Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

You cannot shame the shameless.

I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.

Maybe you would prefer that we take Joelle’s side in ALL CAPS?

I desperately hope that, yet again, I am wrong.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

We still have time to mess this up!

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Biden: Oh no. We’ve upset Big Pharma again.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Good News About the Post Office

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Good News About the Post Office

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Congress would lift onerous budget requirements that have helped push the Postal Service deeply into debt and would require it to continue delivering mail six days per week under bipartisan legislation the House approved Tuesday.

The election-year bill, coming at a time of widespread complaints about slower mail service, would also require the Postal Service to display online how efficiently it delivers mail to communities…

Those pressures have brought the two parties together for a measure aimed at helping the Postal Service, its employees, businesses that use it and disgruntled voters who rely on it for delivery of prescription drugs, checks and other packages. Tuesday’s vote was 342-92, a rare show of partisan agreement, with all Democrats and most Republicans backing it…

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said he expects his chamber to “move quickly” on the measure. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he’s planning a vote before a recess that starts after next week. The bill has 14 GOP sponsors and, with strong Democratic support expected, seems on track to gain the 60 votes most bills need for Senate passage …

The bill would end a requirement that the Postal Service finance, in advance, health care benefits for current and retired workers for the next 75 years. That obligation, which private companies and federal agencies do not face, was imposed in 2006. That ended up being the year that the Postal Service’s mail volume peaked and its financial fortunes steadily worsened.

The Postal Service hasn’t made those payments since 2012. Overall it faces unpaid obligations of $63 billion, according to its most recent annual report. The bill forgives much of that debt…

Criticism of the Postal Service peaked in 2020, when President Donald Trump appointed DeJoy as postmaster general and Democrats accused him of slowing service to undermine the election. DeJoy, a major GOP donor, has proposed a 10-year plan to stabilize the service’s finances with steps like additional mail slowdowns, cutting some offices’ hours and perhaps higher rates.

The Postal Service had a successful 2021 holiday season, delivering 97% of shipments on time during two weeks in December, according to ShipMatrix, which analyzes shipping package data. In 2020 more than a third of first-class mail was late by Christmas Day…

Reader Interactions

106Comments

  2. 2.

    Professor Bigfoot

    Funny how no one bitches about how unprofitable is the Department of Defense, ain’t it

    [edit: oooh, and number two!]

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    BREAKING: The House passes a major financial overhaul of the USPS, relieving it of $57 billion in liabilities, plus another $50 billion cost savings over the next decade.

    120 GOPers voted for this, that’s a big deal. When was the last time a majority of the GOP voted for anything House DEMs wanted.

    And now I have to go rescue my wife. G’day all.

  4. 4.

    Gin & Tonic

    [Schumer] said he’s planning a vote before a recess that starts after next week

    Weren’t those assholes just in recess? How little do they actually work, anyway?

  5. 5.

    Gin & Tonic

    Astroturfing in Ukraine:

    ? ~200 people at @USEmbassyKyiv protesting the United States’ involvement in current Russia-Ukraine crisis. But nobody I asked could explain exactly what they’re against. They said they came because “Natasha called us.” Natasha told me this is a “NGO” but wouldn’t name it. pic.twitter.com/878YD0lTBn
    — Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) February 9, 2022

    Read the whole thread.

  6. 6.

    Another Scott

    GovExec has an update:

    The bill would make sweeping changes to USPS operations, though its scope is slightly pared back compared to previous failed attempts at postal reform. The core of the bill will shift more postal retirees to Medicare for their health care and require most postal workers to select postal-specific health care plans. It would take onerous payments toward health care benefits for future retirees off the agency’s balance sheets. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has endorsed the bill and said its core components were essential to eliminating projected losses over the next decade as part of his 10-year business plan.

    DeJoy was on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to help provide a final push for the bill’s passage.

    The measure would allow USPS to provide non-postal services, including for state governments and other federal agencies. It also includes a six-day delivery mandate, which DeJoy has already said he plans to maintain. Postal management would face a new requirement to update the White House, Congress and its regulator every six months on its financial state, volume, implementation of changes, investments into its network and performance. It would also have to create new annual performance targets with a public website for tracking results.

