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The long tail of business that's transacted on the assumption that the USPS is a reliable, cost-effective business is absolutely massive. I honestly can't beli

The long tail of business that's transacted on the assumption that the USPS is a reliable, cost-effective business is absolutely massive. I honestly can't believe it's being dismantled in this manner for purely short-term partisan goals by an ostensibly "pro-business" political party.

dave5104 6y ago
> USPS is a reliable, cost-effective business I'd even rephrase that to say, USPS is a reliable, cost-effective service, because I think it's important enough that it doesn't need to be considered a "business"--and assumed to have a chance at generating profit.
- toomuchtodo 6y ago
  It is a foundational utility of a developed country, and our folly is not defending it as such (as you would for water, power, schools, fire services, etc).
- mikeyouse 6y ago
  100% agree on your correction.
clumsysmurf 6y ago
I shouldn't be a surprise, the Republican party created the EPA under Nixon for good reasons, and now does everything it can to undermine it.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
> I honestly can't believe it's being dismantled I think your news is about a day old. USPS backed off any changes until later: https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/18/usps-postmaster-general-louis-dejoy-election https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/18/usps-postmas... https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/08/18/politics/post-office-dejoy/index.html https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/08/18/politics/post-office-dejo...
- lehi 6y ago
  That was yesterday. USPS was caught today continuing to dismantle sorting machines. https://twitter.com/_HeatherWalker/status/1296109536164679681 https://twitter.com/_HeatherWalker/status/129610953616467968... https://twitter.com/_HeatherWalker/status/1296122043772133382 https://twitter.com/_HeatherWalker/status/129612204377213338... https://twitter.com/_HeatherWalker/status/1296153569679355904 https://twitter.com/_HeatherWalker/status/129615356967935590...
- mmcconnell1618 6y ago
  Temporarily suspending the dismantling does not retro actively fix the damage done to date. The USPS has been under attack by forces that want to privatize postal delivery for many years.
  - tehwebguy 6y ago
    Additionally today it was made clear that the current USPS head will not fix what he just broke, just pause the breaking until after the election
- TehCorwiz 6y ago
  They’ve already removed hundreds of sorting machines, thousands of blue boxes, removed almost all overtime and a host of other things. Sure they “stopped” but those things aren’t coming back. Damage done.
  - stjohnswarts 6y ago
    Eh I've heard no where near those numbers, do you have a source for that?
    - mikeyouse 6y ago
      The original reduction plan as detailed in a presentation from May called for nearly 1,000 sorting machines to be dismantled. It's hard to say how much of that plan has been completed (we'll likely find out more next Monday during the Congressional hearings) but it's absolutely that order of magnitude. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7035434-USPS-Equipment-Reduction-Plan.html#document/p1 https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7035434-USPS-Equipme...
jonahbenton 6y ago
It isn't being done by a political party for partisan goals, though there are certainly innumerable willing and willfully blind accomplishes in the party infrastructure. It is being done by a criminal leadership, as part of ordinary practice. It's really, really important to make that distinction. Across the US government, infrastructure is being dismantled. That is what criminal organizations do. These are the spoils of war. It is not inside the system. It is outside the system, destroying it. That people believe this is a legitimate, though twisted, partisan enterprise...is part of the fun of the criminal act. It is happening, out in the open, by sociopaths.
- jonahbenton 6y ago
  Don't downvote. Valid distinction, factual reporting.
- evan_ 6y ago
  it is the political party, though. If it were an isolated gang of criminals then you would expect the political party to vote to remove, distance themselves, scowl at them, anything. With extremely few, vanishingly few exceptions, they are not.
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > It isn't being done by a political party for partisan goals, though there are certainly innumerable willing and willfully blind accomplishes in the party infrastructure. Yes it is; dismantling the public post has been a Republican partisan goal for more than half a century, it's why we have the USPS instead of the US Post Office, it's why the USPS when it didn't fail quickly enough was saddled with unique pre-funding requirements for retiree health benefits, and it's why the members of the Republican Party that don't have direct buy in to the additional corrupt motivations of the present administration are standing by while it happens. The same is true of similar, more -immediately-corrupt-than-the-broader-partisan-motive efforts elsewhere in this administration that leverage long-standing Republican partisan interests. > It is being done by a criminal leadership, as part of ordinary practice. That's also true, but it's not either/or.
kolanos 6y ago
> I honestly can't believe it's being dismantled in this manner for purely short-term partisan goals by an ostensibly "pro-business" political party. Well, it's not? This has been a long time coming. [1] [1]: https://editions.lib.umn.edu/electionacademy/2015/09/01/its-not-just-you-late-usps-mail-delivery-is-up-nearly-50/ https://editions.lib.umn.edu/electionacademy/2015/09/01/its-...
burfog 6y ago
USPS is unreliable because it is partisan. Observe: https://twitter.com/SheriffTNehls/status/1276646406682484736 https://twitter.com/SheriffTNehls/status/1276646406682484736 It's a postal worker caught on video throwing campaign materials in the trash. She drove to a storage rental place to do it, evidently thinking that that was safer than disposing of the materials at her workplace. With postal workers like that, it is nuts to think that ballots will be safe. If a neighborhood seems to vote in a way that the postal workers don't like, the ballots will be much more likely to go missing.
- mindslight 6y ago
  So the solution to the possibility of ballots not being delivered, is to increase the likelihood that ballots will not be delivered? If the anecdote you linked were the driving concern, then addressing that concern would result in constructive action instead of sabotage.
stjohnswarts 6y ago
I can believe it. How can you not after the past 3.5 years of constant lies and abuse of government power which was also supported by nearly half the country.

