Fed Week: Post Office & Supply Chain Warfare

by

On the Economics side of things, a quiet morning.

First up, there’s the Empire State Manufacturing report:  Here’s the quotable part:

“The headline general business conditions
index climbed five points to 17.4, its
highest level since last summer. New
orders increased modestly, and shipments
were up substantially. Delivery times
continued to lengthen, and inventories
were somewhat higher. Employment
levels and the average workweek both
increased modestly. Input price increases
continued to pick up, rising at the fastest
pace in nearly a decade, and selling prices
increased significantly…”

After which, Dow futures were up 71, S&P down 2 and change.

Tomorrow, the Retail Sales figures pop.  And the Fed meets.  With a rate non-decision due Wednesday.  Not much they can do but hold where rates are and print like hell.

The rest of the week is blah-blah.  Options expire Friday and a big decline before then seems improbable.

Post Office Failing

I’ve held my tongue on the performance lately of the US Post Office, but their inability to complete the “last mile”  job is getting personal.  Just this morning, an Amazon tracking report said:

The problem, which is obvious, is that that package was NOT delivered here.  And the Post Office is outright lying to customers.

What I suspect is going on is Postal Worker contract negotiations.  You see, according to the American Postal Worker’s Union (here) “In June, formal negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement between the American Postal Workers Union and the United States Postal Service will begin..”

Sadly, the Ure’s (and maybe you) should brace for mail service only getting worse – perhaps MUCH worse – before it gets better.

It Already Gets Worse

Here’s another example:  Small piece of electronics purchased on March 2.  The tracking for this one?

  • Mar 14, 2021
  • 9:11am
  • PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
  • DALLAS, TX 75398
  • Mar 14, 2021
  • 8:22am
  • PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
  • DALLAS, TX 75398
  • Mar 11, 2021
  • 12:46pm
  • PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
  • JERSEY CITY, NJ 07097
  • Mar 5, 2021
  • 12:05pm
  • PICKED UP
  • LEVITTOWN, PA 19057
  • Mar 3, 2021
  • 4:12pm
  • PRE-SHIPMENT INFO SENT USPS AWAITS ITEM
  • LEVITTOWN, PA 19057
  • Mar 3, 2021
  • 3:57pm
  • SHIPPING LBL CREATED USPS AWAITS ITEM
  • LEVITTOWN, PA 19057
  • Mar 3, 2021
  • 12:57pm

6-DAYS to go 55-miles?  AYFKM???  Blue State bullshit? (I would love to see if red states are being disproportionately screwed by Postal jerk-arounds!)  Call to complain and you get a long excuse read by a computer.  Blaming Covid, and employee availability…and whatever.

I have talked to Amazon about this – and they will be switching our preferred carrier over to UPS.  BUT, in  the meantime, the Post Office is failing to do its job.  And with Trump long-gone, who’s there to blame?  Our pick?  The Slow Buyed’em crowd?

No:  Savior Joe didn’t cure Covid and he didn’t break the Post Office, either.

Bigger Picture?  Complexity Fails

The Post Office is – from a design standpoint – going through the same iterations towards failure that Boeing went down with the 737-Max.  Complexity bites.

To be sure, monthly post office volume has NOT gone up dramatically.

The Post Office reported in November of 2020 that “As a result of the pandemic, and to a lesser extent, secular mail declines, the Postal Service’s volume from mail services, its largest sales category, declined significantly for the full year, as First-Class Mail declined 2.3 billion pieces, or 4.2 percent, and Marketing Mail declined 11.5 billion pieces, or 15.2 percent.”

Could it be the Post Office is playing “shuffle and store” in order to “work the public around a bit” with oversized Union demands are forthcoming?  We shall see.

The problem is USPS argues that Amazon (and other – like up-and-comer Wal-Mart – in the home delivery market) are swamping them.

The problem – which I’ve seen frequently in the higher education space – is that Bureaucrats have a way of “stacking the in-box” so it looks like they are continuously overworked.

You talk to such a critter and they’ll point to a mountain of incoming work to be done and claim “See how BUSY I am???”

