Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
Here are some questions for you:
– Do you know how the United States Postal Service (USPS) is funded?
– Do you know why the USPS is having such serious financial problems?
– Would the closing of more than 200 postal processing centers and more than 3,000 post offices across this country, eliminating Saturday mail delivery, and cutting more than 100,000 postal jobs be the best way to save the USPS?
– Would slowing down mail delivery help the USPS to take in more revenue?
– What would happen to rural communities if their post offices were closed?
– What do you know about the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006?
– Have you heard about H.R. 1351?
Yes, the USPS is experiencing serious financial problems. I’ve heard on the news and read in the papers that drastic measures must be undertaken in order to save this great American institution. I think that it’s important to understand the causes of those problems and to know what could happen to the US Postal Service unless Congress solves them without severely impacting the institution and the services it provides to Americans.
Josh Eidelson’s Salon article Congress’s war on the post office: The Postal Service faces a threat greater than email or economics: Politics (March 14, 2012) helps provide some information on the issue:
The U.S. Postal Service is at risk of defaulting on healthcare obligations or exceeding its debt limit by the end of the year. Last month, USPS management unveiled a “Path to Profitability” that would eliminate over a hundred thousand jobs, end Saturday service and loosen overnight delivery guarantees. The Postal Service also proposes to shutter thousands of post offices. “Under the existing laws, the overall financial situation for the Postal Service is poor,” says CFO Joe Corbett. Republicans have been more dire, and none more so than Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, who warned of a “crisis that is bringing USPS to the brink of collapse.”
Listening to Issa, you’d never know that the post office’s immediate crisis is largely of Congress’s own making. Conservatives aren’t wrong to say that the shift toward electronic mail – what USPS calls “e-diversion” – poses a challenge for the Postal Service’s business model. (The recent drop-off in mail is also a consequence of the recession-induced drop in advertising.)
But even so, in the first quarter of this fiscal year, the post office would have made an operational profit, if not for a 75-year healthcare “pre-funding” mandate that applies to no other public or private institution in the United States.
Warren Gunnels, aide to Sen. Bernie Sanders, calls that mandate “the poison pill that has hammered the Postal Service … over 80 percent of the Postal Service deficit since that was enacted was entirely due to the pre-funding requirement.”
This death hug was part of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which was passed on a voice vote by a lame duck Republican Congress in 2006…
As reported by CNN, the USPS has claimed that a number of its difficulties were caused BY the federal government “– through a law governing how the agency funds workers’ retirement health benefits.” It has also been reported that prior to 2007—when the mandated prefunding of healthcare benefits began—the Postal Service actually generated a small profit.
The act/law referred to above required that the USPS prefund retiree healthcare benefits for workers for the next 75 years…in just ten years (2007-2016). That means the USPS has to continue to cough up $5.5 billion annually to meet the funding mandate for another five years. No other government entity or agency has been required to do the same by Congress. Why has the Postal Service—an institution that provides valuable services to businesses and to millions of Americans—been singled out?
Allison Kilkenny thinks that the people who are working to destroy the USPS as we know it are motivated by a desire to bust the strongest union in the country and to help pave the road to privatization. She wrote the following in a Truth-out article titled Postal Workers: The Last Union:
The recent attacks against the United States Postal Service (USPS) are more than signs of desperate times – a natural sunset moment for a service rendered archaic by FedEx and UPS. Rather, the Postal Service has been under constant, vicious assault for years from the right, who views this as an epic battle with the goal of finally taking down the strongest union in the country, the second largest employer in the United States (second only to Wal-Mart,) and a means to roll the country ever closer toward the abyss of privatization. The Postal Service, which is older than the Constitution itself, stands at a precipice. If this great institution, which provides one of the oldest, most reliable services in the country, is permitted to fall and Congress kills its great union, then truly no collective bargaining rights, no worker contract, no union will be safe within the United States.
