Today, January 6, 2021, Trump incited his protestors to violence and seditious acts. Trump’s supporters breached the Capitol building, attacked police and bystanders, destroyed government property, defiled spaces of various politicians and bragged about their lawlessness on social media. Trump gave an incendiary ranting speech in front of the White House today, and his base then rushed to the Capitol to display their displeasure that lawmakers were in session counting the electoral votes that would ensure Joe Biden and Kamala Harris would be installed on January 20, 2021 as President and Vice President.
It’s over. It’s time that Donald Trump stop whining and moping and being a poor loser. He lost the 2020 election legally. It’s time for him to accept reality, concede graciously and prepare to move on and move out of the White House. Just as President Barack Obama ensured a seamless transition in 2016 through January 20, 2017, Donald Trump needs to ensure Joe Biden has everything he needs to be ready to take over on day one.
If Trump continues to refuse to assist in a peaceful transition of power, he needs to be removed from office or forced to resign immediately. As we experienced today, 1/6/21, Trump is a danger to Democracy. He committed seditious acts today. There needs to be a full investigation into whether this event was planned behind the scenes and if people within the Capitol planned to let protestors freely breach the restricted areas. Why are some police seen taking selfies with protestors?
The events that occurred today in Washington DC are abnormal. Trump’s behavior is abnormal.
Moments ago Joe Biden formally received over 306 electoral votes overseen by Vice President Mike Pence in the Joint Session of Congress. If Trump still refuses to accept that Joe Biden is the lawfully elected President, then Trump needs to be removed from office before he does more damage to our democracy. He is unfit.
Politico reported today, 1/6/21:
“Donald Trump caused this insurrection with lies and conspiracy theories about the election being rigged against him,” said Scott Jennings, a former aide to President George W. Bush who is close to the Trump White House. “The election was not stolen but this madness was fomented by the president and his advisors.”
President-elect Joe Biden addresses the nation in midst of Trump protestors breaking into the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
#CNN#News See Biden’s speech as rioters invade Capitol President-elect Joe Biden speaks as a pro-Trump mob invades the US Capitol as Congress was trying to certify the 2020 election.
Donald Trump knows and admitted behind closed doors he lost the 2020 Election. He should, therefore, immediately call off the ridiculous theatrical shenanigans planned today, January 6, 2021, during the counting of the electoral votes, and instead, Trump should honor the will of American voters in the November 3, 2020 election that chose Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States.
Trump and his allies have now lost 62 lawsuits in their bid to overturn the election.
Politico reported on January 5, 2021:
“Donald Trump has privately acknowledged he lost the presidency. He knows that Joe Biden will replace him. He recognizes Congress will formally certify the results on Wednesday.”
Trump even confided he was “just disappointed we lost.”
All 10 Former Living Defense Secretaries urge Trump administration to allow a peaceful transition to Biden Administration
PBS News Hour |Former defense secretary urges top brass to resign or resist questionable Trump orders All 10 living former secretaries of defense signed a column published in The Washington Post on Sunday that urged the Trump administration to allow a peaceful transition of power and to keep the Pentagon out of it. One of the signatories was William Cohen, a former Republican senator who served as secretary of defense under President Bill Clinton. He joins Judy Woodruff to discuss. January 5, 2021
Today, evidence surfaced from emails that proved Trump subscribed to infecting as many people as possible from “advisors” who said “herd immunity” was OK without a vaccine. With over 300,000 Americans dead from Covid-19, the Trump “herd immunity” without vaccine policy basically is mass murder. Even though there are emails that support this view, now that the emails have surfaced, the Trump administration denies this. However, Trump is on videotape talking about “herd immunity” earlier this year.
When real scientists talk about “herd immunity” it is always coupled with vaccines. The idea is that when more people are vaccinated against a particular illness, there will be “herd immunity” from that disease. However, some crackpot advisors like Dr. Atlas and Paul Alexander in the Trump administration called for “herd immunity” without vaccines because it would take too long to wait for a vaccine. Emails released today show the back story about the Trump administration’s possible national policy of being fine with killing people through herd immunity without vaccines because of the “economy”. There is no other way to spin this.
The Remedy
We need a COVID-19 Commission to study how, why, and what the Trump administration did, didn’t do, and what happened that caused the U.S. to have the most infections in the world and the most deaths of any other country. This is a badge of disgrace that the outgoing Trump administration will bear forever. We need to make sure going forward that no future U.S. administrations make the same mistakes and policy decisions that the Trump administration made that resulted in possibly hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths during a pandemic.
#ChrisHayes#TrumpCovidPlan#MSNBC ‘We Want Them Infected’: Chris Hayes On Emails Revealing Truth Of Trump Covid Plan | All In | MSNBC Chris Hayes: “Donald Trump and our government under his leadership explicitly pursued a strategy to spread the virus, to get more people sick. They took the side of Covid. They had the same aims as the virus. They were—as I said before—objectively pro-Covid.” Aired on 12/16/2020.
Trump Adopts Herd Immunity Covid Strategy Pushed By Fox News Doctor | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC Rachel Maddow looks at what appears to be a deliberately poor job the Trump administration has done containing the coronavirus, the advocacy of Donald Trump’s preferred Fox News doctor, and the blurted comments by Trump himself to conclude that the U.S. is pursuing a herd immunity strategy. Aired on 09/16/2020.
Trump is on videotape talking about “herd” mentality which he meant to say as herd immunity.
Trump on Fox News: “Once you get to a certain number, it’s called “herd”, it’s going to go away.”
…
Trump: It would go away without the vaccine, George. But, it’s going to go away a lot faster with it.
Stephanopoulos: It will go away without the vaccine?
Trump: Sure, over a period of time. Sure, with time.
Stephanopoulos: With how many deaths?
Trump: Sure. You’ll develop like a “herd mentality.” It will be herd developed. And that’s going to happen. That will happen.
“Then science advisor called for millions of Americans to be infected as means of fighting Covid-19”
“Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk….so we use them to develop herd…we want them infected…” Alexander added.
It’s Official: Electors throughout the 50 United States cast their electoral votes today, December 14, 2020, for Joe Biden and Donald Trump. As the day progressed, electors from East to West and North to South voted according to how each state’s U.S. Citizens voted in the November 3rd, 2020 election. Joe Biden received 306 electoral votes, Donald Trump received 232 electoral votes confirming that Joe Biden is the 46th President of The United States who will be inaugurated on January 20th, 2021 together with Vice President Elect Kamala Harris.
Biden Delivers Remarks On Electoral College Vote Certification | NBC News Watch as President-elect Joe Biden speaks from Wilmington, De., after the electoral college voted to make his victory in the 2020 election official.
Co-Founder of The Lincoln Project Talks About Preserving American Democracy on Amanpour & Co.
#amanpourpbs Lincoln Project’s Steve Schmidt: American Democracy Was Deliberately Poisoned | Amanpour and Company
President Trump’s impact on the Republican Party will be studied for decades to come. History will look not only at who joined the GOP in the Trump era, but also who left it. Steve Schmidt is among the latter. For decades a communications strategist working for President George W. Bush and Senator John McCain, Schmidt now denounces the party he once loved. He’s a co-founder of The Lincoln Project, a political action committee formed in 2019 by a group of Republicans determined to defeat Trump in the 2020 election. He joins Michel Martin to explain what’s next for the project and for the Party — and to discuss the struggle to preserve American democracy. Originally aired on December 8, 2020.
Is Trump Refusing to Officially Concede the Election Because Grifting his Supporters is Just Too Good To Stop Now?
Well, Yes, it certainly seems that way for Trump.
The Big Trump Swindle
#Corruption#Grift#DonaldTrump The Real Reason Trump Won’t Concede | Robert Reich Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich exposes how Trump is swindling his supporters through his meaningless “Official Election Defense Fund”.
Joe Biden has decisively won the presidency. There is no way for Trump to overturn the results of the election, and his campaign’s post-election lawsuits have gotten dismissed left and right. That hasn’t stopped him from launching an “Official Election Defense Fund” and bombarding his supporters with fundraising appeals to supposedly finance the campaign’s ongoing litigation efforts…
A supporter would have to individually donate over $8,000 before any money goes to the fund they think they’re supporting.
Elections do have consequences, and it’s time for Donald Trump and his enablers to move on and allow the Biden transition team to have full access to everything, including the inauguration funds to prepare for Joe Biden’s inauguration. The fact that Donald Trump is trying to incite people to try to undo the will of the people is shocking and wrong.
Everyone has a right to free speech. However, when people threaten others as Trump’s followers have done to many hard-working election officials, both Democrats and Republicans, this is anti-democracy.
It’s time for the Republican Senate including Mitch McConnell to find their courage and stand up to Donald Trump and stop lying to Americans about the election. Biden won with 306 electoral votes and by over 7 million more votes than Trump.
It’s time to heal our nation and come together and work together for the common good.
Trump is Lying to the Public to Raise Money for Himself
So far, Trump has raised over $207 Million dollars since the November 3rd election. Where will this money go? Will it go to Trump directly and Republicans? I feel sorry for the people used by Trump to fill his coffers.
There are people who profit from promoting hate and division. There are people who use culture wars deliberately to distract from the real issues confronting America. As Robert Reich noted, if we can spend $2 Billion dollars a day on the Pentagon, we can find money to provide assistance to average people who aren’t billionaires or millionaires at this time.
#Trump#Election#MSNBC Election Attorney Laments Anti-Democracy Trump Followers | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC Marc Elias, founder of Democracy Docket and a veteran Democratic voting rights attorney who has played a key role in fighting Donald Trump’s bogus election challenges, talks with Rachel Maddow about how troubling it is that Republicans were so ready to discard democracy and fall in step behind Trump. Aired on 12/12/2020.
Gabriel Sterling, Georgia Election Official, courageously spoke out today calling on Mr. Donald Trump, Georgia Republican Senators, and their proxies, to stop trying to incite violence against election workers who are just doing their jobs. US Attorney General Bill Barr said today, Dec. 1, 2020, there is no evidence of election fraud in the 2020 election.
#Georgia#GOP#MSNBC Georgia Election Official Condemns GOP Silence On Threats To Election Workers | The ReidOut | MSNBC | Dec. 1, 2020 (Excerpts)
Georgia Voting Implementation Manager Gabriel Sterling criticized Trump’s refusal to condemn threats against Georgia election officials: “This is the backbone of democracy, and all of you who have not said a damn word are complicit in this.” Aired on 12/1/2020.
#Georgia#GOP#NBCNews Georgia Election Official Condemns Threats Of Violence, Slams Trump, GOP For Not Speaking Out | Dec. 1, 2020 (more complete) Georgia elections official Gabriel Sterling emotionally spoke out about the threats made toward election officials in the wake of the 2020 election, particularly criticizing President Trump and Republican lawmakers who have not spoken out.
“This has got to stop!…Mr. President it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia…
Mr. President….It’s time to look forward…Everything we’re seeing right now, there’s not a path. Be the bigger man here, and stop and step in and tell your supporters, “Don’t be violent…Don’t intimidate.”
Meanwhile, Attorney General William Barr, claims that there was no fraud in the 2020 election despite Trump’s constant lies that there was.
#Election#WilliamBarr#MSNBC Barr: Justice Department Found No Evidence Of Fraud That Would Change Election Outcome | Katy Tur | December 1, 2020 Attorney General William Barr told the Associated Press that the Department of Justice has found no evidence of fraud that would change the result of the presidential election. NBC’s Pete Williams has details. Aired on 12/01/2020. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msn
“To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election.”
#CNN#News Bill Barr: No evidence of fraud that would affect election outcome | Dec. 1, 2020 | CNN Attorney General Bill Barr told The Associated Press during an interview that the Justice Department hasn’t found fraud “on a scale that could have affected the outcome of the election.” #CNN#News
It’s Thanksgiving Week-end and seeing interviews with nurses, doctors, hospital staff, home healthcare workers, and all our amazing essential workers is humbling. I personally extend my heartfelt Thank You to every one of these intrepid heroes who are making sure we all get the care and resources needed in the Time of Covid-19.
Let’s Do Our Part
Wear a Mask
It’s already proven that wearing a face mask protects the wearer and those in their environment. Here are links to various studies proving the case.
Bill Nye demonstrates why wearing masks protects people from COVID-19 | CBS This Morning | July 14, 2020Scientist Bill Nye is urging everyone to wear a mask in the fight to stop the coronavirus. He says it is “literally a matter of life and death.” Nye joins “CBS This Morning” to give a live demonstration of why masks work.