    “The Postal Service Reform Act has been years in the making, and I’m proud to say that it is bipartisan,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., who chairs the House Oversight and Reform Committee and wrote the legislation. “It is abundantly clear that this bill is good for both the postal service and the American people.”

    While Republicans largely supported the measure Tuesday, Democrats won their support only after significant negotiation. The minority party only offered its endorsement after successfully fighting to remove a provision Democrats had originally included to restrict USPS from altering its service standards. DeJoy is in the midst of implementing his business plan, which has included slowing down delivery for some mail. In 2020, Congress on a bipartisan basis approved a $10 billion grant to USPS to offset some of its pandemic-related losses.

    More at the link.

    And relatedly, … GovExec:

    The Biden administration is ramping up pressure on the U.S. Postal Service to buy an electric vehicle fleet, sharply criticizing the mailing agency for flouting its required due diligence and failing to adequately account for its environmental impact.

    In separate letters on Wednesday from the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency, Biden administration officials called on USPS to formally reassess its rationale for replacing 165,000 trucks and vans with internal combustion engine vehicles that have virtually no improved fuel economy from the decades-old vehicles it currently uses. Postal management’s process to date has violated the National Environmental Policy Act and CEQ regulations, EPA Associate Administrator Vicki Arroyo said.

    The Postal Service last year awarded its fleet replacement contract for the manufacturing of at least 50,000 and up to 165,000 vehicles to Oshkosh Defense. The initial deal is worth $482 million, but USPS eventually expects to spend billions of dollars on the new fleet. USPS has committed to making just 10% of the new fleet electric, though Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has indicated he would be willing to go much further if Congress provided the funds.

    Funding to do so, or at least start the process, is in the BBBA. But it sure looks like the USPS under DeJoy yet again has to be dragged kicking and screaming to do the right thing.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  7. 7.

    lowtechcyclist

    Anyone else find that pic in the last tweet confusing?

    There are 9 dots: 3 solid red, 3 solid blue, 1 shaded red, one orange, and one white.

    Presumably each one represents a board member.

    Red = Republican, blue = Democrat, orange = independent. Shaded red = Republican about to be replaced. (With a Dem?) White (I assume) = vacancy.

    One of the blue dots is Lee Moak, a Democrat who unfortunately supports DeJoy. That’s the one outside the bracket above the dots. The bracket represents board members who will support Biden, I think. So that’s the other two Dems and the independent.

    So when Biden replaces the Republican with a Democrat and fills the other vacancy with a Democrat, won’t he have a majority to replace DeJoy?

  12. 12.

    raven

    @Another Scott: My employer shifted to a medicare based health plan for retirees and gives us a stipend for supplemental. It is a lot less costly than keeping all retirees on the systems group plan.

  13. 13.

    Ohio Mom

    I don’t claim to be following this story closely, I’m probably missing something.

    Is the reason there is Democratic board member who supports DeJoy that this person is the only one whom Republicans would vote for?

    To me, throwing out perfectly good sorting machines is in itself, a firing offense. Talk about wasting gobs of money.

    It is within my imagination that there could be a good enough Republican-appointed official somewhere who is worth keeping just because you have to pick you battles and this isn’t an urgent one. But DeJoy doesn’t sound like that.

    I’ll finish with, I don’t expect to be thrilled with everything a Democratic president does, this might fit in the column under that heading.

    ETA: also, I think DeJoy’s conflicts of interest make him unfit for the job.

  14. 14.

    The Dangerman

    Postal service doing non-postal jobs? What, like sell vacuum cleaners door to door? And I hope there are clear delineations on non postal jobs for the state of Nevada (excluding Clark County).

  15. 15.

    Ohio Mom

    If you are able to follow the link to Bobage’s tweet (yes, sorry Zhena), lots more info in the comment thread. Seems Bernie screwed up Obama’s opportunity to appoint board members, leaving Trump with more than his share of appointments.

    I was also reminded of DeJoy’s shenanigans is slowing down mail-in ballots. Leaving me with the question, Okay, since the board won’t fire him, can Congress investigate him out of the job somehow?

  16. 16.