As the USPS spirals toward default, the historically uncontroversial mail service system has suddenly become a hot-button issue. It’s an unlikely organization to inspire such hysteria. The Postal Service isn’t paid for by taxpayer dollars, but rather fully funded by the sale of stamps. It’s easy to forget what a marvel this is – that today, in 2011, one can still mail a letter clear across the country for less than 50 cents. And if the impressiveness of that feat still hasn’t sunk in, attempt this brain exercise: consider what else you can buy for $0.44.
It was only a few years ago that the USPS was considered not only stable, but thriving. The biggest volume in pieces of mail handled by the Postal Service in its 236-year history was in 2006. The second and third busiest years were in 2005 and 2007, respectively. But it was two events: one crafted during the Bush years and another supervised by House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa that would cripple this once great institution.
Allison Kilkenny Talks with Sam Seder about the USPS on Countdown (9/9/2011)
Cliff Guffey, president of the American Postal Workers Union, believes that the law would do more than “cripple” the USPS. He believes it was designed “by those people who hate government … to destroy the Postal Service. And that’s what they did.”
In addition to requiring the Postal Service to prefund retiree healthcare benefits, Josh Eidelson said that the law also limits the institution’s capacity to change and grow with the times: “The new law also restricted the Postal Service’s ability to raise postage rates, or to provide ‘nonpostal services’ that, in an e-diversion era, could be key to its future.”
Matt Taibbi wrote on his Rolling Stone blog that barring the USPS from offering “nonpostal services” means that it can’t “open up a bank, or an internet cafe, or come up with any new entrepreneurial ideas to generate new income, as postal services do in other countries.”
Like Kilkenny, Taibbi thinks that the purpose of the law—pushed by lobbyists—“was to break a public sector union and privatize the mail industry.” Taibbi added, “Post offices also have a huge non-financial impact: In a lot of small towns, the post office is the town, and shutting them down will basically remove the only casual meeting place for people in mountain areas and remote farming villages and so on…This is a classic example of private-sector lobbyists using the government to protect its profits and keep prices inflated.”
From a special report on the USPS post office closings published by Reuters earlier this year:
Some of America’s poorest communities – many of them with spotty broadband Internet coverage – stand to suffer most if the struggling agency moves ahead with plans to shutter thousands of post offices later this year, a Reuters analysis found. Nearly 80 percent of the 3,830 post offices under consideration are in sparsely populated rural areas where poverty rates are higher than the national average, demographic data analyzed by Reuters shows…
The Postal Service is not studying the economic impact on communities where post offices are slated to close, spokesman David Partenheimer said. But in the 3,004 rural communities across 48 states where post offices may close, many residents fear the impact will be pronounced.
About 2.9 million people live in the rural communities where the post office that may close is either the only one or one of two post offices serving their zip code area. For many rural residents, that would translate into longer drives to mail packages, pay bills or buy stamps.
According to Postal Reporter News, in February the USPS “informed tens of thousands of employees that it plans to close mail processing facilities. The decisions are not final. No closings will occur before May 15. Postmaster General Patrick Donahue agreed to that timetable under moratorium proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders to give Congress time to act.” Sanders said the USPS’s plan is “deeply flawed” and that Congress must change it. He said that he expected “comprehensive postal reform legislation to be on the floor of the Senate within the next few weeks.” He added, “At a time when the Postal Service is competing against the instantaneous delivery of information from email and the Internet, slowing down mail delivery service will result in less business and less revenue, and will bring about a death spiral for this institution which is so vitally important for all Americans.”
Sanders continued, “A critical weakness of the current Postal Service plan is that it ignores the onerous financial burden being placed on the Postal Service by $5.5 billion a year in pre-payments for future retiree health benefits. According to the Postal Service inspector general, those payments are no longer necessary because of the $45 billion which that account already has accumulated. The Postal Service needs to be reformed not by massive cuts, but by a new entrepreneurial business model which expands the products and services the post office can sell in the 21st century digital age.”
In the following video, Senator Sanders speaks about ways in which the USPS could be modernized and provide additional services to customers that it doesn’t provide today:
There are other members of Congress like Sanders who are trying to find ways to help save the USPS. One of them is Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts. On April 4, 2011, he—on behalf of himself and Elijah Cummings of Maryland— introduced H.R.1351: United States Postal Service Pension Obligation Recalculation and Restoration Act of 2011. This bill would “amend the provisions of title 5, United States Code, relating to the methodology for calculating the amount of any Postal surplus or supplemental liability under the Civil Service Retirement System, and for other purposes.”
