Yesterday, in response to the overwhelming public outcry over the U.S Postal Service decommissioning mail sorting equipment prior to the upcoming presidential election, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced an abrupt change of course. DeJoy, an ardent trump supporter, said that, so as to avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail,” he would halt the sweeping moves he’d recently implemented, which appeared to be motivated by a desire on the part of the Trump administration to slow the processing of mail-in-ballots. Well, today, it looks as though very little has actually changed. Despite DeJoy’s pledge to stop removing mail processing equipment, it looks as though, at least here in Michigan, the campaign continues.
Today, Heather Walker, an investigative journalist for the NBC affiliate in Grand Rapids, got word from a source inside the local Post Office facility that “mail sorting machines (were) being dismantled” on the order of DeJoy. Walker immediately went to the site, where she saw equipment, like the piece seen at the top of this post, being pulled from the facility. Here’s video.
.@USPS GR Patterson location has pieces of the mail sorting machines out in the parking lot. @WOODTV pic.twitter.com/OuugjhTbfE
— Heather Walker (@_HeatherWalker) August 19, 2020
I know it’s little consolation, but, according to former Attorney General Eric Holder, this is “good evidence that can be used in a criminal investigation.” [Remember, federal criminal law 18 USC 1701, states, “Whoever knowingly and willfully obstructs or retards the passage of the mail, or any carrier or conveyance carrying the mail, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.”]
Please don’t take DeJoy at his word that he’s given up his attempt to cripple the Post Office prior to the election. The 2016 election was effectively decided by 107,000 people in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, representing just .09% of all ballots cast. Here in Michigan, just 10,704 votes decided the race. Given that, and the fact that an unprecedented number of our fellow Michiganders — especially those who understand the seriousness of this pandemic — will be voting by mail this November, one can easily imagine a scenario in which Donald Trump appears to be winning based on Election Day precinct reports, but hundreds of thousands of mail-in-ballots remain uncounted, allowing Donald Trump to claim victory before a full count of the ballots can be conducted. This is why we absolutely must keep fighting, everyone. We cannot give Donald Trump an opportunity to steal this election by keeping our ballots from being counted.
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More than a dozen of the mail sorting machines have now been removed from Detroit postal facilities.
Michigan joins lawsuit challenging U.S. Postal Service changes
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2020/08/18/michigan-joins-lawsuit-challenging-changes-us-postal-service/5604308002/
The attack on and ultimate dismantling snd privitization of the USPS was originally a bi-partisan effort. Back in 06 the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act passed the Senate by unanimous consent. Democrats decision to be Republican Lite just keeps on giving.
How about all those adds John James and his support PAC are running. WASHINGTON FAILED US is a good one. Then the other add taught me that it was really Peters fault that the virus response was fucked up. Who knew that the “ranking” member of the Homeland Security Committee is in charge in Washington. What do the Trumpets think about these adds? It seems like from what you guys talk about, bringing up Washingtons response to the trumpvirus is the last thing you want voters to think about.
UPDATE: USPS Union Rep says work on dismantling sorting machines at the downtown Grand Rapids post has now stopped.
https://twitter.com/_HeatherWalker/status/1296153569679355904?s=20
Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Southern District of New York
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, August 20, 2020
Leaders Of ‘We Build The Wall’ Online Fundraising Campaign Charged With Defrauding Hundreds Of Thousands Of Donors
Brian Kolfage, Stephen Bannon, and Two Others Alleged to Have Funneled Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars From the Organization to Kolfage; All Four Defendants Allegedly Profited From Their Roles in the Schem
Got to love it.
Typically, during the convention, a candidate’s support is at its highest, and then declines when the other party’s Convention is held. It seems that nobody on this site has any good to say about Biden.
Even Obama noted that no one should under estimate Biden’s ability to screw things up and lose the election. Obama didn’t much care for Biden ever since he stated that Obama was both articulate and clean. The racists in the Dem party attribute that to being half white. So Biden nominated a Vice President who is also only half black. But she never got more than a handful of supporters when she ran for President and dropped out early.
Biden/Harris is a weak ticket. They will do worse than HRC. It won’t matter that MSM is extremely biased against Trump. It also won’t matter that social media blocks pro-Trump posts. Trump supporters are extremely motivated.
You really got to love the video of Obama standing in front of a display of the US Constitution while claiming Trump is destroying our democracy. Is the “Constitutional Scholar” really so unaware that we are a Republic?”
A Democratic Republic EOS.
You’re thinking and analysis is is so corrupted as to be dumbfounding.
Hoe you didn’t donate to Bannon’s wall fund. That money could have been used to force women to carry out Pregnancies … err save fetuses.
Can’t wait for this Trump nightmare to be over and all these fucking assholes to take a step back just like we had to 4 years ago. Christ, it just gets worse and worse. I pray we avoid civil war.
Can you find the term “democratic republic” anywhere in the Constitution?
Which article describes our Democracy?
ColuMbo,
The US Postal service processes 472 million pieces of mail per day.
Yes, FF, and it would only be necessary to disrupt the delivery of few hundreds of thousands of pieces of mail in Detroit, Philly and Milwaukee to make all the difference.
I’m glad your heroes are doing it though. They’ve really handed the Democratic campaign a vivid example of how little Trumpanzees value America’s fundamental institutions, and how there are no limits ethically to what they’ll do. It’s good for everyone to see that.
100k in 3 cities over a month is 1k in processed, per city, per day. I am going to go out on a limb and guess it is more likely that ColuMBo is a foaming after the mouth conspiracy theorist than it is likely that Detroit capacity to process will be diminished by 1k per day. Plus offset by the fact the sorting machines were being dismantled in GOP Grand Fucking Rapids.
Jesus.
FF: “Plus offset by the fact the sorting machines were being dismantled in GOP Grand Fucking Rapids.”
In the city of Grand Rapids, in the 2016 presidential election, Clinton got more than twice as many votes as Trump.
NBC pegs Kent County as most important 2020 presidential battleground
https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2019/11/nbc-pegs-kent-county-as-most-important-2020-presidential-battleground.html
At least a dozen sorting machines have been removed from Detroit postal facilities.
Here’s a link to the 2016 General results for the city of Grand Rapids:
https://www.grandrapidsmi.gov/files/assets/public/departments/city-clerk/files/elections/past-results/2016/november-2016-election-results.pdf
I stand corrected. I wrongly assumed GR was a Republican lean.