The U.S. Postal Service will halt its controversial cost-cutting initiatives until after the election — canceling service reductions, reinstating overtime hours and ceasing the removal of mail-sorting machines and public collection boxes, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced in a statement Tuesday.
Translation: we already removed enough mail sorting machines to screw everything up, but we’ll make sure everything is well and truly fucked after the elections.
If Biden wins the election and we get Congressional majorities, after making Puerto Rico and DC states, there needs to be a Presidential Unfuck Commission. Andrew Cuomo could lead it. The sole purpose would be to track down every way that Trump fucked up institutions like the EPA, Post Office, FDA, CDC, etc., and recommending how to clear the wreckage.
Elizabelle
Bringing this comment forward. This could have concentrated DeJoy’s mind, too.
I hope they file suit to get every single sorting machine back. Do not let up the heat, one bit.
WaPost: At least 20 states plan to sue the U.S. Postal Service over service delays, threat to election
Again: All the states [filing these lawsuits] are represented by Democratic attorneys general. Voting matters. Vote for the Democrats if you want to vote for the good guys, who believe in the public good and protecting services that benefit it.
There is a fact you can mention in your GOTV work.
Frankensteinbeck
Assuming this announcement is true, which I cannot trust with the Trump administration, it sounds like a major victory. The overtime thing was by far the biggest way this guy has screwed over the post. Has he removed enough sorting machines to make a big difference? I’ve heard no numbers. But the overtime thing was huge. It used to be that postal workers worked however many hours it took to deliver that day’s mail. DeJoy changed that to ‘if you don’t have enough hours, tough, they wait.’ I think protestors outside his home scared the shit out of him.
A Ghost to Most
Anyone who thinks this the end of the fuckery is willfully ignorant. Same for anyone who thinks this ends on Election Day.
patroclus
I’m definitely in favor of D.C. Statehood (with 2 Senators and voting rights in the full House) and have been so since I actually lived in D.C. several decades ago. It is blatantly unfair that residents have no actual representation and is akin to the worst forms of apartheid in the RSA with their bantustans and no one-person one-vote systems. And I also favor breaking the ridiculous filibuster rules to do it if/when the Republicans oppose it as expected. Puerto Rico is different – I favor statehood if they want it, but they have traditionally favored continued commonwealth status and I don’t want to impose it on them unwanted. A favorable referendum (at least) would be needed there and the statehood proponents have usually (but not invariably) been aligned with the Republicans there.
On the USPS, re-instating OT pay will largely keep the mail flowing faster and insure electoral security. I hope this news is accurate and will actually be followed through with.
Benw
@Elizabelle: “New York Attorney General Letitia James planned separate legal action, she said in a statement Tuesday.”
I unseriously hope for criminal charges
James E Powell
I’m thinking that this suspension is their effort to get ahead of whatever will be revealed in the house hearing. They are going to go into to the hearing attacking the inquiry, blaming Obama, and saying it’s all bullshit because they agreed to suspend until after the election.
First, only a fool or member of the American press/media would believe that. Second, they have not agreed to restore anything to what it was before the sabotage began. Third, they aren’t going to bring back any of the people they got rid of. Fourth, they are not going to authorize overtime. Fifth, they lie about everything and DeJoy needs to resign.
trollhattan
I sure as hell hope somebody’s been taking good notes, because they’re so far reaching and many they’re probably literally uncountable. Heard this morning Trump’s pushing like hell to hold drilling auctions for ANWR before year’s end. Should they sell permits, I do not know how you unfuck that.
dmsilev
@Frankensteinbeck: The other policy that needs to be reversed is the “we will treat ballots like bulk mail, so delivery is not guaranteed, never mind delivery by a particular date”.
Wapiti
@Frankensteinbeck: I think his wife threatening to denut him for destroying her chance at an ambassadorship put it all into perspective for him.
Wapiti
@trollhattan: Find an i that was undotted or a t that was ambiguously crossed (it might have been an l !) and declare it invalid.
Wyatt Salamanca
I’ve always supported the creation of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission after Trump’s totalitarian ass vacates the White House.
P.S. Fuck that goddamn motherfucking putrid puke stain Jared. There’s no earthly reason why any network should give this lying airhead scumbag son-in-law a platform to spread his lies and bullshit.
jl
Problem is that for this job, maybe by chance, Trump found some people who knew that to get illegal stuff done and make it stick, it’s a good idea to get irreversible facts on the ground done quick, then say ‘Was that wrong? I did not know that?” If we can preserve democracy, probably not enough to save some people from jail, but now the question is can we preserve democratic government.