How Well Do Masks Work? (Schlieren Imaging In Slow Motion!) | It’s OK To Be Smart | July 4, 2020
Wash Your Hands
Washing your hands: The purple paint demonstration | Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System
Please Social Distance to Keep You and Your Community Safe
Songs of Thanks to Our Essential Workers From Around the World
Tribute to Frontline COVID-19 Healthcare workers | Andy Austin FNP-C March 26, 2020 Just a Thank you to the thousands of Healthcare around the world on the frontlines of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Rights to all pictures & audio remains to their original producers. Audio Andra Day “We Rise” 2015.
#ClapForOurCarers#ThankyouNHS#ApplauseAt8 Frontlines – A Song to Thank Our Healthcare Workers | SOS from The Kids | March 23, 2020 “We wrote this short song to thank all those working on the frontlines to fight Covid_19. Thanks also to other frontline people like shopkeepers, social services, the police and delivery drivers- all those keeping essential services running.” #ClapForOurCarers#ThankyouNHS#ApplauseAt8
We see the best in people shine. Let’s thank all those on the frontlines…Suddenly we all find out the things that matter most.
We can connect through singing songs. Of looking after planet earth, to whom we all belong.
We see the best in people shine. Let’s thank all those on the frontlines.
SOS from the Kids Song of Thanks To Frontline Workers in the Time of Covid19
Here’s another beautiful song from the SOS from the Kids about how we can all work together to protect our beautiful planet.
Donald Trump has now had over three weeks since November 7th to come to terms with the fact that he has been fired by 80 million legal American voters in the November 3, 2020 election. Over 51% of 2020 US voters decided it was time for Trump and Pence to leave the White House on January 20, 2021 and Biden and Harris to be inaugurated. However, Trump and his proxies like Senator Lindsey Graham are publicly interfering in state elections pressuring election officials and political figures to disenfranchise millions of voters. Trump wants to only count ballots that were cast for him. That’s anti-democratic. It’s what despots, dictators and thugs do. Finally, some Republicans are finding their spines and speaking out like Senators Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, Ben Sasse, Lamar Alexander and Congresswoman Lynn Cheney.
According to Politico, Lynn Cheney said on Saturday, November 21, 2020:
“America is governed by the rule of law. The President and his lawyers have made claims of criminality and widespread fraud, which they allege could impact election results. If they have genuine evidence of this, they are obligated to present it immediately in court and to the American people…If the President cannot prove these claims or demonstrate that they would change the election result, he should fulfill his oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States by respecting the sanctity of our electoral process.”
Michigan: In 2020, Biden received 14 times the votes that Trump received, or 150,000 more votes in Michigan than Trump received in 2016. In 2016 Trump only received 10,704 more votes in Michigan than Clinton.
#NealKatyal#Trump#MSNBC Neal Katyal: All Of Trump’s Criminal Immunity Expires In About 60 Days | Deadline | MSNBC Former U.S. acting solicitor general Neal Katyal explains the charges President Trump might face after he leaves office and the reason why his current legal efforts are incriminating him even more. Aired on 11/20/2020.
“If Trump hoped to avoid criminal prosecution, his post-election behavior basically guarantees it…You’ve got a guy, right now…conspiring with these Michigan Canvassers or these state legislators…It is a federal crime, it’s a state crime to try to take someone’s right to vote away…And that is what Trump is doing. He’s trying to perpetrate the largest act of disenfranchisement in our lifetime–hundreds of thousands of votes he’s trying to throw out…That is, if he’s conspiring to do it. And, it sure looks like he may be–a crime.”
Neal Katyal, former acting solicitor general, on MSNBC
Judge dismisses Trump lawsuit in Pennsylvania | Reuters | November 21, 2020 President Trump faced new setback in his desperate bid to overturn the U.S. election as a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by his campaign that sought to throw out millions of votes in Pennsylvania.
#JohnFetterman#Election#MSNBC PA lt. Gov. Not Worried About Trump Scheme To Corrupt Election | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC
Words of wisdom from a fictional leader of a land called Wakanda, spoken at the end of the movie, Black Panther:
“We will work to be an example of how we as brothers and sisters on this earth should treat each other. Now more than ever, illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth, more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.”
”Black Panther” End Credits Scene “More connects us than separates us…”
Going Forward:
It’s time for Trump to face reality and allow the GSA Administrator to release resources for a peaceful transition to a Biden administration. Trump acknowledged how well he and Pence were treated by President Barack Obama and his team to prepare Trump for his administration beginning in November 2016.
Obama, Trump discuss peaceful transition of power at White House | Nov. 10, 2016
“My number one priority in the coming two months is to try to facilitate a transition that ensures our president elect is successful…It is important for all of us, regardless of party and regardless of political preferences, to now come together, work together to deal with the many challenges that we face…We want to make sure that they feel welcome as they prepare to make this transition…We now are going to do everything we can to help you succeed. If you succeed then the country succeeds.” President Barack Obama on helping Trump with transition on November 10, 2016
It’s time for Trump to stop trying to divert the will of the people and own up to the fact that Biden won the 2020 presidential election. It is time for Trump and Pence to do the right thing for the sake of a peaceful orderly transition starting now.
It’s time for the Trump administration to provide full authorization and funding for the Biden Transition Team’s efforts to get up to speed now in preparation for Biden’s inauguration on January 20, 2021. Biden won the November 3, 2020 election getting 306 electoral votes and over 78.6 million votes.
The Trump Fraud about Voter Fraud
According to the New York Times:
Behind Trump’s Yearslong Effort to Turn Losing Into Winning –
The New York Times, Nov. 15, 2020
Obscured by the postelection noise over the president’s efforts to falsely portray the election system as “rigged” against him has been how much Mr. Trump and his allies did ahead of time to promote a baseless conspiracy devised to appeal to his most passionate supporters, providing him with the opportunity to make his historically anomalous bid to cling to power in the face of defeat.
Trump political theatre is tiresome and dangerous to our democracy. It’s time for Trump and his proxies to face reality and stand back from their false claims about the election. They are only using the echo chamber of social media and some news organizations to promote their ridiculous and baseless attacks on our election system.
Barack Obama’s advice to Donald Trump:
The advice Barack Obama would give President Trump | 60 Minutes November 15, 2020 “When your time is up then it is your job to put the country first and think beyond your own ego,” Obama says. https://cbsn.ws/3kyvQRG
The Fake Trope of Trump Talking Points about “Legal Ballots”
Why do Trump folks and their proxies keep claiming in their vacuous talking points that the only so-called “legal ballots” are those cast for their guy?
This is America. The election was fair and free. Just because Trump and his folks are unhappy about the results fail to make them less legal. It just shows how Trump is a sore loser.
Note to Trump:
It is now time to release funds to the Biden Transition Team and give them full access to information for a smooth and peaceful transition. Even Charles Koch, one of the biggest Republican funders in recent U.S. history, congratulated Joe Biden and said:
“We certainly want to congratulate Biden and Harris for this historic win,” Koch said in a Zoom interview on Wednesday, even as most Republican lawmakers have yet to publicly acknowledge the electoral reality and the White House blocks the transition from moving ahead. “We’re going to be looking for common ground and things that we can work together on for as many issues as possible.”
Enough already! It’s time for the adults in the room to notify Donald Trump that he has to stop his temper tantrums where in fits of anger, revenge, refusal to face reality, grief over losing the election, and ‘fill-in-the-blank’ reasons, he fires top leaders in his administration and installs political toadies and hacks who have no experience to be in those positions. The problem is when it comes to our Defense Department and intelligence positions, this is dangerous for the U.S., Democracy and the world.
Then there’s Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, and the Republican spineless crew that refuse to speak truth to Trump that it’s time for him to grow up and stop acting like a two-bit dictator because he lost the election.
Joe Biden Assembles a Pandemic Task Force: While the pandemic is raging in the U.S. and we have more people infected and dead from COVID-19 than anywhere in the world, Trump is acting less like a leader of the U.S. and more like a child having a meltdown because someone else won at the party. The only person acting like a real president and leader is President-elect Joe Biden who has already appointed a special pandemic task force of people who actually have expertise in science and medicine. Biden’s pandemic task force has no requirement for it’s members to sign a loyalty oath. That’s refreshing! So far, Joe Biden, being the responsible adult in the room, is urging everyone in the U.S. to wear a mask to save thousands of lives. Wearing a face mask has been proven to increase the chances of protecting the wearer from COVID-19 infection and also from the mask-wearer from possibly infecting others. That’s a good thing.
Joe Biden assembles “pandemic taskforce” ahead of taking office – BBC News, Nov. 9, 2020
Georgia: Battleground Election to Determine Control of the U.S. Senate
The reality is that Republicans still have no guarantee that they will retain control over the U.S. Senate. There is a good chance that if Democrats can register voters and turn out the vote for the January 2021 Senate Georgia Run-off election, they will be able to take back the Senate. Also, Alaska still has thousands of mail-in ballots to count beginning on Thursday, November 12, 2020 when all mail-in ballots must be received.
Meanwhile, what the heck is Trump trying to do? Is he doing a slow moving coup? Is he lying to the public to raise money for his lawsuits and debts and, therefore, trying to keep his base upset so Trump can still collect money for his own personal purposes? Or, is Trump really trying to set the stage to refuse to leave the White House?
#DemocracyNow Dahlia Lithwick: Trump’s Ridiculous Coup Attempt Will Fail, But It Will Hurt Democracy in Long Run | Democracy Now! November 11, 2020
As President Trump continues to launch baseless accusations of widespread voter fraud in the presidential election, Democratic and Republican election officials across the United States have told The New York Times they uncovered no evidence to support Trump’s claims. Despite his electoral defeat, Trump has not conceded, and his administration is proceeding as though it will continue into a second term, blocking President-elect Joe Biden from accessing government funding and other resources for a smooth transition. “The entire country is trying to figure out: Is this just going to go away?” says Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor at Slate magazine. “Or are we really in this slow-rolling denialist attempt to give this man a second term?”
Here we are, November 9, 2020, and Donald Trump, as we were warned by Mary Trump, psychologist and Trump’s niece, seems to be in denial and trying to interfere with the November 3, 2020 election because there’s only one way Trump told us he would accept the election…if he won.
Note to Donald Trump: That’s not how Democracy works. The voters in a Democracy choose their president and other leaders and it’s clear that in multiple states, you, Mr. Trump, have lost the election. When all the votes are counted, it will be even more clear that Joe Biden will have won by an even larger margin than today. Currently, Joe Biden, President-elect, has 279 electoral votes and when all votes are counted that amount will most likely exceed 300+ electoral votes.
Is Trump a Sore Loser?
Trump’s bizarre behavior enabled by some of his family members, William Barr, and those unwilling to accept the reality of facts and truth, are abusing their power and our U.S. taxpayer dollars by getting William Barr to use our U.S. Justice Department to attack state election officials, who properly administered their state elections. Meanwhile, Trump’s proxies are going around the country promoting baseless stories regarding the election.
Truth:One Person, One Vote, is the bedrock of our Democracy
Here are the Facts about State Elections Vote Counting:
Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada all allow representatives of each political party to have observers view the vote count.
Some or all of these states also have a live video feed of the ballot counting that other people can watch of dedicated election workers tirelessly counting the votes and/or processing the mail-in ballots to be prepared to be counted by machines.
#Wisconsin#Election2020#Election Wisconsin Chief Election Official Responds to Trump’s ‘Insulting’ Accusations | NowThis, Nov. 5, 2020
Georgia officials’ election update | ABC News Nov. 5, 2020 Georgia Voting System Implementation Manager, Gabriel Sterling, “We more appreciate accuracy…key to all of our process.”
PA officials discuss votes in process of being counted | AP | Nov. 9, 2020 “We’re going to count the votes and we’re going to end up at the end. But it’s going to be accurate and we will continue to give you information as it becomes available,” said Philadelphia Commissioner Lisa Marie Deeley during a news conference this morning.
This is How Democracy Works: These presidential candidates show us how to handle peaceful transition of power and accepting reality when the voters speak through casting their ballots:
How to concede a presidential election | CNN on Nov. 4, 2016 A look back at presidential election concession moments since 1960, starting with Richard Nixon and ending with Mitt Romney.
Joe Biden, now President-elect, as of November 7, 2020, surpassed the necessary 270 electoral votes to win the U.S. Presidency in the November 3, 2020 election. The votes including Nevada and Pennsylvania brought Biden from 253 electoral votes to 279 electoral votes. Even when there was a question about the 2016 election during recounts in MI, WI and PA, President Barack Obama ensured there was a smooth transition to whoever would be the next President of the United States. Donald Trump, however, has yet to provide funds so far for a smooth transition.
