In today’s news - Part 3

They're just going to keep claiming executive privilege to delay, delay, delay and hope to end the investigation after the midterms.

DeJoy again . Assisted by the GQP.. . We will end up with gas/diesel trucks for 30+ years...

Because Republican senators are holding up confirmation of Biden’s Postal Board of Governors’ appointees, DeJoy can’t be fired by the current Trump-appointee-dominated board, a fact that Senator Sheldon Whitehouse pointed out last week, demanding the Senate move the Democratic nominees forward over GOP objections.

But DeJoy is itching to sign the contract for all those gas and diesel vehicles, and he still has the power to do so.

So, now that the possibility of electrifying the nation’s (now second) largest fleet of vehicles is pretty much dead and they’re planning to go ahead with fossil fuels, Republicans in Congress are fine with eliminating the retirement prefunding dead weight on the Post Office.

The vote in the House this week was 342-90 to end the prefunding requirement and give DeJoy the money to buy the gas-powered vehicles. Now it goes to the Senate, where the AP noted:

“Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said he expects his chamber to ‘move quickly’ on the measure. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he's planning a vote before a recess that starts after next week. The bill has 14 GOP sponsors and, with strong Democratic support expected, seems on track to gain the 60 votes most bills need for Senate passage.”

When asked Wednesday night on MSNBC why Congress had crippled the Post Office with that bizarre prefunding requirement in the first place, Senator Peters — one of the truly good guys in the US Senate — answered that he had no idea.

As is the case with most members of Congress; the pre-funding was essentially slipped into the bill at the behest of the fossil fuel industry and, at the time, got virtually no publicity. Thus, I tweeted him:

“Here’s what happened, @sengarypeters Around 2006 the post office rolled out a plan to convert their entire fleet to electric vehicles. They had a $ surplus and could do it. Republicans pushed a bill to cripple them financially. Now DeJoy has chosen a diesel truck vendor… Which is why now Republicans are willing to go along with funding the Post Office, because now the money will continue to flow to the fossil fuel industry for the avg. 30-year lifespan of postal vehicles. Look to the (ahem) petrobillionaires for the hand behind all this.”

It was incomplete on my part to miss the privatization bonus in the tweet, and the vendor will supply gasoline vehicles as well, but you get the point.

Like so many other weirdnesses in American politics, when you pull back the veil you find the hands of a fossil fuel industry that values profits and right wing ideology over the future of our children, our nation and the planet.

www.rawstory.com/here-s-why-republicans-suddenly-love-the-post-office/

This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

Charles Booker was wrong to misquote Paul.

I agree with one of the responders, when were there civil protests against slavery.

There were nonviolent civil rights protests, although many of those protesters were severely beaten, Rep John Lewis as a prime example. There were also deaths of nonviolent protesters!!

Former, .. but, but I gave him a pardon....

Donald Trump reportedly is upset with Lewis "Scooter" Libby, whom the former president pardoned in 2018, for attending a campaign fundraiser for Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY).
***
Liz Cheney, of course, is a Trump nemesis who voted to impeach him for inciting the Capitol insurrection — and now serves as vice chair of the House Select Committee investigating Jan. 6.

www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-2656638542/

I'm posting a link to a facebook post - Heather Cox Richardson posts a daily political summary usually 6 times a week.  Pretty good read!  Maybe you can't see it on mobile?