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USPS: Ideally nothing stops the mail, including garbage fascists
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Would you prefer a badge that shoots bullets, a gun with a badge welded to it, or a gun that shoots badges.
I'm imagining the middle of those, as one more ridiculous bit of Judge's kit. (The Lawgiver is already halfway there, just put a slightly smaller version of the chest badge on it.)
Ari Berman is a reporter for Mother Jones.
The less you know about the world and how it works, the easier it is for someone to get you to believe it works the way they tell you it does, and then to convince you to let them make all the hard decisions in your life for you.
But to be on topic, there's still a lot of people who depend on the mail. I'm surprised eBay hasn't come out fucking firing on this, because a lot of its sellers use it to ship stuff, and this would be a huge pain in the ass for the bigger sellers.
I can has cheezburger, yes?
Count the numbers. The states in question are 257 of the 671, and includes two of the most populated states. Like, that reads to me "they were removed literally EVERYWHERE" and was highlighting the counts in swing states.
I mean, they're really connected.
It's just that A) The election is happening soon enough that any damage done now can't be repaired in time, and
If Biden gets in, or the Senate flips, they might actually do something about the malfeasance. Keeping the GOP in power means they can continue to dismantle and hamstring the USPS - So they're incentivized to break things and KEEP breaking things now, to prevent consequences later.
Those states add up to 175 EC votes, none of which are solid R or solid D projections on any of the mainstream maps I have seen. 538 has another 56 EC in solid R states, bringing Trump to 232. If they are able to properly suppress the vote in the states where the machines have been removed, then they will just need to mop up 38 votes in states like AZ, MO, LA, MS. SC, IA, and KS.
Florida, Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina and Ohio are all "toss-up" leaning towards Biden. In a normal year they'd be there for running up the EC count, but I really doubt Biden's chances there with the post office fucked.
In case anyone else was wondering "671 sounds like a big number, but is it?"
So, yes? Certainly relative to previous reductions in terms of inventory. In terms of capacity:
Assuming that 500m was 8 hour days, that's an extra 34%; 50% at 12 hours. More if that 500m includes packages. This excess capacity also serves as redundancy if these aging machines break down under heavy load, which is an inverse function of capacity!
So 671 seems like a lot in that context as well.
DeJoy has seemed resistant to the idea of releasing the analysis these reductions are based on; who wants to bet that the justification for this permanent reduction in paper capacity is predicated on the pandemic-induced slump in paper mail?
If so, I'm curious if he was hoping to position the USPS to implode as soon as this Christmas, as opposed to a gradual degradation of service until people finally came around on privatization.
I mean, on surface the decommissioning of these machines makes sense in a way, as the article points out actual postage numbers have been way, way down for years. I'm sure the pandemic affected that huge too, for years now my mailbox has mostly been a trashcan for local companies/newspapers to send me their weekly ads I use as firestarters. So the post office reconfiguring itself more for packages, which is where the business has been going for years make sense.
It's also unclear how many of these machines would actually be used for paper ballots, as there are several different types and they are very specialized for what size and type of mail they sort. But the timing of this all is very suspect, and there should be serious investigations into this by congress why these decisions were made, and what data is driving these changes and why they're obfuscating the reasons for their actions. Because there's absolutely zero reason to trust these bastards so much as an inch.
So long as Trump wins, there will be no accountability for these actions, so as DeJoy goes further towards interfering with the election, the more he's incentivized to ensure that Trump wins to avoid facing punishment for his actions.
Also, that this is a good example of what dealing with Trump policies has been like. A half-dozen changes get made, and then we need to sort through them to figure out which ones were made out of a misguided effort to treat a governmental service like a business, which ones are an attempt to skim money off the top, which ones were made because the person put in charge has no relevant experience and an unwillingness to learn, and which are made because Trump is a fascist. (As always, check all relevant boxes.)
Literally every other time they have cut the number of these machines, the drop in efficiency was several times larger than the savings.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
However the sudden jump in decommissioned machines seems suspect even on a surface level. Given the previous two year reductions were considerably lower, and the annual decline in mail volume over the last three years has been fairly linear, around 4b pieces or 2-3%, it's hard to imagine they have any firm basis, given the present circumstances, from.which to project a permanent, substantial, deviation from that trend line with the certainty befitting a nigh irreversible decision.
Mail stats: https://facts.usps.com/table-facts/
"I have a brilliant idea! Let's make it cost more to ship packages during the Christmas season!"
Do you have a source on that?
I don't know with whom I'm apparently preparing to rigorously debate this, but I do not intend to give them an inch of latitude.
One thing I have been thankful for on these forums is being equipped for the vast variety of bullshit that people try to level at me.
Depending on the state, ballots need to be received (not shipped) by election day. A single day delay could easily disenfranchise a ton of people, and that's if DeJoy makes good on his promise to prioritize ballots. Which, given his previous promises that were broken or twisted, isn't something I'm going to put any trust in. Delays of multiple days, or even weeks, could happen and there isn't really much recourse to prevent it without the Republicans in the Senate being on board.
This would actually be a good thing (well, a non-sinister thing) under different management, as it would at least bring in more revenue to keep the USPS afloat a little longer.
Under DeJoy, it can be assumed it's just there to be a pain in the ass to anyone who wants to use the USPS and that it'll do nothing to stop the cuts.
Where is that info? It isnt in that press release, which says the increase is only for commercial. Is it hidden in "competitive package"?
I am going to have to dig around but it was actually posted on the forums here. IIRC the numbers on the savings were like 4.8% and the reduction in efficiency was like 14.7%
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
The part that says retail prices are unaffected.
how badly is incoming international mail being effected?
I've got some stuff I want to send to my mom, but am I better off maybe trying DHL instead of the postal services?
Democrats Abroad! || Vote From Abroad
I think retail means USPS direct sales to individuals in this context:
I could certainly be wrong, but mass mailing companies use bulk rates, not the higher end services listed, so I can't come up with a definition of 'commercial customer' that wouldn't include retail businesses and still generate substantial revenue off of those.
My mum's latest care package took over 4 weeks. The normal is less than two.
If you back up a page or two I posted an example from the seattle area. It's centered around closing offices but IIRC involved sorters too
I mean, COVID and inclement weather have been affecting international shipping even before deliberate interference started.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Devils advocate.
It no longer was cost effective / made sense to keep these boxes / machines in service.
It should then be trivial to present the USPS policy and audit / evaluations showing these boxes/ machines no longer met the USPS guidelines to remain in place, and should be decommissioned along X timeline.
I mean there are times to close / retire stuff or remove redundant or obsolete equipment. And the USPS is a government agency with a real bureaucracy so if it was done properly there are SOPs and documentation and audits / studies supporting how it was done.
So let's see them.
I took it to mean “commercial” as in business to business and “retail” as in when an individual customer buys direct from a retailer.
I want to believe this is all paranoia. That we're freaking out about nothing. That there is no plan afoot to steal this election.
I would love to spend the next two months feeling hopeful and confident, rather than helpless and afraid.
But I can't. There's just too much at stake.