Monday, April 13, 2020

Airlines safe, but Trump would let post office die

 
Smithsonian Institution American Art Museum

     You can’t vote by mail if there’s no mail.
     One of the many disasters that will ensue if the government actually lets the United States Postal Service go belly up, which it might do as early as September.
     A disaster to democracy, small “d” — the mail knits this country together in a fundamental way, like the interstate highway system — and I suppose to large “d” Democrats, too. That’s because their frequent majority — which is supposed to be the deciding factor in elections, remember — is constantly being undercut by Republican voter suppression.
    The GOP casts this anti-democratic (and yes, anti-Democratic) action as a campaign to suppress voter fraud, which is rich, like the guy breaking into your house and stealing your TV declaring it part of an anti-burglary campaign.
     At least we haven’t gone back to literacy tests and poll taxes. Yet.
     The USPS going bust would also be a disaster to already cratering employment. Unemployment shot up due to the COVID-19 pandemic: a record-shattering 16 million unemployment claims in three weeks. If the USPS goes, another 600,000 jobs — good jobs with benefits — go with it.
     The $2 trillion bailout package approved by both houses of Congress would have been the perfect time to help out letter carriers, since the volume of mail is down some 50 percent due to COVID-19.
     The package manages to rescue the airline industry; you’d think the mail would be a no-brainer. But even no-brainers are hard when you haven’t got a brain. Or, rather, when the rude ganglional clump that controls your actions only lights up when the topic is you.

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9 comments:

  1. I too understand the importance of the postal service. But. Holding a national election with an organization that mostly exists to deliver advertising ? With history of poor service? 150,000,000 ballots? Counted by hand. Sounds like a recipe for disaster. And each state counting in its own way . I don't agree with me. Trump on much but it sounds like a terrible idea. And could take weeks even months to determine the winner. And then it would end up in the courts. We understand now to keep a safe distance and wear a mask and wash our hands and disinfect surfaces. It will be November. Hold the election in the traditional way maybe over a couple days. So the slowness required allows everyone to vote . People all over the world risk life and limb to vote. Have the election. People are dying cause they can't stop going to the grocery store way to often or they have to play Frisbee in the park. This is important. Let's get it right. If you want to vote by mail in a lot of places you already can.

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    1. It’s not a new idea & certainly not Trump’s idea, though he does support it. Republicans have been using it for years as a form of voter suppression. As to the USPS supposed “history of poor service”, that’s mostly an old wives tale. In my experience, the service
      compares favorably to UPS & FedEX.

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    2. And in a lot of other places you can’t. I doubt that even half the population has it even under certain conditions, much less in every circumstance.

      Not sure why you think they’d have to be counted by hand. They can be scanned.

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    3. The states count the ballots.

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  2. Hard to imagine the USPS going under for obvious reasons. Yet, his base would still support him. These are the same people who have no health insurance, can’t pay their rent, did not benefit from the tax cuts, etc. One thing where Trump has succeeded is exposing the critical weaknesses of this country. His autocracy is in place. If allowed to continue I can’t imagine what life will be like the next four years.

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  3. I don't think it's just Trump's feud with Bezos. Privatization of mail service has been a long term GOP goal.

    Tom

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  4. At least we haven’t gone back to literacy tests and poll taxes. Yet.

    Florida sort of has. When the state's voters voted for a constitutional amendment allowing felons to be able to vote once they've served their time, Republicans promptly passed a law saying they couldn't vote unless they've paid all court fees, fines and charges. Since they get charged room and board for every day they've served in prison -- no, that's not a joke -- these were often insurmountable costs, especially for people who had just gotten out of prison.

    Fortunately, a federal appeals court told the Florida Republicans to get stuffed. Of course, they're appealing.

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  5. The USPS is being fattened up to 'privatize', and transfer more wealth to those who can't use all the wealth they already have. Easy to see that coming.

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  6. I didn’t pay much attention to the heading photo of the sheet of old stamps but after some thought, the Graf Zeppelin reminded me of a book entitled “When Money Dies” by Adam Ferguson. It had to do with post WWI Germany when they were in such debt and with runaway inflation caused by the ceaseless printing of money, it eventually lost all value. Will that happen here?

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