Trump is obsessed with the U.S. Postal Service. He is certain that the U.S. mail is his enemy. One of his aides told him that he lost the 2016 popular vote because of mail fraud, and he’s ranted about the USPS ever since. He openly admitted in a recent news conference that he wants to block mail-in voting in hopes of cutting Democratic votes. Trump forced out the career professional who was running USPS and replaced with a donor to his campaign, Louis DeJoy. In the name of “efficiency,” USPS has been removing hundreds of high-speed sorting machines and thousands of mailboxes. At a time when millions of people count on the mails for their prescriptions and Social Security checks, the slowdowns are wreaking havoc. Even Republicans from heavily rural states whose constituents rely on the local post office have remained silent, as Trump orders the dismantling of USPS.
Democrats scheduled a hearing with Trump’s Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, who gave $2 million to the Trump coffers, but decided to move up the date to August 24. Trump and his wife voted by mail in Florida.
The House Oversight Committee will hold an emergency hearing on mail delays and concerns about potential White House interference in the U.S. Postal Service, inviting Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and Postal Service board of governors Chairman Robert M. Duncan to testify Aug. 24, top Democrats announced on Sunday.
Democrats have alleged that DeJoy, a former Republican National Committee chairman, is taking steps that are causing dysfunction in the mail system and could wreak havoc in the presidential election. The House had earlier not planned a hearing until September.
“The postmaster general and top Postal Service leadership must answer to the Congress and the American people as to why they are pushing these dangerous new policies that threaten to silence the voices of millions, just months before the election,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House Oversight Chair Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) said in a statement announcing the hearing.
The Postal Service is beset with delays because of policy changes implemented by DeJoy, a former logistics executive and ally of President Trump. DeJoy banned postal workers from making extra trips to ensure on-time mail delivery and cracked down on overtime hours. Localities across the country have struggled with USPS backlogs of up to a week, hamstringing local businesses and delaying the arrival of crucial mail items, including prescription medications, Social Security checks and bills.
The Postal Service is in the process of removing 671 high-speed mail-sorting machines nationwide this month, a process that will eliminate 21.4 million items per hour’s worth of processing capability from the agency’s inventory.
On Thursday and Friday, it began removing public collection boxes in parts of California, New York, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Montana. The agency said Friday that it would stop mailbox removals, which it said were routine, until after the election.
And White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that it would also halt sorting-machine removals.
Meadows also said the White House is open to Congress passing a stand-alone measure to ensure the U.S. Postal Service is adequately funded to manage a surge in mail voting in November.
“The president of the United States is not going to interfere with anybody casting their votes in a legitimate way whether it’s the post office or anything else,” he said.
Both statements would appear to step back from the president’s comments Thursday when he said he opposed Postal Service funding because he wanted to restrict expanding voting by mail.
Meadows insisted the president is only opposed to states sending ballots directly to all registered voters — not to a more common practice in which states send mail ballots only to registered voters who request them. Trump, however, attacked all forms of mail voting for months before recently dialing back his criticism in particular states, including Florida, where he voted by mail himself this year.
“The president doesn’t have a problem with anybody voting by mail if you would look at it in terms of a no-excuse absentee ballot,” Meadows said. “What he opposes is universal mail-in ballots.”
There are five states that voted nearly entirely by mail before the pandemic and four more that have announced plans to do so since the pandemic hit. Meadows suggested more states will attempt to shift to sending ballots directly to all registered voters between now and the election.
“This is more about states trying to re-create how they get their ballots and they’re trying to do it on a compressed timeline that won’t work,” he said.
Republicans are evil, but if you look closely, they are always abetted by Democrats. Trump’s Chairman of the Board of the Post Office (the board that appointed Louis DeJoy as postmaster) was unanimously approved by the Senate, despite being a known leader of a GOP SuperPac. It’s great that Democrats are speaking up now, but where were they then?
https://sirota.substack.com/p/trumps-postal-service-chairman-has
BTW, for those who complain that I “attack” Democrats and not Republicans, if you come home and find your kids playing with matches while the babysitter is passed out drunk, who are you most upset with? Republicans are children – no one expects adult behavior from them. The Democrats, however, are supposed to be the responsible ones.
Dienne,
We know you hate Democrats. Do you ever critique Trump?
“unanimously approved by the Senate”??
Is dienne77 now blaming Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren for this?? I always knew that her support for Bernie would only last until Bernie was not directly running against a Republican.
Notice how dienne77 doesn’t say that Republicans are corrupt. They aren’t liars. They are not greedy or evil.
