I once worked for FedEx. I know personally how they pull every possible string to get every break they can under the law and then some. I am absolutely convinced they are giving DT a blowjob every hour on the hour.
I'm kind of surprised that no one in the M$M (or anywhere else for that matter) seems to have noticed the other ideological agenda-driven point to privatizing the USPS: the Census. Let that sink in for a while.Although i would quibble that the the DoD is expected to turn a profit--not for the government, but for the beneficiaries of militarism: the MIC. This is why, since the end of hostilities in Korea, our "wars" are stupid, impulsive, politically motivated, inconclusive, bankrupting and never-ending--as long as the stockholders are happy, they can last for decades and decades. Just don't impose a draft, and the American public will eventually become bored, but they'll never object.
I retired from the USPS (rural carrier) six years ago, and can attest that in the last years of my employment the Service was delivering 40-60% of FedEx/UPS packages every year. And about 50% of Amazon's.Interesting thing about the RW obsession with privatizing the mail: it began in the early 1980's when one of the Koch brothers (Deceased David, i think) read a news item about the USPS setting up a task force to consider converting the delivery fleet from gas to LNG/electric. That's when the Koch network freaked and began their crusade to destroy the postal system, and they haven't stopped yet.
I was kind of ''meh'' to the death of the postal service, but you make some good arguments for its preservation. I have no reason to question your views, Dok. You make some sense, especially with the point about mail-in voting. But I still can't help wondering if most of us won't be complicit if/when USPS croaks because ... well, how many of us have been in a post office this year, to buy stamps or send a package? How many of us get our bills and pay them online? Especially young people who are encouraged to do so because online billing is more environmentally friendly than generating actual paper bills? Who sends actual letters or cards anymore? Us Olds, maybe, who are dying off in droves, leaving the world to people who are too Internet savvy to spend 55 cents to send something that takes two or three days to arrive when it can be done instantly via email or text or twitter? I know, I know, it's in the Constitution, but a lot of things have been in the Constitution that we've had to change with amendments. The Electoral College is in there too, and a lot of us would like to see it abolished. There's plenty of precedent, is what I'm saying. When it's gone, I think it'll be like ... I dunno, vinyl records, I guess, a thing of nostalgia that a lot of people who have been buying CDs or downloading their music for years will cry and moan and beat their breasts over losing, but which THEY HELPED KILL AND BURY.
My $.02.
ETA The newspaper is perhaps a better example of something everyone agrees is a very good thing to have but nobody wants to, you know, actually pay for. The paper I worked for for 30 years just cut back to five days a week, and those papers have been mighty slim. I think my ink-on-paper newspaper won't survive what's left of my lifetime, to a general (shrug) from the public.
You are correct. I just looked it up. I was going off of what our local city hall person had told me. Now, the “city” is about two square blocks, and we live outside “city” limits and it’s rural AF, and we are on a DOT managed road. But our road existed before the Civil War. It’s plausible that the person at city hall told me what they knew based on the people she knows who run the local entities, and if there’s any overlapping responsibilities or affiliations, I wouldn’t know, but there’s a trend around here where the locals assume everyone knows everyone else, and their business.
There are only a few people on the various boards, sometimes being the same people on multiple boards. People actually get vocal about the new builds in the area, driving up property values/taxes, and not paying for additional increases in local utilities and infrastructure. They call them out by name. I’m just too disinterested to take note.
I think it could also have something to do with how addresses have to be submitted to USPS to be accepted into their database for mail delivery. Like I mentioned, rural AF, and a lot of large old family land gets divided up into new lots, which is not necessarily planned, and they even install their own access roads, and they have to have the name approved by the county. It makes sense though, that the same folks would also have the records for available numbers as they do names, if the roads already exist or are part of a development.
I saw Bernie on (Colbert?) a few nights ago, after he conceded, and he repeatedly spoke derisively about Democrats and their "87-point plans". It was very hard not to take that as a swipe at Senator Professor Warren, and it was very off-putting.
Citation needed, as house numbering is a municipal function.
911 implementation?
I always return unsolicited pre-paid junk mail envelopes, figuring that the post office benefits from the mail.
I once worked for FedEx. I know personally how they pull every possible string to get every break they can under the law and then some. I am absolutely convinced they are giving DT a blowjob every hour on the hour.