    WaterGirl

    @lowtechcyclist: I agree with Baud that the whole situation is confusing as hell.  But unlike Baud, I do want to understand, because I think this is a really important issue, and it’s very confusing to feel hopeful that DeJoy can be ousted once Biden’s nominees get through and at the same time read things that make it appear that even when Biden’s nominees do get through, DeJoy still won’t be ousted because of the Dem who supports DeJoy.

    To me it seems that the two conflicting messages are both out there, which is what makes it distressing.  But I have neither the time or the energy to do all the research necessary in order to figure it all out.

    This graphic is just one more piece of incomplete reporting that is out there.

  18. 18.

    HinTN

    @raven: OT, but so it goes. I was in Charleston over the weekend and drove down to Edisto Island. I can see why you like it there! It’s as “unimproved” as the place we favor in North Carolina.

  19. 19.

    Soprano2

    Rant* There is no customer service anymore. When I called to cancel my mother’s trash service, no one told me there would be an extra payment so they would remove the cart (yeah, I had to pay for them to take their own cart because they don’t charge a monthly cart fee). So I found out about that when there was a message on her answering machine about her past due bill! I called and found out what I needed to pay, so I paid it. Then, I waited for them to pick up the cart. And waited, and waited, and waited. I finally called them today and asked what it would take for them to pick up the cart, since I paid their stupid bill in December! She said she would schedule it, and she was sorry. I asked if I had to put it by the curb, and she said yes they won’t take it unless it’s by the street. Well, I’ve never had one of these things before so I have no idea how they work. Thank God I asked, because I had been keeping it by the house since it’s unsightly to have it by the street. It sure would have been nice if someone had told me how this works when I cancelled the service, since I made clear I was cancelling my mother’s service, not mine. There is no customer service anymore. And don’t get me started about Synchrony Bank and how someone tried to open a Pay Pal credit account in her name! It was a huge ordeal just to get a person on the phone, and in the end they said “don’t worry about it, we declined the account”. So, someone is out there trying to establish an account in my dead mother’s name, and I’m not supposed to worry about it! *Rant over

  21. 21.

    Soprano2

    @Ohio Mom: Our mail now arrives sometime after 7 p.m. most days. We used to get our mail by 4 p.m. That’s what DeJoy had done to my postal service. At least I got our Covid tests yesterday, finally.

  23. 23.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    So I went to my first vote-grubbing, pre-primary event as a judicial candidate last night.  Since my circuit would consist of a three county area (one exurban, two rural), I hit one of the rural Republican Club meetings.  My hot takes after addressing a crowd of 40:

    1.  They were all pretty nice to me, and I got a lot of head nods, smiles, and offers of support and really great sign placement.  I talked about them deserving better, and spoke of earning their vote while urging them to vote their conscience and how I would work in service to them if they chose to honor me with their votes.  Seems they hate the incumbent almost as much as I hate the incumbent, and given the inexperience of the other challenger, I have a ripe field of voters to pluck despite partisan differences.
    2. The incumbent sheriff, who has no challenger, not only rescued me from the crazy woman I’ll discuss below but also told me that he’d help facilitate my meeting with his deputies.
    3. The crowd ranged from garden variety conservatives (who were interested primarily in sewers, water, zoning and scoring federal infrastructure grants) to hyper-conservatives (who wanted to drive every democrat from any position of authority by any means that had a legal fig leaf) to raging psychotics (most notably the woman from far western Kentucky, a chiropractor/realtor who is running to Rand Paul’s right, thinks he is a secret liberal in a conspiracy and believes that masks in schools violate Kentucky’s strangulation statutes).  That nutcase tried to corner me and isolate me from handshaking while forcing me to take positions on mandatory hand counted paper ballots, some school curriculum initiative, stripping the governor of any power during an emergency and illegal immigration.  Sheriff saw the pie-eyed look of panic in my eyes and led her off.
    4. There are roughly 10,000 registered voters in that county, roughly equal but with a few more dozen Democrats than GOPers, but the Republicans are rabid primary voters.  I figure that probably 4000 of the Republicans will vote.  I make decent inroads there, and I survive the May primary – but sadly, it also means I have to attend the Reagan-Lincoln Day dinners with my wife, who thinks it will be “fun”.  I just laughed and said “wait till you hear what they have to say, and try and keep a straight face.
    5. I heard more China-bashing in an hour than I’ve heard in the past 10 years, all from the hyper-conservatives and the nutcases.  I chose not to share any info about having a lovely time there, or how much I enjoyed interacting with Chinese travelers elsewhere, or how amazing the Road and Belt thing is working for them.
  24. 24.

