I come from a family of several career USPS employees, my wife being one of them. And like everything else the media gets their mitts on, the current news about the USPS and especially Trump’s involvement with it are hyped and in some cases TOTAL B.S.!
There are many, many issues I could address. But I’ll start with just these twelve:
#1 - Trump did NOT get rid of the former US Postmaster General! She retired!
#2 - Trump did NOT appoint the NEW US Postmaster General! He was VOTED IN by the board of USPS Governors!
#3 - Processing plants have been shutting down and consolidating for YEARS now! And yes, part of that process involves dismantling equipment, which is most often reassigned to ANOTHER processing facility and utilized there! Some machines are dismantled and are not reused because like everything else, they wear out and eventually aren’t worth fixing!
#4 - Yes, mailboxes in some areas are being removed. Why? Because mail volume in some areas has gone down, whereas in other areas, (like the greater Seattle area), the mail volume has recently INCREASED! But this too has been going on for YEARS and as many as 14,000 mailboxes were removed during the Obama administration. Was there outcry then? NO! And like Trump has NOTHING to do with the removal of mailboxes now, Obama had nothing to do with the mailboxes removed then!
#5 - The media LIES! The USPS processing plant in Everett, WA handled all of the regional mail from the south border of Snohomish county to the US/Canadian border. It closed in 2013 as part of a planned consolidation. True it was not initially to be the first plant in WA to close, but that’s how it turned out. The media had a field day with its closure and announced more than 300 employees would lose their jobs. How many employees ACTUALLY lost their jobs?: ZERO!
#6 - The USPS is not in debt - at least not in the sense that almost all other large US businesses are not also. Does the USPS have loans? Yes. Are they in default on those loans? NO!
#7 - Is and has the USPS been losing money for more than a decade now? Yes. But not for the reason most people think, and certainly not for the reasons the media reports! The truth is, the Postal Service is not losing money because of Amazon or any other tech company or technological advance is society. It’s losing money because in 2006, Congress passed a law forcing it to prepay its pensions AND HEALTH CARE BENEFITS for 75 years IN ADVANCE!!! NO OTHER corporation, whether in government or the private sector has to do this! The USPS has appealed this decision every year since during every administration and shift in Congress and it has never been repealed. This means the pensions and health care benefits for people who have yet to be hired or even BORN the USPS is required to pay and lock up every month - IN ADVANCE! Who bills them? Congress! And do they do so accurately? NO! Many times Congress has OVERCHARGED the USPS the monthly amount they are to pay. Has the USPS then EVER been REFUNDED the difference? NO! So, believe it or not, without this law, the Postal Service would be turning a PROFIT!!!
#8 - When the federal government allowed other businesses to handle the package business, (DHL, FEDEX, UPS) these companies took the most profitable business and left the USPS with the least profitable - delivery to EVERY household in the U.S. and all U.S. Territories, (yes, even Puerto Rico and GUAM!), regardless of the cost of delivery. Believe it or not, the Havasupai tribe that lives on the floor of the Grand Canyon receives first-class mail and packages delivered by MULES!!! NO private company wants this business… or any business for 55 cents to every door in America - no matter the distances between the customers!
#9 - Trump’s treasury department DID loan the USPS 10 BILLION dollars at the end of July! Why do they need it? In addition to the reasons already mentioned above, the Corona Virus Pandemic has had a significant NEGATIVE effect!
# 10 - Trump has TWICE said he WOULD IMMEDIATELY sign a STAND ALONE bill to provide even MORE funding, but the Democrats in Congress will not present a bill that does not include other stipulations such as stimulus checks provided to illegal aliens, mandatory voting by mail nationwide and bailouts for the blue states with cities that have been damaged by rioting.
#11 - EVERY major private package delivery service utilizes the infrastructure of the USPS somehow, someway on a DAILY basis! The private carriers simply do NOT have the capability of handling ALL their deliveries from END-TO-END without having the USPS help them out at some point! But the USPS is LIMITED by CONGRESS concerning the amount the USPS is allowed to charge these private carriers - and they are getting one heck of a deal!
#12 - This is perhaps the most unknown of all. The USPS is SELF-FUNDING! Yes, that means it is NOT funded by U.S. Taxpayers! This has been true since the mid-1980s! The USPS REVENUE is EARNED just like any other business via sales of products and services! Any money given to the USPS by the Federal Government is in the form of LOANS that it must payback! Are they low-interest Federal Loans? Yes! But why shouldn’t they be?!!!
Do I LIKE that Trump has been a long-time critic of the USPS? NO! Why? Because I believe he’s not considering the SOURCE of their misery, which is CONGRESS! But do I believe the problems are Trump’s fault? NO! Do I believe the current dismantling of SOME parts of the USPS have anything to do with Trump or the upcoming election? NO! What is the problem? CONGRESS and to some extent the MULTIPLE UNIONS within the USPS that FIGHT WITH EACHOTHER, but each time one wins a grievance over another it is the USPS that has to pay for it!
Very well written article. Hopefully people will read it.
Hey, we’re in this! @nyc-conservatarian. Not sure how I feel knowing Ben Shapiro posted it on his Facebook page but eh
So here's the REAL story:
Ambassador Stevens was sent to Benghazi to secretly retrieve US made Stinger Missiles that the State Dept had supplied to Ansar al Sharia in Libya WITHOUT Congressional oversight or permission.