I'm kind of surprised that no one in the M$M (or anywhere else for that matter) seems to have noticed the other ideological agenda-driven point to privatizing the USPS: the Census. Let that sink in for a while.Although i would quibble that the the DoD is expected to turn a profit--not for the government, but for the beneficiaries of militarism: the MIC. This is why, since the end of hostilities in Korea, our "wars" are stupid, impulsive, politically motivated, inconclusive, bankrupting and never-ending--as long as the stockholders are happy, they can last for decades and decades. Just don't impose a draft, and the American public will eventually become bored, but they'll never object.
I retired from the USPS (rural carrier) six years ago, and can attest that in the last years of my employment the Service was delivering 40-60% of FedEx/UPS packages every year. And about 50% of Amazon's.Interesting thing about the RW obsession with privatizing the mail: it began in the early 1980's when one of the Koch brothers (Deceased David, i think) read a news item about the USPS setting up a task force to consider converting the delivery fleet from gas to LNG/electric. That's when the Koch network freaked and began their crusade to destroy the postal system, and they haven't stopped yet.
I was kind of ''meh'' to the death of the postal service, but you make some good arguments for its preservation. I have no reason to question your views, Dok. You make some sense, especially with the point about mail-in voting. But I still can't help wondering if most of us won't be complicit if/when USPS croaks because ... well, how many of us have been in a post office this year, to buy stamps or send a package? How many of us get our bills and pay them online? Especially young people who are encouraged to do so because online billing is more environmentally friendly than generating actual paper bills? Who sends actual letters or cards anymore? Us Olds, maybe, who are dying off in droves, leaving the world to people who are too Internet savvy to spend 55 cents to send something that takes two or three days to arrive when it can be done instantly via email or text or twitter? I know, I know, it's in the Constitution, but a lot of things have been in the Constitution that we've had to change with amendments. The Electoral College is in there too, and a lot of us would like to see it abolished. There's plenty of precedent, is what I'm saying. When it's gone, I think it'll be like ... I dunno, vinyl records, I guess, a thing of nostalgia that a lot of people who have been buying CDs or downloading their music for years will cry and moan and beat their breasts over losing, but which THEY HELPED KILL AND BURY.
My $.02.
ETA The newspaper is perhaps a better example of something everyone agrees is a very good thing to have but nobody wants to, you know, actually pay for. The paper I worked for for 30 years just cut back to five days a week, and those papers have been mighty slim. I think my ink-on-paper newspaper won't survive what's left of my lifetime, to a general (shrug) from the public.
And those people will sit right down and write ... letters to the editor.
Oh, wait, the newspapers will all be gone too.
Vlad.
Amazon doubtless is working on a drone program for that.
You are correct. I just looked it up. I was going off of what our local city hall person had told me. Now, the “city” is about two square blocks, and we live outside “city” limits and it’s rural AF, and we are on a DOT managed road. But our road existed before the Civil War. It’s plausible that the person at city hall told me what they knew based on the people she knows who run the local entities, and if there’s any overlapping responsibilities or affiliations, I wouldn’t know, but there’s a trend around here where the locals assume everyone knows everyone else, and their business.
There are only a few people on the various boards, sometimes being the same people on multiple boards. People actually get vocal about the new builds in the area, driving up property values/taxes, and not paying for additional increases in local utilities and infrastructure. They call them out by name. I’m just too disinterested to take note.
I think it could also have something to do with how addresses have to be submitted to USPS to be accepted into their database for mail delivery. Like I mentioned, rural AF, and a lot of large old family land gets divided up into new lots, which is not necessarily planned, and they even install their own access roads, and they have to have the name approved by the county. It makes sense though, that the same folks would also have the records for available numbers as they do names, if the roads already exist or are part of a development.
About what that card costs now, for cheap sentiment on cheap cardboard. Fuck Hallmark too.
And yet we got fax machines anyway.
Until the Big Tsunami.
Wouldn't it piss Trump off if Bezos stepped in and saved the Post Office? It's basically in his best interests to do so as well.
I saw Bernie on (Colbert?) a few nights ago, after he conceded, and he repeatedly spoke derisively about Democrats and their "87-point plans". It was very hard not to take that as a swipe at Senator Professor Warren, and it was very off-putting.