Category: Politics

On the Post Office

It bothers me every time I hear about how the post office needs to make changes to remain a viable institution. Back in 2006, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act specifically forbid the Post Office from offering non-postal services (Section 102). Previous Postmaster Generals had researched and documented all manner of other lines of business where they could leverage the fact someone was driving by every house in the US every day — the one I remember was wellness checks. If I paid the Post Office some fee, they’d knock on my mom’s door every day/week/etc and just check in. I think the idea of plastering advertising on the truck that drove through your neighborhood every day was floated (and I’m convinced privatizing the post office will yield ad-space on both stamps and the cancellation marks). Let cellular companies pay USPS to have cellular data collector units in trucks — I’d set up a system from Siemens at Alltel fifteen years ago and run up against an unexpected problem. We had assumed the data collector units would be installed in all of the repair trucks and collect data as the techs drove around to their repair jobs (and possibly we’d have to dispatch a ticket that was ‘drive out to XYZ tower’ just to gather data for an area where we didn’t have a good data set). The union rep, however, was adamant that these units that sent GPS tracking data would never be put into a truck to allow the company to micromanage the tech’s day. AFAIK, the whole installation got scrapped after a year or two because we couldn’t collect enough data to make it valuable. I expect we’d have paid the post office a few grand a month to provide transportation for cellular data collectors. Point being – there are a lot of non-postal services that could be offered at a small incremental cost to the post office. I understand the impetus of the law — if I were a company that’s business was contracting with cellular companies to drive their data collectors around, the post office would be able to underbid me. I’m paying someone and fuel to drive 50 miles — so an hour or two of time and a gallon or two of gas. At minimum wage, I’ve got 7-14$ in labor and another 2-4$ in fuel (which doesn’t include potential benefits for my employee, vehicle maintenance, administrative costs, etc). They are already paying for the person/driving/vehicle/administration, so their expense is 0. We’ve both got some advertising expenses to ensure the cellular carriers knew we offered this service. I’d be really upset to have my business go under because the Post Office was able to underbid me. But moving into lines of business that are specifically not profitable because of the labor/transportation expenses seems like a win all around.

The Post Office have been mandated to fund future retirement fees in a way no other company need to do. They’ve been prevented from diversifying their product offering to increase profitability. Funny how some people think the government should be run by a business — but, when it is run like a business and has the potential to provide beneficial services, pass laws to prevent operating like a business.

Ohio Remote Ballot Marking System Expansion Request

Email to Secretary of State DeRose, my Ohio State Senator, and my Ohio State Representative:

 

There appears to be a remote ballot marking system available if you have a qualifying disability under ADA. I would like to see the availability of this 11-G absentee request be expanded to anyone with COVID-like symptoms or asked to quarantine for potential exposure. This would allow such individuals to remotely mark their ballot and ensure their vote is counted. It’s not the resource strain that offering in-person pick-up akin to RC 3509.08 would be, and it allows people to ensure their vote is counted without risking heir health or the health of community members.

Ohio Absentee Balloting Nuances

Ohio RC 3509.05 lists approved relatives who are able to deliver a ballot on behalf of another individual (spouse of the elector, the father, mother, father-in-law, mother-in-law, grandfather, grandmother, brother, or sister of the whole or half blood, or the son, daughter, adopting parent, adopted child, stepparent, stepchild, uncle, aunt, nephew, or niece of the elector). So I cannot deliver the ballot for my neighbors, but their kids can. That’s a firm ‘no’ on dropping off ballots for anyone who is not related to you a way listed in RC 3509.05 at the Board of Elections. I won’t get into the probability of enforcement — that’s something an individual would need to decide for themselves. If the ballot isn’t getting submitted any other way, might be worth the risk having an unauthorized person drop it off and having your vote invalidated. To me, the law precludes a mass effort to get people driving around and collecting ballots for a neighborhood and dropping those off at the Board of Elections. Same with dropping off bunch of ballots over at the Post Office closest to the Board of Elections — “elector shall mail” isn’t the same as “elector shall cause to be mailed”.