Republicans are CHILDREN, says dienne77. Children are innocent. They are never to blame. They are basically good. And it’s not their fault or even their parents’ fault! Blame the “babysitter!” The minimum wage worker who rich parents hire. Because of course it is always the babysitter’s fault that the parent left matches where their child could reach them and the parents had raised their child to believe that the child was entitled to burn down or destroy anything that the child wanted to destroy.
What is more racist than dienne77 absolving the white parents who tell their child they can do anything they want and make sure that the objects of destruction are readily in reach of that child, and dienne77 instead blaming “the babysitter” — likely a person of color — and making the ugly innuendoes that the babysitter was asleep (notice how dienne77 implies people of color are lazy) instead of that babysitter dealing with the dozen fires that the “innocent” child had already started that were spreading fast.
dienne77 is still exonerating her beloved Trump Republicans.
Is anything more absurd that dienne77 is saying that the only thing that is wrong with Republicans is that they are innocent “children” who don’t know better?
It is clear that calling Republicans innocent children is the harshest criticism that dienne77 will ever make about Republicans. It is the democrats who are corrupt and evil, but the Republicans are innocent and childlike, and just don’t understand what they are doing. Blame their “babysitter”.
I love how dienne77 implies that the post office issue is Bernie’s fault because he is the “adult” and the “children” like Trump must be excused. Republicans aren’t at fault. Republicans are INNOCENT CHILDREN.
Give me a break.
I doubt very much if anyone can find a dienne77 comment where she just states clearly for the record that she believes that Trump and the Republican Party are corrupt, evil, dishonest, greedy and a danger to our country. dienne77 only makes those ugly attacks on democrats.
But who is gullible enough to fall for dienne77’s claim that she harshly attacks Republicans?
dienne77 sounds remarkably like Susan Collins claiming she is also “very critical” of Trump.
I can imagine Susan Collins also saying that when she says that Trump is being “childish”, Maine residents should consider her one of Trump’s harshest critics!
I really think dienne77 jumped the shark here.
dienne77’s post sounds remarkably like those who put ALL the blame on union teachers for their students not turning into high performing scholars.
The assumption, of course, is that students don’t become high performing scholars because all their union teachers were “passed out drunk” or otherwise lazy.”
The purpose of those right wing attacks on teachers’ unions is to completely destroy the teachers’ union so that right wing billionaires can take over public schools.
And the purpose of dienne77’s attack on democrats is to completely destroy the democrats so that right wing billionaires can take over the entire country.
There is something hypocritical about anyone who said they didn’t care if Trump was completely empowered in 2016 turning around and blaming democrats for the abhorrent things that Trump does. The abhorrent things that Trump does are directly the fault of people who were perfectly content to let Trump win as long as they could disempower the evil democrats.
dienne77 got her wish, and now she blames Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren for not stopping Trump, the man she helped elect?
“The president of the United States is not going to interfere with anybody casting their votes in a legitimate way whether it’s the post office or anything else,” he said.
Translation:
Trump-Eek-Always-Rightly-ThinSkined Trump sees himself as the judge and jury when it comes to deciding what is legitimate. Even when Congress, the courts and the U.S. Supreme Court rule against what The Trumpty Orange Dumpty Trash Compactor Machine thinks is legitimate, he goes on Twitter and attacks Congress, judges or justices that ruled against what he thinks should be legitimate, and if he has to interfere in the election to make sure the system works the way he wants it to work, he will.
This is how Trump Read-a-Lot-Not has worked all his life, explaining why he cheats all the time to win even if everyone else on the planet loses.
“Trump sees himself as the judge and jury when it comes to deciding what is legitimate.”
Exactly what I was thinking. “This is more about states trying to re-create how they get their ballots and they’re trying to do it on a compressed timeline that won’t work,” says WH Chief Falstaff, spokesman for USPS’ Not-Head of Operations Trump.
Make that Knot-Head.
MEADOWS: “’The president doesn’t have a problem with anybody voting by mail if you would look at it in terms of a no-excuse absentee ballot,’ Meadows said. ‘What he opposes is universal mail-in ballots.'”
Sheesh they are good at omissions and innuendo:
Besides purveying confusion and a distinction with out a difference, the implication is easily taken that “universal mail-in ballots” means NO IN-PERSON VOTING . . . and of course if you know what’s going on in voting, you know in-person voting is NOT excluded.
God, when will this nightmare end? CBK
He’s absolutely right, that Drumpf. We’re ALL his enemy.
