Author Topic: In The News  (Read 75996 times)

Gregzs

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Re: In The News
« Reply #75 on: May 29, 2020, 06:00:45 PM »
A Black Widow Delivered Some Harsh Truths To A Trio Of Aspiring Spider Men


Three boys in Bolivia learned the hard way that with great power comes fevers, tremors, and muscle pains as they tried to inherit the powers of Spider-Man by letting a black widow spider bite them. The boys aged 8, 10, and 12 fortunately didn’t succumb to the unfortunate incident and were released from hospital a week later, sadly sans superpowers.

According to a report from Ministry of Health officials, the three boys from Chayanta, Bolivia, were herding goats when eight-legged inspiration struck as they discovered a spider whose black and red markings reminded them of the superhero. Spurred on by the allure of spidey senses, the ability to climb walls, and shoot webs, they decided to try and make the spider bite them so they could be like the famed hero. Unaware of the creature’s potent venom, they decided to poke the spider with a stick in an attempt to goad it into biting them. The angry black widow took the bait and bit all three boys who were later found crying by their mother.

She rushed the boys to a nearby health center where, as no medications seemed to be improving their condition, it was decided they should be transferred to hospital. By the time they reached the Children’s Hospital in La Paz they were experiencing fevers, tremors, and muscle pains. After a week of treatment, the boys were eventually discharged from the hospital and sent home to recover from their less than Marvel-ous adventure.

According to a post on Telemundo, the officials reported the incident as a lesson for parents to "be careful" because "for children everything is real, movies are real, dreams can be real, and they are the illusion of our lifetime."

While highly dangerous with venom 15 times more powerful than that of a rattlesnake, black widow spiders will only bite when they feel threatened. They are perfectly safe if left well alone but goading them with a stick will probably end unfavorably for you. If bitten, most healthy adults will feel unwell and experience some pain but eventually recover. However, for young children as well as the elderly or those with health problems the bite can sometimes prove fatal.

As much as we’d all like to swing, climb, and predict future events like our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, there’s unfortunately no scientific evidence that getting bitten by spiders, or any other animals for that matter, does much beyond risking pain, sickness, and infection. However, if the first result in Google is to be believed, we might be closer to sharing a spidey sense than we realized…

https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/a-black-widow-delivered-some-harsh-truths-to-a-trio-of-aspiring-spider-men/?fbclid=IwAR0ZkHDND4b0MUyq50O8o6Cah9phm6HX5zN-I-KEWWk4YZ-LAOSL4wY5JHo

Gregzs

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Re: In The News
« Reply #76 on: May 31, 2020, 10:56:13 PM »


How a Night of Chaos in Minneapolis Unfolded

Gregzs

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Re: In The News
« Reply #77 on: June 01, 2020, 11:14:46 AM »
How George Floyd Was Killed in Police Custody


Gregzs

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Re: In The News
« Reply #78 on: June 01, 2020, 09:48:13 PM »
How India’s Police Used a Pandemic to Boost Its Image


Gregzs

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Re: In The News
« Reply #79 on: June 05, 2020, 11:22:28 PM »
Funeral Homes in Mexico Show Coronavirus’ Hidden Death Toll


Gregzs

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Re: In The News
« Reply #80 on: June 09, 2020, 08:42:26 PM »
Retired Clark Teacher in Search of Former Students to Open Time Capsule

CLARK, NJ - If the silver vessel pictured above looks familiar, chances are you were a fourth grade student in Ms. Barbara Jean Delnero's fourth grade class at Frank K. Hehnly Elementary School in the year 2000.  It's 20 years later and according to the directions clearly labeled on the front of that shiny container, it is due to be opened on June 20, 2020.   

Delnero is searching for students from her 1999-2000 class to join her in opening a time capsule the class prepared at the turn of the century.  "The items students put in there don't reflect today's technology or many of the major events that have happened since that time like 9/11 or Superstorm Sandy and more, it was a different time," she said.   

Now retired, Delnero kept the time capsule in her possession as promised for the planned opening.  She is hoping her class will join her.

https://www.tapinto.net/towns/clark/sections/education/articles/retired-clark-teacher-in-search-of-former-students-to-open-time-capsule

Gregzs

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Re: In The News
« Reply #81 on: July 12, 2020, 10:56:40 PM »
How Toilet Paper Companies Dealt With The 845% Demand Spike


IroNat

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Re: In The News
« Reply #82 on: July 13, 2020, 08:14:36 AM »
Interesting.^

Gregzs

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Re: In The News
« Reply #83 on: July 24, 2020, 06:18:42 PM »
Nevada OKs $200M in bonds for Vegas-to-SoCal high-speed train

LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Nevada officials have approved issuing up to $200 million in state bonds for a high-speed train project connecting Las Vegas with Southern California.

The State Board of Finance unanimously approved the bond financing for XpressWest, the parent company of the Virgin Trains project, during a meeting Friday.

XpressWest will be able to issue the bonds at up to four times the state allocation, meaning they could be worth as much as $800 million.

The bonds could only be used for designing, developing and building facilities for the high-speed rail, and not for the trains themselves, said Terry J. Reynolds, director of the Nevada Department of Business and Industry, during Friday's meeting.

The project also received approval for up to $750 million in bond allocation from the federal government.

A spokesman for the Nevada Treasurer's office said the bonds won't use any taxpayer dollars and wouldn't impact the state's ability to finance any future projects.

"This project is a long time coming to Nevada and I'm pleased to take this step forward to bring this vision to reality and bring additional jobs to our state," Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak said in a statement.

The proposed high-speed train would begin at a station near Blue Diamond Road and Las Vegas Boulevard, run south along Interstate 15 and end in Victorville, California.

State officials expect the project to result in $2 billion in economic impact, with $325 million in new tax revenue for Nevada, according to a press release from the treasurer's office.

Clark County commissioners gave their approval for the bond financing earlier this week. The rail system is pegged for completion in 2023.

https://news3lv.com/news/local/200-million-in-nevada-bonds-approved-for-high-speed-train-to-california

Gregzs

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Re: In The News
« Reply #84 on: July 29, 2020, 11:41:39 AM »
USPS Plans to Slash Hours at Many Post Offices, Hoping to Save A Buck

Post offices around the country are slashing their hours—including during the busiest times of day—with little notice as yet another abrupt cost-saving measure, according to interviews with union officials conducted by Motherboard and various local news reports. The USPS had also planned to close some offices entirely with just three weeks’ notice, likely in violation of federal law, but appears to be backtracking.

The sudden changes come as part of a slate of policies instituted by the new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Trump donor with a history of anti-union practices at his private logistics firm New Breed Logistics, that are ostensibly about fiscal responsibility but have contributed to mail being delayed across the country and have postal workers concerned they’re no longer being allowed to do their jobs. Many postal employees also believe the changes will only make the post office’s financial situation worse.

“A lot of this has been dropped on us with little or no communication,” said Elizabeth Coonan, a steward for the American Postal Workers Union Local 3264 in the Clarksburg, West Virginia area. “The times that they’re slating [the offices] to close is when they do a lot of business.”

When asked about the hours reductions and closures, USPS spokesperson Kim Frum provided the same written statement the USPS has been providing to most national media inquiries over recent weeks regarding the USPS’s cost-cutting measures. The statement uses broad language about “developing a business plan to ensure that we will be financially stable and able to continue to provide dependable, affordable, safe and secure delivery of mail and packages to all Americans as a vital part of the nation’s critical infrastructure.” Frum then provided a link to DeJoy’s similarly vague “Statement on Operational Excellence.” Pressed for details on the closures, Frum said she could not provide any further information.

As a result, it’s difficult to get a complete picture of how many of the post office’s 31,322 retail locations nationwide are impacted by the new hours. Coogan told Motherboard that in her region of West Virginia 26 offices are being forced to reduce hours from the typical eight-hour weekday schedule to under four hours per day. Another 31 offices are being forced to close during lunch hours, typically among the busiest times of day at a post office. Frank Bollinger, the business agent for APWU Local 526 in southern New Jersey, told Motherboard that 10 offices in his region are dropping from nine open hours per weekday to four, while another 30 are slated to close during lunch hours.

