It’s another typical Monday morning in Washington, D.C. There’s another House hearing, revealing details of a scandal, just one of which would have tanked the career of any other president, but in Trump world, we eat from the scandal du jour menu and it’s all we know.
Today Congressman Stephen Lynch (D-MA) had choice words for Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and then the two started shouting at one another. (Bottom clip below.)
“Now I understand you bring private sector expertise, I guess we couldn’t find a government worker who could screw it up this fast. It would take them a while. The President is running this post office like a business, like he said, he’s running into the ground, as he has declared bankruptcy a few times on his own businesses. In an effort to apply the facts, the real facts, not the not the alternative facts, based on what you have actually done. One can only reach as a Fact Finder, we can only reach two conclusions. One, either through growth and competence, [sic] you have ended the 240 year history of delivering the mail reliably on time, or the second conclusion that we can gather, is that you’re doing this on purpose, and that you’re deliberately dismantling this once proud tradition.”
so, the DeJoy hearing is going well … pic.twitter.com/t3KhRC7FfB
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 24, 2020
It’s sobering to think that it requires an act of congress to keep a crooked postmaster general from wrecking the post office a few months before a presidential election, because the authoritarian incumbent has asked him to do so, in the middle of a global pandemic, no less, but this is what children will be reading in the history books many years hence.
DeJoy has f*cked up the Post Office, and he’s also telling us to get absentee ballots and vote early.
Dude, we WANT to do that, but you’re making everything worse, because Himself has told you to do so – either directly, or via Munchkin. So go take a running jump off a dock, preferably one with sharks and sting rays underneath.
Would you like to tell him that yourself? I’ve got his email.
I think he needs to be fired, since he’s impervious to lectures from customers, employees, and Congress.
Even so, I’ve been making a habit of emailing him with sound advice that I know he’s not listening to. Thought maybe you’d like the opportunity to rip him a new one.
The screen would scorch if I did that.
Heh…let me know if you ever change your mind.
Really??!!! That’s the best news I’ve heard all week! I have a few things I want to say to that weasel blimp.
I live to serve, mb. It’s his official government email, mind, but feel free to spam it: [email protected]
Yes, Lynch was a good advocate for the PO.
DeJoy is done. Not only is this not going away but he’s stupidly making himself the public face of this debacle. Those inevitably get shown the door or warrant in this maladministration.
Agree. He’s headed for the coffee boy hall of fame.
“What’s your hurry? Your covfefe is waiiting in the hall”
Has no one explained to DeJoy the personal legal consequences of what he’s doing ?
Is that a trick question? Because the answer is obviously “no”. He has no conception of how disposable he truly is.
I think it could go beyond disposability. Destroying government property without a bunch of correct paperwork decommissioning it is a major no-no.
Actually, that’s part of the disposability factor, Nancy. Taking this much for the crime lets the guys who pushed him (paging Secretary Mnuchin) off the hook, at least in theory.
In the above text, I think you must have meant to type gross incompetence, not “growth and competence.”
And gross incompetence, my opinion only? Too darned easy an out. This sure seems like purposeful sabotage of the worst form.
That is a quote and I cut and pasted it. I don’t know who transcribed it. That’s part of these rush transcripts. People don’t put “sic” after questionable passages.
Almost certainly transcribed by an AI.
More like an AS (Artificial Stupidity) – but that would apply to a very large percentage of the WH staff
…and are they ever proofread? Nooooooo…
one job: flush the republicon party.every goddam one of them
But, but don’t you need to flush 3 or 4 times?
“Gross incompetence” (was the transcript made with voice recognition? That’s the kind of message I get from my friend all the time because she uses the voice app on her phone)?
Or active malevolence? Which is it, Republicans? You only get those two choices.
Porque no los dos?
DeJoy had orders from Himself via Mnuchin, which is the active malevolence part, and he isn’t capable of running the USPS, which is the gross incompetence part. (I wonder how actively he was involved in running that trucking company, since he doesn’t seem to get that slowing the USPS down isn’t improving service.)
DeJoy has one purpose-distract the American people in Trumpian fashion. Goal: suppress the votes of millions. If he gets convicted of this clear effort to wreck our constitutional right to vote, he is not worried because tRUMP will pardon him. A true presidential leader for all Americans would have started months ago to do all necessary adjustments to the USPS to ensure fair and honest mail in balloting for ALL who want to in light of a dangerous and highly contagious Coronavirus. But then, tRUMP still treats the pandemic as a hoax. DeJoy is just another cog in the current administration, which IS the hoax we live in. It’s time to DUMP tRUMP and save the constitution and democracy.
Conversely, a truly Machiavellian politician such as you’re describing would have executed this better in terms of timing, subtle changes…hell, pick a detail. When direct criminal activity that leads back to Trump is involved, there are no pardons (and don’t you dare invoke Roger Stone, as his sentence was only commuted and looks to be little more than a stopgap for his eventual arrival behind bars). NOTHING is served by lying about our mutual enemy.
I feel like we don’t really know enough. We have seen that over time, the type of mail has shifted. First class man dropped from 83% of the mail to 55%. The number of packages has doubled to 6% from about 3%. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/05/14/the-state-of-the-u-s-postal-service-in-8-charts/ The nature of packages means they generate more revenue than standard letters. In any case, as a constitutionally-mandated government service, not a business, USPS does not need to make a profit. As a I understand it, packages are sorted by hand. Maybe they legitimately do not need those sorting machines, but leave it to incompetent Trump appointees to pick the worst possible time, optics-wise, to decommission some of the machines. Also if this is the case, DeJoy could have simply said so, but he didn’t. or if he did, I missed it.
In addition, until about 2013, USPS was shedding workers every year. I wonder if 2013 is coincident (well, sorta https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/11/11/amazon-sunday-delivery-usps/3479055/ ) with the Amazon contract(a profit maker by the way https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/nation/2020/08/18/amazon-postal-deal-trump-despises-actually-profitable/5601544002/ ). Maybe DeJoy should not put the machines back because they might be irrelevant to the problem, but he should certainly eliminate any issue that is delaying the mail.
Well,well,well, Lookee here. A presentation prepared FOR DeJoy documenting the delays: https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/documents/PMG%20Briefing_Service%20Performance%20Management_08_12_2020.pdf