1margd
Tax day brought another reminder of private sector's efforts to profit from public expenditures.
There may be a role for privatization, but increasingly it seems that private sector is not creating extra value, but rather parasitizing and profiting on public expenditure.
e.g.,
Tax prep: https://www.propublica.org/article/filing-taxes-could-be-free-simple-hr-block-in...
US Post Office: https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/04/politics/treasury-usps-report/index.html
Weather: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-14/trump-s-pick-to-lead-weather-...
Healthcare: https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/1777/economics/health-care-arguments/
FAA: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/with-close-industry-ties-...
net neutrality: https://gizmodo.com/the-biggest-lies-we-heard-about-net-neutrality-this-wee-1834...
There may be a role for privatization, but increasingly it seems that private sector is not creating extra value, but rather parasitizing and profiting on public expenditure.
e.g.,
Tax prep: https://www.propublica.org/article/filing-taxes-could-be-free-simple-hr-block-in...
US Post Office: https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/04/politics/treasury-usps-report/index.html
Weather: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-14/trump-s-pick-to-lead-weather-...
Healthcare: https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/1777/economics/health-care-arguments/
FAA: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/with-close-industry-ties-...
net neutrality: https://gizmodo.com/the-biggest-lies-we-heard-about-net-neutrality-this-wee-1834...
2lriley
There is this idiotic idea that anything the government does business (or the private sector) can do better. What the private sector will do is cut wages and benefits--go cheaper that way but that doesn't mean at all that the service or the product will be better or cheaper. It's a lot more likely to get worse on both counts. As a former postal employee there's always been talk about privatizing USPS--and in it's own way it's been corporatized in the last 15-20 years. Having a corporate style business model has hardly improved it though--what you have are would be technocrats making decisions often from far away to local operations and these same managers putting machinery over labor, knowledge and experience and just as an example when I was hired in 1986--a postage stamp cost something around 20 cents and a letter going from NYS to California was expected to get to it's destination in two days---that was every letter and about 80% of that was sorted on a letter sorting machine (LSM) and the other 20% by hand and we use to scour the building every night to make sure every piece of first class mail got out on time.
As more automation came in those standards went out the window and now if you expect a letter or package to get across the country in 2 days you're paying 20 some bucks or more.....but really it is still cheaper than UPS, Fedex etc. who use the Postal Service themselves for delivery of packages to hundreds of thousands if not millions of destinations. Those companies are strictly in it for profit and those areas that they can't make the profit they want people there can pound salt. It's going to be a disaster for package delivery if they ever do privatize USPS. A lot of elderly and rural Americans depend on it and a lot of them vote conservative. There's a kind of disconnect between them and the people they tend to vote for.
As more automation came in those standards went out the window and now if you expect a letter or package to get across the country in 2 days you're paying 20 some bucks or more.....but really it is still cheaper than UPS, Fedex etc. who use the Postal Service themselves for delivery of packages to hundreds of thousands if not millions of destinations. Those companies are strictly in it for profit and those areas that they can't make the profit they want people there can pound salt. It's going to be a disaster for package delivery if they ever do privatize USPS. A lot of elderly and rural Americans depend on it and a lot of them vote conservative. There's a kind of disconnect between them and the people they tend to vote for.
3margd
As Afghanistan Frays, Blackwater Founder Erik Prince Is Everywhere
Mujib Mashal | Oct. 4, 2018
...More than a year after first laying out his plan to President Trump to privatize the American war in Afghanistan with a cadre of contractors — and a private air force — Mr. Prince, the founder of the Blackwater security firm that became infamous for killing civilians in Iraq, has seemingly been everywhere...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/04/world/asia/afghanistan-erik-prince-blackwater...
______________________________________________________________________
Private Prisons
While the nation’s unprecedented rate of imprisonment deprives individuals of freedom, wrests loved ones from their families, and drains the resources of governments, communities, and taxpayers, the private prison industry reaps lucrative rewards. As the public good suffers from mass incarceration, private prison companies obtain more and more government dollars, and private prison executives at the leading companies rake in enormous compensation packages. Private prison companies essentially admit that their business model depends on locking up more and more people. The American economy should not include locking people in cages for profit.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, for-profit companies were responsible for approximately 7 percent of state prisoners and 18 percent of federal prisoners in 2015 (the most recent numbers currently available). U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported that in 2016, private prisons held nearly three-quarters of federal immigration detainees. Private prisons also hold an unknown percentage of people held in local jails in Texas, Louisiana, and a handful of other states. While supporters of private prisons tout the idea that governments can save money through privatization, the evidence is mixed at best—in fact, private prisons may in some instances cost more than governmental ones. These private prisons have also been linked to numerous cases of violence and atrocious conditions.
https://www.aclu.org/issues/smart-justice/mass-incarceration/private-prisons
_____________________________________________________________________
Maggots With a Side of Dirt? What Privatization Does to Prison Food
Natalie Delgadillo | February 1, 2018
The meals served to prisoners have been a catalyst for riots throughout history. Prison advocates and workers say outsourcing the kitchens to companies only makes them worse...
https://www.governing.com/topics/public-justice-safety/gov-private-food-service-...
Mujib Mashal | Oct. 4, 2018
...More than a year after first laying out his plan to President Trump to privatize the American war in Afghanistan with a cadre of contractors — and a private air force — Mr. Prince, the founder of the Blackwater security firm that became infamous for killing civilians in Iraq, has seemingly been everywhere...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/04/world/asia/afghanistan-erik-prince-blackwater...
______________________________________________________________________
Private Prisons
While the nation’s unprecedented rate of imprisonment deprives individuals of freedom, wrests loved ones from their families, and drains the resources of governments, communities, and taxpayers, the private prison industry reaps lucrative rewards. As the public good suffers from mass incarceration, private prison companies obtain more and more government dollars, and private prison executives at the leading companies rake in enormous compensation packages. Private prison companies essentially admit that their business model depends on locking up more and more people. The American economy should not include locking people in cages for profit.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, for-profit companies were responsible for approximately 7 percent of state prisoners and 18 percent of federal prisoners in 2015 (the most recent numbers currently available). U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported that in 2016, private prisons held nearly three-quarters of federal immigration detainees. Private prisons also hold an unknown percentage of people held in local jails in Texas, Louisiana, and a handful of other states. While supporters of private prisons tout the idea that governments can save money through privatization, the evidence is mixed at best—in fact, private prisons may in some instances cost more than governmental ones. These private prisons have also been linked to numerous cases of violence and atrocious conditions.
https://www.aclu.org/issues/smart-justice/mass-incarceration/private-prisons
_____________________________________________________________________
Maggots With a Side of Dirt? What Privatization Does to Prison Food
Natalie Delgadillo | February 1, 2018
The meals served to prisoners have been a catalyst for riots throughout history. Prison advocates and workers say outsourcing the kitchens to companies only makes them worse...
https://www.governing.com/topics/public-justice-safety/gov-private-food-service-...
4lriley
Anycase the Post Office use to do banking and Bernard Sanders wants to give them back that kind of thing and I think it's a good idea. One of the things standing in the way are the payday lenders who like to prey on the poor and those living paycheck to paycheck and who are almost as bad as the mafia. These are entities that lobby and pay off a lot of politicians on both sides. It's one of the main reasons that a lot on the left--whether they're democrats or Democratic Socialists (a distinction that Ocasio-Cortez has made) or otherwise don't like people like Wasserman-Schultz--the former head of the DNC. A Democratic Party platform whether or not one ever decides to eschew major corporate funding should at least eschew certain sectors such as private prisons and pay day lenders. They are anti-ethical to what the party stands for and who it represents.
5margd
Table was set for lobbyists to rush in by:
Reagan's "government IS the problem?
Plus every time there was an issue, more rules were written, resulting in ever more bureaucracy to attack.
Myth that private sector is always more efficient--it's certainly not more effective.
One bad experience decades ago, with a county clerk, say, tends to color some people's perspective on entire public service.
.
.
.
Could it be that limits have been met? USPS might be strengthened and not just carved up up by private carriers?
Reagan's "government IS the problem?
Plus every time there was an issue, more rules were written, resulting in ever more bureaucracy to attack.
Myth that private sector is always more efficient--it's certainly not more effective.
One bad experience decades ago, with a county clerk, say, tends to color some people's perspective on entire public service.
.
.
.
Could it be that limits have been met? USPS might be strengthened and not just carved up up by private carriers?
6lriley
#5--usually when corporations and conservative politicians and think tanks like the Cato Institute set their sights on something they'll eventually get what they want. Libertarians have an itch for the Post Office too. It was a place that a lot of WWII, Korea and Vietnam War veterans ended up at--disabled vets were automatic hires. It was like that when I started but not so very much like it when I left. Reading your article on it--some are thinking twice. I do think the Post Office will survive this administration which means it should survive the next.
