Need I Say More?

Solidarity Begins at Home

I first sang this song two years ago, when the USPS tried to fire Tom because of his union work. (Of course, that's not what they said, but who are we kidding?) It was—and is—my love song to him. I know, I know, freedom doesn't require "getting you a man," and many have written more woman-empowering, woman-friendly verses to substitute for this one, but I can't help it. I love this verse just the way Woody wrote it. Tom was so tickled when I first sang it to him. He threw his head back and laughed and laughed with his huge bark of a laugh. I'm behind him a bazillion percent, and being in this together makes us both very much stronger.

Tom has spent most of the month of August in Norman, Oklahoma. The USPS sent him there to learn how to fix a machine that doesn't work and that they probably won't ever use. This kind of management decision is not remotely unusual at the USPS. Over and over and over again low-level managers (and by "low-level" I mean "slithering-on-the-ground") make ludicrous decisions that make no sense and just piss money down the drain. There are absolutely no negative repercussions for them, and sometimes there are even rewards. And yet the USPS is crying to Congress about its supposed fiscal crisis.

It sure looks to me, and to many others, like the folks in charge are deliberately running the USPS into the ground. I reckon they can't wait for it to go belly up so they can chop the remains up into little pieces and sell them at a bargain to their cronies. The workers be damned. The people who count on their small rural post offices be damned. The U.S. economy be damned. Somehow they think that if they line their pockets and those of a few of their buds, nothing else matters. I feel sorry for those bastards living their sad little miserable lives. They don't have a clue about what's really important.

While I'm waiting to pick Tom up at the airport on Saturday morning, this will be running through my head:

You gals who want to be free, just take a tip from me;

Get you a man who's a union man and join the ladies' auxiliary.

Married life ain't hard when you got a union card,

A union man has a happy life when he's got a union wife.

Woody was right in one really important respect: Solidarity begins at home! Maybe someday I'll post a video of me singing it, but for now, here's a clip of Woody himself singing my favorite verse.

Reeling Toward Privatization

If the United States Postal Service is "reeling toward default," it's not for any of the reasons stated in yesterday's editorial in the New York Times. It infuriates me that the NYT editorial staff would just repeat the USPS's lies verbatim, when the truth isn't at all difficult to uncover. Repeating a lie over and over again won't make it fact. Congress must not acquiesce to the USPS's "imminent disaster" demand to break contracts with the postal unions and lay off more than a third of its workforce.

According to the National Association of Letter Carriers, the mandate forcing the USPS to prefund future retiree health benefits 75 years in the future, costing $5.5 billion per year, accounts for all of the USPS's losses in the last four years. A la Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine, this is part of a deliberate strategy to bankrupt the USPS, with a view to breaking the postal unions and ultimately to dismantling and privatizing the very lucrative U.S. postal service.

At a time when we're supposed to be adding jobs, we can't afford to be losing them, especially not more than a third of the jobs at the country's second-largest nonmilitary employer. If Congress acquiesces, we will all be losers—people living in rural areas, former postal employees adding to the legions of the country's unemployed, and the U.S. economy.

Please, sign and share the petition at Change.org. And challenge the lies, no matter how often they're repeated.

Late-Night Wavelengths and Saving the USPS

On Wednesday night of last week I tried to go to bed early. And failed. Tom is in Oklahoma this month for training, and it seems like I never sleep as well when he's gone. So I got up and took my usual post in front of the computer. I had just posted about the post office's so-called fiscal crisis, and I was feeling agitated. So I went snooping around the interwebs looking for more info. I found a bunch and added that to the earlier blog post. I did so primarily because I wanted Tom to read the stuff I was finding, and he checks the blog fairly regularly when he's away (when I don't read the posts to him out loud over the phone, that is).

Meantime, Facebook imported the blog post to the FB Worley Dervish page. (I'd love it if you'd go there and click "Like." Thanks!) My friend Luz, who lives on the west coast and so wasn't up quite as late as I, read the imported post on Facebook. I hope she won't mind if I quote her here: "It is horrible what they are trying to do with the postal service! we can not let that happen!!! privatizing the postal service would be really bad!" I allowed as how "if the postal workers are screwed, the whole country is screwed. Deeply, deeply screwed." Luz replied: "Oh God! we need to make a lot of noise about this. . . . What else can we do Mary?" A most excellent question! So because of my dear friend Luz's timely question, it occurred to me that we should put together a petition on Change.org if there wasn't one already. So I nosed around there, and I found one about saving all the post offices that are being closed. But that wasn't quite what I was after. So I started my own, and then put the link to the petition on that same blog post I'd already added a bunch of stuff to.

Now remember, Tom (the treehugger in the photo) is hundreds of miles away in Oklahoma. And I figured he was asleep and that I'd tell him about the petition the next day. After I plunked the link for the petition onto the blog post and put the widget on the right-hand column, I went back to Change.org to have another look. And whose name do you suppose I saw there? Remember, this is only minutes after I had created the petition. All those many miles away, Tom couldn't sleep either. He had already signed it and posted the first comment. He couldn't have done it any faster had we been talking on the phone while I created the petition. How's that for being on the same wavelength? I can't even begin to tell you how flabbergasted I was when I saw that Tom was the first person to sign the petition after me, and immediately after I'd created it. Nor can I begin to tell you how awesome it is to have a partner whose vision, determination, and talents complement my own so beautifully that it's almost magic.

