On Trump Trying to Dismantle the USPS--and Likely Our Democracy. And Nation

So here is what's going on with this many-layered situation. First this.

USPS Removes Mailboxes

Followed, also, amazingly, by this.

Postal Service plans to remove 671 high-volume mail processing machines

An internal US Postal Service document obtained by NBC News reveals plans to remove 671 high-volume mail processing machines from postal facilities across the country. The document, circulated in June, is broken out by region and city/state.

Heck, our own Kansas City Star reported it did, in fact, happen here locally.

Postal Services removes mail machines in Kansas, Missouri

Can you imagine working for the Postal Service, walking in and seeing the mail sorting machine gone? Where does that happen? In what industry do they REMOVE automating equipment? Anywhere?

Then this came from the Orange Man's mouth himself.

Trump Admits He’s Trying To Stop Mail-In Voting With USPS Sabotage

Trump admitted that he is trying to stop mail-in votes from being counted with USPS sabotage during a Thursday Fox Business interview.

Once again, this President shows he wasn't/isn't smart enough, bright enough to even keep his mouth closed, keep quiet about his plans, nefarious and blatant as they are.

With all that, this is where we are now.

House Oversight Committee calls for 'urgent' hearing with Postmaster General

The House Oversight Committee is calling for Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to testify at an "urgent" congressional hearing later this month amid growing concerns about whether cost-cutting measures will leave the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) ill-equipped to handle a rise in mail-in voting.

It seems the Trump's Postmaster General may have some significant conflicts of interest.

Amid political controversy, postmaster general's stock holdings come under renewed scrutiny

USPS head Louis DeJoy reportedly owns millions of stock in mail processor

With this President trying to under-fund or de-fund the Postal Service and the House Democrats planning to have the Postmaster General this coming week, here are some things I'd like to ask the head of the Postal Service, that Postmaster General, just now:

• Do you deny that 671 mail sorter machines--or some number--have been ordered out of our postal service facilities across the nation?
• Why are they being taken out? 
• How does taking mail sorting machines out make any sense at any time but especially now when we need the postal service and all you do for this most killing pandemic in over 100 years?
• Why are post office mailboxes being carted away?
• How can anyone think this isn't to keep people from voting this Fall?
• Can you testify now, under oath, that you own no other investments that have to do with mailing or shipping of any sort in our nation?
• Can you testify here under oath that you would in no way benefit from having our United States Postal Service ceasing to exist?
• Can you testify here, now, under oath that it is not now nor will be in the future your goal or the goal of your boss, this current President, to end the existence of the United States Postal Service?

I hope someone asks them.

This, however, is how and where it gets difficult.

What Really Scares Voting Experts About the Postal Service

No matter what Trump says, the USPS has the money and the capacity to handle a huge surge in mail-in ballots. But new restrictions could disrupt the election.

President Donald Trump and his allies might well succeed in undermining the United States Postal Service’s ability to handle an expected surge in mail-in ballots this fall. But the biggest immediate threat to voting by mail isn’t blocked funding.

Trump acknowledged yesterday that he opposes a major stimulus deal with Democrats in part because he wants to stop an infusion of $25 billion to the Postal Service ahead of the election. “They need that money in order for the Post Office to work, to take in these millions and millions of ballots,” Trump said in an interview with Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo. But the president doesn’t want more voting by mail, and he doesn’t want the Postal Service to have any more money to help with it. “If we don’t make a deal, that means they don’t get the money. That means they can’t have universal mail-in voting. That means they can’t have it.”

Democrats see the president’s comments as slam-dunk evidence of what they have been charging for weeks: that Trump is sabotaging the November election by purposely degrading the ostensibly independent Postal Service. They have assailed the appointment as postmaster general of a Trump donor, Louis DeJoy, who has moved rapidly to reorganize the Postal Service’s leadership and institute cost-cutting measures that have already resulted in slower mail delivery. Those service changes, rather than the congressional fight over funding, are what alarm advocates for mail-in voting the most. At stake is nothing less than the integrity of the election itself, which to a large degree rests on whether tens of millions of ballots can get into mailboxes and then back to their precincts in time to count.

Keeping in mind this, overall, from our own Constitution.

8 U.S. Code § 1701.Obstruction of mails generally

Whoever knowingly and willfully obstructs or retards the passage of the mail, or any carrier or conveyance carrying the mail, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 778; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(1)(B), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2146.)

I would never have thought a President, even this one, would attack and try to dismantle, destroy our Postal Service.

Unreal where we are.

