Brane Space: With Destruction of Hundreds Of Mail Sorting Machines Look For Chaos, Potential Political Violence In Wake Of General Election

"The Post Office is an earnest, all-American, beloved, practical part of our lives. You mess with it and you are messing with a lot of Americans - who apparently are in the mood to push back... The U.S. Postal Service is more American than apple pie. And I mean that in a very specific sense. Apple pie does not have its own line in the Constitution. The Post Office does. It is a necessity, it is uncontroversial, it is integrated into the fabric of our lives." - Rachel Maddow, Aug. 14, MSNBC

The news that brand new mail sorting machines are being destroyed in the run up to a major election in which over 100 million mail ballots may be cast, ought to set every citizen's teeth on edge. For with this sabotage of these critical machines - which can process up to 36,000 piece of mail per hour - we are looking at the specter of the destruction of our democracy using open sabotage and terror.

Worse, the sabotage in concert with Trump's endless attacks on the election being 'rigged" from mail voting, is setting the stage for massive civil unrest, chaos and violence given what is likely to unfold.

Consider: 671 of the machines have already been disassembled and many chucked into dumpsters, as reported on MSNBC (Stephanie Ruhle) Monday. And also originally by VICE News, e.g.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/n7wk9z/the-post-office-is-deactivating-mail-sorting-machines-ahead-of-the-election

In doing this DeJoy and his cohort had to have calculated just what it would take to muck up the works in the midst of a pandemic election, So tossed a "spanner" into the mail system as it were. Take 36,000 pieces of mail processed per hour at 671 sites (mainly in city areas, some rural) and look at eight hours a day taken out of service - and over at least ten days of sorting before the Nov. 3rd deadline. We are now looking at a backlog of millions of mail ballots to be tabulated and counted and a best guess is it will not be completed until December 1st. That means we may not know the winner until December 1st or probably later.

All of this while Trump incessantly rage tweets and barks and snarls (like the mad dog he is) about the forthcoming election being "rigged" and (on Monday): "The only way they can take this election away from us is if they rig it!" Which is total codswallop given most polls show him losing by up to 8 points which if it holds -would translate to a landslide, say 440 electoral votes to 98.

But imagine this asinine autocrat Traitor feeding the fires of frenzy for at least a month. Indeed, in a worst case scenario - with enough snafus (e.g. some states throwing out ballots over changing rules) - we may not learn the winner until the new year. Over all that time Trump stoking rage among his denizens. All it will take is one "match" and this nation could literally go up in flames. Think of the Kenosha protests and fire bombs etc. but nationwide. (One FT columnist compared the conditions to the 1860 election, "just before the Civil War.")

In the end, the removal of the sorting machines at this critical time will clearly have a major impact on ballots processed. And the slower, the more ponderous the rate of resulting counts - and in a majority of states- the greater the potential for violence and chaos. Especially this time as the Resistance will not easily allow Biden to concede like Gore did in 2000. Not until every damned outstanding ballot is counted in every damned state. Not when we know this election is "for all the marbles" , and may well be the last gasp of democracy, whether the millions of Trump's deranged zombies even know or care.

We know already this will be a knife fight and Trump and the Repukes are setting the stage up convinced the Dems will meekly abandon the effort and cave like they did in 2000 to "save the Republic" or "avoid a constitutional crisis" or some such rot. But make no mistake, there is no such luxury this time around e.g.

Donald Trump

Trump Really Does Have a Second-term Agenda — and It’s Terrifying

So the Dems will have to bring metaphorical Uzis to the knife fight. No time now, no matter how long the ballot counting takes, to play the meek role. Thanks to Louis DeJoy's mass sabotage of sorting machines - including ripping off the UPC coding labels so they can't just be reassembled - even if dedicated workers wanted to. At least one liberal blogger has recommended "non-violent defense of the election in the streets", e.g.

2020 Elections | Social Justice and Activism

We Must Be Prepared to Nonviolently Defend a Democratic Election in the Streets

by Jeffrey C. Isaac | August 23, 2020 - 5:59am | permalink

But that, of course, will depend on the behavior of Trump's brigade of zombies, Boogie Boies, Nazis and other riff raff, including militias. No lefty I know is prepared to "turn the other cheek" if a long gun gets pointed at him or her, so things could get ugly and fast. But again, this is the diabolical stage Trump, DeJoy and the 'Pukes have set up. As the blogger Jeffrey C. Isaac notes:

"It is likely that the election will generate many court challenges and political contestation involving governors, state legislatures and Congress. We may also see civil violence fomented by Trump’s far-right supporters, many of whom are armed and dangerous and have already shown their willingness to brandish their weapons in public."

So hey,forewarned is forearmed! Could it have been avoided? Well, yeah, Duh! Had DeJoy not sabotaged the critical sorting machines en masse just weeks from the election! (And also defiantly vowed to the House Oversight Committee Monday he will absolutely not restore them to service. Most are utterly junked anyway.)

Fortunately, Janice and I live in a state (Colorado) where we will get our ballots at least ten days before and we plan to promptly fill them in then deposit in a drop box (not mail them in). This is cool for us. The problems then, will likely arrive in all the battleground states which hold the electoral votes needed to win like they did in 2016. So we are looking at Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania in particular. Any foul ups in the processing of ballots in those key states could have especially ugly outcomes. It is regrettable things have come to this but as Robert Reich put it in a recent blog on smirkingchimp.com:

"It’s no secret Donald Trump will do anything to hold on to power. His latest strategy is to sabotage the United States Postal Service, courtesy of his handpicked Postmaster General Louis DeJoy."

Watch Reich's full presentation here: