#Privatization

[elderinternetresurrection]

Btw, privatization is stealing from *you.* You are the public in "publicly owned." Oligarchs are coming in to take the things we all share ownership of as Americans, like Medicare, Social Security, National Parks, PBS and scrapping them for parts they find profitable.

The right is planning to rob us and quite literally want us to thank them for the privilege by calling it "government efficiency."

[dispatchesfromtheclasswar]

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Lawless tyrant Donald Trump plans to enact a grossly authoritarian power grab by ending nearly 55 years of USPS having political independence and wreck the e-commerce economy, and place it within the Department of Commerce

Jacob Bogage at Washington Post:

President Donald Trump is preparing to dissolve the leadership of the U.S. Postal Service and absorb the independent mail agency into his administration, potentially throwing the 250-year-old mail provider and trillions of dollars of e-commerce transactions into turmoil. Trump is expected to issue an executive order as soon as this week to fire the members of the Postal Service’s governing board and place the agency under the control of the Commerce Department and Secretary Howard Lutnick, according to six people familiar with the plans, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals. The board is planning to fight Trump’s order, three of those people told The Washington Post. In an emergency meeting Thursday, the board retained outside counsel and gave instructions to sue the White House if the president were to remove members of the board or attempt to alter the agency’s independent status. Two of the group’s GOP members — Derek Kan, a former Trump administration official, and Mike Duncan, a former chair of the Republican National Committee — were not in attendance, according to a person familiar with the gathering. The two did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Trump’s order to place the Commerce Department in charge of the Postal Service would probably violate federal law, according to postal experts. Another executive order earlier this week instructed independent agencies to align more closely with the White House, though that order is likely to prompt court challenges and the Postal Service by law is generally exempt from executive orders. Members of the Postal Service’s bipartisan board are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

Trump, at Lutnick’s urging, has mused about privatizing the Postal Service, and Trump’s presidential transition team vetted candidates to replace Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a retired logistics executive and GOP fundraising official who took office in 2020 during Trump’s first term.

[...] From its founding in 1775 until 1970, the U.S. mail system was a political organ of the White House. Presidents were known to appoint their political allies or campaign leaders as postmaster general, and the mail chief was often a key White House negotiator with Congress. But the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, the product of a crippling nationwide mail strike, led Congress to split the agency off into a freestanding organization, purposefully walling it off from political tinkering. Americans consistently rank the Postal Service among their most-beloved government agencies, second only to the National Park Service. A 2024 study by the Pew Research Center found more than 70 percent of Americans had a favorable view of the agency, a view that was similar among Democrats and Republicans. Trump’s first administration sought to test the agency’s independence. Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s first-term treasury secretary, attempted to control the 2020 hiring process that brought DeJoy to the Postal Service, and a task force run out of Mnuchin’s department recommended dramatically shrinking the scope of the agency and preparing it for privatization via an initial public offering.

This is tyranny full stop.

[republicanidiots]

Q: Has privatizing any government service made it cheaper for the consumer? Cuz that was the promise.

Mass transport? No. Prison? No. Medical care? No. Mail? No. Military supplies? No.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The federal NDP's transport critic is worried a new high-speed rail project in Ontario and Quebec will kill off publicly-subsidized passenger service in western Canada, the Prairies and the Maritimes. MP Taylor Bachrach, who represents the riding of Skeena-Bulkley Valley in B.C.'s northwest, says he is in favour of improved rail service, but warns it must benefit the public, as opposed to private companies. The plan for a consortium of private companies to build and operate 300 km/hour electric trains to run between Toronto and Quebec City, with stops in Ottawa, Montreal and other places, was announced Wednesday by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The project is to be overseen by a newly created Crown corporation called Alto. Currently, train service in that corridor is provided by Via Rail, a Crown corporation, which also provides service from Prince Rupert, on B.C.'s North Coast all the way to Halifax, with stops at major cities in-between. But more than 90 per cent of Via Rail's passengers — and more than 80 per cent of its revenue — comes from those travelling between Quebec City and Windsor, Ont., according to the corporation's annual reports. Bachrach says all that could be lost should the new rail line come online in the years ahead. "The Liberals plan to essentially hand over ridership to the private sector ... and Via Rail is going to be left with the crumbs," he said in an interview with CBC News. "They're going to be left with a fraction of the revenue that they use to operate rail all across the country."

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

[fatdaypants]

When the Amtrak gets privatized I think the Amish should buy it.

