https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2H0MWc6xfE
Wednesday, September 2, 2020
Amid mounting domestic crisis, US imperialism lashes out at Russia and China
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/09/01/pers-s01.html
1 September 2020
Amid a deepening domestic political crisis made all the more explosive by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the United States has over the past week carried out a simultaneous escalation of its conflicts with Russia and China.
In a dizzying array of standoffs, escalatory gestures and open clashes, the US has inflamed, on an almost daily basis, conflicts involving the world’s major nuclear powers that could rapidly spiral out of control.
In the most direct clash, a vehicle forming part of a Russian convoy in Syria rammed an American armored vehicle, which the Russian military said was attempting to block the Russian patrol, leaving American personnel “injured.”
The incident was the most direct acknowledged clash between US and Russian military forces in the history of the nearly decade-long Syrian war. (In 2018, US soldiers engaged in a four-hour-long firefight with Syrian government forces, including Russian military contractors, but no Russian government troops were involved.)
The clash prompted calls for retaliation from within the US political establishment, and in particular from Trump’s ostensible political opponents in the Democratic Party. On Monday, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden declared that the American president should make clear that “there’d be a heavy price to pay if they dare touch an American soldier.”
He added, “It’s been reported that Russian forces just attacked American troops in Syria, injuring our service members. Did you hear the president say a single word? Did he lift one finger? Never before has an American president played such a subservient role to a Russian leader.”
On Monday, the US military announced that over the next 10 days it will be conducting live-fire exercises just 70 miles from the Russian border.
Last Friday, the US Air Force flew six nuclear-capable B-52 bombers over 30 NATO countries in a major show of force. Two of the bombers carried out a flyover of the United States and Canada, while four more flew over the European NATO states.
While two of the bombers were flying over the Black Sea, they were intercepted by two Russian fighter jets, which crossed within 100 feet of the nose of one of the bombers, reportedly disrupting its ability to maintain its bearing.
The day before, the Russian guided missile submarine Omsk surfaced off the coast of Alaska. The Omsk had been one of 50 Russian vessels participating in live-fire exercises in the Bering Sea. On August 27, the Russian military published a video of the submarine firing one of its missiles.
Also on Thursday, NORAD sent two F-22 jets to intercept three groups of Russian military maritime patrol aircraft off the Alaskan coast.
Even as it is ramping up tensions with Russia, Washington is escalating its conflict with China. On August 24, the Wall Street Journal published an article by Secretary of Defense Mark Esper headlined “The Pentagon Is Prepared for China,” in which he denounced the Chinese military as the instrument of the Chinese Communist Party.
Esper went on to participate in the Rim of the Pacific 2020 military exercises, which included “over 16,000 rounds of small arms munitions shot, over 1,000 large caliber weapons fired, 13 missiles expended,” according to the Pentagon.
Last Wednesday, as the exercises were ongoing, China launched a series of so-called “carrier-killer” missiles into the South China Sea. These missiles are reputedly able to sink US aircraft carriers, potentially sending billions of dollars worth of military hardware and thousands of US sailors and airmen to the bottom of the ocean.
The missile launches were accompanied by a belligerent editorial in China's Global Times declaring, “We can tell the US military that the PLA [People's Liberation Army] will not fire the first shot, but the DF-21D and DF-26B may be the second.”
The next day, Esper tweeted, and then deleted without explanation, a video of himself watching a missile launch at sea. In response to the Chinese missile launches, the United States carried out yet another “freedom of navigation operation” in waters claimed by Beijing. These developments follow the assertion by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on July 14 that all of China’s claims in the South China Sea are “unlawful.”
This latest round of military brinksmanship directly targeting Russia and China, the most aggressive in recent memory, follow the US withdrawal from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty last year, setting off a major new nuclear arms race with Russia and China. The Trump administration has continued and escalated the Obama White House’s multi-trillion-dollar nuclear buildup, emphasizing the need to build “usable” small nuclear weapons.
The systematic escalation of tensions with Russia and China is in keeping with Washington’s doctrine of “great power conflict,” spelled out in the 2018 National Defense Strategy, which declares that “Inter-state strategic competition, not terrorism, is now the primary concern in US national security.”
