In a saner time, the Trump effort to destroy one aspect of government that works supremely well, the Post Office, would be a major scandal:
The U.S. Postal Service is experiencing days-long backlogs of mail across the country after a top Trump donor running the agency put in place new procedures described as cost-cutting efforts, alarming postal workers who warn that the policies could undermine their ability to deliver ballots on time for the November election.
As President Trump ramps up his unfounded attacks on mail balloting as being susceptible to widespread fraud, postal employees and union officials say the changes implemented by Trump fundraiser-turned-postmaster general Louis DeJoy are contributing to a growing perception that mail delays are the result of a political effort to undermine absentee voting.
The backlog comes as the president, who is trailing presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in the polls, has escalated his efforts to cast doubt about the integrity of the November vote, which is expected to yield record numbers of mail ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The attacks on the Post Office are not a new thing, as Republicans have been doing this for decades, but they have been, like everything else, ramped up during the Trump era. Bills in 2001 and 2006 from Congress created many of the problems, and Trump is now trying to kill it.
Every Democrat in Congress should be screaming every day to fully fund the Post Office. It’s a great service, a tremendous bargain, and a vital resource.
John S.
In a saner time EVERYTHING Trump has done would be a major scandal. And anything a Democrat does in the future that is far less consequential will be a major scandal.
That’s the multiverse we live in.
Soprano2
The absolute dumbest thing about this is that the voters in rural areas who are the most on Trump’s side also depend on the Post Office the most. UPS and FedEx don’t deliver to Bumfuck, AR, but the Post Office does, every day.
rikyrah
SAVE THE UNITED STATES POST OFFICE
UncleEbeneezer
I thought the USPS just got a huge loan to continue operations? AL posted a tweet about it a couple days ago.
germy
Treasury agrees to lend Postal Service $10 billion in trade for rivals’ shipping contracts
japa21
@UncleEbeneezer: I would love to see the terms of that loan. Considering it was done with the Treasury under Mnuchin and by the guy who has millions of dollars invested in Fed Ex and UPS, I am pretty confident that somehow or other the USPS comes out the loser.
Yutsano
There is a small blessing here: the increased revenue from packages has given the Post Office some breathing room. So we need to keep up the online ordering.
UncleEbeneezer
@japa21: You are probably right.
dww44
@UncleEbeneezer: But that loan is a problem in and of itself. It came from the Treasury and under Mnuchin that department will have the ability to interfere in the internal workings of the Post Office:
UncleEbeneezer
Is there any way House Dems can just freeze any/all funding of DHS until the Postal Service gets funded?
jonas
Putting on my Neil Gorsuch Textualist Hat™, shouldn’t it be clear from the Constitution that the Founders intended that maintaining a postal service was a fundamental function of the federal government (stating specifically that Congress had the authority to establish one, and not the individual states or private enterprise)?
So conservatives can’t argue that the USPS is some kind of big-government overreach the framers never intended or some idea created by liberal jurists. So what’s with their years-long war on the Post Office?
Take one guess.
dww44
@Yutsano: But they are prioritizing the delivery of these sorts of packages over and above first class mail delivery. All of a piece to damage the Post Office in the eyes of Americans. DO not TRust anything coming out of the Trump Administration and certainly not from his toadies.
cmorenc
In parallel with sabotaging the post office to interfere with absentee/mail-in voting, in states whose election machinery is under GOP control, the fuckery with reducing.open in-person voting locations as late toward election day as possible in blue-leaning precincts and reducing the number if available voting machines in blue locations that do remain open will be particularly aggressive this year, as will purging voter rolls with as little time and notice as they can get away with
Jay
On the bright side, the ReThugs plan to administer/launder the Postal Office “loan” through Pay Day Lenders, did not come to fruition.//
Mary G
I imagine Nancy SMASH has gone to the mat for this and that’s why Moscow Mitch can’t get his caucus on board. If they were smart, Mitt Romney, Susie Collins, Cory Gardner and WhatserFace McSally would get together with Schumer, make a compromise bill continuing the unemployment insurance, continue rent moratoriums, added money for Covid19 testing, help for states, money for the Post Office, and money for vote by mail, at slightly lower levels than Democrats passed in the HEROES Act. Then hold a press conference demanding Moscow Mitch bring it to the floor. The press would have multiple orgasms.
