More ways to support The Postman. (1) sign this other online petition. (2) Text USPS to 50409 and Resist Bot will send letters to your elected officials on your behalf pressing them to support the Postal Service. (3) Do consider that notion of snacks taken to your own, local P.O. or standing outside with a placard of thanks. (4) Contribute your own suggestions down in comments! (5) Buy multiple copies of a certain novel and pass them out like candy...?
and MEMES FOR OUR POLITICAL KNIFE-FIGHT
By David Brin
Chapter 1 Introduction – The Need for Judo Polemic
Pause #1 for… One-Liners, Zingers, Wagers and Quick-memes - in case you haven’t time to read the book
Chapter 2 Below the surface -- themes and beliefs we share
Pause #2 for… Political tactics & reforms I won’t be talking about
Chapter 3 Profiles In Judo - Invoke The Greatest Generation, Adam Smith, Jonas Salk, Lincoln and… AOC
Pause #3 or… An allegory About Courage and Enlightenment
LIFE OR DEATH FOR THE GREAT EXPERIMENT
Chapter 4 End the Cheating First
Pause #4 for… A Bizarre But Impudently Effective Tactic
Chapter 5 The War on All Fact People
Pause #5 for… The Big Lie that History Obeys “Patterns” Part 1: The Tytler Calumny
Chapter 6 Credibility? How Often the Right Has Just Been Wrong
Pause #6 for… They Said It Better Than I Can: at Gettysburg and other ‘battlefields’
Chapter 7 Oh, the Conspiracies!
Pause #7 for… Bad history-patterns Part 2: Marx, Spengler and a “Fourth Turning”
Chapter 8 Poison and Antidote - Blackmailers, Henchmen and Whistleblowers
Pause #8 for… An Open Letter To Some New President Of A Developing Nation
Chapter 9 America’s place in the world. Part 1: Pax Americana and the Rise of China
Pause #9 for… A Daydream: What Could Happen If Adults Ever Regain Power.
ISSUES THAT MATTER TO FACTIONS
Chapter 10 Government is the problem?
Pause #10 for… Emergency Readiness and Resilience
Chapter 11 Economics – No, you don’t get Adam Smith… and Other Rationalizations
Pause #11 for… Things you can do. Yes you.
Chapter 12 Unreliable Allies: Overcoming Splitterism
Pause #12 for… Not just Adam Smith. Steal from them Goldwater, Hayek and Heinlein!
Chapter 13 Can We make a Deal? “What Would Adults Do?”
Pause #13 for…
CIVIL WAR
Chapter 14 Our 250 year Family Feud – “Phase 8 of the Civil War?” ß FULL 1ST DRAFT TO HERE
Pause #14 for… Traps we keep falling for
Chapter 15 Hammer Their Macho With Wagers! And The Name an Exception Challenge
Pause #15 for…
Chapter 16 Exit Strategies – Impeachment, Indictment, the 25th Amendment and all that.
47 comments:
TCB in the previous comments:
Larry Hart sez: "I find it somewhat comforting that the motive here might be good old fashioned corruption rather than election fraud."
It's both. Good strategies often achieve more than one goal at a time. The GOP crowd are the scum of the earth, but they strategize well. Nothing short of their immolation ought to comfort us.
I was being sarcastic. In a very specific way--trying to find the silver lining, no matter how trivial, in the suckitude which has become life in America.
@Dr Brin,
Ok, you finally got me. I went and ordered the paperback of Polemical Judo.
The USPS promotes the general welfare, therefore Republicans want to destroy it.
Anybody care to comment on this? https://www.facebook.com/kkevyne.baar/posts/3218029028282054
These six men have the power to fire Trump-appointee Louis DeJoy.
They have the power to rollback Trump's hobbling of the USPS.
They have the power to save a free and fair election.
I encourage you to contact them and explain why mail-in voting
They have the power to save a free and fair election.
This is the USPS Board of Governors.
