What are your thoughts on the USPS brouhaha?

Not to be too crabby about it, but terms like “brouhaha” and “kerfuffle” just serve to trivialize something that in my opinion ought to be seen as the attempted crime of the century, and not some made-up crap about campaign spying.

How is it “cost cutting” to remove sorting machines that two people can operate, requiring thirty people to perform the job manually?

Because the sorting machines are only for flat mail. With the advent of the internet there isn’t near the volume of flat mail any more. And they were moving some of them to other location. It was regular maintaince.

Then you should look more closely into it.
The guy that drumpf put in charge of the USPS, donated more money this year to the GOP, than the position he got pays in a year.
He owns stocks in USPS competitors.
He consulted no one about the measures he enacted, or what impact those would have.
Mail is already piling up, and many people have not gotten mail for weeks.
All in the run up to an election that will see increased mail volume due to covid restrictions.
At best, even if you disregard the blatant attempt at sabotaging vote by mail, what he is clearly doing, is enriching himself by driving up the value of the usps competitor stocks he owns, by further damaging the mail service.

Loli, I’m taken aback at your depth of knowledge regarding the doings here. When you allow an inkling of that depth to slip through that formidable facade of nonsense, it’s like a stunning cannonade of intellect.

Perhaps it is merely piss poor planning in the fact that ballots are indeed flats, Trump decides to dump on the post office NOW and the first things scheduled to be dumped are the flat sorting hardware and street collection boxes, along with the overtime required in the midst of a pandemic for the one organization tasked with face to face interaction beyond any other now or to be invented. Lots of coincidences—Trumpisms.

@stanleybmanly, that’s always been true of Loli. Usually masked, but there.

Trump has said they are starving the postal service to make voting by mail in this election harder. I’m kind of shocked, Dutch, that you aren’t aware of that.

Here’s one link but if you Google there are many articles that make clear his deliberatemessl You may not be able to read the whole articles without an account but you can read the headlines at least.

Many people have overlooked the fact that the postal service js required to place 75 years of retirement reserves into the bank, an amount that far exceeds any other company. This has caused a severe cash shortage for them. This requirement should be investigated.

^^ That’s true.

@Dutchess_lll I’m in agreement with you. I think there has been a whole lot of hoo-haw over nothing. When I saw the mania that started over a picture of old mailboxes that were pulled from service, I was sure of it. I’m sure you’ve seen it…the picture from Wisconsin that someone put out saying that it was Trump trying to stop mail in voting. The boxes themselves looked old and rusty and my first thought was that they should have been pulled from service long before. But beyond that, I started thinking that the people saying it was an effort to stop mail in voting were missing some huge picture. Mail in ballots have to get mailed out to everyone. That means every one has a mail box of their own. And I really can’t see most people running into town to find one of the R2D2 mailboxes to send all their mail. When they want to mail something they slap a stamp on it and put it in their mail box and flip the flag up. As for the cutting measures at the USPS, it is stuff that has probably needed to happen for some time and it is just a matter of timing. Most people don’t “mail” things any more. Everything is electronic these days. When was the last time you wrote someone an actual letter? Paying bills with a written check and mailing it in has been fading out for decades. It seems the quantity of mail has dropped off during those same decades. Much of my mail these days consists of ads I didn’t want that are sent out with a bulk rate which is lower than individual letters.

@Dutchess_lll, The seeds for this were planted a long time ago.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/postal-service-trump-dejoy/2020/08/18/a9b4dd18-e14c-11ea-8181-606e603bb1c4_story.html

Your defense of Trump in this case is short-sighted and premature. Abilities that you take for granted are not available to all.

Another slick Trumpian way to cheat the system, except this time they got caught early.

@seawulf575, you seem to think everyone has rural mailboxes with little flags. Have you visited a city?

Yeah I don’t count on my mailman to pick up what little bit of stuff I actually mail. I take it to the drop box behind the Post Office.

I think the truth is in the middle.

The Republicans want people to believe the USPS is untrustworthy and mail-in voting more open to fraud. When that started AGAIN (they have been saying this for at least 15 years as part of their political platform to privatize the USPS and to fight against mail-in ballots) my response is always that our USPS is a treasured in America, has an amazing history, is incredibly efficient, reliable, and for a low cost to the customer.

The Republicans started up with their typical bullshit about the USPS, because now we have covid and it has become even more important to have mail-in voting, and so the Democrats hit back with accusation of the Republicans wanting to prevent people from voting, which I completely agree the Republican Party wants to do that, and the media added gasoline to the flame by saying the USPS won’t be able to handle the mail, because the Republicans are doing things to hamper the USPS’s ability to handle the level of mail.