    MisterDancer

    My Dad was a Postman for decades, and even ran for President of the Historically-Black Postal Union. So…

    …look, I think there’s a ton of issues w/DeJoy. I also think focusing on ousting him, and not on implementing the exact kinds of reforms this bill provides, is a problem. My Dad has indicated to me that there are real, long-running issues w/the Service, far older than even that horrific “pay the pension” bill that directly affects him.

    So maybe it’s worth it to not focus so much on if DeJoy stays or goes, and more on if the USPS is in a position to be sustainable, over time.  On if ideas like the USPS Bank are worth promoting and pursuing. Which I know is not a “sexy” way to sell it, ’cause it’s easier to hate on and focus on a DeJoy — or a McConnell, or a Trump — over systemic issues (see also: Climate Change).

    It sounds like Congress is taking the tack of fixing many of the core issues with laws, over trying to get DeJoy out. I think that’s the right approach, if it helps hem DeJoy’s excesses, in.

  25. 25.

    Another Scott

    @The Dangerman:

    GAO report from 2020:

    The U.S. Postal Service has over 31,000 retail facilities—a network reaching into almost every community in the nation. As demand for some mail products has declined, USPS has been unable to cover its costs as it is required to do—putting it on our High Risk list.

    A task force and others have suggested allowing USPS to offer additional services at its facilities, such as hunting licenses, to generate revenue and other benefits.

    We asked postmasters and industry and consumer representatives about potential services. They said that some—like banking—could expand consumer access. But adding services may require additional expertise or resources.

    […]

    In 2018, U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) retail facilities, such as post offices, generated about $10.5 billion in revenue and cost approximately $5 billion to operate, making them profitable overall. While such facilities accounted for about 15 percent of USPS’s total fiscal year 2018 revenues, and about 7 percent of its total costs, stakeholders identified other benefits that retail facilities provide for communities—particularly in rural areas—such as local access to government information and services.

    [ image ]

    Since 2008, USPS has offered a variety of nonpostal products and services at its retail facilities that have generated some revenue and other benefits. USPS data show that the nonpostal products and services for which USPS captures revenue data, such as money orders, generated about $431 million in total revenue in fiscal year 2018 and were profitable overall. Stakeholders said many of these nonpostal products and services also provided other benefits, such as enhanced convenience for customers, and postmasters GAO surveyed said some offerings, such as passport services, were highly valued in their communities.

    Offering additional nonpostal products and services at USPS retail facilities could provide consumer, government, or community benefits, but viability may be limited. Stakeholders said new offerings, such as expanded financial products or government services could, for example, enhance consumers’ access and government efficiencies. In particular, some noted that USPS could provide a viable banking alternative for those lacking banking services. However, USPS officials, postmasters GAO surveyed, and stakeholders GAO interviewed said that additional offerings may generate minimal revenue and that USPS may face factors limiting the viability of these offerings. For example, groups representing states’ licensing agencies said offering state hunting and fishing licenses could be problematic given different state requirements. Also, stakeholders said USPS may not have the expertise nor the required capital to enter the market of some of these new offerings. Given such concerns, USPS and policy makers need to carefully weigh costs, benefits, and limitations of any new offerings.

    […]

    Everything the federal government does has to be billed to some account. Presumably “nonpostal services for other government agencies” involves them paying the USPS to do the work of, say, accepting the paperwork and handing off federal licenses to customers in West Overshoe, NE, etc.

    More at the link.

    The USPS is supposed to be running a postal-banking trial. But the GQP threw a fit, so the USPS has so far signed up 6 whole people (according to an older GovExec story).

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  26. 26.

    zhena gogolia

    @Soprano2: I haven’t gotten any covid tests although I ordered them on the first day.

    AND I HAVEN’T GOTTEN ANY MASKS FROM BONA FIDE MASKS, NYT recommended, and they don’t answer my e-mails. The masks were supposed to come on 2/2 or I wouldn’t have ordered them. Back to Amazon, I guess.

