Trump versus the United States Post Office

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Oct 20 - 11:42 PM

It's taking a week for local mail to travel 20 miles from one town to another in the same county.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: keberoxu
Date: 04 Oct 20 - 07:20 PM

Whatever this lot are about,
they held up the payment
which I sent certified mail with return receipt.
The payment is now four days overdue.
When I went online to USPS,
the tracker assured me that
the shipment was still around somewhere
and still "in transit" ...

maybe registered mail next time?

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Oct 20 - 03:24 PM

We have an online service called "Informed Delivery" that shares a scanned image of the mail coming to your address each day. A heads up that is useful for me, so I don't have to go over to the post office to check the mail box every day. Lately I'm seeing delays regarding the mail that shows me what is coming to my house. What shows up as today's mail online doesn't arrive until the next day. This is still part of DeJoy's making trucks leave the hubs before all of the mail is loaded.

They don't make a scan just for these users, the scan is part of the sorting process and they're just taking advantage of already having that scan to share with interested mail customers. No charge. These sorting machines are what DeJoy was trying to take offline.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Oct 20 - 12:27 PM

I heard a story a couple of days ago that this summer the USPS stopped processing change-of-address updates for people over a six week period. I can't find that article now, perhaps the topic got lost in the general post office chatter. Or I need some different keywords for the search.

In the meantime, there is this:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/09/29/usps-workers-election-mail/

This summer, as controversial new procedures at the U.S. Postal Service snarled the nation’s mail delivery and stirred fears of how the agency would handle the election, rank-and-file workers quietly began to resist.

Mechanics in New York drew out the dismantling and removal of mail-sorting machines until their supervisor gave up on the order. In Michigan, a group of letter carriers did an end run around a supervisor’s directive to leave election mail behind, starting their routes late to sift through it. In Ohio, postal clerks culled prescriptions and benefit checks from bins of stalled mail to make sure they were delivered, while some carriers ran late items out on their own time. In Pennsylvania, some postal workers looked for any excuse — a missed turn, heavy traffic, a rowdy dog — to buy enough time to finish their daily rounds.

“I can’t see any postal worker not bending those rules,” one Philadelphia staffer said in an interview.

With the Postal Service expected to play a historic role in this year’s election, some of the agency’s 630,000 workers say they felt a responsibility to counteract cost-cutting changes from their new boss, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, that they blame for the mail slowdowns. They question whether DeJoy — a top Republican fundraiser and booster of President Trump — is politicizing the institution in service to a president who has actively tried to sow distrust of mail-in voting, insisting without evidence that it will lead to massive fraud.

and this

A few USPS plants are reinstalling mail sorting machines. But in Philly, more changes that could cause delays are happening.

After four federal judges blocked additional operational changes to the U.S. Postal Service and ordered it to reverse the changes that had been made, South Jersey and Delaware processing and delivery plants have started reinstalling some of the mail sorting machines that had been removed.

But in Philadelphia, nothing has changed. No machines in the Lindbergh Boulevard facility have been replaced, local union leaders and employees say, trucks are still being forced to leave on time, with or without the mail, and mail delivery is still being delayed.

In fact, despite federal court orders, more operational changes have occurred in the Philadelphia, South Jersey, and Delaware processing facilities in the last week, according to union employees at all three locations.

Employees at the Southwest Philadelphia, New Castle, and Bellmawr plants were told that mail sorting machines must stop sorting the mail by 5 a.m., whether all the mail has been sorted or not. Typically, the machines start sorting mail around 1 p.m., and don’t stop until the job is done. The time a machine usually finishes varies greatly and depends on the volume of mail that day.

The goal, employees believe, is to make sure all the mail makes it onto the delivery trucks by the time they need to leave, so that no mail is left behind. But instead, at least in Philadelphia, it’s resulting in thousands of letter pieces going unsorted, said Laurence Love, an assistant clerk craft director who operates mail sorting machines at the Philadelphia plant.

“I’ve been here for 35 years and we have never had any directive to shut off a machine,” said Love.

The massive sorting machines are programmed to sort mail based on address and route, making it easy for carriers to grab their bins of mail and hit the road. Carriers are usually only left to hand sort a few letters and flats that are unable to go through the machines.
But by 5 a.m., those items that haven’t been sorted yet are then only divided by route, not address, leaving some carriers with hundreds of pieces to sort themselves.

Not every machine has unsorted mail, but those sorting zip codes with heavy volumes, are struggling to finish, Love said. Last Sunday, which is usually the Postal Service’s heaviest mail volume day, at least 20,000 pieces of mail were left unsorted across four machines.

But by 5 a.m., those items that haven’t been sorted yet are then only divided by route, not address, leaving some carriers with hundreds of pieces to sort themselves.