I know, they aren’t smart and I am more likely to get the unicorn and pony.
H.E.Wolf
Called my Senators and US Rep yesterday about this, and when I got a boilerplate response from the (very sweet and young) interns at the 2 Senators’ offices, I politely pushed back and said I expected my Senators to act on this issue.
For anyone who needs a starting point, the phrases “damaging to small-business owners”, “sanctity of the voting process”, and “partisan interference by a corrupt appointee” all came in handy. :-)
leeleeFL
EVERYTHING done by the tRump administration IS a major scandal. The problem we are encountering is the Dipshit Media Dipsticks not reporting this as such.
Thinking anything will be in any way normal before President Biden is sworn in is too flippin’ exhausting and futile.
EYES ON THE F-ING PRIZE, MY FELLOWS, we cannot waste a minute of the next few weeks to ensure ppl can and do VOTE. If we have to use alternative methods of mailing, let us discover what our options are.
I need guidance on what I can do in this current stream of horseshit. My brain is not sparking on all points
Frankensteinbeck
I don’t think that is the goal, although I’m sure anyone in the White House who was told it might be a side effect went “Great!” This is like Kushner’s failed attempt at getting ventilators and PPE. The guy in charge is doing things the MBA Way, and it’s a clusterfuck.
germy
Mary G
Moar please, Madame Speaker.
Yutsano
@H.E.Wolf: Patty and Maria are being way too quiet on this. Senator Murray is number 4 in Democratic leadership in the Senate. That has to mean something now or she should just retire. I’m totally good with a Senator Jayapal in that scenario.
germy
Eunicecycle
@jonas: but it’s also a source of a lot of veteran jobs. WHY DO THE REPUBLICANS HATE VETS?
Yutsano
@leeleeFL: Drop boxes. Every state will have drop boxes. Make it clear that if a ballot needs to be dropped off by election day that it needs to go into the drop box NOT BE MAILED. If it’s mailed it risks not being counted. And in this election with this Oval Office Occupier we can’t risk that.
namekarB
The House bill, that the Senate has been sitting on for 2 months, provides a $10B loan to the USPS for increase operational expenses.
Matt McIrvin
@jonas: IIRC, the conservative argument is that the Constitution says there CAN be a post office, not that there has to be one. But establishing post offices is a power of Congress, in Article I, and I guess you could therefore argue that the executive branch’s ability to hobble it is limited.
namekarB
@Yutsano: A conservative group in Pennsylvania has filed a lawsuit claiming drop boxes for ballots are against the law
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Yutsano:
That’s precisely how they do it here in CO. I can walk 10-15 minutes to the nearest drop box or bike there in 5.
They’ve done a great job here making it easy to vote. Should be used as a template everywhere.
Matt McIrvin
@Yutsano: I’ve been trying to figure whether my town has mail-ballot drop boxes. I don’t think it does. For absentee ballots, it’s possible to turn them in in person, but the general mail ballot system and the absentee ballot system are separate in Massachusetts.
Amir Khalid
@jonas:
Trumpistas (and the Republican party is all Trumpistas now) don’t give a rodent’s patootie about the US Constitution, remember?
namekarB
@Matt McIrvin: In California, there are NO absentee ballots. There are only Mail-in ballots which can either be mailed postage free at USPS, placed in a special drop box for ballots or hand delivered to ANY polling place in that County.
In your case, a call to the County Elections office should get you the information. In my county, the County Elections Office has a nice web page and you can actually track your ballot after you mail it receiving txt updates (or email) when it is received and processed
Ruckus
@Mary G:
And the major problem would still be the major obstructionist – mitch.
It doesn’t matter what the majority wants if mitch doesn’t.
artem1s
@jonas:
We should never forget that the war on unions started because POC started to get access to those jobs. The WWC were fine with paying their union dues as long as their upward failing white family members were first in line for all the jobs. When fair labor standards hit, suddenly the GOP was all about ‘right to work’, outsourcing to Asia, and dismantling the union pensions that meant the middle class didn’t have to die in poverty anymore.
leeleeFL
@Yutsano: Thanks…I will look into this here in Sunny F-duh.
artem1s
@Matt McIrvin:
They can argue all they want. A citizen has a constitutionally protected right to petition the government. The post office provides that for every citizen. Not just the ones that fedex and ups deliver to.
