Note—The first
of two parts about the Postal Service.
Today—an existential threat to the institution and to democracy itself.
Most of us in
the depths of our wildest despair and paranoia expected that it would come to
this—that the President of the United
States is openly and brazenly destroying the only agency of the Federal Government so essential
that it was specifically mentioned
in the Constitution not any cabinet office but a national postal service. And he is explicitly doing so to undermine
free elections and perpetuate
himself in office no matter the overwhelming
disgust of the American people.
If you have not
been paying attention the Cheeto-in-Charge
has appointed a wealthy crony and toady, Louis DeJoy as Post Master General. DeJoy, who unashamedly owns stock in United States Postal Service (USPS)
competitors hit the ground running dismissing or demoting most senior Postal
Service officials and replacing them with reliable rubber stamps. He ordered an end to all overtime by postal employees
including distribution workers, mail sorters, and letter carriers and ordered them to leave behind any mail that
they could not expect to deliver on
theirs shifts. The predicable result has been a delay of service with some urban
neighborhoods reporting that they have not had home delivery for three weeks or more.
 |
| Post Boxes being removed in Portland and around the country mostly in Democratic cities and strongholds. |
As if that was
not enough, postal collection boxes
were ordered removed all over the US
but somehow especially in Blue states. Social
media has been flooded with images of the boxes being hauled away
or crowding Post Office yards and warehouses.
Where the boxes could not be removed quickly enough some were welded or bolted shut an others wrapped
in plastic. While not every box has
been removed postal patrons will
have more difficulty finding convenient receptacles
for mail in ballots and any other business.
If that does not
sufficiently slow service, hundreds of high
volume automatic mail sorters have been removed for postal distribution centers, another huge bottleneck.
The resulting
delays in Postal service will not only sabotage
the November election it will delay the delivery of vital medications,
interfere with Social Security and
other benefit payments, and delay
both bills and bill payments. Payments received
late can be subject to hefty late fees and
charges and damage credit ratings.
 |
| Protests in support of the Postal Service and against sabotaging the election are spreading across the country |
Meanwhile
Trump and his cronies are trying to starve the Postal Service to oblivion. Even before Coronavirus pandemic the USPS faced a financial crisis. The Post
Office Department was reformed right
out of existence under President
Richard Nixon in 1971 and reborn as the United States Postal Service, a quasi-public corporation run by a Board of Governors but answerable to
Congress. The Postmaster General vanished from the Cabinet. The new corporation was charged with running
like a business and expected to turn a profit. That was made difficult by a number of restrictions placed on it by Congress
and then made impossible when the USPS was mandated to fully fund
pensions decades into the future,
huge payments that make it impossible
to report a profit and has allowed rightwing ideologues in Congress to
declare it a failure and push for massive service cuts, continuing steep annual postage rate hikes, and
eventually its complete replacement by
competing private companies like Federal Express and UPS.
Attempts
to increase Postal Service support through the regular budget process were regularly stonewalled in the Republican controlled Senate. The Democratic majority in the House of Representatives earmarked emergency aid in their version of the
original Covid-19 emergency stimulus
bill. Under pressure from the White House and its point man on the stimulus package, Treasury
Department Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the Senate rejected the Democratic
plan for a $13 billion direct grant that
the Postal Service would not have to repay.
Mnuchin threatened to block the whole $2 billion dollar relief bill if
aid to the USPS was included. “You can
have a loan, or you can have nothing at all.” Eventually an
inadequate $11 billion loan was approved with plenty of strings attached. Despite
the authorization the administration dallied in actually delivering the loan.
House
Dems attached more funding in the second stimulus package which it sent to the
Senate in mid-May. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused
to take up the House bill and took until mid-summer to offer a Senate version
sans postal aid. Negotiations on a compromise broke down.
As
the stalemate continued Trump last
week baldly assert that he was
holding up Postal Service aid because of Democratic proposals to provide $3.6
billion to states to run elections
and $25 billion in aid to the postal service. “They need that money in order to
have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of
ballots,” Trump said in an interview with
Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo. “If
they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in
voting because they’re not equipped to have it.”
In
obedience to his master McConnell recessed
the Senate until well after Labor Day without passing anything. That means no extension of $600 emergency
unemployment benefits which have expired,
no continued Federal suspension of evictions, no funds for states and cities to
keep afloat, and no new aid for small business. It is a disaster for millions of Americans
and is expected to deeply damage the
already perilous economy.
There we howls of outrage over Trump’s moves,
but he has stood by them with only a little verbal waffling while not changing
course. Experts believe the actions are blatantly illegal but law suits to stop it have little chance
to be heard and decisions appealed even on an emergency
basis in time to prevent disruption
of the election. They would also have to
survive rulings by the many Trump appointees to the appellate bench and Supreme
Court.