Then this President said this.

Trump says it could take 'months' or 'years' to know election results

Have we become, are we already some Third World banana republic backwater?

Are we going to tolerate this?

I'm sure as Hell not if I can do anything about it.

First, we can't respond to a pandemic---but all other nations can---and now this?

Oh, Hell no.

Once again, one more time, thanks, Republicans.

Entertainment Overnight -- Trump vs Judges

Entertainment Overnight -- George Washington Trump

Hilarious.

Eric Greitens' and the Republicans' Missouri

With our new, "pretty boy" Governor Eric Greitens and his Republican pals in Jefferson City having had a special session so they could rule further on womens' and couples' reproductive rights---them with their "small government" and all---I thought of them with this video, rather naturally. How perfect.



They'll deny any of it if they recognize themselves in any way.

Pitiful.

Pathetic.

Painful.

Sexist.

Pretty fascist, too, really.

Entertainment Overnight -- The Next Presidential Administration

Because the fact is, these two would, in reality, be far, far better in the White House than the present occupant.



Hanks/Johnson, 2020!

On This President's Latest

Saturday Night Live did a great, timely, even fair and accurate evaluation of this President Trump last evening. Sure, it's easy material, granted but still, they did a great job.



No telling what to expect next from The Orange One.

Why We Have Black History Month

What it's like to be Black in America.

How segregated school districts 

keep black children in poverty

How Home Ownership Keeps 

Blacks Poorer Than Whites - Forbes

Black People More Likely to Be Stopped 

by Cops, Study Finds

Blacks Are Most Likely To Be 

Arrested By Police

Black people twice as likely to be charged with drugs

Black people six times more likely to face drug arrest

Study: Whites More Likely to Abuse Drugs Than Blacks

Whites deal more drugs, but 

blacks get arrested more often

Black People Are Way More Likely To Be Killed By Police Than Their White Peers: Study

Black Americans incarcerated five times 

more than white people

Nonwhites Are 2/3 of US Prisoners

Kristof: U.S. imprisons blacks at rates higher 

than South Africa

U.S. Imprisons More Blacks Than Apartheid South Africa

What part or parts of any of this seems remotely fair or just or right?

Keep in mind, too, this is just a small portion of all the many, many statistics on America, Americans and how Blacks are treated in our nation and have been since the nation's inception.

This isn't "Black History" so much as what has been going on for the past 300 years and what's still going on and why we need to change it. Why we need to change all of it.

Links:

Slavery by Another Name

From Slavery to Mass Incarceration, the Role of Prisons

'13TH' Argues Mass Incarceration Is An Extension Of Slavery

The Case for Reparations - The Atlantic

Separate, Unequal, and Ignored

Entertainment Overnight - New

I was only just introduced to Sturgill Simpson and his band last Saturday Evening after having seen their performance on Saturday Night Live. I liked the rock and roll I saw there but this is another really nice one, completely unlike their two pieces that night.



"It's all a dream.

Entertainment Overnight -- On Mr. T.

President Trump --- Shudder

At least, if we're going to have four years of President Donald Trump--and it looks as though we are--at least give us four years, also, of Alec Baldwin playing him, mocking him for all those 4 years, also. 

Please, if there's a God and Heaven, at least give us that.

SNL Was Powerful Last Night

If nothing else came out of the show but their "cold open" and the opening monologue, they outdid themselves.





Have a good week, y'all and heaven help us.

Happy Festivus!

Amy Schumer and SNL Take On 'Merika and Our Guns

More people need to do this. More people need to publicly come out and mock America and Americans on our guns---the quantity and widespread, rather insane use of them in this country.

Hillary on Hillary

First Bill and now Hillary. Both.

Smart, funny, and good for the nation.


Everything Republicans aren't.



Enjoy your Sunday, y'all.

Worried About Gay Marriage?

Relax!

Corporate America, Running Amuck

If you've been paying attention at all to the news lately, especially about corporations and what they're doing and doing to us Americans, it's likely you've been disheartened. I know I have been. And I don't even have high expectations of them.

First there was this, from AT&T, last October, putting unfounded charges on their customers bills:

AT&T Fined $105 Million by FTC for 'Cramming' Charges

Then there was this, a few weeks ago, again from and about AT&T and the way they supply internet service:

AT&T Fined $100M for Throttling 'Unlimited Data'

It seems AT&T said if you got internet from them, you'd have "unlimited data." Trouble was, they didn't bother to tell those same customers that when they got to a certain level of data usage, their internet speed would slow. Nice, huh?

