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Mail delays hit Philadelphia residents, short staffed USPS struggles to keep up

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Re: Mail delays hit Philadelphia residents, short staffed USPS struggles to keep up

#51

Post by nxc18 »

It’s frustrating that we have to discuss the current administration as if we assume they are acting in good faith. It is frustrating to have to have a ‘but both sides...’ and ‘actually they just care about market efficiency’ arguments when the current administration, acting against all expert advice, has taken action to create the worst outcomes we’ve seen in decades, at least as long as I’ve been alive: unmanaged global pandemic (ignoring pandemic response plan and so predictable Biden was tweeting about it last fall), attempts to recklessly change policies that are overturned by the courts (often purely because the admin can’t be bothered to follow procedure), and now postal delays like I’ve never seen before, deliberately caused by a Trump-appointed postmaster.

It shouldn’t be political to point out that for Americans, and probably many other people in the world, the current administration has delivered remarkably poor outcomes so consistently that you have to consider the possibility that that is the goal.

America relies on strong infrastructure for our strong economy, and degrading an institution like the post office is just irresponsible.

The whole voting by mail aspect is another angle to look at the continued ongoing attacks on the American lifestyle; apparently empty supermarket shelves weren’t enough.

On top of all this absurdity, while it is clear that the degradation of service at the post office is intended to suppress democratic voters, there is little evidence that vote by mail privileges republicans: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/us/politics/vote-by-mail....

Re: Mail delays hit Philadelphia residents, short staffed USPS struggles to keep up

#52

Post by jrobn »

betweeds wrote: post #17
nemothekid wrote: post #10

Incredibly frustrating to get mail by USPS over the past couple months and even more frustrating to know this is an intentional kneecapping of the USPS by the administration in order "prove" government services are inefficient to privatize the USPS

Boy, it sure is coincidental timing that Trump appointed a new Postmaster General two months ago that immediately changed policies to prohibit overtime needed to get mail delivered, just as we're about to have an election that will see large parts of the country having to vote by mail. Now if only Trump could get his supporters to not rely on voting by mail, such as by playing up the message that the Coronavirus is n…

You’re being downvoted because it’s the inconvenient truth.

Re: Mail delays hit Philadelphia residents, short staffed USPS struggles to keep up

#53

Post by thereare5lights »

nemothekid wrote: post #10

Incredibly frustrating to get mail by USPS over the past couple months and even more frustrating to know this is an intentional kneecapping of the USPS by the administration in order "prove" government services are inefficient to privatize the USPS

It’s not about privatizing the service, it’s about disrupting their ability to process mail in ballots for the election.

If they wanted to privatize it, they could have don’t it at any time during the past four years.

Re: Mail delays hit Philadelphia residents, short staffed USPS struggles to keep up

#54

Post by dragonwriter »

thereare5lights wrote: post #53
nemothekid wrote: post #10

Incredibly frustrating to get mail by USPS over the past couple months and even more frustrating to know this is an intentional kneecapping of the USPS by the administration in order "prove" government services are inefficient to privatize the USPS

It’s not about privatizing the service, it’s about disrupting their ability to process mail in ballots for the election. If they wanted to privatize it, they could have don’t it at any time during the past four years.

> It’s not about privatizing the service,

Yes it is.

> it’s about disrupting their ability to process mail in ballots for the election.

True, but those are complementary not mutually exclsuive motivations.

Re: Mail delays hit Philadelphia residents, short staffed USPS struggles to keep up

#55

Post by xhkkffbf »

alextheparrot wrote: post #26

This is problematic to voting in the same way closing polling sites is, framed as cost cutting or inefficiency reduction with the intention of reducing access to a subset of the population. This is just frustration, but the fact that we could pass a massive defense bill (again, I know), but are unable to fund basic services shows the integrity of our government. Moreover, it shows the culpability of most of the elect…

Voting in person the old fashioned way for all but those with a good physical excuse seems to be the best way to maintain the integrity of our voting process. Yes, in-person voting has the potential for fraud, but mail-in voting has all of the same problems and more. It's hard to find a mechanism for fraud that applies to in-person but not mail in.

Furthermore, the issues with COVID seem overblown. I've waited in line to vote, but the lines were never longer than the lines at my local supermarket on Saturday morning. If we can shop for food in person, we can vote.