While the US has been preparing to fight a “hot war” with Russia and China for years, these conflicts have been dramatically intensified by the crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The US ruling class, confronting a social disaster at home, with 180,000 people dead and tens of millions unemployed, is desperately lashing out. With millions of people having participated in demonstrations against police violence, and a growing mood of militant struggle in the working class, there is a very real danger that the Trump administration, acting for the ruling class as a whole, may see in war the means to divert internal social tensions outward.
As workers throughout the country enter into struggle against the ruling class’s drive to force them back on the job under unsafe conditions, they must take up political demands. Among the most critical is the fight against war through the mobilization of the global working class in a common struggle the capitalist system.
Andre Damon
Amid a deepening domestic political crisis made all the more explosive by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the United States has over the past week carried out a simultaneous escalation of its conflicts with Russia and China.
In a dizzying array of standoffs, escalatory gestures and open clashes, the US has inflamed, on an almost daily basis, conflicts involving the world’s major nuclear powers that could rapidly spiral out of control.
In the most direct clash, a vehicle forming part of a Russian convoy in Syria rammed an American armored vehicle, which the Russian military said was attempting to block the Russian patrol, leaving American personnel “injured.”
The incident was the most direct acknowledged clash between US and Russian military forces in the history of the nearly decade-long Syrian war. (In 2018, US soldiers engaged in a four-hour-long firefight with Syrian government forces, including Russian military contractors, but no Russian government troops were involved.)
The clash prompted calls for retaliation from within the US political establishment, and in particular from Trump’s ostensible political opponents in the Democratic Party. On Monday, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden declared that the American president should make clear that “there’d be a heavy price to pay if they dare touch an American soldier.”
He added, “It’s been reported that Russian forces just attacked American troops in Syria, injuring our service members. Did you hear the president say a single word? Did he lift one finger? Never before has an American president played such a subservient role to a Russian leader.”
On Monday, the US military announced that over the next 10 days it will be conducting live-fire exercises just 70 miles from the Russian border.
Last Friday, the US Air Force flew six nuclear-capable B-52 bombers over 30 NATO countries in a major show of force. Two of the bombers carried out a flyover of the United States and Canada, while four more flew over the European NATO states.
While two of the bombers were flying over the Black Sea, they were intercepted by two Russian fighter jets, which crossed within 100 feet of the nose of one of the bombers, reportedly disrupting its ability to maintain its bearing.
The day before, the Russian guided missile submarine Omsk surfaced off the coast of Alaska. The Omsk had been one of 50 Russian vessels participating in live-fire exercises in the Bering Sea. On August 27, the Russian military published a video of the submarine firing one of its missiles.
Also on Thursday, NORAD sent two F-22 jets to intercept three groups of Russian military maritime patrol aircraft off the Alaskan coast.
Even as it is ramping up tensions with Russia, Washington is escalating its conflict with China. On August 24, the Wall Street Journal published an article by Secretary of Defense Mark Esper headlined “The Pentagon Is Prepared for China,” in which he denounced the Chinese military as the instrument of the Chinese Communist Party.
Esper went on to participate in the Rim of the Pacific 2020 military exercises, which included “over 16,000 rounds of small arms munitions shot, over 1,000 large caliber weapons fired, 13 missiles expended,” according to the Pentagon.
Last Wednesday, as the exercises were ongoing, China launched a series of so-called “carrier-killer” missiles into the South China Sea. These missiles are reputedly able to sink US aircraft carriers, potentially sending billions of dollars worth of military hardware and thousands of US sailors and airmen to the bottom of the ocean.
The missile launches were accompanied by a belligerent editorial in China's Global Times declaring, “We can tell the US military that the PLA [People's Liberation Army] will not fire the first shot, but the DF-21D and DF-26B may be the second.”
The next day, Esper tweeted, and then deleted without explanation, a video of himself watching a missile launch at sea. In response to the Chinese missile launches, the United States carried out yet another “freedom of navigation operation” in waters claimed by Beijing. These developments follow the assertion by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on July 14 that all of China’s claims in the South China Sea are “unlawful.”
This latest round of military brinksmanship directly targeting Russia and China, the most aggressive in recent memory, follow the US withdrawal from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty last year, setting off a major new nuclear arms race with Russia and China. The Trump administration has continued and escalated the Obama White House’s multi-trillion-dollar nuclear buildup, emphasizing the need to build “usable” small nuclear weapons.