Robert Duncan:
mduncan@inezdepositbank.com
John Barger:
barger.jm@gmail.com
Ron Bloom:
ron.bloom@brookfield.com
Roman Martinez:
roman@rmiv.com
Donald Moak:
lee.moak@moakgroup.com
Wiliam Zollers:
directoraccessmailbox@cigna.com
In the interest of supporting zingers or whatever it's called when we mess with lyrics written by very creative people... I wrote a couple more. (Less picking on regional memes this time)
(Yah. I know some of the supporters of Two Scoops aren't guys. Just going with the rhyme.)
___________
Donald fan, Donald fan
Owning the libs anyway he can
Lives his life obeying the man
Donald fan
Can he get something off his chest?
He won't let himself be suppressed
Who believes a Donald fan?
Donald fan, Donald fan
Immigrant ban, Immigrant ban
Keepin' 'em out anyway we can
They ain't part of our white(ish) clan
Immigrant ban
Is it too rough to use our cages?
It ain't enough to take their wages
Who needs an Immigrant ban?
Donald man & Donald fan
___________
Tired now. I'll spare y'all more of these at least for tonight. 8)
Oh... y'all can do with these whatever you want. I'm amused enough as it is.
US Postal Workers Union asks folk to follow them on social media to show support (Twitter: @APWUnational). Number of followers is currently 186K. I'm not sure, but I think that's a tenfold increase from a couple of days ago.
It would seem that the pillaging of postal boxes (aka 'machines that kill fascists'*) has ceased, for now.
* Fascists have been added to the list of things that won't stop the US mail.
Something else I've noticed in the last couple of days:
- NYPD Union has endorsed Trump for re-election
- Compare and contrast with what's been going on in Belarus.
@Alfred How about "Heil to the thief"?
Deuxglass, my sincere apology, i did not mean to insult you in any way. Mostly i was just curious as to Alfreds song reference and if it was intentional.
@Alfred, check your LinkedIn messaging. I sent you a "Particle Man" version from my past which I would not dare post publicly.
Don Gisselbeck:
The USPS promotes the general welfare, therefore Republicans want to destroy it.
If we could convince them that the USPS is a military asset, our troubles would be over.
A few weeks back, a poster here was frantic that DHS was invading Portland and that the news wasn't making it out to the rest of the country. That last part eventually went away. If it's any consolation, news about Trump's shenanigans with the USPS is similarly becoming mainstream.
https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2020/Pres/Maps/Aug15.html#item-1
...
The changes the USPS has made and the likelihood that they will disenfranchise millions of voters have not gone unnoticed. Celina Stewart, an official at the League of Women Voters, said: "We do think this is a voter-suppression tactic." Vanita Gupta, a former DoJ official, said she viewed the situation as "the weaponization of the U.S. Postal Service for the president's electoral purposes." Also, it has occurred to top Democrats that the attacks on the Postal Service, which has a 91% approval rating, might itself become a campaign issue and are starting to run ads about it.
In principle, states can fight back, though. Among other things, they can:
+ Mail out absentee ballots automatically (like Colorado, Oregon, Utah, etc.)
+ Move up the date that all absentee ballots are sent out to September
+ Enclose a note with each absentee ballot telling voters to return their ballot by early October if possible
+ Change state law to accept all ballots received up to a week after Election Day
+ Place hundreds of ballot drop boxes all over the state
+ Engage in a public relations campaign to tell people how slow the USPS is and how to deal with it
+ Count ballots arriving up to a week after Election Day and deal with the legal and political fallout later
Needless to say, only states that the Democrats control are going to do most of these things.
Yesterday, Donald Trump joined the fray. He incorrectly believes that the USPS is losing money because it delivers packages for Amazon below cost. Actually, it makes money on packages; it loses money on the Bedford to McMullen route. He announced that he is willing to approve billions of dollars for the USPS in the next relief bill if the Democrats will approve some of his priorities. Since the USPS is established by law, demanding concessions to keep it functioning is not that far from demanding "favors" from a foreign leader in return for disbursing military help that Congress had already appropriated. Just imagine how Senate Republicans might react if a hypothetical Democratic president were to announce that he could continue to honor the Hyde Amendment (which bans using federal funds to pay for abortions) in return for some changes to a pending bill he was interested in. In short, this story is not going away any time soon. We'll keep you posted.
