Voter Suppression

Posted on by Thor

 

 

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” Across the county a record number of Americans plan to vote-by-mail amid the COVID-19 pandemic. USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy was called before a Senate committee on August 21, 2020 to answer questions about how the US postal service has been dismantled leading up to the November election. DeJoy who has donated millions to the Donald Trump election campaign and he was put in position by Trump. The president has been falsely claiming that mail in voting is an invitation for voting fraud. He seems to think dogs will be given ballots and that the results will be contested for years. He slammed mail in voting as he signed his own mail in ballot for Florida.

Louis DeJoy confirmed that he will not restore mail collecting and processing capacity that the U.S Postal Service has lost in recent weeks, when pressed by U.S. Senator Tom Carper in a Senate Homeland Security Committee. Over the past few weeks Senator Carper has received hundred of complaints form his constituents about delayed paychecks and prescription drugs.

CNN reported that any Americans have since grown concerned over the USPS’ ability to handle the expected influx of ballots as more voters choose to vote by mail because of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Sorting machines and mailboxes that had been removed will not be put back in use. An e-mail instructed postal workers to not to reconnect any mail sorting machines that have previously been disconnected.

U.S. Senator Chris Coons was invited by anonymous USPS employees to see what they called “government destruction of property.” He found a dismantled mail sorting machine that he said was left out in the rain. The senator said employees told him the dismantling happened in a “late-night operation.”

Kevin Couch, a director of maintenance operations said, “We’ve got a president who doesn’t want to have vote-by-mail. We’ve got a president who would like to suppress the vote; we’ve got a president who would like to see the postal service not do well,” he said. “When I see what’s going on with the president who wants to degrade the postal service, wants to get rid of vote-by-mail, you shouldn’t be surprised that we’re alarmed that we’re seeing that kind of degraded service.

Trump told Sean Hannity, a Fox News host, that he also intends to have police officers and sheriff’s deputies patrol polling sites on Election Day. As Trump put it, “We’re gonna have everything. We’re gonna have sheriff’s and we’re gonna have law enforcement, and we’re going to have , hopefully, U.S. attorneys and we’re going to have everybody – and attorney generals.” This pronouncement implies that he plans to suppress voting in key states.

A 1982 Democratic National Committee lawsuit accused the Republican National Convention of trying to suppress votes in New Jersey by, among other things, posting armed, off-duty police officers at the polls in Black and Latino neighborhoods. The lawsuit decree expired in 2018, and this election marks the first presidential election since it expired.

Federal law prohibits intimidation at the polls and makes it illegal for any “civil” or “military” federal officer to order “troops or armed men” to polling places, unless needed to “repel armed enemies of the United States.”

Civilian Poll-watching is a common practice, and both parties use it. A top Trump aide, Justin Clark, said the campaign was working to recruit 50,000 poll-watchers.

 

Gutting USPS

Posted on by admin

President Donald Trump is gutting the USPS to rig the up upcoming presidential election. For months he has been claiming that mail in ballots will result in election fraud. To restrict access to the ballot box he is literally removing mail boxes from street corners. His basic premise seems to be that he can not win the popular vote, so he will make it more difficult to vote. With the COVID-19 pandemic raging across the country many states are taking steps to make mail in voting a safer option to vote.

The new postmaster general Louis DeJoy is a right-wing millionaire who donated millions to the Trump campaign. DeJoy also has investment in shipping companies that are direct competitor to the post office. AS an investor he would make money by helping to destroy the USPS. Known as the “Friday Night Massacre,” DeJoy dismantled mail sorting equipment and remove mailboxes from the streets. Congress was called back to the hill to have a hearing about the election meddling and Dejoy is set to testify by Friday August 21, 2020.

Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first postmaster general in 1775 and the organization is older than the government itself. It has a rich history of delivering mail to rural residents and city dwellers alike. Some people rely on the USPS to deliver prescription drugs and other essentials. I have personally noticed the slow down since I have been waiting weeks for a shipment to come in. This is the largest grab for power by the president so far. It is an authoritarian move to discredit, the press, the scientists and then find a way to break the very fabric of democracy by discrediting and trying to remove free elections.

Las Vegas

Posted on by Thor

With sketchbook in hand I walked down the Las Vegas Strip towards the Mandalay Bay Hotel. Across the street a large Statue of Liberty wore a Golden Nights sports jersey and I had to sketch. The jersey took 4 straight days to make, weighs 600 pounds and is 28 feet tall. It took six hours to get her dressed. The back dons the number 17 and the name Budweiser. It is a bit sad that she has been turned into an advertising billboard for beer.

Also in the scene was Ellis Island and the Empire State Building. I used to work in the Empire State building and the large windows could be opened and I liked to sit on the ledge of the window looking out and straight down. I liked to watch the window washers at work. They would snap a restraining harness to a latch on the outside of the window frame and then lean out to squeegee the window. No that is a job that took some real guts.

This replica decorates the New York, New York Casino. The United States Post Office decided to print a postage stamp using the face of the statue of Liberty. In stead of using the face of the statue in New York, they used the face of this Las Vegas statue created by artist Robert S Davidson.

Davidson, born and raised in Las Vegas, completed the Statue of Liberty replica in 1996 for MGM Resorts International, when the casino operator opened its latest theme casino New York-New York. Davidson said in court documents that he
wanted to give his replica a face that was “a little more modern, a
little more feminine” and looked for inspiration from a photograph of
his mother-in-law, Lucille Schwartz.

 

Davidson sued the post office for copyright infringement. The stamp was first issued in December of 2010. About 4 billion copies of the stamp were printed by USPS.  The post office mistook
the face for the statue that has stood in New York Harbor since 1886. Getty images was paid $1200 for the right to use the photo on the stamp. The stamp generated about $2.1 billion in sales for the Postal Service, according to court filings. The artist was awarded nearly $3.6 million in 2018 by a federal
court that ruled the U.S. Postal Service infringed his copyright when it
mistakenly used an image of his statue on the stamp.

The only thing that keeps this scene from looking like it could be NYC is that large palm tree to the right of Lady Liberty. The tree looks about as tall as she is. This statue is about half the size of the original in New York Harbor. This replica took 11 months to complete. Hopefully I will be safe for having turned my eye towards Lady Liberty. To date I have made $0 for having sketched her.