The Democrats have a chance to establish facts on the ground, by voting in person or mail as early as possible. Michelle Obama touched on this, and I especially liked her advice to vote early and in person if possible. So, a sign that the Dem establish recognizes the problem and how to respond.
Also, split in GOP suggests some disagreement there that in some areas Trump’s criminal moves may be counterproductive. Need to pay attention to where the most noise is coming from among state and national GOP pols.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@patroclus:
That may have changed after the paper towel incident.
rp
We shouldn’t assume everything is suddenly fine, but there’s also something to be said for embracing victories like this. People like winners, which is why the GOP has no qualms about declaring victory no matter what.
This is a PR win; we should acknowledge that and keep pushing.
dmsilev
@Wyatt Salamanca:
You’re kinder than I am; I’m holding out for a Truth and Retaliation Commission.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Wyatt Salamanca: You spelled Truth and Retribution Commission wrong.
AnotherBruce
Where are the Generals? We do have an army. Do these guys really want to make nice with Putin?
Dog Mom
Employment for holiday workers usually starts around November 1. I believe that workers from previous years get preference and only need updated security check. Congress should demand people be brought in October 1 (or earlier) to give priority handling to applications and ballots.
Elizabelle
I hope that DeJoy still shows for the Senate hearing Friday, and the House hearing Monday. Lots of questions to ask him; lots of accountability due.
Friday’s hearing is before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Ron Johnson (R- Wisconsin and Russia) is its chair. Gary Peters of Michigan is the ranking member.
CNN story from this morning; may be updated.
Ron Johnson is utterly despicable. He’s up for re-election in 2022.
I so hope our incoming Democratic administration (we must win!) breaks up Homeland Security. Not every idea is a good one, nor deserves decades of existence. They’ve already shown their potential to be stormtroopers. Break. Them. Up.
NotMax
@Frankensteinbeck
Not to mention that at any one time there are X number of postal employees in quarantine. Additional overtime partially offsets that.
Elizabelle
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I am up for Retribution.
They can reconcile after years in the wilderness, and actual prison for some.
Dog Mom
Where are the Postal Inspectors in all of this?
patrick II
The difference between the sabotage of most federal regulations and sabotage of the election is the latter is a criminal offense. If you lose the election it would mean DeJoy would get jailtime — providing we don’t “look forward”.
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: There’s nothing like being without power for 6 months to a year… to focus the mind.
Sebastian
@Wyatt Salamanca:
Any network that keeps propping up these fuckers loses their license. I am done with this “we didn’t know” bullshit.
Prosecute those motherfuckers, all of them.
dmsilev
@Elizabelle: I assume the Senate Republicans scheduled their hearing for Friday in an attempt to forestall the House’s (presumably more honest and in-depth) Monday event.
Dread
I had the thought that we should codify a lot of the norms we took for granted as checks on the Presidency, but Trump has proven that there is no consequence for Presidents that break the law, so long as their Party controls at least one chamber of Congress, so I’m not sure how much good that will do.
Sebastian
@Elizabelle:
Hard to run for re-election when imprisoned. Anyone who acquitted Trump is an accessory after the fact to treason against the United States of America. Act accordingly.
WaterGirl
@AnotherBruce: The generals are not going to save us.
ET
The tRump lacky didn’t think anyone would notice or care because he was stupid and got caught. The bad PR was not a case of any press being good press. And maybe he realized that he was not the hot seat and because wasn’t likely to throw tRump under the bus that any and all shit was going to land on his lap and no one else’s – he was the sacrificial goat. Stopping whatever was going on was the easiest thing. Unlike his boss he decided to stop digging. He had to worry about himself and he has a business to go back to when he is no longer Postmaster General.
The Moar You Know
He’s straight up fucking lying. USPS was removing mailboxes in my town an hour ago.
Adam Lang
Fuck Andrew Cuomo. His principal job up until this year has been to do everything he could to screw Democrats while still trying to run for President as one.
trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
Truth and Defenestration Hearings has a nice ring to it.
Kent
I spent the first half of my adult working life in a Federal regulatory agency (NOAA) mostly writing fisheries and environmental regulations as well as the associated supporting economic and environmental analyses. You can still search the Federal Register and find dozens upon dozens of fisheries and environmental regulations popping up with my name as the primary author and contact point.