In Truth, and it feels like this is what’s going on now, Bureaucrats shuffle paper (and postpone work and decisions to the last possible second in order to gin up phony self-importance) to make themselves look good.

Bunglecrats

The Postal Union has a real problem – and so do policymakers in general:

  • If Ure’s packages do not get delivered, it looks like incompetence (it is).
  • If Ure’s packages are delayed then the puffed-up self-importance “We’re too busy” seems to hold water.
  • If Ure’s packages come on time, then all is well – and the Postal demands for more than inflation-adjustments goes out the window.

Drones are coming – but not here yet.

Action?

I will be on the phone today.  First, calling the local post office to see if they can complete their job.  If that fails, then a complaint to the Post Inspectors and the OIG at the Post Office will follow.  And, since these are low-speed solutions – the calls to the Congressman’s office may speed up things.  Bureaucrats hate being caught-out.

But so do  (in their seventies), Covid-averse Postal customers who paid for “last mile” service and aren’t getting it.”

In any other industry – this would result in firings and reorganizations.  But because it’s one of the few services of government declared in the Constitution, Article I, Section 8, the phrase “Oh, that’s just how the Post Office works…” is sold to the stupid as a reasonable excuse.

They buy it.

Supply Chain Warfare

There is a chance – though only a small one for now – that supply chain manipulation could become a form of warfare.  You presumably know “war with Asia over chips” has idled American automaker lines.

Not a Big Story – Yet

What is still swirling around is how this will metastasize into a new “cause de celeb” in the Parrot Media.  While we await the answer, stories like this tell us Supply Chains are in Big Trouble:

Not much we can do about it – other than starting to file small court claims and getting judgments – but that takes time, too.

For now?  Our advice is get all your Christmas Shopping done early this year.  If we hit the nonlinear part of the declining-performance curve any harder, complexity collapse could mean orders in by August might generate deliveries by November.

Such is the collapse of complexity as nonlinearity builds.  More on the Peoplenomics side Wednesday.

Misdirection in the Crack-Up Boom

This is really getting to be graceful:  Seeing how the world is rolling over into global calamity while a potion of normalcy bias is spread upon the sheet.

Take, for example, the ZeroHedge piece “Chinese Markets Slump Despite Soaring Industrial Production, Retail Sales.”

Why do you think the markets are slumping?

Read the story more carefully:  We find the problem is all of the data is denominated in Money units.  Not actual/deliverable units.

Let’s do a thought experiment:  Starting condition is? 100 people each make 1oo widgets per day and each make 100 currency units per day.

Now, the number of widgets remains level, but the currency units double.  See what happens?  Because retail, GDP, and everything else under daylight is measured in “money units” the sheepish are led to believe “Retail Sales Have Doubled!” for example.

In a sense, they have:  Since there are twice as many money-units, Retail sales are up 100%.  But, don’t try to eat those gains.  Because other prices will be catching up – and then some – shortly.

In the meantime, we can see massive economic distortions – overlooked by the economically-incompetence business press – which doesn’t report unit volumes.  Everything is tied into the money units.

Very Venz, Zimba, and Squad-supporting, ain’t it?  If it all is so GREAT, why isn’t the mail coming and why can’t people afford their homes?

Don’t ask, don’t tell…here we go again…  Just as we predicted would be along “Biden Plans Biggest Federal Tax Hike Since 1993 To Fund Infrastructure, Climate Initiatives.”

“Woke” Means Stupid

I’d like to thank a colleague this morning for setting me straight on something.  Until this weekend I had been mystified how to pigeonhole this whole “woke” and cancel cultural crap.

To paraphrase him:  All part of the re-segregation of America.

Hadn’t thought about it this way, before.  But when all races and genders have their hands out for more, and each claims the most egregious of social wrongs, what is really going on?

Re-segregation.   I could mention all souls have equal value, and everyone bleeds red, and should be judged on their actions, not their excuses.  But that’d make me un-woke.  Which is fine by me.

I was also appalled to see how “woke” Columbia University’s multicultural graduation process feeds in to this “Re-segregation” tendency.  You see (over here) how they have special events for Native, Lavenders (LBGTQIA), Asia, FLI’s (first generation, low-income), Latinx, and Black graduation.