Included in those 10 offices is one in East Camden, a low income neighborhood with many unbanked residents who rely on the post office’s money order processing. Bollinger says that at the beginning of the month, that office typically fields “well above” $35,000 in money orders per day, which is now in jeopardy thanks to the reduced hours.

“If I can’t make it to the post office,” Bollinger said, “I’m not going to use the post office.”

In addition to West Virginia and New Jersey, post offices in Berkeley, California; Petersburg, Alaska, Youngstown, Ohio, and Knoxville, Tennessee have announced similar plans to reduce hours. All of the changes Motherboard has reviewed were announced only by signs hanging on the post office doors.

On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia sent a letter to DeJoy regarding the “imminent closure or significant reduction in hours and services” as post offices “in my state and across the nation.” Manchin’s letter noted that “this would likely be a violation of both federal law and United States Postal Service (USPS) rules that prescribe a specific closure process which requires, at minimum, 120 days’ notice,” a far cry from the three weeks under the current plan. By Tuesday evening, Coonan told Motherboard the post office had “walked back its position on closing the offices” and they are “currently reevaluating the situation.”

This is not the first time the USPS has moved to abruptly close post office locations without following the legally prescribed procedures for doing so. In 2011, the Postal Regulatory Commission Chairman Ruth Goldway protested in a letter to then-Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe that the USPS was closing offices nationwide without informing the PRC as they are required to do by law.

For her part, Coonan doesn’t think DeJoy—who has never worked for the USPS before becoming postmaster general in June—is putting the USPS on a path to success or that his cost-cutting measures will do anything positive. “Slashing and hacking has already been tried,” she said. “It’s not going to work.”

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wxq47q/usps-plans-to-slash-hours-at-many-post-offices-hoping-to-save-a-buck?utm_content=1596043804&utm_medium=social&utm_source=VICE_facebook&fbclid=IwAR3XZ7IO4RDy6T4LaOWaY-R_0n7Uqa8wzWn5p3agQeEcyRBTq6uCtihz_3g

Gregzs

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Re: In The News
« Reply #85 on: August 10, 2020, 01:04:30 AM »
North Carolina hit by 5.1 magnitude earthquake, the strongest since 1916


Gregzs

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Re: In The News
« Reply #86 on: August 10, 2020, 12:24:08 PM »
USPS Workers Don’t Know What to Make of So-Called ‘Friday Night Massacre’

Around 1:30 p.m. Eastern time on Friday afternoon, postal workers around the country started seeing a post on the internal post office network announcing yet another seemingly massive and confusing change to the United States Postal Service.

The new policies, which were first reported by the Washington Post, amount to an executive and management shakeup. The memo announced a management-level hiring freeze and the beginning of a process to accept voluntary early retirement from non-union employees in the management class. The USPS will also consolidate by enlarging regions and operations areas. For example, instead of dividing the U.S. into seven retail and delivery operations areas, it will now be divided into four.

Typically, such changes to any government entity would barely be noticed by most of the employees within the organization, much less those outside of it. But these are not typical times at the USPS. Its every move has become highly politicized due to the critical role it will play in the upcoming election and the suspicion that the new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, a longtime Republican fundraiser and Trump donor, is intentionally disrupting the USPS so as to aid in his preferred candidate’s re-election. And DeJoy has wasted no time making lots of moves.

DeJoy made one of his first orders of business desecrating the sacred notion that every piece of mail gets delivered every day no matter what, causing widespread mail backups and package delays across the country. At Friday’s Board of Governors meeting, DeJoy called on Congress to “enact reform legislation that addresses our unaffordable retirement payments” while also promising to make more changes in the future to “focus on improving operational efficiency and pursuing other reforms in order to put the Postal Service on a trajectory for long-term financial stability.”

But Democrats don’t see a small-business Republican cutting costs from a bloated bureaucracy—which lost $2.2 billion in the most recent quarter, roughly on par with the $2.3 billion lost in the same quarter last year—as DeJoy would have them believe. Instead, they see a “trojan horse” sabotaging the postal service.

Pennsylvania Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon called the new policies another “Friday night massacre” by the Trump administration, even though it does not appear anyone lost their job. “The announcement on Friday set forth a change to organizational structure only,” USPS spokesman David Partenheimer told Motherboard. “The announcement did not include any terminations or layoffs and very specifically stated that the changes did not initiate a reduction in force and there were no immediate impacts to USPS employees.”

But the term made headlines over the weekend nonetheless. Virginia Congressman Gerry Connolly tweeted it was “deliberate sabotage to disrupt mail service on the eve of the election.” Senator Elizabeth Warren asked “How many ways can the new Postmaster General sabotage the USPS?” In a press release, Congresswoman Alma Adams of North Carolina and Congressman Peter DeFazio of Oregon called for DeJoy to resign or be removed from office.

While many postal workers are wary of DeJoy’s actions and motivations, the three postal workers at various levels Motherboard spoke to don’t know what to make of the changes announced Friday, partly because the changes are so vague it’s hard to know what the changes really mean. But they’re also leaving open the possibility the changes could have some positive effects. A bloated, wasteful management structure that obstructs productivity rather than enabling it has been one of the most consistent complaints among postal employees for decades, according to dozens of interviews conducted with postal workers over recent weeks.The question is whether the new changes address that or merely shuffle the problem around.

At the surface level, DeJoy’s reorganization echoes what has occurred in the private sector as logistics management has become more sophisticated. A 2010 blog post by the USPS Office of Inspector General explained that, since 1992, the USPS conducted an increase in the number of regions and areas of management from five to nine in 2006 (it has since been reduced to seven). But private sector companies like UPS and Walmart did the opposite, reducing the number of operational regions over that same time.

What, exactly, these changes mean for the USPS’s ability to deliver mail, packages, medication, and ballots remains to be seen. A powerpoint presentation obtained by Motherboard lays out a four week “transition plan” schedule beginning today, August 10, and ending September 4.

While some have criticized Trump for appointing DeJoy as postmaster general even though he’s never worked for the post office, the new divisions will at least be headed by longtime Post Office employees for now, according to the PowerPoint presentation. For example, the head of delivery operations, Joshua Colin, has worked for the USPS since 2006, according to his LinkedIn profile. The new Vice President of retail, Angela Curtis, has worked there since 2011. Mike Barber, the new head of processing and maintenance operations, is in his 40th year at the organization.

That being said, the current postal workers Motherboard spoke to—on condition of anonymity because they’re not authorized to speak to the media—are worried not so much by what is being done as they are the speed with which it is occurring, especially when it’s implemented by a postmaster general with questionable motives, who has been on the job for less than two months. As one person familiar with the reorganization plan put it, there have been “too many major changes for DeJoy who has not had the time at the helm to fully understand the organization, which is not like any other business.”

Likewise, the USPS also announced a “new organizational structure” broken down into three units: Retail and delivery operations, logistics and processing operations, and commerce and business solutions.

This announcement confused some postal workers who don’t understand how it’s different than what currently exists. “We do have a separation between retail and delivery services and processing services and commercial services,” said a postmaster from New England. “Those are all different people in my district.” This person is unsure how a reorganization that doesn’t change anything can lead to efficiency and savings.

Even more concerning is the degree to which these changes have been seemingly coming out of nowhere. Typically the postmaster in New England will get some details from the district manager about what changes are coming before they’re announced. But that’s not how it’s happened under DeJoy. “I didn’t have any sense this was going to happen at all.”

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3az48n/usps-workers-dont-know-what-to-make-of-so-called-friday-night-massacre?utm_content=1597078819&utm_medium=social&utm_source=VICE_facebook&fbclid=IwAR1kYKzZRI_7PqA_4D15hE3hlw8rOs9ECa01DY4dwSDM4WwnEggeIIbrbvs

Gregzs

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Re: In The News
« Reply #87 on: August 13, 2020, 10:50:28 AM »
The Post Office Is Deactivating Mail Sorting Machines Ahead of the Election

Good thing nobody's predicting a huge surge in mail any time soon.