Instead, today, Trump fired Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, and threatened to fire CIA Chief, Christopher Wray. His appointee at the General Services Administration has refused to date to sign a document to release necessary funds to the President-elect transition.
Robert De Niro interviewed by Ari Melber on November 9, 2020 on MSNBC expressed relief that Joe Biden is President-Elect. De Niro said that the entire country has been in an “abusive relationship” with Trump:
“Well, I’m relieved, very very relieved.
It’s like being in an abusive relationship. We don’t know what’s going on from one day to the next. I don’t even think he knows what’s going on.”
Robert De Niro interview with Ari Melber on MSNBC, Nov. 9, 2020
#DonaldTrump#RobertDeNiro#MSNBC As Trump Loses WH, Robert De Niro Shares Relief And The Hope For Accountability | MSNBC Nov. 9, 2020
In an earlier interview with Lawrence O’Donnell in June 2020 Robert De Niro tells O’Donnell that he is hopeful for the future because people are standing up to Donald Trump. Aired on 6/11//2020.
Robert De Niro: ‘People Have To Take A Stand’ | The Last Word | MSNBC, June 11, 2020
Breaking News: Donald Trump Fires Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
Millions of people around the United States and the world are dancing in the streets and feeling relief today as former VP Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won at least 279 electoral votes and are on their way to exceed 300+ electoral votes with Nevada and Georgia!
Thank you to all the dedicated US postal workers who helped deliver mail-in ballots to elections officials despite the obstacles put up by Postmaster General DeJoy and his proxies. With Biden in the White House there will be more efforts to help the important US Postal Service thrive. We have seen through this election in the midst of the pandemic how crucial our USPS is for the original mission of binding up this nation in good communication.
Today is a Great Day for Democracy! Joe Biden and Kamala Harris received more votes than any President and Vice President in the history of the U.S. and still counting!
Live: Celebrations Around The U.S. As Joe Biden Projected President-Elect | NBC News
Thank You to our Election Officials | Brennan Center for Justice Election officials are on the frontlines of our democracy. These individuals have spent countless hours planning and coordinating our upcoming elections amidst a truly historic set of challenges. They serve our voters amidst a global pandemic, mounting cybersecurity concerns, all while battling increasing disinformation campaigns. Though a small tribute, we hope this video will let them know that they are appreciated and that they have supporters encouraging them as November nears.
In 2020 election administrators in the midst of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan requested permission to be able to pre-process their state’s mail-in ballots to get them ready to count on November 3, 2020. However, Republican legislatures said No.
Currently, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — two critical swing states — do not begin pre-processing ballots until Election Day, meaning they may take longer to have results.
Michigan, another important state, begins pre-processing just 10 hours before Election Day. Florida, by contrast, allows ballots to begin to be pre-processed 40 days before Election Day.
So why did Republican state legislatures tie the hands of election officials in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan and prevent them from pre-processing their mail-in ballots?
What is Preprocessing Mail-In Ballots?
When election officials receive a mail-in or absentee ballot, the ballot may need to have the signature checked and the envelope needs to be carefully opened and the ballot flattened out ready to count. The mail-in ballot is put in a special batch to get ready to be counted when state law allows it. Allowing election officials to legally pre-process ballots enables the election system to work more efficiently and effectively so election results are reported faster.
However, Republicans stopped this pre-processing of mail-in ballots in key battleground states forcing election workers to have to process the mail ballots in PA, WI and MI on election day. That’s why the vote count is taking longer in those states. Some states had hundreds of thousands and even millions of mail-in ballots to count only beginning on November 3, 2020 even though they received them weeks ago!
What are signs of a healthy democracy? Michael Beschloss interviewed by Brian Williams on MSNBC, November 4, 2020, stated:
“The sign of health in a democracy is that the votes are counted fully, fairly and accurately however long it takes.”
Presidential Historian and Author, Michael Beschloss
One-On-One with Michigan Secretary of State on the importance of continuing the vote count of every vote cast by Michigan voters in the November 3, 2020 Election:
On September 24, 2020 before the November 3, 2020 Election, Presidential Historian and author, Michael Beschloss, warned the American people about exactly what Donald Trump might try to do to prematurely seize power.
For Historical Parallels To Trump, Look To Mussolini: Historian | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC Michael Beschloss, NBC News presidential historian, tells Rachel Maddow that while there is nothing in U.S. history that matches Donald Trump’s attacks on the integrity of the approaching election, Italian history might be more informative. Aired on 09/24/2020.
Michael Beschloss forewarned Americans in the above September 2020 video-taped interview with Rachel Maddow about Trump’s efforts to try to discredit the 2020 election. Here is a partial transcript:
Rachel Maddow: Did any other president ever play with this kind of fire in advance of the votes being counted talking about the election as something that ought to be disregarded?
Michael Beschloss: Nothing even remotely similar. You want to go into history to look for something like this? Go into Italian history and look at Mussolini.
This is the way dictators come to power. He’s telling you what he intends to do. And we’ve got to make very sure that in the next 5 1/2 weeks and after that, we do not get into a situation where, just as Senator Sanders announced tonight: Donald Trump announces that he’s won and puts us in a situation where our democracy is being stolen minute by minute. This is not a drill.
Franklin Roosevelt said in 1940 at the time of Adolf Hitler, “Never before since Jamestown and Plymouth Rock has American civilization been in this kind of danger. We are approaching that point tonight.”
Fast forward to November 4, 2020
In an interview on November 4, 2020 with Brian Williams of MSNBC, Michael Beschloss talked about the inappropriate use of the White House East Room for Trump’s partisan political event while votes were still being counted in US states after the close of polls on November 3, 2020:
Michael Beschloss: The White House East Room is sacred. That’s where FDR lay in state in 1945. John Kennedy did in 1963. It was designed to some extent by George Washington for grand state occasions. Washington would be horrified to see it used for a partisan political event last night like the spectacle we saw.
Especially, Brian, can you believe it? All those people without masks jammed into that room? How many people are going to get sick or possibly worse as a result of Donald Trump’s selfish decision to hold the event there rather than where it should have been, in some hotel ballroom? It didn’t need to be his.
Brian Williams: The authority the president seems to be claiming in things like his twitter feed is to declare an end to voting, to declare different states in his category even though the American people have a funny way of determining that for themselves.
Michael Beschloss: In 1964 at the Republican convention, Nelson Rockefeller said to hecklers, “It’s still a free country ladies and gentlemen.” And, if we are a free country, the president doesn’t get to declare when the voting is stopped or who is declared president on election night even if the votes have not come in.
The sign of health in a democracy is that the votes are counted fully, fairly and accurately however long it takes. Often times in American history, as you know it’s taken a long time. In the future if we do more and more early voting which we probably will, we just have to get accustomed to the fact that we’re not going to have instant gratification on election night and a decision that sounds as if its popped out of a toaster.”
President Lydon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act July 2, 1964 in the White House East Room. People watching include Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Senator Hubert Humphrey, First Lady “Lady Bird” Johnson, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover, Speaker of the House John McCormack. Television cameras are broadcasting the ceremony. O. J. Rapp, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
We are in the midst of a pandemic and millions of voters opted for mail-in ballots to stay safe from being infected by COVID-19. In Pennsylvania alone there are over 1.4 million outstanding mail-in ballots to count as of Nov. 4, 2020. Key states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada and Georgia are in the midst of counting legal ballots.
Meanwhile, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the District Court of Columbia, ordered the US Postal Service to do a sweep of their processing centers to find any outstanding mail-in ballots that were not yet delivered to election centers by 3:30 pm on November 3, 2020. However, USPS “lawyers” refused to follow the judge’s Court order on November 3, 2020.
The U.S. Postal Service turned down a federal judge’s order late Tuesday [Nov. 3, 2020] afternoon to sweep mail processing facilities serving 15 states, saying instead it would stick to its own inspection schedule. The court order came after the agency disclosed that more than 300,000 ballots nationwide could not be traced.
As of Tuesday morning [Nov. 3, 2020], the [Florida] state elections office reports that there are more than 1 million mail-in ballots that were ordered but have not yet been returned to county elections officials for counting.
That includes 402,419 from Republicans, 540,950 from Democrats, 19,749 from members of other parties and 310,850 from voters with no party affiliation.
The Southern Poverty Law Center said Monday that, nationally, there are as many as 23 million people who have an outstanding mail ballot that they have not returned.
In order to respect every person’s right to vote in this country, we need to let the vote counts continue. Every person who cast a ballot has a right to have their vote counted, whether someone voted in person or by mail-in ballot or absentee ballot.
Count Every Person’s Vote Now!
Let The Vote Count Continue To Count Every Person’s Vote!
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaks a day after Election Day — 11/4/2020 #CNBC #CNBCTV
“Now every vote must be counted…We the People will not be silenced. We the People will not be bullied…This will be a victory for the American People, it will be a victory for Democracy”
The FBI started an investigation into the dangerous interference by a Trump flag-waving caravan trying to push a Biden Harris Campaign bus off the highway in Texas on Friday, October 30, 2020.
How did we get to this point where the FBI has to investigate why supporters of Donald Trump decided to ram into a Biden staffer’s white car? Why did the black truck of the Trump caravan decide to hem in the Biden bus and then push the Biden staffer’s car out of the lane damaging the car and almost causing a multi-vehicle accident?
Trump Train’ Ambushes Biden-Harris Campaign Bus in Texas | NowThis
The election is one day away. It’s time to vote out Trump and his destructive administration. Your Vote Matters. Make Your Vote Count.
Joe Biden will bring this nation together. He will be the President for all Americans.
Save the US Postal Service
Joe Biden will support the US Postal service and its dedicated postal workers. A vote for Joe Biden is a vote to protect the US Postal Service.
A statement published on the NPMHU website of the NPMHU included the following comments:
“President Trump further attacked the Postal Service in the media, calling it a “joke.” Our union knows how dedicated mail handlers and all postal employees are to their jobs; we take our work seriously. We ensure that every single American household and business receive their mail. We deliver needed medication to the elderly and our veterans. We make sure Social Security and Medicare checks get out on time. We deliver home goods to the house-bound during the pandemic. We keep family and friends connected.”
“Joe Biden has a history of supporting the United States Postal Service and postal workers and has committed to supporting the dedicated men and women of USPS. As a Senator, he fought against privatization; spoke out on the need for a six-day delivery; and has committed to protecting the universal service obligation, ensuring that every American, regardless if they are in urban, suburban, or rural areas, gets the same quality service. Joe Biden will support putting the Postal Service on a sustainable path forward and will ensure quality service continues.”
“Additionally, Joe Biden is a proven advocate for members of the labor movement, understanding its value to the growth of the middle class with the development of paid-leave, health and retirement benefit provisions, and the 40-hour work week. In contrast to the Trump Administration’s attacks on collective bargaining rights through the use of executive orders, Joe Biden will be a leader who will support and protect the men and women of labor. ”
Furthermore, Joe Biden picked a pro-postal, pro-labor running mate with Senator Kamala Harris. Currently, she’s the co-sponsor of several pieces of legislation protecting USPS from privatization; supporting the organization rights of public sector employees; and aiding the Postal Service through emergency appropriations in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
We’re facing a turning point in postal history. We need strong leadership that will have our backs. I urge every member of NPMHU to support Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, just as they’ll support us.
In the United States of America, we are fortunate that U.S. citizens are able to vote. Will all citizens, regardless of party be able to have their votes counted as cast without voter suppression tactics in 2020?
We are currently in unusual times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Isn’t it time for Republicans and Democrats to work together across party lines to ensure that all people can safely vote free of worrying whether they might get sick standing in line for up to 10 hours waiting to vote?
Solutions to Safely Vote:
In Harris County, Texas, the Clerk’s office legally implemented creative and safe ways for voters to cast their ballots.
According to an article in the Texas Tribune, in populous Harris County, the Clerk’s office offered drive-thru voting options for voters so they could safely vote from their cars instead of being exposed to COVID-19 while standing in line or inside polling areas where people are not mandated to wear masks!
After testing the approach during the July primary runoff with little controversy, Harris County, home to Houston, set up 10 drive-thru centers for the fall election to make early voting easier for people concerned about entering polling places during the pandemic. Voters pull up in their cars and, after their registrations and identifications have been confirmed by poll workers, are handed an electronic tablet through their car windows to cast ballots.
So why are Republicans suing to get 127,000 legally cast Harris County, Texas, voters’ ballots disqualified from being counted? Hiding behind questionable misapplication of the law, some conservative Republicans appear to be trying to rig the Texas vote through using the Courts to stop the vote count.
However, not all Republicans are buying the lame arguments to try to stop counting legally cast votes by Harris County citizens.
