Protesting in favor of the Post Office and against the Trump Administration. This was in Elkins Park, PA.
Protesting in favor of the Post Office and against the Trump Administration. This was in Elkins Park, PA.
I have a rather limited patience for watching videos anyway. This video is over two hours. About two minutes in, I turned it off because Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) made a highly misleading statement right off the bat. He said that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy was chosen by a "bipartisan" USPS Board of Governors, suggesting that DeJoy was chosen because he met certain objective, non-controversial qualifications criteria. Not true at all. All of the members of the Board of Governors were chosen by the current president. The "bipartisan" description is normally true, but is not true in this case. This piece starts off by detailing the absolutely massive conflicts of interest that the current group of Governors are dealing in and goes on to tell the story of how the current group got selected.
Recent actions at the Post Office have been described by DeJoy as "cost-cutting initiatives," but Democrats note that these initiatives have resulted in massive, nationwide delays. Farmers have been using the Post Office to send live chicks through the mail since 1918. For the first time, the chicks are arriving dead. "USPS Delays Are Causing People To Get Their Prescriptions Late." The USPS shipped 1.2 billion prescriptions last year and that number has most likely gone up as COVID-19 has probably encouraged people to use a safer method than in-person pick-ups. The new Postmaster General has presided over a sharp drop in service and highly noticeable delays.
Why might this be happening? Especially, why is it happening so close to a time when the USPS expects to be moving massive amounts of mail-in (no-excuse absentee) ballots? The President appears to be convinced that voting by mail favors Democrats, even though there's no evidence that it does. On Saturday the 22nd, the House passed a $25 billion bill to fund the Postal Service. Problem is, the Senate is officially on break until September.
With mail-in voting expected to surge during the coronavirus pandemic, Trump has alarmed Democrats by repeatedly denouncing mail-in ballots as a possible source of fraud.
Why would the President have reason to worry about being re-elected? Well, the Democratic Convention went really well. Democrats decided early that it would be a virtual convention, with all the speakers speaking directly to the camera or with minimal audiences. The former First Lady Michelle Obama spoke the first night of the DNC and really impressed audiences. Main speakers after that were the former President Barack Obama, then the Vice-Presidential candidate Senator Kamala Harris, the the Presidential candidate, the former Vice-President Joe Biden. One item I thought worked especially well in the coronavirus-forced format was the roll call of states endorsing the candidate. This is a necessary part of the nominating convention, but usually a deadly dull part that people usually skip. This time, it featured people gathered around a symbol of their state, often a prominent building or tourist site. It worked well in terms of delivering lots of visual variety.
Breaking news: Postal workers in Washington state re-install mail sorting machines that they were told to leave decommissioned. Good! Let's hope we see more insubordination like that!