The United States Postal Service is removing mail sorting machines from facilities around the country without any official explanation or reason given, Motherboard has learned through interviews with postal workers and union officials. In many cases, these are the same machines that would be tasked with sorting ballots, calling into question promises made by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy that the USPS has “ample capacity” to handle the predicted surge in mail-in ballots.

Motherboard identified 19 mail sorting machines from five processing facilities across the U.S. that either have already been removed or are scheduled to be in the near future. But the Postal Service operates hundreds of distribution facilities around the country, so it is not clear precisely how many machines are getting removed and for what purpose.

Even to local union officials, USPS has not announced any policy, explained why they are doing this, what will happen to the machines and the workers who use them. Nor has management provided a rationale for dismantling and removing the machines from the facility rather than merely not operating them when they’re not needed.

“I’m not sure you’re going to find an answer for why [the machines being removed] makes sense,” said Iowa Postal Workers Union President Kimberly Karol, “because we haven’t figured that out either.”

The postal workers Motherboard spoke to said having machines removed, replaced, or modified is nothing new, but this time it seems to be more widespread, include a larger number of machines at their respective facility, and potentially impacts the facility’s ability to process large numbers of mail, including ballots, in a short time span.

“Look at it this way: Your local grocery store was forced to cut 1/3 of its cash-out lines, but management expected the same productivity, quality, and speed for the customer,” said an employee at a Buffalo distribution facility, which they said is set to lose six out of 21 mail sorting machines. “It’s just never going to happen.”

After publication, USPS spokesperson David Partenheimer told Motherboard, “The Postal Service routinely moves equipment around its network as necessary to match changing mail and package volumes. Package volume is up, but mail volume continues to decline. Adapting our processing infrastructure to the current volumes will ensure more efficient, cost effective operations and better service for our customers.”

While the consequences of this new policy are mostly unclear for now, it neatly fits with the sudden, opaque, and drastic changes made by DeJoy, a longtime Republican fundraiser and Trump donor, in the less than two months he’s been postmaster general. Like his other changes, including the curtailing of overtime resulting in the widespread mail delays and sudden reorganization of the entire USPS, it is possible to see some semblance of corporate logic while second-guessing the decision to make drastic changes on the eve of the presidential election in which the USPS will play a critical role.

Most of the machines being dismantled in the facilities Motherboard identified are delivery bar code sorters (DBCS), into which letters, postcards and similarly sized mail (but not magazines and large envelopes, which are categorized as “flats” and sorted differently) are fed. The DBCS sorts the mail into one of hundreds of “stackers,” a slot about a foot long. Each slot is for a different destination, be it another post office or distribution facility.

A DBCS typically requires two workers to operate: one to feed the mail into the machine, and the other to collect the mail from the stackers and put them in the appropriate bins for transport. Running at peak efficiency, the machines can sort about 35,000 pieces of mail per hour, a remarkable and oddly mesmerizing feat. But during times of short staffing or low mail volume—both of which have occurred during COVID—DBCSs can be run with one and a half or even just a single worker, albeit less productively.

Marketing mail is down more than 15 percent through June of this year compared to last year. While this is a much steeper drop than recent years, it is continuing a decade-long trend of mail volume decline for everything but packages. In other words, DBCSs have less mail to sort than they ever have before and it’s far from clear how much of that mail is ever coming back. So it stands to reason the USPS might not need as many of them.

The postal workers interviewed by Motherboard understood this, and in some cases even made the argument some DBCS machines might be of better use at other facilities. But they had other concerns about removing the machines altogether. If something goes wrong with the DBCSs they have left, there are fewer machines to pick up the slack.

“When you take out one of the machines, it takes away our ability to respond to unforeseen things that may happen,” said Karol, who added that although her facility in Waterloo will have other DBCSs, having fewer of them “limits our ability to respond” by making adjustments and moving mail around.

Paul McKenna, president of Milwaukee Area Local 3 of the American Postal Workers Union, said that some of the DBCSs staying will have about 50 more stackers added to them, meaning the machines can sort mail to a larger number of destinations. This will help alleviate the pressure during high mail volume periods like the Christmas rush—when there is simply more mail in general to all places—as well as provide advantages during lower-volume periods like the dead of summer. But it won’t necessarily help the unique challenge of election mail. In that case, the mail surge stays local.

Some letter carriers and distribution facility employees told Motherboard election mail is often sorted by hand to ensure it gets handled promptly and properly, but this seems to vary by location.

That being said, this would only be a problem for voters who waited until the last minute to send back their ballots. If mail-in ballots are sent and returned over a period of weeks instead of days, it is unlikely, the postal workers said, to stress the machines even if some are taken away.

“We would have the capacity to run the volume of ballots that are expected if we have it in a longer period of time,” said Paul McKenna, president of Milwaukee Area Local 3 of the American Postal Workers Union. He likened it to flattening the curve of coronavirus. Now, he said, Americans have to flatten a different curve.


https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/n7wk9z/the-post-office-is-deactivating-mail-sorting-machines-ahead-of-the-election?utm_content=1597338019&utm_medium=social&utm_source=VICE_facebook&fbclid=IwAR2Uq_r1hR9EyWVm8ObIClZKGtwdppXwY2WBzDjEtDENXt7f84q0-ZARenQ

Gregzs

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Re: In The News
« Reply #88 on: August 13, 2020, 11:30:45 AM »
U.S. Postal Service shakeup sparks election fears


Gregzs

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Re: In The News
« Reply #89 on: August 14, 2020, 04:47:53 PM »
Mailboxes Removed in NYC as President Trump's USPS War Rages On

A United States Postal Service truck in NYC hauled away mailboxes ... an ominous sign in the middle of a voter war over mail-in ballots ... a war waged by President Trump.

The USPS mailbox removal in NYC comes on the heels of a similar move in Portland and Eugene, OR this week ... which a Postal Service spokesperson passed off as necessary because of declining mail volume and duplicate boxes in the area.

Many Americans are growing more concerned, as the President has been a foe of mail-in voting and the USPS in general ... and recently made alarming comments about putting the brakes on funding.

Trump also met with U.S Postmaster General Louis DeJoy -- a longtime ally and supporter -- earlier in the month amid his increasing attacks on the USPS ... and shortly after DeJoy made the decision to eliminate overtime for postal workers.

Oh, and the Postal Service also recently removed some mail sorting machines

All of this has sparked big worries and outrage ... that the goal here is to make mail delivery slow and in some cases impossible, 'cause of delays. Of course, the operating theory is that mail-in ballots help Democrats and Trump will stop at nothing to blunt it.

It's pretty outrageous ... in the middle of an out-of-control pandemic where lots of people want to vote by mail because they fear for their safety and the safety of others, 45's focus is winning re-election.

UPDATE:
9:29 AM PT -- Barack Obama's weighed in on the Postal Service situation ... and took a major shot at Trump in the process.''

The former president says EVERYONE depends on the USPS, and they "can't be collateral damage for an administration more concerned with suppressing the vote than suppressing a virus."

https://www.tmz.com/2020/08/14/usps-mailboxes-removed-manhattan-president-trump-post-office-fight/?fbclid=IwAR1_K3_dWoIpVm-FZava_TdP0WKzFRxUIG4-iJfBWZECjkpO35UJGhGCOtI

Gregzs

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Re: In The News
« Reply #90 on: August 15, 2020, 05:18:46 PM »
The Post Office Is the New Battleground for Trump's War on Mail-In Voting


Gregzs

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Re: In The News
« Reply #91 on: August 19, 2020, 06:03:40 PM »
Trump campaign sues N.J. to stop Murphy’s vote-by-mail order, calling it ‘brazen power grab'

Accusing Gov. Phil Murphy of a “brazen power grab,” President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign has asked a federal judge to overturn the state’s plan to send ballots to all 6.2 million registered voters this fall.