From the NALC FACT SHEET (National Association of Letter Carriers):
Lynch’s bill once again takes a big step toward making sure the Postal Service is treated in a fair and equitable manner, allowing it to overcome the very difficult financial challenges it currently faces. In addition to addressing the CSRS overcharge, H.R. 1351 also deals with the more recent finding regarding another overcharge to the USPS related to the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). Even so, H.R. 1351 only addresses the CSRS and FERS overcharges and does not repeal the onerous, legally mandated, annual pre-funding payments into the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefit Fund (PSRHBF)…
H.R. 1351 does not address the legally mandated pre-funding payments into the PSRHBF beyond the FY2011 payment, which costs the USPS $5.5 billion annually. Rather, it simply fixes the massive over-funding to the postal CSRS and FERS accounts. Additional legislation would be necessary to repeal the future scheduled pre-funding payments to the PSRHBF.
Mark Anderson wrote the following in The Daily Cougar last September: “Currently, a 44 cent stamp will get a letter from Houston to New York in two to three days. According to the FedEx website, two-day delivery of a similar letter to the same destination will cost between $20-30 dollars.”
Shock Doctrine at U.S. Postal Service: Is A Manufactured Crisis Behind Push to Privatize? (Democracy Now)
How the Right Wing Destroyed the U.S. Postal Service (Majority Report with Sam Seder)
I wonder if most Americans would prefer to send mail via the USPS—or by FedEx. I wonder if most Americans would like to see our Postal Service privatized. I wonder how many Americans would like to see post offices in their cities and towns shuttered. I wonder how many Americans would like our elected representatives to find solutions to the problems facing the USPS that won’t include drastically reducing the number of postal carriers, post offices, and processing centers in this country–and slowing down the delivery of our mail.
SOURCES & FURTHER READING
Postal Workers: The Last Union (Truth-out)
Postal Service pleads for help as losses continue (CNN)
Is benefits law dragging down the Postal Service? (CNN)
Don’t Let Business Lobbyists Kill the Post Office (TAIBBLOG)
Privatization of US Postal Service could be costly (The Daily Cougar)
Republicans pushing to privatize USPS (Coloradoan)
Post Office is vital, hamstrung by Congress (Daily Review Atlas)
ALEC/Koch Cabal Pursuing Privatization of the US Postal Service for UPS and FedEx… (Voters legislative Transparency Project)
Special Report: Towns go dark with post office closings (Reuters)
Post office closings may increase rural isolation, economic disparity (Washington Post)
Senate Passes Postal Reform (Senator Bernie Sanders, Vermont)
Is Your Post Office Closing? USPS Is Studying Shuttering 3,700 Locations (NPR)
USPS Closings Could be Averted With Senate Bill (Christian Post)
H.R. 6407 (109th): Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act
Rain, Snow, Sleet and Congress (New York Times)
Shock Doctrine at U.S. Postal Service: Is a Manufactured Crisis Behind Push Toward Privatization? (Democracy Now)
USPS Postal Service Countdown Clock (Senator Tom Carper, Delaware)
NALC FACT SHEET (National Association of Letter Carriers)
Sen. Sanders Calls Postal Service Plan ‘Deeply Flawed’ (Postal Report News)
Co-sponsors of HR 1351 (PopVox)
So is your post office on the chopping block? The Postal Service released this state-by-state list of retail locations that could be affected.
Karl, There will be a lot of other people that don’t want to abstain that are being forced to abstain because of the new voter id laws. A lot of people have worked hard for the right to vote and it is being taken away. I would rather fight that battle and help people vote than tell them to say home. How do know Prof. Turley is abstaining? Has he signed your pledge?
I do not understand why taxpayers pay for the health insurance or pensions for ANY ELECTED officials. They run for office and hold office only by the will of voters — they are NOT employees.