Brachiator
Funny how Trump complains about mail ballots and yet has people in place to fuck up the post office.
Trump is a bumbling, inefficient autocrat, but he definitely bumbles in the direction of giving himself more power and control over government institutions. And none of this could happen without the active support of GOP leadership.
Jay
Major Major Major Major
Yeah, Biden will definitely need to shore up USPS next year. Should probably be a top priority for the next Congress.
PO privatization has been done with mixed success elsewhere, but probably shouldn’t be on the radar for us–we’re only good at looting, not reform.
Ajabu
I get virtually ALL my bills paperless (online). If more of us do that the USPS could concentrate on prioritizing ballots and toss the junk mail I get on a daily basis…
frosty
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I just checked. In PA it can either be mailed or dropped off at one location, the County Board of Elections, basically the County Courthouse. If mailed it has to arrive by Election Day, not just postmarked.
Not ideal. My Zip Code has had so few COVID cases that I’ll probably vote in person. We’re a solid Trump area so no anticipated fuckery with polling places.
Major Major Major Major
@Ajabu: Junk mail basically subsidizes everything else.
Jay
Lauryn11
@germy: Pew Research Center: 91% of Americans have a favorable view of the USPS. This, after sustained political efforts to cripple and defund it. The GOP has a special animus against successful government agencies (unionized!) that provide middle class jobs, many to African Americans.
sdhays
@Eunicecycle: Indeed. My dad, who is not a veteran, looked into getting a Post Office job a while ago and even took the civil service exam (and did well), and then was told there wasn’t much point in bothering to apply if you’re not a veteran.
Betty
@Yutsano: Pennsylvania’s Republicans have filed a lawsuit to prevent drop boxes from being used.
Betty
@namekarB: Republican lawmakers including Congressmen.
trollhattan
@artem1s:
That’s probably true of more recent wars on unions. Henry Ford and various gilded age plutocrats–especially in coal country–declared literal war on unionizing that included killing strikers.
germy
Checkmate, libs
Major Major Major Major
@germy: lol!
Crashman06
@Jay: Someone else called out this article a few weeks ago, but read the post Imperial Wars Always Come Home by Patrick Wyman. This is the consequence of empire coming home.
Captain C
@germy: further Rep Gomer: “Even though I myself fap myself silly every day over the thought of owning slaves, and what I would do to them.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: and that gibbering little halfwit Gabby Hayes Festus looking goober motherfucker actually has stiff competition for dumbest motherfucker in the House
and before he got to the House, he was a judge
Captain C
@germy: Also, that would ban the Republican Party based on their last 40+ years.
leeleeFL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Of what, asshole competitions? Seriously, Texas is a worrisome place!
germy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I feel sorry for anyone who had to face him in a court of law.
Croaker
@germy: the Rona came a calling..what a Ultramaroon
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: it was worse than I thought:
sdhays
@germy: Isn’t he in quarantine?
James E Powell
@artem1s:
Agreed. Just look at senators who voted to override Truman’s veto fo the Taft-Hartley Act. Almost every one from a slave state.
This is generally true of the entire Republican war on the 20th century. Right after the congress & courts made it clear that the benefits had to be shared equally, the majority of white people decided they’d rather not have them. See Davis X Machina’s legendary “sparrow on a curtain rod” description of the American electorate.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: it was actually worse than I remembered
I wonder if he signed the appointment and then said, “Oops”.
(Not really, I wouldn’t misoverestimate any recent Texas governor, and certainly not that one)
Jay
BTW, evictions start tomorrow.
germy
@sdhays: This clip is before he was diagnosed, apparently.
Nowadays I assume he’s by himself. (In bad company, as it were.)
robmassing
But the Very Serious People are worried that the Post Office DOESN’T TURN A PROFIT!!!11!1 Because as we all know, the point of a widely available, essential government service is to make money for the government.
Bluegirlfromwyo
@germy: Does Louie have the new name for his party picked out? Maybe the Jackaltariat should help him with that.
geg6
Plus super popular and a huge source of employment for veterans.
