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dejoy postmaster

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see mail in voting

see USPO mail

biden is gradually replacing board to boot him?

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odd timing? no IG?an 2 25

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's five-year association with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is coming to an end. CBS News' Kate Gibson, on Tuesday, February 18, reported that DeJoy is leaving the agency.

DeJoy, however, did not announce a departure date, and according to Gibson, he will remain as postmaster general until a replacement is chosen.

DeJoy was hired for that position in 2020 during President Donald Trump's first term. Critics of DeJoy, who say that mail delivery in the United States suffered under his watch, hoped for his departure after Joe Biden became president in January 2021. But DeJoy maintained the postmaster general position throughout Biden's presidency.

READ MORE:'**Brutal': Ex-federal prosecutor reveals why Trump DOJ’s 'illegal order' was 'so corrupt'

DeJoy's resignation is inspiring plenty of reactions on X, formerly Twitter.

Matt Stoller of EconomicLiberties.us commented, "Joe Biden was so lazy he never got rid of Trump's Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who gutted the Post Office. Now DeJoy is leaving so Trump can appoint a new Postmaster General, and if the Democrats win again, they can retain that guy too until the Post Office is a single clerk."

Democratic strategist Max Burns tweeted, "Ironically Donald Trump has now done what Joe Biden couldn't — getting rid of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy."

The Wall Street Journal noted that DeJoy's departure follows a "turbulent five-year tenure."

READ MORE:'Parasitic': Steve Bannon blasts Elon Musk’s 'freak experiments'

Journalist Liz Morton noted, "PMG Louis DeJoy informs Postal Service Governors it's time to find a successor as he looks to pass USPS Delivering For America torch to new leadership."

Producer Sharlette Hambrick remarked, "Stepping aside for privatization of the postal service."

X user Kathleen Hubbell wrote, "Probably going to give the post to the CEO of FedEx."

Another X user, Mary Argos, complained, "I just stood in line at our little post office for 30 minutes, and there were two people ahead of me. I had to leave before buying my stamps. There was a line out the door. One employee running the whole office!

READ MORE:'It’s unusual': Trump’s DOJ does an about-face on voting rights cases

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neglected?

an 12 24

'Hope you got that on camera': Postmaster general 'covers his ears' as GOP rep issues scathing rebuke

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I DO NOT GET WHY HE IS STILL THERE

AN 12 24

"Has your tenure as postmaster general been a success?" the Democratic senator asked DeJoy.

The postmaster general reple “Senator, I know how you feel about me.”

READ MORE:**Insurance giant abruptly nixes 'egregious' anesthesia cap after UnitedHealth CEO’s murder**

Ossoff replied, “It’s not about how I feel about you, postmaster general. It's about whether or not seniors in Georgia are receiving prescriptions. it's the stacks of boxes of mail from courts that never arrive to their destination.

DeJoy then interrupted the senator.

"This is my time postmaster general," Ossoff shot back, "you're here under oath before the US Senate."

The Democratic leader continued, "It's small business who can't operate. It's death notices not delivered to family members, and you're sitting here trying to explain that 75 percent on time delivery is a success. And it's not. It's not about how I feel about you, postmaster general. It's how my constituents are being served by the United States Postal Service."

READ MORE:['I resigned my position': Former DOJ official leaves LA Times over them 'appeasing Trump'

an 9 24

'It’s a disgrace': This Trump appointee is causing major anxiety in the presidential race

Alex Henderson

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Louis DeJoy backs down from plan to consolidate USPS facilities after national backlash - Alternet.org

Controversial USPS chief Louis DeJoy faces pain over 'crime wave' - Alternet.org

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cannot beleive he is still there 3 24

Postal workers face bullets and beatings amid Louis DeJoy's 'catastrophic' tenure at USPS - Alternet.org

ymail 12 23

In 2020, Donald Trump put a Republican mega-donor — a man named Louis DeJoy — in charge of the United States Postal Service.

A few things to know about Postmaster General Louis DeJoy:

We can do something about Louis DeJoy.

But we have to act fast.

Two positions have opened up on the USPS Board of Governors — the only people with the authority to fire DeJoy.

Forces that stand to profit from further privatization, service cuts, and price hikes at the USPS are aggressively pressuring President Biden to fill those positions with more DeJoy lackeys.

But President Biden can — and should — fill both positions with people who actually care about protecting the Post Office and getting rid of DeJoy.

Public Citizen and allies are calling on President Biden to appoint Sarah Anderson (an expert on how the Post Office helps Americans) and former Rep. Brenda Lawrence (a 30-year postal worker) to the USPS Board of Governors.

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an 11 23

in a time of historic distrust in government, the United States Postal Service has accomplished something extraordinary: it remains a universally beloved federal agency. Second only to the Parks Service in public favorability (a jaw-dropping 77% approval rating, per Gallup), USPS is arguably also the most frequently-interacted-with component of the federal government: packages and letters are delivered to Americans’ mailboxes six days per week. But these warm feelings – already under threat by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s continued destructive leadership – could quickly chill if the Postal Board of Governors has its way.

At least four times per year, the Board (the governing body that votes on DeJoy’s agenda and has the sole power to fire him) holds an open session meeting, its sole formal contact with the public. In recent years, these meetings have concluded with a well-attended public comment period, where in-person and virtual attendees have excoriated DeJoy for embracing a privatization-friendly agenda. Just this year alone, public commenters at Board meetings have decried the mail slow downs and price hikes, demanded changes to DeJoy’s gas-guzzling and union-busting fleet plan, raised serious concerns about transparency of DeJoy’s facility consolidation plans, and pushed DeJoy to expand community services offered at the post office.

The future of the people’s most treasured public institution depends on public participation and feedback

But when the Postal Board of Governors met this week for their final open session of the year, there was one major difference from its previous quarterly meetings: virtual and remote public comments were, without explanation, banned. This abrupt new barrier to public accessibility led the number of public commenters – which in recent meetings has been a double-digit tally – to drop to 4. The decline in attendance was also likely compounded by an unexplained shift in the meeting time: whereas past meetings have been held at 4:00pm ET, Tuesday’s session was held at noon – the middle of the workday.

The Board’s decision to not allow virtual comments at the November 14th meeting follows another alarming recent attempt to suppress public input. At the August 2023 meeting, each public commenter was allotted only 25 seconds to speak, in sharp contrast to the typical 3 minute time limit. And past meetings were not beacons of accountability, either. The Postal Governors never responded to any comments raised by the public, and the comment period itself was always excluded from the official publicly available USPS recording of the formal session.

But next year, the Postal Board’s accountability problem will get even worse. During Tuesday’s meeting, Postal Board Deputy Secretary Lucy Trout explained, starting next year, the Postal Board will only hear public comments once per year in November. In other words, though the next three Postal Board meetings (February, May, and August 2024) are ostensibly “public sessions,” members of the public will have no opportunity to inform the Postal Board about their concerns until a year from now.