The systematic escalation of tensions with Russia and China is in keeping with Washington’s doctrine of “great power conflict,” spelled out in the 2018 National Defense Strategy, which declares that “Inter-state strategic competition, not terrorism, is now the primary concern in US national security.”
While the US has been preparing to fight a “hot war” with Russia and China for years, these conflicts have been dramatically intensified by the crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The US ruling class, confronting a social disaster at home, with 180,000 people dead and tens of millions unemployed, is desperately lashing out. With millions of people having participated in demonstrations against police violence, and a growing mood of militant struggle in the working class, there is a very real danger that the Trump administration, acting for the ruling class as a whole, may see in war the means to divert internal social tensions outward.
As workers throughout the country enter into struggle against the ruling class’s drive to force them back on the job under unsafe conditions, they must take up political demands. Among the most critical is the fight against war through the mobilization of the global working class in a common struggle the capitalist system.
Andre Damon
Researchers discover a specific brain circuit damaged by social isolation during childhood
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200831112345.htm
Loneliness is recognized as a serious threat to mental health. Even as our world becomes increasingly connected over digital platforms, young people in our society are feeling a growing sense of isolation. The COVID-19 pandemic, which forced many countries to implement social distancing and school closures, magnifies the need for understanding the mental health consequences of social isolation and loneliness. While research has shown that social isolation during childhood, in particular, is detrimental to adult brain function and behavior across mammalian species, the underlying neural circuit mechanisms have remained poorly understood.
A research team from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has now identified specific sub-populations of brain cells in the prefrontal cortex, a key part of the brain that regulates social behavior, that are required for normal sociability in adulthood and are profoundly vulnerable to juvenile social isolation in mice. The study findings, which appear in the August 31 issue of Nature Neuroscience, shed light on a previously unrecognized role of these cells, known as medial prefrontal cortex neurons projecting to the paraventricular thalamus, the brain area that relays signals to various components of the brain's reward circuitry. If the finding is replicated in humans, it could lead to treatments for psychiatric disorders connected to isolation.
"In addition to identifying this specific circuit in the prefrontal cortex that is particularly vulnerable to social isolation during childhood, we also demonstrated that the vulnerable circuit we identified is a promising target for treatments of social behavior deficits," says Hirofumi Morishita, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience, and Ophthalmology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, a faculty member of The Friedman Brain Institute and the Mindich Child Health and Development Institute, and senior author of the paper. "Through stimulation of the specific prefrontal circuit projecting to the thalamic area in adulthood, we were able to rescue the sociability deficits caused by juvenile social isolation."
Specifically, the team found that, in male mice, two weeks of social isolation immediately following weaning leads to a failure to activate medial prefrontal cortex neurons projecting to the paraventricular thalamus during social exposure in adulthood. Researchers found that juvenile isolation led to both reduced excitability of the prefrontal neurons projecting to the paraventricular thalamus and increased inhibitory input from other related neurons, suggesting a circuit mechanism underlying sociability deficits caused by juvenile social isolation. To determine whether acute restoration of the activity of prefrontal projections to the paraventricular thalamus is sufficient to ameliorate sociability deficits in adult mice that underwent juvenile social isolation, the team employed a technique known as optogenetics to selectively stimulate the prefrontal projections to paraventricular thalamus. The researchers also used chemogenetics in their study. While optogenetics enables researchers to stimulate particular neurons in freely moving animals with pulses of light, chemogenetics allows non-invasive chemical control over cell populations. By employing both of these techniques, the researchers were able to quickly increase social interaction in these mice once light pulses or drugs were administered to them.
"We checked the presence of social behavior deficits just prior to stimulation and when we checked the behavior while the stimulation was ongoing, we found that the social behavior deficits were reversed," said Dr. Morishita.
Given that social behavior deficits are a common dimension of many neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders, such as autism and schizophrenia, identification of these specific prefrontal neurons will point toward therapeutic targets for the improvement of social behavior deficits shared across a range of psychiatric disorders. The circuits identified in this study could potentially be modulated using techniques like transcranial magnetic stimulation and/or transcranial direct current stimulation.
This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Mental Health and The Simons Foundation.