We can only assume that either no White students are graduating Columbia, OR re-segregation is running rampant under cover of “woke.”

Repeat after me:  ALL RACISM IS BAD.  ANY, ALL.  Got it? Anything for a monetization, though, right? Sub-herds of sheep. Politics of exclusion are a hugely crooked head-trip. Playing in a country near you.

Surfing the Slop

Let’s play the game of “Spot the Imploding Liberals” shall we?  Turn on CNN: Charlie Hebdo cartoon of Queen kneeling on Meghan Markle’s neck sparks outrage.

Climate of fear, fear of climate: Biggest Sandstorm In Decade Turns Beijing Skies yellow.

“Yellow” seems to be the color of the day as the EU looks to get into the National Park space.  NY Times on it in The Making of a ‘European Yellowstone’.

Today’s AI Big Media Fix

What does our A.I. say about Biden weaking-out on Cuomo:

If you’re late to the party, republicans  get labeled as perverts.  Dems get do-overs.

AI #2:

Yeah, snow.  Late.  Still, just weather, not climate.

On said cheerful, off to call the Post Office with the WTF’s…

Write when it’s delivered,

George@Ure.net

53 thoughts on “Fed Week: Post Office & Supply Chain Warfare”

  1. Per the Post Office George
    your boy Trump’s Postmaster General did do his best to destroy the system, what with trashing the mail sorters, destroying established routes etc.
    Stop blaming labor when it was political destruction that created this moment.

    • Um, no.

      The PMG from 2/1/2015 to 6/15/2020 was Megan Brennan, an Obama appointee, and it was under her supervision that most of your claimed inaccuracies occurred. The pulled mail-sorters were being rotated out, to be replaced with new units, as the Post Office Department has done for 70 years, and this process began in the fall of 2019.

      One of my pet peeves is the invention of “questionable” or “criminal” acts by Presidents, to sustain a viewpoint or talking point which is a lie.

      If’fn you want to trash Trump, or Obama, or Bush43, or Clinton, or Bush41, or Reagan, or Carter, or… have at it. Every Prez has done things which were unpopular or quasi-criminal, in someone’s opinion. Use THESE things, not stuff someone invented because they lack intelligence or intellectual honesty and wish to push a straw-man or an ideology.

  2. As a former rural carrier with USPS, I can tell you it is not the fault of the “last mile” people….It is the fault in the distribution centers and large POs mostly. And, if you ask, they have arranged it to cover their butts…….the only GUARANTEED scheduled delivery is when you send Express. USPS has multiple unions, they usually work on one contract per year. Because it is a union shop it becomes incredibly hard to fire anyone. More than once, I have personally seen an incompetent manager be promoted, promoted out of the local district to make them go away. The local district benefits, system as a whole goes down hill. This has been going on for so many years now that incompetence has certainly risen to the top. USPS “culture” maintains this system. Looks like you should have your package Tuesday.

    • My full-time carriers and postmaster are the best. Your inside view pretty much matches my observations. I prefer USPS “last mile” deliveries over all the rest. All the shippers are about the same.

  3. Well G, since our government is hell bent on borrowing until there ain’t none left to borrow and going broke, then blaming it on us, you need to expect things to deteriorate.

    In keeping with making things green, we here at HH are purchasing a pair of carrier pigeons. These are renewable, reliable, do not use gas, do not belong to a union, do not degrade the roads, do not require insurance or paychecks and they produce fertilizer.

    That is all…

  4. As far as things falling apart all over, George, I’d make a point to check your weapon you carry in your chest holster for reliability. I cleaned mine last night and couldn’t believe the amount of pocket lint and alfalfa I got out of it – and a hundred year old Mauser is NOT something you want to pull apart very often!