And it’s not as if postal workers, customers, and public advocates don’t have anything pressing to alert the Board about. On the contrary, DeJoy has continued to advance a destructive agenda that includes:

President Biden has utterly failed to hold DeJoy to account for any of this, instead inviting him to White House stamp ceremonies and staying silent as the Postmaster General laughably reinvents himself as a “Biden ally” to credulous reporters. This is particularly egregious given the President’s power to nominate members of the Postal Board of Governors:

The Postal Board’s restrictions on public comment are unacceptable. They must reverse course by allowing both in-person AND virtual public comments at ALL open sessions next year, and take further steps to improve accountability by responding to public comments and posting recorded comment sessions to the USPS website. Congressional Democrats and the Biden administration must publicly call out this shameful barrier to transparent government and fast-track filling the Moak and Zollars Postal Board seats with anti-DeJoy, pro-accountability reformers.

The future of the people’s most treasured public institution depends on public participation and feedback–that’s how public service works.

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https://boingboing.net/2023/03/01/:{u-s-post-office-orders-9250-electric-vans-and-14000-charging-stations.html}:

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https://www.alternet.org/postmaster-general-to-be-fired/

ev fleet a go?

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https://www.alternet.org/postmaster-general-to-be-fired/

ev fleet a go?

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9 22 mail demand prog

rump’s Postmaster General Louis DeJoy just ambushed the postal workers union with his plan to shutter as many as 200 post offices and USPS facilities.1 Click here to stop DeJoy.

DeJoy’s Great Consolidation of postal facilities will likely cost good union jobs. DeJoy already announced his plan to cut 50,000 Postal Service positions over the next decade.2 The job loss from shuttering facilities will only add to that number.  

Closing facilities will eliminate more than 50,000 good union jobs and could compromise the ability of the Postal Service to carry out its essential functions — like delivering ballots safely3 and bringing life-saving prescriptions to seniors and rural communities.4

The Postal Service is an essential public service, yet DeJoy cares more about cutting costs than making sure USPS performs its key functions. 

Sign the petition: Congress must stop DeJoy from closing 200 postal facilities and cutting 50,000 USPS jobs!

USPS funding is a major equity concern. The postal service is the lifeblood of much of rural America, where people rely on the USPS to deliver goods and transmit information. In areas without internet access, US mail is absolutely essential.4

And there’s another problem with DeJoy’s plan: it reinforces the idea that USPS should be managed like a business. That’s absurd. USPS is a public good. 

As the legislative and political director for the New York Metro Area Postal Union said of DeJoy’s latest plan, “DeJoy's Great Consolidation is a true danger to the public post office."5

Instead of slashing postal workers, we should be taking advantage of the huge opportunity USPS offers for our country. USPS should expand its services for rural and low-income communities even further by looking into offering banking services, internet access, and more.4

Sign the petition: Congress must stop DeJoy from closing 200 postal facilities and cutting 50,000 USPS jobs!

Sources:

  1. GovExec, “USPS Lists Hundreds of Post Offices and Other Facilities Where It Will Consolidate Operations,”August 26, 2022.
  2. GovExec, “USPS Plans to Slash 50,000 Positions in Coming Years to Reach 'Break Even' Point - Government Executive,” July 28, 2022.
  3. Ibid.
  4. Common Dreams, “'A True Danger to the Public Post Office': DeJoy Moves to Consolidate USPS Facilities,” August 27, 2022.
  5. Vox, “If the US Postal Service shuts down, rural America will suffer the most,” April 16, 2020.

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/04/louis-dejoy/

COI

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10b$ coastal fleet non-union mfg

might as well use hummers DN 2/24

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/louis-dejoy/

The outrageous story about the Postal Service too many know nothing about

Louis DeJoy is plotting more moves to destroy the Postal Service — he must be stopped

Thom Hartmann and Independent Media Institute February 12, 2022

The Republicans are about to win a major battle in their war on electric vehicles, this time with the second largest vehicle fleet in America owned by the US Postal Service. It's an outrageous story that most Americans don't know a thing about.

Transportation, after all, is the single largest source of global warming emissions from the United States. And the Post Office once thought they could do something about it.

To understand what's going on with the Post Office right now, you first must know the backstory that, it seems, most media outlets aren't interested in discussing. It's an issue that's hitting millions of Americans right now.

One of our kids, for example, recently became the first member of our family to buy a fully 100% electric car. She was so excited and has loved it driving around Portland…until she had to drive to another state for a conference, when she discovered what a problem America not having an electric charging infrastructure causes.

The way to solve this problem, of course, is to have a substantial and massive increase in electric vehicles and that's exactly what the Post Office set out to jump-start back in 2006.

Transportation, after all, is the single largest source of global warming emissions from the United States. And the Post Office once thought they could do something about it.

Things were going well for the Post Office in 2006.

They were making money and had a surplus. They were therefore seriously considering replacing a large part of their fleet—the largest fleet of civilian vehicles in the nation—with electric and hybrid vehicles.

It would be a mighty boost for the electric car, and a huge slap in the face of the fossil fuel barons who had an outsized say in the Republican Party.

On May 17, 2006 Walter O'Tormey, the Post Office's Vice President, Engineering, unveiled a new hybrid gas/electric mail delivery vehicle in Boston to an audience of "nearly 100 industry representatives, environmentalists, and Postal Service employees," saying:

"As an agency that delivers mail to 145 million businesses and households six days a week, drives approximately 1.1 billion miles a year, and consumes more than 125 million gallons of motor fuel annually, we are in a unique position to demonstrate to the public and other businesses the growing viability and positive environmental and energy-savings benefits of alternate-fuel technologies."

In their 2006 annual report the Postal Service openly bragged about their ambition to move away from relying entirely on fossil fuels:

"With more than 216,000 vehicles, the Postal Service has the largest civilian fleet in the United States.We continue to evaluate various fuel types and alternative fuel vehicles including hybrid trucks, hydrogen fuel cell vans, electric step vans and liquid natural gas delivery vehicles."

If the Post Office pulled off a massive transition away from fossil fuels, it would jump-start the then-new electric, hybrid and fuel cell technologies, paving the way for wider use, a large national electric "refueling" infrastructure, and a significant reduction in greenhouse gasses.

Americans were excited by the possibility. Speaking on behalf of a coalition of mayors from all parts of the country to the World Congress on Information Technology annual conference in Austin on May 6, 2006, Austin Mayor Will Winn proudly announced:

"Transitioning the Postal fleet to plug-ins would serve as a springboard for the commercial production of delivery vehicles that could be extended to a wide variety of delivery services across America.

"The commercial market would also provide the economic certainty needed by automakers to make the production investments necessary for the mass production of plug-ins.

"The plug-in technology is available right now and represents a realistic near-term solution to the serious problems of over-reliance on foreign oil, out of control gasoline prices, as well as greenhouse emissions."

Given that postal vehicles typically have a 30-year lifespan, this would produce a huge tilt in the balance of alternative-versus-fossil-fuel vehicles on the road.

But the possibility of that transition happening to the nation's largest vehicle fleet was, in a word, intolerable to the morbidly rich rightwingers who'd made their fortunes drilling, refining, shipping and selling fossil fuels, particularly oil, diesel and gasoline.

