Scam Alert! Press Sleeps Through the Great Post Office Fire Sale

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/scam-alert-press-sleeps-through-great-post-office-fire-sale



In 1906, surveyor Stephen Puter wrote a tell-all book from prison, Looters of the Public Domain, which details how Puter transferred thousands of acres of prime timberlands in Oregon and Washington from public to private owners. This sort of hustle was common in the 19th century, when much of the public domain was enclosed and converted into private fortunes with congressional help.

History is repeating itself today with the nation's postal service, and much of the press is asleep at the wheel.

The public in 1906 became aware of frauds like Puter's because the U.S. then had a diverse and competitive media environment willing to support gumshoe journalists as well as a president willing to investigate and prosecute criminal activity at the highest level — even U.S. senators of his own party. How times have changed as we now watch the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) looted like prime timberland. A venerable institution that helped build the country is being gutted. This is not, as the mainstream media slothfully claims, because the Internet has rendered it obsolete, but because it represents lumber ripe for the taking while what’s left of the press takes an extended holiday from curiosity.

Last July, the USPS succeeded in uniting a famously fractious town when it announced plans to sell Berkeley’s century-old downtown post office. Berkeley has, ever since, proved a public relations migraine for USPS management. USPS occasionally meets its legal obligation to take public comment on pending sales, and it did so in Berkeley on February 26 at a meeting where USPS representatives endured hours of abuse and outrage from an overflow crowd at the old City Hall. The city council and mayor unanimously condemned the proposed sale. Activists demonstrated at the historic post office, gathered petition signatures, and — in lieu of local press — leafletted town residents about what they were about to lose.

[madokie]

1. The press is diverting our attention with trumped up charges against the President

Knowing full well what they ARE reporting on is garbage. We really do need to get our press out of corporate hands. If we don't we have no chance of ever stopping shit like this.

[Downwinder]

2. Don't federal buildings double as civil defense shelters?

[orpupilofnature57]

4. Another thing they've depleted since Shrub...

Civil Defense .

[orpupilofnature57]

3. Misanthropic Sycophant Monsters.......

They were obsessed with showing us Britney Spears vagina, whilst the Supreme Court was selling our election system .

[Ilsa]

5. I heard on yesterday's Ed Schultz radio show

that the OMB is considering "borrowing" the USPS's retirement fund, the one they are going bankrupt in prefunding 75 years worth of retirement and medical care.

And how would that work exactly? It's another theft from private citizens to fund govt operations unequitably funded by middle class taxpayers.

[Samantha]

11. I have been wondering about those funds and tried to find where they are

Uncle Sam has borrowed against government employees pension funds, the Social Security Trust Fund (although in theory the loan is backed up by Treasury Notes) so it seemed like a pretty good possibility the OMB had dipped into that pot as well.

I checked all the pockets of debt itemized by OMB and found a couple of places where the funds might be, but no specifically noted mention of the USPS funds. So the question is if the OMB can borrow against it, why can't the USPS?

Sam

[Ilsa]

12. I'm not certain it's a done deal. It sounded like,

according to Guffey (the USPS union Pres?), they were discussing it. It unnerved me that they had to come up with all of that money in ten years, yet the liquidity could dry up if the OMB "borrows" it.

[snot]

6. K&R'd.

[phantom power]

7. recommended

[markiv]

8. whatever the press is telling you now, is always a diversion from what's really going on

and one of the biggest, is the zillionz of tech jobs being sent from the middle class in the new immigration bill, and BOTH parties are in on it

the tech industry even got the token 'check for an American first' provisions stricken down in the massive new increase

the 'scandals' are professional wrestling - it's what the parties are quietly cooperating on in back rooms that is always the real (uncovered in the press) issue

even if the 'scandals' WERE important, would we really need weeks of wall to wall coverrage? no

[Brother Buzz]

9. Senator Feinstein's husband's real estate company is brokering the deals

That's a fact, Jack.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022326804

[MineralMan]

10. Why is the USPS selling the building?

I didn't see that in the article. Has it moved its primary operations there to a new facility? Is the old facility adequate for USPS needs? Is it efficient to operate?

There are many reasons that the USPS might want to get rid of a 100-year-old facility. I'd like to see their reasons in this case.

[tammywammy]

13. Consolidation

Berkeley’s main post office, a distinguished Renaissance Revival work completed in 1914, is to be sold by the financially troubled US Postal Service. A spokeperson for USPS told Berkeleyside today that all carrier operations and bulk mail operations will move to the Berkeley Destination Delivery Unit at 1150 8th Street. The USPS is looking for an alternate retail location for downtown customers.

http://www.berkeleyside.com/2012/06/25/postal-service-plans-sale-of-berkeleys-main-post-office/

[MineralMan]

14. Ok. Well, that makes sense. They've moved operations and

no longer need that big building to serve downtown customers. Selling the building will allow it to be modified for other uses. It doesn't mean that the post office is closing, it means that it's changing to match current needs.

I have no problem with them selling a building that is not being utilized to its fullest. Watch for condos to be build inside of it. Whoever buys it will convert it to another use. I can't see the problem with that, frankly.