    The reason I mention this is because my wife was reading a post to me just now on FB describing another illegal immigrant incident on I-10 near Junction, TX. A bunch of illegals in a stolen car drove through a fence off the highway and the occupants scattered. The writer of the post was the owner of the ranch who made an inquiry to the local law enforcement as to why they were running around on their ranch when they saw their cars on the game cams. The local law enforcement people told them they were chasing a stolen vehicle that had run through the land owner’s fence and that this is happening more and more farther and farther North of the border. Illegals intentionally running through fences stirs up dust and covers everyone’s escape paths when they’re being chased. This new generation of illegals is now, also, armed and running drugs so the writer sent a firm warning to NOT go out to your place UNarmed and don’t just let the kids run around unaccompanied or not monitored due to what is happening on our borders thanks to this new administration’s efforts to destroy our country.

    Like I said in earlier posts – this administration will fall apart by next month and/or we’ll be in total chaos mode from coast to coast. Bribem can’t be propped up much longer and Kamalamala Ding Dong will have her illegitimate hands on the reigns of power. Is there ANY wonder why the Dims don’t want us to have guns??

    • Bill – I have $500 that says the biden administration doesn’t “fall apart by next month” like you wrote What do you say, want to take the bet? Maybe Mr. Ure will be the escrow agent.

      • Better watch it OG. I was at least half right about Trump. He DID get elected but the cheats in the Deep State just wouldn’t let it go through. Everyone knows the depths to which our governmental corruption goes now and it’s coast to coast. Heck, I could be off by a month but Bribem’s going to do a face plant in his oatmeal soon enough and KDD will be there to hold him down. Enjoy your wet dreams while you can.

      • ECU will take the wager – quinquatinta percent Ure.

        other quinquatinta percent (if ecu wins) to Charity of Ure’s choosing.

        fall apart = bribem – done/gone/resigned/dead/incapacitated/stroked out/removed. G . U. final arbiter on qualifying “fall apart”

        “by next month = 4/15/21”

  5. Postal management intentionally delays the mail in order to generate higher machine counts.When I worked there-seemingly a lifetime ago-HUGE bags of mail ready to go were constantly being re-opened and re-inserted the system.I grew tired of pointing out this and gradually went along with the program.

    There are honest delays.In 1974,I noticed a postcard from 1952 stuck on the bottom of one of those HUGE sacks.The card was from a man telling his neighbor to feed his dog while he was on vacation.

    The caliber of the average worker there has gone way down ever since the Civil Service test was abolished some years ago.A man that I worked with had a doctorate in mathematics.He taught me more algebra in 15 minutes than I had learned in 15 years in schools.

    • “ever since the Civil Service test was abolished some years ago”

      Seriously!??

      I suppose it was inevitable. Back in my kollege daze I recorded a perfect score. The PM, who was a friend of my dad, told him to break it to me that I had no chance of being hired. He said I was the wrong sex, wrong ethnicity, and had no military background, therefore with a score of “only 100%” had no chance.

      “He taught me more algebra in 15 minutes than I had learned in 15 years in schools.”

      I had all kinds of trouble with “higher math” until I became aware that when you shoot a basketball, your mind instantaneously performs a series of calculus computations to determine the force which should be applied by each body part, and the trajectory, arc, elevation, and if outside, windage required to put the ball in the hoop. If you are crossing paths with another vehicle, your brain generates a rapid series of trig and calculus / differential equation computations to determine whether you’re gonna T-bone that sailboat, etc.

      Teachers and books make mathematics unnecessarily difficult. Your old co-worker sounds like someone who could cut through the BS, and actually should have been teaching…

      • “Back in my kollege daze I recorded a perfect score. ”

        Me too.. but I didn’t have enough points… sheesh…. but one of the kids of the person giving the tests got in.. seemed he didn’t get a good score and didn’t have any points built up..

  6. USPS – I mentioned Am Ex indicated I should pay bills online to avoid mail issues which translates into late payments, credit rating dings then higher finance charges. Am Ex is in the know.

    What can we do, here we are. We need the mail system more than GM or Boeing. Hopefully Biden reliquefies the good folks.

  7. Yo Tex,

    Where be Ure Rangers when We need em?

    not only is Ure packages MIA, but the coot has been trying to purchase a Rolex OysterPerpetual size36, BlueFaceDial for over 4 months now – nothing!

    As a graduation gift – 4yr med school – its MATCH WEEK!