The Post Office had to be stopped, andRepublican Congressman John McHugh (NY) was just the man to do it. He'd been a member of the Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and was deeply in the pocket of right-wing interests.

As Wikipedia notes in an exercise of gentle understatement:

"[McHugh] was chairman of the Oversight Committee's Postal Service Subcommittee for six years and worked to pass legislation to significantly reform the U.S. Postal Service for the first time since it was demoted from a Cabinet-rank department with passage of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (Pub.L. 109–435) in 2006."

ALEC, which writes corporate-friendly legislation and relies on its membership of Republican lawmakers around the nation to pass that legislation, just happened to have a model 2006 bill known as the Unfunded Pensions Liabilities Act, which called on state governments to account for exactly how they plan to fund future retiree benefits.

Adapting that ALEC concept to the Post Office, McHugh's bill was passed by a voice vote in a Republican Congress and signed by Republican President George W. Bush. There is no record whatsoever of who voted or how they voted on the legislation.

It was preceded, however, by a virtual waterfall of op-eds and PR efforts by groups affiliated with the Koch network including the Reason Foundation, the National Taxpayer's Union, and the CATO Institute.

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What the law did was ram a poison pill down the throat of the Post Office.

It required the USPS to pre-fund its Retiree Health Benefits Fund for seventy years into the future, forcing the Post Office to take the money they planned to spend on electric vehicles and set it aside for the health benefits of future retirees who weren't even born yet (and should be eligible for Medicare, anyway).

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It's an obligation that no other private business or government agency has ever had to comply with before.

Costing the Post Office $5 billion a year, it succeeded in stopping their plan to electrify their fleet dead in its tracks.

And it set it up more cleanly for eventual privatization, once enough infrastructure like postal drop boxes and million-dollar high-speed sorting machines was destroyed—a processReagan called "Starve the Beast"—that "customers" were complaining about the service and public opinion finally agreed the Post Office would work better in private hands.

Reagan had tried to do the same thing to Social Security and the IRS, and Trump doubled down on that plan, offering tens of thousands of staffers early retirement to gut both agencies; they're now so hobbled by underfunding and worker shortages that Social Security disability claims can take two years, and extremely wealthy people are no longer generally audited at all because of the cost and manpower needs determined by their complexity.

Which brings us to Louis DeJoy.

The Post Office is finally on the verge of getting out from under that $5 billion-a-year prefunding burden so they can now start buying that new fleet they proposed in 2006.

Postmaster General DeJoy was strongly encouraged by the Biden administration to give the contract to a company that would manufacture electric and electric/hybrid vehicles.

But DeJoy essentially told Biden to go screw himself: he's going to buy fossil-fuel vehicles for 90% of the fleet instead.

The Washington Post laid it all out in the open to an article last week titled: Biden Officials Push to Hold Up $11.3 Billion USPS Truck Contract, Citing Climate Damage, noting:

"The Biden administration launched a last-minute push Wednesday to derail the U.S. Postal Service's plan to spend billions of dollars on a new fleet of gasoline-powered delivery trucks, citing the damage the polluting vehicles could inflict on the climate and Americans' health.

"The dispute over the Postal Service's plans to spend up to $11.3 billion on as many as 165,000 new delivery trucks over the next decade has major implications for President Biden's goal of converting all federal cars and trucks to clean power."

And it's not just the White House that's outraged. CNN reported yesterday:

"Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat who chairs the House subcommittee that oversees the Postal Service, called for DeJoy's resignation.

"'Postmaster General DeJoy's plan to spend billions on brand new gas-powered vehicles is in direct contradiction to the stated goals of Congress and the President to eliminate emissions from the federal fleet,' Connolly said in a statement. 'If Mr. DeJoy won't resign, the Board of Governors has got to fire him -- now.'"

Because Republican senators are holding up confirmation of Biden's Postal Board of Governors' appointees, DeJoy can't be fired by the current Trump-appointee-dominated board, a fact that Senator Sheldon Whitehouse pointed out last week, demanding the Senate move the Democratic nominees forward over GOP objections.

But DeJoy is itching to sign the contract for all those gas and diesel vehicles, and he still has the power to do so.

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So, now that the possibility of electrifying the nation's (now second) largest fleet of vehicles is pretty much dead and they're planning to go ahead with fossil fuels, Republicans in Congress are fine with eliminating the retirement prefunding dead weight on the Post Office.

The vote in the House this week was 342-90 to end the prefunding requirement and give DeJoy the money to buy the gas-powered vehicles. Now it goes to the Senate, where the AP noted:

"Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said he expects his chamber to 'move quickly' on the measure. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he's planning a vote before a recess that starts after next week. The bill has 14 GOP sponsors and, with strong Democratic support expected, seems on track to gain the 60 votes most bills need for Senate passage."

When asked Wednesday night on MSNBC why Congress had crippled the Post Office with that bizarre prefunding requirement in the first place, Senator Peters—one of the truly good guys in the US Senate—answered that he had no idea.

As is the case with most members of Congress; the pre-funding was essentially slipped into the bill at the behest of the fossil fuel industry and, at the time, got virtually no publicity. Thus, I tweeted him:

It was incomplete on my part to miss the privatization bonus in the tweet, and the vendor will supply gasoline vehicles as well, but you get the point.

Like so many other weirdnesses in American politics, when you pull back the veil you find the hands of a fossil fuel industry that values profits and right wing ideology over the future of our children, our nation and the planet.

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/biden-officials-go-to-bat-against-dejoy-plan-to-replace-usps-fleet-citing-climate-change

Biden officials go to bat against DeJoy plan to replace USPS fleet — citing climate change"...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2021/01/28/biden-federal-fleet-electric/...

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dem AG's

https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/dejoy-2655265251/

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https://www.alternet.org/2021/05/louis-dejoy-2652858940

raw dc rept

After the failed union vote at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama, the critical postmortems ignored a reality that may result in another election: Amazon cheated.

And Louis DeJoy, the Trump-era holdover dismantling the U.S. Postal Service, helped.

A May 7 labor board hearing will consider a request for a new vote sought by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. Its complaint details a campaign of intimidation to pressure employees to reject the union.

The Labor Board has a long history of looking the other way when given evidence of cheating by employers in union elections. But this time may be different because of who helped cheat --- from local on up to national officials.

The Jeff Bezos company installed drop boxes to collect votes on company property. Amazon placed these boxes despite being told by the National Labor Relations Board staff not to do so.

The drop boxes were placed with the connivance ofthe service led by DeJoy. Former President Donald Trump installed this high-rolling donor to worsen mail delivery during the fall presidential election Trump was hellbent to win. Less mail, less votes; less votes, less competition.

Here, we use the pejorative verb connivance because the drop box installed inside Amazon's Bessemer parking lot did not carry any postal insignia.

Amazon can leverage the Postal Service because Amazon has made itself crucial to USPS finances.

The Postal Service generated nearly $4 billion in revenue from Amazon in 2019 and counted an eye-popping $1.6 billion of that in profit. The volume of business Amazon delivered grew bigly last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

This reliance on Amazon for highly profitable business likely explains why, beyond his well-documented anti-union animus, DeJoy would help Amazon fight the union.