The Post Office does get taken advantage of by Amazon and that should be fixed. Trump has a burr in his saddle for Bezos but that doesn't mean Bezos is a great guy. The Post Office delivers to everybody everywhere--the logistical infrastructure and that commitment to treating everyone at least more or less the same as to pricing and day to day delivery inclusive to every address is not something that the package carriers or Amazon is going to do and if it's taken apart and chopped into pieces no one's going to be able to put it back together again. It also is still a vital communication system for the elderly--there's certainly a time limit for that as the next batch of elderly are going to be for the greatest part tech savvy but there are many elderly who don't have a clue about computers or cell phones and ironically a lot of them vote for these same people who would pull the rug out from under them.
The Post Office does get taken advantage of by Amazon and that should be fixed. Trump has a burr in his saddle for Bezos but that doesn't mean Bezos is a great guy. The Post Office delivers to everybody everywhere--the logistical infrastructure and that commitment to treating everyone at least more or less the same as to pricing and day to day delivery inclusive to every address is not something that the package carriers or Amazon is going to do and if it's taken apart and chopped into pieces no one's going to be able to put it back together again. It also is still a vital communication system for the elderly--there's certainly a time limit for that as the next batch of elderly are going to be for the greatest part tech savvy but there are many elderly who don't have a clue about computers or cell phones and ironically a lot of them vote for these same people who would pull the rug out from under them.
7prosfilaes
>6 lriley: The Post Office does get taken advantage of by Amazon and that should be fixed.
The contract between the two is private, but it has been approved by the appropriate financial oversight. And package delivery, especially Amazon, is keeping the Post Office afloat with the death of physical letters and magazines.
The contract between the two is private, but it has been approved by the appropriate financial oversight. And package delivery, especially Amazon, is keeping the Post Office afloat with the death of physical letters and magazines.
8margaretbartley
There is no reason the contract between the USPS and Amazon should be private. I've heard that the post office looses money on Amazon.
It's important that the appearance of propriety be preserved, and that is impossible when we don't know the details of contracts.
It's important that the appearance of propriety be preserved, and that is impossible when we don't know the details of contracts.
9prosfilaes
>8 margaretbartley: That's one of Trump's big lines, that the USPS loses money on Amazon. It's not true; the law says that the USPS may not lose money, and that's one of the things the financial oversight has said, that the USPS-Amazon contract follows that law.
There are things that the government has to do in private, and of them, the USPS negotiating private contracts with customers is hardly the deeply worrying one. If the USPS continues as the semi-privatized organization the Republicans pushed for, then its contracts with other parties are going to continue to be private; public contracts give third parties a better starting place for bargaining with the USPS or Amazon. If it's going to be public, then the USPS needs more protection from the market.
There are things that the government has to do in private, and of them, the USPS negotiating private contracts with customers is hardly the deeply worrying one. If the USPS continues as the semi-privatized organization the Republicans pushed for, then its contracts with other parties are going to continue to be private; public contracts give third parties a better starting place for bargaining with the USPS or Amazon. If it's going to be public, then the USPS needs more protection from the market.
10margd
At our summer place in Ontario, on an island served by a short-run government ferry, one sure comes to appreciate the public postal system (Cdn) over private deliveries. The latter usually will not serve the island--and there's almost always a charge if they do. UPS etc. almost always uses the post office for the last stretch. One may have to visit a mainland office of a private delivery firm to pick up some items. I thought lack of private sector service was attributable to our being on an island, until I tried to have a dryer sold though Costco sent to a relative in outskirts of a Costco-city--nope! nope! nope! Couldn't even have it sent to Costco for pickup... Must be hell away from major cities. (Meanwhile there is a small Cdn post office on the island, where staff are friendly and helpful. While not especially cheap, I've been astonished at speed of delivery. They've improved SO MUCH from bad old days when we joked that high postage was for storage costs in Toronto. ;-)
___________________________________________________________________________
Public-Private Projects Where the Public Pays and Pays
Matthew Goldstein and Patricia Cohen | June 6, 2017
Faster, better, cheaper.
...(Trump) administration is promoting the benefits of having local governments work with private corporations to build, repair and manage the nation’s ailing roads, bridges and airports.
Public-private partnerships, as they are known, have many potential benefits. Companies can complete projects quicker and more cheaply than governments can, proponents say. Letting private industry take the lead can also limit the amount of debt that cities and states need to take on.
Yet in the United States, public-private partnerships represent a tiny fraction of infrastructure spending. ...
...while some public-private partnerships may result in near-term savings, there is little hard evidence that they perform better over time.
...Variations of public-private partnerships — known as P3 deals on Wall Street — are more common in Canada and some European countries than in the United States.
There is a reason for that. America is one of the few nations that exempt the interest on local and state bonds from federal taxes. As a result, the nation’s municipal bond market is bigger and more developed than in most other countries, and that makes public financing of infrastructure much more attractive, lessening the need for private partnerships.
...California...a noncompete clause...barred the state from making any other road repairs and improvements — like adding a lane and improving public transit — that might lure motorists away from the toll road.
...The government has broad concerns, like improving overall regional transportation, reducing traffic and curbing pollution (and saving lives during emergency evacuation). The companies have a narrower concern — maximizing financial returns.
...Virginia...high-occupancy tolls lanes along the Beltway to and from Washington, D.C...reduce(d) congestion, and the state government avoided taking on more debt.
Consumers still pay tolls, however. And if the number of car-poolers is too high — thus depriving Fluor and Transurban of tolls — the state is required to reimburse the companies.
Arrangements like this in which local governments essentially guarantee their private partners substantial payments are not uncommon, and leases that extend beyond the life of the project can also divert extra revenue from the public to the private sector.
...Indiana had to pay the private operators of a troubled toll road nearly $450,000 because it waived tolls during a flood emergency in order to speed escaping residents.
...New York...a new Goethals Bridge to replace the span that connects Elizabeth, N.J., and Staten Island...the Port Authority of New York and Jersey has agreed to pay the Macquarie consortium about $56.5 million a year for about 40 years once the bridge opens, regardless of how much traffic it handles.
...Aaron Renn, a senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute who has studied a number of public-private partnerships, said one problem with them is that the public officials negotiating these arrangements sometimes lack the financial sophistication and advice to fully understand the deals*...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/business/dealbook/trump-infrastructure-plan-p...
_______________________________________________________________________________________
*In Ontario, the Liberal government fell due in part to expensive privatization of energy during changeover to renewables and some not-great decisions. Ill-thought-out commitments (gas plant in Toronto, offshore wind in Great Lakes) were cancelled at great expense to taxpayers. Wind farms were paid top dollar for electricity produced in off-peak times, which Ontario sometimes had to pay states to accept. (Now wind farms are paid to stop generating unneeded energy.) etc.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Below is an early story on private ownership of the busiest crossing (bridge) between Canada and the US. (I was at a meeting on the Canadian side of bridge trying to get home before US closed borders after 911--HUGE line, I can tell you!) Owner Matty Maroun fought construction of a new publicly owned bridge, convincing Rs in Michigan Legislature to oppose construction of a new publicly owned bridge to reduce congestion in Windsor and Detroit, speed trade, and improve security. In the end, Canada ALONE agreed to pay for the Gordie Howe bridge, recouping its investment from tolls. Maroun continues to press advantage for his 1927 Ambassador Bridge--I was astonished one day to see how he had apparently rerouted and extended the approach through Immigration and Customs to snake past his shops!
The Troll Under The Bridge
Stephane Fitch and Joann Muller | Nov 15, 2004
The Ambassador Bridge is Detroit's lifeline to Canada. Sept. 11 turned it into a choke point and a security risk. The story of why it hasn't been fixed revolves around one man...
https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2004/1115/134.html#7630a2e34dbd
___________________________________________________________________________
Public-Private Projects Where the Public Pays and Pays
Matthew Goldstein and Patricia Cohen | June 6, 2017
Faster, better, cheaper.
...(Trump) administration is promoting the benefits of having local governments work with private corporations to build, repair and manage the nation’s ailing roads, bridges and airports.
Public-private partnerships, as they are known, have many potential benefits. Companies can complete projects quicker and more cheaply than governments can, proponents say. Letting private industry take the lead can also limit the amount of debt that cities and states need to take on.
Yet in the United States, public-private partnerships represent a tiny fraction of infrastructure spending. ...
...while some public-private partnerships may result in near-term savings, there is little hard evidence that they perform better over time.
...Variations of public-private partnerships — known as P3 deals on Wall Street — are more common in Canada and some European countries than in the United States.