I think it is right to provide health insurance and pensions for government employees but NOT for elected officials — and that means no more taxpayer-funded health insurance or pensions for any Members of Congress and/or the president of the United States.
Let elected officials go out and shop for their own health insurance and pension plans AND pay for it themselves!
Think of the money we can save.
And then we won’t need to dismantle our postal system.
I have one other question for you, Karl. Why are the republicans trying to disenfranchise and suppress the vote of those without the means to get a government sponsored id?
Karl, I see you detest the democrats but don’t you think the job killer Romney will be worse for the unions? All my union member friends think so. The 1% chose Romney over Santorum in the primaries and will continue to support him. Romney is rich, and he is their candidate.
SMom: I thought I made clear it’s a one party election with 2 bickering factions that serve primarily the 1% of Banksters, stock market swindlers, war profiteers and hideous oil companies like BP & Halliburton.
I detest the democrats to be sure but I utterly despise the republicans like grim death.
No, I’ll be joining Professor Turley and 80 million other eligible voters this election by abstaining. It’s not that we 80 million don’t vote rather we WON’T vote.
If the choice is between 2 evils I won’t vote for evil.
Res ipsa loquitur
SMom –
Of course the Postal Union leadership is backing Obama. And that’s why they are doomed.
Anybody who hasn’t yet figured out that the Democratic Party is part of the problem that’s undermined working people over the last 30 years instead of the solution that they imagine is delusional.
The fact is the US is a One Party State that simply has 2 Factions which bicker over the best way to transfer wealth from the bottom to the top.
On everything unpopular to working people there is a remarkable consistency of bipartisan consensus: Wars, NAFTA, more wars, more odious trade agreements, repeal of Glass-Steagall, Bank bailouts, bankruptcy reform, tort reform, etc.
The 1996 Telecommunications Act, thanks to Clinton, consolidated 80% of the news media into the hands of just 7 companies and paved the way for scourges like Faux News and Murdoch’s control of many American Newspapers.
Only because of Clinton and his big business bootlickers were the laws abolished that allowed the Wall Street Swindlers to ruin the economy.
Only because of Democrats was $750 billion handed over to crooked banksters with virtually zero accountability.
In fact the most draconian civil liberties laws in the 20th century were passed thanks to Clinton after the OK. City bombing and are the heart of the Patriot Act. Bush only consolidated it with an extra paragraph and both were of course rammed through only because of the participation of the Democrats.
The very worst thing for working people are of course wars because their labor gets converted into profits for arms makers and the workers’ children are the first to be slaughtered. The Democrats, historically the party of the slaveholders, never prevented a single war but did manage to prosecute every single major war in the 20th century.
Their legacy continues in the 21st century with a virtually perpetual war that squanders $2 billion a week during a depression while every drop of fuel used in Afghanistan enriches whoever charges the Pentagon $400 per every gallon that runs in every vehicle, warship and aircraft: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=1&oq=%24400+per+gallon&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGHP_enUS415US416&q=400+per+gallon+gas+&gs_upl=0l0l0l5905lllllllllll0&aqi=g2s1&pbx=1
Why would anybody but the 1% give a vote of confidence to somebody who continues to prosecute probably the most mindless & longest war in American history, against more brown people, in one of the poorest countries on earth?
Obama doesn’t deserve the vote of working people but sadly he’ll get tens of millions thanks only to the most sophisticated propaganda machine in human history — one that Goebbels’s would have been proud of.
“Of course the Postal Union leadership is backing Obama. And that’s why they are doomed.”
Karl,
So what pray tell is your immediate solution that we citizens can use in the face of this doom?
Bob28+, Thanks for your informative post.