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court by the Trump campaign, joined by the Republican National Committee and the New Jersey Republican State Committee. Among their lawyers is state Sen. Michael Testa, R-Cumberland, a frequent Murphy critic.

“In the state of New Jersey, where their universal vote-by-mail system has already resulted in fraud and disenfranchisement, Governor Murphy continues to remove safeguards against abuse,” Trump campaign counsel Matt Morgan said.

“With a stroke of his pen, the governor told his people their votes may not count – they may even be stolen – and that’s fine by him.”

Murphy has sought to expand mail voting due to the coronavirus pandemic, and New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal on Tuesday said the state will sue the U.S. Postal Service over concerns the Trump administration is purposely crippling the agency ahead of the surge in mail-in ballots.

The postmaster general on Tuesday backed off on making changes blamed for delaying mail delivery, but Grewal said the lawsuit would proceed and the House is to vote Saturday to rescind the adjustments to mail operations already made.

“Governor Murphy has consistently put people ahead of politics and protected the health and safety of New Jersey residents throughout the pandemic, and his decision to allow universal mail in voting in the November election is no different,” state Democratic chairman John Currie said. “President Trump’s lawsuit is another clear attack on our democracy and on our voting rights, just like his efforts to destroy the Post Office and delegitimize the electoral process.”

Trump and other Republicans, though, claimed that more absentee balloting would lead to more vote fraud.

“We said every option was on the table,” state Republican Chairman Doug Steinhardt said. “We picked one. Governor Murphy, we’ll see you in court, again.”

The Trump campaign also has sued Pennsylvania, Nevada and Iowa, which also have sought to expand vote by mail, according to Rick Hasen a professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine, and author of a blog on election law.

Trump last week said he opposed House Democratic efforts to provide $25 billion to the Postal Service and $3.6 billion to states to help them handle an expected surge of mail ballots. The funds are in the House-passed $3.4 trillion stimulus bill that the president has threatened to veto.

“They need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” Trump told the Fox Business Network last Thursday. “If they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting because they’re not equipped to have it.”

Studies have shown vote by mail has not prompted widespread fraud, as Republicans have claimed. A 2017 study by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University found that the rate of voter fraud for mail-in ballots was 0.00004% to 0.0009%.

And the Washington Post found possible double voting or voting on behalf of dead people in just 372 of 14.6 million ballots cast in Colorado, Oregon and Washington, which send ballots to all registered voters as New Jersey plans to do this fall.

Still, there were cases of voter fraud in Paterson’s municipal elections in May, where 800 ballots were thrown out and state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal brought charges against four individuals.

“In New Jersey’s primary election, dead people voted, a mail truck carrying ballots actually caught fire, countless voters saw their ballots rejected, and the Democrat attorney general is prosecuting multiple people for fraud, yet Democrats still want to implement a rushed transition to an all-mail election,” Republican National Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said.

Murphy acknowledged some problems with the July 7 primary, the first election conducted primarily by mail, but said that the system overall worked well and county clerks will have a lot more time to prepare for the general election.

Primary turnout was 26% of New Jersey’s registered voters, the same percentage as the presidential primary four years ago. Both recorded the highest percentage turnout since 2008, when 35% of New Jersey voters cast ballots.

“We think largely it was a very good result, particularly balancing the sacred right to vote at the center of democracy along with public health and respecting people’s health and the combination of vote-by-mail and in-person,” Murphy said Aug. 10 at his coronavirus press briefing.

He also contended that the fact that the Paterson voter fraud was easily found showed that systems are in place to prevent ballots from being cast illegally.

“I view that data point in Paterson as a positive one,” Murphy said during his coronavirus press briefing Monday. “People tried to mess with the system and they got caught and they’ve been indicted, and that’s the way it should be.”

Trump and other Republicans have cited fear of fraud in fighting efforts across the country by states to send out ballots to all registered voters or count votes postmarked by Election Day but received later.

They’ve been able to be so active because this is the first presidential election in almost four decades where the Republican National Committee’s voter activities are not encumbered by court-ordered restrictions stemming from the 1981 New Jersey gubernatorial election.

Those activities had been limited by a court decree after the state GOP was accused of targeting heavily minority communities that tend to support Democratic candidates.

https://www.nj.com/politics/2020/08/trump-campaign-sues-nj-to-stop-murphys-vote-by-mail-order-calling-it-brazen-power-grab.html?utm_content=nj_facebook_njcom&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=njcom_sf&fbclid=IwAR0q1M_47BqPWYsA7__vxgQogLsFk0os_8u7lFVXfgYOqGLkj4YOyuWjyww

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Re: In The News
« Reply #92 on: August 21, 2020, 09:22:32 PM »
Stealthy Thieves Stole $9,400 From Japan’s Ninja Museum

A popular ninja museum in Japan was caught off guard when stealthy thieves broke into its office and ran away with $9,400.

The staff at the Iga-ryu Ninja Museum, a tourist attraction in central Japan, called the police as the alarm set off at 1:15 am on Monday, August 19.

But it was too late as the thieves left with a safe containing one million yen (about $ 9,400) collected from admission fees over a busy weekend when the museum got over a thousand visitors.

It took the thieves only three minutes to lift a safe believed to have weighed 150 kilograms (330 lbs) out of a one-story wooden office, according to local media.

Police said that the museum’s office was pried open, possibly with a crowbar.

"We are very disappointed as we have just been slowly recovering from the coronavirus effects on our museum," a museum staff told Japanese state broadcaster NHK.

Located in the city of Iga, the museum is famous for featuring a traditional ninja house and offering an interactive experience to visitors like throwing _shuriken_—a ninja’s iconic star-shaped weapon.

According to Kyodo news agency, Iga is home to two of the most renowned ninja clans. The ninjas were black-clad warriors of feudal Japan who are known for their stealthy moves and surprise attacks on enemy forces.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pkywvy/stealthy-thieves-stole-dollar9400-from-japans-ninja-museum?utm_content=1598067001&utm_medium=social&utm_source=VICE_facebook&fbclid=IwAR2Dfhi4dfTl8hOT76Db54N19SGtR4E2G56qHEenE4Yd7dAd6qVvilt-cq8

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Re: In The News
« Reply #93 on: August 24, 2020, 10:15:19 AM »
Tacoma Post Office Reconnects Mailing Machines In Defiance Of DeJoy’s Order

Some mail-processing plants in Washington state are reconnecting their high-speed letter-sorting machines again, despite a national order from U.S. Postal Service headquarters not to reinstall the machines that had been dismantled over the past month.

In defiance of the order, the Postal Service plants in Tacoma and Wenatchee have done just that, local NPR station KUOW reported, citing USPS employees.

As noted by the station, “forty percent of the letter-sorting machines in the Seattle-Tacoma area had been disconnected by Tuesday, when the Postal Service announced a halt to a nationwide machinery purge until after the November election.”

“I have seen a lot of machinery that has been taken out,” Postal Service truck driver Bob Bockman of Tacoma said.

The Tacoma plant lost eight of its 18 machines that sort and postmark the mail, according to workers there. The equipment was disconnected and pushed into a corner.

“Some of that machinery is going back in!” Bockman said.

By Wednesday night, five of the machines in Tacoma had been reconnected. Parts of two others had been scavenged and incorporated into the plant’s existing machines to boost their mail-sorting capacity.

The mail-processing plant in Wenatchee has also reconnected its one recently disconnected letter sorter, workers told the station.

A regional manager on Tuesday had ordered the Tacoma and Wenatchee plants to get their machines ready to run again as soon as possible, using overtime if necessary, according to the report.

The news comes less than a day after Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told Michigan Democratic Sen. Gary Peters during a Senate hearing that he had no intention of reinstalling the dismantled machines.

“They are not needed, sir,” DeJoy said.