I watched a couple of hours of MSNBC on Friday night, Rachel Maddow and parts of the shows before and after her. They talked mostly about the USPS, partly about the election, and nothing else that night.
So yes, the word is becoming mainstream in a hurry.
As I have previously noted, most ballots only need to go as far as the elections board office in the nearest county seat, and we are quite able to sort these on sight into a designated bucket on the loading dock so that they go straight there. And this is what we have generally been doing.
It would be well to get word out to all the NALC and APWU union members to make sure this is being done in their offices this year, in every county in America, every day. I just realized that's my wheelhouse, in a small way. I'll go talk to some people.
I found the above reference to Bedford and McMullen slightly puzzling. Here it is in context.
"On top of that, the USPS has two core problems only Congress can solve. First, it is required by law to deliver mail anywhere in the country for the same price. A letter from an office in Midtown Manhattan to an address in Midtown Manhattan costs 55 cents. A letter from Bedford, WY (pop. 201) to McMullen, AL (pop. 9) also costs 55 cents. Guess which delivery actually costs more. This law may be good public policy, but it is not fair to blame the USPS for losing money with this constraint imposed on it. Second, under a 2006 law, the USPS must pre-fund retiree health benefits. Every year it must deposit about $5 billion in the retiree fund to pay for health care 50 years in advance. No other public or private organization has such a requirement."
The pre-funding has to go, obviously; the first part needs to remain, also obviously.
TCB did you know I was made an honorary life member of the NALC back around 1986> Shook the NALC president's hand in front of several thousand cheering NALC convention delegates in Minneapolis.
I recently read The Postman and was astonished I hadn't heard of it before. I've also just used the robot service to notify my reps of my support for the USPS. Thank you, David Brin!
TCB:
I found the above reference to Bedford and McMullen slightly puzzling.
I believe that was meant to show that the USPS should not be penalized for "losing money" on less-lucrative routes as it serving them all is in their Constitutional mandate. It was not meant as a knock on the post office, but as an explanation of why they should not be expected or required to financially compete with UPS or FedEx.
Thank heavens we have a sane balloting system in WA. Get a paper ballot in the mail (with luck that won't be an issue), fill it out, and either mail it back in the prepaid envelope or (my preferred method) take it to one of the many official ballot drop-boxes around the state. (Ours is just outside the local library, which used to be terribly convenient for me until COVID shut the building down.)
And with that in mind, Alfred, I hope we get to add a new verse to that song come November:
Democrat Man, Democrat Man
Democrat Man meets Donald Man
They have a fight, Democrat wins
Democrat Man...
Dr. Brin, I did NOT know that (or heard it long ago, and forgot.) Perhaps you can contact the current president of NALC, Fredric Rolando, and draw his attention to ways the local members can expedite ballot requests and ballot returns to local election boards. (There's no comparable way to expedite the mail they send out, but the incoming mail to the election board is more critical anyway.)
I don't have a contact for Rolando himself, but here's the NALC contact page and the mailing address is:
National Association of Letter Carriers
100 Indiana Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20001-2144
202-393-4695
They add that The best way to contact officers or staff at NALC Headquarters is by letter at the address above. I'll draft a letter of my own to the same effect.
A copy should also go to the APWU, traditionally a bit more 'radical' than the NALC (in a good way!) Their president is Mark Dimondstein. He has a number on the website at (202) 842-4250. When letter carriers are not handling the mail, it's these guys.
APWU Headquarters National Office:
American Postal Workers Union
1300 L Street NW
Washington, DC 20005
202-842-4200
It's possible they're already discussing this subject, but what harm can another voice do?
TCB:
It would be well to get word out to all the NALC and APWU union members to make sure this is being done in their offices this year, in every county in America, every day
Hey, it just so happens I know what those initials mean. Way back when the earth was cooling in the early 90s, I was working at my first real job, which was for a health care organization. I forget which order the various organizations came on board, but we had to make changes to our systems to accommodate two huge clients, which were APWU and NALC. Later, GEHA became and even bigger customer.