On the subject of Govt. pensions, to educate all the people that believe that postal employees will be getting some “huge” payouts in their retirement years…as of 12/31/1983, the Govt. sponsored civil service retirement system (CSRS) was discontinued, for employees that still fall under CSRS to get the maximum pension, you have to work for 41years,and 11 months, there is a penalty, of 2% for every year under that, and many employees are unable to work that long, contrary to public belief, most current jobs in USPS are extremely physically demanding. I digress, in other words, no more govt. sponsored retirement plan. In 1984 the govt. created the federal employee retirement system (FERS) the new plan has three components, social security,(which is due to all American workers except CSRS covered employees who are not allowed to pay into social security, thanks to Ronald Reagan, who called it “double dipping” even though civilians who get a company sponsored retirement plan are still eligible to pay into, and collect social security when they retire) a 401K, and a very small postal payment totally funded by the employee. There are NO “huge” retirements paid to ANY postal employees, even those employees in CSRS. Did any of you know that? I currently have 28+years in USPS, once a year they send me a print out of what I will get when I retire, the last one said that I will get $1100. a month, out of that will come taxes, and premiums for my medical ins. and life ins. when all is said and done, I will receive about $500 monthly. Just like everyone else, my 401k was decimated in the recession, and I received another printout that said I could get $547 monthly (pretax), additionally, if the republicans get control, they have vowed to do away with social security…Could anyone be expected to live on this “huge” govt. pension of $1647 (pretax, pre-health,life ins.) per month? So I guess what I am trying to say, is unless you know what you are talking about, it might be better if you kept your baseless, uninformed, uneducated, and incorrect opinions, where they belong, with all of the other republican lies floating around. P.S. If you want to talk about huge pensions, take a look at the same congressman, and senators who WILL receive huge payouts, not to mention health care for the rest of their lives paid for by you and I, that want to reduce the “bloated” pensions of working people.
Bron,
“I think it is utter nonsense to have private courts and a private military.”
I’d say a good portion of our military is now privatized. Do we even know how many private military contractors there are in Iraq and Afghanistan–as well as other places around the world?
Bron,
In our privatized and deregulated Socialistic state of Sweden, we pay ten USD a gallon for gas, and a stamp costs three times yours, with privatized competition (or is it a cartel?).
And don’t ssk about package shipment prices.
As for social changes, I got an email from Centre for Progress, (who arre they?)with statistics on demographics in my home state. They started off by noting that 45 percent of the 18 and under were children of color.
Here in Sweden, where Södertalje city, has more Iraqi immigrants than the USA (some 5 years ago). The mayor was invited to address a Congressional committee.
Is our world changing? Is yours?
Larry,
In Sweden we have had private competition to the goverment postal system for over 20 years. As previously mentioned, the law requiring the postal service to provide a money handling function to aid rural customers, etc had to be channged
The lack of post offices are no longer mourned. I’ve forgotten what they look like—-other than they were so antiquy and moldy. The mail still is delivered each weekday.
Odd for an allleged socialist country. The socialist spooks are booing.
And I who thought the USA was dynamic. The only dynamicism I’ve noticed is new ways to wage war and suppress citizens. (It was kinda slow-moving here)
Larry:
Lysander Spooner was an anarchist who had some good ideas, but he was an anarchist nevertheless. Call me a moderate libertarian if you will but some small amount of government is clearly required for protection of individual rights. I think it is utter nonsense to have private courts and a private military. And every road cannot be a toll road. But there are many things which could be privatized and easily, the post office is one but it is a Constitutional requirement. There are plenty of competitors to the USPS.
I usually dont agree with anyone here but I am not beyond believing that Fedex, UPS and other private carriers have lobbied for the elimination of the Postal Service to improve their bottom line. If the Post Office is self supporting [within normal industry standards, in regard to retiree funding mandates] then why shouldnt it be allowed to continue?
The feds have a monopoly on the Military.
By the way a stamp is the best deal in town and my postman is a great guy, he brings me checks and always has a good word when we talk. What is not to love about the postal service? I look forward to the mail every day because you never know what is going to be in the mailbox. For $0.44 you cannot beat the USPS and they really do deliver in all but the most severe weather.
Hooray for Larry and Spooner,
I too once believed in the miracles of private industry, and then I learned to read.
OT History: There was a dentist (yes) who used radio to communicate between Washington,DC and Baltimore to demonstrate his invention and get funds from Congress. Congress in its wisdom denied him funding and the world had to wait until Marconi came along.
