—
This is what Rigging an Election — Trump-style — looks like, my friends.
First, rail again Vote-by-Mail with entirely unproven, made-up allegations.
Second, stack the governing Board that oversees the Postal Service.
Next, install your sycophantic supporter, as the architect of the Postal Service dismantling.
After of course, getting any and all opposition, of out the way …
USPS Board Again Loses Its Quorum Amid Further Leadership Turmoil
by Eric Katz, Senior Correspondent, GovExec.com — May 13, 2020
[...]
The resignation of Deputy Postmaster General Ronald Stroman, which USPS announced in a financial filing on Tuesday but will take effect June 1, comes days after the agency’s board of governors named Louis DeJoy as the next postmaster general. DeJoy will be the first outsider to lead the Postal Service in nearly 20 years and his selection was met with some criticism from stakeholders who raised concerns about his political connections to President Trump and the Republican party. Stroman has served in his position since 2011 and has more than 40 years of federal government experience.
[...]
With Stroman’s departure, the Postal Service now only has five members on its 11-slot board, meaning it does not have a governing quorum. Four members are Trump appointed, Senate-confirmed governors and the fifth is outgoing Postmaster General Megan Brennan. USPS was without a quorum on its board from 2014 through July 2019. Just like it did in 2014, the board has created a “temporary emergency committee” that will carry out its tasks to make business decisions and set the long-term vision for the agency. That committee can vote to appoint a new deputy postmaster general, which would then restore the quorum.
United States deputy postmaster general Ronald A. Stroman announced May 13 that he would leave the U.S. Postal Service June 1. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Postal Service.
"Disturbing" memo reveals Trump's USPS chief has slowed delivery amid calls to expand voting by mail
by Roger Sollenberger, salon.com — July 15, 2020
[...]
DeJoy, a North Carolina businessman, ascended to the head office in May after the resignation of Ron Stroman. Stroman, who had defended the integrity of voting by mail, was reportedly forced out amid coordinated Republican attempts to undermine public faith in the service.
"Stroman was specifically key on elections and vote by mail — this is not a good sign," ProPublica's Jessica Huseman tweeted in response to the resignation.
“Sources indicate that Stroman was forced out.”
Could this be because Stroman was a strong advocate of Vote-by-Mail …?
Any investigation into the Postal-Slowdown rigging, must find out what really happened here:
Deputy Postmaster General Ronald A. Stroman will resign from the Postal Service, effective June 1.
Stroman, the 20th Deputy Postmaster General and the highest-ranking African American in USPS history, leads communications and relationship-building with Congress and federal, state and local government agencies, as well as efforts to educate stakeholders on the organization’s work to develop a framework for postal reform legislation.
[...]
During his tenure, Stroman led the organization’s successful coordination with the administration and the U.S. Department of State to negotiate profitable rates for the international exchange of small packets, which allowed USPS to remain in the Universal Postal Union.
[...]
Additionally, he spearheaded the organization’s strategic outreach on voting by mail, and he ensured the Postal Service remained committed to being a sustainable leader by building on its culture of conservation.
www.postaltimes.com — May 13, 2020
A FOIA Request was made on June 12, 2020, by American Oversight:
FOIA to the U.S. Postal Service seeking resignation letter of former Deputy Postmaster General Ronald Stroman.
They have yet to receive a response from the ‘slow as molasses’ Trump Administration.
— —
The intentional slowdown of the US Postal Service is now happening under the “direction” of the Trump-appointed Board of Governors
— they are supposed to have 9 members; they now only have 6 — those who chose Louis DeJoy.
Furthermore, of those 9 members, only 5 can be from the same political party; with the appointment of former RNC Chairman Louis DeJoy, that USPS “Board of Directors” now has 5 Republicans, BUT only 2 Democrats:
| Name |
Title |
Political party |
Term begin |
Term expiration |
Notes |
| Louis DeJoy |
Postmaster General (PMG) and CEO |
Republican |
June 15, 2020 |
No term limit |
75th United States Postmaster General[8] |
| Robert M. Duncan |
Chairman of the Board of Governors |
Republican |
August 2018 |
December 8, 2025 |
Re-elected as chairman in November 2019[9] |
| Ron A. Bloom |
Governor |
Democratic[10] |
August 20, 2019 |
December 8, 2020 |
Chair of Strategy and Innovation Committee[11] |
| Roman Martinez IV |
Governor |
Republican[12] |
August 1, 2019 |
December 8, 2024 |
Chair of Audit and Finance Committee[13] |
| John McLeod Barger |
Governor |
Republican[14] |
August 1, 2019 |
December 8, 2021 |
Chair of Compensation and Governance Committee[15] |
| Donald L. Moak |
Governor[16] |
Democrat[17] |
June 18, 2020 |
December 8, 2022 |
Replacing Alan C. Kessler[18] |
|
| William D. Zollars |
Governor[19] |
Republican[20] |
June 18, 2020 |
December 8, 2022 |
Replacing James H. Bilbray[21] |
In October 2017 President Donald Trump nominated three individuals to the board, the first such nominations since 2010.[4][1] On August 28, 2018, the Senate confirmed two of President Trump's nominations to the Board of Governors: Mike Duncan, as chairman, and former United States inspector general David C. Williams, as vice-chairman.[5] On August 1, 2019, the Senate confirmed three more nominations, allowing the board to reach a quorum for the first time since 2014.[6]
As stated in the first article from Government Executive, this is the “temporary emergency committee” that will carry out its tasks to make business decisions and set the long-term vision for the agency.
Which is just the way Donald Trump and Ron Johnson like it.
Because it is Ron Johnson, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, who signed-off on the Trump-appointed USPS Board of Governors.
Ron Johnson is hardly a fair arbitrator of Justice. More like just another GOP-architect of Election-rigging:
"The more that we expose of the corruption of the transition process between Obama and Trump, the more we expose of the corruption within those agencies, I would think it would certainly help Donald Trump win reelection and certainly be pretty good, I would say, evidence about not voting for Vice President Biden," Johnson said in a Tuesday interview with Minneapolis-based radio hosts Jon Justice and Drew Lee. Again, no one has uncovered corruption in the transition process and, in fact, not a single person in Obama's squeaky clean administration was ever indicted.
Democrats have been increasingly sounding the alarm bells about Johnson using his committee to launder Russian disinformation provided to him by pro-Russian Ukrainians. At least one of those Ukrainian sources, KGB-educated Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii Derkach, was also named by the U.S. director of national intelligence in a statement last week warning of Russia's ongoing interference campaign to help Trump get reelected.
Funny how the Trump kool-aid drinkers are all “saying the quiet part out loud” lately.
Funnier still, how the Trump-inspired “outrage fatigue” tends to shrug its collective shoulders, and rhetorically ask:
Well, whatcha gonna do?
It’s just another Trump abuse of power, in a long line of such abuses.
At least we’ll be able to Vote them out of office in November.
Oh Really? Don’t count on it.
Desperate men, do desperate things.
And they get the Louis DeJoy’s of the world to do their dirty-work for them.
All under the guise of “cost-savings measures” …
The question is whose costs?
— —
Vigilance is price for Democracy.
…
and perhaps the price of a US stamp.
Hopefully … NOT on our watch.