Alfred Differ,
You just made it worse! Let’s get this straight. I was born and partially raised in Ohio then we moved to Titusville FL which was a strange mixture of Old Florida and high-tech spaceport with scientists, engineers and military from all sections of the country getting along. I had also summer jobs that took me all the state and especially the northern part.. Although I live in France now my residence for voting is Palm Beach County so please tell me what is “my part of Florida” that meets with your approval and I do resent your sucking up to me by assuming I was from an acceptable part of Florida.
On top of it you single out the Panhandle as being especially sinful although you admit that you haven’t been there for a long time and perhaps never yet you claim to know them enough to judge them. Don’t you think you are overstepping yourself a bit? I have two nephews who just retired after twenty years in the military and who decided to live in the panhandle because it’s a nice place to live. Take it from me. I have been in the Panhandle often. It’s beautiful and the people are nice and helpful as most Floridians are. Now my nephews are not desk warriors. They are the type who jump out of Ospreys in some godforsaken place and shoot up things. You put me in a quandary Alfred because now I will have to call them up and tell them that some IT guy in San Diego thinks they are unworthy people because they live in the Panhandle of Florida .I can imagine the sadness in their voices when learning that they disappoint you.
I too have been in just about every state as well as in many parts of the world but I have a special love for Ohio and Florida.
Phaedrusnailfile,
Apology accepted so I will not challenge you to a rapier duel.
Tony,
I'll look into it.
Larry,
Got it. 8)
Yes. I see the danger. Sarcasm and irony can be missed.
I deleted it on my end to cover your tracks. 8)
Move On has announced a national day of protest, August 22nd, *at your local post office*. 11 am (local time).
Sign up at savethepostoffice.net
***
2020, y'all. Time to protest to protect our post office. And the ability to vote-by-mail, which means paper ballots which can be audited.
Deux, perhaps you should speak with Jim "Stonekettle" Wright. He lives in the Panhandle. He, ah, does not share your glowing assessment of his fellow Floridians.
Not a subscriber so I'm blocked from this one. Is it true that it is pertinent to me?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-countrys-future-could-hinge-on-postal-workers/2020/08/16/c0f7b97e-dfca-11ea-8dd2-d07812bf00f7_story.html?
Yipe! Simulation of a Three Gorges Dam collapse.
http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=44263
David,
I found myself reading that W.Post article without a subscription when I loaded the page halfway, then stopped downloading before the bytes requiring subscription came in.
The short article discusses the relevance of The Postman to today's world. They don't say anything you haven't said either in the book or on the blog, but they do credit you for good predictive capability.
Well...this WaPo opinion piece credits The Postman movie but never mentions David Brin's name. Kevin Costner is the name associated with it.
The author argues for the Postal Service to get the resources it needs and against Trump in this article. "And if Americans stop believing in the system of institutions, then what is left but chaos and who can bring order out of chaos: only Trump. It is the theme of every autocrat who ever seized power or tried to hold onto it." He's a former Admiral BTW. "William H. McRaven, a retired Navy admiral, was commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014."
Yeah. disappointing a high and prominent Admiral can't read.
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is funding the research on Quantized Inertia (QI) Theory postulated by Mike McCulloch, chasing the possibility of building a Horizon Drive, the engineered version of the EM Drive.
Well, it turns out that, according to QI, in a small enough cavity (about 129 nm) the zero point field itself is made inhomogeneous by the cavity's asymmetry, and is stronger than the tiny weight of the metal cavity. Build an array of these nano-cavities and it should push itself in the same way a boulder will roll down a hill. The hill in this case is the quantum vacuum, so the boulder may in fact be able to roll up a physical hill by 'rolling down' the steeper one in the quantum vacuum.
The applications could be new launch systems and a way to get to the nearest stars in a human lifetime.
Hi Dr Brin
It's probably not so much that he can't read as that he thinks Costner's name is "heavier" than yours
And unfortunately he is probably correct
A concept worth extrapolating:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200803-the-solar-canals-revolutionising-indias-renewable-energy
I'm picturing sun belt freeways shaded by solar panels.