Elaine, unfortunately, there has already been an alternative to the Postal Service. It was called the American Letter Mail Company that started in 1844 by Lysander Spooner. When postage stamps soared to 19 cents then, Spooner started his company. He lowered the price to 6 cents and the government got pissed and had no choice but to lower the cost of stamps, getting as low as 3 cents in 1851, which is why Spooner was called “the father of the 3 cent stamp”. Then Spooner’s company was hit with a bunch of lawsuits and forced him to fold. Then the USPS had the monopoly on mail again. You can’t mess with the almighty government. Being scared to death of private companies forming to compete with the USPS is exactly why a law was passed that now states that you cannot compete with the USPS—-it is against the law now to offer mail service for the same rate as or lower than the Federal government. But where in the Constitution does it say that the federal government can have a monopoly on mail service? Nowhere.
Read about Spooner here:
http://www.lysanderspooner.org/STAMP2.htm
The point of my post is this: We don’t need the government for hardly anything, and they know it. It is exactly the reason they pass laws that make competition with them illegal. Private companies can [and have done] better. Spooner was a real American hero and no one mentions him or gives him credit today [let alone has heard of him]. I wonder if Elaine has.
My stance on the USPS having hard times is this: who gives a two cent fuck? The government made it AGAINST THE LAW to compete with them and offer better, cheaper service. It fills my heart with glee when the government steps in like the bullies they are and makes laws prohibiting private citizens to offer better service than them, and then they STILL fail even when they have a monopoly on it. God damn that makes me proud of my country when the government is forced to admit they are COMPLETE FAILURES even when ONLY THEY [by law] are allowed to offer the service. The USPS facing hard times is actually a victory for the American people—but hardly no one realizes it. It means the government has FAILED at their OWN game and own rules.
Doesn’t that make anyone here happy?
Excellent article however the writer misses the main point that will be the undoing of the Postal Service much as the American “middle class”. The Article mentions “unionized” but omits “over-unionized”.
As a “unbiased” Union Representative for several decades let me point out the obvious. One organization cannot expect to endure having 4 different Unions, with 4 different sets of work rules, contracts, local agreements, grievance & arbitration procedures, “paid on-the-clock” time for union activities. Coupled with this you have several Management Organizations for Postmasters and Supervisors which are in effect quasi Unions.
Now each of the Unions/Organizations have a vested interest in protecting and seeking outcomes in Legislation that only protects THEIR individual members even if those protections are at the expense of other postal employees and/or the long term survival of the Postal Service.
President Lincoln said it best: “A house divided against itself cannot stand”.
Each Postal Union and Management Association has 6 figured, double pensioned, and benefited perks of office that grow with tenure. Each union has its staffs at the National Level to the Local Levels making 6 figures on down, along with a double pension in many cases as well.
The end result is the leaders of these Unions have a “self interested” case to perpetuate their positions and Union in the short term at the expense of the Postal Service in the long term.
You cannot get these Unions and Associations to act together or form one plan in opposition to the onslaught of Congressman Issa and he knows it and is playing it to his advantage.
Proof of the above is the silence of the other Government Unions who will be next on the hit list after the Postal Service is addressed by the right. Reason being the leadership of the other Government Unions with their double pensions, 6 figure salaries, and perks also see their personal advantage to stay in shadows and hopefully long enough for a change in Congress, or the additional time will allow them a higher paid retirement package.
You will see no impassioned words or actions, let alone unity, coming from any Postal Union National Leader, only having protests at the Local Levels so as not to endanger their personal soft-landing(s) in the event of needing some Washington DC connections for their continued personal career should things go south for the Postal Service.
Sadly, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” – Benjamin Franklin
Rep. Issa & Ross will supply the rope but it is the lack of unity and purpose that will place the noose around the Postal Service.
MikeS,
Sincere thanks for the feedback.
I have asked myself what I seek. I see not many being accorded slicks. Some, no names mentioned, are often accorded them. But so high is not my ambition.
I could appeal to my intention to get you guys and girls to loosen up a bit and dip your toes in the personal level as you and I have done (others also hace).
But it is my ego, and I beat it most evenings after my excursions here, which steers me all too much.
