I thought I’d publish this piece I just received on Louis DeJoy, postmaster general of the U.S. Postal Service. We haven’t heard much about him in the news recently, but that doesn’t mean he’s stopped destroying the USPS.
Louis DeJoy has been a complete and total disaster for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) since the moment Donald Trump installed him as postmaster general.
On-time delivery has plummeted.1 Postage rates have skyrocketed.2 DeJoy has cut operations at more than 200 locations.3
It’s gotten so bad that even Republicans are fed up. Just last week, 26 senators — including 13 Republicans, 11 Democrats, and 2 Independents — called on DeJoy to pause any further implementation of his 10-year plan to shrink the U.S. Postal Service.4
DeJoy’s response? He basically told the senators to go fly a kite, refusing to even consider revising his plans.5
Pressure is mounting on DeJoy, and we have a real chance to convince the Postal Service Board of Governors to finally get rid of him as his failures become more and more intolerable and bipartisan opposition grows.
Louis DeJoy’s 10-year so-called “modernization plan” includes shutting down as many as 400 sorting and delivery facilities nationwide.6 Currently, 59 locations across 35 states are on the chopping block, and if these cuts aren’t stopped, three entire states would be left with no mail-sorting facilities whatsoever, forcing even local mail to travel hundreds of miles just for sorting.7
Why is DeJoy doing this? He claims he wants to turn the Postal Service into a profitable operation — but that just shows that DeJoy doesn’t understand or believe in the mission of the U.S. Postal Service. The USPS isn’t a profit-seeking business. It’s a public service that people absolutely rely on for basic needs, like receiving Social Security checks, medications, and mail-in ballots.
And for what it’s worth, DeJoy isn’t even succeeding by his own standard. He predicted that USPS would break even last year, and instead he lost $6.5 billion.8 And as service continues to deteriorate and people lose faith in the post office, the problems will only get worse.
Here’s the challenge: Unlike cabinet secretaries and many other agency heads, the postmaster general can’t be directly fired by the president. Only the Postal Service Board of Governors can do that. And President Biden wasn’t able to appoint a majority on the Board of Governors until February, when two seats came open and he was able to appoint replacements.9
Now it’s time for the Postal Service Board of Governors to take action. DeJoy has lost the confidence of Republicans and Democrats alike. His performance has been abysmal. It’s time for Louis DeJoy to be fired.
Sources:
1. Government Executive, “As USPS institutes network reforms, mail delivery hits a 3-year low,” February 22, 2024.
2. Fortune, “Post Office wants to hike stamp prices for 5th time in 3 years to make up for ‘defective’ pricing system,” April 9, 2024.
3. Government Executive, “USPS Lists Hundreds of Post Offices and Other Facilities Where It Will Consolidate Operations,” August 26, 2022.
4. United States Senate, “Postmaster General DeJoy and U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors,” May 8, 2024.
5. Government Executive, “Amid ongoing losses and bipartisan pressure, DeJoy remains defiant in pushing USPS reforms,” May 9, 2024.
6. The Guardian, “‘It’s going to delay the mail’: the fight over Louis DeJoy’s USPS plan,” December 15, 2023.
7. Common Dreams, “‘Fire DeJoy’ Demand Intensifies as 10-Year Plan to Sabotage Postal Service Takes Effect,” September 29, 2021.
8. CNN, “The US Postal Service lost $6.5 billion last year. It predicted it would break even” November 15, 2023.
9. Reuters, “US House Democrats urge Biden to name new U.S. Postal board members,” February 1, 2024.
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Even Republicans Can’t Stand Louis DeJoy, Trump’s Appointee to Head the U.S. Postal Service
Seminal astrophysicist Carl Sagan explains why uncomfortable ideas may be banned in religion, they must not be shunned in science.
This is an important concept in American life today, as conspiracy theorists are convinced that climate change denial cannot be considered in scientific circles.
I happened to bring this up in my interview with Dr. V. Ramanathan of the Scripps Institution, who has been amassing data on global warming since the 1970s. He laughed, and explained, “If I could prove that human activity was not causing temperatures to rise, I’d be be one of the wealthiest and most famous scientists in world history.”
As suggested at left, a great deal of the hardship that has befallen the U.S. was simply bad luck. Al Gore came within a whisker of victory in 2000, a win that would have forever changed the course of our nation in terms of energy policy, education, healthcare, and international affairs.
If Bernie had become the 2016 nominee, we wouldn’t have had Hillary Clinton telling our country’s most mean-spirited and least-educated people that they were “deplorables,” ushering a criminal sociopath into the White House.
We Came Incredible Close to Averting the Disaster that Is Donald Trump
Social democracies are nations in which the tax base provides everyone with healthcare and education, and where the richest and most powerful people are not free to ruin the environment.
I run into someone from one of these counties a couple of times a month, and I like to ask why their people are consistently at the top of the World Happiness Rankings. The normal response is always some variant of the following:
It’s hard to be happy living in a society that is indifferent to the suffering of others. It’s part of the very nature of human beings to care about one another.
Something else I notice about these places is that very few people are religious. Sweden, e.g., is about 80% atheist.
That means no childish tribalism, no ridiculous dogmas, no worries about eternal damnation, etc.
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