Deuxglass,whew my rapier skills have been seriously neglected and i am glad my apology was accepted, being skewered doesn't appeal. All others doing particle man homages; at first it was great but now every time i read this blog i start hearing the accordian and doing the chicken dance.
Bernie Sanders leaves no doubt that even centrist Biden is preferable to Four More Years...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/17/opinion/bernie-sanders-joe-biden.html
...
The first prong, Mr. Sanders explained, is to focus on electing Mr. Biden — because the alternative is Mr. Trump, whose regime could, in Mr. Sanders’ view, endanger the progressive cause in ways far more damaging than one led by moderate Democrats. “This is a guy who believes in voter suppression,” he said of Mr. Trump. “We are fighting for American democracy — for whether we have free elections in this country, or whether you will have an antidemocratic pathological liar running this country. On this issue, there can be not one doubt.”
Mr. Sanders’ movement relies on the idea that transformative change is possible using the normal levers of American governance — which is a point of contention among leftists. But it would be impossible to accomplish without a functional democracy. Whatever Mr. Biden may be up to, in Mr. Sanders’s view, he’s at least in favor of that much.
Which isn’t to say he’s content with the moderate, business-friendly politics Mr. Biden favors. And that’s where the second prong comes in.
“Now, the day after Biden is elected, we have got to mobilize and organize all over this country to make sure that Biden becomes as progressive a president as is possible, that Democrats control the Senate and the House, and that we can put sufficient pressure on Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to carry out a progressive agenda.”
...
Jon S,
You called me Deux! That means we are on a first name basis and implies intimacy in our budding friendship that could perhaps someday lead to something more.
Jim "Stonekettle" Wright could be statistically on that tail of the bell curve of people who accumulate bad experiences one after the other. That could occur just by chance or perhaps it could be that he is an unlikeable person and consequently gathers negative karma like a squirrel gathers nuts. He could also have been cursed by a Wiccan sorceress working as a waitress for giving a lousy tip. There a many of them there so be sure to leave good tips if you go to the Panhandle.
Trashing different sections of the country and the people therein is a cottage industry that employs many people and can be done a home. It started out as a niche mainly catering to disgruntled scientists and engineers then the industry went to rapid growth starting in 2000. Unfortunately the US market is now saturated but future growth is coming from trashing other countries. Initially the market was limited to 330 million consumers but the worldwide potential is upwards of 7.5 billion. The stocks that benefit from this growth industry are Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler and Instagram. Industry leaders are starting to diversify into textiles with expressions insulting people, states, countries, religions and social classes written on them in several different languages. A Goldman Sachs report estimates that the Insult Industry now accounts for 5% of global GDP and is expected to increase to 15% by the year 2030. Goldman does caution that so much insulting could end up generating civil and global war but they expect to have taken their profit before that happens.
Phaedrusnailfile,
After I hit the send button I suddenly realized that I had no knowledge of how to use a rapier and that you could possibly be an Olympic Rapier Gold Medallist. I should have challenged you to a cheeseburger-eating contest instead. Are you by chance an Olympic Cheeseburger-eating Gold Medallist?
Duexglass, on the cheeseburger challenge score i might give you a run for your money but rather than overeat them as a challenge i might stop by Inn and Out on my grocery run and eat a double double toasting your good health or lack of it whichever you prefer.
Something that I found interesting:
https://freethoughtblogs.com/singham/2020/08/16/the-extinct-liberal-republican/
There's still a few of those around, they've mostly been pushed out by the descendants of turncoat Democrats that fell for the southern strategy, after they'd gimped The New Deal, and mostly killed Truman's Fair Deal, which potentially might've gotten a lot of difficulties out of the way, when they were more manageable. Go Biden-Harris, because better late than never!
Heh. I've watched Stonekettle on Twitter long enough to recognize the squirrel collecting karma nuts. I'm quite sure he enjoys it no matter how much he grumbles and groans. His 'airlock' has an 'easy' button designed specially for it. 8)
The insult industry is just a niche, though. The real market is for tiny minority opinion holders finding each other for trade. The platforms are printing money from this because we've discovered most of us are in some tiny minority opinion holding group for at least one of our opinions. Who doesn't love pictures of cute kittens and playful puppies, right? Somewhere out there, though, is someone who thinks it's a good idea to feed them to the wild coyotes who live nearby. Why? Just ask them. They'll share their opinion about Man encroaching on Nature and how we owe Her for the damage done. So... let your cute pets out at night in suburbs adjacent to wild lands.