One of the favorite memes and talking points of the right wingers and the libertarians is that the USPS is irrelevant, useless, a waste and obsolete in the age of the Internet and e-mail. They claim that UPS and FedEx are more efficient and can replace the USPS. That is mostly lies, exaggerations, red herrings, effluvia and BS. The righties and the libertarians hate the USPS because it is successful, it is a public service, a public good and it is unionized. Sure, it is true, that people are communicating more via the Internet and paying their bills online. In spite of that, the USPS still handles millions of pieces of mail/letters in addition to packages and parcels. FedEx, UPS and other for profit delivery services cannot replace the USPS which delivers to the whole country, from sea to shining sea and beyond. The commercial carriers won’t bother with sparsely populated areas because they lose money on them. That is not true of the USPS which is a service for all Americans no matter where they live. I find the service to be incredibly reliable and the glitches to be rare and bearable, even now with the pandemic when the USPS is straining under the huge increase in deliveries. However, it can’t survive without support from the government. If the government can hand out billions to private businesses then why not the USPS. Why not? Because the GOP is determined to kill it off and sell it to a private entity.
Joe Jersey: I’m having trouble getting my pills through the internet. There’s nothing “there” to take. Is that why?
But really, maybe there’s something to learn here about off-site learning for children who are (the literature tells us, including Jung) TACTILE learners? CBK
🙂 🙂 Jung was also a great advocate of play!
“Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.” – Carl Jung
The New York Times reports that Pelosi and other Democratic leaders are considering cutting the House’s summer recess short in order to deal with the USPS crisis.
Meanwhile, Schumer also announced today that he would be introducing legislation to ensure all election mail is treated as first class, overtime pay at USPS be restored, staffing shortages because of COVID-19 be resolved and mail-sorting machines that have been “destroyed” be put back to use.
I just poked around at the website for the DeJoy Foundation. He is cut from the same cloth as William Barr but he is much richer. I guess he knows enough about logistics to do an efficient job of dismantling the USPS.
http://louisdejoyandaldonawosfamilyfoundation.com/louis-dejoy-aldona-wos-family-foundation-public-policy/
From the Catholic News Herald-
“St. Pius X school celebrated the dedication of the new DeJoy Primary Education Center…Two of the most significant benefactors of the project, Louis DeJoy and his wife.”
Linda Many in the Church ARE flying too close to the sun . . . if I know Catholics, my guess is the one’s who are, for instance, those who have taken money from someone who is trying to extinguish the public institutions in America, e.g., like the Post Office, not to mention the U.S. Constitution, will find their wax will melting from the shame of it sooner than later. My hope is that WE won’t cave at the upcoming Congressional meetings.
Regardless, my earlier critiques of your notes here holds. CBK
I hope he learns de joys of prison life for interfering with U.S. elections.
Bob . . . at least. CBK
From Axios:
Pelosi calls House back to act on Postal Service “sabotage”
…The likely plan is for the House to travel back to Washington on Friday and convene on Saturday.
House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer is expected to announce the schedule on a members-only conference call with House Democrats on Monday at 11:30 a.m.
The expected starting point for action will be a measure introduced by House Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), “Delivering for America Act,” which “would prohibit the Postal Service from dialing back levels of service it had in place” on Jan. 1, until the pandemic ends.
The other side: Trump said this weekend DeJoy “wants to make the post office great again.”…
https://www.axios.com/pelosi-house-postal-service-bbce98bd-6fe5-4640-995d-6061d4767940.html?utm_campaign=organic&utm_medium=socialshare&utm_source=email
Looks like somebody is waking up. I’ve thought that before; but maybe this time? . . . . CBK
Contact all committee members before the hearing and have them demand that the locks be removed from mailboxes (this happened after we complained about box removals). have mailboxes that have been removed from streets put back and the sorting machines returned in working order. The Postmaster should be removed, not the mailboxes and equipment. https://oversight.house.gov/members
In the Public Interest posted an article recently that identifies Charles Koch as the money man behind the attack on the USPS. Charles Koch funds ALEC.
Linda Koch and other funding of ALEC is not news; but it doesn’t hurt to be reminded of it; and of the “deKoch My Campus” movements at some universities where Koch (and his brother before him) have worked for years in concert with other quieter, by comparison, oligarchs not only to rightly “have a voice,” but wrongly to control the curriculum, as well as the U.S. Congress . . . to the detriment of the U.S. Constitution.
My own thinking is that it’s reached a time now when those involved with ALEC and other similarly-founded organizations are more than seditious, where sedition can be a good thing when it goes against corrupt power structures and holders.