That said; I DO NOT mean my pieces are in any way insane, that is being routinely self-deprecatory, a common problem of my own, but also a national culturally enforced characteristic here in Sweden. It is knówn under the name of jäntelagen.
I actually feel that some of my stuff is well done.
Witness my ironic parody which begins:
“I am proud to be insane but ashamed of the many persecutions our religions’ separate insanities have caused all over the world.
I am proud to be an American, but ashamed of the many wars that my country has pursued since the given purposes were obvious lies., to which I assented.
I am proud to be a world citizen, of whatever nation, but ashamed that I, craven as the rest, have not forced the powerful, by our simple numbers, to cease and desist their evils.——————-etc.
The whole was based on following a comment made by another person here who made a similar declaration.
As for private discussions, it was GeneH who “informed” me, as a part of berating me, that I was a subject of active discussion among yourselves away from the blog. I took that as Gospel. Who could I turn to seek confirmation?
Now you say it is not so. Who shall I believe?
I have chosen to not go the paranoid route but the one when I was the union’s representative on the company board of directors, ie that the company directors will discuss issues without my presence, so be it. In Sweden we say: “You can’t prevent people from having a sauna together.” No, you can’t.
SMom:
Obama will only seal the fate of the Post Office.
Foreign policy is always an extension of domestic policy.
If he was kicking down doors in Iraq and is now vaporizing wedding ceremonies in the Af/Pak region the shuttering of post offices at home is as easy as arresting people on their lawns for videoing police stops and as inexorable as toxins appearing regularly for years to come in the fisheries of the Gulf Coast.
————————————————————————————————-
Mike:
You’re comparing apples to oranges.
There’s an enormous difference between a not so famous retired union local president bashing Obama and then turning around and voting for him — compared to a world famous preeminent Constitutional Lawyer & Scholar arguing in Foreign Affairs Magazine & the LA Times that Obama ranks as the most perfidious under-miner of over 2 centuries Constitutional Jurisprudence since…. the last torturerer occupying the White House.
According to Turley Bush was considered to be the worst eroder of Constitutional Civil Protections in the Nation’s history, but Bush’s status of “worst” ended the night holder made that infamous Northwestern speech where now the state acts as judge, jury and executioner as the grinning bootlickers of impending fascism cheered him on like sycophants of the one party state were living in now — and have seen before in history.
Nobody in his position can publish the idea that Obama is worse than Bush at upholding this country’s founding legal principles and then cast a vote for him.
Won’t happen, cannot happen, as those principles are considered too inviolate for a man of principles to endorse by casting a vote for somebody he just made crystal clear was the Constitution’s preeminent gravedigger.
Oh, Elaine, sorry for calling you a guy! I saw a picture of a man at the top that I thought was the author!
Forgive me? 🙂
This man “gets it”. Those who will personally gain the most, or who work for those who will gain, by privatization, are trying to shatter the Postal Service, destroy the unions, and create general chaos ,as he said. When the USPS, its unions, etc, fall, God above help the rest of the poor workers in the US. Collective bargaining gains trickle down into other work places. But kill the golden geese, the cash cows, such as the Postal Service, and Social Security, and a great source of easy billions is gone, too.
I am constantly amazed, as an employee of the USPS, how efficient and timely it really is, for the low costs. Sure, we can be tweaked, and should be. Other companies realize they need to close stores, consolidate hubs, etc, but they don’t need approval to do so.
Many countries the size of some of our smallest states charge multiple times what we charge for a letter!!!
Thank you for a very reasonable article.
This country was populated by millions of people in the 17th century living communally. Then things changed.
The Pilgrims were among the first permanent settlers. They came as indentured to a corporation that demanded they devote 5 days a week for the benefit of the corporation, one day for themselves and one day for worship. Not all of those on the Mayflower were Pilgrims, those wanting to worship their own way. Many were “strangers” put there by the corporate sponsors. The Pilgrims paid for their passage many times over they their debt was cleared.
Although the Pilgrims were more tolerant than the Puritans concerning those those not sharing their religious views, both groups kicked out those whose views differed.
And so it continues.