There is a reason for that. America is one of the few nations that exempt the interest on local and state bonds from federal taxes. As a result, the nation’s municipal bond market is bigger and more developed than in most other countries, and that makes public financing of infrastructure much more attractive, lessening the need for private partnerships.
...California...a noncompete clause...barred the state from making any other road repairs and improvements — like adding a lane and improving public transit — that might lure motorists away from the toll road.
...The government has broad concerns, like improving overall regional transportation, reducing traffic and curbing pollution (and saving lives during emergency evacuation). The companies have a narrower concern — maximizing financial returns.
...Virginia...high-occupancy tolls lanes along the Beltway to and from Washington, D.C...reduce(d) congestion, and the state government avoided taking on more debt.
Consumers still pay tolls, however. And if the number of car-poolers is too high — thus depriving Fluor and Transurban of tolls — the state is required to reimburse the companies.
Arrangements like this in which local governments essentially guarantee their private partners substantial payments are not uncommon, and leases that extend beyond the life of the project can also divert extra revenue from the public to the private sector.
...Indiana had to pay the private operators of a troubled toll road nearly $450,000 because it waived tolls during a flood emergency in order to speed escaping residents.
...New York...a new Goethals Bridge to replace the span that connects Elizabeth, N.J., and Staten Island...the Port Authority of New York and Jersey has agreed to pay the Macquarie consortium about $56.5 million a year for about 40 years once the bridge opens, regardless of how much traffic it handles.
...Aaron Renn, a senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute who has studied a number of public-private partnerships, said one problem with them is that the public officials negotiating these arrangements sometimes lack the financial sophistication and advice to fully understand the deals*...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/business/dealbook/trump-infrastructure-plan-p...
_______________________________________________________________________________________
*In Ontario, the Liberal government fell due in part to expensive privatization of energy during changeover to renewables and some not-great decisions. Ill-thought-out commitments (gas plant in Toronto, offshore wind in Great Lakes) were cancelled at great expense to taxpayers. Wind farms were paid top dollar for electricity produced in off-peak times, which Ontario sometimes had to pay states to accept. (Now wind farms are paid to stop generating unneeded energy.) etc.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Below is an early story on private ownership of the busiest crossing (bridge) between Canada and the US. (I was at a meeting on the Canadian side of bridge trying to get home before US closed borders after 911--HUGE line, I can tell you!) Owner Matty Maroun fought construction of a new publicly owned bridge, convincing Rs in Michigan Legislature to oppose construction of a new publicly owned bridge to reduce congestion in Windsor and Detroit, speed trade, and improve security. In the end, Canada ALONE agreed to pay for the Gordie Howe bridge, recouping its investment from tolls. Maroun continues to press advantage for his 1927 Ambassador Bridge--I was astonished one day to see how he had apparently rerouted and extended the approach through Immigration and Customs to snake past his shops!
The Troll Under The Bridge
Stephane Fitch and Joann Muller | Nov 15, 2004
The Ambassador Bridge is Detroit's lifeline to Canada. Sept. 11 turned it into a choke point and a security risk. The story of why it hasn't been fixed revolves around one man...
https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2004/1115/134.html#7630a2e34dbd
11lriley
#7--it well may be true that it's mostly more of Trump's bs and animus towards Bezos. It's not like the agreement is open for everyone to see though. The Post Office was forced by Congress during the Bush II administration to pre-fund its health benefits to future employees some 70 years into the future. That was a ten year deal that cost it billions upon billions of $'s putting it in the red for every single year of that alloted time and effectively hampered its ability to upgrade or modernize. In its way it was a version of austerity--it forced the Post Office to cut a lot of jobs and reduce or streamline services. Small post offices and small plants were shut down all over the country or had hours minimized. So there have been years when the Post Office has not been in the black. I don't know what the last few years have been like though really. After I retired I haven't maintained all that much contact.
12prosfilaes
>11 lriley: The theory I've heard is that if the Republicans can force the Post Office to run in the red and provide less services, they can justify killing it.
13lriley
#12--They're walking a fine line though. A lot of the congressional districts republicans hold (in some cases had held) have already been hurt with their messing around. There are lots of places that the package companies like UPS and Fedex won't go because there is no profit in their doing so. Because of things like that the Republican have never entirely got all their people on board. Just in my own area of upstate NY there are town post offices that were shut down completely or had hours cut drastically. This is a hardship for some people but maybe not as bad as in other places. In less populated states it can mean driving an extra 20-25 miles to get to the nearest open post office and then driving back and again elderly (more often than not conservative) people bear the brunt. To me there is a certain amount of shooting yourself in the foot by them but also the Post Office has been doing this since Benjamin Franklin and it's the service to the people not primarily motivated by making a profit.
Anyway judging by the article margd posted it seems that they're giving it a rest for now.
Anyway judging by the article margd posted it seems that they're giving it a rest for now.
14margd
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15margd
John Kelly joins board of company that operates shelters for migrant children
Priscilla Alvarez and Caroline Kelly | May 3, 2019
(CNN)Former White House chief of staff and retired Marine Gen. John Kelly has joined the board of directors for Caliburn International, the parent company of Comprehensive Health Services, which operates shelters for unaccompanied migrant children.
One of the shelters the company operates is Homestead, a temporary influx facility in Florida that houses unaccompanied migrant children.
...Kelly's ties to family separations date to when he served as secretary of Homeland Security under Trump. He confirmed in 2017 that the department was considering separating children from their parents at the border.
...Kelly's successor as secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, later faced sweeping backlash over the administration's zero-tolerance policy, which resulted in thousands of families being separated. A judge eventually blocked the program and ordered all families be reunited.
...The Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is within HHS, is tasked with caring for migrant children who arrive at the border without a parent or guardian and placing them with a sponsor in the United States.
Several government contracted shelters for child migrants have faced abuse allegations against staff that occurred since and at the time of Kelly's (2017 praise for the program)...including Arizona shelter employees seen pushing and shoving children and one employee convicted of sexually abusing migrant boys.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Friday slammed Kelly's career shift as "corruption at its absolute worst. John Kelly oversaw many of the Trump Admin's most morally repugnant immigration policies...Now he could be making big bucks serving on the Board of a company that's profiting from the same cruel plans he put in place."
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/03/politics/john-kelly-caliburn-international/index....
Priscilla Alvarez and Caroline Kelly | May 3, 2019
(CNN)Former White House chief of staff and retired Marine Gen. John Kelly has joined the board of directors for Caliburn International, the parent company of Comprehensive Health Services, which operates shelters for unaccompanied migrant children.
One of the shelters the company operates is Homestead, a temporary influx facility in Florida that houses unaccompanied migrant children.
...Kelly's ties to family separations date to when he served as secretary of Homeland Security under Trump. He confirmed in 2017 that the department was considering separating children from their parents at the border.
...Kelly's successor as secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, later faced sweeping backlash over the administration's zero-tolerance policy, which resulted in thousands of families being separated. A judge eventually blocked the program and ordered all families be reunited.
...The Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is within HHS, is tasked with caring for migrant children who arrive at the border without a parent or guardian and placing them with a sponsor in the United States.
Several government contracted shelters for child migrants have faced abuse allegations against staff that occurred since and at the time of Kelly's (2017 praise for the program)...including Arizona shelter employees seen pushing and shoving children and one employee convicted of sexually abusing migrant boys.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Friday slammed Kelly's career shift as "corruption at its absolute worst. John Kelly oversaw many of the Trump Admin's most morally repugnant immigration policies...Now he could be making big bucks serving on the Board of a company that's profiting from the same cruel plans he put in place."
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/03/politics/john-kelly-caliburn-international/index....
16margaretbartley
Prefunding the health benefits sounds like something some 1 percenters were planning on taking over the post office. I knew there was talk about it when Pelosi first came into office. Her husband is a real estate developer, and was smacking his lips, thinking of all that prime real estate the post office owns all across the country. PLUS a fully-funded health care plan. Hundreds of billions of dollars. A deal made in heaven for people who've been working with elected officials at the trough.
I can't find the story back when Pelosi first started talking about privatizing the post office (she's just the latest in a string) but this story does talk about the company (her husband is one of the principals) putting the squeeze on USPS. https://theintercept.com/2015/05/05/watchdog-slams-company-part-owned-feinsteins...
I can't find the story back when Pelosi first started talking about privatizing the post office (she's just the latest in a string) but this story does talk about the company (her husband is one of the principals) putting the squeeze on USPS. https://theintercept.com/2015/05/05/watchdog-slams-company-part-owned-feinsteins...
17John5918
>16 margaretbartley:
What's a 1 percenter in this context? I googled and found it's connected with motorbike gangs.
What's a 1 percenter in this context? I googled and found it's connected with motorbike gangs.