Adam L Silverman
@sdhays: He lives in his office on Capitol Hill. He has to go to the House gym to shower and use the facilities. So unless Pelosi has forced him to leave his office and go stay in a hotel or he’s gone home to his house in Texas, then he’s not really quarantining.
germy
@Bluegirlfromwyo:
Unfortunately the “Know Nothing” party was already taken.
leeleeFL
@robmassing: Like many entities I know if, they do not understand the title non-profit or public utility…..AARGH!
leeleeFL
Grubby Old Pustules? Just a suggestion …
germy
@Adam L Silverman:
Did you see Pompeo’s remarks during questioning that he “fought” on the West/East Germany border?
Jay
rikyrah
I will say it again… about Moscow Mitch and a needed bill
He isn’t smart enough to just put Nancy Smash’s bill on the floor, tell the vulnerable GOP Senators to vote for it, see it pass, and yell BI-PARTISANSHIP.??
piratedan
@germy: if you think about it, that’s a wonderfully crafted piece of legislation, it has everything the GOP adores
PPCLI
@Soprano2: Yes, for those money-losing rural deliveries, UPS/Fedex/etc. contract out to the post office for delivery.
I hope that the Democratic Party can get their act together to point out to every tiny town out in the boondocks that if the Republicans get their way, they will have to drive to the “big city” (i.e. the town 25 miles down the road with 7,000 people in it) to get their mail. But I’m not hopeful…
WhatsMyNym
Back in April, Trump said “They lose money every time they deliver a package for Amazon,” Trump added. “They have to raise prices to these companies that walk in and drop off thousands of packages.”
I wonder how long it will take before someone points out to Trump that his new postmaster general is actually prioritizing Amazon over regular mail.
sdhays
@Adam L Silverman: Wow. I wondered if he would continue to stay there. What an asshole!
Mary G
My neighbors to the east are staunch Republicans and attend a megachurch. For years the wife has had a group of her friends (who all dress up like Real Housewives) over for a prayer lunch on her patio. They recite the prayers VERY LOUDLY. Once that’s done they spend a couple more hours drinking and laughing, also VERY LOUDLY. She had stopped it due to Covid19, but resumed today, extra loudly. I’m sitting here smdh.
PPCLI
@Major Major Major Major: I’ve said this often around here, but I’ll say it again: Ask anyone who grew up and lived for many years in a foreign country (as I did) about the USPS.
They will all tell you (as I will) that Americans have no idea how astonishingly good the US Post Office is by comparison to the one back home.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@rikyrah: Mitch’s power depends on the money he gives his members, and I’m guessing several of his sources for that money are telling him if they don’t get liability protection, he won’t get their money. I’m guessing the Tyson family– to name just one– can sit out a cycle more comfortably than Mitch can without them.
Jay
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jay: who’s Uncle Ike?
Frankensteinbeck
Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t they new policies focused particularly on delaying mail at the end of postal routes, which means the farther out from a city you are the more your mail will be delayed… which means it’s rural, conservative mail-in ballots that will be hardest hit?
PPCLI
@germy: Since Gohmert is a Southern Baptist, it would be good to propose an amendment: “and furthermore, any organisation of churches formed in order to support slavery should be denied their tax exemption”.
Jay
germy
Major Major Major Major
@PPCLI: Yeah, the USPS is great! I think the only privatization success story is Germany. The UK’s is not going too well. Japan’s was aborted…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
This vile creature spewing cant about “the Lord”…. her daughter almost makes up for it
(and I believe that is their daughter, double y and all)
snoopy
I feel like the overlooked element is that supporting the Post Office is…constitutional. If you support the constitution, then you necessarily support the Post Office.
Kent
To be fair. There never has been a time in this country when there wasn’t a war on unions. The Pinkertons were around LONG LONG before any notion of fair labor standards and desegregated workplaces.
But yeah. A lot of white working class folks decided that they’d rather be racist than unionized. That is true.
Ken
But the whole point of requiring USPS to build a pension fund good for 75 years – in other words, for the retirement of workers who have not been born yet – was so there would be a great huge pile of lootable cash when the Republicans sold it off.
Ken
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: If that is the daughter, Thanksgiving is going to be fun this year.
Major Major Major Major
@Ken: Exactly!
WaterGirl
@Jay: That’s disgusting.
germy
@Ken:
Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@WhatsMyNym: As I thought back when he was saying that, “The World’s Greatest Businessman has never heard of volume discounts.”
Ruckus
@Bluegirlfromwyo:
EDM.