  30. 30.

    Betty

    @Ohio Mom: There have been reports of conflicts of interest as well as some shady campaign funding allegations. The campaign funding ones seem to have been dropped.

  31. 31.

    Soprano2

    @zhena gogolia: I ordered my tests on the first day, too, when it was posted here. I figure mine were somewhat delayed due to the big snowstorm we had last week. Hang in there, they’ll come eventually.

  32. 32.

    The Dangerman

    @Baud: Seems to me the postal service needs to focus on its core competency, getting stuff delivered quickly and efficiently from Shoehorn, Nebraska to Boondocks, Alaska. I might be biased given I’m currently dealing with a screwed up Amazon order.

  35. 35.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @zhena gogolia: I ordered masks from BonaFide too, before Xmas and it took a little over 3 weeks to receive them. They do answer the phone rather promptly. The masks are nice, just too big like all the 95’s for me so I put a cloth mask over.

  36. 36.

    zhena gogolia

    @Sure Lurkalot: Hmmm I’ll have to look for a phone number. Didn’t see one

    ETA you’re right. They answer the phone, not e-mail. I just assumed no one answered the phone these days.

  38. 38.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud: The bill would require USPS to make a finding that whatever services they offer won’t interfere with mail delivery.

    On the surface, that looks good.  But then it comes down to the amount of time and attention that various people in the USPS hierarchy have, which is a fixed quantity unless they add more people at the various levels.

    So when you add in some extra service, even if on its face it shouldn’t affect mail delivery, that’s less time and attention that the various levels of the organization have to deal with problems with the mail.

    And I say this as a supporter of postal banking.  I just think it needs to be done in a way where the Federal Reserve (or whoever) rents space from the USPS to put ATMs in the branches, and doesn’t involve any oversight at all by the USPS.

  39. 39.

    p.a.

    Such is today’s Republican Party that anything that passes with bipartisan support I immediately suspect of hiding a Trojan Horse section meant to undo any improvement the bill intends.

    I am glad the 75 year pre-financing is going bye-bye as it was specifically done by Rethugs to cripple the USPS because, among other reasons, it’s the most unionized of Fed departments/agencies.

  42. 42.

    zhena gogolia

    Has USA Today become something I should subscribe to? They seem to have more interesting articles these days.

  45. 45.

    Kay

    @WaterGirl:

    Postal banking is clueless. They can’t be spending any time with low income people if they think this is useful to them.

    They use cash app they use Venmo they use PayPal they use online banks with a debit card – low income people absolutely max a smartphone – they use it for everything. if they’re under 40 years old none of them are going to the post office for banking -they have much more convenient inexpensive options.

    I love the usps – I worked there- but this is a misunderstanding about how low income people do business.

  47. 47.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @Kay: I know I’m a dreamer, but couldn’t postal banking include nice digital services as well? A USPS Bank App?

  49. 49.

    Geminid

    @zhena gogolia: I am not a subsciber myself, but what I’ve seen from individual copies is that while USA Today does not go into a lot of depth in most stories, the breadth of coverage gives it value. Also, lot of local newspapers cover national news with a page of USA Today stories, so it’s a good way to see what information other people are getting.

  51. 51.

    WaterGirl

    @Soprano2: You must have Allied Waste /Republic Services.  I got caught with the same ridiculous cart pickup fee and I was enraged.  I went with a locally-owned group and they have been terrific.

    Nearly all the garbage cans on my street have gone from blue (Republic) to red (the locally-owned group).

  52. 52.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Betty Cracker:

    Nonpartisan.  Of course, the other judicial candidate that was there with me was running for a large district of the Court of Appeals (from here to the other side of Cincinnati) made a disgusting display of talking about being a Republican from birth and his adherence to Republican values, which is completely against the rules.  He doesn’t have a chance in hell and I’m not “that” guy so I won’t turn him in, but still…..

  53. 53.

    Jeffro

    @Soprano2: Ours is really weird now too (after being nearly MIA in fall 2020 and spring 2021).  We get mail and packages from different, separate USPS trucks…we get mail arriving late in the evenings (even on Sundays!)…packages seem to take a little (or a lot) longer.  We just had some legal docs sent down via USPS from NoVA to central VA, and that took almost 3 weeks to get to us(!)

