The latest is that 10-13% of mail sorting machines (that each process over a million pieces a day) have been removed without explanation (or rather, the meaningless explanation of "equipment reduction") from dozens of major cities (on the one hand, all Dem strongholds, on the other, of course urban areas are where the machines are) and are being dismantled and destroyed despite functioning just fine. Also, dozens of blue mailboxes are being removed from the streets of NYC and Oregon due to insufficient use.

A firsthand account from a postal worker reports that he previously was given 2,000 pieces of mail per day to deliver, but with the re-organization and orders from on high to slow down processing, he's now getting between 200-600 per day. He's not working fewer hours, just delivering less mail than he's capable of right now. Mail that used to be sorted locally is now being sent to other cities and sometimes other states for processing, even if the delivery address is in the same city as it was posted from.

Numerous other reports, especially from renters who pay by check and seniors who get their meds through the mail, say that deliveries that took 2 days in the past are now taking 14 (and they are consequently running out of important things like insulin, because their health insurance A. requires mail-ordering and B. doesn't allow filling in advance.)

It's possible these are the inevitable growing pains of a restructure that will lead to more efficiency in the end. It's also possible this is deliberate. It should be noted that the majority of Amazon's deliveries are through the USPS.

meaningless?

The amount of mail handled by the USPS is down by a third in this decade alone. It's not coming back, half of us pay our bills online now. I hope the USPS is offloading equipment and changing blue box routes.

are you not done reading the rest, or did you just stop there?

Go fuck yourself

so to sum up your theory bad things are fake

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...381_story.html:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-ap...N36Q.jpg&w=916

With the caveat that obviously democratic voting strongholds tend to be population centers, so this is correlation but hypothetically not causation, people on twitter have overlaid that map with the pro-hillary margin in 2016:

Attachment 71214

as one of the authors of the article pointed out on twitter:


all of which, again, i would say serves fundamentally to erode public trust in the voting process and muddy the election waters. unless its an inarguable blowout landslide victory for either side, neither side is going to have faith in any result. that scares the shit outta me.

Only makes sense if the equipment was sitting idle or under-used, though. According to people who work in those post offices, they were in steady use, and this is part of why mail delivery that used to take 2 days takes 14.

Like I said, it's entirely possible this is only step one of a larger process, and they'll be replaced with bigger, more efficient machines at the new designated hubs, and it ultimately will make sense for a letter to travel 500 miles away just to get sorted and travel back to the same city. But right now, at least, there are measurable delays and problems in a service that used to work.

school is starting back up, colleges are opening, fall is coming... you're more optimistic than i am about that, clearly, but i sure think things are about to get even worse before they get better unless serious steps are taken

A Rural Area with Moderate Politics near a Major USPS Processing Center.

How curious. That is exactly how Donald Trump thinks. And his disciple Urbane Guerrilla.

Undertrump?
Urbanetoad?

There's always an explanation, sometimes it is malice sometimes not; bad reporters just go with the narrative, good reporters ask more questions until they get to the explanation

https://katu.com/news/local/photo-ab...acing-old-ones

replace them when is an important question i think

"we asked them and they said don't worry about it" isn't a very satisfying explanation imo

The agency has focused in recent years on placing boxes in high-traffic areas such as shopping centers, business parks and outside grocery stores, she said, and removing them from low-traffic areas. ...

So do we move them to Amazon warehouses?

Postmaster General Bezos?

I don't think he'd want to take the pay cut.

USPS inspector general blog post in 2016: "Nationally, the number of collection boxes declined by more than 12,000 in the past 5 years."

This Medium post explains every angle of the entire USPS kerfluffle

Why this is on Medium, as opposed to in the NY Times or Wash Post?

Because people want to be inflamed, not informed

This was good and I liked it.

As pointed out at the beginning, Congress has the power to legislate about and fund the USPS.
DeJoy may be an honest guy, but Trump is not and we should not trust his motivation in appointing him.
Harper doesn't mention the state of postal services in other countries. I think it is better and one benefit of not spending every last dime on "defense" and not giving the farm to the already over-rich through tax cuts.
Stifling the vote by any means possible has been a conservative goal for decades.

When did The Medium become serious?

2 to 5 days to get first class mail 10 miles? Gimme a fucking break, I can send first class mail to MA, SD, FL, and TX in 2 days.

And Trump has no power over DeJoy? DeJoy who gave millions to the GOP over the last couple years and gave Trump $220,000 this spring, won't do Trump's bidding? Won't slow up the USPS to help his own company? Right, and the Great Pumpkin will bring the mail.:rolleyes:

Moving the mail costs money, more money to places like the islands off Alaska where they have to charter helicopters at least once a week. The most important job of the USPS is to service EVERYBODY no matter where they are. There are a lot of companies who want to take over lucrative routes in the city and leave the hard/expensive work to the USPS. This must not happen.