Sooooooo. . . . If you haven't already signed the petition, please, please do so. We have collected 550 signatures in just four days. Our goal is 120,000—that may be a bit ambitious, but it's the same as the number of layoffs there will be at the USPS if Congress agrees to their request. After you've signed it, please share it, post it, repost it, and ask your friends and family to sign it. Make sure especially to share it with anyone you know who works at the USPS or who has a family member that does. There's a whole lot at stake for a lot of families, for a lot of good folks who love their small-town post offices, and for the whole dang U.S. economy. And many thanks to all of you for your support and encouragement!

Class Warfare and Flying Pigs

Tom and I have turned off the television. I know. Crazy, isn't it? Veritably un-American. But hey, I'm happy to announce that it's entirely possible to live without watching the boob tube. Not only did we cancel the cable, but we quit watching the networks as well. Can't say we miss it much, especially because our friends share much of what's worthwhile online. (And how else do you think I'd have so much time to prowl the Internet to figure out what's actually going on in the world?) And given yesterday's post, in which I tallied up the class warfare battles taking place in Wisconsin, at Verizon, and at the United States Postal Service, count the following clips from the Daily Show as the next installment on the war on the poor and the middle class.

Although these clips have way more of Fox Noose than I can watch without gagging, it's revelatory to hear what the propaganda machine is churning out these days. Jon Stewart handily pillories the FN talking heads.

[If you're reading this on Facebook (which doesn't let the automatic blog importer import video), the links to the videos are here and here.] Sorry about the commercial at the beginning of each clip. Enjoy!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
World of Class Warfare - Warren Buffett vs. Wealthy Conservatives
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
World of Class Warfare - The Poor's Free Ride Is Over
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

The part about not assuming that all rich people are billionaires made me giggle. I suppose we shouldn't assume that all billionaires are billionaires either. And I love the bit about Warren Buffet's billionaire cleaning lady.

One of the most galling comments is the one about "the moocher class" as opposed to the "productive class." That actually made me gasp out loud. I mean, really? The people who watch their portfolios are the "productive class"? And the people who actually work for a living (or want to) are the "moocher class"? Unbe-fricking-lievable! Do people actually believe this stuff? If they do, it's because they have deluded themselves into identifying with the billionaire class, even when they themselves are struggling economically and are watching their piece of the pie shrink to a pile of crumbs. After all, they might hit pay dirt someday and become billionaires themselves, right? Sure! When pigs fly.

Tom was carrying his "Tax the Rich" sign downtown one day during the Wisconsin Winter (as opposed to the Arab Spring), and a panhandler—a panhandler!—told him, "Don't say that! Don't you want to be rich?" Tom pointed out the unlikelihood of that eventuality. The panhandler just wasn't buying it. As a matter of fact, he wasn't buying much. . . . With that, I leave you for today with this lovely thought from John Steinbeck (who knew some things about class warfare). And many thanks again to the creative wits at Armchair Patriots!

Attacks on the Middle Class Busting Out All Over

Forty-five thousand Verizon workers are on strike because the company, although it is "swimming in cash," is demanding that they give up a substantial amount of their earnings, benefits, and job security. But just like the USPS and the state of Wisconsin, the "budget crisis" is sheer fabrication. "In the first quarter of this year, Verizon tripled its profits compared with the previous year. Since February, when it began its new deal with Apple to market the iPhone, the company has signed up an astounding 2.3 million new iPhone customers."

According to the Communications Workers of America, "In the last four years alone, Verizon made more than $19 billion in profits and compensated their top five executives more than a quarter of a billion dollars. But apparently that’s not enough. Now they want to outsource more jobs, including sending jobs overseas, slash sick days, eliminate benefits for workers who get hurt on the job and cut the healthcare benefits they promised retirees."

Once again, Ed Schultz, inveterate advocate for middle-class workers that he is, focuses on what Verizon is up to (link to video here):

So, what to do? Send an e-mail in support of the workers to Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam. Sign the petition at Change.org.

Stand up and speak out for the middle class in Wisconsin, at the USPS, and at Verizon. Demand respect and fair treatment for workers everywhere. Organize, mobilize, and whatever you do, don't give up!

Ed Nails It: USPS Workers Against the Wall

Unsurprisingly Ed Schultz gets it right about what the United States Postal Service is really up to. (If you're reading this on Facebook, go here to see the video.)

The U.S. Postal Service is the largest civilian employer in the United States, second only to—wait for it—Walmart. So you can bet that the ripple effect of the USPS going down will be felt across the country. It will not have a positive effect on the U.S. economy, to say the least. And that will not reflect well on the Obama Administration.

More about the USPS in the news:

The Perfect Storm: How everything is coming together to take the Postal Service Apart on www.SavethePostOffice.com

The Plot to Kill the Post Office . . . And Its Union Contracts on Crooks & Liars.

Postal Workers to USPS: Don't Shred Our Contract on In These Times

Please sign the petition at Change.org: Don't Let the USPS Be Destroyed