Why are we picking on the US Post Office ?

I love the Post Office, and its employees. I love seeing that blue-clad foot soldier in shorts coming my way with a fistful of mail. Could be a letter from a friend, a package ordered, my vitamins, prescriptions, a birthday card --- even a check coming right to my door. Sure, sometimes it's bills, and almost every day there's junk-mail.....but still, it's delivered right to my door FREE, rain or shine.

I like FedEx and UPS too, but I don't think of them in any way as "mine".

The United States Postal Service, now that's me; or at least my Government working, doing something I want, directly for me. Something vital , and a bedrock of democracy . 

Ever since Reagan there have been attempts by republicans to privatize the Postal Service or curtail Saturday delivery. "Penny-wise and pound-foolish!",Ben Franklin would say. I cannot tell you how many times a check has come in to my business on a Saturday that has started some project rolling or would engender some action that would have otherwise waited until Monday. No big deal, some would say; but multiply my experience by thousands of merchants like me, in all 50 states.

Capitalism relies on productivity and productivity relies on motivation, which relies on the movement of currency through the system. Take away just one day of that movement around the country and you have eliminated a little bit of productivity, slowed progress. How ridiculous is that, at a time when our economy is suffering such slow growth? Slow the mails and we are going to slow the wheels of progress down from six days to five.  What’s next after that, no Wednesday deliveries?

Ben Franklin and other colonialists founded the U.S. Postal Service, back when mail was delivered by horse. In fact, the Post Office preceded the Nation itself into being. It was not established to earn money for us, but rather to facilitate all of us making profits from interstate commerce. The U.S. Constitution provides that there will always be a US Postal Service. So, why is it now under attack?

It's not a business created to make a profit. It's a service.

Does the Secret Service need to turn a profit? Does the FBI have to run in the black?

The Department of Interior charges for using our National Parks, but do we close Old Faithful if it fails to turn a profit?

And how about some consideration for having to adapt and compete in an age of free email & Internet information, instant texting and instant messaging. What other business has done as well when it's suddenly faced with competition that is virtually FREE? It's a service all Americans are entitled to. It's also one of the Nation's largest employers, offering decent jobs with good benefits to millions of middle class American families. It's an engine of change, one of the first to offer employment without regard to race or national origin. Estimates are that 25,000-45,000 of these Post Office jobs will be cut by ending Saturday delivery. These are good jobs lost, just at the time we need more jobs. There must be a better solution. How about increasing the first class stamp to 95cents? I'll be happy to pay it, especially if they issue some colorful new 95cent commemorative for it. Maybe we could have a stamp commemorating the Fiscal Cliff !!

Who's idea was it to privatize this vital institution and bloodline to our economy? What other private business or Government Agency is required to fund its entire Pension Plan - in advance - for the next 75 years ? No one. Whose idea was that?  And why ?  Removing sorting machines 90 days before an Election and in the midst of a pandemic? This is intentional sabotage, not business as usual. Tampering with the mails is a Federal crime, Mr. DeJoy.

Meanwhile, is there anyone out there that doesn't like to see that little white, blue and red Postman's truck come up the street? Who else will bring you a letter all the way from Boston to California and do it for 55 cents? The Post Office is a means for dialog and communication that connects us all to each other, and to the rest of the world. A spoke in the wheel that turns our economy and keeps it moving.

So , next time you are thinking of complaining about the Postal Service, imagine life without it, if we don't all demand Trump & his cronies don't stop picking on the Post Office and instead start appreciating how much they do, for so little.

What Can President Biden Do About Putin ?

When Gerald Ford took the podium for the first time and addressed the Nation in 1974, as its new President, he told us that "Our long National nightmare is over." It sounded reassuring , until he revealed he was Pardoning Richard Nixon for the same crimes that sent 48 Watergate conspirators to Prison.  But , the peaceful transition of Power , from one Leader to another had taken place,  over the course of one single day . 

Little did President Ford know then that our long National Nightmare of 2020 would make that period in  History seem tame and traditional. I fear that this time we will not be so lucky. Donald Trump will surely Pardon his co-conspirators whether he wins re-election or not; but the sins of the Father in this case will be visited upon all of us . All Americans have or will feel the stench of the misery, death and failure Donald Trump leaves in his wake. Everywhere he goes in Government, in politics, in business and in humanity he fails miserably because his only interest is what's in it for him. Nothing else amounts to a hill of beans.  