The above-referenced article in The Texas Tribune stated:
A legal cloud hanging over nearly 127,000 votes already cast in Harris County was at least temporarily lifted Sunday [Oct. 31] when the Texas Supreme Court rejected a request by several conservative Republican activists and candidates to preemptively throw out early balloting from drive-thru polling sites in the state’s most populous, and largely Democratic, county.
The all-Republican court denied the request without an order or opinion, as justices did last month in a similar lawsuit brought by some of the same plaintiffs.
“This notion of truthfulness and democracy and citizenship. These aren’t just Democratic or Republican principles, they’re American values.”said former President Barack Obama
Obama asked: Where is this great “plan” to replace Obamacare? They’ve had 10 years to replace it and they haven’t done it. They are trying to dismantle your healthcare in the middle of a pandemic…It’s shameful that you would take healthcare away from people!
“The first job of a president is to keep Americans safe from dangers foreign, domestic and microscopic.”
President Barack Obama at Rally in PA for Biden For President, October 21, 2020
“Joe Biden would never call the men and women of our military suckers or losers. These heroes are somebody’s children, Dad or Mom. He understands that.”
Obama says that by voting for Joe Biden we can once again become “A nation that can inspire others.”
Obama: “He [Trump] continues to do business with China because he has a secret Chinese bank account! Can you imagine if I had a secret Chinese bank account when I was running for election…You think Fox News would have been a little concerned about that? They would have called me Beijing Barry!”
Obama: “The person who runs Medicaid right now is doing their best to kick people off of medicaid instead of sign them up for medicaid.”
Obama explained that Biden and Harris will “appoint qualified public servants who will be looking out for you.”
“That more than anything is what separates them from their opponents. They will fight for you every day. They care about you and this democracy.”
“We shouldn’t make it hard for people to vote by making them wait in line for 10 hours. They should be making it easier for people to vote!”
President Barack Obama
Former President Barack Obama at Rally in Pennsylvania for Joe Biden for President 2020
Today in Pennsylvania, former President Barack Obama said:
“Our democracy is not going to work if the people who are supposed to be our leaders lie every day and just make things up.”
“This notion of truthfulness and democracy and citizenship. These aren’t just Democratic or Republican principles, they’re American values.”
“We need to reclaim these values and bring them back to the center of our public life…To do it we need to turn out like never before.”
“That’s what voting’s about, making things better…Voting’s about using the power we have and pooling it together to get a government that’s more responsible, and more focused on you and your lives and your children.”
“We’ve got to vote, get some change, and vote again, and get some more change and keep on voting until we get it right. Imagine what would happen if 70% voted!. Imagine January 20th when we swear in a President and Vice President who have a plan to get us out of this mess and who believe in science…who believe in racial and gender equality…who are willing to bring us closer together…we are part of an American family. All of that is possible, all of that is within our reach if we vote!”…
“We’ve seen our essential workers, our healthcare workers risking their lives day in and day out to save someone else’s loved ones.”…
“America is a good and decent place, but we’ve seen so much noise and nonsense that sometimes it’s hard to remember. Philadelphia, I’m asking you to remember what’s it’s like..believe in Joe’s and Kamala’s ability to lead this country out of these dark times and build it back better. We can’t just imagine a better future, we’ve got to work for it.”
“Vote like never before and leave no doubt…Make a plan right now…Make sure you vote all the way down the ticket.”
Barack Obama in Pennsylvania Oct 21, 2020
“What Lincoln called the better angels of our nature. Those are still in us, we see them operating every day….We see them in people helping out a neighbor… We see what is best in us is still there. We’ve got to give it voice.”
Let’s Go Make It Happen! I Love You!
Barack Obama and Joe Biden campaigning together 2008
if you want to Save Kentucky Rural Post Offices, Vote for Democratic Senate Candidate Amy McGrath. She supports the US Postal Service and will stand up for US postal workers to ensure that Kentuckians have much-needed rural post offices.
Senator Mitch McConnell has failed to show he cares about the US Postal Service. The “Delivering for America Act” that provides $25 Billion needed COVID-19 relief has been sitting on his desk for months after it was passed in the House.
Amy McGrath supports the US Postal Service and while in Morehead, Kentucky on her tour across the state, she talked about how important the postal service is to rural communities and why rural post offices need to be kept open.
“Local post offices across the country are shutting down leaving people, specifically in rural communities, with less access to the mail, and Kentucky leads the pack when it comes to that.
McGrath said that this should be a big concern for everyone. Not only because of the election but also because many rural Kentucky families depend upon the postal service for things like prescription deliveries.
“McGrath wants Congress to act and help the postal service.”
“The postal service is a service same way the military is a service,” McGrath said. “And I think too many people depend on that service and it’s an important service especially for rural Kentucky.”
“Kentucky’s rural post offices are threatened. Over the last decade, more post offices have been closed in Kentucky than in any other state, according to data from the U.S. Postal Service. Closures have hit every region, from coal towns in Appalachia to villages in the open fields of the Jackson Purchase.”
“What’s lost is a beloved institution and last public commons in communities with few if any public spaces left.“
““The post office is a gathering place. It’s a hub for local information exchange,” said Ken Tunnell, a Paint Lick resident and sociologist who taught at Eastern Kentucky University.“
How do you feel when you get a real handwritten letter from someone, especially a good friend? Is it different than an email? Is it different than a typed note? My Mother used to receive handwritten letters from one of her friends and they were peppered with creative illustrations. It was a work of art and filled with humor. Even the envelope had illustrations on it in all colors. I don’t know what happened to those letters, but I remember them even today.
Handwritten notes and letters have personality.
Reading and looking at handwritten notes or poetry or manuscripts, you can feel the heart of the person who wrote them.
How about a campaign to bring back the handwritten letter. I’m starting my own campaign because I realized that email disappears, even texts. Someone can put an erase date on your emails. Even if it’s in your in box, you will only be able to keep it for a certain time, then poof, it’s disappeared by special software. Also, texts on your phone.
The other day I tried to access a news article and got the message, 404, Oops! It was disappointing. The news article was less than 3 years old yet it was disappeared. Is that what will happen to stuff people put on the internet?
Or, a website is redone and then you can’t find the link to the article or document you needed or wanted to share with someone? Then all the links you had to that article, video or document no longer work.
We think technology is so great and that the internet allows us to access anything that we want. Sorry, but that is totally false. After I had trouble accessing the news article I started thinking how ephemeral the internet really is. What happens if the software and hardware changes in the future and we can’t access certain data?
Some authors write their books on handwritten manuscripts. Even if they have an electronic version, the handwritten manuscript will outlast a computer hard drive crash.
Tell me your thoughts about handwritten letters & notes. I tried to give someone a little gift of note cards the other day and the person said, “What would I use those for?” I realized that some people never write letters. They have lived their lives emailing and texting. I decided to revisit the tradition of writing notes.
Do you write handwritten notes?
Also, if we write more love letters, handwritten thank you notes, and other letters and send them by U.S. mail, then we can help increase first class mail.
So, let’s all write at least one handwritten letter a week—or more. Once I started this adventure I almost ran out of notes to send!
Let’s send handwritten notes to our Senators, Congressmen, the President, and of course to Postmaster General Donahoe and the Board of Governors about our concerns. The management at USPS claims they want to listen to their customers. OK, let’s give them an opportunity!
Clusterboxes have been subject to theft in Sacramento
Darrell Issa R-CA, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wants to end door-to-door U.S. mail delivery claiming it will save money. Darrell Issa and Postmaster General Donahoe hide behind the excuse that USPS is broke by billions of dollars and must cut costs. The cause of USPS fiscal problems, however, has been self-inflicted by Congress and by some top USPS leaders who have insisted on cutting services and jobs instead of creatively finding ways to generate new revenue.
The Truth About USPS Fiscal Woes
USPS’s current fiscal challenges were mostly engineered by Congress’s passage of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 which forced USPS to prepay its pensions 75 years in advance in just 10 short years beginning in 2007.
However, there are funds owed to USPS through overpayment to the government for various pension programs prior to 2007. Postmaster General Donahoe fails to address this issue and Darrell Issa denies any relevance to documents presented by The Office of Inspector General of USPS that estimated the U.S. Postal Service overpaid the government approximately $142 billion in other pension plans over the years(See USPS OIG Report Number FT-MA-10-002: Summary of Substantial Overfunding in Postal Service Pension and Retiree Health Care Funds).
Smoke and Mirror Talking Points
Darrell Issa and PMG Donahoe’s constant talking point of USPS “declining revenues” to justify Draconion cuts in services and closure and sales of post offices reflects a lack of vision and creative solutions from Congress and the top management at USPS. It is a bare-faced excuse to cut postal services even though USPS currently accepts no tax dollars from the public. At every opportunity Issa and Donahoe give the illusion that postal services must be cut because of the fiscal problems of USPS.
In 2006 USPS was voted the best postal service in the world and it is the second largest employer in the entire United States. Today in 2013 it is the largest unionized employer in the U.S.
Issa and Donahoe constantly bad mouth USPS and continue to forecast its decline. The true reality must be revealed. The American people can choose to create a more thriving USPS that protects and appreciates its postal assets instead of selling them off, especially it’s historic buildings and precious postal art.
We need leaders in Congress and USPS who provide solutions to create a thriving USPS that prides itself on preserving its historic postal buildings and art and expanding services for Americans instead of those who are claiming fiscal responsibility by gutting and destroying USPS through their misguided policies.
If someone ideologically is geared towards always cutting public services because they think government is too big, then one must question the objectivity of decisions made by such a person. When will the mainstream media find out the real philosophy and vision behind Postmaster General Donahoe’s views? Who will ask the USPS Board of Governors Chair his real views of USPS’s future? Do the USPS leaders in the top echelons of power care about their unionized workers? Do they care about our historic post offices or art? Or, are these leaders at USPS just carrying out philosophically flawed efforts outlined in Cato Institute white papers to destroy and privatize the U.S. postal service by getting rid of postal infrastructure and union jobs?
When is “fiscal responsibility” an excuse to Cut Services to Americans?
Americans want to keep their historic USPS post offices open in their community and want USPS to find ways to capitalize on its fabulous historic buildings and postal art to attract more customers and services to increase revenues. Adding some village post offices in locations that have no existing historic post office may be welcome in some communities. However, communities with existing historic post offices and public art are unwilling to trade their special post offices for a “relocated” post office at the back of a card store or in a former pet store. Postmaster Donahoe and Darrell Issa seem to think that “relocating” an historic post office to another location is perfectly ok because USPS will still provide postal services to its customers. Their thinking is flawed and completely contrary to the will of the people who have a right to keep their historic post office buildings and public art that was paid with tax dollars prior to 1970.
Saving the U.S. Postal Service by Senator Bernie Sanders
Did Darrell Issa Ask Americans at 37 million delivery points if they Want to Keep their Door-to-Door Delivery?
Did Darrell Issa ask the people of California or the nation about whether they want cluster boxes and curbside delivery instead of door-to-door delivery? No.
Did Darrell Issa ask the elderly if they support the end of door-to-door delivery and cluster boxes somewhere outside where they would have to go to collect their mail? No.
Where did this horrible idea of ending door-to-door mail delivery originate from, and why is Darrell Issa pushing it in his “postal reform” bill?
Tell Darrell Issa and Congress that Issa’s “postal reform” bill is wrong for USPS, and wrong for this nation.
Tell your Congressperson Issa’s bill is wrong for USPS, wrong for America, and wrong for postal workers.
Here is an example of how the leadership of USPS has engineered”excess capacity” in the Reading PA beautiful historic post office that has served its community for decades in order to close it and sell it. This is disgraceful. This is undemocratic and unjust.
Why is the USPS leadership like VP Samra of Facilities deliberately claiming he listens to the concerns of each community and then ignores them and closes, relocates and sells the beloved community historic post offices? There is only one reason, to sell off our treasures as fast as possible before people can act. Where is President Obama to stop this? Where is Congress to stop this? The people must stop stand up now to stop the sell off of their postal buildings and art.
Issa’s “postal reform” bill is an attack on working families. It is an attack on our Constitutionally driven right to have our mail delivered to our homes.
Possible Motives for Issa wanting to End Door-to-Door Delivery
Since 2001, Postmaster General Potter and now Postmaster General Donahoe who was the deputy to Republican PMG Potter in prior years, have systematically cut the USPS union workforce through attrition and buyouts of union jobs. At least 200,000+ jobs have been lost in recent years at the same time delivery points have increased by over 17.1 million locations.