dave5104 6y ago

> USPS is a reliable, cost-effective business I'd even rephrase that to say, USPS is a reliable, cost-effective service, because I think it's important enough that it doesn't need to be considered a "business"--and assumed to have a chance at generating profit.

toomuchtodo 6y ago
It is a foundational utility of a developed country, and our folly is not defending it as such (as you would for water, power, schools, fire services, etc).
mikeyouse 6y ago
100% agree on your correction.

clumsysmurf 6y ago

I shouldn't be a surprise, the Republican party created the EPA under Nixon for good reasons, and now does everything it can to undermine it.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

TedDoesntTalk 6y ago

> I honestly can't believe it's being dismantled I think your news is about a day old. USPS backed off any changes until later: https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/18/usps-postmaster-general-louis-dejoy-election https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/18/usps-postmas... https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/08/18/politics/post-office-dejoy/index.html https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/08/18/politics/post-office-dejo...

lehi 6y ago
That was yesterday. USPS was caught today continuing to dismantle sorting machines. https://twitter.com/_HeatherWalker/status/1296109536164679681 https://twitter.com/_HeatherWalker/status/129610953616467968... https://twitter.com/_HeatherWalker/status/1296122043772133382 https://twitter.com/_HeatherWalker/status/129612204377213338... https://twitter.com/_HeatherWalker/status/1296153569679355904 https://twitter.com/_HeatherWalker/status/129615356967935590...
mmcconnell1618 6y ago
Temporarily suspending the dismantling does not retro actively fix the damage done to date. The USPS has been under attack by forces that want to privatize postal delivery for many years.
- tehwebguy 6y ago
  Additionally today it was made clear that the current USPS head will not fix what he just broke, just pause the breaking until after the election
TehCorwiz 6y ago
They’ve already removed hundreds of sorting machines, thousands of blue boxes, removed almost all overtime and a host of other things. Sure they “stopped” but those things aren’t coming back. Damage done.
- stjohnswarts 6y ago
  Eh I've heard no where near those numbers, do you have a source for that?
  - mikeyouse 6y ago
    The original reduction plan as detailed in a presentation from May called for nearly 1,000 sorting machines to be dismantled. It's hard to say how much of that plan has been completed (we'll likely find out more next Monday during the Congressional hearings) but it's absolutely that order of magnitude. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7035434-USPS-Equipment-Reduction-Plan.html#document/p1 https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7035434-USPS-Equipme...

jonahbenton 6y ago

It isn't being done by a political party for partisan goals, though there are certainly innumerable willing and willfully blind accomplishes in the party infrastructure. It is being done by a criminal leadership, as part of ordinary practice. It's really, really important to make that distinction. Across the US government, infrastructure is being dismantled. That is what criminal organizations do. These are the spoils of war. It is not inside the system. It is outside the system, destroying it. That people believe this is a legitimate, though twisted, partisan enterprise...is part of the fun of the criminal act. It is happening, out in the open, by sociopaths.

jonahbenton 6y ago
Don't downvote. Valid distinction, factual reporting.
evan_ 6y ago
it is the political party, though. If it were an isolated gang of criminals then you would expect the political party to vote to remove, distance themselves, scowl at them, anything. With extremely few, vanishingly few exceptions, they are not.
dragonwriter 6y ago
> It isn't being done by a political party for partisan goals, though there are certainly innumerable willing and willfully blind accomplishes in the party infrastructure. Yes it is; dismantling the public post has been a Republican partisan goal for more than half a century, it's why we have the USPS instead of the US Post Office, it's why the USPS when it didn't fail quickly enough was saddled with unique pre-funding requirements for retiree health benefits, and it's why the members of the Republican Party that don't have direct buy in to the additional corrupt motivations of the present administration are standing by while it happens. The same is true of similar, more -immediately-corrupt-than-the-broader-partisan-motive efforts elsewhere in this administration that leverage long-standing Republican partisan interests. > It is being done by a criminal leadership, as part of ordinary practice. That's also true, but it's not either/or.

kolanos 6y ago

> I honestly can't believe it's being dismantled in this manner for purely short-term partisan goals by an ostensibly "pro-business" political party. Well, it's not? This has been a long time coming. [1] [1]: https://editions.lib.umn.edu/electionacademy/2015/09/01/its-not-just-you-late-usps-mail-delivery-is-up-nearly-50/ https://editions.lib.umn.edu/electionacademy/2015/09/01/its-...

burfog 6y ago

USPS is unreliable because it is partisan. Observe: https://twitter.com/SheriffTNehls/status/1276646406682484736 https://twitter.com/SheriffTNehls/status/1276646406682484736 It's a postal worker caught on video throwing campaign materials in the trash. She drove to a storage rental place to do it, evidently thinking that that was safer than disposing of the materials at her workplace. With postal workers like that, it is nuts to think that ballots will be safe. If a neighborhood seems to vote in a way that the postal workers don't like, the ballots will be much more likely to go missing.

mindslight 6y ago
So the solution to the possibility of ballots not being delivered, is to increase the likelihood that ballots will not be delivered? If the anecdote you linked were the driving concern, then addressing that concern would result in constructive action instead of sabotage.

stjohnswarts 6y ago

I can believe it. How can you not after the past 3.5 years of constant lies and abuse of government power which was also supported by nearly half the country.