  55. 55.

    japa21

    @MisterDancer:  Thanks for this perspective.  I think it is sometimes human nature to search for a single thing or person we can pin problems on.  DeJoy fits the bill.  It is also easier to do this than to look at the underlying issues and try to fix them.

  56. 56.

    Amir Khalid

    Some GAS news:

    You all remember how I was going on and on last year about getting me an Epiphone ES-335, the cheap version of Chuck Berry’s big cherry-red Gibson? Well, I’ve just got the next best thing. It arrived via courier today.

    It’s  Firefly FF338: a made-in- China copy of the ES-335 for about a third the price of the Epiphone. (RM870 vs RM2500.) It’s cherry red, just like Chuck’s axe. It’s a much-in-demand brand — Firefly instruments sell out with US customers almost as soon as they go up for sale online — and its reviews on YouTube are mostly favourable.

    Did I mention it was cherry red, like Chuck Berry’s guitar? It looks bloody gorgeous.

  60. 60.

    Gin & Tonic

    Since it’s time for USPS hate, our carrier left a (large) parcel next to the mailbox on Monday. “Next to the mailbox” means in a snowbank. It rained all day Monday and most of Monday night. When I discovered the parcel yesterday, it was soaked through, destroying the contents: original artwork sent from eastern Europe. So now I am at war with my local post office – twice now I’ve gone in to speak with the postmaster, who was “unavailable” both times.

  61. 61.

    Kay

    @Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:

    theyll never be able to compete. You can open an online account with 100 dollars – they open with one paycheck

    tbey get a debit card, free bill payment and free wire transfers – and they’re banks – insured
    they can do interest free and no fee monthly payments – Even to small businesses

    the postal service can compete on parcel delivery and overnight – Express – they do well there

  63. 63.

    Soprano2

    @WaterGirl: Yep, that’s who my mother had. I will NEVER do business with them after this ridiculous experience. We have a local company, and use our own trash cans. It works fine.

  64. 64.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: You probably know this, but the reason fintech companies are willing to do this is because they’re harvesting user data for eventual monetization. Not that most users give a crap.

  67. 67.

    dww44

    @WaterGirl: It seems the pandemic has shone a light on problems with garbage pick up everywhere and given the unappealing nature of this necessary job those workers here were the first to depart their seats in the truck for greener pastures.

    After more than a year of missed /not picked up trash and especially recycle bins, local government  decided to fire one for profit company and hire a new one.  The short term result was an absolute plethora of green/ blue and fuschia colored trash bins at the roadsides all over the county.  Last week the city hired another service to begin picking up the 2 bins belonging to the former garbage pick-up service who’ve not performed as contracted.

    The fuschia ones remain with us as they are the property of the new company.  My household has not received the blue recycling bin though I’ve called twice and entered a Click-it Fix- it request online.  I’ve decided that privatizing garbage pick-up was not necessarily the optimal solution.  It’s certainly detracted from a pleasing street scene.

  71. 71.

    WaterGirl

    @dww44: Interesting.  Here garbage is all third-party – local government has nothing to do with it.  Not sure whether that is a good thing or not!

    But these new guys are consistently great.

    edit: and by “new guys” i mean the local company that has been in business for decades.  They don’t have to advertise now; rage against Republic is their free advertising now.

  73. 73.

    wj

    @OzarkHillbilly: Pretty simple, really.  Lots of rural areas (with lots of GOP voters) where UPS and FedEx don’t have much presence.  It’s the Post Office or nothing.  So having the USPS work well matters to their constituents.  Ideological objections to government, especially working government, tend to crumble in the face of that.

  74. 74.

    WaterGirl

    @Geminid: I haven’t found anything where I can enter my street address and find out what my new district will be.  It’s impossible for me to tell which one it will be by looking at the maps.

    Nothing I have found even lists names of cities for reference.

  76. 76.

    Ohio Mom

    @Sure Lurkalot: My N95s are too big too. I make folds to fit my face and staple them in place. Sort of like altering a garment by adding darts (a lesson from my junior high school sewing class).