I believe some of the photo ops of mail boxes being removed and reports of machines being taken out of commission are just regularly scheduled occurrences, and in fact I have seen interviews recently that say as such. I think there should have been a delay in doing some of this considering so many people will be mailing in their ballots.

Very easily Trump’s statement can be interpreted as just trying to keep the flames going, to say what the liberal media is pushing, that the mail can’t be handled, and put doubt on the election.

When I do the math, the mail-in ballots are a small number that should be easily handled by the USPS in most states. It will likely be 30 million to 60 million more mail-in ballots than usual. Usually, there are about 30 million. The extra amount is my estimate, not something I read. People have a month to mail them back. The USPS handles well over a billion Christmas cards during late November and December, with a good portion crossing state lines, while many of the extra mail-in ballots will be from within the county. The USPS handles millions of tax returns mid February though mid April. No one worries about that. That has been reduced in recent years with efiling.

I saw an interview with an elections official in some state a week ago, and they said they work closely with their local USPS to ensure ballots move efficiently through the mail. I do trust the USPS and poll workers, and even if they are overwhelmed, I think they will put priority on the ballots.

I am glad the press is on top of it, don’t get me wrong, the free press is so very important, but the hysteria might be ramped up more than necessary propagating fear.

I plan on tipping my mail carrier when I get my mail next time. No need to wait for Christmas. I never liked once a year bonuses as a policy anyway.

Americans this time around who know who they want to vote for need to take responsibility and either early vote, drop off their ballot at a voting center early, or send in their ballot through the mail very early so they can track their ballot and make sure it was received, The more people do this, the more the last minute people, or people who insist on voting on election day, will have fewer lines to wait in.

My mailbox is in a central location, and I live in a single family house. I think approx 200 houses use the one central location, I would have to count the boxes next time I am there. I mail letters there or in a mailbox when out shopping, or a mailbox at the post office.

@Jeruba It doesn’t matter if you are in a city or in the country. If you have a mailbox, you have to have some way of mailing a letter. USPS STD-4C is the regulation the dictates this is a necessity. If you don’t have such a thing, talk to you landlord or building manager and tell them to get legal.

See, this is the sort of thing which convinces me that you can’t possibly live here. Your America is one you’ve read about somewhere. No one who lives here is going to quote a postal regulation when they know from EXPERIENCE the way things actually work. This is particularly true regarding the mailman, I don’t care if you were reared in a cave in America, you know the drill, it’s universal.

@stanleybmanly See, this is the sort of thing that convinces me that you want to tear down the country. There is a regulation that specifies you have to have an outgoing mail box, even in a city, even when there is a bank of individual boxes, and you get bitchy because I take the time to look up the law. There is a law! If your building doesn’t meet this regulation you can get that fixed very easy…with one phone call. And yet you would rather try to castigate me for wanting to adhere to the law. To you, if you violate the law you are good and if you try to follow the law you are weird.

@seawulf575 My mom doesn’t. She has a mail slot through her front door, there isn’t a place to leave the mail for the mailman to pick it up.

@seawulf575 There is no castigation intended regarding your looking up the law. And you know it. Now if you prefer to describe my suspicions of your authenticity as “tearing down the country”—be my guest. But as I have told you previously, these little blips add up, and I see no reason why I should neglect them.

When my son was 3 he got himself stuck in a mail slot lke that @JLeslie. Hadda call 911 to get him out. True story!

@seawulf575: For a lot of people in the country, they have to find a mailbox (drop box).

For the first 34 years of my 54 year long life, I didn’t have a mailbox with a little flag on it. I had to find a mailbox or bring it to the PO.

This is relevant.
https://billmoyers.com/story/10-things-to-know-about-trumps-post-office-scandal/

@seawulf575 I looked up the rule/law you referenced and it basically is saying there are places around the country that don’t have a mailbox or slot for outgoing mail. The link talks about not having to change existing mail areas that aren’t equipped. https://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2007/html/pb22206/mailboxkit.4.15.html

From Canid’s link, “As many states’ expanded use of mail-in voting during the pandemic, Trump has repeatedly asserted that the Postal Service cannot handle the increased volume of mail-in ballots expected for the November election.”
Why did he do that? He WANTS the post office screwed up, doesn’t he?

Trump certainly wants EVERYONE to question the results.