As we have seen from the ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) effort to promote anti-union, anti-collective bargaining legislation attacking public and private unions in Wisconsin and other states, another way to limit unions is to limit the jobs people actually have. That is exactly what has occurred at USPS from 2001 to 2013.
The USPS takes no taxpayer dollars and hasn’t since the reorganization of the postal service based on the 1970 Postal Reorganization Act. USPS pays for itself with the sale of postage and mail services.
So why does Darrell Issa want to end door-to-door delivery? He claims it will save money. Whose money? If USPS makes money from selling postage and mail services, isn’t ending door-to-door delivery cutting back on the “service” of the mail service? Yes, it is. And, it doesn’t make much business sense unless perhaps someone doesn’t want to improve the USPS business. By saving money, does Darrell Issa mean paying for less postal workers to deliver mail? Why, yes, he does.
That means Darrell Issa wants less postal workers to deliver mail to clusterboxes on a curbside. He doesn’t seem to care about better customer service for American customers of USPS who would prefer to continue having door-to-door delivery. Have you heard people clammering for an end to door-to-door mail delivery? No.
Isn’t Congress supposed to listen to the people of the U.S.? Yes, they should.
What are Elements of Good Business Common Sense?
Most businesses want to provide good customer service and also to expand their company’s services for higher profits. It makes sense that you will get more customers if you provide a better service and more value to people. A business gets happy customers, return customers and new customers when they provide a service people want.
However, under PMG Donahoe and some in Congress like Darrell Issa, it seems they have adopted a ridiculous policy of limiting the footprint of the postal service and reducing mail service to customers through:
Consolidating hundreds of mail processing centers
Closing hundreds and potentially thousands of post offices in rural and urban centers despite angry appeals from communities to keep their post offices open
Selling off important historic post offices with New Deal Era Murals despite numerous community efforts to keep their post offices functioning in their historic post offices (Venice, Ukiah, Santa Monica, La Jolla, CA, Bronx NY, Greenwich CT)
Cutting the postal union workforce in spite of a constant increase in mail delivery points
Slowing mail service and the mail standard
Cutting mail service hours and days of operation
PMG Donahoe and his management team repeatedly have failed to listen to their customers in local communities who want creative solutions to keep their post offices open instead of “relocating” them from their historic buildings to places like a former pet supply store in Greenwich, CT.
Darrell Issa’s proposal to end door-to-door delivery would only serve those who want to destroy the postal service by making it less responsive to its customers. That’s why Darrell Issa’s postal reform would harm the postal service, and why the public must tell Darrell Issa and their Congressional representatives that they want to keep door-to-door delivery and keep postal workers employed.
The Postal Service has lots of money, $45 billion, in its Health Retirement Pension plans for its workers. Why, because in 2006, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) forced USPS to prepay its retirement health plans 75 years in advance in just 10 short years beginning in 2007!
Sounds crazy right? Yes, it’s absolutely crazy. But it gets even nuttier when this mandated payment of $5.5 billion/year started in 2007 after the U.S. economy tanked and many businesses laid off hundreds of thousands of workers. Also, the businesses cut back on many services, including mail, to its customers. In this harsh economic environment, the PAEA pre-funding mandate kicked in when all businesses in the U.S. suffered due to the wild speculation on Wall Street.
So, when the United States had it’s most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression of 1929, Congress forced USPS to begin paying $5.5 billion – $5.8 billion a year. The timing for this poison pill to undermine the financial health of USPS was just amazing. You would think that perhaps Congress would then rescind this horrible prefunding mandate because no corporate or public institution has ever had to prefund 75 years out in a mere 10 years. Yet, some in Congress, who never bothered to put their names to the PAEA bill because it was passed in the middle of the night on a voice vote, decided that USPS could handle this massive prefunding mandate. Are you with me? Doesn’t this sound absurd to you?
Yes, it is a deliberate poison pill and it has been used to claim USPS is bankrupt and must slash jobs (Postmaster General Donahoe has cut 300,000 jobs since 2006), close 3700 post offices and consolidate processing centers.
Basically, PMG Donahoe decided to “right-size”(their special buzz word for selling off their historic already paid-for post offices and other postal buildings) and sell off America’s infrastructure of beautiful post offices. The real estate organization tasked with this is C. B. Richard Ellis Real Estate company. One of the largest real estate companies in the United States.
According to a recent interview with Mr. Cliff Guffey, President of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), on the Ed Show, the U.S. government is deliberately raiding the USPS $45 billion prepaid retiree health plans to get extra money for other purposes in case the Congress decides not to raise the debt ceiling–for example. This is happening while Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe guts the infrastructure of USPS by selling off historic post offices throughout the United States together with many New Deal era post office murals.
What You Can Do
Tell President Obama and Congress to reverse the prefunding mandate and stop the sell off of our historic post offices and art. Stop the Postal Heist going on by those who want the real estate for their own profiteering. Stop the Postal Heist designed to undermine the entire U.S. Postal Service, union jobs, and infrastructure. Stop the Postal Heist to privatize our precious postal service by those who fail to understand the need for public services like USPS. Even though USPS takes no tax dollars, it is still in our constitution and it is a public service, a public good and should be saved from privatization by those who have tried to do this for decades.
“The Postal Service is supposed to serve the entire country, but that certainly hasn’t stopped the companies and industries that see themselves as the primary stakeholders in the postal system from demanding a more corporatized structure and mission that will serve their narrow interests.”
…
“That’s not the real story, though, and it never has been. The real story is just beginning to come into focus: The leadership of the Postal Service, using the laws already in place, is engaged in their version of that most American of economic phenomena — the leveraged buyout.”
We must save our U.S. Postal Service for present and future generations.
Representative Peter DeFazio was interviewed by Businessweek and said:
You called for Patrick Donahoe’s resignation. How come?
If we go to five-day delivery, that will put them in a death spiral. If you degrade first-class mail to three- to five-day delivery, which he would by closing these regional sorting centers, you have the potential of letters taking five days for first class. As far as I can tell, this guy really wants to destroy the Postal Service.
That’s right, Congressman Peter DeFazio sees that Postmaster General Donahoe “really wants to destroy the Postal Service.”
Why?
Rep. DeFazio says instead of asking for authority to creatively innovate to save money and make money for USPS, Postmaster General Donahoe just “cuts things”. Here is the excerpt from DeFazio from the Businessweek article:
So I would look for a postmaster general who would say, “I need authority to innovate.” But that’s not what we’re hearing from this postmaster general. He’s, like, “Ah, I’ve just got to cut things.”
DeFazio, Oregon legislators, and Postal Service employees rally to save the postal service
The above video demonstrates that Postmaster General Donahoe instead of demanding that Congress reverse the notorious 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA), just calls for cutting jobs, selling off our national treasured historic post offices and art, and slowing mail.
Postmaster General Donahoe called for closing 3,700 post offices and consolidating 152 processing centers on July 26, 2011, the birthday of when Benjamin Franklin was first appointed the first Postmaster General in 1775 under the Continental Congress. Great timing Mr. Donahoe – what a birthday present for the American people! This alone would foolishly reduce service to millions of Americans, especially our elderly, who depend on USPS to deliver their medications to their homes.
In addition, C. B. Richard Ellis (CBRE) received exclusive conctracts to sell USPS properties and manage their leases. CBRE is chaired by Richard Blum, UC Recent and spouse of Senator Dianne Feinstein. One wonders how much profit CBRE makes from targeting and selling off our precious historic post offices like the La Jolla Post Office, Redlands Post Office and Berkeley Post office with New Deal Era murals inside?
The 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) was passed on December 20, 2006 in the middle of the night on a voice vote. Did anyone want to put their name on this bill that forced USPS to prepay their health-care retiree pensions 75 years out in only 10 years? This is something no other corporate or public organization has ever had to do. The PAEA required that USPS begin paying $5.5 to $5.8 billion/year for this pension payment scheme meant to bankrupt the postal service. USPS was required to begin this $5.5 billion payment in 2007, the first year of the worst economic downturn since the depression of 1929.
DeFazio says the Chairman of the USPS Board of Governors, Mickey D. Barnett, appointed by President G. W. Bush in 2006, had to be reminded of the cost of a first class stamp! ($.46) when making a recent public presentation. See the video above.
It is time to take your concerns to President Obama who doesn’t have to run for President anymore. Please call President Obama and write him by US postal mail to save the United States Postal Service now.
Mr. Postman Our Post Office is Not for Sale!!!
Sung by Passionate Berkeley CA residents singing to save their beautiful historic Berkeley Post Office.
What Happened to the Ukiah California New Deal Era Post Office and Mural? Despite outcries from thousands of people in Ukiah, the USPS sold its beautiful New Deal Era post office through a “relocation” rule. The people of Ukiah are … Continue reading →
Why is the US Postmaster General, Patrick Donahoe, trying to Sell Off America’s Historic Post Offices?
Lower East Side New Deal Era Mural in Madison Square Post Office in NY by EdenPictures on Flickr CC
USPS leaders seem determined to sell off our precious New Deal era historic post offices as fast as possible with the help of the major real estate company CB Richard Ellis Group (CBRE). An article in Commerical Property Executive by contributing editor Barbara Murray on July 21, 2011 entitled, “CBRE Wins Exclusive Rights to 300 MSF USPS Contract” states:
“Clearly, CB Richard Ellis Inc. didn’t mail it in when bidding for a big contract with the U.S. Postal Service, because the commercial real estate services firm has just become the chosen one. CBRE is now the exclusive strategic corporate real estate solutions provider for USPS and its 300 million-square-foot portfolio of owned and leased properties.”
CBRE received exclusive rights from USPS to manage all of the billions of dollars worth of USPS properties.
Instead of selling off our brick and mortar post offices which are technically owned by the American people, especially those built before the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, let’s revitalize them with creative solutions to keep them as Post Offices and expand services for communities.
In addition, there needs to be a new law that entitles the American people to say what happens to their own post offices. Unfortunately the USPS has been very busy undermining the ability of citizens to stop the steam rolling misguided leadership of USPS from selling off its historic post offices.
In recent years through changing various rules, the USPS uses “relocation” as a means to prevent citizens from being able to legally file appeals with the Postal Regulatory Commission. It is a devious way to undermine due process of the citizens in a community to be able to stop sales of their precious post offices which serve their cities and towns.
Santa Monica CA New Deal Post Office in Jeopardy
The Santa Monica community and all interested Americans who care about preserving our national treasures and the New Deal era architecture and art, need to know that the US Postal Service is deciding if it will sell off an historic icon in Santa Monica. Of course, one must ask who is guiding the hand of the USPS to make these choices despite the outrage or confusion of the communities that these post offices serve. Again, one needs to look at the manager CBRE of the postal facilities.
America’s Commons: Historic U.S. Post Offices built and bought–at least before 1970–are more than Real Estate Property, They Belong to the People of the United States who Paid for Them
What will the people of Santa Monica and Los Angeles and all of California do to protect the heart of their community — their beautiful Art Deco Post Office?
It is time for America to wake up and realize that through sinister design or through ignorance, some people in the halls of power in the U.S. Postal Service have decided to sell off our history. What is frightening is that as the following New York Times article, “Post Office Buildings With Character, and Maybe a Sale Price,” by Robin Pogrebin points out, in 2009 the New Deal Era Virginia Beach post office was sold and torn down, and a Walgreens was built despite pleas from the community to keep their post office.
The NYT article quoted above had interesting comments from readers. The passion of the readers to save their historic post offices came through. Here is a quote:
Patricia Allan of Hamburg NY, March 8, 2013 at 5:06 pm (Recommended by 57 people) replied in the Comments of the March 8th NYT front page article about the USPS:
“What will be gained by selling these jewels? Who gets the ransom money for them? If our government cannot restore and build, it will soon lose the power it has to govern…….it seems to me that if National Parks and environmentally endangered sites can and should be preserved for our cultural and physical wellbeing, then these jewels should be, as well. Doesn’t history have to be handed on to enrich those who are our future citizens?”
How can we truly save the United States Postal Service?
Save the Post Office
First, encourage Congress to reverse the manufactured crisis caused by the 2006 Orwellian Postal Accountability Enhancement Act (PAEA) which forced USPS to prepay its health related pensions 75 years in advance in 10 short years beginning in 2007. Since 2007 USPS has had to pay $5 billion or more dollars every year for health pensions of people who may not even have been born yet. This is something no government or corporate entity has every had to do.
Second, tell Congress to expand services at our local post offices. The Postal Service is a service, not a business. It is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. It is wrong to cut Saturday service which could affect 70,000 jobs and harm small businesses that would have to pay contractors higher rates than USPS to get mailing services.