Others suggest
that the President, DeJoy and other officials could be charged with felony interference with the mail. As delightful as that prospect may be, no one
will be placed behind bars for a long time and Trump can always use his pardon powers preemptively.
 |
| The names and contact info for members of the USPS Board of Governors who could fire Post Master General DeJoy and block his destructive rampage. Could, but probably won't. |
A campaign is
underway to urge the nine presidentially
appointed members of the Postal
Service Board of Governors to fire the Post Master general and block his
efforts to sabotage the agency. But
there are six Republicans, all nominated by Trump, and only three Democrats on
the Board. They are unlikely to vote
against DeJoy, who they dutifully elected on Trump’s nomination on June 15.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Sunday
that she was calling the House back into sessions immediately following this
week’s Democratic National Convention to
take emergency action to block Trump’s sabotage.
In a joint press conference with the Speaker
Senate Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer put the issue
in stark terms—the sabotage of
mail-in voting is proof that Trump knows that he “can’t win without cheating."
 |
| Senate Minority leader Chuck Blasted Trump and Republican Majority Leader Mich McConnell for trying to steal the election by destroying the Postal Service and Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the House back into session to deal with the emergency. |
The most likely vehicle for action will be a version of
a bill introduced by House Oversight
Chair Carolyn Maloney earlier this week that would prohibit USPS from implementing
a planned organizational overhaul that critics would handicap mail-in voting. But unless a handful of Republicans in the
Senate respond to growing bipartisan outrage,
the measure will be dead in the water in the higher chamber.
In the face if
the growing backlash, the administration has tried muddy the waters. On Friday DeJoy told a Congressional panel that
he would not remove post boxes, but there is no evidence the removal has
actually been stopped and no guarantee that either already removed boxes would
be put back in place or that regular
and timely mail pickup from them
would be scheduled. Trump’s Chief of Staff de jour Mark
Meadows told a Sunday morning news
show that “I’ll give you a guarantee right now that the President of the
United States is not going to interfere with anybody casting their vote in a
legitimate way, whether it’s the post office or anything else.” But of course his boss has repeatedly said
that mail-in-voting, at least in Democratic states would be fraudulent and illegitimate.
Of course the
attack on the USPS is just part of a much wider attack on the election. Once again officials in Republican states
will ramp up their voter suppression
efforts including last minute voter
purges, slashing in-person polling
places especially in minority
communities, blocking equitable
distribution of voting machines, and
outright voter intimidation. In response to grass-roots efforts to turn
out the vote despite postal delays Trump
allies have even filed a Federal law suit against counting any
mail in ballot without a postmark. That would counter recommendations that
voters hand deliver their ballots to local county
clerks, other election agencies, or
the secure lock boxes provided for
in Illinois and other states. The suit is frivolous and will likely be dismissed,
but it adds uncertainty.
 |
| The secure lock box at the McHenry County Administration Building is suppored to recieve mail-in ballots that are hand delivered to avoid uncertain mail delays. Now a suit in Federal Court is trying to challange counting mail-in ballots that do not have postmarks. |
All of this
fuels justifiable paranoia. What if Trump’s
demands for opening the economy and schools is actually an attempt to have a raging epidemic that
makes voting in person as difficult as voting by mail? Could he use it as an excuse to declare a national emergency and postpone the election? Constitutional experts say no, but that might
to stop him from trying. What if withholding
unemployment benefits and barring eviction protections is a plan to increase
homelessness which could lead to challenges
to voters for not having a current
address? Unthinkably draconian? Yes, but somehow not impossible. Could he call on those “very fine people” including his die-hard fans, motorcycle
gangs, White nationalists, “patriot” militias, plain old gun nuts
to rise up to prevent his ouster in an allegedly rigged election? Would
he really stop short of a civil war? What might he ask Vladimir Putin and the Russians
to do to meddle even more outrageously in our elections and what price may he have to pay to get that
help?
 |
| Will we have to take to the streets like the citizens of Belarus to get rid of our would-be dictator?. |
What can we do?
We all have to redouble our efforts
against all odds to turn out a massive vote that Trump and his allies cannot overcome. That means ignoring all of the many attempts that will be made to turn against each other against and
there will be many. Then if he retreats to his White House bunker and refuses to go quietly and peacefully we may need to flood
the streets not just for one-time-marches
but for the kind of day after day
massive protests that have brought down other tyrants and are right now playing out in Belarus where the people are demanding the end of Alexander Lukashenko’s 25 years of dictatorial rule after his fraudulent re-election earlier this
month. Today workers will stage a general
strike in support of the hundreds of thousands in Minsk who have defied
violence and repression.
Tomorrow—Moving
the Mail Was the Federal Government’s First Order of Business.
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