The struggle between American workers and the bosses has been, and continues to be, fantastically lopsided.

A pro-union worker, Jennifer Bates, told reporters last month that colleagues at the Bessemer Fulfillment Center were reluctant to deposit ballots in the mysterious drop box that suddenly appeared in the parking lot.

Workers Feared Amazon

"Some of the people are afraid to put them in there," Bates said. "The 'yes' voters feel that Amazon will probably try to steal their ballots."

Labor lawyer Brandon Magner tweeted: "If Amazon did install these mailboxes, or if they exercise control over the mailboxes, such as having a key to the ballot box, that would clearly merit setting aside the election if the union were to lose."

During the voting, which lasted from Feb. 8 to March 29, Amazon demonstrated just how crucial controlling the Bessemer warehouse parking lot — and what went on inside it — was to the company.

'Coercion and Intimidation'

The union made the following claims:

Without a union, individual workers have no power. And while some who voted against the union told journalists after the vote that Amazon paid them well, the issue is whether it should pay them even better along with improving their benefits and work rules.

Record Profits

Last year, Amazon reported a profit of $24.2 billion before taxes, up from $13.9 billion in 2019 and almost 10 times its 2016 pretax profit.

Amazon pays little in federal income tax. In 2020 its "effective federal income tax rate of just 9.4%, less than half the statutory corporate tax of 21%." So said Mathew Gardner of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy earlier this year when Amazon announced its latest financial success.

Amazon has been so successful that a dollar invested when it first sold stock in 1997 has now grown to $2,300, making it one of the most fantastically profitable investments even in this era of high profits in high tech.

While the company doesn't want to share more of its gains with the blue-collar Americans whose labor makes its profits possible by quickly fulfilling orders, it does lavish money on its executives. One reason to favor the top is that the way Amazon pays executives provides a stealth financial and tax subsidy.

Costly Stock Options

The company showered so many valuable stock options on its highest-paid people that the tax savings alone came to more than $600 million last year, Gardner calculated.

Stock options save companies on corporate income tax. The companies get to deduct their value even though the cost is borne by existing stockholders. The stockholders' share of the company is diluted by the new shares given to executives. In other words, it's a tax deduction that costs the company nothing.

Options are also a form of compensation that cost the company nothing, unlike the hard cash it must pay out to rank-and-file workers like those at the Bessemer warehouse.

What's most troubling about this union election is that a federal government corporation worked with management against the workers. That's a troubling sign of authoritarianism.

Remember Amazon worked inconcert with the service to install the dropbox to collect ballots on company property. The service acted after staff at the Labor Board, the federal agency tasked with protecting the rights of American workers in the private sector, told them they couldn't do it. But just as it pressured workers, Amazon pressured the service into pleasing Bezos, the richest person in America.

No Answers

Dave Partenheimer, a postal public relations manager, would not talk about who ultimately gave the go-ahead to install the dropbox in the Amazon warehouse parking lot.

Partenheimer declined to say whether the service knew that the Labor board already denied Amazon's request for such a dropbox. He also declined to identify who ultimately approved installation.

Instead, Partenheimer reiterated an earlier statement about a "Centralized Box Unit [CBU] with a collection compartment" being "suggested by the postal service as a solution to provide an efficient and secure delivery and collection point."

The Labor board isn't talking about the dropbox either, at least not while it considers the 23 separate objections filed by the Retail Store, Wholesale and Department Store Union.

The Labor board spokeswoman, Kayla Blado, declined to comment on whether the Postal Service has the authority to supersede her agency's decisions. She would not even confirm that the agency did, in fact, deny Amazon's request to have a ballot drop box installed on its property.

DeJoy Strikes Again

The persistent controversy about the dropbox and the Bessemer vote overall, however, parallels the madness that surrounded mail-in ballots during the last presidential election. DeJoy ordered the removal of mail sorting machines in the run-up to the vote, while the rest of the Trump administration whined about the supposed inability of the Postal Service to properly deliver ballots.

Trump also complained throughout his four years in office that the Postal Service was subsidizing Amazon. This was to advance his attacks on the aggressive reporting by The Washington Post, which Bezos owns, but whose newsroom he has never influenced according to the top editor and reporters working there.

We now know that the prices Amazon paid generated outsize profits for the Postal Service, exposing yet another Trump lie though only a few Americans, like DCReport readers, know this.

Fought Mail-in Votes, Then Didn't

At first, Amazon fought hard to block mail-in voting. It dismissed the potential dangers of in-person voting during the pandemic. Then it reversed course and challenging the ability of the Postal Service to deliver mail-in ballots in a timely fashion. Taken together it was a classic case of Amazon talking out of both sides of the company's mouth.

Lisa Y. Henderson, the Labor board's acting Region 10 director, dismissed the company's contradictory arguments in January and ordered that balloting be conducted by mail.

How the Labor board rules, and whether the long list of federal rules that hobble union organizing, will be addressed by President Joe Biden's administration. Decisions will be crucial to whether Americans as a whole prosper, or we continue to create inequality through policies that tilt heavily to the side of business owners and investors.

The struggle between American workers and the bosses has been, and continues to be, fantastically lopsided.

The Economic Policy Institute's Unequal Power Project, for instance, notes an "inherent imbalance in bargaining power between employers and employees" that creates "a lack of freedom in the workplace."

Pro-union workers at Amazon's Bessemer Fulfillment Center remained undaunted after losing the initial vote, declaring, "This battle has just begun."

"I'm not discouraged, Linda Burns told reporters after losing the vote by a more than 2-to-1 margin. "This is the beginning. [Jeff] Bezos, you misled a lot of our people. We're going to fight for our rights."

Co-worker Emitt Ashford said if the Labor board does order a new election, "We would see a change in the tide now that people have the information."

"We would win," he said.

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https://www.alternet.org/2021/05/louis-dejoy/

spied on BLM

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dejoy still up to no good

senate committee approves 3 Biden nominees for USPS board — setting the stage for a Democratic majority

Meaghan Ellis

April 29, 2021

A Senate committee voted in favor of President Joe Biden's three nominees for governing board overseeing the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).

According to the Associated Press, the Senate

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how does he still have job?

https://www.alternet.org/2021/02/louis-dejoy/

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may be ordered to appear?

https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/dejoy-delivers-stunning-response-after-failing-to-meet-judges-contempt-deadline-on-hundreds-of-thousands-of-ballots/

says he could not have inspectors do ballot sweep b/c they were already doing (more important? election- related?) work

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he took PO cops off street beat; same guys that got bannon?

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/usps-still-hasnt-reversed-election-mail-slowdown-despite-multiple-court-orders-attorneys-general/

igor salon

U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is still not processing election mail at the rate it did prior to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's controversial changes, reigniting concerns that mail-in ballots in certain states may not arrive before voting deadlines, according to states who sued the agency over a reported mail slowdown.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who is leading a multi-state coalition in a lawsuit challenging the USPS' "illegal" changes, claimed in a Monday federal court filing that the agency's performance was down more than 5% since DeJoy implemented the changes in July and continued "to be lower than at any point in 2020," according to Bloomberg News.