Sheldon Garon, Nissan Professor of History and East Asian Studies at Princeton University, wrote an article at CNN advocating, “A savings account at the post office”.
According to Garon, most countries in Europe and East Asia allow people to open savings accounts in their post office. In the United States, there were postal savings accounts from 1911 to 1966.
Garon stated:
“To avoid competing with banks for larger depositors, postal savings accounts are capped at an amount that serves families of modest means.”
In addition, Garon claims that the savings accounts at post offices throughout the world typically “carry no fees and require no minimum balance or a low one.” This would help many Americans who currently have no bank because of high fees and low balances. They could open much needed savings accounts. Currently, many low income Americans use expensive check cashing companies that charge high fees.
Congress Must Act to Give USPS Flexibility to Make More Revenue
Passing legislation to allow USPS to offer postal banking would bring more people into the post office and would help Americans increase their savings. According to Garon, “one-fourth of low-income Americans are “unbanked.” They have no savings or checking accounts.”
“8.2 percent of US households are unbanked. This represents 1 in 12 households or nearly 10 million in total.”
Third, Let’s protect and preserve our historic post offices. Especially those built during the New Deal era that contain one of a kind beautiful art murals and sculptures reflecting the communities they serve. Each post office is the heart of its community. It is wrong that Postmaster General Donahoe is selling off our national treasures, relocating post offices from the centers of towns to the outskirts making it harder for people to use their post offices. Stop the sell-off of our national treasures and preserve our historic buildings for present and future generations.
There are creative solutionsto save USPS which is our 2nd largest employer in the United States. It is in each citizen’s interest to preserve the United States Postal Service which is older than the United States of America. Our first Postmaster General, Benjamin Franklin, was appointed on July 26, 1775 by the Continental Congress. Let President Obama know we must keep universal service and six-day delivery of our mail!
U.S. Post Office, Miles City by dave_mcmt on flickr cc
Is it Time for Postmaster General Donahoe to Resign?
Ralph Nader wrote an open letter to Postmaster General Donahoe urging him to resign. In Nader’s letter he outlines how the Postmaster General Donahoe who came up through the ranks of the United States Postal Service (USPS) has consistently approached saving the Postal Service by proposals to slow service, close and sell post offices and cut thousands of jobs.
Nader thinks the Postmaster General Donahoe needs to demonstrate creative problem solving skills to save the postal service instead of waging a campaign to close over 3700 post offices and 252 processing centers. Why isn’t Donahoe listening to Senator Jay Rockefeller or Senator Bernie Sanders who offer proposals to expand services at post offices that would create needed additional revenue? Donahoe barely mentions such recommendations when speaking about how to solve the USPS fiscal problems. Instead he harps on how the internet is destroying first class mail.
How Should U.S. Postal Service’s Financial Problems Be Fixed?
Congressman DeFazio on Postmaster General Decision to Close Thousands of Post Offices and Processing Centers Nationwide
Nader writes in his letter regarding the current negative financial effects of “draconion requirements of USPS to prepay retiree health benefits” 75 years in advance in only 10 years based on the 2006 Postal Accountability Enhancement Act (PAEA) and other pension plan overpayments through the years:
“Removing the devastating fiscal effect of these prepayments would take care of 80 percent of the postal service’s deficit. Moreover, the federal government already owes the postal service, according to the U.S. Postal Service’s Inspector General, over $80 billion dollars in overpayments the USPS has made to the Civil Service Retirement System and the Federal Employees Retirement System. You need to recover these overpayments. Yet while you have infrequently mentioned these strangleholds, that is not what you are known for in your direction of this historic institution.”
Nader points out that the savings from closing all the rural post offices is so small, $200 million/year, it isn’t worth the havoc it would wreck on “millions of rural Americans already strip-mined of other essential services.” Closing post offices would force Americans to spend more money on gas to travel longer distances to get to another post office.
U.S. Post Office and Courthouse by Paul Lowry on flickr cc
There are other better ways to save the Postal Service and to get your message across Mr. Postmaster General.
Does Postmaster General Donahoe really want to save the postal service or is he just helping others behind the scenes achieve a long sought goal of privatizing the postal service for their own financial reward and efforts to weaken multiple postal unions? Is it a lack of creativity in doing more than close and sell post offices, cut jobs and slow mail delivery service or something else?
Nader explains the possible reasons for ideological gridlock against a truly thriving United States Postal Service:
“There is, in Washington, D.C., a combination of relentless ideological opposition to the USPS’s very existence as a public institution joined by thoughtless upper-income pundits and editorial writers who really do not use the postal service as they clutch their e-mail and text-messaging gadgets. They are both remote from the tens of millions of Americans who rely on the postal service in tangible and intangible ways that these deprecators could rarely understand or imagine. There are reporters, however, who have written compelling features from the field on what would happen were a rural post office closed to the people (many of them elderly) living there.”
Here is an OpEd piece by Bob Sloan on the Voters Legislative Transparency Project blog that outlines the behind the scenes role that the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) heavily funded by the billioniare Koch brothers has played in placing policy papers on privatizing the postal service and getting rid of unionized workers.
“ALEC has pushed for privatizing the USPS and has used the services of RW think tanks such as Reason Foundation, CATO, Econ Journal Watch and National Taxpayers Union to contribute their support for this privatization agenda against the USPS.”
It’s a formula similar to the template legislation we’ve seen recently since 2010 around the country in mainly Republican controlled legislatures for voter ID laws to make it more difficult for people to have legal access to the polls hiding behind the basically non-existent threat of “voter fraud”. Or, template legislation to get rid of public unions by eliminating collective bargaining rights of teachers and other employees.
The Postmaster General’s nearly $400,000 compensation package is almost equal to that of the President of the United States. Nader asks Donahoe in his letter how he can cut so many workers jobs and not take a pay cut for himself and his top executives at the same time. Top USPS executives have a base pay over $200,000, higher than many cabinet level secretaries.
Nader suggests the creation of a Post Office Consumer Action Group (POCAG) which would be a non-profit group dedicated to representing the interests of all postal consumers. He said consumers could join by paying a small amount of dues which would support POCAG. The goal of the organization would be to encourage consumers to have input into the postal service’s decisions about how to best serve its customers, including the residential customer, not just the large mailers who already have input into the postal service decisions.
Finally, Mr. Nader urged Mr. Donahoe to go to the National Postal Museum in Washington D.C., a few blocks from the PMG’s office, to reflect on how other Postal Service leaders in prior centuries overcame tremendous hurdles to save the postal service and serve Americans–even delivering eggs–in the farm-to-table postal initiative. Nader claims “the internet challenge, if the USPS were to participate and provide services, is small compared to the mountains that the earlier postal service had to climb.”
The internet can be a good thing too.
How come Postmaster General Donahoe fails to highlight that “parcels sent by both consumers/businesses to increase by 40%” by 2020 according to the Report prepared by the USPS Office of Inspector General, Number: RARC-WP-11-002, page 8 in Table 2: Mail Volume Forecasts in 2020? Also, it is cheaper to send packages by USPS than other commercial mailers like Fedex and UPS so why isn’t PMG Donahoe focusing on this growing revenue stream in part due to internet buying?
President Obama Must Step Up to Save the USPS
Instead of rubber-stamping Postmaster General Donahoe’s recommendations to go from 6 days to 5 days delivery and to cut mail standards as well as close thousands of post offices, President Obama needs to recognize and help save the U.S. Postal Service, especially historic post offices that are a living record of history and that are important cultural icons within their communities.
One of my favorite sources of news about the post office is the blog http://www.savethepostoffice.com. I urge you to also bookmark this wonderful news source about all things related to the ongoing saga about the real story of the postal service.
The mainstream media is just beginning to finally write about some issues beyond talking points of folks like Darrell Issa and Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe. However, even though Americans in every single U.S. city affected by potential post office closures or processing centers emphatically say absolutely NO, the media is only partially covering the story and much news is only in local news.
The fact is that every single community told their post office will be closed, “relocated” or “consolidated” has repeatedly fought to save their post office. The people in each community are unhappy about the potential negative effects economically, socially, and on the entire well-being of the community.
It’s Time to Stop Forcing USPS to “Act Like a Business”
Why is the U.S. Postal Service forced to “act like a business?” As a result the top executives of USPS claim their high salaries and bonuses which exceed the Vice President’s salary and Cabinet Level Secretaries are warranted because they are supposed to be comparable to a “business model.”
Here is a recent list of USPS high Executive salaries. However, as the Save The Post Office Blog points our here, the list does not include the bonuses which for some folks could be over $25,000/year or more. Here is a letter from Congresswoman Hochul to the Chairman of the USPS Board of Governors regarding the unusually out of touch high salaries of the USPS executives.
The Executive Team seems to pride itself on creating “efficiencies” at the same time they are requesting that the Postal Regulatory Commission not reveal a study they conducted that shows potential negative revenue impacts of the combined strategies they have to cut costs like:
Closing and selling off over 3600 post offices, many historic in nature with important historic murals and art
Closing and selling off over 252 processing plants which would put tremendous pressure on the people processing mail in remaining plants
Potentially slowing First Class mail from overnight delivery to two to three days.
Potentially cutting back mail delivery from 6 to 5 days.
Potentially cutting or eliminating through attrition and other means over 100,000 to 220,000 jobs
Congressman Gerald Connelly filed a brief recently according to this article on Save The Post Office requesting that the PRC release this important study.
Connelly’s brief requesting the USPS release its study of the consequences of its proposals to close post offices, processing centers, slow mail, states:
In its submission to keep revenue impact information secret, the Postal Service claims that releasing revenue projections would provide an advantage to its competitors. I am concerned that it is the Postal Service’s proposal itself that will force customers to take their business to private competitors. The Postal Service is proposing sweeping reductions in service standards, processing facilities, and Post Offices. Congress and the public have a right to understand the aggregate impact of those decisions on Postal Service revenue. The Postal Service has proposed specific facility closures on the premise that such actions will save money. If it actually would result in greater revenue losses than savings, then both Congress and the public should have access to that information. Such information is relevant because multiple Members of Congress have petitioned the Postal Service to delay or stop facility closures and because the public is participating in a statutorily-protected public input process on this proposal through the Postal Regulatory Commission. Both aggregate and regional revenue data could have direct bearing on Members’ decision with respect to postal legislation and on citizens’ comments with respect to proposed facility closures, which is why that revenue data should be made public. While the Postal Service’s submission expresses concern about competition, it is precisely because of my concern that the Postal Service’s own downsizing proposals will divert mail to competitors and harm the Postal Service financially that I am filing to make revenue information public.
Conclusion
Based on the arguments submitted above, I am requesting that the Commission make public the Postal Service’s market research information file as Library Reference, USPS-LR-N2012-IINPI4 and NPI.
Why is USPS hiding important potential negative revenue facts from Americans at the same time it claims it is trying to save itself through its drastic cuts? The reality is that the combined plans could destroy the post office and have disastrous domino effects on local, regional, national and possible international businesses that use the U.S. postal service. In addition, USPS could potentially lose many customers, both individuals and businesses, due to slower mail delivery and making it harder for people to gain access to a postal facility due to closures and “relocations.”
The idea of the Postal Service as an essential national infrastructure that serves the American people has been seriously undermined. This democratic vision has been replaced by the view that the Postal Service is merely another player in the mailing industry, a player whose primary purpose is to facilitate the business model and increase the profits of commercial marketers and mailers.
It is inappropriate that USPS hides behind having to “act like a business” in order to suppress its study on the combined effects of its policies and strategic plans which would gut the infrastructure of the U.S. Postal Service. Already the U.S. Postal Service is doing everything it can to cut the public out of appeals regarding historic brick and mortar post offices like those in Venice and La Jolla, California, by classifying these post office closures and sales as “relocations.”
We have to put the “public” and “democracy” back into the U.S. Postal Service leadership that seems to have another agenda other than serving the American people and fulfilling the Postal Service’s original mission to provide a service to bind up this nation and facilitate communication for the public good. It is undemocratic that the USPS is trying to cut the public out of a process that prevents them from filing an appeal regarding the closure and sale of their post offices.
If this is “acting like a business” then Congress must act to change the model currently being used for the U.S. Postal Service before the fire sale of our historic New Deal post offices and other historic post office treasures are sold on the market for a quick profit despite the protests of each local community.
In 2006 the United States Postal Service (USPS) handled 213 billion pieces of mail, the largest volume of mail in the history of the postal service since the beginning of the post office on July 26, 1775 when Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first Postmaster General by the Continental Congress.
