Saturday, August 15, 2020

Are you going to let Trump get away with this? Nonviolent struggle works, sometimes quickly

Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan hit the Bull's Eye this morning,
Listen to President Trump long enough, and, despite his penchant for falsehood, you’ll eventually hear some unvarnished truth.
That happened Thursday when he stated his intentions clearly in an interview with Fox Business Network. He doesn’t want to approve billions in emergency funding for the cash-strapped and struggling U.S. Postal Service for a simple reason: Democrats want to expand mail-in voting during the pandemic.
His words were stark: “Now, they need that money in order to have the Post Office work, so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots.” He added that holding back funding means “they can’t have universal mail-in voting, they just can’t have it.”
In other words, he doesn’t want American citizens, fearful of exposure to the coronavirus, to have every opportunity to vote in November.


And from Congressman Gerry Connolly, D-VA, chairman of the House subcommittee on Government Operations, in a letter to USPS Inpector General Tammy Whitcomb,
As you are aware, I and other Members of Congress are disturbed by recent steps taken by Postmaster General (PMG) Louis Deloy to restructure the Postal Service The timing of his proposals - amidst a global pandemic and just weeks before a contentious presidential election that will rely on the Postal Service to deliver unprecedented volumes of mail-in-ballots - constitutes a deliberate attempt to use the Postal Service to stifle democracy and influence an election.
It remains unclear whether the Postmaster General is complying with all statutory, regulatory, and administrative processes related to implementation of his drastic changes to nationwide operations and service delivery standards. I believe he is not. I, therefore, write to ask that you perform a rapid review of the statutory and regulatory compliance of Mr. DeJoy's recent actions.
Walter Shaub is former director of the United States [executive branch] Office of Government Ethics.
The American electorate is already answering the call to Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome.

A new Facebook friend of mine wrote the following letter that he sent to the USPS Board of Governors (email addresses below, not yet verified). Please also send this letter or one expressing these sentiments in your own words.
Dear Board of Governors,
My family, and millions of Americans like us, depend on the integrity of the U.S. Postal Service to deliver critical medications, paychecks, legal notices and other essential mail. We kindly urge you to immediately discharge Louis DeJoy from his position as Postmaster General and inform Donald Trump that you will not approve any nominee that engages in similar behavior or policies.
The recent Friday night massacre of dozens of dedicated USPS men and women, the destruction of automated mail sorting machines, and mass removal of mail drop boxes across the country are just the tip of the iceberg in an apparent effort to sabotage from within the most trusted government institution in U.S. history. All this during a pandemic when people most depend on the mail for medicine, and for those paychecks, and right before an election where voting by mail is concomitant with the very right to vote.
Donald Trump has already publicly admitted that he seeks to undermine the USPS to interfere with that right to vote. And Mr DeJoy is his agent in that dark effort. To interfere with even one piece of mail is a federal crime. To interfere with millions of critical mail — among them ballots — the crime of the century. Many will say that Mr. DeJoy’s conduct was all too predictable to you. A staunch Trump supporter who donated millions to his campaign, who has tens of millions invested in USPS competitors. Why in the world would you appoint such a biased man, with such blatant conflicts of interest, to our most trusted non-partisan institution in the first place?
A few days ago, each of you was all but anonymous. No more. Your names are spreading across the internet like wildfire. You, and you alone, will decide if your names become revered, or infamous. You alone will decide if you are enablers of the most vicious assault on an American institution and our very democracy — or are the ones who nipped it in the bud and brought it to a screeching halt. You, and you alone, determine right now if you are on the right side of history.
You have a solemn duty to protect the U.S. Mail. The U.S. Mail and the American people need you to exercise that duty and do the right thing. Please dismiss Louis DeJoy now.
Robert Duncan: mduncan@inezdepositbank.com (Also chairman, president and CEO of Inez Deposit Bank, Inez, KY 41224)
John Barger: barger.jm@gmail.com (also managing director of NorthernCross Partners, an investment and advisory firm providing private capital and advisory services to middle market companies and private equity funds.)
Ron Bloom: ron.bloom@brookfield.com (also vice-president and managing partner of Brookfield Asset Management)
Roman Martinez IV: roman@rmiv.com   (also former investment banker at Lehman Bros.) 
Donald Moak: lee.moak@moakgroup.com (also co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Moak Group, a public affairs, advocacy, and business consulting firm.)
William Zollers: directoraccessmailbox@cigna.com 
Several of these USPS directors are very recent appointees. As they all have outside interests, some of which may conflict, they may be vulnerable to negative publicity.

Additionally, Mary Trump, the president's niece and author of Too Much and Never Enough about the emotional dysfunction in her family posted this tweet yesterday,





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