Multiple federal courts issued orders blocking DeJoy's changes in response to lawsuits from Shapiro and other attorneys general, but the filing alleged that some USPS divisions had not complied with the orders. One division has a compliance rate as low as 85%, and others have not reported performance metrics, the filing said. The USPS has still barely increased late and extra trips as required by the orders, it added.

"Despite being subject to multiple injunctions, defendants have not improved their service performance," Shapiro said, asking the court to appoint an independent monitor to ensure the agency complies with the courts.

Though DeJoy, a top donor to President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, has disputed Democrats who criticized him for instituting changes like limiting overtime and removing high-speed mail sorting machines, a new USPS inspector general report faulted the changes ordered by the new postmaster general for reduced performance.

"No analysis of the service impacts of these various changes was conducted, and documentation and guidance to the field for these strategies was very limited and almost exclusively oral," the report says. "The resulting confusion and inconsistency in operations at postal facilities compounded the significant negative service impacts across the country."

The report added that the changes "individually may not have been significant," but "launching all of these efforts at once, in addition to the changes instituted by the postmaster general, had a significant impact on the Postal Service."

The USPS Board of Governors disputed the report, arguing that the changes were not disruptive and "similar to efforts that the Postal Service pursued over the last several years."

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., who chairs the House Oversight and Reform Committee, and Committee of Oversight and Reform, said in a statement that the IG report confirmed that "Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's sweeping changes — which were hastily implemented without analyzing their potential impact — caused serious delays across the country."

Maloney added that the report undermined DeJoy's testimony to the committee denying that he was aware of the changes, "calling into question whether the postmaster general is continuing to mislead Congress and the American people to this day."

USPS data shows that mail disruptions have been particularly pronounced in key swing states, according to The Washington Post. In 17 postal districts across 10 swing states, on-time first-class mail arrival rates are just 83.9%, or about 7.8% lower than in January and 2% lower than the national average since the changes were implemented. More than 15% of first-class mail in those districts arrives later than the USPS' one- to three-day delivery window.

This has sparked alarm in states like Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin, where ballots will be rejected if they arrive after Election Day. In Detroit, for example, only 71% of mail arrived on time in October versus 92.2% in January.

Some major cities in North Carolina have also experienced 10% drops in on-time arrival rates, while "timeliness also varied widely in postal districts in Pennsylvania and Florida," according to the report.

USPS spokesman David Partenheimer told the outlet that the agency had maintained its performance levels despite mail levels surging amid an unprecedented rise in mail voting.

"The Postal Service is fully committed and actively working to handle the increase in election mail volume across the country over the next two weeks," he said, adding that workers had been told to use "extraordinary measures" to speed up deliveries like special pickups, extra trips and Sunday deliveries.

But some postal workers told the outlet that the "ballot-handling directives from higher-ups have been chaotic." Workers in Michigan claimed that they were instructed to focus on package delivery over mail ballot collection. Workers in Pennsylvania plan to handstamp ballot envelopes to avoid them getting caught up in overwhelmed processing plants.

"In the current state of the world, there is nothing a voter could do to work around problems in the post office," J. Remy Green, an attorney representing a group of voters who sued the USPS, told The Post. "I think, at the end of the day, the damage that has been done here —it's not just service performance and quantifiable damage. It is a kind of psychic damage to the confidence of voters and confidence in the vote."

Lawmakers who tried to gain access to see how the USPS is handling mail at large facilities have been blocked by the agency, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., said he and two other lawmakers were blocked from entering a large mail processing facility in his state despite previously touring the facility "without incident or objection." He added that he was told he could not enter nonpublic areas of the facility within 45 days of the election over concerns that doing so would violate the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees like postal workers from engaging in political activity. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., said he was blocked due to Hatch Act concerns, as well.

"These are phony-baloney excuses," Pascrell told the outlet. "It's not like I'm trying to get into Area 51 or something."

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., said she was also blocked from touring a facility in Florida prior to the 45-day window in early September. Schultz said she was told that the agency would require her to take a "bogus training course" to gain access.

The agency also faces a lawsuit from a union representing postal police officers after the agency issued an order ending daily patrols aimed at preventing robbery of mail collection boxes and vehicles, according to the Journal.

Officers say the move has "left letter carriers without escorts on unsafe routes" and raised concerns that thieves may target mail ballots, according to the report.

The union filed a lawsuit asking a federal court to block the order to "ensure the integrity of the mail" but the litigation is still pending.

"If I was going to undermine public trust in the mail, one of the first things I would do is pull postal police off the street," Frank Albergo, the president of the Postal Police Officers Association, told The Journal.

If the USPS did not intend to undermine election mail security, "then why not wait until after the election to neuter the postal police?" Jim Bjork, a business agent for the union, asked.

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an 1020

postmaster General DeJoy's $700,000 donation to GOP convention aligns with Senate probe of wife

Roger Sollenberger Salon

October 14, 2020

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, whose political contributions are the subject of multiple congressional investigations and a campaign finance complaint, donated nearly $700,000 to the host committee who

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https://www.democracynow.org/2020/9/18/headlines/court_halts_drastic_operational_changes_at_usps_warning_of_widespread_disenfranchisement

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deJoy gave $600,000 to GOP after USPS job opened — should the focus be on his wife’s ambassador nod?

Roger Sollenberger / Salon September 17, 2020

Lisa Graves, the former executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy, testified this week to Congress that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy had donated $600,000 to Republicans after his future job opened up.…

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an 9/15/20

deJoy’s company may have gouged taxpayers for $53 million: USPS audit

Joan McCarter / Daily Kos

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/federal-judge-orders-usps-to-stop-sending-patently-false-mailers-to-voters-that-will-sow-confusion/

no lnx twt pix

Jake Johnson / Common Dreams September 13, 2020

A federal judge late Saturday ordered the U.S. Postal Service to immediately stop sending mailers containing false voting information to Colorado residents, saying he is “deeply troubled” by the decision to distribute the misleading postcards to households across the nation.

“As a result of false information contained in the notice, some Colorado voters may not vote because they erroneously believe that: (1) they must request a ballot at least 15 days before the election; (2) they must mail their ballot at least seven days prior to the election; or (3) they may not vote if they lose their ballot,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge William Martínez in a 10-page ruling (pdf) granting Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s request for a temporary restraining order.

“In reality, Colorado voters do not need to request a ballot at any time. Voters who receive a ballot do not need to mail the ballot back at least seven days before the election; they may alternatively deposit that ballot at a drop-box or may choose to vote in person up to and including on Election Day,” Martínez continued, describing some of the information on the mailer “patently false.”

“The notice, if distributed, will sow confusion amongst voters by delivering a contradictory message,” the judge said.

The ruling came hours after Griswold sued Postmaster General Louis DeJoy—a Republican megadonor to President Donald Trump—and other top USPS officials over the mailers, which have already arrived at households in Colorado and other states just weeks ahead of the November election.