There is a tendency in Democratic Administrations to go through endless process with endless stakeholder meetings and multiple drafts of analyses over years before finally implementing new regulations. I spent my life doing it. And clever lobbyists and interest groups know where all the normal veto points and pressure points are located. The regulatory process is exactly the same thing as the legislative process in Congress, except far less public. We get hints of it with things like the Boeing 737-Max fiasco.
What the Trump Administration has shown us is that you can actually bull through the process and basically do what you want. The USPS didn’t go through any sort of public process to completely fuck the mail. They just did it from top in secret. The same thing has occurred across the Federal landscape from the EPA to DHS to basically every single damn agency.
What Biden needs to do if he wins is find the most fucking ruthless bureaucratic knife-fighters in every agency (they exist on the Dem side too). Your John Bolton types who know how to manipulate the system to get shit done. On our side they are the Elizabeth Warren types actually. And they need to go through and blanket-reverse as much of the Trump legacy as they can. If an environmental regulation was repealed by Trump without proper analysis then just declare that it was improperly promulgated and put it right back. Don’t spend four years of stakeholder meetings with polluting industries and settle on a negotiated approach that only dials back 50% of what Trump implemented by fiat.
None of this has to do with Congress. It is simply the effective wielding of executive power. I fear a lot of the effort to reverse Trump actions will get bogged down and die due to paralysis of analysis and process. Unless Biden puts experienced and ruthless bureaucratic hands back in charge who know how to get shit down and don’t care who screams.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: How’d that work out in 2009?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Frankensteinbeck:
I am still super disappointed that DeJoy hasn’t been beaten to death with a baseball bat yet (wood, of course – I’m a purist).
Elizabelle
@trollhattan: Defenestration. You are on to something. LOL.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@trollhattan:
Tell me more about this defenestration.
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I’m sorry, I have completely blocked out what you might be referring to in 2009. I blame it on crap overload. What am I forgetting?
Jeffro
@James E Powell: absolutely they’re trying to get ahead of it. “We, uh, sure we removed a shit-ton of sorting machines and eliminated overtime but you uh, know, uh, we were just trying to save money for taxpayers. Now that we know it dramatically affects service, we’ll never do it again.”
and then they’ll thank trumpov, not Congress, for being so supportive of the Post Office(!)
Ken
As always, it helps immensely that Trump confessed to this on national TV. How many administration actions have been overturned, because the judge could say “he said this was being done for illegal reason X”?
Suzanne
@Wyatt Salamanca:
Come sit by me.
I hate that entitled know-nothing Prince Joffrey with the hot fire of a thousand suns.
WereBear
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Wiffle bat takes longer.
Jeffro
@dmsilev:
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
@Wyatt Salamanca: I have moved from ‘Reconciliation’ to ‘Retribution’ over the past few years
I’m getting to the point of wanting a ‘Plow Their Fields With Salt Commission’. Not good.
Sebastian
@Jeffro:
No, that’s exactly what is necessary. We are dealing with God damned Nazis.
Soprano2
I have a mail story. I ordered a scarf/face mask combo from Etsy on August 4th. It shipped from CA via USPS on August 6th, and arrived in KC MO on August 9th. It sat there until August 13th, at which time it started in transit to Springfield, MO. It still shows as in transit! It takes 3 to 4 hours, tops, to drive that route. We’ll see if I get it today, but it’s been “in transit” for 6 full days! It came from CA to KC faster than from KC to Springfield MO. I don’t think I’ve ever had that happen before.
Wyatt Salamanca
@dmsilev:
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Upon further review, how about Truth and Castration?
piratedan
@Dog Mom: they got purged before DeJoy went medieval on the agency. Essentially laid off the entire hierarchy of the post office administration to remove any kind of chain of command, then the new dudes starting changing policy and yanking out infrastructure
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@WereBear:
Goddamn, that’s cold. Beaten to death with a wiffle bat could take well over 24 hours.
I’m worried about repetitive motion injuries to the wielders, though. I’m envisioning 5 shifts, with multiple breaks for water and stretching.
Also need some proper ear protection for all the screaming.
Wyatt Salamanca
@dmsilev:
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
@Suzanne:
@Jeffro:
Whatever name this commission ends up being called is less important than the outcome of hopefully seeing Trump in a gold lame prison jumpsuit alongside his douchebag son-in-law Jared.
Immanentize
@Elizabelle:
The Czechs knew what they were about!
The Defenestration of Prague
Mike in NC
If this Dejoy clown really does testify on Capitol Hill on Friday, we can 100% expect he’ll be fired before Monday.