Not every machine has unsorted mail, but those sorting zip codes with heavy volumes, are struggling to finish, Love said. Last Sunday, which is usually the Postal Service’s heaviest mail volume day, at least 20,000 pieces of mail were left unsorted across four machines.

The rest of the articles can be read at each link.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Sep 20 - 06:51 PM

I don't want to enhance Donald's scare tactics but when the Judge ordered all 670 high speed mail sorting machines put back in place there is no way in hell to do that in 50 days.
They were disassembled and destroyed. I don't know but the critical reader part might be made in Pakistan and is on back order. The old machines are in scrap yards and landfills already. It would take a miracle to fix 2.
Meanwhile I am still confused as to voting by mail.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: leeneia
Date: 18 Sep 20 - 04:02 PM

New news: fourteen states have filed suit in Yakima, Washington, and a federal judge has told the Administration to knock it off.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-post-office-idUSKBN26836Y

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Sep 20 - 04:46 PM

The post office (return address is downtown Washington, D.C.) sent out postcards, mentioned above. I got another one, this time at my post office box. It turns out that they AREN'T helpful because they are stupidly mailed to all 50 states and the voting systems are different in all of those states. And it has been pointed out on news programs that the timing suggested is too short for ballots to truly make it back in time if mailed.

Colorado's state attorney general got an injunction prohibiting the post office from mailing any more of those because they use mail in ballots for all citizens and the PO card is just going to confuse voters.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States - PERIOD
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Sep 20 - 09:21 AM

It was 3 years ago That robomatic took the position that our Institutions and Constitution would protect us from Trump's worst instincts. I of course took the opposite position that a bad actor without good faith could not be reined in by law. All Trump has to do is ignore the law. I am in the unenviable and unfortunate position of being right.   Well not officially until December 2nd when the election SHALL be finalized. But that may just be another law that will be ignored.

What will be different is that there are no Obama appointees for Trump to slowly fire. Now only Trump cronies and criminals are in charge of the Institutions from the get go.

A note to my critics:
Fuck you and good luck surviving Authoritarianism

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Penny S.
Date: 14 Sep 20 - 03:06 AM

Actually, what happens is that I accidentally click the wrong place! Sorry about that.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Sep 20 - 09:37 AM

First class mail between towns isn't as fast as it used to be years ago (it isn't sorted locally, it goes to someplace to be sorted then comes back, is what I guess). And it's taking longer now, a week or more to travel 20 miles.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Sep 20 - 09:36 AM

I guess Penny S reads this thread but I keep seeing empty posts (that are deleted). Share your thoughts one of these times, Penny!

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: leeneia
Date: 12 Sep 20 - 01:38 AM

It took several days for a check to reach my dentist, but the junk mail seems to be getting through just fine.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Sep 20 - 09:59 PM

We have to sign our own envelopes across the sealed edge of the envelope. No one else is supposed to unless you're infirm in some way and need assistance.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: robomatic
Date: 11 Sep 20 - 03:35 PM

The one time I tried to vote in a national election with an absentee ballot I went to the post office on election day and was scandalized when the postal worker behind the counter refused to sign the envelope. I'm pretty sure the instructions actually mentioned getting a postal worker to sign. There was hardly anyone else around so he had not excuse as to being busy. But I had to wait for someone else to show up to mail a package to sign off for me. And it shook my faith in anything other than the good old voting booth in my own district.

This was several administrations ago so I'm not blaming the current occupant. Just saying that the problem has been around for a while.

My municipality has been doing local elections via mail and either postal delivery or ballot boxes placed in common collection areas such as high school parking lots. It has worked well, been economical and efficient over the past few years.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Sep 20 - 02:34 PM

The post office is sending out post cards telling voters to "plan ahead." It seems the folks who work in the post office who do the regular postal mailings want voters to succeed, despite what DeJoy is attempting from the post office C-suite.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Sep 20 - 11:10 PM

I'm listing things on eBay and offering USPS, UPS, and FedEx, with a note that the buyer should choose based upon their experience of how long the USPS parcels are taking in their area.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Sep 20 - 07:29 PM

ALL my Amazon orders that were to be sent by USPS are late and deemed lost which make them eligible for refund.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 11:50 AM

I heard that story discussed on MSNBC last night. Once they get their teeth into a story they don't let it go, so I expect more to come on this topic.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 06:55 AM

https://www.businessinsider.com/dejoy-reimbursed-former-employees-donating-to-gop-candidates-report-2020-9

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Sep 20 - 03:46 PM

I'm going to be watching for news of ballot collection boxes. The absentee ballot is prepared exactly the way it would be to go in the mail, but without the stamps it is dropped off directly, like a library book return is controlled by the library.