    Emails go out today with the newz- “I dont care if Mondays blue”.. Friday U get actual Match notice..https://youtu.be/2La5Ly4LY44

    Nary a new Rolex watch to be found in NE. Feel like inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther when I go into certified watch/jewelry stores to inquire about new OP’s.. ” I would like to order a Damburgen”

    Daughter of coot is in EU studying for MBA, she recently went out Rolex shopping (bless her heart) with a male classmate – Saudi dude. They found exact one we are looking 4, euro weenies dont like/want to sell to Yankees, specially a Female one.
    Long story short – brand new watch they found was on hold for final visit/purchase, otherwise there is one more avail. in country – she has since made friends with store owner – and No VAT tax! winnawinna..

    What gives ? High end luxury item cant be had for any price ? Component/part supply issues, manipulated scarcity? We are not talking gold Submariner, let alone coots fav – the Pepsi Sub. – pure Patriot style timepiece. Stagflation, Deflation, Inflation – a more accurate description of current economic landscape –

    Clusterfukflation.

    Paid over $5 per 2×4 untreated, notty this weekend at the depot.
    That IS the Price – and just like buying physical Silver & Premiums (40-50%) = The PRICE is always right – Spot & Premium = actual Price.
    Bought corrugated steel sheets, 2x4s, – started constructing huegel culture garden (mounds) utilizing existing garden posts from hanging fencing (j.russels luv to dig).
    Long lasting, easy to convert/cover w/plastics for greenhouse effect/cold frame – optionality.
    -keeping 1/3 of old garden space “open” for the corn (s), asspergrass, german yellow taters, snowpeas/sugar snaps go up fencing connected (bowed over)between huegel gardens 8’x4’s. Bottom of beds lined with logs and all manner of organic debris for long term sustainable nutrient supply..

    4 wayz to do things; the right way, the wrong way, the Navy way and of course the coot way= jump in and figure it out as best U can, failure does not exist in coots world , just degrees of Excellence.

    QQQ gets back up 20 day ma – will be leveraging the SHORT.
    SPY – Short thru 3/22 and 4/16
    Long Commodity – Dividend paying stocks
    long PSLV
    BTC – buy the Dip, and prosper..keep being Rrrrong and suffer sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow death.

    • “Nary a new Rolex watch to be found in NE”

      Lol…
      When my father passed on.. I inherited my great grandfather’s Gold Rolex that he received for his retirement from the steel mills.. the thing was beautiful.. anyway like my father I put it in a drawer for safe keeping.
      One day there was an ad for a local jeweler seeking antique watches and since this was at the time about a century old I thought I’d ask..
      The jeweler was excited to get it.. I went home went to the drawer opening it with thoughts of taking the beautiful watch to sell it..
      In the drawer was lined up neatly…. TOILET PAPER TUBES …
      I was shocked.. HONEY.. where did the stuff in the drawer go and why are you gathering toilet paper tubes.. oh the grand kids have to make castles for school..ok so do you have an idea where the stuff in the drawer is… oh I threw that old crap out.. what about the watch.. I thought it was broke you never wear it anyway.. lol lol lol
      Oh well it’s just a thing.. easy come easy go.

      • Glad I never acquired a taste for ‘jewelry’ watches. I never hung out with a high nose crowd to show off, anyway. Best watch I ever owned is a $30 solar Casio that keeps time within seconds per month. It was important working in broadcasting that I kept ‘control-room time’. Accurate time was the value in my watch. Now that I’m retired, I don’t wear a watch. The phone is ubiquitous if I need a clock.

  8. Yup the recent wreckage of USPS is on Trump, and his installed idiot DeJoy, who can’t be removed. Also there was a piece of bipartisan idiocy that causes USPS to have to budget for the pensions of employees out 75 years.

    Ever wonder why USPS loses money? It’s because they are hamstrung by this piece of moronity that none of the competing services do. To their credit, the Dems are making noises about rescinding this.

    But why the USPS is currently so messed up? That is all on Trump.

    • It is on Nixon.

      The Post is one of the few Federal responsibilities enumerated in the Constitution. It was under President Nixon and (House Speaker) John McCormack in 1971(?) that the USPS was privatized — an act I personally believe was, and still is, unconstitutional.