18margaretbartley
A 1 percenter is a member of that very small group of people who own half the planet, and who use governments like their private staff, to enrich themselves even more. They love to put their syncophants on government regulatory bodies, so regulations can be written that legalize what they do, and keep newcomers from entering the marketplace and challenging their positions.
From The New Scientist:
From The New Scientist:
"When the team further untangled the web of ownership, it found much of it tracked back to a “super-entity” of 147 even more tightly knit companies – all of their ownership was held by other members of the super-entity – that controlled 40 per cent of the total wealth in the network. “In effect, less than 1 per cent of the companies were able to control 40 per cent of the entire network,” says Glattfelder. Most were financial institutions. The top 20 included Barclays Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and The Goldman Sachs Group."
20margd
15 contd.
Pension plans for Canada, Ontario teachers, and NYC have all invested in US prison companies.
Lucrative: private detention centers "charge $775 per night to keep newly separated children of families who cross the U.S. border illegally in “tent cities.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
‘Tent cities’ for migrant children reportedly cost much more than detaining families together
Kevin Breuninger Tucker Higgins | Jun 20 2018
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/20/migrant-kids-tent-cities-cost-more-than-detainin...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan had shares in company that runs controversial U.S. migrant detention centres
Alberta Crown corporation owns about $4.8M in shares in for-profit prison companies
Nicole Brockbank · CBC News · Posted: Jul 11, 2019
A few months after the Canada Pension Plan made headlines for investing in private U.S. prison companies that run immigration detention centres, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board (OTPPB) bought shares in one of those same companies...
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/teacher-pension-plan-invests-private-pris...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NYC pension plans invest in buyout funds that profit from jails, union says
Bloomberg | February 08, 2019
https://www.pionline.com/article/20190208/ONLINE/190209836/nyc-pension-plans-inv...
Pension plans for Canada, Ontario teachers, and NYC have all invested in US prison companies.
Lucrative: private detention centers "charge $775 per night to keep newly separated children of families who cross the U.S. border illegally in “tent cities.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
‘Tent cities’ for migrant children reportedly cost much more than detaining families together
Kevin Breuninger Tucker Higgins | Jun 20 2018
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/20/migrant-kids-tent-cities-cost-more-than-detainin...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan had shares in company that runs controversial U.S. migrant detention centres
Alberta Crown corporation owns about $4.8M in shares in for-profit prison companies
Nicole Brockbank · CBC News · Posted: Jul 11, 2019
A few months after the Canada Pension Plan made headlines for investing in private U.S. prison companies that run immigration detention centres, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board (OTPPB) bought shares in one of those same companies...
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/teacher-pension-plan-invests-private-pris...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NYC pension plans invest in buyout funds that profit from jails, union says
Bloomberg | February 08, 2019
https://www.pionline.com/article/20190208/ONLINE/190209836/nyc-pension-plans-inv...
21margaretbartley
9prosfilaes:
If the USPS continues as the semi-privatized organization the Republicans pushed for, then its contracts with other parties are going to continue to be private; public contracts give third parties a better starting place for bargaining with the USPS or Amazon. If it's going to be public, then the USPS needs more protection from the market.
I can understand the logic of keeping the negotiations secret, but I don't see the logic of keeping the final contract secret. In fact, just the opposite. The contracts in the public-private arena should always be totally open. There are too many instances of people negotiating for their own best interests, not the public's interest. Too many instances of the revolving door between the regulated industries and the regulators.
I don't think we should always assume that the politicans and bureaucrats are negotiating with the public's best interests at heart. That is a very naive attitude.
If the USPS continues as the semi-privatized organization the Republicans pushed for, then its contracts with other parties are going to continue to be private; public contracts give third parties a better starting place for bargaining with the USPS or Amazon. If it's going to be public, then the USPS needs more protection from the market.
I can understand the logic of keeping the negotiations secret, but I don't see the logic of keeping the final contract secret. In fact, just the opposite. The contracts in the public-private arena should always be totally open. There are too many instances of people negotiating for their own best interests, not the public's interest. Too many instances of the revolving door between the regulated industries and the regulators.
I don't think we should always assume that the politicans and bureaucrats are negotiating with the public's best interests at heart. That is a very naive attitude.
22margd
Trump Administration Must Explain Why U.S. Taxpayers Are Paying 'Outrageous' 'Trump Hotel' Prices to Keep Empty Migrant Detention Center Running: Congressman
Chantal Da Silva | 9/19/19
he detention facility in Homestead, Florida, is run by the only private company operating migrant child detention centers in the U.S. and has been temporarily shut down since August 3, when the last of the children at the facility were abruptly relocated as part of a hurricane preparation plan.
Despite sitting empty for more than a month, however, the facility has still been costing taxpayers $720,000 a day.
The information came to light Wednesday during a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing, when Democratic Representative Mark Pocan of Wisconsin questioned Jonathan Hayes, the acting director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the agency that oversees the care of migrant children in federal custody.
Grilled by Pocan on just how much the U.S. was paying to keep the center "empty," Hayes revealed that the government was spending what amounted to $600 a day for each of the 1,200 beds at the facility—just $150 less than the $750 per bed the U.S. was paying when the center was in use.
Asked to clarify that all this American taxpayer money was being spent on "1,200 imaginary people," Hayes acknowledged that the cost was "expensive." However, he said he had been informed by his "planning and logistics team" that if the facility were to temporarily remove its staff, it could take "a minimum of 90 to 120 days in order to reactivate the staff back."
And, he said, "given the extreme uncertainty of referrals coming across our nation's southern border, and how many kids we might have to care for, that wasn't a switch that was turned off at this point."...
https://www.newsweek.com/migrant-detention-facility-homestead-florida-taxpayers-...
Chantal Da Silva | 9/19/19
he detention facility in Homestead, Florida, is run by the only private company operating migrant child detention centers in the U.S. and has been temporarily shut down since August 3, when the last of the children at the facility were abruptly relocated as part of a hurricane preparation plan.
Despite sitting empty for more than a month, however, the facility has still been costing taxpayers $720,000 a day.
The information came to light Wednesday during a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing, when Democratic Representative Mark Pocan of Wisconsin questioned Jonathan Hayes, the acting director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the agency that oversees the care of migrant children in federal custody.
Grilled by Pocan on just how much the U.S. was paying to keep the center "empty," Hayes revealed that the government was spending what amounted to $600 a day for each of the 1,200 beds at the facility—just $150 less than the $750 per bed the U.S. was paying when the center was in use.
Asked to clarify that all this American taxpayer money was being spent on "1,200 imaginary people," Hayes acknowledged that the cost was "expensive." However, he said he had been informed by his "planning and logistics team" that if the facility were to temporarily remove its staff, it could take "a minimum of 90 to 120 days in order to reactivate the staff back."
And, he said, "given the extreme uncertainty of referrals coming across our nation's southern border, and how many kids we might have to care for, that wasn't a switch that was turned off at this point."...
https://www.newsweek.com/migrant-detention-facility-homestead-florida-taxpayers-...
23margd
AccuWeather's Barry Myers nominated for National Weather Service: John Oliver's take.
Weather: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) (16:26)
•Oct 14, 2019
John Oliver discusses the tension between the public and private worlds of predicting the weather.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMGn9T37eR8
Weather: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) (16:26)
•Oct 14, 2019
John Oliver discusses the tension between the public and private worlds of predicting the weather.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMGn9T37eR8
24margd
Inside TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans From Filing Their Taxes for Free
Justin Elliott and Paul Kiel | Oct. 17, 2019
...the success of TurboTax rests on a shaky foundation, one that could collapse overnight if the U.S. government did what most wealthy countries did long ago and made tax filing simple and free for most citizens.
For more than 20 years, Intuit has waged a sophisticated, sometimes covert war to prevent the government from doing just that, according to internal company and IRS documents and interviews with insiders. The company unleashed a battalion of lobbyists and hired top officials from the agency that regulates it. From the beginning, Intuit recognized that its success depended on two parallel missions: stoking innovation in Silicon Valley while stifling it in Washington. Indeed, employees ruefully joke that the company’s motto should actually be “compromise without integrity.”
Internal presentations lay out company tactics for fighting “encroachment,” Intuit’s catchall term for any government initiative to make filing taxes easier — such as creating a free government filing system or pre-filling people’s returns with payroll or other data the IRS already has. “For a decade proposals have sought to create IRS tax software or a ReturnFree Tax System; All were stopped,” reads a confidential 2007 PowerPoint presentation from an Intuit board of directors meeting. The company’s 2014-15 plan included manufacturing “3rd-party grass roots” support. “Buy ads for op-eds/editorials/stories in African American and Latino media,” one internal PowerPoint slide states...
https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-america...