With the pandemic threatening to tear us apart, and Donald Trump too eager to assist it, we are headed for a very long dark winter of discontent no matter who wins the White House on November 3. This time the election will not only be a contest of Republicans vs Democrats, but also of Democracy vs Authoritarianism; as our free society will be tested again and again by Putin and his new KGB.  They are way ahead of us in this game , but unlike a real President , our reality TV President invites them in and conspires with Putin in secret phone calls planning the demise of our Republic. Trump is a willing Asset or a useful idiot to Putin, but either way Putin wins and we lose. Our penchant for "freedom" and "public disclosure" makes us vulnerable in ways that Dictatorships drool over. Russian interference will be more sophisticated in 2020 because they now know how easy it is to fool and manipulate the American public. 

Only a Landslide Victory by Joe Biden and the forces of good will turn this around. A close Victory will not do and will be contested. I believe Biden and the American people will win. And when he finally gets to sit behind that Resolute Desk as the 46th President of the United States, what should he do to let the Russians know its Game Over,  and that they will have to pay a high and heavy price for trying to infiltrate, buy and otherwise overthrow the lawful Government of the United States ? 

What can Biden do to send the strongest possible messages to Putin - and other thugs like him - that making cyber-war against the USA will hereinafter be considered an Act of War, for which we will retaliate. What can Biden do? Well, there's plenty. 

For 1. Make an Oval Office speech declaring that from now on we will consider Cyber-Warfare the same as Military warfare; an Invasion either way will be dealt with the same.

2. Cut off all Access to US Banks and Banking Systems. Stop Money Laundering through Deutsche Bank and others. Arrest and try US and foreign people for doing it .

3. Seize Russian assets in the US . 

4. Use the Internet against Putin the way he does against us. Start by revealing to the Russian people how much of their money he has amassed off-shore,  and exactly where it is. Reveal the addresses of properties Putin owns. 

5. Make a speech about Putin's cyber-warfare, corruption and aggression. Make it at the U.N. 

 6. Expel the Russian Ambassador. Deny all their Diplomats entry to the US,  even to attend the U.N.

7. Mess with Russia's already antiquated power grid. 

8. Strengthen and fortify NATO, and enhance it's armed forces. 

9. Invite Ukraine to join NATO. 

To My Honorable Republican Friends - COVID is Not a Hoax

Today is May 7, 2020 -- I am writing this to you because I believe you are not Trump Cult members, and hopefully will be able to escape his propaganda long enough to hear some facts.

You tell me this Covid-19 thing is "overly hyped", and that the Death numbers are overblown because you heard Hospitals get $13,000 (from the Government) for every person - that dies there of COVID-19.

Let's think about this. Are Hospitals now being compensated when they lose a patient? If I am a Hospital Administrator: Do I really want to exaggerate the number of patients we have lost in our hospital, for any reason? Do I want to be the Hospital that has the most deaths in my area?

When this is all over, that number will remain out there forever. Will you & your family want to get your cancer treatments in the Hospital that had the most deaths, or the least ? How about that neo-natal care you are needing? Taking your infant to Hospitals with the high death rates from COVID, or the lowest?
  
And the 50 Governors? Is there a race for whose State had the most deaths from COVID-19 ? Is that the record they want to stand for?  No. I believe they want to control the outbreaks in their states and minimize the death toll. If anything I believe COVID deaths are under-counted. Here's why.

With the US death toll, (highest in the world), now climbing to and passing 80,000... is this number being hyped? By whom ? By the mainstream media,  other than FOX?  That depends on what you think is being hyped? Are they ALL going wall to wall with covering every aspect of this Pandemic, in never-ending soundbites and heartbreaking stories? Yes, for sure; because it sells.
But are they making this stuff up ?

Not if you can believe your own eyes, your local Public Health Infiormation website, or the words of experts like Dr. Fauci. You must conclude they are not.  If any heart attack or pneumonia deaths were recorded with COVID as the cause - and surely there have been some - these will easily be offset by deaths NOT recorded as COVID because there weren't enough tests around for the living, never-mind testing the dying or dead.

Lots of people died in their homes and doctors who could not test them, did not. Furthermore, unless you believe the Chinese propaganda, this disease may have been spreading and arrived here in December or early January before we even had a name for it. It was the Wuhan Flu then. How many of those deaths were not counted?