    Sometimes either wear a surgical mask under or cloth mask over, depending on where I’m going.

  78. 78.

    Soprano2

    @WaterGirl: rage against Republic is their free advertising now.

    I understand that. I was astounded that I had to pay them a fee to pick up their own cart! We’re the same here – all trash pickup is done by private companies. Back in the ’80’s I worked with a young man who moved here from Cleveland. He was astounded to see that most of the garbage collectors here were white! He said in Cleveland almost all of the garbage collectors were black. (I say young man, but at that time he was only a few years younger than I was. He was a great guy, sometimes I wonder what happened to him. He was the rare nice sales person who treated the office people well.)

  79. 79.

    randy khan

    We all should remember that this bill is, to a large extent, undoing a Republican effort to make it impossible for the Postal Service to have enough money to, you know, deliver mail.  That 75-year funding mandate for retired postal workers was a Republican idea.

  80. 80.

    Capri

    @Kay:  Payday and Title loan companies seem to be doing just fine despite the banking savvy of the poor.

    The idea I’ve heard is to have the post office compete with those entities by offering small loans at non-loan shark rates.

  81. 81.

    Roger Moore

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Weren’t those assholes just in recess? How little do they actually work, anyway?

    It’s unfair to see recess as vacation.  It’s a time when legislators go back to their districts and interface with their constituents, which is very much a part of their job.  People need to make up their minds.  When they spend all their time in DC, they’re blasted as out of touch creatures of the capital.  When they go back to their districts, they’re blasted as do nothing wastrels who are constantly on vacation.​
     
    ETA: Individual legislators who treat recess as vacation deserve to be criticized, but Congress as an institution shouldn’t be criticized for giving legislators a chance to meet constituents back in their home districts.

  82. 82.

    Roger Moore

    @p.a.: 
    One thing to understand about the Post Office is that it’s a lifeline to rural and exurban communities, which have a disproportionate say in Republican politics. Strangling the Post Office is going to hurt those communities, and the people who live there know it. It may be a case where serving their constituents comes ahead of ideological purity for Republicans.

  83. 83.

    Another Scott

    @NeenerNeener: We ordered our free COVID tests the first day it was mentioned as being live here.  Just got them today.  Big yellow-orange padded envelope with mysterious label, tiny white box with 4 test kits inside.

    [eta:] We’re in NoVA.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  84. 84.

    Matt

    Blue dot not under Biden is Lee Moak, Democrat who backs DeJoy.

    The only question I have is: is Moak getting a kickback from DeJoy, or has he just got “moderate Democrat” brain-worms?

    In either case, he should be “encouraged” to seek early retirement. If he can’t stomach doing something to fight the rise of fascism, he should get the fuck out of the way.

  85. 85.

    Another Scott

    @Capri:

    FederalNewsNetwork (from January):

    A Postal Service banking pilot isn’t drawing many customers. USPS tells the Postal Regulatory Commission only six customers have taken advantage of the check-cashing pilot it launched last September. For a flat fee of $5.95, customers can cash a business or payroll check as a gift card worth up to $500. USPS is testing the pilot at four post office locations, and has only made just over $35 in revenue.

    I don’t know the details, but the tidbits are horrible – $6 to “cash” a check which isn’t cash but a debit card (which probably has fees)?? The pilot seems designed to fail so that opponents can say, “see, we tried it, won’t work”.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  86. 86.

    Chris

    worth noting here that most of the financial problems of the usps are inflicted by congress, and not the result of incompetence relative to private companies or whatever

    The fact that the USPS didn’t collapse overnight after everything Congress inflicted on it is frankly miraculous, and all the proof you ever needed that the fucking dumbass at the bar sagely shaking his head and saying “the government, man, they just don’t do anything right!” is a fucking dumbass.

    Can you imagine any private company surviving this kind of bullshit?  They’d all have gone under.  Heck, these days their owners probably wouldn’t even have bothered trying to save them: at the first sign of deep trouble, everybody jumps ship in a golden parachute (preferably made out of the employees’ pension) and runs off looking for another company to run into the ground.

  88. 88.