So the volume of mail has been decreasing over the last decade, and we've already been making adjustments to equipment, etc. for that same time (past five years from 2016, said IG). So what's the big rush to do it now, right now? Right before an election*?

*where, it would be careless NOT to mention, the incumbent candidate has repeatedly voiced his opinion that mail-in ballots will hurt his chances?

Which part of this am I not understanding?

They've just banned postal workers from witnessing ballots while working.

Article about Alaska in particular, but relevant for any state that requires witnesses.

that's probably unrelated to anything

Personally, I intend to handwalk my mailed/absentee ballot to the county center elections office -- next town up -- and avoid the post office and its troubles altogether.

From 4 November, I expect a good deal of comment and scrutiny of the balloting process on the radio talkshows. Should run at least a week or two.

And the word is the expected procedural and standards changes will take place *after* the first week of November.

Now only 16 states increasing, fewer day by day. South Dakota is having a bad time, Either Sturgis was a big vector, or it was just the middle North's turn as every region gets its own curve. Still, these numbers are in the hundreds, not thousands.

rt.live

I'd be shocked if Sturgis wasn't a vector, most of those guys/gals think it's all a big hoax perpetrated by Big Pharma, Hospital executives, politicians left or right, etc.

But it is still out there and still deadly for some people.
Apparently some people can get reinfected or get infected by a mutation.
Slowing does not mean stopped so wear a condom mask.

Condomask. Practice safe social intercourse.

Pete had her third Biden sign stolen last night. Fresh sign in the ground this morning.

People are saying that empty suit and his ilk should be disemboweled.

I say that's empty talk by people who don't have the guts to engage other people with other ideas, which is why they want his, or yours. Cowards.

Update from a rural area with moderate politics:

Heavily armed right-wing militias have been coming to peaceful protests and screaming in people's faces, issuing threats against specific community members on social media (worded to circumvent the FB standards), organizing meetings to discuss "taking back" the county "by force" and offering rewards for "the ashes of pride flags" and issuing "hunting licenses" for individuals who question their behavior or operate openly LGBT-friendly businesses.

If your yard sign being stolen is the worst thing happening in your area, stay where you are.

Stay home and enjoy the bandwidth. Where we're going, there is no "area".

Starlink satellites #649-708 are going into space tomorrow. They are planning to launch limited US service when they have 800 up. So that's probably two launches from now.

Sign up now, so that you can be among the first beta testers

True words, outside of the ongoing target shooting and blasting at the quarries Griff Crackertopia is quiet. Little diversity here this area has already been taken.

Yeah, I prefer to hope we get our shit together. The end of American Civilization in HD? Sign me up!

Latest update:

The right-wingers have a list of addresses they believe are "associated with" the recent shooting in Portland. They are going to people's houses to harass and intimidate them. They are gathering in large, heavily-armed numbers in front of businesses that have spoken out against them.



Local police/government are setting up one-on-one meetings with concerned citizens, presumably to explain why they can't do anything but sit back and watch.

A few more Biden signs are sprouting around here. I took signs to the lady whose Biden banner was stolen off her porch. She was very grateful to get them what with the Trump billboard looming over her house. It may have been the :fumette: talking though.

This election is a strain on everyone especially sane Republicans and independents who live in deep red.

https://apnews.com/article/election-...47a3a0e932e2a8

FWIW Franconia was 90/10 Biden signs

That's not what I expected.

J says "More than 90-10, I only saw 3 Trump signs the whole time."

If you have some poison oak or ivy on your property? Just curious.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

We don’t but you can get grease and glitter in red and blue. Thing is escalating it wouldn’t be a win. Pete just brings the grabable sign in at night. We went to a rally of like minded folks today (distance masks outdoors) it was a relief just to know there are others out here even if we have to drive across the county to prove it. We met the House candidate seems like a nice dude.

Someone put out a Biden sign in our neighborhood (there are quite a few of them). Someone left the sign but placed a handwritten note stating that political signs are illegal according to our homeowners association and at the end added quote go Trump.

FYI, my wife was on the board when this was discussed years ago and political signs are allowed within size limits.

The complaintant adding the go Trump statement did turn what could have been a genuine concern into a partisan tactic.

Also, leaving a handwritten note instead of actually complaining to the board was an act of cowardice and intimidation.



Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

Perhaps the complainant didn't report it to the board because the complainant knew the political sign wasn't illegal according to the homeowners association and was just bluffing figuring anyone who would promote Biden was gullible enough to fall for it.

This perspective is supported by the complainant having added the Go Trump note which could have also constituted an illegal political sign there; unless, the complainant already knew what complainant wrote wasn't true.