It’s All In The Timing: USPS Chief Puts Certain Changes On Hold
[guest post by Dana]
This is a good move by Trump supporter and Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy. It comes in advance of his testifying Friday before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs about the “finances and operations of the postal service during COVID-19 and upcoming elections.”:
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said Tuesday that he is suspending certain changes at the U.S. Postal Service until after the 2020 election in order to “avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail.”
DeJoy, whose sweeping cost-cutting measures at USPS have raised alarms about widespread mail delays that could impact the November race, said in a statement that he is temporarily halting “some longstanding operational initiatives” that “predate my arrival at the Postal Service.”
He didn’t cite which specific initiatives he was suspending. He did, however, provide some assurances.
DeJoy’s statement said that retail hours at post offices will not be changed, mail processing facilities will not be closed and that mail processing equipment will not be moved. He also said that “overtime has, and will continue to be, approved as needed.”
Note:
Attorneys general from at least 14 states are filing a federal lawsuit saying the Trump administration violated procedure when changes were made by the postmaster general, claiming DeJoy acted outside his authority to make service cuts by limiting workers’ overtime hours and removing some sorting equipment. The lawsuit says DeJoy should have sought approval from the post office’s regulator, the Postal Regulatory Commission.
You can read DeJoy’s statement in full here. DeJoy reassures Americans right off the bat:
The Postal Service is ready today to handle whatever volume of election mail it receives this fall. Even with the challenges of keeping our employees and customers safe and healthy as they operate amid a pandemic, we will deliver the nation’s election mail on time and within our well-established service standards. The American public should know that this is our number one priority between now and election day. The 630,000 dedicated women and men of the Postal Service are committed, ready and proud to meet this sacred duty.
…
I want to assure all Americans of the following:
Retail hours at Post Offices will not change.
Mail processing equipment and blue collection boxes will remain where they are.
No mail processing facilities will be closed.
And we reassert that overtime has, and will continue to be, approved as needed.
In addition, effective Oct. 1, we will engage standby resources in all areas of our operations, including transportation, to satisfy any unforeseen demand.
Now, hopefully Trump will stop undermining confidence in the election:
As millions of Americans consider casting their vote this November, they’re confronted by an abject failure of presidential leadership. Rather than taking the lead in resolving the manageable challenges of voting in a pandemic, President Trump has decided to stoke fears of an illegitimate election. Large majorities of Republicans now indicate that they distrust the vote count, and this wholesale loss of confidence creates a real concern. Only a clearly-decisive victory by one candidate or the other can avoid casting into doubt the legitimacy of the election and – in an extreme scenario – the orderly transfer of American power.
Remember this:
Last week, Trump told Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo that he opposed additional funding for the Post Office in part because blocking that money could block universal mail-in balloting.
“They need that money in order to have the Post Office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” Trump said. “But if they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting because they’re not equipped to have it.”
Ultimately, this is the President we are dealing with:
Once again, President Trump faces a looming national challenge. Once again, he has chosen to double down on division and protect his partisan interests rather than accept his role as the president of all Americans. Never forget former secretary of defense James Mattis’s warning, published this June: “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try.”
Division is the one thing that Trump has proven he excels at. Our nation’s response to the pandemic lags behind the vast majority of the world, our economy falters, and multiple cities still struggle – months after George Floyd’s death – with persistent, violent unrest. But while Trump fails to govern, he succeeds at setting neighbor versus neighbor, and the most bitter political and constitutional consequences of his pugilistic partisanship may be yet to come.
I don’t see any response from the President about DeJoy’s announcement. And I can’t find confirmation whether this move was prompted by Trump or not. Regardless of who made the decision to put a stop to some changes, it’s a good and necessary move and should reassure both Democrats, Republicans, and voters alike. Especially given that the changes were put in motion during the runup of the presidential election, which is just 77 days from now, and during a pandemic, in which mail-in voting will play a very significant role.
–Dana
Hello.