Ohio RC 3509.08 option where the Board of Elections drops off the ballot and picks it up is currently only for those confined to nursing homes and jails. So if you know someone who is in a nursing home or jail … they totally can request the Board of Elections bring them a ballot, wait while it is filled out {even fill out the ballot if the person is unable to do so themselves — I’m thinking of my great-grandmother who could barely write an “X” in the signature line near the end of her life} and bring that ballot back to be counted. That’s a pretty awesome level of service. And I get that they don’t have anywhere near enough staff to broaden that service.

What you *can* do is drop off a ballot for parents, grandparents, aunts/uncles, siblings, children, and nieces/nephews. So if you’ve got family members who don’t have time/resources/mobility/health to drop off the ballots in person, you can certainly collect *their* ballots and drop them off at the appropriate Board of Elections.

There also appears to be a remote ballot marking system available if you have a qualifying disability under ADA. (Cuyahoga and Medina). I’m e-mailing DeRose’s office and my local Ohio Congresspersons (“Member Search” in the lower left-hand corner of http://www.ohiohouse.gov/ for the House, https://www.ohiosenate.gov/senators/district-map for the Senate) asking them to expand the availability of the 11-G absentee request. Anyone with COVID-like symptoms or asked to quarantine for potential exposure should be allowed to remotely mark their ballot too. It’s not the resource strain that offering in-person pick-up would be, and it allows people to ensure their vote is counted without risking heir health.

And if you request an absentee ballot but decide to vote in person instead, you can. You’ll need to submit a provisional ballot — this is to ensure you don’t both return an absentee ballot and vote in person.

Changing Your Mind Due To New Information Is A Problem?!

Back in 2004, John Kerry was roundly derided for being a “flip flopper”. In the political context, I never thought the term meant simply someone who changed their mind but rather someone who lacked conviction and changed their mind to match the prevailing popular opinion. Now, even that meaning, I had trouble seeing as problematic in a representative democracy. If 80% of the people I represent thought X last year and now think !X … wouldn’t they want me voting a different way this year? While Kerry attempted to explain his votes — approving military action but not a funding source — nuanced discussion isn’t effective in American political discourse.

I’m reminded of this as people protest wearing masks. I questioned the advice not to wear a mask in March — it was illogical except from a scare resource allocation strategy (i.e. if you’re sheltering in place at home where drive-through grocery pickup is the totality of your exposure … save the mask for someone with more risk). There wasn’t any research to support wearing a mask because there wasn’t much research about SARS-CoV-2 at all. But, in March, there was research on the transmission of other virus. Maybe we didn’t know if aerosol transmission was possible, but it’s basic risk mitigation to take not-too-awful precautionary measures to prevent an unknown risk. Several months later, there is research. But the odd line of thinking that means a politician who changed their mind about a vote or had nuanced reasons that their vote for “the same thing” differed seems to mean that emerging scientific research does not warrant revising one’s initial opinion.

Some in the Republican party remind me of my daughter’s default defiance. I’ve heard her refuse to eat ice cream because one of her parents told her to (and her automatic response to just about any request is “No!” or “Why?!”). The Republican party is currently objecting to the NY DA preventing the NRA from continuing to misappropriate donor funds (i.e. how dare you charge the guy who robbed me!?), refusing to wear a mask that at worst does nothing and at best prevents the spread of an infectious disease because they’ve been told to do it.

On Biden

My reasons for voting for Biden — SCOTUS, slowing down environmental destruction, a minimal adherence to the Constitution, and an actual investigation into WTF has gone on the past four years. I don’t have faith that Biden will pick a *good* SCOTUS nominee. Neither do I think he will implement *good* environmental, health care, criminal justice, education, banking, consumer protection, etc policies. I think he will implement *less bad* ones.
 