On December 7th and 8th, 2006 the lame duck Republican House and Senate passed the Postal Accountability Enhancement Act (PAEA) (H.R. 6407) on a voice vote alone, and on December 20, 2006 President G. W. Bush signed the bill into law. Within the bill was a section that contained what could be considered a poison pill that could undermine the financial health of the United States Postal Service.
People of Venice Fight to Save their Historic Post Office
Venetians, artists, writers, poets join with politicians and Teamster President George Washington and President Abraham Lincoln to rally to save the Historical Art Deco Mural and Post Office from being sold. Speakers, including Councilman Bill Rosendahl, join again to support the endeavor. Music by Suzy Williams and The Nicknamers, Balloons, Poetry, Politicians, Venetians and Fun.
Speakers make an impassioned plea to save the Venice Post Office and to recognize that closing the Venice Post Office will not return USPS to profitability. Also that USPS is violating its own moratorium on closure of post offices by beginning to destroy the Venice Post Office prior to the May 15th end date of the Moratorium.
Jim Smith, MC for the Coalition to Save the Venice Post Office rally, said:
“Nearly every organization in Venice is in support of this [to save the Venice Post Office] and has been working together in a Coalition but this goes far beyond Venice. The postal service is being destroyed, both within and without, by its own management and by Congress which is beholden to Wall Street and to the 1 percent (%).”
The Venice Post Office was constructed in 1939 during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration and in 1941 Edward Biberman painted an historic mural reflecting the history of Venice. Speaker, Terry Stoller, President of the California Area Local American Postal Worker’s Union (APWU) who represents the clerks and custodians in Southern California stated that the Venice post office is “well-constructed, beautiful and has genuine heart in it.” He also said, “The post office was mentioned in the U.S. Constitution more than 200 years ago.”:
“The entire postal service is being sold to the highest bidder, not to those with the highest purposes and the highest aspirations.”
Emily Winters, Chairperson of the Venice Arts Council said at the above Venice Post Office Rally:
“This post office really represents the hub of art activity in Venice.”
Winters said the Venice post office is a beautiful Spanish revival building built by the WPA with taxpayer dollars and the Edward Biberman mural has important historic significance.
Title VIII of the Postal Accountability Enhancement Act titled the “Postal Service Retiree Health Benefit Fund” contained Section 8909a which mandated that the United States Postal Service prepay its Retiree Health plans 75 years in advance in only 10 years. Beginning on September 30, 2007, in addition to other pension plan obligations, the USPS would have to pay an additional $5.4 Billion dollars or more each year until 2017.
No government agency or private company has ever had to prepay its pension plans 75 years in advance in only 10 years. This poison pill within the PAEA began sucking the money out of the profitable USPS when the 2007 severe Recession caused a sharp economic downturn and decline in mail volume.
Then in 2007 the economy tanked and mail volume declined.
New Thinking About the Postal Service
Prior to 1970 the postal service was called the U.S. Post Office Department. It was a cabinet level position and a full government agency.
Under President Nixon, a Commission was established that eventually resulted in the 1970 Postal Reorganization Act. This act began mandating that the postal service would no longer be a cabinet level position, it would no longer be a Post Office Department. Instead the postal service was told by Congress that it would have to act like a business. It would have to completely pay for itself without tax payer dollars. It would be a quasi public-private organization.
Destruction of USPS Unions by Upper Management
Instead of seeing its unionized work force as a positive asset, the Postmaster General and upper management seem to want to undermine the postal worker union’s ability to have a contract be respected. After tough negotiations in 2011 that resulted in the Unions agreeing to a wage cap, the Postmaster General Donahoe turned around and wanted to break the contract that said there would be no lay-offs of workers. Instead, jobs could be reduced by attrition when people retired. To date, thousands of jobs have been reduced due to attrition.
It turns out that the plan to close almost 3700 post offices and 252 processing facilities is based in many instances on the idea that the post office will move from 6 day delivery to 5 day delivery. Congress has not approved this plan and hopefully will reject it because it is bad for business, bad for local communities and bad for our economy. However, the postal service is trying to close post offices as fast as it can in spite of the moratorium on post office closures in December 2011 until May 15, 2012. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe thinks he will save the USPS by ultimately closing 15,000 post offices over the next year. This is total upside-down thinking and will have negative impacts on local economies, regional economies, our national economy as well as jeapardize our upcoming 2012 elections.
The Illusion that the Moratorium Covers All Post Offices on Earlier Closure Lists
The postal service is still moving ahead full speed to close postal facilities that it began trying to close on its list of July 26, 2011 and also lists prior to that date. Even though the moratorium is in place, each community needs to be aware of when their particular postal facility was first announced for “study” or “closure.”
Also, the moratorium does not include closure of a post office that is defined as a “relocation.” Technically a post office could be closed and sold if it is determined to be “relocated.” However, since a different facility is planned to be substituted for the current facility in the community, the United States Postal Service claims this is not a “closure.”
It really is a bait and switch tactic because the current post office building which may be of historical significance and contain important New Deal era art murals or sculptures would be sold to the highest bidder. The “relocation” tactic is an underhanded way to prevent the public from formally filing an appeal to prevent a “relocation” and subsequent closure and sale of the post office and its property. Some people in the USPS legal department must have been tasked with finding a way to shed the pesky public from trying to prevent closure of their post offices in their community.
Saving the USPS
If you have suggestions you can go to the USPS OIG website and make suggestions. Here are a few suggestions I think would help save our postal service:
1) Expand services in current post offices to include so-called “non-postal” services such as notary public, copying of documents, issuing of licenses, verification services for the internet and more. Senator Sanders has many suggestions regarding this.
2) Keep all post offices open.
3) Keep 6 day delivery of the mail
4) Keep mail delivery standards for first class mail and other mail instead of slowing mail by two to three days. In our fast-paced era we need to insure mail delivery is fast and effective. Slowing mail is counterproductive and could lead to reduced revenue from customers turning away from USPS because it is so slow.
5) Insure that historic post offices and post office murals are on the National Register so they are eligible for certain funds for renovation and renewal. Highlight these buildings as places of interest for tourists, especially buildings with art murals, sculptures and special architectural designs.
6) Enable the post office to sell items tracing the history of the post office and the local community. Sell items that highlight the role of the post office in the history of that community and the U.S.
7) Congress should allow USPS access to its overfunding of its various pension and retiree health plans. Recalculate assessments that are reasonable for paying into these programs to insure they are properly funded for workers.
8) Stop forcing the Postal Service to operate only “as a business” without taxpayer support. The Postal Service guaranteed by our Constitution was created to improve communication and “bind up the nation” through providing for fast speedy mail.
Postal Regulatory Commission Eliminates Public’s Ability to Appeal Closure & Sale of “Relocated” Post Offices
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – that’s all.”
From “Through the Looking Glass” by Lewis Carroll, Chapter VI, Humpty Dumpty
Through the Looking Glass with the New Definition of the Word “Relocation” of a Post Office
The Federal Register contains information regarding pending rules submitted for comment to the public. Each pending rule has a deadline. After a set period of time, the rule becomes final and is published. Frequently the general public has no clue about what rules are “pending” and what the consequences of the rule means in terms of potential negative outcomes to the public.
The Summary of the rule sounds like the new rule is going to make it easier for Americans to appeal the closures of their post offices. However, even though the appeals process is simplified to a degree by the new rule, it also contains another passage that redefines what is considered a “relocation” of a facility. Here is the definition:
Within the Section entitled “II. Advantages of the New Rules”
“The new rules specifically clarify that when a retail facility is relocated within a community so that the number of facilities within that community does not change, that relocation is not a closing that can be appealed to the Commission.” (See 54180 Federal Register/Vol. 76, No. 169/Wednesday, August 31, 2011/Proposed Rules)
What does this new definition of “relocation” mean to people who want to save their post office in their community? This new definition is published under “Advantages of the New Rules” section. How is “relocation is not a closing that can be appealed to the Commission” be an advantage to the public?
Here is an explanation of what this new “relocation” definition means related to closing a post office. If a community receives notice in a press release that its post office will be “relocated” within a community, the public will not be able to appeal that “relocation” to the Postal Regulatory Commission. If a post office is “relocated” to another facility, the original post office could be closed and sold and the public has no recourse with USPS or the Postal Regulatory Commission to legally voice their concerns in a way that could stop the “relocation” and possible sale of the original post office. These words “closed” and “sold” are conveniently disappeared from the definition of “relocation.” Even though in reality an historic building like the Venice Main Post Office, Ukiah Main Post Office, or La Jolla Main Post Office could be closed and sold, because these post offices are defined as only being “relocated” to another part of the community, the new rule prevents the public from being able to appeal the closure and sale of its historic post offices.
This new rule to “simplify” the process just simplified the public out of the process for “relocated” post offices. In other words, because of this new rule, the United States Postal Service (USPS) can legally close any post office it chooses, sell it without the public having any say about the matter if USPS calls this a “relocation” where they then put the post office in a different facility in the same community.
Is this fair? Is this democratic? Is this right? This rule only makes it easier for USPS to do whatever it wants with its facilities despite the valid concerns of the public about closing or relocating a particular post office. This new rule enables the United States Postal Service to legally have carte blanche in selling post offices without input from the local residents who will be affected by the sale and closure of their post office. This is a perversion of the law because it cuts the public out of the appeals process in a very nuanced and nasty way. And most people had no knowledge that this rule could cut them out of possibly appealing the closure of their post office.
This rule deliberately enables the USPS to not have to deal with the public about post offices that will be relocated. This is truly unbelievable and undemocratic.
"Story of Venice" mural in New Deal Era Venice Post Office. Photo Credit: "Story of Venice" by lavocado@sbcglobal.net on flickr cc
Post Offices Built Prior to the 1970 Postal Reorganization Act
The United States Postal Service and Congress need to be reminded that all the postal facilities built or purchased prior to the Postal Reorganization Act in 1970 were paid for by taxpayer dollars. However, the top leadership and legal counsel at USPS and the Postal Regulatory Commission fail to understand this important point because many post offices like the Venice Post Office, Ukiah Main Post Office and La Jolla Main Post Office were built in the New Deal Era in the 1930s. They were built with taxpayer dollars. Yet, these very post offices that have served people in their communities are being sold for a fast buck similar to CEOs who raid corporations by selling off their assets to squeeze every bit of money out of a company. Then all that is left is a skeleton of a company. Is that what is happening here?
This is a misuse of definitions, law, and rulemaking to make it legal to eliminate the public from the process of deciding what happens to public facilities in their own community. This is antidemocratic and this rule should be changed.
Is the United States Postal Service top leadership focused on selling off its assets in an attempt to rid itself of its infrastructure using its current economic situation as an excuse? This article, “How to Privatize the Post Office: Piece by piece, step by step” on the SavethePostOffice.com website outlines a clear blueprint showing how the undoing of the postal service as a public good replaced by a privatized version began with the 1970 Postal Reorganization Act and has been happening piece by piece for decades to the present.
It is up to Americans and Congress to stop the fire sale of their historic post offices which now are being sold off using new definitions of words like “relocation” to edit out the public’s ability to even participate in an appeals process to stop the selling off of their community post offices. The latest misuse of the “relocation” scam happened by this USPS press release on January 10, 2012 in a special announcement titled “Postal Service plans to relocate La Jolla Post Office.” Here is some of the text of that strange announcement which blames the internet in part for the reason it is “relocating” this post office. There is no mention that that facility is profitable and that there is no “similar” building like it anywhere in La Jolla because it is an historic treasure to that community:
“Within the process of the Facility Optimization, the La Jolla Main Post Office would be relocated to a similar location within 1 mile of the current site.”…”The Postal Service has retained the real estate professionals of CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) to handle the real estate transactions.”
Ukiah, CA Main Post Office New Deal Mural, "Resources of the Soil" painted in 1938 by Ben Cunningham
The Ukiah, California branch post office built in 1936 during the New Deal Era under President Franklin D. Roosevelt by the Works Progress Administration and opened in 1937, qualifies as a building protected under the National Historic Preservation Act. The mural inside the post office, “Resources of the Soil,”painted in 1938 by Ben Cunningham commissioned by the Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture, reflects the “American scene” of the surrounding community. The work features two leading industries in Mendocino County at the time of the painting of the mural: farming and lumber milling.
However, even though the Ukiah Main Post Office was pre-approved as qualifying to be on the National Register of Historic Buildings, according to a letter sent to USPS General Counsel Mary Anne Gibbons by Ukiah Mayor Rodin on April 23, 2011 (see petition brief exhibit 11, Docket No. A2001-21), the USPS failed to complete the necessary documents to get the Ukiah Main Post Office approved on the Historic National Register:
“Under the National Historic Preservation Act [Section 110(2)(1)], the USPS has an affirmative duty to nominate the Ukiah Post Office for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. USPS failed to perform this duty. The initiative of Congressman Mike Thompson on April 8, 2011 in submitting a completed nomination package to the USPS and the California State Historic Preservation Office assists the USPS in compliance and establishes that the Ukiah Post Office is eligible for listing on the National Register.”