If you want to understand the fears over mail-in voting, just imagine what you could do if you control the mail sorting for a large apartment building or nursing home. It is just much harder to cheat when you require a physical body to be present at the polls. Not impossible but harder.

Re: Mail delays hit Philadelphia residents, short staffed USPS struggles to keep up

#56

Post by leesalminen »

AndrewBissell wrote: post #47
nxc18 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The craziest thing about the whole situations is there actually isn’t much evidence that vote by mail favors republicans; and yet they’re willing to degrade postal service to a country more reliant on it than ever, just for a small hope of electoral advantage. Edit: article in case anyone isn’t convinced (I was skeptical at first, given the tone of the discussion): https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/us/politics/vote-…

There are other reasons they want to disband the post office beyond just its impact on voting. If they replace it with private entities it becomes easier to surveil and censor the mail, for instance.

The USPS takes an image of the front of the envelope for every first class letter sent in the USA. It's a safe bet that they're doing OCR of the recipient/sender addresses and store it in a database. USPS Informed Delivery is just a customer-facing result of that long standing program.

Re: Mail delays hit Philadelphia residents, short staffed USPS struggles to keep up

#57

Post by jypepin »

floatingatoll wrote: post #8
jayd16 wrote: post #3

Just as we start to receive vote by mail forms (at least here in California).

You can return your mail-in ballot to a drop slot / drop box at your local election office, which saves them postage fees and gives you more certainty it arrived. If you can’t spare the time then the mail still works, but for those that are worried, it’s allowed.

I can't vote, but i can drive. Is it legal to drop someone else's ballot to the local election office? I'll drop it for people who can't go.

Re: Mail delays hit Philadelphia residents, short staffed USPS struggles to keep up

#58

Post by jonathankoren »

bluedino wrote: post #27

It’s terrible. It’s due to Coronavirus. People are calling in and not going to work at the processing centers, which are mainly in urban areas. Trucks aren’t taking the mail to or from post offices. Carriers are understaffed. There definitely is overtime going on, I’m not sure where the article gets that confused. You can have all the hours you want if you work for the post office right now. We went party invitations…

I don’t know why you think overtime is continuing to be authorized when there are multiple reports of it being eliminated, including the release of the internal memo explicitly eliminating extra and late delivery trips, and directing staff to leave undelivered mail on the floor.

https://federalnewsnetwork.com/management/2020/07/usps-warns...

Re: Mail delays hit Philadelphia residents, short staffed USPS struggles to keep up

#59

Post by [deleted] »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #48
throwaway5752 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not a point about government effectiveness or efficiency. They kneecapped the USPS when they forced prefunding of pension liabilities ( https://www.cnbc.com/2011/10/24/the-truth-about-the-post-off... ). They had more legislative leverage prior to 2018, so they could have done all this much earlier. It is not possible to honestly discuss this in a meaningful way without acknowledging it's 3 months out from a presi…

Retirement benefits should be funded as they are accrued. That is not the problem. The problem is the USPS doesn’t have the power to price their products appropriately in order to pay for their expenses (including payroll which includes retirement benefits). If anything, all entities promising retirement benefits should be forced to do it the way USPS does. In fact, non government entities were forced to via the Pens…

[deleted]

Re: Mail delays hit Philadelphia residents, short staffed USPS struggles to keep up

#60

Post by olliej »

nxc18 wrote: post #41
xzlzx wrote: post #25

Among other reasons, this is in big part happening due to a large push toward mail-in voting come the next Presidential election. It seems that certain political entities think they will suffer at the poles due to the fact that it’ll be easier to vote. easier voting -> more votes -> undesirable outcomes

The craziest thing about the whole situations is there actually isn’t much evidence that vote by mail favors republicans; and yet they’re willing to degrade postal service to a country more reliant on it than ever, just for a small hope of electoral advantage. Edit: article in case anyone isn’t convinced (I was skeptical at first, given the tone of the discussion): https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/us/politics/vote-…

The concern for the GOP isn’t that democrats favor voting by mail, it’s that the GOP has worked hard to make it as hard as possible to vote in person in targeted (eg non Republican) communities.

Widespread vote from mail defeats that as it means that their selective polling closures, and arbitrary barriers to voting in person, go away

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