Lysol Slammers

Not sure yet... I may and just not know it. A friend just got called up as part of an army national guard unit, not sure yet where they’ll be sending him. Know a few navy doctors who are understandably busy as hell, but none that I know of on those ships.

As a postal worker and union rep this is shaping up to be quite a shit show. At least I’ll be grateful if I come out alive!

Can you talk more about that? I see how the USPS is getting hammered with - I assume - extra volume and more exposure risk. Seems like it's the sort of exposure risk that a pair of gloves and a mask could help a lot with and the extra business flow could create a lot of jobs. Am I way off base? Super interested to know how corona is slamming USPS and the shipping industry in general.

Michael K. wrote:Can you talk more about that? I see how the USPS is getting hammered with - I assume - extra volume and more exposure risk. Seems like it's the sort of exposure risk that a pair of gloves and a mask could help a lot with and the extra business flow could create a lot of jobs. Am I way off base? Super interested to know how corona is slamming USPS and the shipping industry in general.

Quite the opposite with volume.

On a macro level our volume is plummeting (has been since the amazon revolution), so we are losing revenue. We were counting on Congress who added us into the stimulus bill. Would have gotten 25bil to bail us out. Trump insisted we were cut out of the bill and instead floated a 10bil LOAN. We are kind of fucked from a business perspective but only don’t know how fucked as of yet. GOP REALLY wants to privatize us, and management has been managing us in that direction as well for a long time. It’s sad.

Also...management never fully staffs and are toxic micromanaging jerks. So they are not reacting well to the pandemic and have often not had our safety in mind whatsoever. I had to fill out an OSHA slip so they would get us gloves for instance. Our union has negotiated many new memorandums to protect the workers but we have a NO STRIKE CLAUSE in our contract (we’ve had it for decades) so we are unable to bring direct change through organized action, only collective bargaining with a toxic company. We see non union Amazon workers striking, and retail companies paying their workers hazard pay and it only increases our frustration.

People are getting infected and are frustrated all across the nation. It’s not good. Many many more workers out on admin leave, sick leave, quarantine will only drain our revenue even more (and have those of us left behind working late nights, and overtime pay).  So far two deaths that we know of, a lot of positive cases. They keep telling us you can’t get it from the mail! Jerkoff.gif

I am so sorry that you are having to deal with all of that, Avec. First, I hope you are able to stay safe in this period. If you are not receiving the type of protective gear and equipment that you should be from work, try to obtain that in any way possible. The CDC is already weighing the benefits of suggesting that the entire nation wear masks in all public settings.

Second, I think you are probably correct about the inevitable privatization and decline of the USPS. The writing has been on the wall for a while. I thought Sanders' proposal to go after predatory pay-day lending and transform part of the USPS into a state-managed public bank provided the perfect template on how to save these institutions and give them renewed social purpose in the twenty-first century. Unfortunately that sort of transformative vision for our public institutions has, at least temporarily, been entirely foreclosed upon. Hopefully one positive aspect of this public crisis will be a rethinking of how we manage essential resources and services.

And third, I hope people like you consider electoral politics in the aftermath of all this. When this is over, I want to see new political leadership coming from public union representatives, from teachers, from nurses, postal workers, grocery clerks, etc. You are the people making this country operate right now and you should make sure people remember that when this is all over.

That’s part of the reason I’m so down about Bernie being fucked in the race at this point, he had so many great ideas about saving the postal service.

I have 7 years until I can defer my pension with 20 years of federal employment. If I can do that with the PO I will. I’m already getting ready to apply to some grad schools though.

Unless the PO makes some drastic changes like cut Saturday delivery, eliminate door to door (as much as our union is strongly against these type of job cutting measures) I can’t see them lasting for very long with the volume dropping, Congress prefunding, etc etc.

My company sent out an email last night basically saying that all corporate employees that were working from home will get a 5% cut of there pay for the moment. The only employees exempt from this cut are field techs like myself. I was completely caught off guard by this for two reason. One, I never thought the guys at the top would cut their pay to make sure we don’t lose ours, that is truly admirable. With that being said, my second thought is, the company is clearly in bad shape if everyone but the guys keeping it afloat are losing 5%.