Dana (292df6) — 8/18/2020 @ 12:45 pmNow, hopefully Trump will stop undermining confidence in the election
As for the prior election, have his critics stopped undermining it yet?
I encourage the president to follow their example.
beer ‘n pretzels (a36706) — 8/18/2020 @ 12:53 pmGood. Hopefully trump re-enforces this message and genuinely tries to do everything in his power to have a fair election that the public can have faith in.
Time123 (b87ded) — 8/18/2020 @ 1:03 pmUndermining confidence like tweeting photos of stacks of mailboxes in an industrial yard and boosting conspiracy theories?
Thomas Kennedy
@tomaskenn
Photo taken in Wisconsin. This is happening right before our eyes. They are sabotaging USPS to sabotage vote by mail. This is massive voter suppression and part of their plan to steal the election.
__ _
Gary He
@garyhe
OK so everyone has seen the “viral” photo going around of the piles of mailboxes in Wisconsin being used as evidence that Trump is sabotaging USPS. Problem is, they have been there for years: Hartford Finishing Inc. powder coats and refurbishes the old mailboxes. (1/8)
https://twitter.com/garyhe/status/1295360446795583491?s=20
harkin (94c32c) — 8/18/2020 @ 1:06 pm_
@4
Say…. wait just a darn minute… we all know that Trump has a cabal of mail box thieves … are you saying don’t believe my lying eyes!?
I’ve seen the perps driving around IN BROAD DAYLIGHT with mail boxes on flat beds. WHAT ARROGANCE!
Moochelle Obama said last night that the only way to combat these tamperings is to show up IN PERSON at the ballot box and vote IN PERSON. Republicans are renowned for sending in ballots from dead people and such.
SO DO WHAT Moochelle DONE SAID!
To quote our soon to be new president: “You ain’t black if you don’t vote for me in person.”
Eyefull (fd0e2c) — 8/18/2020 @ 1:16 pmin other ranch news,
https://twitter.com/HannaLiubakova/status/1295801653526966276
bolivar de gris (7404b5) — 8/18/2020 @ 1:23 pmByron York has a nice summary of the USPS situation and the hair-on-fire responses of the Dems.
It’s the Washington Examiner, which may not meet some people’s threshold for reliable news and/or commentary. Rather than discounting the source, though, please read the article & if it’s got errors, please point them out with sourced corrections.
Also, note that York points out that the claimed alarmist USPS letters to the various states cautioned that the states’ statutes re: election deadlines might not allow sufficient time to “round trip” the mail ballots. NOT that it could’t handle the volume of mail.
Also note that he doesn’t whitewash Trump’s confusing, etc., commentary. [can I say “whitewash”?]
So, here: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/a-reality-based-look-at-trump-and-the-post-office
ColoComment (9535f7) — 8/18/2020 @ 1:28 pmYou’re talking about the one where Americans rejected Trump by millions of votes but where overruled by a slavery era election committee?
Trump has never won an election in his life.
Dustin (4237e0) — 8/18/2020 @ 1:28 pm‘The Postal Service is ready today to handle whatever volume of election mail it receives this fall. Even with the challenges of keeping our employees and customers safe and healthy as they operate amid a pandemic, we will deliver the nation’s election mail on time and within our well-established service standards. The American public should know that this is our number one priority between now and election day. The 630,000 dedicated women and men of the Postal Service are committed, ready and proud to meet this sacred duty.’ – Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.
Creep.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 8/18/2020 @ 1:30 pm“Mail’s in— ahhhhh, thank you, Thing.” – Morticia Addams [Carolyn Jones] ‘The Addams Family’ ABC TV, 1964-66
Dustin, thanks for the answer. So, it’s no then.
beer ‘n pretzels (c58e3b) — 8/18/2020 @ 1:40 pmHillary ignoring Wisconsin conjures up images of Gomez’s electric train set.
At least she’s got rubes years later declaring she actually won.
harkin (94c32c) — 8/18/2020 @ 1:40 pm_
Trump won the Electoral College Dustin… that’s an election win.