DeJoy acknowledged that mail deliveries have slowed, but he attributed most of the slowdown to the Covid-19 pandemic.

https://dailyboulder.com/tacoma-post-office-reconnects-mailing-machines-in-defiance-of-dejoys-order/?fbclid=IwAR2XfOOZHKCbfFrxPJaUVL_RsKi4NFqPnEIYS9IZQF7-xMH1TUQgH1lSVCg

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Re: In The News
« Reply #94 on: August 25, 2020, 10:20:14 AM »
How to Actually Get Your Vote Counted in This Hellscape of an Election



On November 3, Americans will vote in the 2020 general election to choose a president and, to a significant degree, determine the political course of the country. But this year, as is becoming rapidly clear as Election Day approaches, the process of voting itself will look vastly different than it has in the past.

Due to the pandemic, in-person voting (like taking part in any public activity, especially indoors) may carry risk for vulnerable populations, and/or in places where COVID-19 transmission is high. As a result, many states are allowing voters to cast their ballots by mail. Regardless of where you live, you can request an absentee ballot and return it by mail in order to avoid physically going to the polls. (A heads' up, though: A few states require you to have a reason other than the pandemic to request a mail-in ballot.) You can also track the status of your vote online to ensure it’s been received and accounted for.

Still, you might have some other voting concerns outside of COVID-19: The president has admitted he’s withholding funding to the United States Postal Service to prevent mail-in ballots from being counted; the closure of polling places, creating long lines at the polls; the fact that Black and Latino voters disproportionately and frequently experience voter suppression.

While there’s no one foolproof way to vote this year, having more than one option may quell some fears, or at least help you pick the best option for you. Vote by mail, and you avoid contracting or spreading COVID-19. Fill out your mail-in ballot at home and drop it off at your local elections office or other vote drop boxes, and you avoid any USPS delays. Vote in-person and avoid filling out the paperwork for a mail-in ballot, and ensure your vote is counted then and there. While both in-person and vote-by-mail options are valid, they each come with rules and potential restrictions to consider as you make a voting plan.

Although each state has its own protocols for voting, here are some general answers to a bunch of common questions about making sure your ballot is safely and effectively cast and counted, including resources for figuring out which voting method might be best for you.

How do I check if I'm registered to vote—or even register for the first time?

If you’re at least 18 years old and a citizen of the United States, you’re eligible to vote. (The exceptions are if you’re a permanent legal resident, have certain mental disabilities, and if you’re an incarcerated felon in states like Colorado, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.) On hand, you’ll need to know your address as it’s printed on your ID and a form of identification (this includes a driver's license, passport, current bank statement, or current utility bill).

Can I register to vote online, or through the mail?

Most states and Washington D.C. offer online voter registration, where you fill out a form online with your information (name, birthdate, address) and your state-issued driver’s license or identification card number.

For those states that require your voter registration form to be delivered by mail or dropped off to the county registrar, like Arkansas, Maine, and South Dakota, you can find the form here. You’ll need to print it out, fill it out by hand, and complete the boxes for your name, address, birthdate, ID number, choice of party, race or ethnic group, and signature. Then, mail the application to your state’s board of elections, which you can find the location of here.

What is the deadline for registering to vote?

Based on where you live, you’ll need to register as early as October 5, like Indiana. Other states, like California, allow for day-of-election registration and voting, where you’ll need a form of identification, a social security number, or proof of residency. Find out what the voter registration deadline is where you live here.

How to Vote in Person on Election Day

If you’ve voted in an election in person before, heading to the polls is probably the method of voting with which you’re most familiar and comfortable, or the simplest-feeling option available to you, since it takes the least amount of paperwork. If you’re in a high-risk category or community transmission of COVID-19 is high in your area, if you have a disability, or if you fear voter suppression at the polls, voting in person may not feel like the safest or surest option—in that case, skip to the next section, where there's plenty of information about your other choices.   

Where is my polling place?

If you decide to vote in person on the day of the election, first confirm the location of your polling place and check public transit schedules or shore up your ride to make sure you’ve got plenty of time to get there and that there are no interruptions to your route.

What time of day can I vote, and how long should I plan to wait in line?

The polls are open between as early as 6 a.m. and as late as 9 p.m. depending on where you live. (Find your polling place and their hours of operation here.) Some states have reduced the number of polling places, like Maryland, which has cut the number of polling places by nearly 80 percent to 282 voting centers where residents of any county can vote. This may create long lines, so make sure you’ve carved out enough time in your day—during the primaries, some voters reported waiting as long as six hours to cast their ballot—in case you run into any potential delays.

While there’s no federal law that mandates employers give workers time off to vote, thirty states have laws requiring employers to offer time off on Election Day. In Tennessee, for instance, an employee can take three paid hours off of work to go vote.

Remember, if you’re in line to vote by closing time, you are allowed to vote. Studies have shown long wait times at the polls to deter voters—and previous elections have resulted in accounts of poll workers turning away voters after polls closed. Hang tight, stay in line, and call 866-OUR-VOTE, an election protection hotline, if anyone gives you trouble about it.

How do I protect myself from COVID-19 if I vote in person?

Wear a mask, wash and/or sanitize your hands before and after voting, and practice social distancing as you wait to vote and inside your polling place. As Michelle Obama advised in her DNC speech, “We have got to grab our comfortable shoes, put on our masks.... [and] be willing to stand in line." So, anticipate the possibility of more waiting time than usual and be prepared accordingly.

Aside from safety precautions and the potential reduction of polling locations and volunteers, in-person voting will largely look the same, only with more sanitizing and plexiglass: Just show up, check in, step into a socially distanced booth, and cast your vote.

What ID am I going to need to bring with me in order to vote in person?

Some states, like New Hampshire, Washington, and Mississippi, require you to provide identification in order to vote, so make sure you’ve got a form of ID on hand. If you have a photo ID, such as a driver’s license, state-issued identification card, military ID, tribal ID, or a passport, you should be good. A recent utility bill or bank statement showing your address is also valid in states like Colorado and Hawaii.

What are some issues people have faced in the past when it comes to in-person voting, and how do I report them if I encounter them?

When a voter encounters increased scrutiny or questioning from a poll worker, it may amount to voter suppression, which disproportionately affects communities of color. Your rights as a voter include asking for a paper ballot if the machines are down at your polling place, asking for a new ballot if you make a mistake, having access to a voting machine for people with disabilities, and receiving in-person assistance if you have a disability or have difficulty reading or writing in English.

Additionally, if a poll worker says your name is not on the list of registered voters, you should ask for a provisional ballot for you to complete while election officials investigate the issue. Your vote will be counted when the issue is resolved.

If anyone is questioning your citizenship, criminal record, your race, or spreading disinformation (like needing to speak English in order to vote): That’s voter suppression and you should report the incident to 866-OUR-VOTE or 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA (for Spanish-speaking voters).

How to Vote Early in Person or by Drop-Off

In order to avoid potential crowds, lines, or technological glitches with voting machines, you can opt to either vote early or by mail. In many states, you’ll need to request a mail-in ballot by completing an application. Since every state has different protocols for early voting and voting by mail, it’s extremely important that you confirm the regulations for where you, specifically, live—here's help with how to find that information.

How do I know if I can vote early in person?

Many states allow for early voting, which allows registered voters to cast their ballot in person at the office of the election supervisor, county clerk, or other municipal building before November 3. Dates, hours, and locations vary by state and county, so you’ll need to check with your local election officials to get the details.

Where and how can I drop off a ballot early?

In states like Delaware and Pennsylvania, which do not offer early in-person voting, you can physically drop off your absentee ballot in person at your local county election office by November 3. Check with your local election office website in a few weeks to see where those drop boxes are located (since it’s likely they haven’t been announced yet).

How do I get a drop-off ballot, and will I need to do or provide anything special to do that?

The ballot you’d drop off in secure drop boxes is the absentee ballot you might have to apply for that is delivered to you by mail, which may be an option for you depending on where you live.

How to Vote by Mail With an Absentee Ballot

The safest way to avoid crowds and minimize your exposure to or participation in the spread of  COVID-19 is to vote by mail. You may have seen the terms “absentee ballot” and “mail-in ballot”—and they both essentially mean the same thing: You receive your ballot in the mail and send it back through the mail, too (unless you choose to drop your absentee ballot off, as described just above).