While acknowledging the postcards “may have started off as a well-intentioned effort” to inform voters ahead of the election, Griswold tweeted late Friday that “confusing voters about mail ballots in the middle of a pandemic is unacceptable.”

As Common Dreams reported Saturday, election officials in California, Washington state, and Maryland have also publicly raised alarm about the postcards, which contain both broad advice on how to vote by mail as well as specific timelines that could mislead residents of states with different rules.

In an emailed statement Saturday as at least five additional states considered suing over the postcards, the USPS said the mailers are intended to provide “general, all-purpose guidance on the use of the mail, and not guidance on state election rules.”

“The mail-piece—which has already been delivered to most households and will reach every American residential mailing and P.O. Box address in the coming week—contains a single set of simple recommendations for voters throughout the nation, regardless of where they live and where they vote,” the Postal Service said. “At the same time, we are aware that each state has its own specific rules, deadlines and requirements, and the mail-piece acknowledges that fact.”

Griswold said Saturday that she urged the Postal Service not to send out the mailers in Colorado due to the misleading information, but her request was denied.

“As the chief election official of the state of Colorado, it’s my job to try to stop misinformation and any unnecessary election confusion,” said Griswold. “The importance of this election, combined with the fact it is being held amidst a national pandemic, further heightens the need to provide correct voting information to Coloradans.”

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/1154566/

democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are investigating the events surrounding the nomination of Aldona Wos, the wife of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, to be the next U.S. ambassador to Canada following a report on high-dollar donations made by Salon.

Salon first reported the conspicuous alignment of hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from DeJoy with President Donald Trump’s February announcement of Wos as his pick to fill the cush Ottawa gig.

DeJoy, a top Trump donor and the former head fundraiser for the Republican National Convention, made a series of major donations to the Trump campaign and Senate Republicans leading up to his wife’s nomination, federal election records show.

In the weeks surrounding the nomination, DeJoy gave Trump Victory $360,600. He also gave a $35,000 maximum donation to the Senate GOP’s election committee the day after Trump announced his intention to nominate Wos.

AD REMOVED FOR SUBSCRIBED USER

The Senate oversees the confirmation of all U.S. ambassadors. Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., the current chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), sits on the powerful Foreign Relations Committee, which is currently holding confirmation proceedings for Wos.

Previous DeJoy donations also fall within the timeline of his wife’s nomination.

DeJoy and Wos each donated $35,000 to Trump Victory on Jan. 22, 2019, according to FEC records. Following Trump’s Feb. 22 announcement that the Canadian ambassadorship would be opening up, DeJoy poured in hundreds of thousands of dollars, records show.

He gave a total of $320,000 to Trump Victory in the three months between April 3 and June 17, 2019. During that time frame, DeJoy also made his largest single donation to the fund to date: $120,000. A few days later, Trump was said to be considering Wos for the position.

Trump opted to fill the position with an acting ambassador. When the post opened again in January, DeJoy donated another $150,000 to Trump Victory in two separate chunks on Jan. 15 — at the time his largest single-day contribution.

Then, the White House announced that Trump would nominate Wos as the next U.S. ambassador to Canada on Feb. 11. The next day, DeJoy made his maximum donation of $35,000 to the NRSC, FEC flings show.

Finally, on Feb. 19, 2020, the week after the White House announcement and the NSRC donation, DeJoy made his biggest single donation to Trump Victory to date: $210,600. Six days later, Trump officially nominated Wos.

The news of fresh scrutiny from Senate Democrats comes as the Democratic-controlled House Oversight Committee announced an investigation into DeJoy following a bombshell report in the Washington Post. DeJoy allegedly repeatedly urged the staff of his supply chain company to donate to Republican candidates and later reimbursed them, according to former employees. The arrangement, colloquially known as a “straw donor” scheme, is one of the few campaign finance crimes that can carry jail time.

“Reimbursing another person for political contributions is a serious campaign finance violation,” Brendan Fischer, the director of the Federal Reform Program at the Campaign Legal Center, told Salon. “Straw donations violate campaign finance law’s transparency requirements, usually constitute excessive or prohibited contributions and are made with some level of intent. A donor doesn’t accidentally ask another person to make a political contribution and then reimburse them — they do so intentionally, typically because the original donor has already maxed-out to the candidate. Plenty of people have gone to jail for straw donor schemes.”

Right-wing agitator and media personality Dinesh D’Souza was fined $30,000 and sentenced to eight months in a community confinement center after he pleaded guilty to running a straw donor scheme through his secretary. Trump pardoned D’Souza in 2018.

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/heres-the-most-revealing-part-of-the-postmaster-generals-response-to-explosive-allegations-about-an-illegal-donations-scheme/

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/postmaster-general-urged-to-immediately-step-aside-as-north-carolina-ag-backs-probe-into-campaign-finance-fraud-allegations/

w/ ith less than two months before U.S. elections in November and amid demands for his immediate firing, high-level Democrats in Congress and the Attorney General of North Carolina called for both state and federal investigations into Postmaster General Louis DeJoy after explosive reporting Sunday afternoon contained allegations that the GOP megadonor now running the U.S. Postal Service criminally violated campaign finance laws.

First reported by the Washington Post, the story included claims from former employees of DeJoy, most notably from his human resources director David Young, who said DeJoy—a major donor to the Republican Party and President Donald Trump—would reimburse workers using payroll bonuses for political giving, an arrangement that is unlawful under both federal law and in North Carolina, where his logistics company, New Breed, is located.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein responded to the news Sunday evening by backing an investigation.

“It is against the law to directly or indirectly reimburse someone for a political contribution,” Stein said in statement on social media. “Any credible allegations of such actions merit investigation by the appropriate state and federal authorities. Beyond this, it would be inappropriate for me as Attorney General to comment on any specific matter at this time.”...

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/usps-has-paid-trumps-postmaster-general-286-million-since-2013-report/

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/top-democrat-demands-postmaster-general-dejoy-turn-over-all-secret-communications-with-the-trump-campaign/

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// AOC

https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/rep-katie-porter-came-prepared-to-grill-postmaster-general-dejoy-and-exposed-his-stunning-ignorance/

...DeJoy was forced to say, “I don’t know,” when asked the price to mail a postcard. When she repeated the question, DeJoy laughed with incredulity, as if to suggest he does not believe it is the job of the Postmaster general to know the answers to such basic questions.

“I don’t,” he repeated. “I’ll submit that I know very little about postage stamps.”

He also had to say “I don’t know” when asked about the rate of USPS Priority Mail. And he answered, “No I cannot,” when asked if he could say how many Americans voted by mail in the last presidential election. When asked if he could say “to the nearest 10 million,” a smirk came over his face, and he said he would be “guessing,” and added that he didn’t want to guess.

“OK, so, Mr. DeJoy, I am concerned – I’m glad you know the price of a stamp – but I’m concerned about your understanding of this agency,” Porter told the Postmaster General.

And that’s when things got very serious.

DeJoy repeatedly refused to commit to resigning if the USPS Inspector General found he had committed misconduct.

“I don’t believe they will find misconduct,” DeJoy declared, “but I don’t see why I would commit here right now to resigning for any reason.”