Rather, in at least the United States, the movement has become treacherous to the U.S. Constitution. To me, the whole movement is knocking on the door of treason, if not already inside. CBK
After the highly political Bishop Tobin lamented that that there was no Catholic on the Biden-Harris ticket (Biden is Catholic) … after Bishop Dolan praised Trump’s leadership… after the Knights of Columbus rolled out the red carpet for a photo op for Trump at its shrine (following the Trump team’s forcible takeover of the D.C. Episcopalian church), we had to know the following was coming.
Reported by Fox, “Catholic leader accuses Kamala Harris of being the ‘ring leader of anti-Catholic bullying that increasingly defines the Democrat party’ “. And, Fox quotes Newt Gringich calling Harris an “anti-Catholic bigot”
Remember the Knights of Columbus is headed by a former legislative aide to Jesse Helms.
Anti-woman and anti-black hate has been quick to surface. Making the internet rounds, a picture of Joe and Kamala, labeled, “Joe and his hoe”.
Linda And you believe what Fox News says, or what? What is your point here? CBK
“After the highly political Bishop Tobin lamented that that there was no Catholic on the Biden-Harris ticket (Biden is Catholic)”
Mic-drop. 🎤 And not one Republican Catholic corrects the lie. Not one. Telling. You’d think Steve Scalise, who was indoctrinated with the “faith” and wears it on his sleeve, would have been outraged. Dolan would be all over it if he were trying to hide, well, you know. If only Biden had committed genocide or exploited poor people. He’d be on the way to beatification by now.
Greg-
Thank you for adding, to mine, your warning and wake up call.
The warning- Right wing tactics, like tribalism, are served up by Catholic clerics, individuals, and organizations who man the authoritarian, prosperity wing of the GOP party.
They proclaim victimhood when they are called out for their political hatchet jobs against Dem politicians.
They eviscerate the left wing
(1) by public statements in the main stream media, their twitter feeds, and in their religion “news” sites,
(2) from their pulpits
(3) from their networking groups like the Knights of Columbus, Council for National Policy, the D.C. Catholic Information Center, and the abundant Catholic Universities in D.C.
(4) from their powerful positions in Trump’s administration and in other elected positions.
They tell the faithful how to vote, invoking God. Then, they use tribalism to get support by portraying themselves as underdogs, attacked by “bullies” because of their religion.
No, the above does not describe all who have decided to stay with a church that discriminates against women and that is integral to the erosion of women’s rights. No, it doesn’t describe all who have stayed with a church that covered up widespread child abuse by priests. No, it doesn’t describe all who have stayed with the church while it transitioned into the fan club of Grover Norquist and Charles Koch.
There are some faithful who write letters to Bishop Dolan, which are dismissed with disdain. The much-quoted definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome.
The Catholic leadership and organizations of the left appear to either (and) have non-existent public profiles or, they have chosen to hamstring themselves by avoiding support for progressive candidates, rules that the conservatives don’t follow. Look at the trend evident in the diminished visibility of the Nuns on the Bus.
PLEASE DON’T PUT THIS COMMENT IN MODERATION.
. . . and then there are Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden, and many, many others who hail from the Catholic and all other religious traditions, and who do enormous good in the world. I guess we’ll see about how that works out in the coming times. . . .
Also, anti-Catholic bias, which when present, as my mother used to say, “is as plain as the nose on your face,” will find its power diminishing along with the destructive elements in ALL of the authoritarian, anti-democratic minds of those who are involved. CBK
BREAKING NEWS: News Alert
Aug. 18, 1:53 p.m. EDT
“Postmaster general announces he is ‘suspending’ policies that were blamed for causing mail delays ahead of election.
“Amid intense scrutiny, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said that he is expanding a task force on election mail and he expects the Postal Service to deliver “election mail on time and within our well-established service standards.
“He said retail hours would not be changed, neither mail-sorting machines nor blue mailboxes would be removed, no mail-processing facilities would be closed, and that overtime would be available as needed.”
Yes, but will DeJoy replace what he has already dismantled and thrown away? Also, I hope they don’t just believe him and that there is some formal oversight? Who can believe any of these people? CBK
Mr. DeJoy has already dismantled and discarded neatly 700 high-volume mail sorting machines and ripped out postboxes across the country. I assume He pledged not to do it anymore. But that’s not good enough.
She made the most of her one minute. One commenter called her a loud mouthed witch with a capital B and another said she was a Junior high C student. These have to be people who think Trump is the greatest president ever. Who can understand some minds? [I say she is awesome!]
