slower-than-usual service, theyre more likely to use non-USPS solutions like FedEx and others. The USPS suffers and the suffering turns to irreparable damage until its sold off for parts.
The third and most obvious reason, to me at least, has to do with the election. Every decision made by the administration has to be viewed through the prism of re-election, so it could be deliberate move by Trump and DeJoy to sabotage the mail and, with it, the absentee voting process -- taking a giant cartoon-sized wooden hammer to the entire operation in order to help Trump win re-election. If this is part of DeJoys equation, and we have no reason to believe its not given the Trump administrations track record, the president is using his authority to directly disenfranchise American voters by blocking their ability to cast ballots on time. I mean, we only need to see that DeJoy gave Trump $1.2 million in donations for his campaign to know where the Postmaster Generals loyalties are. By the way, prior to running the USPS, DeJoy was tasked with raising money for the ill-fated Republican National Convention this year. Hes also donated millions to the broader GOP. In other words, DeJoy has invested a mountain of cash to re-elect Trump and hes clearly not about to let something like efficient mail delivery stand in his way. And if they can privatize the entire shmear, too, well thats a bonus. Strangely, knowing how 34 states, including DC, offer absentee voting without an excuse, Trump is shotgun-blasting the service in a way thatll also thwart his own fanboys from casting ballots as well. Then again, the lower the voter turnout, the better Republicans tend to do, even if their own people are hindered.
The consequences for the rest of us are grim. What happens to people who use the service for prescription deliveries or paychecks? And knowing the loyalties of the Postmaster, how can we possibly be confident that our ballots will get to where theyre going, and with a reasonable delivery time? We cant. Trump is spreading his disgusting taint everywhere, meddling in areas that were never mandated by his illegitimate electoral victory. There was no silent majority outcry to murder the USPS. Nah, this is another masturbatory Trump revenge project: screwing Bazos and rigging the election, with a little far-right privatization orthodoxy as a side dish. The only way to overcome DeJoy and Trumps illegal and punishable malfeasance here is to get your absentee ballot and to mail it right away as soon as ballots are made available -- as soon as early voting begins. The sooner ballots are in the hands of your county boards of elections, the sooner theyll be counted and Donald Trump will, himself, be screwed. Were not powerless here. Trump cant stop you from voting unless you wait until the last minute. Dont. The mail is crippled by Trumps cheating, but we dont have to be caught in his trap. Not this time.
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Trump Is Rigging The Postal Service To Get Himself Re-Elected (Original Post)
Celerity
Jul 2020
OP
Blue Owl
(50,291 posts)1. Trump is the USPOS
n/t
bullimiami
(13,076 posts)2. Ham-fisted dumbfuck suppresses R votes just as much as D votes.
Thekaspervote
(32,716 posts)3. Absolutely!!
muntrv
(14,505 posts)4. I will drop off my mail in ballot at the city clerk.
Response to Celerity (Original post)
Chin music This message was self-deleted by its author.
belpejic
(720 posts)6. He's attacking critical national infrastructure
To suppress the rights of the majority of his own citizens. Did you ever think that would happen in America? That's some serious third world crap.
uponit7771
(90,304 posts)9. +1,and it's against the law
herding cats
(19,558 posts)7. As a funny aside.
I'm in Texas. They've nixed expanded mail in voting here, but Trump is now behind in the polls.
I WILL be voting in person, no matter what. I know some people, not of my party affiliation who are stressing about going to the polls. They're wondering if the "risk" is worth it "considering all things?" It be really funny if in the end it bit them in the tush down here.