      “Also there was a piece of bipartisan idiocy that causes USPS to have to budget for the pensions of employees out 75 years.”

      I wouldn’t have a problem with this, if every Federal and Contracted Agency had to do it. Since the USPS is the only one, it needs to go away yesterday…

      I honestly don’t know whether DeJoy is an idiot or not, and unless he gives me an excuse to research him, couldn’t care less.

      {Actionable, actionable, actionable! If it can’t affect you, or you can’t do anything about it, don’t invest mental CPU cycles on it. The one Law of Nature which never changes is: Everything Changes…”}

      • Thanks Ray.. I about Chocked on MarkU52’s comment.. was in a quandry on how to comment on it.. you did it perfectly.. thanks again..

  9. Being slightly neo-Luddite-ish, I still use paper checks, in the mail, and avoid self-checkout lines. I believe in keeping people employed. So shoot me.

    50 years of paying my bills (and, long ago, mail-ordering stuff) and only three times have my checks gotten lost in the mail. The first was maybe 15 years ago… but the last two were within a month of each other last October-November. Still waiting for 6-7 months to pass so I can add them back into my checking account balance (damned if I’m paying the bank $15 each stop-payment fees).

    There have also been several packages (in the last year) from the ‘Zon getting all the way to my PO, then getting sent back to the regional USPS center, shoved behind the drainpipe in the restroom to age, found, sent back, lost again, Amazon gives up on the delivery & refunds me – then they show up & I’ve got a freebie.

    Yup, USPS service is definitely in decline.

    • “Being slightly neo-Luddite-ish, I still use paper checks, in the mail, and avoid self-checkout lines. ”

      ME TOO…..

      The kids keep telling me the reason is I am an Old-Fogie….but I like the paper trail.. after having a few disasters and events with banks.. I make all deposits in person.. that are given me and reconcile the check book daily..
      years and years ago I was working a govt. job.. anyway my shift got off after the closing of the bank.. so my deposits were going in at the night depository.. what I didn’t know was a teller that was working night deposits was writing her name under mine and depositing them in her account.. ( the bank never backed it because I didn’t have any proof that I didn’t give her permission to have the money) she also took several others.. and then quit after she had a nice tastey sum.. ( this happed to the department store I worked at to.. the money room lady was changing the amounts on the checks.. two becomes twenty.. etc.. they caught her and she lost her job.. but they never went back she had been doing that for years) so I have an anal way of doing the books.. and can tell you to the penny what is going in and out.. rarely and I mean rarely does that ever fail.. it did when I opened a small spending account at a local bank from a national branch.. ( won’t give the name because probably a great deal of you bank there ) anyway I would buy something and a few times it went over drawn.. blew my mind.. then one day I bought a paint brush for a couple dollars.. the owner said.. oh.. you can’t use that cash card here.. why not.. they double dip and charge.. huh.. so I bought some flowers for the wife and quick went home and sure enough they double dip to secure the funds then put the money back in.. on a small spending account.. if there isn’t enough for the double dip they charge you with an over draft even though you have the finances.. and if you deposit money from a bank other than theirs then there is a small charge..
      That is why I quit using the most powerful book keeping system with hundreds of millions.. the way the program worked and the fact that they keep all transactions in another country with the program.. I had the fear that double dipping could be possible and would you recognize a one dollar charge or just adjust for it.. which is what I think happened at the department store.. peoples accounts would go over a couple dollars and instead of questioning it.. just adjusted for it..
      A neighbor of my brothers did that.. he was a top exec was downsized during the reagan recession and he made up a printing company.. didn’t do any printing that I know of.. but would send big companies a bill for six dollars LOL.. he got greedy and was caught..

  10. There is a simple explanation for this ‘collapse of services’ and other things. I have a good friend of mine who I use to work with at NIH (of ALL places). He was raised most of his early years and young adulthood in the former Soviet Union. We talk once a month or so. He tells me that what we are facing is a marxist/bolshevik style take over. By and large, he says, Americans do not recognize what is happening because they have not lived within a communist state before.