“I’m concerned about your understanding of this agency,” Porter told DeJoy. “And I’m particularly concerned about it because you started taking very decisive action when you became Postmaster General, you started directing the unplugging and destroying of machines, changing of employee procedures, and locking of collection boxes.”

“As a professor,” Rep. Porter explained, “I’ve always told my students that one of the most important rules in life is to read the instructions. Did you actually read and independently analyze the major overhaul plans, before you ordered them to take effect?”

DeJoy, exuding disrespect for the California Congresswoman, replied, “Again, I will repeat that I did not order major overhaul plans, the items you identify were not directed by me. I did, and didn’t do much analysis to get them to run your trucks to my schedule.”

“Reclaiming my time Mr. DeJoy,” Porter interjected, “Could you please tell me who did order these changes if you as Postmaster General did not,” Porter said before DeJoy interrupted her. “If you did not order these actions to be taken. Please tell the committee, the name of who did.”

“I do not know,” DeJoy once again was forced to admit.

“Mr. DeJoy, did you analyze these plans, before they went into effect?”

“As I’ve stated numerous times, the plans were in effect and being implemented before I arrived.”

He refused to say who had put them into effect.

Watch:

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an 820

They’re not needed’: Postmaster General tells Senate he has no intention of returning mail sorting machines

Common Dreams August 21, 2020

Update: In testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Friday, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told lawmakers that he has “no intention” of returning or replacing mail-sorting…

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Frustrated Senator fires off a string of F-bombs during Postmaster DeJoy hearing

Tom Boggioni / Raw Story

Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) spewed out a string of F-bombs that went out live on TV on Friday morning before he was able to start grilling Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.…

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/complete-bombshell-former-top-usps-official-reveals-disturbing-new-details-of-dejoy-selection-and-mnuchin-sabotage-of-mail-service

no lnx vid twt

"Complete bombshell’: Former top USPS official reveals ‘disturbing’ new details of DeJoy selection and Mnuchin sabotage of mail service

Written by Common Dreams August 21, 2020

In his first public remarks since resigning from the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors in protest at the end of April, David Williams on Thursday offered a number of alarming new details surrounding the selection of Trump megadonor Louis DeJoy as postmaster general and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s efforts to exert influence over mail operations and finances.

Williams, the former vice chairman of the USPS Board of Governors with decades of federal government experience, testified to the Congressional Progressive Caucus that what he witnessed in his final months at the Postal Service was unprecedented, detailing how Mnuchin required members of the supposedly independent board to “come to his office to kiss the ring and receive his blessing before confirmation” and made “illegal” demands of officials.

“Corruption, plain and simple. Not only is Louis DeJoy a Trump crony and clearly unqualified to be Postmaster General but he also has significant financial conflicts of interest that make him eager to destroy the USPS altogether. We won’t let him.”

—Rep. Pramila Jayapal

“The Secretary has called over board members to provide instructions and requests and express his displeasure, which is really striking. I’m not sure I’ve run into that before, where one department is trying to run another department,” said Williams, who previously served as USPS inspector general. “Normally you would simply reject the effort and report it to Congress.”

Williams told lawmakers that the removal of USPS mailboxes in several states was specifically advocated by Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs executive who was reportedly involved in the recruitment of DeJoy for the postmaster general position.

“The blue boxes were maybe the most interesting of all,” said Williams, a Democrat who was appointed to the Board of Governors by President Donald Trump. “Those were not part of ongoing plans. To my knowledge, as a matter of fact… Secretary Mnuchin wanted that done. His study of the Postal Service asked that it be done.”

In response to Williams’ account of Mnuchin’s interference at the independent agency, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) said the treasury secretary should be called—and, if necessary, subpoenaed—to testify before Congress.

“This hearing is a complete bombshell,” tweeted David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect, which first reported that Williams resigned from the Board of Governors in protest.

Williams also offered an inside look at the process that led to the Board of Governors’ selection and May appointment of DeJoy, a former logistics executive with zero experience working for the Postal Service.

Asked whether the board interviewed other qualified candidates for the postmaster general role, Williams answered in the affirmative and characterized DeJoy as uniquely unfit for the job, recounting that he had to be coached through his interviews. Williams said DeJoy’s appointment was pushed by John Barger, a board member and Republican donor who—according to Williams—helped DeJoy “finish a number of sentences where he got stuck” and “explained to the board what Mr. DeJoy meant during the presentation.”

Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.) called Williams’ description of the selection process “very, very disturbing.” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said Williams’ testimony was “stunning.”

Williams’ revelations came just hours before DeJoy is set to appear before the Republican-controlled Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, where he is expected to face questions about his sweeping policy changes that caused massive mail backlogs across the nation.

A day after DeJoy vowed to suspend the operational changes until after the November election, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement that the postmaster general “frankly admitted” to her that he has “no intention of replacing the sorting machines, blue mailboxes, and other key mail infrastructure that have been removed and that plans for adequate overtime, which is critical for the timely delivery of mail, are not in the works.”

In a letter to the USPS Board of Governors on Wednesday, 90 House Democrats demanded the immediate removal of DeJoy for using his brief tenure as postmaster general “to sabotage the United States Postal Service.”

“Despite recent claims by Mr. DeJoy that implementation of certain changes may be delayed,” the lawmakers wrote, “he has already done considerable damage to the institution and we believe his conflicts of interest are insurmountable.”

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head of $ for convention, gave 1.2m$ and raised more? rnc

wife nom for amb cda!

pvtization grifter/ extraction

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postmaster General Louis DeJoy donated big to Trump and the GOP. His wife got an ambassador post

Roger Sollenberger / SalonAugust 19, 2020

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a top donor to President Trump’s election campaign and the former head fundraiser for the Republican National Convention, made a series of major donations to the Trump campaign and Senate Republicans leading…

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protest outside mansion, not clear if he was there; dismantle stalled but not indef (after election) and no effort to repair damage eg sort machines, dem house called back

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/house-democrats-summon-trump-postmaster-general-to-explain-sabotages/

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shutting down sorting machines?

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salon matt r

https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/buying-stamps-wont-stop-trump-from-destroying-the-postal-system/

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COI

https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/trumps-postmaster-general-caught-making-cash-off-of-post-office-contracts-report/

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/lawmakers-demand-removal-of-postmaster-general-dejoy-over-nefarious-efforts-to-destroy-the-postal-service

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/friday-night-massacre-at-us-postal-service-as-postmaster-general-a-major-trump-donor-ousts-top-officials

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/trumps-s-on-the-postal-service-are-hurting-democracy-and-thats-the-point/

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https://www.salon.com/2020/05/07/top-trump-donor-who-gave-more-than-2-million-to-the-gop-picked-to-run-postal-service/

A major donor to President Donald Trump's campaign and the Republican National Committee was selected as the new head of the US Postal Service on Wednesday.

Louis DeJoy, a North Carolina businessman who is heading up fundraising for the 2020 Republican National Convention, was approved by the USPS Board of Governors to become "the first postmaster general in two decades who did not rise through the agency's ranks," The Washington Post reported.