Will I have to apply for an absentee ballot before I get one?

Every state offers some form of voting by mail. A handful (Indiana, Tennessee, South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas) require a valid excuse to request an absentee ballot, like being over the age of 65, sick, or traveling on Election Day. States verify the information on an absentee ballot request by cross-checking the information on the application with the statewide voter registration database, by comparing the signature on the application with the voter registration signature, or applicants must submit a copy of their ID (in states like Alabama and South Dakota).

A few of these states which do not list the pandemic as an excuse to request an absentee ballot, like Indiana, have legal cases in the works in order to eliminate these excuses so everyone can request an absentee ballot—it remains to be seen whether these will be resolved by Election Day.

So far, Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York and West Virginia have announced that pandemic-related excuses are valid for requesting an absentee ballot.

If I don't need a special reason to apply for an absentee ballot, how do I request one?

In the states where you don’t need a verifiable reason to vote by mail—or where the pandemic is enough of an excuse, like those mentioned above—you must request your mail-in ballot by filling out a form online or physically filling it out and returning it by mail. Just be aware of the deadline for when election officials need to receive your application. (It’s usually some time in late October through Election Day, but again, this depends on what state you live in.) The best course of action is to request your ballot as early as you can—starting right now.

Other states, such as Nevada, California, and New Jersey, are automatically mailing ballots to registered voters, so you don’t need to fill out an application for one. Elsewhere still, like Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, voters will automatically be mailed applications for absentee ballots—it’s up to the voter to complete and return them. Again, do this as soon as possible to avoid any delays in getting your mail-in ballot.

What do I do once I have my absentee ballot?

Following the instructions included, fill out your ballot completely, sign where noted, and package it in the return envelope. States like Alabama and North Carolina require witnesses or a notary to sign your ballot, so make sure the witness or notary signs in the appropriate spot on your ballot. Double-check to see if your envelope has pre-paid return postage or if you’ll need to supply your own postage.

Look into signature-matching—the people counting your votes may cross-reference the one you sign on your ballot with others on file with the government, like the signature on your driver's license or previous ballots. If you have questions about making sure yours lines up, call your election officials.

Is my mail-in vote going to be affected by the political attacks against the USPS?

While the general sentiment surrounding the United States Postal Service has been largely anticipatory panic at the likelihood for the agency to deliver and return ballots in time for the election, don’t lose trust in the Postal Service’s ability to safely get your vote to the right place—it's dealt with higher volumes of mail traffic than this before.

OK, but still: When should I vote to make sure my ballot arrives in time to be counted?

Place your ballot in your residential mailbox or a USPS collection box as soon as possible to ensure it reaches the election office on time. (Mail it at least a week before Election Day to account for any potential delays, according to the USPS.)

Depending on the state, your ballot must be received by the election office by November 3 (Arizona, Arkansas, Michigan, New Hampshire, and others), be postmarked on or before November 3 and arrive at the election office sometime thereafter, even as late as November 13 in some states (Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Nevada, and more). Other states are accepting mail-in ballots even later, like California: Those absentee ballots must be postmarked by November 3, but they don’t have to be received until November 20.

What do I do if I accidentally wait too long to mail my ballot?

You could physically drop off your ballot at an in-person delivery site, like the local clerk’s office, your local polling center on Election Day, and other locations where drop-off boxes are provided. Check with your county elections office to find out where they are. Just make sure you’ve dropped it off on or before November 3.

How can I make sure my mail-in vote was counted?

You can track your ballot online via your respective state’s website to see when it was mailed, received and counted. California, for instance, allows voters to sign up to receive emails, texts, or voice call notifications about the status of their ballot. In Pennsylvania, you can fill out an online form to see where your ballot is. If you don’t feel confident your mail-in ballot got to its appropriate destination by Election Day, you can always show up to your polling place and fill out a provisional ballot. If your mail-in ballot was indeed counted, the provisional ballot will be tossed. If not, the provisional ballot will be your vote.

OK, that was a lot. But a lot’s at stake here! Do your research, be sure you're registered, and if you're voting by mail, fill out the appropriate forms and get your ballots in the mail ASAP.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/4ayp9p/how-to-get-your-vote-counted-2020-general-election?utm_content=1598373006&utm_medium=social&utm_source=VICE_facebook&fbclid=IwAR2SfpfeKfciHKL7gAccpi0hmHxXvb1eUT-nfL4aEYsl2jAOR7FGNyCMJd0

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Re: In The News
« Reply #95 on: August 26, 2020, 03:46:47 PM »
Germany Starts Universal Basic Income Trial Giving Some Citizens $1400 A Month For 3 Years

What Happened: Germany is starting a universal basic income trial where volunteers will get a $1400 dollar payment every single month as part of a study that will compare the experiences of 120 volunteers who receive it to 1,380 people who won’t. A total of 140,000 people have come together to help fund the study after the idea of a universal basic income continues to gain popularity. Germany is not the only country who has begun such initiatives, Finland also did something similar a few years ago, and proponents of the initiative believe it would improve peoples’ lives and reduce inequality, among other things. Opposition arguments to this type of initiative suggest that it would simply be unaffordable, too expensive and also discourage work.

Jürgen Schupp, who is leading the study, told the German newspaper Der Spiegel that it would improve the debate about universal basic income by producing new scientific evidence.

“The debate about the basic income has so far been like a philosophical salon in good moments and a war of faith in bad times,” he told the newspaper.

Universal basic income is not really supported by any of the major political parties across the globe, especially in Germany.

Why This Is Important: A quote often attributed to Henry Ford reads as follows, “It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” Isn’t it odd that the financial elite can simply print money at will? How come when we do it it’s called counterfitting, but when they do it it’s called increasing the money supply? These people can literally create money out of thin air, and the more I understand the concept of fractional reserve banking, the more I realize that money is simply a tool to in-slave and control the human race while benefiting a select few. This becomes easier to see when you follow the money.

Do we not have the potential to create something better on our planet? Is money really needed, or could we all come together, cooperate and find a better way? If we are going to use this creation of ours, could it not be used in a better and more efficient way?


IN BRIEF
The Facts:A small trial in Germany is set to take place giving participants $1400 a month for three years. They will compare the lives of those who receive it, and the participants who don't.
Reflect On:Why is the concept of universal basic income rejected by the major political parties in most developed nations? Why do we have a private company like the Federal Reserve printing/creating money at will? Is centralized banking the best way?
What Happened: Germany is starting a universal basic income trial where volunteers will get a $1400 dollar payment every single month as part of a study that will compare the experiences of 120 volunteers who receive it to 1,380 people who won’t. A total of 140,000 people have come together to help fund the study after the idea of a universal basic income continues to gain popularity. Germany is not the only country who has begun such initiatives, Finland also did something similar a few years ago, and proponents of the initiative believe it would improve peoples’ lives and reduce inequality, among other things. Opposition arguments to this type of initiative suggest that it would simply be unaffordable, too expensive and also discourage work.

From the Web

Jürgen Schupp, who is leading the study, told the German newspaper Der Spiegel that it would improve the debate about universal basic income by producing new scientific evidence.

--> Help Support Collective Evolution: Become a member of CETV and get access to exclusive news and courses to help empower you to become an effective changemaker. Click here to join.

“The debate about the basic income has so far been like a philosophical salon in good moments and a war of faith in bad times,” he told the newspaper.

Universal basic income is not really supported by any of the major political parties across the globe, especially in Germany.

Why This Is Important: A quote often attributed to Henry Ford reads as follows, “It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” Isn’t it odd that the financial elite can simply print money at will? How come when we do it it’s called counterfitting, but when they do it it’s called increasing the money supply? These people can literally create money out of thin air, and the more I understand the concept of fractional reserve banking, the more I realize that money is simply a tool to in-slave and control the human race while benefiting a select few. This becomes easier to see when you follow the money.

Do we not have the potential to create something better on our planet? Is money really needed, or could we all come together, cooperate and find a better way? If we are going to use this creation of ours, could it not be used in a better and more efficient way?