    Well, I agree with him. If you want your Marxism, you can keep your Marxism! Oh, by the way, all the feminist and racial non-sense is just cover for the bolsheviks. How dare you say you are not for Transsexual or BLM rights!

  11. Masks & Covid-19

    On March 5, 2021 the illustrious CDC released it’s protecting-all-worlds mega-mask study.

    https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/pdfs/mm7010e3-H.pdf

    The ‘study’ was so thoroughly ridiculed even the media stopped promoting it.

    BUT, only after the media widely broadcasted the scripted gibberish that masks saved the day.

    And it became the basis for continuing lockups, required masking, limited / closed businesses, sports, schools, etc., etc. All the new “openings’!!

    (Ure, sorry my friend, did I miss your making fun of it?) :)

    Ergo, I thought your readers might enjoy seeing some facts and and other views, some humorous, sarcasm.

    An evaluation of the CDC ‘study’: “Of course the results, as dictated by the new political masters, are that masks are good and restaurant dining bad. The study is so dreadful that it is hard to know where to start. But look at the supposed effect-tiny, tiny, tiny. Mask mandates, not actual mask wearing? ”

    https://healthy-skeptic.com/2021/03/07/coronamonomania-thrives-in-darkness-part-20/

    This really rips the ‘study’. Long but very good:

    https://www.bitchute.com/video/iIseMw9HwdE6/

    Minnesota’s Dr. Covid humor man:

    https://healthy-skeptic.com/2021/03/05/some-coronavirus-fun-courtesy-of-twitter/

    Chart

    https://healthy-skeptic.com/2021/03/06/oh-crap-i-just-cant-stop-with-these-mask-charts/

    Previously I posted the actual Minnesota death data. Here’s the same thing nationally, up to March 3, 2021.

    Note the two right columns. For most people it’s nothing.

    Clearly, “mitigations”, including ‘masks’ essentially have no bearing on the virus.

    https://healthy-skeptic.com/2021/03/06/national-cv-19-death-statistics/

    • Oh Ballz ! dont tell G and the BBG (boomerburkhagang) here on urbsurv!

      Why they might just blow a gasket/tube/engine/brainpan..

      Why how dare U suggest the World has been phys-oped into mistrusting/Un Loving each other. To suggest that this was all the bolshies doing…

      Stop Ure truth leaks, they be hurting me ginormous brain/intellect..

  12. My husband worked with P O on a huge project with Hp before he retired over 10 years ago. It was a cluster cluck then and has ALWAYS been one. The circular firing squad was very active. As my husband says…..”ahhh , the goverment. The efficency of the post office and the compassion of the IRS”. We are ALL so screwed….most just don’t know it yet.

    • Kathleen, I beg to differ. Many of us have known it since Vietnam, and even more twigged to it on 9/11! Empires rise and fall, and this is an empire. Now we are at the authoritarian stage, where the central government issues edicts – the only way to fight that is just not comply.

      Russia made it through – we probably will too. What comes out the time tunnel in 2030 or so is anybody’s guess though.

  13. Talk about supply chain disruption. What happens with all those containers parked off the right and left coast floating about at anchorage when the suppliers demand settlement in Bitcoin or Etherium, or digital
    Remimbi? And not in Federal Reserve Notes? Here’s what happens. All swap operations and CME paper overs will cease to make any difference, and what “supply” is even left hovering on shelves will go 100X overnight. we see the loss of conrol already with the street price on silver vs. spot on the exchanges.
    Now substitute the word silver anything currently experiencing a supply disruption. Do you now understand what is happening? This is the right of passage our policy makers have gifted to us. Don’t think for one second that thay arent all holding crypto bags. just wait for the fed note treasury CBDC recall/swap. You know the one that will initially swap at parity[to allow non corelated cryptos to pass thru], then quickly move from 1000 fed notes to 1 treasury dollar CBDC. Wait for it. IMHO.

    https://news.bitcoin.com/fedcoin-u-s-issue-e-currency/

  15. It is sad how folks here want to blame the GOP or Dems for failures of one government task or another. It is government that cannot run a productive service. People may hate capitalism but it certainly provides the feedback on what we consumers will voluntarily pay for. Government programs have no incentive to improve and be more productive. We as the tax payer have no mechanism to influence the services. And no, voting makes no difference in the services provided. The people who are put in charge only are good at raising money for the politically connected, and those with skills are not given the authority to actually make changes. USPS at a minimum should deliver only 3 days per week, with at least 1/3 the number of delivery people. One neighborhood gets M,W,F, other Gets T,Th,Sa.