Then there was this, yesterday, from Google, also on computers:

Google Secretly Spying On Computer Users

Then there was this from Whole Foods last year:

Whole Foods Will Pay $800,000 for Price-Gouging

Finally, not to be done there, this came out yesterday, too:

Afternoon Bulletin: Whole Foods in Legal Trouble for Inflating Prices (Again)

So for anyone, anyone who thinks we can or should do with little or no government, when corporations and the wealthy can do these kinds of things to us, I say they must be crazy.

Or they're part of these corporations and doing these very same things to us all.

Things that will change--greatly--with the next generations

I've noticed a few things about the preferences of the next, younger generations, that are different--vastly different--from the way America and Americans are now. There will be big changes with the coming younger people. Whole economies will be turned upside down, if not eliminated entirely:

First thing I noticed is that they have vastly, vastly different preferences for ways to spend their time. Nowhere is this more true than when it comes to computers and television.

The younger the person, the less likely they are to watch TV, period. At least, they don't watch it on a television set.  Instead, they spend far more of their time--frequently all their spare time--on their computers.

That's a big change in and of itself.

A second part of that is that they don't need or want "cable TV." They wouldn't even think of paying for a TV subscription, let alone what it costs at present.

Those factors alone will bode hugely in change and changes for TV providers like Cox, Time Warner Cable®, Comcast, AT&T® and the like. They will have to transform themselves greatly in just a few short years. Big changes are going to come.

Second, or, in a way, thirdly, a big change is that younger people want and own fewer cars. As in none, in many cases. That will mean huge changes in transportation for our country, certainly.  Maybe more car poolers?  Mass transportation?  It seems likely.

Third, not only will entire industries be racked by change, with some, lots, maybe, even likely, entire cities and towns will also be racked by change. One city right now is going through such a change, with no optimistic outcome in sight.

That city is Branson, Missouri.

Formerly, millions of dollars were made, rather famously, on the idea of people driving or busing into that city in order to see the various shows, performers, singers and other acts at this Northwest Arkansas hamlet.

No longer.

Last Summer, the again famous "Shepherd of the Hills" show closed after decades of performances.

Branson seems to be next.

The senior citizens that formerly used to stream through the city have either seen enough of the shows or, worse, they're literally dying. From what I understand, the theaters down there are quietly for sale, behind the scenes. It seems they can be bought for fractions of what they were once worth. It stands to reason. The younger people don't want to and will not be going there for their entertainment. It's in no way their style entertainment.

Side note:  If the Walton family, of the Walmart fortune, know what's good for them and Northwest Arkansas, they would step up, pony in some big money---they can easily and well afford---and try to get set up an artist's colony-type arrangement in the town and area, much like Asheville, North Carolina has now. I think it could help the burg and that area transition to a better, newer, functioning, surviving, even thriving area and economy. If they don't or someone doesn't, I'd look for Branson, one day, and possibly, very likely one day very soon, to be a rather hollowed-out, sad and run down place of yesteryear unless they or someone very like them--Tyson Foods? someone--steps in.

We shall see, of course, on all.

Senator Blunt clearly very wrong about Americans, our opinions and even his own party

 

Senator Roy Blunt's Facebook page today said the following:

Most Americans oppose the Senate Democrats' proposal to raise the debt limit without implementing real spending reforms. I agree. The federal debt stands at almost $17 trillion today. Washington needs to get serious about reining in out-of-control spending.

Well, yeah, except a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll this week showed completely, totally and utterly the opposite of the Senator's contention:

 

And let's keep in mind, the Wall Street Journal is solidly pro-business and Right Wing leaning owned, as it is, by Rupert Murdoch so it shouldn't be claimed this is some wacko, Left Wing media nonsense.

 

The evidence is overwhelming.

 

Americans blame the Republicans for the federal government shutdown and rightly so, and Americans want our government up and working, running again and we also patently don't want our nation to go in default on our debt we already owe.

 

Another thing.  Lest Republicans should try to contend that they haven't supported these debt ceiling increases in the past:

 



 

 

Finally, where, exactly, is the debt right now anyway?

 

 

Dropping??

 

The debt is actually dropping?  

 

Under this president?

 

Huh.

 

Imagine that.

 

Maybe we shouldn't have this shutdown and a possible default on our debt after all.

 

More here: 

 

Republicans are even more screwed than you thought

 

 



Enjoy your Sunday. Somehow.

 

Bloody hypocrites.

 

The Pharisees got nothing on these people today.

Here's your IRS scandal