Sec State Hillary Clinton had brokered the Libya deal through Ambassador Stevens and a Private Arms Dealer named Marc Turi, but some of the shoulder fired Stinger Missiles ended up in Afghanistan where they were used against our own military. On July 25th, 2012, a US Chinook helicopter was downed by one of them. Not destroyed only because the idiot Taliban didn't arm the missile. The helicopter didn't explode, but it had to land and an ordnance team recovered the missile’s serial number which led back to a cache of Stinger Missiles kept in
Qatar by the CIA.
Obama and Hillary were in full panic mode, so Ambassador Stevens was sent to Benghazi to retrieve the rest of the Stinger Missiles. This was a "do-or-die" mission, which explains the Stand Down Orders given to multiple rescue teams during the siege of the US Embassy.
It was the State Dept, NOT the CIA, that supplied the Stinger Missiles to our sworn enemies because Gen. Petraeus at CIA would not approve supplying the deadly missiles due to their potential use against commercial aircraft. So then, Obama threw Gen. Petraeus under the bus when he refused to testify in support of Obama’s phony claim of a “spontaneous uprising caused by a YouTube video that insulted Muslims.”
Obama and Hillary committed TREASON!
THIS is what the investigation is all about, WHY she had a Private Server, (in order to delete the digital evidence), and WHY Obama, two weeks after the attack, told the UN that the attack was the result of the YouTube video, even though everyone KNEW it was not.
Furthermore, the Taliban knew that the administration had aided and abetted the enemy WITHOUT Congressional oversight or permission, so they began pressuring (blackmailing) the Obama Administration to release five Taliban generals being held at Guantanamo.
Bowe Bergdahl was just a useful pawn used to cover the release of the Taliban generals. Everyone knew Bergdahl was a traitor but Obama used Bergdahl’s exchange for the five Taliban generals to cover that Obama was being coerced by the Taliban about the unauthorized Stinger Missile deal.
So we have a traitor as POTUS that is not only corrupt, but compromised, as well and a Sec of State that is a serial liar, who perjured herself multiple times at the Congressional Hearings on Benghazi. Perhaps this is why no military aircraft were called upon for help in Benghazi: because the administration knew that our enemies had Stinger Missiles that, if used to down those planes, would likely be traced back to the CIA cache in Qatar and then to the State Dept’s illegitimate arms deal in Libya.
Forward this again and again and again until everyone reads the true story of Benghazi.
That is what America is all about
Dear Democrats: This is how a real “dreamer” becomes a U.S. Citizen. She applied, waited, and studied so hard she fell asleep in her American history books on more than one night. She busted her rear-end to learn our language, passed the naturalization exams, and earned the right to call herself an American! Welcome to America young lady!
No, the retards know better. Only Democrats are blind to it.
Also we all seem to have forgotten! This is a collusion investigation! Not a tax evader hunt or a laundering hunt or even worse! A fucken hooker the man may have had a relationship with 15 years ago….. This is a democratic distraction and obviously a tactical smear campaign!! You have to be totally Retarded or democrat to not see what is going on!!!
Remember the guy who wouldn't take the flag pole down on his Virginia property awhile back? You might remember the news story several months ago about a crotchety old man in Virginia who defied his local Homeowners Association and refused to take down the flag pole on his property along with the large American flag he flew on it.
Now we learn who that old man was. On June 15, 1919, Van T. Barfoot was born in Edinburg, Texas . That probably didn't make news back then.
But twenty five years later, on May 23, 1944, near Cyrano, Italy, That same Van T. Barfoot, who had in 1940 enlisted in the U.S. Army, set out alone to flank German machine gun
positions from which gunfire was raining down on his fellow soldiers. His advance took him through a minefield but
having done so, he proceeded to single-handedly take out three enemy machine gun positions, returning with 17 prisoners of war.
And if that weren’t enough for a day's work, he later took on and destroyed three German tanks sent to retake the machine gun positions.
That probably didn’t make much news either, given the scope of the war, but it did earn Van T. Barfoot, who retired as a Colonel after also serving In Korea and Vietnam , a well deserved Congressional Medal of Honor.
What did make news was his Neighborhood Association's quibble with how the 90-year-old Veteran chose to fly the American flag outside his suburban Virginia home. Seems the HOA rules said it was OK to fly a flag on a house-mounted bracket, but, for decorum, items such as Barfoot's 21-foot
flagpole were "unsuitable".
Van Barfoot had been denied a permit for the pole, but erected it anyway and was facing Court action unless he agreed to take it down.
Then the HOA story made national TV, and the Neighborhood Association rethought its position and agreed to indulge this
aging hero who dwelt among them.
"In the timeI have left", he said to the Associated Press, "I plan to continue to fly the American flag without interference."
As well he should. And if any of his neighbors had taken a notion to contest him further, they might have done well to read his Medal of Honor citation first. Seems it Indicates Mr. Van Barfoot wasn't particularly good at backing down.
If you've read this post and don't share it, - Guess what -You need your butt kicked. I share this with you because I don't want MY butt kicked anymore and I'm tired of seeing those who hate our country yet march in our streets, tear down our statues, burn our stores and loot our businesses have a free hand to do whatever they want.
WE ONLY LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE FREE BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE! AND, BECAUSE OF BRAVE OLD MEN LIKE VAN BARFOOT!
Republican State Rep. Nick Freitas of Virginia has had enough of Democrats accusing anyone who opposes them of racism and sexism. During a floor speech this week, he went after Democrats for this and his speech was so amazing that it got applause afterwards.