These Trumpers probably can justify DeJay’s working to destroy the U.S. Postal Service and applaud DeVos’s attempts to destroy public schools. There is no fixing stupid.
………………………………………
Ocasio-Cortez Uses Her 1 Minute At DNC To Call Out Injustices
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez used the one minute she was given to speak at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday to celebrate a “mass people’s movement” that was “striving to recognize and repair the wounds of racial injustice, colonization, misogyny and homophobia.”
“A movement that realizes the unsustainable brutality of an economy that rewards explosive inequalities of wealth for the few at the expense of long-term stability for the many,” the progressive congresswoman from New York said in a video as the convention was held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic. “In a time when millions of people in the United States are looking for deep, systemic solutions to our crises of mass evictions, unemployment and lack of health care, en el espíritu del pueblo and out of a love for all people, I hereby second the nomination of Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont for president of the United States of America.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s DNC speech served to formally nominate Sanders as a Democratic presidential nominee ― a nod to the over 1,000 delegates Sanders won during the primaries.
Article: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-dnc-speech_n_5f35d84dc5b65bbd8c8aa249?ncid=engmodushpmg00000006
Subject: Save the USPS
The US Postal Service–one of the leading employers of women and people of color–is in trouble, and Trump has admitted it’s all part of a plan to suppress votes in his favor.1 Speak up now to defend the essential services of the post office.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a megadonor appointed by Trump, recently announced structural changes and cut-backs that would dramatically slow delivery and capacity just as millions of Americans prepare to cast their ballots by mail. In fact, DeJoy sent a memo warning states that it could not guarantee mail-in ballots would arrive in time to be counted.2 And this slow-down means delays in life-saving medications, essential Social Security checks, and countless other critical pieces of mail.3
After massive outcry, DeJoy has been forced to postpone the changes until after the election, but that’s not enough.4 Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has shown he is willing to work with Trump to suppress votes, and he must resign. Will you sign the petition?
https://act.weareultraviolet.org/sign/saveUSPS/?referring_akid=50175.85041.BwN6Jv&source=taf
Stopping the cutbacks to USPS is not enough. How about restoring what has already been destroyed?
From today’s Los Angeles Times:
Six weeks ago, U.S. Postal Service workers in the high desert town of Tehachapi, Calif., began to notice crates of mail sitting in the post office in the early morning that should have been shipped out for delivery the night before.
At a mail processing facility in Santa Clarita in July, workers discovered that their automated sorting machines had been disabled and padlocked.
And inside a massive mail-sorting facility in South Los Angeles, workers fell so far behind processing packages that by early August, gnats and rodents were swarming around containers of rotted fruit and meat, and baby chicks were dead inside their boxes.
Accounts of conditions from employees at California mail facilities provide a glimpse of what some say are the consequences of widespread cutbacks in staffing and equipment recently imposed by the postal service.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, responding to a national outcry over service disruptions and fears of voter disenfranchisement, said this week he would suspend many planned changes until after the election. But postal workers say significant damage has already been done, including the removal of mail-sorting machines, which may not be replaced.
While the long-term effect of the cuts on U.S. mail service is unclear, the evidence of serious disruptions appears to be mounting, according to postal employees interviewed by The Times as well as customers, lawmakers and union leaders.
Why would cutting sorting machines save money and create more efficiency? How can anyone buy that nonsense? How can dismembering 600 machines save money? USPS workers can’t sort the mail as efficiently as a machine, especially since their hours have been cut.
This is a ploy to make sure that ballots aren’t counted. I’m sure Trump will begin screaming about how the election results are fraudulent because of the inability of the USPS to deliver ballots. Therefore, the election results are not to be trusted and Trump should remain in power until there is another election some time in 2021.
……………………
USPS Workers Told Not to Reinstate Mail Sorting Machines in Internal Email
Workers “are not to reconnect/reinstall machines that have been previously disconnected,” the email warns.
Despite a promise from United States Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to suspend his controversial efforts to “reform” the United States Postal Service (USPS), workers and management at post offices across the country are being told they cannot reinstate mail sorting machines at their facilities.
An internal USPS email obtained by CNN told postal workers not to reassemble the machines without authorization from postal service leadership.
“Please message out to your respective Maintenance Managers tonight. They are not to reconnect/reinstall machines that have been previously disconnected without approval from HQ Maintenance, no matter what direction they are getting from their plant manager,” Kevin Couch, a director of maintenance operations at USPS, wrote in the email.
