Postal boxes are now being locked in California.

[RandySF]

Link to tweet

?s=20

Rex Chapman🏇🏼
@RexChapman

Burbank, California:

In your entire life have you ever seen a LOCKED mailbox at the USPS?

Now you have.

A disgrace and immediate threat to American democracy. Shame on them. Shame on the GOP.

Where are you @senatemajldr ?

[unblock]

1. "See! We said we wouldn't remove them, so we didn't remove them!"

We are being governed by a spoiled brat toddler in an old man's body.

[Retrograde]

40. It's like dealing with children

"Stop hitting your brother!"
"I'm not hitting him, I'm kicking him"
"Don't do that either"
"Whaaaah!"
"I told you not to hit or kick him"
"I didn't! But you didn't say not to poke him!"

[Lifelong Protester]

2. This is

Getting ridiculous, it’s so obvious!

[Hoyt]

3. Christ, I get the paranoia. But this has been going on since before trump.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=13917627

[msongs]

7. never have I ever seen a locked postal box. lived in big city, suburbs, boondocks not once nt

[Hoyt]

8. Go to the link and read.

[hlthe2b]

13. Just STOP it. This is real! Residents all over the country are documenting this

Including sorting machines being JUNKED.

Link to tweet

[Hoyt]

20. Like the 7,000 blue mailboxes that have been decommissioned PER YEAR since 1985, sorting machines

get decommissioned, moved or replaced, as well.

Besides, as this NYT article points out:

Which Party Would Benefit Most From Voting by Mail?

It’s Complicated -- Conventional wisdom has been that Democrats are more likely to benefit from voting by mail. But that’s not what research has shown.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/25/us/vote-by-mail-coronavirus.html

[hlthe2b]

21. There are Union representatives and USPS employees documenting this all over the country,.

What exactly are you trying to accomplish in diminishing the seriousness of this? What is your objective? I know you know how much it has been reported and documented by very reputable reporters and others like Rachel Maddow, so please help me understand why a DUer would try to downplay this?

[Hoyt]

31. I explained it here.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=13918461

[hlthe2b]

12. Once again telling us this is all hyped. I SO don't get you This PO in Burbank is ALSO locked down.

SO one can not go inside to mail anything either. THAT IS NOT NORMAL!

Link to tweet

[Hoyt]

14. Perfectly normal. Post Office thieves prefer Hollywood mailboxes.

[hlthe2b]

18. No. it is going on including removal all over the country. Are you intentionally trying to diminish

the seriousness of what is going on with the USPS and the conscious attempt by Trump and his ilk to dismantle it? If so, then I hope many here take note.

I documented what is going at my own main PO. NOT normal at all.

[Hoyt]

25. No. First, I'm tired of people diminishing confidence in the voting system, which causes

people who haven't voted before to just say "why should I vote, now."

Second, I don't think we have to be as gullible as GOPers, and I don't think easily disproved conspiracy theories help us.

Third, the post office has removed mail boxes, moved sorting machines, locked mailboxes at night in certain areas, tried to minimize overtime, etc., for years. Suddenly, it's all new and everything they do is some big conspiracy theory that began in 1985 when they first started removing blue mailboxes.

Fourth, trump and Putin are loving the chaos. trump is just mocking us with most of the crap he says about the Post Office.

Fifth, if the post office really did slow up the mail, it would likely hurt GOPers worse. If they haven't realized yet, they will.

Finally, I want to win big in November and I believe this ain't helping, if for no other reason there are more serious things going on and we've go more threads related to the Post Office than CV19, people needing unemployment, etc.


Here's some post office boxes locked up in 2016, it's not new:

[hlthe2b]

26. Your attitude will be the demise of USPS and worse repercussions from that.

It is not ONLY the ballot issue. You may think you don't need the USPS but that IMHO is because you are ill-informed on what the hell the USPS does, including what they may be called to do in the future.

Wake the hell up!

There is a documented frenzy of collection box removal for which the damned USPS has already admitted and had to back off on, at least temporarily. WTF is it that you don't get about this? You are on DU so I know you've read some of this. Here. start here:
https://bitterrootstar.com/2020/08/postal-service-pauses-mail-collection-box-removal-after-pressure-from-tester/

[Hoyt]

29. The Post Office is not going away. It's in the Constitution, for one thing. Second, last Stimulus

provided a "loan" that at a minimum gets the PO through 2020. By then, Biden will be in office, if we don't blow it in the next few months.

I don't think the PO admitted they were removing boxes to slow the mail. So, that spin is flat wrong and a good example of reading into things stuff that ain't there. The PO did agree to stop doing it to stop all the crazy BS, despite the fact they've removed an average of 7,000 boxes a year since 1985. We ought to be commending them for agreeing to stop doing it to appease people.

Damn right I'm a Democrat and sometimes I think we act just about as crazy as gullible GOPers. I don't think that helps us. Sorry.

[Beaverhausen]

33. It's sad that there are mail thieves in some areas

So yes, they have to lock the boxes when the post office is closed. But the boxes are still there and open during operating hours.