Justin Elliott and Paul Kiel | Oct. 17, 2019
...the success of TurboTax rests on a shaky foundation, one that could collapse overnight if the U.S. government did what most wealthy countries did long ago and made tax filing simple and free for most citizens.
For more than 20 years, Intuit has waged a sophisticated, sometimes covert war to prevent the government from doing just that, according to internal company and IRS documents and interviews with insiders. The company unleashed a battalion of lobbyists and hired top officials from the agency that regulates it. From the beginning, Intuit recognized that its success depended on two parallel missions: stoking innovation in Silicon Valley while stifling it in Washington. Indeed, employees ruefully joke that the company’s motto should actually be “compromise without integrity.”
Internal presentations lay out company tactics for fighting “encroachment,” Intuit’s catchall term for any government initiative to make filing taxes easier — such as creating a free government filing system or pre-filling people’s returns with payroll or other data the IRS already has. “For a decade proposals have sought to create IRS tax software or a ReturnFree Tax System; All were stopped,” reads a confidential 2007 PowerPoint presentation from an Intuit board of directors meeting. The company’s 2014-15 plan included manufacturing “3rd-party grass roots” support. “Buy ads for op-eds/editorials/stories in African American and Latino media,” one internal PowerPoint slide states...
https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-america...
25margd
Brian Schatz (US Senator from Hawaii) @brianschatz | 3:06 PM · Apr 11, 2020:
https://twitter.com/brianschatz/status/1249051269559287808
USPS, unlike any public or private sector organization, is required to PRE-FUND its future pension obligations.
This is a result of the law made in order to increase pressure for postal privatization. Makes their books look untenable.
It’s not a bailout. Ask your reporters.
White House rejects bailout for U.S. Postal Service battered by coronavirus
Jacob Bogage | April 11, 2020
...The Postal Service’s decades-long financial troubles have worsened dramatically as the volume of the kind of mail that pays the agency’s bills ― first-class and marketing mail ― withers during the pandemic. The USPS needs an infusion of money, and President Trump has blocked potential emergency funding for the agency that employs around 600,000 workers, repeating instead the false claim that higher rates for Internet shipping companies Amazon, FedEx and UPS would right the service’s budget.
Trump threatened to veto the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or Cares Act, if the legislation contained any money directed to bail out the postal agency...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/11/post-office-bailout-trump/
_______________________________________________________________
Laurence Tribe tribelaw | 2:06 PM · Apr 11, 2020
Keep the postal service alive! It’s the only civilian service (unless you count the press) expressly named in the Constitution — and it’s now vital if voting isn’t to become a form of Russian roulette. People died for the right to vote. They shouldn’t have to die to exercise it.
TheTopCat @TopCatOne · 2h
You can make it profitable by Congress changing the stupid USPS funding of pensions 75 years in advance..a GOP plan to kill the union...Pelosi should put that in the next recovery bill and insist on it (and help for states on vote by mail).
_______________________________________________________________
Laurence Tribe tribelaw | 1:21 PM · Apr 11, 2020
Retweet if you agree this could be among this madman’s motives for trying to suffocate the US postal service —
and that he must be stopped from achieving that perverse goal
Trump is trying to kill the USPS as vote-by-mail becomes the best chance to save our democracy
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trump is trying to kill the USPS as vote-by-mail becomes the best chance to save our democracy
Laura Clawson | Friday April 10, 2020
Though the novel coronavirus has Americans more reliant on package delivery than ever—including for prescription medications—it has put the future of the U.S. Postal Service in danger. Not distant, far-in-the-future danger, but could-stop-operating-in-June danger. And the Trump administration, which wants to bail out foreign-flagged cruise lines, is saying the postal service is on its own.
“I spoke with the Postmaster General again today,” Rep. Gerry Connolly tweeted Thursday afternoon. “She could not have been more clear: The Postal Service will collapse without urgent intervention, and it will happen soon. We’ve pleaded with the White House to help. @realDonaldTrump personally directed his staff not to do so.”
What’s on the line here? Those prescription medications so many people get by mail. Delivery to rural areas that the for-profit companies don’t think are worth delivering to; in many cases, the USPS brings UPS or FedEx packages the last leg to people’s actual doors, or to tiny rural post offices. Vote-by-mail, which will be essential this November, is—as David Nir put it—“our last best chance to save democracy.”
Why is the novel coronavirus crisis such an immediate, life-or-death crisis for USPS, a part of the federal government that is actually written into the Constitution? Mail volume is already down by nearly a third and could be down by half by the end of June. But the origin of the crisis comes from Congress—specifically from a congressional mandate for the USPS to prepay its retiree health obligations decades into the future and from congressional blocks on the postal service doing things like online bill-paying, money transfer services, postal banking, copy and fax services, phone cards, notary public services, and hunting and fishing licenses. There are so many things that post offices, which are located in nearly every community in the nation, could do that would help Americans out by providing affordable services they need, and at the same time the USPS would be strengthened. But Congress won’t allow it.
And now in the current crisis, Congress would have passed a bill including at least part of what the USPS needs to survive—but Donald Trump wasn’t having it, in part because he’s angry that the postal service doesn’t charge enough to deliver packages for Amazon, which was founded by Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, which has published stories Trump didn’t like.
So the postal service’s ability to continue delivering the mail as it has done for hundreds of years is in immediate danger at the moment when, without vote-by-mail, we might face the choice between risking our lives and giving up our democracy.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/10/1936160/-Trump-is-trying-to-kill-the-...
https://twitter.com/brianschatz/status/1249051269559287808
USPS, unlike any public or private sector organization, is required to PRE-FUND its future pension obligations.
This is a result of the law made in order to increase pressure for postal privatization. Makes their books look untenable.
It’s not a bailout. Ask your reporters.
White House rejects bailout for U.S. Postal Service battered by coronavirus
Jacob Bogage | April 11, 2020
...The Postal Service’s decades-long financial troubles have worsened dramatically as the volume of the kind of mail that pays the agency’s bills ― first-class and marketing mail ― withers during the pandemic. The USPS needs an infusion of money, and President Trump has blocked potential emergency funding for the agency that employs around 600,000 workers, repeating instead the false claim that higher rates for Internet shipping companies Amazon, FedEx and UPS would right the service’s budget.
Trump threatened to veto the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or Cares Act, if the legislation contained any money directed to bail out the postal agency...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/11/post-office-bailout-trump/
_______________________________________________________________
Laurence Tribe tribelaw | 2:06 PM · Apr 11, 2020
Keep the postal service alive! It’s the only civilian service (unless you count the press) expressly named in the Constitution — and it’s now vital if voting isn’t to become a form of Russian roulette. People died for the right to vote. They shouldn’t have to die to exercise it.
TheTopCat @TopCatOne · 2h
You can make it profitable by Congress changing the stupid USPS funding of pensions 75 years in advance..a GOP plan to kill the union...Pelosi should put that in the next recovery bill and insist on it (and help for states on vote by mail).
_______________________________________________________________
Laurence Tribe tribelaw | 1:21 PM · Apr 11, 2020
Retweet if you agree this could be among this madman’s motives for trying to suffocate the US postal service —
and that he must be stopped from achieving that perverse goal
Trump is trying to kill the USPS as vote-by-mail becomes the best chance to save our democracy
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trump is trying to kill the USPS as vote-by-mail becomes the best chance to save our democracy
Laura Clawson | Friday April 10, 2020
Though the novel coronavirus has Americans more reliant on package delivery than ever—including for prescription medications—it has put the future of the U.S. Postal Service in danger. Not distant, far-in-the-future danger, but could-stop-operating-in-June danger. And the Trump administration, which wants to bail out foreign-flagged cruise lines, is saying the postal service is on its own.
“I spoke with the Postmaster General again today,” Rep. Gerry Connolly tweeted Thursday afternoon. “She could not have been more clear: The Postal Service will collapse without urgent intervention, and it will happen soon. We’ve pleaded with the White House to help. @realDonaldTrump personally directed his staff not to do so.”
What’s on the line here? Those prescription medications so many people get by mail. Delivery to rural areas that the for-profit companies don’t think are worth delivering to; in many cases, the USPS brings UPS or FedEx packages the last leg to people’s actual doors, or to tiny rural post offices. Vote-by-mail, which will be essential this November, is—as David Nir put it—“our last best chance to save democracy.”
Why is the novel coronavirus crisis such an immediate, life-or-death crisis for USPS, a part of the federal government that is actually written into the Constitution? Mail volume is already down by nearly a third and could be down by half by the end of June. But the origin of the crisis comes from Congress—specifically from a congressional mandate for the USPS to prepay its retiree health obligations decades into the future and from congressional blocks on the postal service doing things like online bill-paying, money transfer services, postal banking, copy and fax services, phone cards, notary public services, and hunting and fishing licenses. There are so many things that post offices, which are located in nearly every community in the nation, could do that would help Americans out by providing affordable services they need, and at the same time the USPS would be strengthened. But Congress won’t allow it.
