Mail in votes might be the only thing that keeps Texas red FYI. People just don’t realize how much the GOP relies on the senior voters in rural Texas. Most of who are classic mail in voters. They are also much more likely to be heavy users of the USPS as opposed to Amazon, and most don’t have the money to pay UPS or FedEx. Especially since there are virtually no FedEx or UPS walk in stores in small town Texas. There are USPS drop boxes though in every Texas town. This attack on the USPS I think could backfire big time on the GOP and could be what costs them Texas if Suburban and Urban voters rely on early voting in person. Houston, Austin, and Dallas are ready for the BS Dan Patrick and Abbott are going to pull to help Trump and Cornyn. Texas GOP and Trump need every rural mail in vote they can get.
You would hope so, but their pollsters and strategists have undoubtedly convinced the Trump campaign otherwise.
but but Obama... Didn't watch the video, but was there something in that video that showed how Obama was cutting back on the USPS in order to suppress votes?
He was making the point that private companies can compete with public institution (Obamacare). Obama support the post office. Daily caller is political hack.
Mail-in ballots are only sent to registered voters. In CA we have to register for it and request it. I've done that. We can track our ballots to make sure they've been counted. It's a great system. There are no reasons why others don't do the same. I mean there are no legitimate reasons. We know the reasons why some don't want to allow it. We haven't had problems with our voting. It hasn't changed any results ever.
OpEd by William McRaven, former Admiral and Commander of the United States Special Operations Council... Trump is actively working to undermine the Postal Service — and every major U.S. institution Opinion by William H. McRaven August 16, 2020 at 10:51 a.m. CDT Add to list William H. McRaven, a retired Navy admiral, was commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014. In the 1997 film “The Postman,” set in post-apocalyptic America, Kevin Costner plays a drifter trying to restore order to the United States by providing one essential service, mail delivery. In the story, hate crimes, racially motivated attacks and a plague have caused the breakdown of society as we know it. In his quest to restore order and dignity to the nation, the Postman tries to recruit other postal workers to help rebuild the U.S. government. But Costner’s character is opposed by the evil General Bethlehem, who is fighting to suppress the postal carriers so he can establish a totalitarian government. Fortunately, our hero, gaining inspiration from the motto, “neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night,” fights on against Bethlehem and saves the country. Not surprisingly, the movie was panned by critics and was a financial disaster. I mean really, racial strife and a plague so bad that it threatened our society? And even if that happened, who would try to destroy the Postal Service? Where do they come up with these crazy plots? In retrospect, maybe we should give the movie another look. Today, as we struggle with social upheaval, soaring debt, record unemployment, a runaway pandemic, and rising threats from China and Russia, President Trump is actively working to undermine every major institution in this country. He has planted the seeds of doubt in the minds of many Americans that our institutions aren’t functioning properly. And, if the president doesn’t trust the intelligence community, law enforcement, the press, the military, the Supreme Court, the medical professionals, election officials and the postal workers, then why should we? And if Americans stop believing in the system of institutions, then what is left but chaos and who can bring order out of chaos: only Trump. It is the theme of every autocrat who ever seized power or tried to hold onto it. Our institutions are the foundation of a functioning democracy. While they are not perfect, they are still the strongest bulwark against overzealous authority figures. The institutions give the people a voice; a voice in the information we receive, a voice in the laws we pass, a voice in the wars we fight, the money we spend and the justice we uphold. And a voice in the people we elect. As Trump seeks to undermine the U.S. Postal Service and stop mail-in voting, he is taking away our voice to decide who will lead America. It is not hyperbole to say that the future of the country could depend on those remarkable men and women who brave the elements to bring us our mail and deliver our vote. Let us ensure they have every resource possible to provide the citizens of this country the information they need, the ballots that they request and the Postal Service they deserve. At the end of “The Postman,” our hero’s grown daughter unveils a statue of her father and praises the mail carrier’s courage and perseverance for saving the country. The reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes hated the movie, stating that “The Postman would make for a goofy good time if it weren’t so fatally self-serious.” Well, maybe it’s time we all got a little self-serious, before Trump’s actions are fatal to our institutions and our democracy. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...f7b97e-dfca-11ea-8dd2-d07812bf00f7_story.html
"Stop Panicking about the Post Office": excerpt: These changes are motivated entirely by partisan attempts to shut down mail voting during COVID-19 and rig the election. I can see why you would think that, but I don’t think so. Trump claims a lot of stupid things, and some of these changes were contemplated long before DeJoy, or even Trump. This is the part I’ve been building up to. Let’s start with Trump. People have claimed that Trump wants to slow down mail delivery through DeJoy in order to rig the election. Trump, being who he is, proved them right by admitting it in public. He stated that he didn’t want to give USPS money because it would enable them to deliver mail ballots more efficiently. Trump is a malicious, authoritarian jerk; I’m not denying that. But Trump says a lot of stupid things, like Mexico will pay for walls and COVID-19 will be over in a month. And he technically has no control over DeJoy; only the Board of Governors does. The $25 billion under negotiation for the post office isn’t actually for mail ballots, but for forgone revenues due to COVID-19. And mail ballots will still get delivered through November. Multiple election experts, including Secretaries of State like Pennsylvania’s Kathy Boockvar state that they believe USPS will be able to handle the volume of election mail this year, despite the