Story Source:
Materials provided by The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
Kazuhiko Yamamuro, Lucy K. Bicks, Michael B. Leventhal, Daisuke Kato, Susanna Im, Meghan E. Flanigan, Yury Garkun, Kevin J. Norman, Keaven Caro, Masato Sadahiro, Klas Kullander, Schahram Akbarian, Scott J. Russo, Hirofumi Morishita. A prefrontal–paraventricular thalamus circuit requires juvenile social experience to regulate adult sociability in mice. Nature Neuroscience, Aug. 31, 2020; DOI: 10.1038/s41593-020-0695-6
EXTREME RIGHT IN VENEZUELA SEEKS TO SABOTAGE THE ELECTION
https://popularresistance.org/extreme-right-in-venezuela-seeks-to-sabotage-the-election/
By Katu Arkonada, La Jornada.
August 31, 2020
| EDUCATE!
In a little more than three months, on December 6, parliamentary elections will be held in Venezuela. The previous elections were on December 6, 2015 and the opposition gained a majority thanks to the abstention of 2 million Chavista voters who decided to stay home and not vote.
But the circumstances today are different, and supporters of the policies of Hugo Chavez are more united after having had to deal with an infinite number of political, economic and military attacks proceeding from U.S. imperialism and their local lackeys, attacks that intensified since the self-proclamation by Juan Guiadó that he was the president on November 23, 2019.
Due to this, the most extreme wing of the Venezuelan opposition, which forms the so-called G4 (that includes the parties Voluntad Popular of Leopoldo López, Primero Justicia of Henrique Capriles, Acción Democrática and Un Nuevo Tiempo) plans, with U.S. support, to boycott the electoral process and renew the mobilization in the streets.
Colombian sources with access to U.S. government functionaries and to leaders of the Venezuelan opposition became aware of a recent video conference meeting including members of the U.S. foreign affairs office ”virtual embassy” for Venezuela in Bogota (Venezuelan Affairs Unit or VAU) and several G4 opposition leaders headed by Leopoldo López, the President of the Voluntad Popular Party. In this meeting they finalized plans and procedures to sabotage the December elections.
However, it springs to our attention that Juan Guaidó did not attend this meeting, and thus it appears that the main thrust and support of the U.S. is tilting toward someone with credentials of violence, such as the leader of the Voluntad Popular.
In this meeting, Leopoldo Lopez, who already has experience with organizing violent sabotage, asked each party in the G4 to recruit 100,000 volunteers, with the goal of mobilizing them earlier, but especially on Election Day, to cover all the polling places in the country.
The source, present at this videoconference meeting, revealed that, as Leopoldo Lopez explained, the volunteers should have the ability to manipulate and document real and supposed irregularities in the process, for example, the use of government resources by the PSUV and allied parties. Other objectives are to show a low voter turnout, demonstrate violations by those forces carrying out Plan República, participate decisively in demobilizing the vote, and, a key aspect, to carry out protest and “civil resistance“ activities to slow the voting of supporters of the government and of those sectors of the opposition who favor dialogue and would make the new National Assembly appear legitimate.
The G4 will not participate in the electoral process, and, so their goal seems to be to document the problems created by their own interference, so that they may later try to convince the international community that it was undemocratic. The challenge, however, is to convince the anti-Chavista forces of the wisdom of a strategy that will leave them out of the next National Assembly.
But the G4 leader went even further, proposing a goal more ambitious – 200,000 volunteers so that they would be able to have 25 activists at each polling place. He suggested using a database of volunteers who participated in the failed “humanitarian aid“ operation attempted against Venezuela from Colombia in February 2019.
Richa Bhala, an official of the Venezuelan Affairs Unit in charge of counter-intelligence from her post as Vice-consul of the United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, accepted and praised this proposal, insisting on the need to broaden the base of the opposition platform. Rafael Foley, head of the U.S. foreign affairs office “virtual embassy” for Venezuela in Bogota took the opportunity to insist that the G4 should convert from a more or less organized opposition to a structure of resistance and civil disobedience that goes beyond the four opposition political parties.
Seemingly, according to the same sources, soon there will be an appeal by the G4, seeking to add new forces to a new opposition platform.
If, as appears to be the case, the boycott strategy again is merged with one of violence, and the Guiadó effect is abandoned, since it turned out to be a bluff that simply united the Chavista forces, what we will see in the new opposition platform is the convergence of the same contradictions and aspirations of the traditional political parties, that have not been able to unite on anything other than their hate of Chavismo and their subordination to the United States.