SPEAKING of China, the data and the DEATH Toll there are surely both manipulated the way authoritarian regimes always do. In a crowded Nation of 1.44 billion people, it is not unusual for people to disappear all the time and never be heard from again; and no one can question these things in China or you will disappear too.  So - for that reason alone we know they are lying.

Chinese were probably dying in droves there before they clamped down - as only an organized Dictatorship can do - and got it under control . How many Deaths there ? I'm guessing hundreds of thousands, but no one will ever know because they lie, obfuscate and mislead everyone, including the World Health Organization, and including Trump, who was then still trying to right his mistaken Tariff Policy disaster by kissing up to Xi.... until the outbreak got too much for America to ignore.

So now he wants to blame it all on China; or on Speaker Pelosi because she went to Chinatown San Francisco (the District she represents) to show moral support for the Chinese community there that was being blamed and threatened as if they were the cause of the virus.

Trump likes to congratulate himself for seeing the problem early-on,  and closing off flights from China in late January. But he did not. The USA allowed over 40,000 Americans, green-card holders and ex-patriots to return AFTER the ban, but did not order them all to be quarantined for 14 days upon arrival like he did later with the Cruise Ships occupants,  who were also largely Americans.  Additionally, after the so-called Ban on Travel from China, Trump still allowed Chinese tankers to unload their cargo AND THEIR CREWS, into American ports. That kind of Ban is like putting a picket fence around your vegetable garden to keep out the rabbits and squirrels.   

As for the FOX News theory that Obama could not have done any better or that he "left the cupboards bare" when Trump got in, here's the truth. Susan Rice, Obama's National Security Advisor, says that is not true and can prove it.  She and others who were there said Obama's transition Team gave Trump a 67 page Playbook - and a live briefing by the then White House Pandemic Team - on what to do if it looks like a Pandemic might be spreading anywhere on the globe. They had just successfully kept Ebola from reaching our shores. But Trump didn't follow any of the Playbook suggestions. In fact, he fired or pushed out the Team he was given,  simply because they were experts appointed by Obama. Meanwhile, Trump had three years in Office to restock what he claims he was out of stock on, but he did nothing.  Who does he blame for that? The World Health Organization.

Trump tries to blame the WHO, but they were doing the exact same thing he was doing in January, downplaying it. Only they changed their tune a full week before he did, declaring it a World Health Emergency while Trump was still saying it would go away magically in April.  Now he cuts the WHO Aid that Congress allotted, which means the WHO will be underfunded and unable to contain it in Third World Nations when the next Ebola or Coronavirus breaks out there. In some places the WHO is the ONLY line of defense they have. Good idea? 

ALSO, Trump and his Staff were given a lengthy briefing early in 2017 on what would be in his PDB (President's Daily Brief) about threats to our National Security from cyber-attacks to viral attacks. Trump chose not to hear them, and didn't want to read them,  unless they were reduced to one page with bullet points and pictures, and had his name all over it. He dismissed those who tried to warn him, even his own appointees-  from DNI Joseph MacGuire, whom he fired -  to the head of our vaccine Development at HHS, Dr. Rick Bright, who he demoted. A dedicated public servant, Dr. Bright is suing to get his job back because he knows how important it is that he be there still.   

Trump's errors didn't stop there, and his lies and disinformation campaign goes on to this day .
 But the truth will all come out eventually when Congress launches it's 9/11 style Commission to examine what really happened, and how to learn from it .

Unfortunately, what we learn will be too late for 100,000 Americans and the families that have had to bury their Dead without a proper Goodbye. Many of them were our First Responders, EMT, Nurses, Hospital and Grocery workers. There will be no righting that wrong, or undoing that hurt. Not ever.

Impeachment Aftermath


Donald Trump is about to be Impeached by the House of representatives.  When that happens he will become only the third of 45 Presidents to be Impeached , not counting Richard Nixon who escaped certain Impeachment and Removal by resigning in disgrace.

It's likely Trump with then be the third Impeached but not removed by the Senate. Andrew Johnson , who tried to turn Win the Battle for the Confederate States after the Union Won the War over Slavery, escaped removal by one Vote. He was so unpopular after that, he declined to run for re-election.

Richard Nixon left a legacy of larceny and bribery so long it filled several books and hours of tapes , and ended in prison terms for 48 of his closest advisors and co-conspirators. He ended his days in disgrace, and died of a stroke at 81, after asserting to David Frost that "...if the President does it, it is not a crime."    