Early voting here in Texas should start three weeks before election day, with perhaps a week between the end of early voting and election day. Ballots are sent out for absentee voting a couple of weeks prior to when early voting starts, so I'm guessing I may get a ballot in the end of September. I don't find a county page with exact dates, but I do find the Executive Order that is in effect until Nov. 30 (this is the fourth order extending the mask and distance requirements). So the election will be conducted under these COVID-19 restrictions.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Donuel
Date: 06 Sep 20 - 06:48 AM

The extra stamp thing is bogus according to Snopes

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Mrrzy
Date: 05 Sep 20 - 06:05 PM

In 13 days I can vote...

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Sep 20 - 05:15 PM

There is speculation that he's hoping to throw elections this way; send in Homeland Security to "assist" if people do vote twice.

The trouble is that any time some glimmer of an ideal drifts through that gray matter masquerading as a brain he blurts it out, without THINKING about it first.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Donuel
Date: 03 Sep 20 - 04:42 PM

The President is encouraging Americans to vote by mail AND in person.
I remind you that is illegal and punishable by law.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Sep 20 - 12:47 PM

Just over two months until we can deliver a stinging defeat to this idiot. Too bad much of Joe's first term is going to be fixing stuff Trump broke.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Mrrzy
Date: 01 Sep 20 - 11:40 AM

Vote early... but not often!

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Aug 20 - 03:39 PM

I'm seeing some dramatic and heartbreaking stories about the mess in the California post offices, and a judge in Washington State ordered DeJoy to show the paperwork on what he has done already. It does seem that Trump is targeting the west coast and Democratic states and cities.

On the news today someone said that the White House put up their plan for the post office two years ago (published somewhere?) but it wasn't until DeJoy came in that it really started happening and crumbling. So the seeds of this mess may have been hiding in plain sight for a while.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Aug 20 - 11:58 AM

The sponsorship stuff was just prior to the Bush administration (Congressional action) basically pushing the USPS back to the dark ages with the requirement, starting in 2005, that they prepay retiree health benefits out 75 years. No legitimate business has to comply with those regulations, but the USPS is a government service, not a business, as the last 15 years have illustrated. Trump is trying to put period to it, but I think his efforts will backfire.

Other agencies of the Federal Government regularly promote and sponsor related activities, though recently none of them have had the money for it.

From Wikipedia:

The US Postal Service announced that it would cease sponsorship at the end of the 2004 racing season when its eight-year contract expired. It had previously been under fire for the expenditure from organizations such as Postal Watch, a website critical of the United States Postal Service. Legitimate problems of mismanagement and sloppy accounting were pointed out by the Postal Service itself, via the USPS Office of the Inspector General. Before the expiration of the USPS contract, Armstrong insisted that he would only continue to ride with the USPS team structure. This demand was met on June 15, 2004 when Discovery Networks stepped in and agreed to sponsor the team for the next three years as the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team.

Lance Armstrong had to pay back $5m after he was found to have been doping.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: JHW
Date: 28 Aug 20 - 06:14 AM

Is this the same US Postal that sent Lance Armstrong round the Tour de France?

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Aug 20 - 05:36 AM

General info https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/absentee-and-early-voting.aspx

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Aug 20 - 05:34 PM

Tonight is the end of Trump's four-day rally on National television, when he is expected to try to make some big gesture of toward magnanimity the US. It won't involve mail boxes or sorting machines, but I'm willing to bet it WILL be another ethical violation of the Hatch Act. There have been so many offenses that pundits have lost count. What is happening in the post office (where his people are "planted goons," not appointees) is strictly designed to help him win. It is an impeachable offense all by itself.

Sinclair Lewis' 1935 novel It Can't Happen Here is amazingly prescient for today's events. The self-appointed militia, the gun-toting rights protectors, Trumps free irrational army, they are Windrip's "Minute Men" in the novel. I'm up to chapter 15, right after his inauguration when non-compliant congressmen and senators were arrested "for their own protection."

The post office is the tip of the iceberg, and Steven Miller is Lee Sarason.

(An interesting note: I couldn't find this book at the US Project Gutenberg location, but a search brought me to a copy in the Australian site.)