WereBear
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I like the cut of your jib. You are now my Safety Officer.
Martin
You gave a job to Cuomo that should have been given to Porter.
mrmoshpotato
@Elizabelle:
@trollhattan:
Listen up, you two! Perfectly good windows don’t deserve to have shit people thrown through them!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: Republicans were out in the wilderness(didn’t control Congress(from 2007) nor the White House(beginning in 2009)), for at least 2 years and came back like cockroaches. There was a lot of talk about permanent Democratic governance. It didn’t happen then.
gwangung
Truth and Rusty Pitchforks.
jeffreyw
@trollhattan: Will there be catapults?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Soprano2: Sounds like it got shipped via Pony Express.
Dog Mom
Who is going to make sure that Dejoy does/did not take any ‘Trade Secret’/Institutional knowledge back to his own companies and start using it against the P.O.?
Kay
@rp:
absolutely. This was a political disaster for them.
they stupidly attacked a service that is much more popular than they are.
I don’t know why we have to insist we lost even when we win.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Trump hires aren’t known for their attention to detail.
Sab
Ten years ago our mail got sorted in a USPS building two blocks from our county’s Board of Election building. Now it gets driven 35 miles north to Cleveland and then 35 miles back for delivery. In one recent election Cleveland PO misplaced 700 ballots and sent them back for delivery to the BoE without cancellation stamps, so the ballots were not counted.
That was before all of this.
sgrAstar
@The Moar You Know: call Pelosi’s office and tell her what you’re seeing. Eyes on the ground will defeat these fuckers.
?
Feathers
@Kent: Yes! Professional stakeholders are a problem. “If you’re not a part of the solution, there’s good money to be made in prolonging the problem.” You can substitute being a leader in the attention economy as well.
Raising awareness and getting things done are two different skillsets and more Dems need to realize that. I worked for a professor in a program with class participation grades. She took points away from anyone who repeated what someone else had said, and gave zero points to anyone who didn’t address the conversation as it currently stood, talking about a point that had been moved past without moving the conversation forward, or ignoring what previous speakers had said. We teach everyone that their voice deserves to be heard, but not how to actually talk in a way that is productive and creates effective change.
My retired father is very active in local homeless and anti-poverty work. His view is that 90% of the people who start their own charities are just wasting everyone’s time (and a shitload of money). It is far more effective to find a larger group that does work in the area you are in and team up with them. I always admired that the Girl Scouts aren’t allowed to raise funds for anyone else, troops must do actual work for the organizations they want to support.
The Thin Black Duke
@Kay: Thank you, Kay.
Ruckus
How about while we are repairing, we fix at least some of the stupid crap that republicans have done, like that 75 years pre paying for USPS pensions.
James E Powell
@patroclus:
People in Puerto Rico are Americans. It’s not they/them, it’s we/us.
The people there have not really favored commonwealth status, but the ballots are set up to spread the options enough to prevent statehood from winning. This was done to benefit the people who are making coin off of the current colonial status.
There have been three recent votes, but none of them provided a straightforward yes/no on statehood. This November there will be a yes/no vote, just like the ones done in Hawaii and Alaska prior to statehood. Though it is non-binding, the trend favors statehood.
The horror show that went on after Hurricane Maria would not have happened if the people living there had two senators and four congresspersons.
Elizabelle
@Immanentize:
We will use much higher windows. The Washington Monument is good by me. At minimum, the top of the US Capitol. We can be patriotic, here. Even Lady Liberty.
PS: Love that the secretary was named “Fabricius.” Sounds like a fabulist.
mrmoshpotato
@Kay:
We aren’t out of the woods with these USPS-sabotaging fuckers yet.
mad citizen
@Kent: As a long-time state worker, well said. We had a rule or two ready to go in effect when our governor simply declared a moratorium on new rules, because you know, rules are bad. The same guy that people ask to spearhead a 25th Amendment removal–not too likely…
Kelly
I think we need another Warren Commision. Elizabeth Warren this time.
mrmoshpotato
@Kelly: Hehehe, yes.
Another Scott
@Frankensteinbeck: The Detroit News has a long story about this.
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2020/08/18/michigan-union-chiefs-usps-delaying-mail-removing-machines-shifting-policies/3378203001/
Cheers,
Scott.
Ruckus
@Soprano2:
My meds from the VA have to travel about 45 miles. Supposed to be delivered today. It’s been 7 days since being delivered to the post office, according to VA/post office tracking. I’m considering that not too terrible, all things considered. But I won’t know until end of the day.