Bill Clinton was Impeached for lying about getting blow-jobs in the Oval Office. The Senate found that unimpeachable and acquitted him. After that, Clinton finished his Second Term with a 60% approval rating from the American public that soundly punished the partisan Republicans for their folly.

Donald Trump , with a mountain of evidence of his criminal and unacceptable behavior as President , will likely not be removed because Republican Senators are afraid he will Tweet against them, and cost them their seats. But History will not look kindly upon him . The long term verdict and his possible arrest on charges of High Crimes and Felonies will follow him the rest of his days .

So my question after his removal by whatever means it takes, is this :

If we routinely Void the Heisman trophy , the Tour de France and Olympic Medal Winners for disgracing themselves and their Countries by doping or cheating , and we deny the Baseball Hall of Fame to All-Time great ballplayers like Pete Rose ( for gambling)  or Barry Bonds (for steroids) ; then shouldn't we also Void Donald Trump's Term as 45th President?  

CORONAVIRUS - Some Good Things  - March 29,2020

We are now in our second week of Sheltering at Home. It's kind of like what I imagine it would be like to be imprisoned for a crime I did not commit. Not a bad prison to be isolated in , here in California, but still confinement. And it's solitary for me, alas. Yet not nearly as bad as for those sick or dying, so I'll take it . 

A couple of good things I've noticed coming out of all this: 
1. People are getting better at communicating and keeping in touch with friends, relatives, loved ones and even old long lost friends. People are being nicer to their neighbors and learning to take more walks.

2. There's going to be another Baby Boomer generation coming along in about 9-10 months from now. I sure hope we leave them a better world than this one we have today. Babies are good.

3. There seems to be a worldwide cessation of big bloody Wars. With a few flare-ups here and there (Hamas of course) even the murderous dictators of the World - Putin, MBS, the Taliban, Erdogan, Al-Sisi, Assad, Khameini all seem to have taken a time-out from their usual sadism.

Or maybe the News Media doesn't cover it anymore?  Can't really say much when it comes to Kim Jong Un, Xi Jinping or the Sultan of Brunei because they mostly do their mass-murders under cover; so we'll probably never know. On the other hand , some Countries are releasing prisoners they don't need to hold right now, and cannot protect in such close confines. Hopefully the USA will soon be one of them. So, good News, nobody appears to be invading anybody else for now. Maybe they are practicing Nation distancing ?

4. As I was reminded in my family Zoom call this Sunday, the Planet can breathe a sigh of temporary relief since cars and industry have stopped belching carbon into the atmosphere in mass quantities these past few weeks. Take a deep breath, Mother Earth, while you can. 

5. We don't have to sit through any more Democrat Debates about who has the better Health Care plan! That was soooo boring, and meaningless since none of them are going to get anything done for the uninsured unless we get MoscowMitch out of the Senate along with Trump. Why don't we just nominate Biden by Acclamation,  and get on with it.

I personally know about 50 million people that can't wait to cast their Vote against Trump. And they're not all women.

Anyone else noticing good things coming out of all this tragedy ? Please list them here, or on  Twitter feed :  @ElliotsWindow

Update from Home

 To My Loyal Cadre of Blog-fans




I'm currently working on my new book , "Not Too Late " , inspired by

Snoopy’s book which he titled “Things I Learned When it Was Too Late.”

He wrote on his manual typewriter atop his doghouse, kinda like The Bloom High Way was written in the unfinished attic at Hill House, on an old clippety-clop Underwood classic.

My new book is coming along slowly but nicely. Most of it is raw and personal. Some stories about my Life you may recognize, others you’ll learn for the first time .

But in the meantime, now that I'm stuck here at home Social Distancing from COVID-19,  for most of the next couple weeks I'm going to renew my BLOG efforts.

 In case you were wondering, I haven't been silent. No,  I've developed something of a Twitter mania instead.  Twitter : @ElliotsWindow

I feel compelled to get my ideas out there as quickly as possible these days, as if our democracy and the whole planet Earth depended upon it. Twitter is so fast, and I'm doing some of my best writing there, in 280 characters or less. It's a good exercise for a writer to keep it short and to the point .  Gonna work on somehow transposing it all from emails and Fb to BLOG format,  and when I do you'll be hearing from me again.

First out of the box, I'm working on a title called : My Conversation with a MAGA .
It's quite informative,  no matter which side of sanity you live on .

 Anyway, please watch this space for less moronic info than you'll get from Trump!