And now in the current crisis, Congress would have passed a bill including at least part of what the USPS needs to survive—but Donald Trump wasn’t having it, in part because he’s angry that the postal service doesn’t charge enough to deliver packages for Amazon, which was founded by Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, which has published stories Trump didn’t like.
So the postal service’s ability to continue delivering the mail as it has done for hundreds of years is in immediate danger at the moment when, without vote-by-mail, we might face the choice between risking our lives and giving up our democracy.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/10/1936160/-Trump-is-trying-to-kill-the-...
26lriley
#25---not a surprise really. Republicans hate the Post Office. The mantra that business can do everything better than government nonsense. It's been on the neo-liberal agenda for years and there are plenty of democrats who while maybe not specifically in on destroying the Post Office it probably doesn't matter a whole lot to them either. Think about being forced to prefund your pension 75 years in advance. Happened towards the end of the Bush 2 administration--carried on throughout the Obama presidency and here we still are.
So anyway it will be an interesting experiment when the letters stop. It will be an interesting experiment to see as well when UPS and Fedex decide not to deliver packages to rural locations because the profit won't be there for them. All those republican held congressional districts out in the middle of nofuckingwhere.
Personally I worked for the Post Office for almost 30 years. I'm glad it's over. All the dopes that use to come in bitching about the stamp going up a cent or two. The cost of the gasoline that got them to the Post Office for some reason didn't concern them as much. To be honest I like a lot of my fellow Americans but so many of them are complete assholes and dumbasses and a few in my family too. My wife use to work the window. I don't know how many times she'd come home with a story about someone getting so pissed off because he didn't like something that she had no control over and threw a package or something at her. This local Catholic priest swore at her several times. When my dad was buried out of St. Casimir's there he was in the pulpit--she had no idea who he was until then. It's a fucked up world.
So anyway it will be an interesting experiment when the letters stop. It will be an interesting experiment to see as well when UPS and Fedex decide not to deliver packages to rural locations because the profit won't be there for them. All those republican held congressional districts out in the middle of nofuckingwhere.
Personally I worked for the Post Office for almost 30 years. I'm glad it's over. All the dopes that use to come in bitching about the stamp going up a cent or two. The cost of the gasoline that got them to the Post Office for some reason didn't concern them as much. To be honest I like a lot of my fellow Americans but so many of them are complete assholes and dumbasses and a few in my family too. My wife use to work the window. I don't know how many times she'd come home with a story about someone getting so pissed off because he didn't like something that she had no control over and threw a package or something at her. This local Catholic priest swore at her several times. When my dad was buried out of St. Casimir's there he was in the pulpit--she had no idea who he was until then. It's a fucked up world.
27RickHarsch
>26 lriley: Geez, Larry, everyone knows Catholic priests go apeshit in post offices.
28lriley
#27--just think all the prefunding of my pension. I'll be good for a $1000 a month until I'm 137 years old. I'll be up shit creek after that. Mitch McConnell = stupid jerkoff. This was the plan of all those business happy fucking proto-capitalist republican congressmen and Senators back in 2006 and there were no doubt some democrats on board too. I should go and see if Biden was one of the them.
30lriley
#29--political campaign donor cash + key to our overseas regime changing resource grabbing interventionism.
31margd
Here are 2 things you can do to make a positive difference this week:
1. Request to vote absentee in your state (in many states you can do it online or print out the request and send it in)
2. BUY STAMPS-Even just to collect the coolest ones. Let's all support the Postal Service!
- Joy Reid JoyAnnReid | 3:19 PM · Apr 12, 2020·Twitter for iPhone
David Frum @davidfrum · 3h
USPS still selling its moon landing 50th anniversary stamp. This was my go-to through most of 2019 and early 2020
Image ( https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249669004068864002/photo/1 )
Do you miss Gwen Ifill on your TV? She's still available for public duty.
Image ( https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249669397192597507/photo/1 )
I make up for my many faults as a husband by not playing golf. But those who do play can honor a great.
Image ( https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249669695348920320/photo/1 )
Supported the peaceful unification of Germany. Liberated Kuwait. Advocated and signed the Americans with Disabilities Act. Advocated and signed the US-Canada treaty that radically reduced acid rain. Contained the savings & loan crisis. Miss him yet?
Image ( https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249670248971763713 )
My parents had strict rules against plastic toys, toys advertised on television, and anything made by Mattel. My grandfather Harold cheered every Hanukkah by defying those rules. This stamp revives all those memories
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249670842641981440/photo/1
Hippies need the USPS too.
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249671069956542467/photo/1
etc.
https://store.usps.com/store/results/stamps/_/N-9y93lv?No=18&Nrpp=18&
1. Request to vote absentee in your state (in many states you can do it online or print out the request and send it in)
2. BUY STAMPS-Even just to collect the coolest ones. Let's all support the Postal Service!
- Joy Reid JoyAnnReid | 3:19 PM · Apr 12, 2020·Twitter for iPhone
David Frum @davidfrum · 3h
USPS still selling its moon landing 50th anniversary stamp. This was my go-to through most of 2019 and early 2020
Image ( https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249669004068864002/photo/1 )
Do you miss Gwen Ifill on your TV? She's still available for public duty.
Image ( https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249669397192597507/photo/1 )
I make up for my many faults as a husband by not playing golf. But those who do play can honor a great.
Image ( https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249669695348920320/photo/1 )
Supported the peaceful unification of Germany. Liberated Kuwait. Advocated and signed the Americans with Disabilities Act. Advocated and signed the US-Canada treaty that radically reduced acid rain. Contained the savings & loan crisis. Miss him yet?
Image ( https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249670248971763713 )
My parents had strict rules against plastic toys, toys advertised on television, and anything made by Mattel. My grandfather Harold cheered every Hanukkah by defying those rules. This stamp revives all those memories
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249670842641981440/photo/1
Hippies need the USPS too.
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249671069956542467/photo/1
etc.
https://store.usps.com/store/results/stamps/_/N-9y93lv?No=18&Nrpp=18&
32margd
>31 margd: Buying stamps to save the USPS:
Hoping To Save The Postal Service, People Rush To Buy Stamps
Austin Horn | April 14, 2020
...(Bill Prady, creator of "Big Bang Theory") sees getting people to buy stamps as a rare moment of positive action in a pandemic that has otherwise made him feel somewhat "helpless."
"Most of us are just sort of trapped in our houses, but this was a really simple thing," Prady said. "The post office is short on money, and there's an amazingly easy way to get money to the post office: buy stamps. If you take all the adults in America, and if all of them bought $10 worth of postage, you're in the billions."
( https://store.usps.com/store/results/stamps/_/N-9y93lv )
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/14/834336341/hopin...
Hoping To Save The Postal Service, People Rush To Buy Stamps
Austin Horn | April 14, 2020
...(Bill Prady, creator of "Big Bang Theory") sees getting people to buy stamps as a rare moment of positive action in a pandemic that has otherwise made him feel somewhat "helpless."
"Most of us are just sort of trapped in our houses, but this was a really simple thing," Prady said. "The post office is short on money, and there's an amazingly easy way to get money to the post office: buy stamps. If you take all the adults in America, and if all of them bought $10 worth of postage, you're in the billions."
( https://store.usps.com/store/results/stamps/_/N-9y93lv )
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/14/834336341/hopin...
33lriley
#32---millions of people get their medication through the post office. Some of those people are not in very good shape that they can be running around a lot.
In the postal plant I worked in you'd be inside a rectangular area surrounded by hampers for the individuals carriers and you would look at the street address to know which one to throw it in and then toss these medication package into their right hamper. I would venture that I must have thrown well over a million of them in my postal career. People depend on them and if there's no post office what's the backup plan? Trump's main goal seems to be to kill Amazon and Jeff Bezos---that's not going to happen---who he really might kill is the post office and a lot of voters.
In the postal plant I worked in you'd be inside a rectangular area surrounded by hampers for the individuals carriers and you would look at the street address to know which one to throw it in and then toss these medication package into their right hamper. I would venture that I must have thrown well over a million of them in my postal career. People depend on them and if there's no post office what's the backup plan? Trump's main goal seems to be to kill Amazon and Jeff Bezos---that's not going to happen---who he really might kill is the post office and a lot of voters.
34margaretbartley
Mensagem removida pelo autor.
35margaretbartley
Mensagem removida pelo autor.