increased amount and COVID-19. As Kevin Kosar argues, “USPS delivers 2.8 billion mail pieces per week. Even if 275 million individuals cast ballots by mail the USPS could handle it.” (Currently, approximately 209 million individuals could theoretically do so, so Kosar is being generous.) Postal Service spokesman David Partenheimer told FactCheck.org in late June that “the current financial condition is not going to impact [USPS’s] ability to deliver election and political mail this year.” And DeJoy made a similar statement to the Board of Governors earlier this month: [L]et me be clear that with regard to Election Mail, the Postal Service and I are fully committed to fulfilling our role in the electoral process. If public policy makers choose to utilize the mail as a part of their election system, we will do everything we can to deliver Election Mail in a timely manner consistent with our operational standards. We do ask election officials and voters to be mindful of the time that it takes for us to deliver ballots, whether it is a blank ballot going to a voter or a completed ballot going back to election officials. We have delivery standards that have been in place for many years. These standards have not changed, and despite any assertions to the contrary, we are not slowing down Election Mail or any other mail. Instead, we continue to employ a robust and proven process to ensure proper handling of all Election Mail. So mail is not being intentionally slowed. Rather, the USPS now has a Postmaster General who is very serious about making cost-efficiency savings, and is in an environment where it has to do it as soon as possible. It’s a perfect storm. There are changes happening to our postal system because it’s been needed for a long time, and USPS cannot wait any longer to make cost-saving changes without becoming insolvent within a year. USPS has needed reforms, and several have been contemplated. The Government Accountability Office noted in 2017 that no cost savings initiatives had been planned, but were likely necessary to ensure financial sustainability of USPS. Good, fast, cheap. Choose two. But without legislative action to save USPS, and with no chance of increasing revenues enough due to COVID-19, DeJoy’s only choice is to cut costs. And DeJoy’s other actions match that his intentions are only to do what he can to save USPS, not anything malicious. For example, in July he issued a statement that USPS would need to better adhere to its operations plans to keep costs low, and he asked Congress for legislative relief. Last week, he restructured the organization to be more efficient, and has made an additional public statement on the need for Congress to “enact reform legislation that addresses our unaffordable payments” to the RHBF. Just yesterday DeJoy issued a temporary price increase on non-retail commercial packages in order to increase revenue. Maybe this all is a pretext hiding a massive conspiracy that managed to fool the two democratic Governors of USPS. That seems unlikely though. It seems more likely to me that we have a president who shoots off his mouth and a logistics expert in charge of a postal agency in financial crisis. more at the link
I don’t think it’s the pollsters. It’s an easy target for conspiracy theory driving on the election fraud theme so Trump can play the 3rd world autocrat playbook. It’s become increasingly clear that Trump has no gameplan for actually winning the election. In his mind stealing the election through manipulating the government infrastructure and conspiracy messaging with state media help is winning. This man has every intention of taking power in the same way a dictator in some other country would and we should take that much more serious than we have the past 3 years.
No. Panic is good for a democracy that is clearly under attack. Go look at what is happening in Belarus and tell me again we shouldn’t be worried. Go look back at Putin’s election a few years back. Over reacting is a healthy sign in this case and I’ll be very happy if in December we look back and say maybe we did over react.
This has sort of been my take...don’t blame Dejoy or the USPS board, they have to have money to operate and they aren’t getting it. There’s been too much blame going towards Dejoy and not enough going towards Trump and the House/Senate for not ensuring funding is there. Think of it this way, during the furloughs of government workers, what if everyone started pointing the finger at the head of hiring? Wasn’t his fault that he had to furlough workers and institute hiring freezes. As far as Trump, he’s scummy and is using this to try to get re-elected, but we all know it. Dems either have to agree to Republican demands or stop complaining and get the word out to their voters to use early voting, fill out ballots early, or vote in-person. That’s the big thing...stop the outrage and change the message.
I don’t understand the relevant of your question. You said there are other services other than USPS. I explain why rural Americans depends on USPS.
Once dejoy gets pulled in front of congress (if he doesn't leave the country) all of the retrumplican speaking points will be crushed... Postmaster general acknowledges 'unintended consequences' of restructuring https://thehill.com/homenews/admini...neral-acknowledges-unintended-consequences-of
It doesn’t all up. Why did the USPS not warn of delays that are happening? Why are they now saying they can’t handle 100m ballots over weeks when they handled billions easily in the past? Why have they been able to operate in the red for years but all of a sudden they have to make whatever drastic changes? Maybe it’s not any attempt to intentionally create this mess but as a head of the postal office, he’s responsible for reasonable on time service and with quality. Is it intentional? Is he way over his head and he doesn’t know what he’s doing? There are more questions than answers and he need to be able to explain and address it as fast as he caused the problems or step down for someone else to fix the mess. There is also a question of his financial conflict of interest. There are already effort going out to vote as early as possible, by both parties.
It would be a bit more believable if (1) your "fix USPS plan" wasn't happening a few months before the election and (2) you haven't already announced you were cutting back the USPS so they couldn't handle the increased demands from mail-in voting" because mail-in voting hurts his chances.
Because they’re either incompetent or malignant. And given the last 4 years, Trump’s cronies know exactly what they’re doing. This is just another form of voter suppression and it’s aimed at harming our trust in the democracy.