…
“When it is put to the test, any independent judicial authority will find that it is “feasible” for the Postal Service to continue to use the Ukiah Post Office. Therefore, the National Historic Preservation Act, as presently written, makes the proposed closure illegal.”
Ukiah CA Post Office built 1936 during Roosevelt's New Deal
Despite serving the people of Ukiah for 75 years, the U.S. Postal Service decided to close the beautiful Ukiah Main Post Office claiming it will save money. The lack of transparency in the closure procedures and the USPS management officials’ refusal to complete documents that would put the Ukiah Main Post Office on the National Register, puts a cloud over the entire process. The community protested the closing of their beloved post office which is a centerpiece of the town’s downtown economy and historic heritage area, but the USPS decided to close it anyway. An article, “A First Class Farewell,” by Carole Brodsky on in the Daily Journal stated:
“It’s despicable,” said attorney Barry Vogel, who worked with a group of citizens to prevent closure of the Ukiah branch. “These closures take the guts out of local communities, subjugating us so that we become less free. We have fewer services and it makes life more difficult for hard-working people who have used this post office for 75 years.”
“Anger and sadness were palpable in the crowd, and no one seemed convinced that the closure would truly provide cost savings to the beleaguered institution.”
Touring Ukiah
This video at 54 seconds shows that the Ukiah Main Post Office is located next to many businesses in the downtown area.
The New Deal Era Ukiah Main Post Office was in easy walking distance for residents because it was located in the “heart” of historic downtown. The USPS leadership decided to close this beautiful historic landmark which it owned outright and move the post office to an out-of-the-way annex on the edge of town. According to the website, SaveThePost Office.com:
“5,000 signatures were gathered opposing the Ukiah closing.”
United States Post Office Officials Denied Ukiah Residents Key Information Regarding Decisionmaking Process for Ukiah Post Office Closure
The USPS sidestepped having to notify the residents in the normal “discontinuance” process because the post office is moving to another “annex on the edge of town.” Instead of calling this a “closure” of a post office, USPS claims it is a “relocation” which has a different set of procedures surrounding how the public is notified. Residents filed an objection to the closing and proposed sale of the Ukiah Main Post Office with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) on August 10, 2011. A portion of the brief filed with the PRC by the “Save Ukiah Post Office Committee and Michael E. Sweeney states:
The Ukiah Main Post Office, 224 Oak Street, Ukiah, is Postal Service property and has been a centerpiece of the city’s downtown since it was opened in 1937. lt has approximately 1500 post office boxes and receives heavy customer traffic, much of it walk-ins from the surrounding commercial and residential area.
In early 2011, it became known in Ukiah that the Postal Service was planning closure of the Ukiah Main Post Office. On January 31, 2011, Petitioner Sweeney made a Freedom of Information Act request to the Postal Service for the feasibility study, building survey, preliminary budget and other writings pertaining to the proposed closure. On February 17, 2011, Postal Service Facilities Manager James Barnett denied the FOIA request for all significant documents on the grounds that they were exempt from disclosure as internal deliberative documents. On February 23, 2011, Sweeney appealed the denial of the FOIA request to Postal Service General Counsel Mary Anne Gibbons [Exhibit 1]. The appeal was denied on March 25, 2011 [Exhibit 2].
Responding to public concern, Congressman Mike Thompson wrote to the Postmaster General on February 2, 2011, requesting a copy of the assessment study on the closure and the financial analysis [Exhibit 3]. The Postal Service denied his request in a letter dated February 15, 2011 [Exhibit 4].
Does the U.S. Postal Service have something to hide?
Why did the Postmaster General and other officials of the United States Postal Service, including the General Counsel of the USPS, Mary Anne Gibbons, repeatedly refuse to allow the people of Ukiah access to key documents about the Ukiah Main Post Office closure? Even Congressman Thompson was denied access to documents that would help the people more clearly understand how the decision to close their beautiful historic post office and relocate it to a location on the edge of town was made.
On March 9, 2011, Ukiah Mayor Mari Rodin sent a letter to the Postal Service requesting information so the town could conduct an “independent appraisal of the condition of the Main Post Office,” and the Postal Service also denied this request.
It is astounding how much effort the USPS top leadership went to in order to deny key information to the people of Ukiah which would help them clearly understand the process used to close their Historic Main Post Office. There is something terribly callous about the behavior of the USPS leadership to disregard the will of the people, from the residents to the Mayor and City Council of Ukiah to the County of Mendocino Board of Supervisors and even to Congressman Thompson.
Why isn’t the mainstream media asking more questions regarding the secrecy surrounding the methodology used by the United States Postal Service to suddenly push to close thousands of post offices throughout the United States? Then, in spite of a recent moratorium announced on December 13, 2011 of closures until May 15, 2012, the USPS seems to be closing facilities like the Ukiah Main Post Office anyway.
According to the petition filed with the PRC, eventually the USPS provided partial information regarding the costs involved in relocating the Ukiah Main Post Office. It would cost approximately $360,000 to make changes in the Orchard Avenue Post Office to replace the Main Post Office in Ukiah. Many residents believed this and possibly other costs would outweigh any potential “savings” by closing the Main Post Office and relocating it to the Orchard Avenue Post Office that was not properly suited to handle a steady stream of customers. The Orchard Avenue facility was used mostly as a bulk mailing processing center. It was never designed as a regular post office to serve the needs of all of the people in the town.
County of Mendocino Board of Supervisors said in their letter of March 22, 2011 to the San Francisco District manager of the United States Postal Service:
“The proposed closure and relocation of postal service to the periphery of the community will have profound negative impacts on the downtown core.”
“At the February 23rd meeting a sheet was presented allegedly documenting the cost savings of the proposed closure. The community members present were told that the underlying data is not available for inspection. It is completely unacceptable that the USPS intends to withhold this information from the local community. This refusal fuels the suspicion that the proffered numbers will not withstand scrutiny. For instance, it is alleged that the Main Post Office requires $780,000 in capital improvements, yet the USPS anticipates selling this single purpose building that requires major upgrades for $600,000.”
“We renew the request that the USPS release the data that supposedly supports the recommendation to close the Ukiah Main Post Office. We also believe many of the current box holders and package service customers will resort to other options if the proposed recommendation is not reversed, likely resulting in an unanticipated loss of revenue to the USPS.
We hereby state our strong support for the recent request by the City of Ukiah to conduct an independent assessment of the Ukiah Main Post Office facility. Refusal to honor this reasonable request will further call into question the accuracy of the USPS assessment of the building.”
Postal Regulatory Commission Advisory N2011-1 Claims Post Office Closures Lack Sound Methodology for Deciding on Closure and Consolidation of Postal Facilities Nationwide
There is a gross violation of the public trust occurring with the blatant disregard for how communities are affected on multiple levels by the closure of important historic postal buildings as well as other postal facilities. The Postal Regulatory Commission’s advisory opinion Docket # N2011-1 published on December 23, 2011, states:
“One of the Commission’s primary responsibilities is to ensure that universal service is maintained. Alternative retail access, including alternative access channels, is extremely important to the Postal Service’s universal service obligation. Closing facilities has an impact on service and puts a strain on the Postal Service’s Network as well as customer access to the postal system. Accordingly, the Postal Service should consider how a potential closing affects alternative retail access, including access channels, before a final determination on the discontinuance of a particular facility is made. It is not enough for alternative access channels to have the potential to become available in the future. The effectiveness of particular alternative access channels and alternative retail facilities must be considered prior to, and simultaneously with, discontinuance studies. For example, as described above, Village Post offices are limited substitutes for full service postal retail facilities.”
In the Executive Summary the PRC’ Advisory Opinion Docket No. N2011-1 claimed:
“The Postal Regulatory Commission has analyzed the Postal Service Access Optimization Initiative, a program that identifies more than 3,650 post offices, annexes, stations, and branches for possible closing.
The Commission has evaluated the Postal Service’s presentation and the evidence submitted by interested members of the public, and finds that the Retail Access Optimization Initiative is likely to affect service on a nationwide basis. The primary Commission finding is that notwithstanding its name, the Retail Optimization Access Initiative is not designed to optimize the retail network.”
Basically the Postal Regulatory Commission decided that the USPS Retail Optimization Access Initiative (RAOI) does not “optimize” the “retail network” of USPS. In other words, there is no sound financial basis for the methods used to decide which postal facilities to close or consolidate. If anything, the closure of postal facilities would have an adverse affect on local communities financially and in reducing postal service, especially to the elderly population.
Therefore, why is USPS still closing the Ukiah Main Post Office when it fails in every instance to clearly explain its reasoning behind closing the Ukiah Historic Main Post Office under the thin guise that it is not really closing the post office, it is merely “relocating” it to the Orchard Avenue Postal Facility?
Historic Plaque on Roosevelt Island. Photo: Roosevelt Island and the Blackwell House by David Berkowitz on flickr creative commons
The USPS had initially included the Roosevelt Island Post Office in New York City on the list of almost 3700 post office closures in August 2011. However, due to elected officials efforts such as Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney who represents New York’s 14th District, Manhattan’s East Side and Western Queens, on December 14, 2011 USPS said the Roosevelt Island Post Office would remain open for now.
Thousands of residents objected to the closing of the post office when it was announced this summer. It is the island’s only post office and it serves over 12,500 residents including many elderly and disabled people who would have great difficulty going to another post office over 1 mile away from Roosevelt Island.
Why did USPS Target Roosevelt Island Post Office for Closure in the First Place?
It is odd that the U.S. Postal Service leadership would target the Roosevelt Island Post Office for closure. By closing this post office the residents would not have any post office on the island. Something seems to be deeply flawed regarding how the Postmaster General and his officers decide which post offices will be “studied” for closure. At a time when we need to create more jobs and revitalize the economy, closing post offices and laying off workers is counterproductive to stimulating the economy.
The negative multiplier effect of closing postal facilities should be denied by Congress and the Postal Regulatory Commission. The jobs of postal workers should be protected and expanded. The Post Office has the potential of being an even greater hub of the local community.
The “Village Post Office” Poor Replacement for Full Service Brick and Mortar Post Offices
The “Village Post Office” which Postmaster General Donahoe and his advisors are pushing fails on many levels:
The Village Post Office only sells stamps and priority packages. Customers would not be able to send a letter by Express mail or to get a package certified as they would from a full service post office.
Another Solution that is Better for America
Senator Sanders recently attended a series of town hall meetings in Vermont and listened to hundreds of residents who spoke out against closings of post offices and postal processing facilities. Instead of closing post offices and putting people out of work, Sanders suggested expanding postal services and keeping post offices open.
He said USPS needs more flexibility to be able to better serve its customers by offering services such as:
Notary Public
Licenses
Copying Services
Verification of documents possibly sent via the internet
However, in recent years certain laws were passed that limited the types of services USPS could offer its customers. One wonders why the postal service was asked to be profitable, operate like a business, and then told it can only provide limited services to the American people.
Sanders said we need to give the postal service more opportunity to serve Americans in ways that meet the needs of its customers.
You Betcha!Republican Georgia Secretary of State Raffensberger claims Republicans want him to throw out legal ballots.
The pressure on Raffensperger, who has bucked his party in defending the state’s voting process, comes as Georgia is in the midst of a laborious hand recount of about 5 million ballots. President-elect Joe Biden has a 14,000-vote lead in the initial count.
The normally mild-mannered Raffensperger saved his harshest language for Rep. Douglas A. Collins (R-Ga.), who is leading the president’s efforts in Georgia and whom Raffensperger called a “liar” and a “charlatan.”
“I’m an engineer. We look at numbers. We look at hard data,” Raffensperger said. “I can’t help it that a failed candidate like Collins is running around lying to everyone. He’s a liar.”
Trump and his proxies trying to steal the 2020 election remind me of the escapades of Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner. Currently, Trump and the GOP have filed 24 lawsuits and 23 of them seem to be thrown out or going nowhere. Here’s what election lawyer Marc E. Elias said on Twitter today:
Marc E. Elias Twitter account comments about Lindsey Graham’s efforts to get legal votes thrown out in Georgia
Looney Tuesdays | Coyote’s Best Failed Plans | Looney Tunes |WB Kids Knowing that Wile E. Coyote never successfully carries out one single plan of his, here is a compilation of Coyote’s best failed plans
The Truth About the Post Office 