36margd
Trump says he will block coronavirus aid for U.S. Postal Service if it doesn’t hike prices immediately
The president said the postal agency should quadruple its package delivery prices, otherwise he would block congressionally approved funding
Lisa Rein and Jacob Bogage | April 24, 2020
President Trump on Friday threatened to block an emergency loan to shore up the U.S. Postal Service unless it dramatically raised shipping prices on online retailers, an unprecedented move to seize control of the agency that analysts said could plunge its finances into a deeper hole.
“The Postal Service is a joke,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. To obtain a $10 billion line of credit Congress approved this month, “The post office should raise the price of a package by approximately four times,” he said.
...Trump’s criticism of Postal Service rates is rooted in a desire to hurt Amazon in particular. They have said that he fumes publicly and privately at Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, for news coverage that Trump believes is unfair.
...But raising USPS prices so sharply may not have the impact the president desires, analysts said, as it would put postal services prices far above those of UPS and FedEx, allowing them to raise prices a little and still gain market share, they said.
...Jon Gold, the vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation, said in a statement that higher prices would “significantly hurt rural communities and small businesses in addition to USPS.”
...Former Army secretary John McHugh, chairman of the Package Coalition advocacy group, said in a statement that Trump’s proposal would raise prices for consumers, small businesses and rural communities. “Now, when Americans need affordable and reliable package delivery service more than ever, Congress must fight to guarantee emergency relief for the Postal Service and stop this package tax”...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/04/24/trump-postal-service-loan-tr...
The president said the postal agency should quadruple its package delivery prices, otherwise he would block congressionally approved funding
Lisa Rein and Jacob Bogage | April 24, 2020
President Trump on Friday threatened to block an emergency loan to shore up the U.S. Postal Service unless it dramatically raised shipping prices on online retailers, an unprecedented move to seize control of the agency that analysts said could plunge its finances into a deeper hole.
“The Postal Service is a joke,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. To obtain a $10 billion line of credit Congress approved this month, “The post office should raise the price of a package by approximately four times,” he said.
...Trump’s criticism of Postal Service rates is rooted in a desire to hurt Amazon in particular. They have said that he fumes publicly and privately at Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, for news coverage that Trump believes is unfair.
...But raising USPS prices so sharply may not have the impact the president desires, analysts said, as it would put postal services prices far above those of UPS and FedEx, allowing them to raise prices a little and still gain market share, they said.
...Jon Gold, the vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation, said in a statement that higher prices would “significantly hurt rural communities and small businesses in addition to USPS.”
...Former Army secretary John McHugh, chairman of the Package Coalition advocacy group, said in a statement that Trump’s proposal would raise prices for consumers, small businesses and rural communities. “Now, when Americans need affordable and reliable package delivery service more than ever, Congress must fight to guarantee emergency relief for the Postal Service and stop this package tax”...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/04/24/trump-postal-service-loan-tr...
37lriley
#36--John McHugh--former Republican congressman from a Western NY congressional district. Some years ago he was a major republican player in privatizing the Post Office. Just saying--yeah he's probably more of what some might call a moderate republican but really he's also a big reason why the Postal Service is in such dire straits now--he would have been right there with forcing the Post Office to prefund its retirees 75 years into the future and yeah he had a lot of clout back then too.
Trump of course is a fucking moron....and by the way the Postmaster General can't just raise postal rates on her own. They have a process to go through that involves something called the Postal Regulatory Commission. The Postmaster General and her staff would have to make a submission to this commission exactly what they want to raise, how much and why and then the Commission goes about the work of studying the issue and then making a decision on it which could be a flat no or instead of say raising a stamp 3 cents it allows for one cent or it might even approve it all but the more the ask is the less likely the Postmaster General is going to get it....and here's another thing---they raised rates back in January 2019 and it's a little quick to be doing it again.
......and all that said the rates won't be raised just for Amazon----they'll be raised for everybody. I wouldn't expect Donald to know all this because he doesn't put any effort in knowing or learning anything so if anyone's a total joke it's Trump himself.
I'll point out something here that a lot of people don't know that the Postal enhancement act of 2006 that forced the Post Office to go deep into the red with all the pre-funding had democratic co-sponsors---one of the main ones Henry Waxman. It was considered a non-controversial bill when it passed through the house without a roll call vote (on a motion to suspend and pass as is) and then passed through the Senate the same way. Non-controversial in this case meant no one on the democratic side of the House bothered to read it. It was only afterwards when democratic leaders figured out---'Oh, we fucked the Post Office over!'---and for the Postal Service it was like someone dropped a bomb on it. That was the Post Office's version of 9-11.
I've thought for a while that one day it's going to die.....and people will suffer....particularly older folks and people in rural communities. None of UPS, Fedex or other shippers have near the logistics that USPS has and they're not about to reach out to every address in this country. As well Fedex's fortunes are already tied to USPS. If it goes away it's unlikely you'll put that kind of logistical network back together ever.
Trump of course is a fucking moron....and by the way the Postmaster General can't just raise postal rates on her own. They have a process to go through that involves something called the Postal Regulatory Commission. The Postmaster General and her staff would have to make a submission to this commission exactly what they want to raise, how much and why and then the Commission goes about the work of studying the issue and then making a decision on it which could be a flat no or instead of say raising a stamp 3 cents it allows for one cent or it might even approve it all but the more the ask is the less likely the Postmaster General is going to get it....and here's another thing---they raised rates back in January 2019 and it's a little quick to be doing it again.
......and all that said the rates won't be raised just for Amazon----they'll be raised for everybody. I wouldn't expect Donald to know all this because he doesn't put any effort in knowing or learning anything so if anyone's a total joke it's Trump himself.
I'll point out something here that a lot of people don't know that the Postal enhancement act of 2006 that forced the Post Office to go deep into the red with all the pre-funding had democratic co-sponsors---one of the main ones Henry Waxman. It was considered a non-controversial bill when it passed through the house without a roll call vote (on a motion to suspend and pass as is) and then passed through the Senate the same way. Non-controversial in this case meant no one on the democratic side of the House bothered to read it. It was only afterwards when democratic leaders figured out---'Oh, we fucked the Post Office over!'---and for the Postal Service it was like someone dropped a bomb on it. That was the Post Office's version of 9-11.
I've thought for a while that one day it's going to die.....and people will suffer....particularly older folks and people in rural communities. None of UPS, Fedex or other shippers have near the logistics that USPS has and they're not about to reach out to every address in this country. As well Fedex's fortunes are already tied to USPS. If it goes away it's unlikely you'll put that kind of logistical network back together ever.
38John5918
>37 lriley:
Living in countries where there is no decent postal service has really made me appreciate the sort of postal service which you have in the USA, UK and other European countries. Here the best you can get is a post box in a post office in a major town where you go and collect your mail - we manage to pick ours up every couple of months or so. As you say, courier services are no substitute.
Living in countries where there is no decent postal service has really made me appreciate the sort of postal service which you have in the USA, UK and other European countries. Here the best you can get is a post box in a post office in a major town where you go and collect your mail - we manage to pick ours up every couple of months or so. As you say, courier services are no substitute.
39lriley
The reason why UPS and Fedex and other shippers don't have the logistical reach the Post Office has is they won't do the unprofitable. So people that live in small communities some distance away from large communities are going to lose service altogether. Old people who do not have computers are going to be cut off from communication as well. They tend to send letters and packages a lot too. It will be a hardship for a lot of people and really the greater % of these people are conservative so it's kind of cut your nose off to spite your face thing. The Post Office as well provides cheaper and just as efficient package service as the other shippers. They have media mail which gives special and cheaper rates for sending books which makes that quite easy for everyone.
All this is about really is Donald Trump's hatred of Amazon and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos. This is a personal vendetta of his. I'm not going to dispute that Bezos is a shitbird too because he is.....but millions of people are supposed to suffer because of Donald's hurt feelings and need for revenge is what it comes down to. He puts himself over the country again and again.
All this is about really is Donald Trump's hatred of Amazon and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos. This is a personal vendetta of his. I'm not going to dispute that Bezos is a shitbird too because he is.....but millions of people are supposed to suffer because of Donald's hurt feelings and need for revenge is what it comes down to. He puts himself over the country again and again.
40margd
Mail-in ballots would not be possible, and they're something he thinks aren't to advantage of Republics.
42margd
Why the Postal Service Is Critical to National Security
Geoffrey Block | May 1, 2020
...a lack of USPS funding could affect not only mail delivery but also a number of other Postal Service functions as well—including law enforcement and disaster response. The USPS’s postal inspectors work to deter and investigate mail-related crimes. And the Postal Service also plays a critical role in protecting national security interests. The enormous infrastructure operated by the USPS, which delivers and processes 48 percent of the world’s mail, is a unique federal asset that can be—and has been—utilized to respond to natural disasters and terrorist attacks.