The insult industry feeds on the energy created in the real market. What?! You Monster! Where do you work so I can warn your boss how bad you really are?!
--------
okay. No more Particle Man stuff from me. I showed the first one to my wife and she just lifted her eyebrow with that expression that said "What the Hell is this?"
I trust her. 8)
Yeah. Disappointing a high and prominent Admiral can't read.
It's not that the Admiral can't read, but because you threw in that bit about enhanced soldiers, the military had to classify the novel beyond the Admiral's security clearance.
Heck, they'd take it off the selves if that alone wouldn't spill the beans. :)
(Naturally, you didn't hear this from me. ;) )
I heard from Admiral McR and am sending him a book!
No more Particle Man stuff from me. I showed the first one to my wife and she just lifted her eyebrow with that expression that said "What the Hell is this?"
Wives are notoriously immune to adolescent humor. Tell her you might get paid for it, and she'll take a closer look. :)
Or, better yet, let her watch some of Randy Rainbow's videos, and inform her he was nominated for an Emmy last year. She'll realize there is actually a market for this stuff--after raising her eyebrow again. :)
Don't send him "a book"
You need to sent at least TWO BOOKS!
The Postman and your Judo Book
David Brin wrote: I heard from Admiral McR and am sending him a book!
Yay! Also send him a copy or six of Polemical Judo and see if you can't get him to forward a copy to any Congresscritters he knows!
Slightly cut text of my letter to both NALC and APWU presidents:
August 17, 2020 Fredric Rolando NALC and Mark Dimondstein APWU
Dear sir:
My name is TCB, I’m a city letter carrier for the United States Postal Service since 1989, and a member of NALC Branch 248 in Asheville, NC. I am writing to you with a suggestion for (partly) thwarting Donald Trump’s attempt to steal the 2020 election by sabotaging the United States Postal Service’s ability to deliver ballots on time. Perhaps you have already thought of this, but just to be thorough, here it is.
As we know, Postmaster Louis DeJoy has slowed the mail by removing hundreds of sorting machines and cutting overtime. This affects ballots and ballot applications being sent out from county election board offices, since these election materials must pass through area sorting centers where those machines would be. For Asheville, such sorting takes place some 50 miles away at a facility in Greenville, SC. Certainly this applies to all absentee ballots returned from distant places in or out of the country.
This year, however, the vast majority of returning ballot requests and completed ballots need only go as far as the election board office in the nearest county seat, many in the same city. In the past we have often had designated buckets on the loading dock for ballots to go straight to that p.o. box or address, to be received the next day, or even been ordered to deviate and go straight there on the way back to our office. This is good, but I am not aware whether it is standard procedure everywhere; I can imagine the new Postmaster General discouraging it. We have the power to make sure ballots bound for the local election board need not take the long way through distant sorting facilities.
I have written this letter to both the presidents of the NALC and the APWU, asking that union leadership urge all their members in carrier, mail handling and clerk crafts to be vigilant for election board mail and expedite it however they can, whether management tells them to or not; to remind each other and their supervisors to do this; and to push back hard against anyone in management who orders otherwise. In this way, most ballots could get where they need to go a lot faster than the saboteurs had hoped.
Yours in democracy, TCB
P.S. I have posted a copy of this letter to Contrary Brin, the blog of David Brin, author of The Postman, honorary NALC member since 1986. He’s One Of Us (by which I mean APWU too!).
https://wgntv.com/news/couple-who-waved-guns-at-protesters-will-appear-at-republican-national-convention/
The headline says it all...
Couple who waved guns at protesters will appear at Republican National Convention
...
Ok, this is trivial, but I'm wondering why Delaware passed on casting its votes if it was not going to break back in after New York in order to be the state to put their native son over the top? Was that a mistake, or am I missing some point of order?
I know it hardly matters, but I'm curious.
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