“As I followed the money I’ve learned that everything I once believed about money is simply not true.” – Foster Gamble

If you want to learn more about the system, you can refer to this article that goes into more detail: The Real Purpose of the Federal Reserve Banking System.

I believe these questions are important, as many of us have been made to believe that our financial system is for the greater good, and that it’s efficient and the only possible way to operate here on our planet. When it comes to the world of finance, our minds are stuck inside of a box.


When it comes to universal basic income, is it really too expensive? For those who believe it is not feasible, did you know that Mark Skidmore, a Michigan State University economist teamed up with multiple researchers, including Catherine Austin Fitts, former assistant secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and  found trillions of unaccounted for dollars missing from housing & D.O.D?  Did you know that trillions of dollars are going into “black budget” programs that the president, for example, has no idea about? Did you know that there is no branch or agency of government that can overrule actions that the Federal Reserve takes? It’s simple, if you control the money supply, if you are the printer and the maker of money, you control the population and can create the experience you want humans to live inside.

The researchers found documents indicating a total of $20 trillion of undocumented adjustments had been made, from 1998 to 2015. The original government documents and a report describing the issue can be found here where updates are continually provided.

Imagine if this $21 trillion was allocated to a universal income package? Big financial institutions seem to have no issue with constantly printing money when they need it, but when it comes to concepts of universal income, there are always excuses. Ask yourself, is it really too expensive when this type of misallocation of money is happening?

The problem doesn’t really seem that we don’t have enough money, the issue is that the monetary system is used for control and money is allocated, both legally and illegally, to projects that don’t have the best interests of humanity at hand. The system would work better of the world of finance was not dominated by global elitist agendas seeking control and power. Perhaps it would work better if these people were actually making decisions based on what’s best for humanity.

It’s a complicated topic, a deep one that I would have to go in depth into the fraud, corruption and intentions behind our modern day banking system.

I believe humanity is more than capable of creating a human experience that doesn’t require money. We are extremely advanced, and we already have the means to create an experience where everybody’s basic needs can be met without the requirement for work. This can come as a result of various technological advancements, cooperation not competition, and more.

This is why shifting human consciousness is so paramount.

I believe that solutions exist, yet any type of solution that threatens to uproot our economy and how it currently operates never sees the light of day, and some of these developments are kept from public eye due to ‘national security’ concerns. Today, national security has become an umbrella term to classify technology and information that threatens corporate interests. This is why Julian Assange is in jail.

For example, most countries have an Invention Secrecy Act. Are certain technologies that threaten our current economic system that’s based on the idea that resources are scarce, a threat to scarcity? Is technology that could provide abundance to all hidden from the public simply because they threaten those with large amounts of power? What type of technology is under restriction under the Invention Secrecy Act? We don’t really know, but a previous list from 1971 was obtained by researcher Michael Ravnitzky. Most of the technology listed seems to be related to various military applications. You can view that list HERE.

As Steven Aftergood from the Federation of American Scientists reports:

“The 1971 list indicates that patents for solar photovoltaic generators were subject to review and possible restriction if the photovoltaics were more than 20% efficient. Energy conversion systems were likewise subject to review and possible restriction if they offered conversion efficiencies in “excess of 70-80%.” (source)

You can read more about the Invention Secrecy Act here.

There have been even more efficient developments.

There is significant evidence that scientists since Tesla have known about this energy, but that its existence and potential use has been discouraged and indeed suppressed over the past half century or more.  – Dr. Theodor C. Loder, III (source)

What if I told you all of our homes could be powered by nature, without the need to be reliant on the corporation, without the need for gas, coal, oil, fossil fuels etc…These are a few of many examples that would be included in a world that would operate without the need to pay for your life, or services that should be everybody’s birth right.

“Much to my surprise, these concepts have been proven in hundreds of laboratories throughout world and yet they have not really seen the light of day.” – Former NASA astronaut and Princeton physics professor. (source)

There are many examples of this, Paramahamsa Tewari, a physicist and inventor, who won early commendation by Nobel Laureates in physics for his revolutionary Space Vortex Theory, published a paper in Physics Essays (2018) explaining his theory, from which he built an electrical generator capable of achieving over-unity efficiency. You can watch a video of him and his machine here.  Why isn’t humanity exploring these concepts that could lift our dependence on big energy corporations and eliminate scarcity of resources, openly, freely and transparently?

Again, energy generation is one of many examples, there are many solutions to all of our issues from food, to environmental degradation and more.

It seems that when it comes to solutions that can help ‘free’ the human race, even just a little bit with the idea of universal basic income, it is sharply opposed by all major political parties, just like it is in Germany.

Any type of bartering system, or monetary system that is controlled by the citizenry, like Bitcoin for example, also always faces harsh opposition, or an attempt to gain control over it ensues. There are people out there who desire power and control above anything else, and the money supply represents the center of that control.

The truth is, a thriving society will be one that’s devoid of any reliance on governments/federal regulatory agencies. Our various systems are put in place and structured in a way to make it easy for us to be controlled, and for the “1 percent” to thrive. Right now, we are their worker bees and we choose to uphold the system and are taught, through education, to justify it and see it as necessary without ever using our imagination to ponder how it could be different.

We have so much potential, and we can do much better than we are currently doing.

The Takeaway
I often think about how absurd it is to live on a planet where you can die if you are unable to pay for your life. Having worked in this field for a number of years now, and as stated above, solutions exist to change our world and kick our dependence on corrupt governments and organizations. We could be in the stars by now. Life doesn’t have to be this way, if we continue operating from our current level of consciousness our planet will continue to be destroyed. There are better ways to do things here, and providing all citizens with a basic income, whether they are currently earning or not, is a fantastic place to start as it is clearly possible given all of the money that’s spend on measures that don’t really make sense.

https://www.collective-evolution.com/2020/08/26/germany-starts-universal-basic-income-trial-giving-some-citizens-1400-a-month-for-3-years/?fbclid=IwAR1HcfQsVLuZG0hRdaX_k1pIPvw04gnH1rqAFbJLBTz66fhbtGFJqInochI

Gregzs

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Re: In The News
« Reply #96 on: August 26, 2020, 09:29:22 PM »
Why Louis DeJoy's One Big Change to the USPS Backfired

DeJoy testified that his only big change at the post office was to order mail trucks to run on time. But that was never the problem to begin with.

On Monday, embattled Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testified before a House subcommittee about the changes he's made at the USPS, the post office's ability to handle the election, and his qualifications for the job. During the hearing's approximately six hours of back-and-forth, we learned very little. But, about halfway through the hearing, there was a brief moment that shed light on how the post office has gone horribly wrong under DeJoy's tenure.

About three and a half hours into Monday's hearing, Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) had an extended and pointless monologue interrupted by committee chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) because his time had expired. Per custom, Maloney let DeJoy "answer the question," even though there technically wasn't one. This allowed DeJoy to do something he had, thus far, not been allowed to do: explain himself.

His explanation only lasted about 90 seconds, but it was the clearest picture yet about the story DeJoy is telling himself regarding what he has done to the post office and why, something that has been surprisingly difficult to pin down over recent weeks, as speculation has swirled about whether he's a Trump stooge out to sabotage the post office ahead of the election, a small government Republican hastening the privatization of the post office, or a brilliant logistics expert shaking things up.

DeJoy's story is a simple one, and it even sounds sensible on the surface, intended to address very real problems in the way the USPS functions. But it's also easy to see how it screwed up the post office so badly. And at the heart of the problem is a conflict over what is more important: keeping costs down or delivering the mail on time.

During DeJoy's second day on the job, the USPS Office of Inspector General published a damning report about how mail is processed. It found, among many other things, the USPS was late processing almost one in five mailpieces at distribution facilities.

When mail isn't processed in time to make the last scheduled truck trips from the distribution facilities to your local post office, USPS managers have two options. They can dispatch another truck which costs the USPS more money. Or they can hold the mail for the next day, which slows delivery and risks creating a backlog that can snowball into even more delays.