Responding to Natural Disasters
...particularly, in recent times, when electronic means of communication are inoperable...During (Katrina), the federal government relied on the USPS to reestablish communications, reopen commerce and deliver government information...
Additionally, USPS’s Address Management System (AMS)—a database of all addresses and residents in the United States—provided the federal government with a usable listing of nearly every person living in the affected areas....
Postal Inspectors
...mail fraud, identity theft and terrorism....In fiscal 2019, the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS)'s nearly 1,300 postal inspectors made 5,759 arrests and obtained 4,995 criminal convictions...2001 anthrax attacks...in advance of large public gatherings such as sporting events, the State of the Union or political party conventions (attractive targets for terrorists or assassins because of their visibility or political prominence)...educate the public about the dangers of mail fraud...
Responding to a Biological Attack
...under Executive Order 13527, the USPS may be activated to deliver emergency medical supplies to individuals in the affected area....the designated deliverer in 72 cities to deliver medicine in the aftermath of a biological attack...any other novel disease affecting Americans...National Postal Model for the Delivery of Medical Countermeasures...large-scale training exercises...
What Changes Have Been Proposed?
Congress and the president are continuing to debate what the future of the Postal Service might look like. Each policy is likely to have different effects on the Postal Service’s national security functions.
...cash injections ($25 bn), which are unlikely to significantly alter the structure of the Postal Service. H
...improve the Postal Service’s liquidity...eliminate the requirement that the USPS prefund its employees’ future retirement health care benefits...cost-cutting measures
The recently enacted CARES Act enables the USPS to access a $10 billion loan. But Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is reportedly hoping to use the loan as leverage to force the USPS to raise its package-shipping rates and to demand concessions from the American Postal Workers Union, and the president has separately declared that the USPS will not receive any loan money unless it agrees to quadruple its package delivery prices.
Finally, at least some commentators and think tanks believe that the Postal Service should be privatized.
...It’s difficult to accurately predict how these various proposals might affect the USPS’s national security functions. Cash injections are unlikely to require significant changes from the USPS. However, conditional loans, cost-cutting measures, and privatization efforts are all likely to result in at least some changes to the USPS’s operations. The USPS does not simply provide mail delivery to the American public—any changes to the USPS’s operations could impact the Postal Service’s national security functions.
https://www.lawfareblog.com/why-postal-service-critical-national-security
Geoffrey Block | May 1, 2020
...a lack of USPS funding could affect not only mail delivery but also a number of other Postal Service functions as well—including law enforcement and disaster response. The USPS’s postal inspectors work to deter and investigate mail-related crimes. And the Postal Service also plays a critical role in protecting national security interests. The enormous infrastructure operated by the USPS, which delivers and processes 48 percent of the world’s mail, is a unique federal asset that can be—and has been—utilized to respond to natural disasters and terrorist attacks.
Responding to Natural Disasters
...particularly, in recent times, when electronic means of communication are inoperable...During (Katrina), the federal government relied on the USPS to reestablish communications, reopen commerce and deliver government information...
Additionally, USPS’s Address Management System (AMS)—a database of all addresses and residents in the United States—provided the federal government with a usable listing of nearly every person living in the affected areas....
Postal Inspectors
...mail fraud, identity theft and terrorism....In fiscal 2019, the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS)'s nearly 1,300 postal inspectors made 5,759 arrests and obtained 4,995 criminal convictions...2001 anthrax attacks...in advance of large public gatherings such as sporting events, the State of the Union or political party conventions (attractive targets for terrorists or assassins because of their visibility or political prominence)...educate the public about the dangers of mail fraud...
Responding to a Biological Attack
...under Executive Order 13527, the USPS may be activated to deliver emergency medical supplies to individuals in the affected area....the designated deliverer in 72 cities to deliver medicine in the aftermath of a biological attack...any other novel disease affecting Americans...National Postal Model for the Delivery of Medical Countermeasures...large-scale training exercises...
What Changes Have Been Proposed?
Congress and the president are continuing to debate what the future of the Postal Service might look like. Each policy is likely to have different effects on the Postal Service’s national security functions.
...cash injections ($25 bn), which are unlikely to significantly alter the structure of the Postal Service. H
...improve the Postal Service’s liquidity...eliminate the requirement that the USPS prefund its employees’ future retirement health care benefits...cost-cutting measures
The recently enacted CARES Act enables the USPS to access a $10 billion loan. But Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is reportedly hoping to use the loan as leverage to force the USPS to raise its package-shipping rates and to demand concessions from the American Postal Workers Union, and the president has separately declared that the USPS will not receive any loan money unless it agrees to quadruple its package delivery prices.
Finally, at least some commentators and think tanks believe that the Postal Service should be privatized.
...It’s difficult to accurately predict how these various proposals might affect the USPS’s national security functions. Cash injections are unlikely to require significant changes from the USPS. However, conditional loans, cost-cutting measures, and privatization efforts are all likely to result in at least some changes to the USPS’s operations. The USPS does not simply provide mail delivery to the American public—any changes to the USPS’s operations could impact the Postal Service’s national security functions.
https://www.lawfareblog.com/why-postal-service-critical-national-security
43lriley
#42--between 1911 and 1967 when banking services were taken away the Post Office provided banking services to millions of low income and rural people. Bernie Sanders has for some time been proposing giving the Postal Service back those function--AOC has talked about it and so has Kirsten Gillibrand. Many lower income people are victims of payday loan predators and there are lots of republicans and democrats taking money from and going to bat for these pieces of shit. Giving the Postal Service back banking services would put an end to that kind of predation and it would also help a lot to help the financial struggles on the Postal Service.
44RickHarsch
>38 John5918: you just cost yourself a postcard
45John5918
Privatisation's hit the buffers and we need a railway back on tracks (The Scotsman)
The fantasy of competitive train services has crumbled so, after Covid, it’s time for a state-owned railway...
The fantasy of competitive train services has crumbled so, after Covid, it’s time for a state-owned railway...
46John5918
>44 RickHarsch:
PO Box 52002-00200, Nairobi, Kenya
That PO box has been in my wife's family for decades, ever since her father was the postmaster of the second largest post office in the country.
PO Box 52002-00200, Nairobi, Kenya
That PO box has been in my wife's family for decades, ever since her father was the postmaster of the second largest post office in the country.
48margd
Pending Postal Service Changes Could Delay Mail And Deliveries, Advocates Warn
Brian Naylor | July 29, 2020
...Managers have told postal workers that under (new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy), the post office is about to embark on what's been called a long-overdue "operational pivot." That means that among other things, late-arriving mail will now be left behind by carriers and delivered the next day. Overtime will be eliminated.
That upsets some workers, who take seriously the unofficial motto of the Postal Service that holds: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" — a phrase from the Greek historian Herodotus chiseled into the granite of New York City's general post office.
...Art Sackler is manager of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, a group of companies that rely on the post office, including Amazon, Hallmark and others..."Having a potentially material change...without any kind of consultation is a disappointment and hopefully was just, you know, a mistake or a mix up...it looks as if what they're proposing has the potential to delay mail, and that the delayed mail will accumulate."
The unions representing postal service employees say they haven't met with DeJoy or been consulted about the changes either.
Mark Dimondstein, president of the 200,000-member American Postal Workers Union, says...the changes could have real world consequences, including, he says, delays in delivering medicine, Census forms — and even mail-in ballots, adding the notion of leaving mail behind "runs counter to everything" postal workers believe....
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/29/894799516/pending-postal-service-changes-could-de...
Brian Naylor | July 29, 2020
...Managers have told postal workers that under (new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy), the post office is about to embark on what's been called a long-overdue "operational pivot." That means that among other things, late-arriving mail will now be left behind by carriers and delivered the next day. Overtime will be eliminated.
That upsets some workers, who take seriously the unofficial motto of the Postal Service that holds: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" — a phrase from the Greek historian Herodotus chiseled into the granite of New York City's general post office.
...Art Sackler is manager of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, a group of companies that rely on the post office, including Amazon, Hallmark and others..."Having a potentially material change...without any kind of consultation is a disappointment and hopefully was just, you know, a mistake or a mix up...it looks as if what they're proposing has the potential to delay mail, and that the delayed mail will accumulate."
The unions representing postal service employees say they haven't met with DeJoy or been consulted about the changes either.
Mark Dimondstein, president of the 200,000-member American Postal Workers Union, says...the changes could have real world consequences, including, he says, delays in delivering medicine, Census forms — and even mail-in ballots, adding the notion of leaving mail behind "runs counter to everything" postal workers believe....
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/29/894799516/pending-postal-service-changes-could-de...
