It’s Time to Save Our US Postal Service Now

Postal workers are essential workers. During the COVID-19 pandemic hundreds of thousands of dedicated postal workers tirelessly deliver our mail to residences and businesses throughout the United States. In order for millions of US citizens to safely vote, mail-in ballots are necessary more than ever to enable Americans to be able to exercise their right to vote and have their vote counted as cast. It’s time to give USPS the support it needs to continue providing crucial services to all Americans.

Congress has included $25 Billion COVID-19 relief to the US Postal Service in a bill passed by the House. However, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell wants to only give USPS a “loan” of $10 Billion. This is unfair, especially at this time when workers need appropriate PPE in order to carry out their work safely.

In a recent article posted by the APWU.org (American Postal Workers Union), author, Debby Szeredy wrote:

Over the years, we have had cuts. Did you know that 54,678 post offices have been closed? We have 31,322 post offices left. There are 10,678 zip codes that don’t have a post office. By 2013, we had 402 mail processing facilities consolidated; now we have 265. These closures have caused constant overtime and high transportation costs. Our PMG [Louis DeJoy] has plans to cut the Postal Service even further, compromising our national, public, and essential infrastructure. This will affect communities and jobs everywhere. The previous PMG slowed down first-class mail delivery by 3-5 days; now people are reporting first class delays of up to 14 days. This is frustrating postal consumers. We cannot let the Board of Governors and the new Postmaster General destroy the world’s finest postal system.

APWU.ORG Article #SaveThePostOffice

How to save the U.S. Postal Service, “the last holdout of true private communication”

Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, speaks to Democracy Now!

Mark Dimondstein explains that Mr. Trump’s remarks are part of his agenda to privatize the post office. Americans need to speak out to #SaveThePostalService

Is USPS Postmaster General DeJoy Abiding by All Court Orders to Restore Mail?

It has been 26 Days since U.S. District Judge Stanley Bastian in Yakima, Washington, issued a nationwide injunction against Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, President Donald Trump, and the U.S. Postal Service over changes implemented since July 2020 when DeJoy took over as USPS Postmaster General. Is PMG DeJoy complying with all court orders?

Judge Bastian responded to a motion for a “preliminary injunction” in a lawsuit from 14 states challenging changes PMG DeJoy made that adversely affected mail delivery nationwide resulting in slowing first class mail, delivery of prescriptions, and potentially slowing delivery of election mail-in ballots.

The 14 states that filed a lawsuit in August against USPS included: Michigan, Washington, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin.

One of the key aspects of the injunction required that DeJoy reinstall 711 mail sorters that were removed since July 2020 and stop forcing USPS mail trucks to leave without mail. There is evidence that DeJoy had mail sorters deliberately ripped out and thrown in the trash instead of trying to find ways to reuse them.

In an article in the Daily Boulder, “Witnesses reported that many of the expensive machines were quickly dismantled and tossed into dumpsters as scrap. The injunction noted that 72% of the ripped out machines were in counties Hillary Clinton won in the 2016 presidential election.”

An earlier article in Vice News revealed that there were plans to “hobble mail sorting” by taking out hundreds of mail sorters. By the time Judge Bastian issued his court order on September 17, 2020, USPS had dismantled and/or removed 711 mail sorters!

What has happened since the initial injunction?

Are DeJoy and Justice Department lawyers trying to weasel out of fulfilling all the court orders from Bastian and other judges by asking for “clarification”?

A recent Washington Post article quoted, J. Remy Green, an attorney representing voters who brought a case against USPS to the Southern District of New York:

““Rather than appealing orders they disagree with, the Postal Service seems to be trying to interpret their way out of the various nationwide injunctions having any impact at all,” J. Remy Green, one of the attorneys, said in an interview. “If allowed to continue, that approach — and the resulting shocking drop in service standards — will do grave damage to the right to vote.””

Senator Gary Peters is still concerned about the US Postal Service now run by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy who was a major Trump donor.

Senator Peters on October 9, 2020 released a report following congressional oversight of DeJoy and USPS outlining continuing concerns about how PMG DeJoy is running the US Postal Service that could potentially adversely affect the mail.

Protecting Our US Election from interference:

We are only a few weeks away from our November 3, 2020 Presidential Election. The US Postal Service is an important service for all Americans and needs to be supported by having people in leadership who want to protect its workers from Covid-19 and also ensure that USPS infrastructure is sound to send the mail swiftly to every American and to fulfill its mission. It’s time to recognize that our US Postal Service is a public good that needs full support. We don’t ask the defense department to “show a profit”. Our postal workers are doing everything they can to get the mail to us on time. Yet, political cronies of Mr. Trump, seem to want to harm this important and necessary public institution.

What You Can Do:

Please contact your Senators and Congressmen and Congresswomen and let them know you want the Senate to pass the Heroes Act that provides $25 Billion in needed Covid-19 relief to the USPS and also relief to millions of Americans and small businesses.

What’s Up with Twitter?

On October 7th while watching the Vice Presidential Debate and tweeting with millions of people, suddenly Twitter–without any warning–“temporarily suspended” my Twitter account @postofficetruth. I have been on Twitter since 2012 and never had my Twitter feed suspended. Why now?

I have sent messages to Twitter and they claim I violated “Twitter Rules” yet when I ask them, “What rules,” I get crickets. The responses seem to be from a computer instead of a real person.

I do admit that I was tweeting quite a lot during the debate, especially regarding the fact that it was hard to watch while VP Pence kept going over his time a lot even while the moderator, Susan Page, kept trying to tell him to stop by saying, “Thank you…”
Thank you…” Pence, like Trump, failed to comply with agreed-upon debate rules about adhering to their time limit and Pence just kept on talking over the moderator when she tried to alert him that his time was up.

If you are on Twitter, please ask @Twitter and @Jack to restore my Twitter feed and/or explain what I need to do to restore it.

Given our current climate in the United States, my primary focus includes:

1. Protecting our US Postal Service and now especially ensuring that the postal workers get everything they need to stay safe from COVID19.
2. Making sure the current Postmaster General DeJoy abides by the many recent judicial orders given to him to restore the US Postal Service by putting back mail sorting equipment immediately and enabling postal workers to get overtime.
3. Ensuring that our 2020 Election is free from foreign and domestic interference and especially foul play and Voter Suppression tactics.

Meanwhile, I will be putting out more stories here on my blog until I can get my Twitterfeed restored.

The question we need to ask is:

Who else had their Twitter Feed suddenly without any warning “temporarily suspended” on October 7, 2020 during or after the VP Debate?

Twitter is instituting new rules to protect all of us from “misinformation”. However, is something wrong with Twitter’s algorithms and policing methods? I also noticed that @TheBradBlog that reports accurate in-depth information about voting issues also had his Twitter account restricted.

Twitter, if you’re listening, please stop blocking people giving correct election information, especially since we are only a few days away from November 3rd!

I urge everyone to please be safe.

Wear a mask. Social distance. Wear eye protection and above all, Vote and get your family, friends and colleagues to vote.

Thank you!