Both Trump and Clinton were playing by the same rules.
whembly (c30c83) — 8/18/2020 @ 1:43 pmTrump administration rolled again.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/18/2020 @ 1:53 pmYeah, Allahpundit makes almost the exact same argument, Dana. He says the internal polling by Republicans and the Administration must have so bad, it didn’t leave them any choice but to back down.
https://hotair.com/archives/allahpundit/2020/08/18/wow-postmaster-general-suspends-usps-operational-changes-election/
I’m really not all that worried about mail-in voting. I mean, the military has been using it successfully for decades, as have several states, and concrete evidence proves it very little incidents of fraud, far less than voting machines in fact. It’s just that the expected inordinately high volume of mail-in ballots this year will cause a delay in vote counting, giving Trump and his insufferable sycophants ample time for histrionics and hysterics. It will be excruciating to watch unfold.
What concerns me far more is the transfer of power should Biden win, even if he wins overwhelmingly and unquestionably. The Trump administration is woefully understaffed, with several positions vacant and others staffed by ‘acting’ officials. The simply will not be able to bring the incoming administration up to speed on anything relevant to governance. So it’s going to be a real problem.
Also, I do not believe for one second that Trump will go gently into that good night. If he goes down in flames, he certainly intends to take the whole country down with him. That is what scares me most.
Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1) — 8/18/2020 @ 1:55 pmn the press conference, Trump was asked, “If the Democrats were to give you some unicorns … would you be willing to accept the $25 billion for the Postal Service, including the three and a half billion dollars to handle mail-in voting?” As has happened many times in this controversy, the question conflated the Democrats’ proposal for $25 billion for the Postal Service and the request for $3.6 billion for the Election Assistance Commission. In any event, Trump answered, “Sure, if they give us unicorns.” He then began to elaborate on other policy priorities.
“So, if they were to give you unicorns, you would sign off for the money for the Postal Service?”
“Yeah, but they’re not giving them me,” Trump said. “They’d be giving unicorns to the American people.”
“But if they were to agree to unicorns — ”
“Yeah, I would,” Trump said. “I would certainly do that. Sure, I would do that. Yeah.”
Eyefull (fd0e2c) — 8/18/2020 @ 1:57 pm@14-
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/18/2020 @ 2:00 pmWatch for smoke curling up from the Rose Garden as the document burning begins.
No matter what you think of Hillary Clinton, inject this into my veins this tweet is amazing:
whembly (c30c83) — 8/18/2020 @ 2:06 pmhttps://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/1295818174752006147
Dustin, Trump won the 2016 election per the rules that were in place at the time. Popular votes doesn’t affect that.
Time123 (9f42ee) — 8/18/2020 @ 2:08 pmThat is exactly correct, Tim123. The electoral college is all. And thank God for it.
Democrats whine and complain about, wanting the popular vote to determine the outcome of an election, but that is never going to happen. It would require a constitutional amendment to eliminate the electoral college, and the requisite number of states will never vote for ratification, because the electoral college gives smaller, less populated states equal representation with larger, more populated states. The smaller states are never going to ghive up their equal representation in the electoral college or in determining the outcome of a presidential election, never. Love it or hate it, but learn to live with it, because it is not going away.
Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1) — 8/18/2020 @ 2:34 pmGawain’s Ghost,
I am unable to access more than a paragraph of the Allahpundit piece you linked to because it’s the members-only section. Nevertheless, it makes me happy that we are on the same page.
Dana (292df6) — 8/18/2020 @ 2:45 pm8… LOL… okay, then…
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/18/2020 @ 2:55 pmSorry, Dana. But all I could do was copy the link and post it here. I don’t know why it didn’t work for you, because I was able to read the entire article in full.
Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1) — 8/18/2020 @ 5:28 pmIf the USPS closes down I will be forced to buy my giant black dildoes in person and that is a violation of my liberties.
F. George Dunham, III (ddf1f5) — 8/19/2020 @ 10:59 am