Before DeJoy, managers typically opted to dispatch extra trucks, because, as the OIG report put it, "Generally, management prioritized high-quality service above the financial health of the Postal Service and are making decisions daily to meet service performance goals that are significantly increasing costs."

But late trips beget more late trips, and overtime begets more overtime. If the workers processing mail are late finishing up, then the trucks run late, which causes the mail carriers to leave late on their routes, and thus work late finishing deliveries. Perhaps the mail arrives unsorted by address to your local post office because they didn't have time to do so at the distribution facility, meaning delivering the mail will take even longer because it has to be sorted at the local post office or even on the road. And all that overtime adds up. The OIG found USPS "spent $1.1 billion in mail processing overtime and penalty overtime, $280 million in late and extra transportation, and $2.9 billion in delivery overtime and penalty overtime costs" just in the latest fiscal year.

So in came DeJoy, a man who has worked decades in the logistics and trucking business. He saw late trucks, and, according to the story he told the House committee, he ordered no more late trucks.

"People ask why do trucks matter, why do on-time trucks matter? They do matter," he said during his 90-second monologue. "It is a fundamental premise how the whole mail network is put together. If the trucks don't run on time then the mail carriers cannot leave on time, they are out at night, have to come back to get more mail, the collection process is late, the plant process is distorted. I see several billion dollars in potential savings in getting the system to connect properly and that's why we ran out and put a plan together to really get this fundamental basic principle: run your trucks on time."

According to the USPS, trucks are now running on time thanks to DeJoy's policy, at least more so than they used to. DeJoy said USPS has seen a 70 percent reduction in extra or late trip costs over the last four weeks, eliminating some 4,500 such trips per day. Indeed, the very concept of doing otherwise seemed anathema to him. "I find it really—I would not know how to reverse that now. Am I to say, 'Don't run the trucks on time?' Is that the answer that we're looking to get me to say here today?"

The problem, according to employees working in the processing and distribution facilities, as well as a closer reading of the OIG report, is that the late and extra truck trips were a symptom of the problem, not the cause. Remember, the trucks were being held—or called to make extra trips entirely—because the mail wasn't ready. Now, the mail still isn't ready, but the trucks are leaving anyway.

"The truck leaving on time is a good thing if the mail is in it," one employee at a distribution facility told Motherboard. "But this is not the case." Under DeJoy, the USPS has accomplished its goal of spending less money—by delivering less mail.

So what is causing the late mail sorting in the distribution facilities? There are two main problems. First, processing facilities are understaffed, according to both postal management interviewed by the OIG and unionized employees interviewed by Motherboard. Short staffing, high turnover rates, and employees taking time off for legitimate reasons—and slightly less legitimate reasons such as to attend a football game, as mentioned in the OIG report—results in facilities not having enough workers to run the machines and load the trucks. And these site visits were before the pandemic which has made the problem even worse.

One reason the USPS doesn't have enough workers is because of the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA), a bipartisan effort which saddled the USPS with tens of billions of dollars in unnecessary debt in the form of future retiree benefits that had to be funded immediately, torpedoing its finances and forcing it to undertake austerity measures such as slashing its workforce through attrition. From 2008 to 2018, the USPS reduced the number of employees by 11 percent while also increasing the number of "non-career" employees (ones with few benefits, low pay, and an annual turnover rate of one in three) by 54 percent, according to a separate OIG report. Now, overtime is a key part of the USPS's operational model, because hiring these non-career employees and relying on them to pick up the slack to move the mail is cheaper than hiring more "career" employees with better pay and solid benefits.

The second issue at the distribution facilities is what the OIG called "management oversight issues" due in part to short-staffing, lack of adequate management training, and turnover. As a result, management simply doesn't sound like they're doing a very good job. The OIG report says they don't communicate with workers, use available software to make sure mail was not being processed either too early or too late, or take an active role in monitoring conditions on the floor.

Frankly, it is astounding that out of all the lessons in this report, the one DeJoy chose to hone in on was the truck trips. It is possible he did so because his expertise is in trucking and logistics, so that's what his brain gravitated towards. It is also possible this is what he noticed because they are the main statistics presented in the "Highlights" section, while most of the other findings are buried in the report itself.

But the most telling element of DeJoy's plan is that, despite his fondness for citing this report as the impetus for his disruptive changes, he did not follow the report's recommendations. There are two different "Recommendations" sections, and neither of them suggests a sudden mandate to run all truck trips on time. Instead, the report recommends a slate of extremely mundane bureaucratic tweaks to get the distribution facilities to run better, such as putting signs on or near the machines that clearly lay out mail processing schedules and truck departure times.

Moreover, the report specifically advised USPS to wait to develop a plan until "the impacts of COVID-19 begin to subside." DeJoy did not do this. His now infamous "Pivoting For Our Future" memo, which outlined the elimination of late or extra trips, was issued on July 10, right in the middle of the nationwide spike in cases that began in mid-June and peaked around July 20.

All this is to say, even stipulating DeJoy's intentions are as innocent and civic-minded as he claims they are, the one major decision he has made in his time as postmaster general does not accord with the advice he says he's following. Even his claim that he identified billions of dollars in savings by running the trucks on time isn't in line with the OIG report he says is his evidence for it. The report says potential savings would be just $385.6 million, because so much of the overtime identified in the report is unavoidable without hiring more employees.

DeJoy says he is trying to fix an unsustainable postal service, one that could not continue to operate the way it did. No doubt, there are numerous problems within the postal service worth addressing, and he correctly identified an important oversight report that has a lot of helpful suggestions in it. But DeJoy's actions raise a lot of questions, including whether he actually read the entire report.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bv8axw/why-louis-dejoys-one-big-change-to-the-usps-backfired?utm_content=1598475608&utm_medium=social&utm_source=VICE_facebook&fbclid=IwAR0s6fqH7zrCEWS_Z0dk95Dcx4lf1Y1my1A4wLMuirzfN7_TfX-vnefK25U


Gregzs

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Re: In The News
« Reply #97 on: August 29, 2020, 11:43:30 AM »
Chadwick Boseman Visited Terminally Ill Kids While Battling Colon Cancer


Chadwick Boseman was doing more than just putting on a brave face during his 4-year battle with cancer -- the guy was actively visiting and inspiring kids while privately suffering with the same disease.

St. Jude's Children's Hospital paid tribute to the fallen star, reminding folks he popped into their facility in 2018 to meet with patients ... bringing gifts and words of inspiration for the kids.

They write, "We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of our friend Chadwick Boseman. Two years ago, Chadwick visited the St. Jude campus and brought with him not only toys for our patients but also joy, courage and inspiration." The organization sang his praises, adding ... "He was an incredible role model for our patients and children from all around the world. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time."

At the time, St. Jude's posted more photos from the face-to-face ... and it's clear the guy made the rounds and met with a bunch of kids who couldn't have looked more overjoyed to meet a Marvel superhero. The fact he was right in the thick of his own cancer battle just makes this gesture all the more heartbreaking, especially considering he didn't utter a word about his battle.


Chadwick discussed meeting some of these kids and how much of an impact it had on him -- he even broke down during the Sirius XM interview while talking about two terminally ill children who passed before the next Marvel movie could come out. Dude was a true saint.

As we reported ... Chadwick succumbed to his illness and died Friday, shocking the entertainment world -- scratch that, shocking the entire world. He was just 43 years old.

RIP

https://www.tmz.com/2020/08/29/chadwick-boseman-visited-terminally-ill-kids-colon-cancer-st-jude/?fbclid=IwAR2UIsd65RXuWjARsL6p48tFV5lp16ZTi_b1xgWHFPb9MpLAZRb_Xw0pDHU

Gregzs

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Re: In The News
« Reply #98 on: September 24, 2020, 08:16:51 PM »
What it means to “pack” the Supreme Court


Gregzs

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Re: In The News
« Reply #99 on: October 22, 2020, 04:34:46 PM »
Why American public transit is so bad | 2020 Election