trump Is Destroying the US Postal Service

The destruction of the United States Postal Service has been going on for the past few weeks - as trump's Acting Postmaster General DeJoy, yet another unqualified appointee who has personal financial conflicts of interest, has been eliminating services and sorting equipment - but today trump just... blurted it out (again), via Barbara Sprunt at NPR:

While President Trump has long railed against mail-in voting, falsely claiming it leads to rampant fraud, he appeared to confirm Thursday morning that he opposes Democrats' proposed boost in funding for the U.S. Postal Service because he wants to make it harder to expand voting by mail.

Trump gave that explanation during an interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business Network after she asked why the White House and congressional Democrats are still miles apart on approving a new stimulus deal.

Trump said one major factor is the Democrats' push for an injection of funds into the U.S. Postal Service to expand voting by mail.

"They [the Democrats] want three and a half billion dollars for something that'll turn out to be fraudulent — that's election money basically," Trump said...

trump is going by a long-debunked claim that massive voter fraud happens, and that a lot of that fraud is through mail-in ballots. he's straight up lying, but it's the excuse he can use to suppress voter turnout any way he can for 2020.

In the process, trump and DeJoy are deliberately slowing down the sorting, sending and delivering of anything that's within the same rate service as the mail-in (also known as Absentee) ballots. Not only will that all get affected... but other essential shipments like medical supplies to ailing homebound, people in rural/long-distance places, and veterans are getting hit by this stunt. Medical supplies are getting delayed. Please raise your anger up a notch about that.

This is going to hurt more people than ever before... especially during a pandemic when in-person pickups are a serious risk.

trump's kneecapping of the Post Office is also part of an ongoing privatization push by Republicans to underfund if not abolish federal agencies and services they claim can be better done through the private sector... which by the by never works out. I digress, let's stick to this point.

Thing is, the Postal Service is one of the specific tasks spelled out in the bedrock foundation: The Constitution of the United States makes it clear in Article I, Section 8, Clause 7: "Congress shall have power to...  To establish post offices and post roads..." with the implication that it is Congress' duty to ensure people can send and receive mail, that businesses can ship and receive parcels, that the communications vital to the strength of the nation never wavers nor slows.

trump is intentionally saying Fuck You to all of that.

And trump along with his lackey DeJoy are both breaking the law. Via Cornell's online US Code:

18 U.S. Code § 1703.Delay or destruction of mail or newspapers

(a)Whoever, being a Postal Service officer or employee, unlawfully secretes, destroys, detains, delays, or opens any letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail entrusted to him or which shall come into his possession, and which was intended to be conveyed by mail, or carried or delivered by any carrier or other employee of the Postal Service, or forwarded through or delivered from any post office or station thereof established by authority of the Postmaster General or the Postal Service, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

trump is bragging that he's delaying the mail.

We could note that technically trump is not a Postal Service employee, but he MAY be considered an officer: one of the hats of the Presidency Loser of the Popular Vote is head of the Executive branch which oversees the Post Office. This law should well apply to DeJoy who is directly employed as an officer - the fricking Acting Postmaster General! - and his ass needs to be called to the U.S. House committee in charge of making sure the agency is running well.

This is a serious problem. For all the technological wonders of the Intertubes, our nation still relies on physical mail for much of our personal and professional lives. trump is threatening all of that because he's desperately trying to steal an election he dare not lose.

Call your Congresscritter today. Try 202-224-3121 and tell them your District (if you don't have that at hand, your mailing ZIP code should do). Be polite, the person answering is likely an unpaid intern and deserves your sympathy as much as trump deserves your rage.

Get the big guns out. Start the investigations into this and force trump to put OUR Postal Service back together again.

It's not just our voting rights at stake, it's our very lives.