I watched this at like 3 am today. It's the best thing I've done in ages.

coyote wrote:That’s part of the reason I’m so down about Bernie being fucked in the race at this point, he had so many great ideas about saving the postal service.

It does seem like this crisis will create a major shift in our political landscape. Hopefully Sander's campaign laid the groundwork and got these ideas to start circulating in the political conscious and political imagination of the country so that we have objectives to pursue in the coming years.

It will take time though. After the October crash of 1929, American workers were denied any direct aid from Hoover and Republicans, who instead bailed out banks and companies. It took another three years of economic misery before Roosevelt's election. Three years....

We are a corrupt 3rd world country:
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-04-07/hospitals-washington-seize-coronavirus-supplies

https://chicago.suntimes.com/coronavirus/2020/4/3/21207488/coronavirus-illinois-medical-supplies-wild-west

The last couple of John Oliver episodes on the coronavirus have been really good. The second to last was a really excellent critique of the political status quo in this country, especially our employer-based health insurance system. The more recent one stresses how absolutely toxic the feedback loop between Trump and Fox News (and other conservative media) is for this country. It is an obvious point, but it is also cathartic to watch someone parody it.

The number of people dumb enough to actually attend these protests at State governments is really, really marginal and the vast majority of Americans support the stay-at-home measures because they understandably want to avoid suffocating to death. But the fact that we are even having these fucking conversations is insane to me. We should be talking about how we get necessary supplies to first responders and healthcare workers. Or having a conversation about postponing mortgage payments, temporarily suspending rent, ensuring that the undocumented workers who are not included in the relief package are able to put food on the table each night. We should be having serious conversations about the welfare of our communities while also reflecting on the vulnerabilities of our existing political institutions and economic systems.

Instead we are literally the most braindead people and our government parks are full of motherfuckers with literal swastika flags. It has been a really upsetting day for me. As hopeless as the Biden Presidency will be and as disillusioned as I am with Democratic centrist who want to uphold a crumbling neoliberal governing consensus above all else, I really hope the asshole wins because I just cannot take this shit too much longer.

So my cousin, who's a nurse, caught the covids. Her mother, my aunt, has symptoms and got tested yesterday. My other aunt, who has a "benign" brain tumour as well as some serious respiratory issues earned from a lifetime of smoking, has been living with her so she's at some real serious risk. Meanwhile my cousin's young kids are understandably pretty upset that their mother and grandmother can't see them for at least two weeks. So that's fun.

what state are they in

Illinoize. Northwest burbs.

Protester in Algonquin, IL.  Photo credit: my big, fat friend named Dan.  Yikes.

Are we supposed to still be on lockdown or have we all just collectively said fuck it? I can't figure out what is going on anymore. I am still taking this shit really seriously (as one should) but I feel like I am the only one doing that and honestly this shit started getting really bleak about two weeks ago and it is starting to become a mental health problem as well.

How is everyone else holding up?

I’ve had a rough week mentally and have been feeling very sad and unmotivated.

All the states seem to be giving up and relaxing restrictions this weekend. By July I feel like it will be back to “normal” for the most part, people will still be dying and Trump will claim it was all a fake news scheme to hurt his re-election bid.

WP64 wrote:How is everyone else holding up?

Feel like I can't complain, but not too well.

Good and bad. Hanging. Very lucky and very aware of that luck.

Things are fine over here. I’ve actually made more music in the first 5 months of this year then I had in the previous 2 or 3 years. Mostly guitar loops but some full improv sessions as well. It has helped me on bad days.

Nick wrote:Trump will claim it was all a fake news scheme to hurt his re-election bid.

He and his brood are already doing this.

The aforementioned aunt has contracted it. Haven't heard if my other aunt has been tested yet. Fingers crossed. Got into a fight with my mother because she things the doctors and nurses are "hiding something" and she hung up angrily.

Personally doing OK, but I worry we're all rushing back to a normal that just doesn't and can't exist anyomore.

An unsolicited text message, just now.

Zappo's mom wrote:So I feel like this memorial day weekend we are playing out that scene from Jaws.