The message to post offices was sent the same day that DeJoy promised to suspend changes at facilities throughout the U.S.
Although the order specifically prohibited putting the machines back to work, at least one facility in Dallas, Texas, attempted to reinstate its mail sorter. However, it was unable to do so because a required part for the machine was missing.
DeJoy has defended his “reforms,” including the decommissioning of more than 600 sorting machines, as necessary to reduce costs for the USPS, but a number of these changes appeared to be directed at hindering mail-in voting for this year’s presidential election. Recent comments from President Donald Trump, after DeJoy received widespread criticism, heightened those suspicions.
The postmaster general halted his plans after 20 states’ attorneys general threatened a lawsuit against him. Citing his wish to “avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail,” DeJoy promised to suspend his reforms until after the election. However, some post offices appear to have continued dismantling machines…
https://truthout.org/articles/usps-workers-told-not-to-reinstate-mail-sorting-machines-in-internal-email/?utm_source=Truthout&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Truthout+Share+Buttons
Listened to hearings.
DeJoy agreed to everything.
Don’t trust him.
No promise to restore the 671 high volume sorting machines, some of which were destroyed.
Why would anyone trust DeJay? How can the USPS save money by destroying sorting machines?
…………………………
Trump’s Postmaster General Louis DeJoy acknowledges mail delays, defends changes at USPS
August 21, 22020
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy acknowledged delays in mail delivery as critics worried about mail-in ballots in the 2020 election.
…Despite the criticism, DeJoy said changes at the agency were made to help restore the agency’s financial health and called it the Postal Service’s “sacred duty” to deliver election mail this November.
“I want to assure this committee and the American public that the Postal Service is fully capable and committed to delivering the nation’s election mail securely,” he said, saying there were no changes made to election mail policies before the 2020 election. DeJoy said the Postal Service was in discussions with election officials to prepare for the fall, and would send a letter in September to every American about the process…
Over the past several weeks, Congressional Democrats called on DeJoy to resign, states sued the Postal Service and Republican senators sent letters to DeJoy expressing concerns about the cuts to service…
Check out this story on usatoday.com: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/08/21/trumps-usps-head-louis-dejoy-testify-before-senate-panel/3399545001/
Diane In many cases, differences in political policy are rooted merely in differences of authentic conservative/progressive political thought. Where personal authenticity is concerned, however, Biden wins hands’ down. I can find no threads of personal authenticity to hang onto where Trump is concerned . . . it’s all-bad and, of course, those threads, especially as neo-fascist, actively flow over into political policies.
The only thing I have found that is good coming from this Trump era is this: Trumpism, and deficiencies in the democratic party, have been coupled with a re-emergence of political awareness in many in the U.S. who, until now, have been politically asleep or just dumb. Ironically, this is thanks in part to the relative security and peace we have enjoyed AS A DEMOCRACY for decades, and that has hidden active and deliberate anti-democratic and anti-public-institution political movements that are just now emerging into the light of public concern.
. . . and where, now, we can say that first-generation immigrants have a more vibrant understanding of democracy and threats to it than 3+ generation Americans ever had.
TO EDUCATION: Don’t forget to close the barn door.
The problem is that, in my experience, those NEWLY AWARE are just out of the proverbial barn, and often are unprepared to think their way through their own long-term (inherited) cultural biases, like racism, OR the complex political arguments of the day. It’s just not their habit to do so (thanks to their education?) It’s easier for too-many to merely believe what Trump says. Everything that goes against Trump is a hoax, blah, blah, blah.
As one person said to me recently, “Everybody says something different. I don’t know who to believe.” So he just didn’t “want to think about it.” That kind of thinking . . . that has no habit of political thought, or critical-discerning thought at all . . . is a breeding ground for the inauthentic.
For several decades in education, we’ve seen a deliberate and well-funded movement to wash-out of the curriculum: history (political included), civics, and the liberal arts, with a correlate imbalanced hyper-focus on technology and the natural sciences, insofar as the scientific side of the humanities or the human sciences are out of the mainline picture where curriculum is concerned.
In my view, with movements like Q+ we are presently in the watershed of that several-decades “draining” of education; and the movements in public education and in teacher-ed are partly responsible for the numbers/demographics of where we find ourselves presently. CBK
Video: How the US Postal Service found itself in debt
The U.S. Postal Service is facing record demand because of COVID-19 and the upcoming election. Does it have the funds to rise to the occasion?
https://uw-media.usatoday.com/embed/video/3414407001?placement=snow-embed