In any case, December 6 is marked in red letters on the Venezuelan opposition’s schedule book, and they are seeking to take new steps to try to defeat Chavismo.
Whatever happens in the U.S. elections, since, even if Trump doesn’t win, the same interests that led Obama to sign an executive order declaring Venezuela to be a threat to the national security of the United States will still remain in power. In 2021 a new chapter in the Bolivarian and Chavista Revolution will begin, while still defending the oil and the national sovereignty.
| EDUCATE!
In a little more than three months, on December 6, parliamentary elections will be held in Venezuela. The previous elections were on December 6, 2015 and the opposition gained a majority thanks to the abstention of 2 million Chavista voters who decided to stay home and not vote.
But the circumstances today are different, and supporters of the policies of Hugo Chavez are more united after having had to deal with an infinite number of political, economic and military attacks proceeding from U.S. imperialism and their local lackeys, attacks that intensified since the self-proclamation by Juan Guiadó that he was the president on November 23, 2019.
Due to this, the most extreme wing of the Venezuelan opposition, which forms the so-called G4 (that includes the parties Voluntad Popular of Leopoldo López, Primero Justicia of Henrique Capriles, Acción Democrática and Un Nuevo Tiempo) plans, with U.S. support, to boycott the electoral process and renew the mobilization in the streets.
Colombian sources with access to U.S. government functionaries and to leaders of the Venezuelan opposition became aware of a recent video conference meeting including members of the U.S. foreign affairs office ”virtual embassy” for Venezuela in Bogota (Venezuelan Affairs Unit or VAU) and several G4 opposition leaders headed by Leopoldo López, the President of the Voluntad Popular Party. In this meeting they finalized plans and procedures to sabotage the December elections.
However, it springs to our attention that Juan Guaidó did not attend this meeting, and thus it appears that the main thrust and support of the U.S. is tilting toward someone with credentials of violence, such as the leader of the Voluntad Popular.
In this meeting, Leopoldo Lopez, who already has experience with organizing violent sabotage, asked each party in the G4 to recruit 100,000 volunteers, with the goal of mobilizing them earlier, but especially on Election Day, to cover all the polling places in the country.
The source, present at this videoconference meeting, revealed that, as Leopoldo Lopez explained, the volunteers should have the ability to manipulate and document real and supposed irregularities in the process, for example, the use of government resources by the PSUV and allied parties. Other objectives are to show a low voter turnout, demonstrate violations by those forces carrying out Plan República, participate decisively in demobilizing the vote, and, a key aspect, to carry out protest and “civil resistance“ activities to slow the voting of supporters of the government and of those sectors of the opposition who favor dialogue and would make the new National Assembly appear legitimate.
The G4 will not participate in the electoral process, and, so their goal seems to be to document the problems created by their own interference, so that they may later try to convince the international community that it was undemocratic. The challenge, however, is to convince the anti-Chavista forces of the wisdom of a strategy that will leave them out of the next National Assembly.
But the G4 leader went even further, proposing a goal more ambitious – 200,000 volunteers so that they would be able to have 25 activists at each polling place. He suggested using a database of volunteers who participated in the failed “humanitarian aid“ operation attempted against Venezuela from Colombia in February 2019.
Richa Bhala, an official of the Venezuelan Affairs Unit in charge of counter-intelligence from her post as Vice-consul of the United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, accepted and praised this proposal, insisting on the need to broaden the base of the opposition platform. Rafael Foley, head of the U.S. foreign affairs office “virtual embassy” for Venezuela in Bogota took the opportunity to insist that the G4 should convert from a more or less organized opposition to a structure of resistance and civil disobedience that goes beyond the four opposition political parties.
Seemingly, according to the same sources, soon there will be an appeal by the G4, seeking to add new forces to a new opposition platform.
If, as appears to be the case, the boycott strategy again is merged with one of violence, and the Guiadó effect is abandoned, since it turned out to be a bluff that simply united the Chavista forces, what we will see in the new opposition platform is the convergence of the same contradictions and aspirations of the traditional political parties, that have not been able to unite on anything other than their hate of Chavismo and their subordination to the United States.
In any case, December 6 is marked in red letters on the Venezuelan opposition’s schedule book, and they are seeking to take new steps to try to defeat Chavismo.