[3Hotdogs]

37. That's the street drive-up side to the boxes. Are the fronts also locked?

[hlthe2b]

41. Apparently so. The inside of the PO are supposed to be open to allow access to interior boxes

Last edited Mon Aug 17, 2020, 06:20 AM - Edit history (1)

and supplies. Given those who live there are saying the locked boxes are NOT normal and the entrance to the building lobby, normally left unlocked are now locked, there appears to be something very wrong. Similar with respect to the removal/destruction of sorting equipment are coming from USPS UNION reps and USPS long term employees throughout the country. Do these handful of naysaying DUers accusing the rest of us of "making way too much of this" really think THEY know more than these actual workers and union officials do with their feet on the ground?


I do not know why this small repetitive vocal group want to (for reasons inexplicable) deny what is systemically happening to the USPS at the hands of Trump's henchmen--one even telling me I DIDN'T know what I personally witnessed at my own main post office on Saturday--and what they are trying to accomplish. One of those posters spent Friday night repeatedly posting that "People are making a way to much of this. " To which those who give a damn, say, TO HELL WE ARE!

It is damned wrong. To not recognize the seriousness of this, leaves me aghast. I can only ask WHY?

[obamanut2012]

42. Par for the course for

this poster.

[hlthe2b]

17. It is going on for the first time in at least a decade at my local PO in Colorado so don't dare tell

me it is NORMAL and I'm just paranoid.

I dropped letter off AT my mail post office @ the drive up boxes, Saturday only to find two of those removed

This, AT the main post office. The remaining collection boxes were so full that I had to reach down and physically push it down so that my letter might not be intentionally or unintentionally "removed" from someone intending trouble.

This was on a Saturday, five hours before the last collection time, so there is little doubt this is going to be a problem. But, why the hell would they remove collection boxes AT the post office????? Those boxes were there earlier this week and for more than a decade before!

[Hoyt]

27. Yes, two might have been removed, but others were left. Why? People aren't using the darn things

as much, nowadays.

Why should employees have to open three boxes, when one doesn't even get filled up.

Now, if they had removed them all, I'd agree. But they didn't. Does your state have ballot drop off boxes?

[hlthe2b]

28. They were full and always have been full one hour before collection. This was five hours prior.

You don't know what the hell you are talking about, but take it upon yourself to do so for California, Colorado, and where else. I'm done with you.

[Hoyt]

30. I'm assuming your state has Ballot Drop Boxes. Let me recommend the obvious -- use them.

[Farmgirl1961]

4. Who the hell is doing this??????

This seems highly suspect and illegal!

[Guilded Lilly]

5. At some point, the punk assed snot child needs...

direct and swift punishment by a responsible parent.
Otherwise they will continue to be a punk assed snot.

[Newest Reality]

6. 1000 face palms and a can of sadz!

[Beaverhausen]

9. I'm in CA - there is a reason for this

Some post offices have to do that at night and Sundays to keep people from going into the box and fishing out the mail.

I have a post office at the end of my street. I see this all the time.

[Hoyt]

10. Thank you.

[hlthe2b]

15. No. it is NOT normal. My Colorado PO is experiencing this too.

I dropped letter off AT my mail post office @ the drive up boxes, only to find two of those removed

This, AT the main post office. The remaining collection boxes were so full that I had to reach down and physically push it down so that my letter might not be intentionally or unintentionally "removed" from someone intending trouble.

This was on a Saturday, five hours before the last collection time, so there is little doubt this is going to be a problem. But, why the hell would they remove collection boxes AT the post office????? THe BOxes WERE there earlier this week and for a decade prior.

[Flaleftist]

16. That looks like broad daylight to me.

[Blue_true]

24. Mail pickup stops around noon on Saturday. With no OT, many offices are likely closed on Saturday.

So, boxes likely get locked because no one is around to empty them.

[Beaverhausen]

32. It's Sunday here. The PO is closed and they lock the boxes

Seriously. This is to stop the thievery of the mail you mail out.

[Flaleftist]

34. Thanks. I have never seen this in my area. I didn't know it was a thing.

[Blue_true]

22. I have always been paranoid about leaving mail in boxes.

When I did mail stuff in the past, I never put it in the boxes during the weekend, and always preferred one of the drop slots inside the office.

[linda52]

11. What should we do Randy?

RandySF, what should we do about this?

[Flaleftist]

19. Why do people use these things, anyway? Doesn't every home/apartment have a dedicated mailbox?

I get their motive in shutting down the sorting machines, but is removing these going to have a major impact on the ability of people to mail ballots?

[hlthe2b]

23. It is not limited to the ballot issue. These boxes provide a means for elderly, disabled, office

employes and those shopping in the nearby stores to post a letter or mailing. They are often situated in shopping centers, in front of retirement homes where residents can access without driving and near multi-unit high rise housing units with a minimum of out-going mail capacity (or security issues). They are large enough to put small parcels in as well, for those needing to return items for example.

[Blue Owl]

35. Those red blockades on the drop boxes could use some "Make America Great Again" stickers

[pecosbob]

36. 'But the post office has been stolen, the mailbox is locked.'

'Oh, mama, can this really be the end? To be stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again.'

[yuiyoshida]

38. :/

Link to tweet

私はその悪魔が嫌いです..彼は行かなければなりません!!

[SheltieLover]

39. K&R!

🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