[victusinveritas]

[gwydionmisha]

Reminders:

1. Republicans under a previous administration forced them to fund retirement 80 years in advance for future workers who haven't been born yet in order to force it to run at a loss as an excuse to destroy it because it's cheaper and better for consumers than UPS and Fed Ex.

2. Ruining the post office harms small and micro-businesses that rely on cheap shipping, while helping UPS and Fed Ex , who are allowed to contribute to campaign coffers.

3. The USPS is a merit based diverse employers which still has excellent benefits, retirement, and decent pay. Republicans hate, hate, hate anything that is merit based and non-biased that also reminds workers in other fields they could have all those things.

4. It also proves how well the government can run things, so it's bad for their destroy the government and anything that is for the common good agenda.

5. The USPs is required to deliver to rural areas. Privatizing leaves elderly and disabled customers SOL for things they need like medications, etc.. Republicans would like elderly and disabled people to just die.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Rep. Jamie Raskin :: @RepRaskin

* * * *

...what’s happening now goes deeper than privatization. What we’re witnessing is a deliberate redefinition of what government is for—and who it serves. This isn’t just about economics. It’s about power, and the values behind it. Governments, in theory, exist to support the conditions of life—through education, health, infrastructure, and care. But when states retreat from that role, they don’t stop governing. They just start governing differently—by deciding whose lives are worth protecting, and whose aren’t. That’s the shift underway.

 -- James B. Greenberg

[odinsblog]

What are the commons? Thom Hartmann describes the commons as the idea that certain assets should be in public ownership. Services vital to our collective survival, like water, must remain in the public sector and not be privatized.

[rickmctumbleface]

You DO understand why Trump and his oligarch allies are doing everything they can to destroy the government, right? It's so when everything stops working (cuz they stopped it) they can say "See? Government doesn't work!" and then move to privatize EVERYTHING so their billionaire buddies can make bank off everything we do. Every road will be a toll road. Want the cops or fire dept to show up if you call them? You'd better buy their insurance! They will squeeze the middle class dry and the poor will be left with nothing.

[wat3rm370n]

TheLetterHack livestream on THE US POSTAL SERVICE.

THE POSTAL SERVICE IS A PUBLIC SERVICE W/ CHLOE HUMBERT! The Letterhack - Streamed live on Mar 4, 2025

I went on TheLetterHack livestream this past week to talk about the US Postal Service, as a big fan of the postal service. Another person was on more recently too talking about the post office and a postcard campaign.

The postal service is a public service. Privatizing the U.S. Postal Service is a bad idea - it's not about profit, and it shouldn't be. Chloe Humbert Feb 21, 2025 Elon Musk says he's doing a "corporate takeover" of America... via the postal service. Elon Musk appears to be potentially looking to seize total control over free communication in America, especially rural America. Chloe Humbert Mar 06, 2025

[anarchistin]

It is not, as a rule, by means of useful inventions, or of any other action which increases the general wealth of the community, that men amass fortunes; it is much more often by skill in exploiting or circumventing others.

— Bertrand Russell

[justinspoliticalcorner]

The Guardian:

Donald Trump in recent weeks has expressed a keen interest in privatizing the US Postal Service (USPS) because of its financial losses, the Washington Post reported on Saturday, citing three people with knowledge of the matter. Trump, who begins his second US presidency on 20 January, has discussed his desire to privatize the USPS with Howard Lutnick, his pick for commerce secretary, at his Mar-a-Lago home, the report said. As the Post noted, the move could disrupt consumer shipping and business supply chains while pushing hundreds of thousands of federal workers out of government.

Nonetheless, Trump gathered a group of officials advising him on his transition back to the White House and asked them for their views on privatizing the agency. Informed of its annual financial losses, Trump said the USPS should not be subsidized by the government, according to the people who spoke with the Post on the condition of anonymity so that they could speak frankly about private conversations.

Trump’s specific plans for possibly overhauling the USPS and privatizing it were not immediately clear. But he feuded with the agency during his first presidency, seeking to compel it to turn over key functions – including labor relations, managing relationships with its largest clients, rate-setting and personnel matters – to the federal treasury department.

Meanwhile, before his defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election cost him his first presidency, Trump argued that the USPS was incapable of facilitating mail-in voting because he was blocking the agency from accessing emergency funding. Ultimately, as the Post noted, the USPS delivered nearly 98% of voters’ ballots to election officials within three days despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Yet another deranged and terrible policy idea from Donald Trump is on the horizon: He is eyeing the privatization of the USPS.

Such a move would impact rural areas, which heavily voted for him, the most.

[usmailnotforsale]

Don't mean to alarm you but.... 🚨🚨🚨