    Kay

    @Capri:

    loans are a whole different thing. The idea was supposed to serve “the unbanked” – people who couldn’t get ordinary banking services – it might have worked a decade ago – it won’t work now.

    postal service money orders were more expensive than money orders at a 711 twenty years ago – they’ve never been good at it.

  89. 89.

    Kay

    @Capri:

    piling on social safety net services on existing public services is a bad idea – they need to focus on what they do well

    we did this to public schools – we dumped all childrens safety net services on them – they’re schools – they already had a job

  91. 91.

    Anotherlurker

    Congratulations on the new AX!
    Remember, you can never own too many guitars.
    May I suggest a Martin 12 string for your next purchase?

    @Amir Khalid:

  93. 93.

    Another Scott

    @Kay: A counterpoint is that the USPS was doing stuff like banking long before many of these “banks” even existed.  Postal banking went away in the 1960s, IIRC.

    IMHO, it’s not so much that the “USPS is bad at it” it’s that Congress has written the rules such that the USPS cannot make a sensible stab at it.  Their rates are set by what they can charge for postage, and it used to be explicitly illegal (AIUI) for them to run a profit.  UPS and FedEx want the USPS to handle residential delivery for them in Moosejaw, ID, but also want to break their first-class monopoly.  Banks and payday lenders are afraid of the 30,000 branches that the USPS has, so they lobby to prevent them from having sensible financial services.  Etc., etc.

    Congress could easily make the USPS self-funding and a happy place to work for the carriers.  It just takes standing up to the special interests who fund their campaigns…  :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  97. 97.

    James E Powell

    @Amir Khalid:

    Congratulations! I have looked at the Epiphone’s version of the 335 but I’m trying to keep my GAS under control.

    So are you working on Johnny B Goode? No Particular Place to Go?

  98. 98.

    Dopey-o

    @Amir Khalid: It’s  Firefly FF338: a made-in- China copy of the ES-335 for about a third the price of the Epiphone. (RM870 vs RM2500.) It’s cherry red, just like Chuck’s axe. It’s a much-in-demand brand — Firefly instruments sell out with US customers almost as soon as they go up for sale online.

    Link please!!! And photos! Plus, take it to a small local repair shop for a professional set-up.

  100. 100.

    debbie

    This is indeed good news, but I just went five days with zero mail because of last week’s snow storm. When the mail finally arrived, there were four bills. I never get that many bills at once.

    I guess DeJoy killed that provision about nothing staying them from their appointed rounds?

  102. 102.

    Kay

    @Another Scott:

    But in the 1960s people had paper checks to cash. All of their deposits are electronic now- their pay, social security, unemployment. They can move money around easily- to pay rent, to pay one another, to loan to one another.

    Even small loans don’t make sense- the postal service is going to do a low interest/no interest loan secured with a car title? Want to make people really hate the post office, have it be the government agency that takes their car when they don’t make the loan payments.

    What is this for? Why would you take a perfectly good public delivery service and turn it into a bank? If it isn’t for check cashing and paying bills and moving money between people then what is it for?

    It made some sense 20 years ago when people were using the post office as a kind of bank for money orders, but they can still get a postal money order for the (very few) situations where they would need one.

    If they have to add a service make it state ID services for non-drivers. They all need ID. The postal service would be good at that. Get everyone a photo ID. Their lives will be a lot easier. I woud prefer a federal ID but I’m not allowed to have that because conservatives are ridiculous, so have each state issue their photo ID thru the postal service.

  105. 105.

    Kay

    @Another Scott:

    Pay day loans and car title loans really are high risk. They’re absolutely predatory, but the USPS says to break even they’d have to charge 28% interest (pay day is 250%). They’re never going to get out from under these loans at 28%. It’s a better rate, sure, but it’s still really high. You’re essentially offering them a credit card with a $1000 limit. How are they going to feel about their friendly neighborhood postal bank when the bank is pulling interest-only payments out of their paycheck for years and they still owe the original $1000 they borrowed? That’s if they can pay the interest.

  106. 106.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Kay: [low-income people] use online banks with a debit card

    And I’m sure those accounts and debit cards don’t charge a penny.

    One of the arguments for postal banking is a bank that wouldn’t need to make a profit, so it wouldn’t have to charge you for the use of your own money.

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