It’s something I struggle with — Biden has a level of competency that Trump lacks. I could see Trump spending four more years issuing ludicrous EOs that even Republican-appointed judges have to strike down with specific instructions on what the exec office could have done within the system (and the Trump admin pretty routinely ignoring the court’s suggestions / dropping it to move onto the next ‘trigger the libs’ issues). The executive office will be staffed with people who have financial incentive to not enforce laws. Contracts steered towards friends. Million dollar purchases will materialize out of nowhere. Oval Office addresses will pause for a promo like the news anchors used to do.
 
I see not voting for Biden as the “burn it down” approach — which gives me a lot of appreciation for property destruction in the course of protests. Reagan told us how bad government could be, then spent eight years proving how bad you could make government if you just put a little effort into it. If we let Republicans make the government just as bad as they can, will it all self-destruct and some modern truly representative system could rise from its ashes. Or we’ll got the Greek city-state route and have 100’s of different authorities. Pretty much anything other than the current corporate-money driven non-representative system.
 
But then I tune in to one of Trump’s daily briefings and realize all over again how absurd he will get with the ‘proof’ that the country supports him (and that everything bad he’s encountered has really been some deep state conspiracy). I end up thinking not-as-bad-but-competent is probably better than the Trump alternative.
 
I’d love if Biden showed his love of compromise by compromising with progressives, or if centrists even approached this as an opportunity to make a sales pitch instead of threats. But it seems like it’s up to progressives to pitch Biden to other progressives. Because, seriously, what percentage of the country needs to support an idea before you can just accept it as-is? M4A is a great example — if 70% of Americans support an idea, why ensure no one is happy through compromise? Especially if the other party is negotiating in bad faith (they’re not going to vote for it with the concessions in place anyway, they’re going to manipulate the system to ensure their position is over-represented, etc).

It’d be great if some Biden supporters put effort into understanding what progressives want and articulated how Biden produces actual progress toward that goal (not ‘we will get back to where we were in 2010’). Because “you have to vote for him or fracking fluid will be dumped into the river” and “Trump is going to nominate reanimated Scalia and nominate the first zombie-American SCOTUS jutice”… probably enough to get me to check the box they want checked, I still want an “Any Competent Adult 2020” sign because *that’s* what I’m voting for. Not Biden. Literally whatever halfway competent >=35 year old native-born citizen the Dem’s put on the ballot.

What you know

I don’t get why school boards (and businesses, for that matter) are so stuck on attempting to replicate what we had two years ago. It’s like some form of denial — it’s going away soon, no reason to rethink things we’re doing.

I cannot help but think of veggie burgers. Attempts to be “beef like” are generally awful. Attempts to make a flavorful, filling, crunchy sandwich filling that bears little resemblance to a beef burger? Lots of delicious options. I think that was what I liked so much about SNL’s at home episode … it wasn’t *trying* to be like an in-studio production. It was a new thing that was entertaining in its own way. I don’t know what the school version of my spicy garbanzo sandwich or SLN@Home would be … but, having seen The Reopening Plan, I know that my local school board spent the last four or five months trying to figure out how to achieve the most school-like thing possible regardless of the long-term feasibility of the solution (and they’ve got a slide detailing the “swiss cheese” approach to risk mitigation … something gets through each layer but risk is mitigated by the aggregation of layers. Nothing says safety like swiss cheese!).

Creating continuity between in-class and at-home learning so individuals with resources (time, money, internet access, computers for kids to use) could participate at home and reduce the number of people on the bus, in the classroom, at lunch, etc does not appear to have been an avenue of exploration. This would allow individuals in quarantine to continue their education uninterrupted, too. The district’s plan right now is … they’ve got no idea what to do when a class full of students is asked to stay home for two weeks.

The Proliferation of Misinformation

A friend mentioned that Madonna has jumped on the demon-sperm-doctor’s ‘a cure exists’ train. To which someone replied “who cares?” … which is a reasonable gut reaction. Some celebrity, or has-been celebrity, wants to walk around telling everyone they need to get Airpods? I don’t care.