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: EBarnacle
Date: 27 Aug 20 - 03:51 PM

This all goes to show our system is when our malware is disguised as a human. We are seeing the butterfly effect in full force. Break a few machines and entropy takes over for you.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Donuel
Date: 26 Aug 20 - 08:04 PM

The heart of the 11 trashed high speed mail sorters are the bar code readers which were specifically smashed beyond repair.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: leeneia
Date: 26 Aug 20 - 07:21 PM

I won't be mailing my ballot in. I'll wear a mask and keep my distance and let local people do the counting.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Aug 20 - 02:07 PM

DeJoy didn't pay attention to Rep. Katie Porter when she told him she wanted to manage her time during the hearings, but his answers were empty. He doesn't know much about the front end part of mailing stuff (except that a first class stamp is .55). Part of her questioning during the Monday hearings.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Aug 20 - 11:14 PM

Yes, but all but one of them was appointed by Trump. They can't be trusted.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Aug 20 - 06:38 PM

Actually there is a board of Govenors that are respondsible for postal operations but they are being overlooked much like the Constitution.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 23 Aug 20 - 02:29 PM

Or they'll be retained by the government, while the new owners start with a clean sheet. Then such benefitscan be run down and phased out at leisure.

Your constitutional protection might not be too reliable. As I read it, it allows the federal government to organise postal services, but it doesn't seem to actually require it to do so...

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Aug 20 - 09:34 AM

The reason an increase in the cost of operations for the post office is that Republicans passed a law that requires the post office to cover and hold 100% of retirement benefits for even future employees that are not even born yet. It was designed to make the losing money argument easier for republicans and advance privatization arguments.

If privatization ever happens, all those retirement benefits will probably go to or be stolen by the new owners.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Thompson
Date: 23 Aug 20 - 05:48 AM

ThatcheReaganism meant that essential services stopped referring to people as passengers and recipients and so on; instead, we became "customers", with the implication that everything is paid for, and if you can't pay, you're a useless, valueless worm.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 23 Aug 20 - 04:33 AM

An interesting point was made by someone on F*c*book recently. They ask why the post office is losing money, while the army is costing money? Both are essential services, yet only one is characterised as loss making. It makes one wonder whether, if there were enough commercially run mercenary forces looking for profitable work, whether the gubmint might consider selling off the armed forces as well?
Maybe Vlad could put in a tender ?

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Thompson
Date: 23 Aug 20 - 02:25 AM

James Meek wrote in the London Review of Books about the
Dutch privatising their postal service a few years ago, and the horrible effects for working people. (A sign-up screen appears but you can dismiss it.)

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Aug 20 - 01:31 AM

The House. Now for the Senate. And to get signed into law by Trump. The House vote was bi-partisan. The Senate is less cooperative on most things, and to overturn a presidential veto takes a lot more people than usually step up.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/22/us/politics/usps-bill-congress-vote.html

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Mrrzy
Date: 22 Aug 20 - 05:17 PM

The guardian reports post office money thing passed

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Mrrzy
Date: 22 Aug 20 - 01:25 PM

More fun stuff here. If there is a paywall lemme know, I'll post the article.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Aug 20 - 10:02 AM

I don't know how the sausage is made or delivered but 11 removed high speed letter sorting machines sounds diabolical.

Mr. Red remember my liquid glass product? Thats what can reglaze glasses for pennies. Horribly scratched lenses are not good cndidates even with multiple coats.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Aug 20 - 09:57 AM

In Canada the postal dropoff areas are in malls and shopping centers, they seem to be franchises? It has been many years since I was in Canada, but I mailed things a couple of times from a local mall.

I've always thought the idea of banking at the post office was a good one, I think that used to be a feature of the British post offices? It's a shame they were privatized. Must have been by one of those politicians who wanted to scrape the value out of the public institution or offer more business to the private sector. Thatcher? Sounds like Trump's goal. It was Bush II whose administration put the unreasonable qualification that the USPS pay retiree health benefits for 75 years out that brought it to it's knees.

Damn. Yes, having it in the Constitution does make it more difficult for him to convert it to private, but right now he's intent on breaking it.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Aug 20 - 09:50 AM

I was mulling this topic earlier today - I'm doing a "news free day" but the brain still thinks about stuff even no data is coming in right now. What would resourceful companies try to do when faced with a completely stalled parcel delivery in their mail hub? I imagine they're loading up trucks and transporting their parcels out of the region to other hubs. Perhaps leaving Los Angeles for Las Vegas or Tucson or Phoenix. But all of their parcels have indicia from their home postal franking machines. It can still be messy.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 22 Aug 20 - 08:14 AM

Of course in England we haven't had a national post office or mail service for years - the Tories sold them off to be private companies years ago. I suppose in the States it would be harder to do that, since it's in your Constitution.

Subject: RE: Trump versus the United States Post Office
From: Mr Red
Date: 22 Aug 20 - 03:54 AM

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, Trump surprises you. Welcome to the "not quite third world - yet" America! The water is lovely, if a little choppy.

Goggle Ads are getting cheeky. Amid posts of a spectacle of delays and failing deliveries at US Post was an ad for glasses re-glazed by post. (free postage both ways!)

Would you risk your spectacles being out of reach for weeks, or worse? Goggle is getting clever, too clever by half.