Whatever happens in the U.S. elections, since, even if Trump doesn’t win, the same interests that led Obama to sign an executive order declaring Venezuela to be a threat to the national security of the United States will still remain in power. In 2021 a new chapter in the Bolivarian and Chavista Revolution will begin, while still defending the oil and the national sovereignty.
TRUMP AND DEJOY’S MAIN OBJECTIVE: INCAPACITATE THE US POSTAL SERVICE
https://popularresistance.org/trump-and-dejoys-main-objective-incapacitate-the-us-postal-service/
By Michael Payne, Nation of Change.
August 31, 2020
| EDUCATE!
What We Need Now Is To See A Plethora Of Other States Joining In These Lawsuits That Are Charging Trump And DeJoy With Deliberate Voter Suppression.
NOTE: We remind our readers that the Democrats are also responsible for the demise of the US Postal Service. They could have repealed the 2006 law that requires it to pre-fund 75 years of retirement, including health benefits, a law the Democrats nearly unanimously supported. This costs the USPS over $5.5 billion every year. The Democrats are concerned right now because the elections are at risk. There is no reason to believe they will care after November.
In this newsletter, we outline the timeline of the bipartisan attack on the postal service and what steps are needed to protect and expand it. Now is the time to push for these changes. – MF
Why in the world would anyone want to do great harm to one of America’s oldest and most revered institutions, the USPS? Why? It’s the upcoming presidential election, stupid!
Talk about a massive dilemma by which our democracy may very well be destroyed! Americans have watched as Louis DeJoy, the newly appointed Postmaster General testified before the Senate and House committees relative to the current conditions of the U.S. Postal Service; conditions that are now at one of the lowest points in USPS history.
At these hearings, we saw a snide, arrogant DeJoy make statements that almost everyone knew were false and misleading. He tried to minimize the entire crisis in the USPS by saying that, while it has some problems, they aren’t that bad. He stressed that there would be no problem in delivering the mail-in-ballots to states on time. There is no way in the world that Democrats will ever believe that.
He also said he would not reverse the situation by which mailboxes and sorting machines were removed from around the country and overtime was canceled. He even said that he was not the one who did all these things that were having an adverse effect on deliveries. Maybe I missed it but I didn’t hear him say who it was that did it. Somebody did, and I’d bet it was him.
One cynical House Democrat asked him if he was confident that he would receive a presidential pardon just as Roger Stone did. He said that that was an outrageous remark. Well, that Democrat and all his committee colleagues have that terrible feeling that he was given his job with the aim that he would do everything he could to slow down mail deliveries during the election.
Democrats know full well that if Trump and DeJoy succeed in greatly slowing down mail deliveries, that it could give Trump the reelection that he so desperately wants.
Trump and Senate Republicans refuse to approve the $25 billion funding that Democrats want to be used in significantly improve Postal Service operations. They will block and obstruct every attempt by Democrats to get this funding approved.
All America has heard Trump state that the ballots-by-mail system is ripe for fraud and it will end up being a colossal failure. This is all about reelecting him, and he knows that if he doesn’t stop massive balloting by mail he will lose and lose big.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, together with five other Senate Democrats, sent a letter to the Board of Governors of the Postal Service, demanding that they reverse those DeJoy policies. Also, they should look into the possibility of removing him as Postmaster General.
90 House Democrats have demanded that the Board of Governors immediately take action to remove DeJoy “to protect this critically important institution. “
There has to be a way that Democrats can prevent Trump and DeJoy from using the Postal Service as a massive voter suppression tool. House Democrats do not have the power to force DeJoy to restore the mailboxes and sorting machines and allow the use of overtime. But, there are other ways, such as these:
Here’s an article from the Huffington Post that reports that “The states of New York, Hawaii and New Jersey filed a lawsuit Monday against President Donald Trump, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and the U.S. Postal Service over changes at the agency ahead of the election. The lawsuit also includes New York City and San Francisco as plaintiffs.”
What we need now is to see a plethora of other states joining in these lawsuits that are charging Trump and DeJoy with deliberate voter suppression. That is the way to stop these two from, as the article says, “undermining a federal election.”
Most of those who purposely violate the law, those who are called criminals, do it in secret, so they can’t be caught. In the case of Trump, he isn’t even trying to hide what he is doing. He blatantly indicates that he wants to see the ballots by mail system crippled, and he, no doubt, is using DeJoy to accomplish his objective.