Extremely Dumbass Motherfuckers.
Ruckus
@Mary G:
You have to talk loudly to get any of the words to sink into the limited brains of the other members of the group.
Ruckus
@Frankensteinbeck:
No one said they make any sense whatsoever, even concerning their own agenda. Or maybe especially concerning…..
Whatever it is it just has to have a catchy phrase, not be true, not be rational, not make any sense at all. The dumber it is the more they like it.
Ken
@Mary G: Have you considered going out to your own patio and grilling a nice skunk or roadkill armadillo for dinner?
Adam L Silverman
@germy: I saw the clip after the fact. He’s a liar, which we already knew.
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: Everyone is missing the point here. All of the reporting about McConnell screwing up the COVID-19 relief bill drives me nuts as it fundamentally misunderstands McConnell. The House, specifically the Democratic majority in the House has done their job. Even if you or I don’t agree with every little item they’ve included they are at least trying to be responsible and to govern. Unfortunately, the Senate Republican majority and Senator McConnell, as well as the President, his COS, and Secretary Mnuchin aren’t. And they never have been. Everybody keeps writing analyses that McConnell has screwed up, that he’s showing he’s not the genius strategist when he has to do something that isn’t obstruction, but that misses the reality. The reality is that McConnell doesn’t believe the US government, or even state and local governments, should provide public goods and public services – promote the general welfare – of the citizenry. He never has. It isn’t that he’s failed to do his job. Rather he’s doing exactly what he thinks his job is, which is to legislate as little as possible.
Interestingly the one item that the Confederate constitution did not import from the US constitution was the language about the general welfare, because the leadership of the Confederacy didn’t believe that the government should promote the general welfare any more than they believed that all men/people were created equal. So it should be surprising that the ideological descendants of the Confederacy don’t believe in promoting the general welfare either.
J R in WV
@leeleeFL:
This is not that hard. Once you have your mail-in ballot, and have completed voting it very carefully, you need to drop it off at the appropriate location yourself, rather than mailing it in. It varies from state to state, call your county voting office, ask them where drop0-off locations are.
I think most places you can drop off a mail-in ballot at any early voting location, or a regular polling place when those are open. Obviously, I am not a poll worker in FLA, so do your research on Florida specific requirements for dropping off a mail in ballot.
Or just go to an early voting location, wearing a mask. My rural county does early voting at 2 community centers on the NE and SW sides of the county, and at the county seat.
Since I had other business at the court house, we early voted there. Masks were required for everyone, everywhere, and hand sanitizer by the quarts. The new computer voting machines print out a human readable sheet which is fed into a scanner atop the ballot box…
lowtechcyclist
Looks like FY 2021 appropriations bills are sailing right through the House.
Where’s the smash? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering smash!
J R in WV
@namekarB:
Haven’t we been dropping ballots in ballot boxes for a couple of centuries now? Since voting was invented?
Seriously, how stupid can you get? Wait, don’t answer that, we already know they would rather die than wear a mask…
Alex
Off to go re-read Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal
Adam L Silverman
@sdhays: This was something Paul Ryan made popular to show the constituents back home that these guys weren’t moving to DC to become part of DC and put roots down in DC, but were really populists regular guys like the people back home in Janesville, WI. It picked up scheme after the C Street/The Family/The Fellowship scandals. I’ve never heard of Democratic members of the House or Senate doing this. And the Republicans, when called out on it or asked about it, usually answer that it is too expensive to maintain a home back in their districts or their home states for their families and pay rent or a mortgage in the greater DC area at the same time.
Adam L Silverman
@PPCLI: The only other ones that I’ve found as good are the Royal Mail in Britain and Germany’s postal service. I’m sure Canada’s is excellent as well, but I’ve never lived anywhere but the US, Scotland, Germany, and Iraq.
evodevo
@sdhays: No, no, no…what position did he apply for? Our turnover here in central Ky is tremendous…there is ALWAYS an opening…we can’t get RCA subs to stay on the job here – they all think the work is too hard (well, it is, but the pay is good) 10 hr days 6-7 days a week…they’ll work you to death, but the jobs are there…
James E Powell
@Adam L Silverman:
Completely agree. And it’s why they always generate huge deficits.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@lowtechcyclist:
There was an earthquake here yesterday morning.