James E Powell
DeJoy is going in front of the senate committee on Friday so that the Republicans can stage manage his presentation, spend most of the time arguing with Democratic senators, and claiming the house hearings are unnecessary political games. I don’t think it will sway any voters, but it will likely get the press/media off their backs. After all, the typical press/media half-life of a Trump scandal is like three days.
trollhattan
Guess who has opinions? A snippet.
Boffsiderism cannot fail, it can only be failed.
mad citizen
Looking at a Penzeys email (two free spice offer for Milwaukee convention–code MKE), last weekend instead of a sale offer they posted pictures of cats in Penzeys boxes:
(I used the tiny url thingy due to length of Penzeys address):
https://tinyurl.com/y5horkjx
Or, give your recipients confidence with a preview TinyURL:
https://preview.tinyurl.com/y5horkjx
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@trollhattan: So according to that dear the refusal to tolerate the hunting of Blacks for sport is radicalism.
Another Scott
@Ruckus: The House voted to end the USPS pre-payment of pensions in February.
https://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2020/02/house-votes-end-controversial-usps-payments-future-retirees-health-care/162912/
The Senate bill is sitting/dying in the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Cheers,
Scott.
trollhattan
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
It might be bad, but not as bad as tax cuts not offset by spending cuts.
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan: *guesses David Fucking Brooks*
*puts a paragraph into the Duckduckgo machine*
*wins prize*
Both sides are equally bad, bluegal. -driftglass
danielx
@Elizabelle:
Preferably being dropped off naked without supplies or communications at some remote spot in the Bitterroot Range.
Ken
@danielx: Don’t forget to rub them down with a mix of salmon oil and honey first. Give the grizzlies a little head start.
OR Soder
I’ve been saying this for months. I hope Joe has someone assigned to start making a list of all the things Trump and his pals broke so we can make sure they get fixed. I lose track of things until someone posts something to remind me. I’d like to be sure we don’t miss anything. They could start by looking at everything associated with Obama, just don’t stop there!
opiejeanne
@Elizabelle: Washington’s AG, Bob Ferguson, is someone you don’t want to mess with. He was one of the first (I think he was first) when Trump tried to ban Muslims and others from entering the US in 2017, and there were volunteer lawyers sitting in SEATAC waiting to help anyone who needed it. We spoke with one when we were meeting a friend coming for a visit.
schrodingers_cat
I don’t want reconciliation with these people, my Jill Stein voting friend is dead to me. I should have defriended her ass long before I did.
J R in WV
@Elizabelle:
The windows at the top of the Washington Monument are tiny, one person can peer through at the wonders of DC below, but you can’t squeeze a R FatCat through under any circumstances.
From the top of the Capitol Dome, you can’t get enough horizontal distance for the guilty persons to actually land on the ground.
I vote for all defenestrations to take place from the top of Trump Tower(s) closest to the birth place of the guilty person being tossed, or even NYC where Fifth Avenue would be the target landing zone.
As far as Louis Dejoy goes, he has already impeded the delivery of items in the US Mail, which is a felony.
I think he should be indicted on 257,357 counts, one for every piece of mail delayed by his actions, total number to be determined by close analysis of actual delivery times of actual pieces of mail. But one count of each allowable crime for each individual piece of mail. Not to run concurrently!
Ned F.
I hope I am uninformed, but if the Dems take back the senate, I expect McConnell et al to put rules in place that reduce senate and presidential power like they did in Virginia and Wisconsin for incoming govs. Monkeywrenching and sabotage is a specialty of those guys.
trollhattan
@mrmoshpotato:
Too obvious? Yeah, Sir Brooksalot is highly indignant for all the wrong reasons, at all the wrong people.
IOW a Tuesday.
J R in WV
@Ned F.:
Once the Dems take back the Senate, McConnell’s rules are no longer operative, and the Democratic majority will vote on new rules. If we are really lucky, we Democrats will be able to take control, and leave the Republicans in closets in the Senate Office Building basements.
Or so I hope, foolishly!
jayjaybear
@J R in WV: Except that there’s still going to be almost 3 month of lame duckness in both WH and Senate (if we win in Nov), which is plenty of time for McConnell to steamroll new rules that reduce the power of the majority in the Senate.
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
@dmsilev: I want to upvote this comment SO hard!
workworkwork
@mad citizen:
Thank goodness for our local Penzey’s shop and their touch-free purchasing option.