U.S. Senate approves $50 billion Postal Service relief bill https://t.co/GueaFJLMNZ pic.twitter.com/ayUQrg8z6w
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 9, 2022
The real Dealmaker President: Joe Biden https://t.co/GN3Xja6UsW
— Centrism Fan Acct ?? (@Wilson__Valdez) March 9, 2022
Right now USPS is required to *pre-fund* its future health benefits, which no public or private enterprise has to do, and it was designed to make it look broke. My provision in the USPS reform bill that just passed will repeal this & put the USPS on stronger financial footing. https://t.co/IrcRufFTHW
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) March 9, 2022
Let’s have a semi-standing ovation for the U.S. Senate. https://t.co/i8v5j7dLvT
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) March 9, 2022
… The dropping of that mandate is a huge victory for the USPS and a huge defeat for privatizers like the inexcusable Louis DeJoy. In 2006, something called The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act forced upon the USPS a burden that applied to only the post office and no other government (or private, for that matter) entity. The law made the USPS create a $72 billion fund to cover its retirees health-care costs out 75 years. This guaranteed a paper fiscal “crisis” that was used to justify cuts in service and personnel layoffs. If you wanted to privatize mail delivery in this country, the mandate was an open runway to it.
Of course, in the last administration, DeJoy did everything he could to wreck both the USPS and its reputation, with the added bonus of screwing with the presidential election, which depended on mail-in ballots, something that the last president* and his party continue to demonize. In fact, in December, the USPS settled a lawsuit brought by the NAACP over what that organization saw as discreet ratfcking with mail delivery…
But even the hardest of Republican hardheads have constituents in rural districts who depend on the USPS to run their small businesses, or to get their medicines, or just to make sure Meemaw gets the card on her birthday. Hence, the whole bipartisanship thing, about which senators will crow for a couple of days before they start arm-wrestling again.
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IMF approves $1.4 bln in emergency funding for Ukraine https://t.co/0wqXnwdqer pic.twitter.com/99GtLVHfGg
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 10, 2022
… Vladyslav Rashkovan, Ukraine’s alternate executive director at the fund, gave an emotional and deeply personal speech at the board meeting about the devastation caused by the war and its impact on its people, a source familiar with the meeting said.
His remarks were met with spontaneous applause, a rare event at such meetings. In its statement on the new funding, the board also expressed its “strong support for the Ukrainian people.”…
The disbursement under the IMF’s Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI), equivalent to 50% of Ukraine’s quota in the IMF, will help fund urgent spending needs in the short term, while helping to catalyze financing from other partners, the IMF said.
The RFI provides rapid funding to IMF member countries without the need for a full-fledged program. Members can tap the RFI repeatedly within any three-year period if the balance of payments need is caused by an exogenous shock, according to the IMF website.
It comes on top of $700 million disbursed to Ukraine by the IMF in December, and $2.7 billion in IMF Special Drawing Rights, or emergency reserves, that Ukraine received as part of an IMF allocation in August…
Speaking of funding…
My instinct is that for lots of regular people it was just a faraway place and a bunch of unfamiliar names and crime seemed like some sort of technicality. Turns out it was about the free world.
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) March 10, 2022
the kyiv bullet point strongly implies that russia isn’t consolidating for a large-scale attack, but in fact is stalled out
— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) March 10, 2022
it’s an interesting shift, and you can see which way the momentum is going at the moment. the fact that zelensky is not being maximalist says a lot about him as a leader imo https://t.co/KDIov41FQm
— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) March 10, 2022
Zelensky to @ronzheimer: “I’m also ready to take certain steps. Compromises can be made, but they must not be a betrayal of my country. … We can’t talk about the details yet. … Only after direct talks between the two presidents can we end this war.” https://t.co/ojuPew3YVx
— Anton Troianovski (@antontroian) March 10, 2022
Top Russian, Ukrainian diplomats meet for first time since invasion https://t.co/lbrpsUXpmP pic.twitter.com/rs1osqcqC2
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 10, 2022
“we did not make progress” in reaching a cease-fire, says Ukraine’s foreign minister after meeting with Lavrov https://t.co/n3xRKjiXpa pic.twitter.com/HUoCGsQRMc
— John Hudson (@John_Hudson) March 10, 2022
Poland’s envoy to the U.S. says his country understands American objections to a Polish proposal to provide Ukraine with MiG fighter jets as potentially “too escalatory.” He says it’s time to emphasize NATO’s unity and “move on.” https://t.co/QtEdek3Tzj
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 10, 2022
Thursday Morning Open Thread: Celebrate Progress, When We CanPost + Comments (276)