zzyzx
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Seattle pot store. One of the first and they were the first one to have discounts so there’s a nostalgia factor with them.
evodevo
@Ken: Not even waiting to sell it off…the whole idea was to skim off money into the US general fund to pay down the debt incurred by W’s illegal war…
Adam L Silverman
@leeleeFL: @J R in WV: The good news is that there are plenty of secure official vote by mail ballot return drop boxes in Florida.
https://dos.myflorida.com/elections/for-voters/voting/vote-by-mail/
If you’ve got your vote by mail ballot, just fill it out and on the instruction sheet, there will be a list of secure drop box locations and the time they are open. Just pick the one that is most convenient for you, take it over, put your mask on, drop it off, hand sanitize, then get back in you car and head home.
Adam L Silverman
@lowtechcyclist:
evodevo
@Adam L Silverman: Yes. This. He’s doing exactly the job he was hired for…
Adam L Silverman
@James E Powell: Harumph!
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Show off!
J R in WV
@Adam L Silverman:
I suspected and hoped you would see the FLA questions and tell us the straight skinny. Thanks! Just read your ballot, how could they make it that simple? Musta been an accident… ;-)
Now if someone in Massachusetts would do the same. The MA web site is helpless/hopeless as far as that information goes.
The Pale Scot
Which always showed me how much contempt they have for their own base. Make USPS close its unprofitable offices and routes and Grannie trumpster has to pay UPS 15 bucks to send B-day card. That’s no skin off the nose of this east coast elitist. And please discontinue all of those rural Amtrack trains so that the profitable Boston to DC lines can keep the cash for much needed maintenance.
They’re like Daffy Duck on a bad day.
Rabbit Season! Duck Season!
Adam L Silverman
@evodevo:
Ken
Setting aside for the moment that the median member of Congress is a millionaire…
There are hundreds of thousands of other people working for the government who keep a family home while living elsewhere. In their case we build
niceadequateusually-not-actually-fatal housing, generally called “barracks,” for their use. We even provide meals, showers, and daily exercise. Surely we can do no less for Congress?Or there’s the Gohmert solution, which according to reports is to live and sleep in his office. Also provided at taxpayer expense.
Adam L Silverman
@J R in WV: They do a good job here. At that link there is also the instructions for how you follow up to make sure your ballot has been counted and explaining how they will contact you if there is an issue with your vote by mail and how you can then cure the problem.
evodevo
@Adam L Silverman: Harumph! One of my all time favorite movies…”Gentlemen! We’ve got to save our phony baloney jobs!
catclub
Could a US senate in 2021 (with the filibuster out) repeal Taft-Hartley?
Could such a Senate pass card check?
Adam L Silverman
@Ken: I’m aware. Norm Ornstein has been pushing for years for either the building of essentially basically bachelor’s officers quarters for members of Congress who say this is a problem.
Uncle Cosmo
You might want to rephrase this, since what you’ve posted is in fact mathematically impossible:
IOW “Senators from slave states” did not even constitute a majority of the Senators who voted to override Truman’s veto of Taft-Hartley.
Ken
@Adam L Silverman: Maybe we could apply eminent domain to some hotel in DC and use that for the housing. I could suggest a candidate…
Adam L Silverman
Floriduh Teen!
catclub
@J R in WV: The MA web site is helpless/hopeless as far as that information goes.
I think in Mississippi there is NO mail in voting – only absentee – with an excuse. Also Mississippi Governors are elected in odd numbered years.
Uncle Cosmo
@Bluegirlfromwyo: The Global Oligarchy Party. More accurate, & they wouldn’t even need to change the acronym.
Kathleen
@evodevo: Slightly OT but Media are also doing what they’re hired to do.
Ken
@Adam L Silverman: Wasn’t it a social-engineering attack? I’m imagining the hacker’s voice cracking as he called the Facebook developers.
sdhays
@evodevo: I don’t know, this was years ago when my parents were looking to move to another town, which they ultimately didn’t do. But that’s what he was told in western Illinois.
