The Post Office surrenders---why so easily?

What kitap said.

I suspect they’re afraid of losing their voters; a high percentage of whom depend upon the post office.

Although people often complain about the service, one thing sure to cause a huge commotion in rural communities is any threat to the local post office.

– I’m also not sure that they have surrendered, or whether they’ll just try something more subtle than physically removing drop boxes and sorting machinery. And, as others have pointed out, I don’t think they’ve brought back what’s already removed.

There are reports that the USPS destroyed mail sorting machines and that it may not be possible to build and deploy new ones before the election.

We probably need to wait and see more widespread reporting of this to know exactly what is going on, but if this is the case, this is just a false surrender after DeJoy has finished what he set out to do.

The damage has been targeted at blue voting areas, primarily. Democratic voters will vote by mail more than Republican voters this year because they’re more concerned about the coronavirus than Republicans.

One of the few times I’m glad to live in Trumplandia.

I’m sure my mail delivery will have little disruption.

Because lots of people of all kinds of political persuasions were outraged and spoke up.

“In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed." - Abraham Lincoln

Actually, it probably would work, and I fully expect it’s what will happen. Stories are never exciting the second or third time around; no one talks about kids in cages anymore, even though they’re still in cages. They can be a little more subtle about it, too.

Yeah, I’m thinking they realized that they started this too early, so there was time for word to get out, lawsuits to be filed, outrage to build. They will put it on hold until much closer to the election. In the meantime, they will argue, unsuccessfully in court, but maybe successfully to GOP members, that the issue is moot because it’s been “undone” even if it actually has not been.

Bolding mine. I’m 59 years old and live rural. Heck I don’t even get mail delivery to my house. But I’m much more concerned about Republicans than I am COVID. I think we all should be.

https://twitter.com/HenryKraemer/status/1296150766147706880

…so yeah. Probably this.

So, they claimed to “surrender” but were just lying?

That’s exactly my fear. This election meddling was so blatant that it backfired on them bigly, so now under the pretext of reversing everything they’re likely going to do what they can to continue undermining the postal service, but more quietly. They realized how stupid they were trying to do it openly, so now it’s become a covert operation.

What can seriously be done about this? I think after the election (assuming Trump loses) that the entire voting process needs to be changed and protected.

In the meantime, someone get the Supreme Court involved!

Pelosi spoke with DeJoy and “The Postmaster General frankly admitted that he had 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”

Sooo, basically they issued a press release that media outlets reported as fact?

More a zoom press statement by DeJoy where he lied his ass off.

States are suing.

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico-news/new-mexico-sues-over-us-postal-service-changes/5831816/

Dismantling those expensive sorting machines sounds like outright destruction of government property, especially if they can’t be readily reassembled.

What are the legalities of this? I would think that decomissioning and destroying government property must require some specific process and paperwork. Has any of that happened?

Can anyone in the chain of command, from DeJoy to the guy pulling the pieces apart, be held accountable? Can someone be indicted and prosecuted (perhaps by a future administration)?

Several states have now launched law suits about this very issue, so I guess we’ll find out.

I doubt they can reverse anything in time for it to matter, but it’s a start!

Cross-posting a link to a closely related thread:

Things like this:

are bad optics. (to be clear, it’s also bad public service and animal abuse - but those are things that matter less to DeJoy & Trump than the optics) And the Senate seat in Maine is in play.