I don’t care that one individual believes, well, any crackpot idea or conspiracy theory either. There was a guy in downtown Philly who walked around with a sign declaring that the alien invasion was nigh and we should save ourselves by … I don’t even remember what he thought would appease our future alien overlords. People generally ignored him or felt sorry for him. Sometimes gave him a hairy eyeball. And we all carried on.

When the crazy idea is picked up by more individuals? Nonsense is less objectionable when a lot of people believe it (i.e. there are people who read this doctor’s statements from the fifth source & think maybe it’s true).

When those who hold sway over a lot of other people start promoting disinformation? Some percentage of Trump’s 84.3 million followers, and some percentage of Madonna’s 2.6 million followers, take this seriously. They use the ‘information’ to justify mask refusal, heading out to parties, etc. Unless you’re completely off the grid, you’ll be sharing space with them at some point. That’s why I care.

Commerce Department Requests Section 230 Clarifications

Looks like the Commerce Department is actually following up on Trump’s social media EO with a petition to, among other things, specify that Section 230(c)(1) does not apply to service providers restricting availability of content or to suspend user’s access to provided services. PDF of the petition is available, and it’s listed on the FCC’s filing search as in the INBOX. I’m watching to see if there’s a proceeding where public comments can be submitted. If there is a public comment period, maybe GoFCCYourself could be redirected 🙂

Data Visualization – Renters at Risk of Eviction

Tonight, I saw a post about the percent of rental households facing eviction — a staggering statistic on its own, but percentages can hide large or small numbers. 22% or 55% of households facing eviction sounds awful, but how awful depends on how many households rent or own in the state. The government, however, publishes a lot of data about US households. Data profiles for 2018 are available, so I’m using the number of renters by state in 2018 to translate percentages into households.

This chart represents 18 million households facing eviction — this is housing units, not number of people. One household may be one person or it may be ten people.

Beyond the immediately obvious question of “where are all of these people going once they are evicted?, there is peripheral impact — a lot of rental units are financed. How are property owners paying when a quarter of their rental units vacant? Are their kids still going to school? The government insisted on rescuing “too big to fail” banks. Ten or twenty million homeless people across the country seems more dire. Yet our government cannot pass an unemployment extension in a timely fashion.

There’s a historical hypothesis that the relative stability of the past couple hundred years was achieved by maintaining a large middle class. People constantly plagued by poverty and starvation are open to suggested alternatives — what do you have to lose? But give 60% a little something — a decent place to live, enough food, transportation, a little extra money for “fun stuff” and you’ve got a populace invested in maintaining the status quo (however inequitable that may be). Mass unemployment and homelessness is the stuff of mass protest and revolution.

Grown Up Temper Tantrums

Someone wants to wear a swastika bandana(?) flag(?) draped across their face? My complaint is that it’s not a very effective face covering (although they are covering their noses and mouths, so possibly better than people who have real masks below their nose and certainly better than the chin protector you-never-said-what-part-of-my-face-to-cover look). I said a week or two ago that I’d be happy enough if the pro-Confederacy anti-maskers would wear a confederate flag mask … gonna have to go with the same opinion for swastika masks. It’s a temper tantrum. But having a kid has taught me to pretty much ignore those — especially when the tantrum includes doing what I wanted her to do. Yeah, calmly picking the toys up off the floor would have been my perfect world. Not an option. Stomping around whilst putting those toys away? Total win.
 
It’s not like removing the symbol over their mouth is magically going to change their opinion on much of anything (and, in the context in which they were wearing the mask, it does not seem like they actually think Nazi-ism is a Good Thing™). They’re certainly uninterested in a calm discussion of valid scenarios where the government really should be mandating people take (or not take) actions, nor would I want my quick trip to the store turning into an hour long debate over slippery slopes. They want to tell me that voting for Biden means I’ll be living in Nazi Germany? Well, at least I’ll be living. A vote for Trump means I’ll be dying a painful death in Nazi Germany.