This Postal Service situation is not your typical governmental problem that needs to be addressed, it is a massive, national dilemma in which the eventual outcome, whether the delivery system functions effectively during the election or does not, will determine whether our democracy survives or is no more.
| EDUCATE!
What We Need Now Is To See A Plethora Of Other States Joining In These Lawsuits That Are Charging Trump And DeJoy With Deliberate Voter Suppression.
NOTE: We remind our readers that the Democrats are also responsible for the demise of the US Postal Service. They could have repealed the 2006 law that requires it to pre-fund 75 years of retirement, including health benefits, a law the Democrats nearly unanimously supported. This costs the USPS over $5.5 billion every year. The Democrats are concerned right now because the elections are at risk. There is no reason to believe they will care after November.
In this newsletter, we outline the timeline of the bipartisan attack on the postal service and what steps are needed to protect and expand it. Now is the time to push for these changes. – MF
Why in the world would anyone want to do great harm to one of America’s oldest and most revered institutions, the USPS? Why? It’s the upcoming presidential election, stupid!
Talk about a massive dilemma by which our democracy may very well be destroyed! Americans have watched as Louis DeJoy, the newly appointed Postmaster General testified before the Senate and House committees relative to the current conditions of the U.S. Postal Service; conditions that are now at one of the lowest points in USPS history.
At these hearings, we saw a snide, arrogant DeJoy make statements that almost everyone knew were false and misleading. He tried to minimize the entire crisis in the USPS by saying that, while it has some problems, they aren’t that bad. He stressed that there would be no problem in delivering the mail-in-ballots to states on time. There is no way in the world that Democrats will ever believe that.
He also said he would not reverse the situation by which mailboxes and sorting machines were removed from around the country and overtime was canceled. He even said that he was not the one who did all these things that were having an adverse effect on deliveries. Maybe I missed it but I didn’t hear him say who it was that did it. Somebody did, and I’d bet it was him.
One cynical House Democrat asked him if he was confident that he would receive a presidential pardon just as Roger Stone did. He said that that was an outrageous remark. Well, that Democrat and all his committee colleagues have that terrible feeling that he was given his job with the aim that he would do everything he could to slow down mail deliveries during the election.
Democrats know full well that if Trump and DeJoy succeed in greatly slowing down mail deliveries, that it could give Trump the reelection that he so desperately wants.
Trump and Senate Republicans refuse to approve the $25 billion funding that Democrats want to be used in significantly improve Postal Service operations. They will block and obstruct every attempt by Democrats to get this funding approved.
All America has heard Trump state that the ballots-by-mail system is ripe for fraud and it will end up being a colossal failure. This is all about reelecting him, and he knows that if he doesn’t stop massive balloting by mail he will lose and lose big.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, together with five other Senate Democrats, sent a letter to the Board of Governors of the Postal Service, demanding that they reverse those DeJoy policies. Also, they should look into the possibility of removing him as Postmaster General.
90 House Democrats have demanded that the Board of Governors immediately take action to remove DeJoy “to protect this critically important institution. “
There has to be a way that Democrats can prevent Trump and DeJoy from using the Postal Service as a massive voter suppression tool. House Democrats do not have the power to force DeJoy to restore the mailboxes and sorting machines and allow the use of overtime. But, there are other ways, such as these:
Here’s an article from the Huffington Post that reports that “The states of New York, Hawaii and New Jersey filed a lawsuit Monday against President Donald Trump, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and the U.S. Postal Service over changes at the agency ahead of the election. The lawsuit also includes New York City and San Francisco as plaintiffs.”
What we need now is to see a plethora of other states joining in these lawsuits that are charging Trump and DeJoy with deliberate voter suppression. That is the way to stop these two from, as the article says, “undermining a federal election.”
Most of those who purposely violate the law, those who are called criminals, do it in secret, so they can’t be caught. In the case of Trump, he isn’t even trying to hide what he is doing. He blatantly indicates that he wants to see the ballots by mail system crippled, and he, no doubt, is using DeJoy to accomplish his objective.
This Postal Service situation is not your typical governmental problem that needs to be addressed, it is a massive, national dilemma in which the eventual outcome, whether the delivery system functions effectively during the election or does not, will determine whether our democracy survives or is no more.
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