DeJoy has given more than $2 million to the Trump campaign and Republican causes since 2016, according to the report, including $1 million to the Republican National Committee and $650,000 to the Trump Victory Fund.

DeJoy's wife, Aldona Wos, has also risen through the ranks of Trumpworld. Trump nominated Wos to be ambassador to Canada earlier this year, replacing Kelly Craft, another top donor who has since been promoted to U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Wos is also the vice chair of the president's Commission on White House Fellowships. She previously served as ambassador to Estonia under former President George W. Bush.

The Postal Service announced DeJoy's selection late Wednesday night.

"Louis DeJoy understands the critical public service role of the United States Postal Service and the urgent need to strengthen it for future generations," Robert Duncan, the Trump-appointed chairman of the Board of Governors, said in a statement. "The board appreciated Louis' depth of knowledge on the important issues facing the Postal Service and his desire to work with all of our stakeholders on preserving and protecting this essential institution."

DeJoy previously ran New Breed Logistics, a logistics firm which has been a contractor to the USPS for more than two decades.

"Having worked closely with the Postal Service for many years, I have a great appreciation for this institution and the dedicated workers who faithfully execute its mission," DeJoy said in a statement.

The Board of Governors said it made the selection after it vetted more than 50 candidates.

The move places a Trump supporter at the head of an agency which the president has criticized for years, most recently demanding they raise prices on packages from Amazon, another frequent Trump target. The president has threatened to withhold bailout funds from the Postal Service even though Congress allocated $10 billion to help the cash-strapped agency. The Postal Service is projecting a $13 billion hole in its budget by September.

"The post office — if they raised the price of a package by approximately four times, it would be a whole new ballgame," Trump groused last month. "But they don't want to raise it, because they don't want to insult Amazon. And they don't want to insult other companies, perhaps, that they like. The post office should raise the price of the packages to the companies — not to the people — to the companies. If they did that, it would be a whole different story."

DeJoy's appointment comes after outgoing Postmaster General Megan Brennan retired following complaints that the Treasury Department was "meddling" with the Postal Service. David Williams, a Democrat, resigned as vice chairman of the board last week.

"[Williams'] main frustration is that he felt the Treasury Department was interfering in an apolitical board and an apolitical agency," a source told The Post.

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who chairs the House subcommittee that oversees the agency, called the move a blatant reward for a "partisan donor."

"The Postal Service is in crisis and needs real leadership and someone with knowledge of the issues," Connolly said. "This crony doesn't cut it."

Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias warned that the move could also have serious consequences for the push to implement widescale mail voting amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"Vote-By-Mail is essential to Democracy in 2020. The appointment of a Trump crony to run the Post Office is a very ominous sign," he tweeted. "We simply cannot have fair elections in 2020 without a fairly run Postal Service, period."

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezalso warned that the move could impact this fall's elections after Trump repeatedly pushed debunked conspiracy theories about voting by mail.

"GOP is naming a political operative with no USPS experience as the Postmaster General right before an election where millions of people will try to vote by mail to save their own lives," she wrote. "They are eroding our democracy and crushing our public institutions before our very eyes."

IGOR DERYSH

Igor Derysh is a staff writer at Salon. His work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Herald and Baltimore Sun.

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/watchdogs-demand-investigation-into-voter-suppression-tactics-by-trump-donor-running-usps/

salon

Multiple government watchdog groups called for an investigation into newly-installed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy over concerns that his actions since taking over the agency could amount to “voter suppression tactics.”

DeJoy, a major Trump and Republican Party donor, has sparked widespread concern after pushing for an “operational pivot” at the cash-strapped agency. Advocates have expressed fears about a mail slowdown, while lawmakers called out DeJoy for reportedly planning service cuts in violation of federal law.

The watchdog groups Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and Common Cause Wisconsin called on Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., the chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which oversees the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), to investigate DeJoy’s actions since taking over.

“In his first month on the job, the postmaster general has already taken steps that could undermine efficient voting by mail in November,” the groups said in a letter to Johnson. “According to internal USPS memos, DeJoy directed USPS employees that overtime would be limited and that they were prohibited from making late trips in order to ensure timely delivery. DeJoy offered these changes as a way to cut costs, but USPS has acknowledged that they will likely result in delayed mail delivery.”

The letter cited a recent report by the USPS Office of Inspector General highlighting problems “related to the timeliness of ballots being mailed to voters” in the Wisconsin primary earlier this year.

The groups called on Johnson to hold oversight hearings in “possible voter suppression tactics” by DeJoy, as well as the deployment of Homeland Security forces to cities like Portland.

“Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf’s decision to deploy federal officers to quell political protests raises significant concerns regarding the use of federal resources to repress the rights of Americans over the objections of many local elected officials who do not want federal help,” the letter said, adding that the agents “could be used to intimidate voters across the country in the upcoming election.”

The letter echoed concerns raised by other groups about DeJoy, who has no experience at the agency and is the former lead fundraiser for the Republican National Convention.

“We have an underfunded state and local election system and a deliberate slowdown in the Postal Service,” Wendy Fields, who heads the voting rights coalition the Democracy Initiative, told The New York Times, adding that Trump was “deliberately orchestrating suppression and using the post office as a tool to do it.”

Trump has repeatedly sought to sow doubts about mail voting, pushing debunked conspiracy theories alleging links to voter fraud and insisting, without evidence, that it would “lead to the end of our great Republican Party.” While lawmakers from both parties have rejected Trump’s false claims, even Republican officials are increasingly worried about how the changes at USPS will affect the expected mail-in voting surge.

“Election officials are very concerned, if the post office is reducing service, that we will be able to get ballots to people in time,” Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman, a Republican, told NPR.

David Partenheimer, a USPS spokesman, told The New York Times that post offices have “ample capacity to adjust our nationwide processing and delivery network to meet projected election and political mail volume, including any additional volume that may result as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

But the largest postal workers union argued that the changes would undoubtedly reduce service.

“The policies that the new postmaster general is putting into place — they couldn’t lead to anything but degradation of service,” Mark Diamondstein, the head of the American Postal Workers Union, told the outlet. “Anything that slows down the mail could have a negative impact on everything we do, including vote by mail.”

Democrats have been pushing to include a $25 billion cash infusion for the USUS in the next phase of coronavirus relief, which Republicans have rejected. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., argued that the Republicans want to “diminish the capacity of the Postal System to work in a timely fashion.”

“We are worried about new management at the Postal Service that is carrying out Trump’s avowed opposition to voting by mail,” Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who heads a House subcomittee overseeing the USPS, told The Times. “I don’t think that’s speculation. I think we are witnessing that in front of our own eyes.”

Stacey Abrams, a potential running mate to presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden who faced her own battle with voter suppression when she ran for governor in Georgia, accused Trump of trying to “steal” the election by undermining the USPS.

“We will not be able to effectively count the votes of every eligible American because he’s doing his best to undermine our confidence in the process,” Abrams, who heads the voting rights group Fair Fight, told CNN, “but worst he’s doing his best to actually steal the vote by undermining the postal service.”

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