Adam L Silverman
@Ken: I had someone I carpooled with in high school get arrested for hacking into the DOD or NSA or FBI back in the spring of our freshman year in 1984. We drove up with everyone else, turned on to his street, and it was cordoned off and crawling with Federal, state, and local law enforcement. My dad, who started the Criminology program and department at USF knew one of the deputies doing traffic control, put his window down, explained we were coming to pick someone up for carpool. The deputy asked for the kids name and address and that he’d send someone for him, dad gave it to him and the deputy said that would be a problem as the kid was the suspect, was currently cuffed, and the Feebs were tossing his house. Dad said okay, turned the car around, and drove us to school.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: “Do you want to play a game?”
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Pretty much.
joel hanes
@Ajabu: This is just backward
First-class mail is what sustains Post Office operations.
Parcels are often just barely break-even (because of negotiated contracts), and require physically larger facilities and transportation.
If you want to support the Post Office with your day-to-day activities, use first class mail.
If you want to give the USPS a personal micro-loan, right now, go to
usps.gov
and purchase first-class stamps online.
The USPS cannot, by law, throw away the junk mail.
Bill Arnold
@Captain C:
The Republicans lost their moral high ground when the surrendered to the Confederacy in the Compromise of 1877, withdrawing Federal troops from the “former” Confederate States.
joel hanes
@germy:
Did you see Pompeo’s remarks during questioning that he “fought” on the West/East Germany border?
I assume this actually denotes a couple weeks of field training in Grafenwoehr training area. Before reunification, from certain high points in Graf, you could see the triple-point border where East Germany, West Germany, and Czechoslovakia met.
I spent about 40% of my two and a half years in Germany residing in Graf, helping my field artillery battalion break our equipment. Then we’d go back to the kaserne, fix our stuff, stand inspection to prove that it was fixed, and go right back to Graf.
The local beer in Grafenwoehr at that time was “Grafenwoehr Hell” and we made much of that. But living in a tent in Grafenwoehr and shooting artillery and tanks is not “fighting”.
joel hanes
@PPCLI:
if the Republicans get their way, they will have to drive to the “big city” (i.e. the town 25 miles down the road with 7,000 people in it) to get their mail.
That’d be true for inexpensive mail.
Home delivery will continue, but without uniform pricing. A letter between big cities will cost a dollar; a letter posted to a rural address in North Dakota will be delivered, with dispatch, for $25 or $50 or something like that.
Adam L Silverman
@joel hanes: Not only that, but Pompeo never saw any combat anywhere. He went out of his way to avoid Desert Storm/Desert Shield. The 10 months, give or take a handful of days, I spent deployed in Iraq in 2008, gives me 10 months, give or take a handful of days, more time in a combat zone than Pompeo has ever spent. And I spent at least 50% of my deployment outside the wire working with, interacting with, engaging with the host country nationals.
joel hanes
@WhatsMyNym:
It continues, from his public statements, to be possible that Trump actually believes that when an Amazon purchase gets “free shipping”, the Post Office does not get paid at all.
That’s pretty much how he’s always represented the situation.
joel hanes
@Mary G:
They are Christianists, not Christians.
Jesus thought poorly of performative piety.
catclub
That makes total sense. Also NATO dues.
joel hanes
@Jay:
It is awful, but “deep-cleaning” is probably kabuki.
I’m not aware of even one case of verified food-borne infection with SARS-CoV2, and transmission via surface touch is turning out not to be a major vector. The big problem is breathing in the exhalations of infected persons, especially breathing in through your nose — the sinus mucosa are often the first tissue infected.
Companies love the deep-cleaning thing because it’s something they know how to do, and can do performatively, and publicize. Preventing your staff and customers from breathing each others exhalations is more cumbersome or impossible.
joel hanes
@Alex:
read Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal
And thus to have a better understanding of what money is, and how a fiat currency works, than 90% of political conservatives, better than the understanding of Democratic Party “deficit hawks”.
lowtechcyclist
@Ken:
I like the way you think!
lowtechcyclist
@joel hanes:
Bingo.
prostratedragon
@jonas:
Ohhhh yeah!
evodevo
@sdhays: Oh, OK….never mind…
evodevo
@joel hanes: Yeah…we got that request all the time “Can’t you just throw it away?” Uh, no, we’d get fired, and besides, it pays my salary….they think it’s just sent for the heck of it…I tell them, these are businesses, and if the ads weren’t paying off in new orders, they wouldn’t be sending out direct mail circulars, etc.
Scuffletuffle
@germy: we could just change it to the Democrat Party, two birds, one stone.