    I cannot ever recall ever getting a letter today, had any affect on my life where arriving tomorrow would have made any difference.

    • ” It is government that cannot run a productive service.”

      What about the U.S. Military?

      The Government CAN run a productive service, but they have to do it by cutting the check and getting the hell outta the way. The “Service” can only be productive if governing hierarchy is established and maintained via merit-based promotion — something which doesn’t happen in the USG, EXCEPT for the military. “Bureaucrats” is an employment class and once someone reaches it, they may not be fired for ineptitude. They may only be “reassigned” to an equivalent GS paygrade in another Department or Agency. They may only be “gotten rid of” if the government eliminates their Department or Agency.

      The “management” of the USPS is so bad, and so bureaucratically inefficient on so many levels that I’m not sure it CAN be fixed, other than to establish a Cabinet-level Department of the Post, and then abolish the USPS. Oh, wait, that would put the Post back in the Constitution, wouldn’t it…?

  16. “Post Office Failing”

    When I asked.. shipment makes it to the last leg then sent off to someplace else.. we had one that was diverted to japan then came back LOL…. I was told.. ( not by anyone official just someone working a counter at one of their facilities) that they had hired a great deal of refugees to give them a job and there were difficulties in language…
    ( by the way that job is One that most citizens would not be able to acquire.. )
    and lets face it.. if your not fluent with the language and your dealing with millions of letters that are being sorted and sent out by machinery.. it wouldn’t take much to not recognize an address..
    it is what it is… we deal with it

  17. George, we’ve been seeing problems with the mail too. A couple of bills never reached the vendor; some delayed well past the due date triggering a past due fee, then magically showing up the day after to score a double payment. And I just had 2 pieces mistakenly delivered to a similar address down the street.
    Hard to tell if it’s the USPS or companies holding payments to trigger late fees/and or forcing “online payment” hold-outs like me.
    Can’t say what’s going on, but something is f-ed up fer sure. Like you say, “everything’s a business model”.

  19. I did it was my draft date to report for pre induction to the Glorious US Army for a Wonderful 2 Years Vacation to a Korean Playground with real moving Targets to get my Rifle training completed.

  20. The only thing the post office can deliver on time, every time, without fail is election ballots. Thought everyone already knew that?

    Regarding Supply Chain Warfare…there was a test when the largest frozen food distributor couldn’t make deliveries last year because they were affected by the Solarwinds hack. That single company delivers 90% of what’s in all US grocery freezers.

    That downtime was only a test. The real McCoy is next.

  21. Post Orfice… Sent a birthday gift to my nephews last month, USPS Priority Mail 3-day delivery from Hawaii to the Minneapolis area. It left local, it left Honolulu to the mainland. At the 3-day mark the tracking became “In Transit- arriving late”. To took 21 more days to cross the country and appear suddenly at delivery. No tracking enroute.

    • I have a cute post office idiots story..
      I am acquainted with a movie personality.. anyway we were visiting and she commented on how she would live a few fresh vegitables.
      Honey they are on the way.. so I shipped them as perishable put a few ice packs and overnight divert.
      Tomatoes and onions and little watermelons the size of a softball.. super nice broccoli etc.
      They were filming so on the way to the studio she stopped.. gave them the tracking slip.. duh we can’t find it.. I call yes it’s right here ok..so give it to her..six months she checked everyday .. the fresh vegitables started to rot the watermelons were not good and leaking..( they are nasty at that stage stink bugs ) I get a call what should we do.. maybe you should have handed her the package when she came to get it..
      There was a pause.. just throw it out I’ll send her a couple of steaks to tell her how sorry I was that she did6get it.. lol lol lol

  22. Post office is just not reliable. I try to do as much as possible electronically. I got hit with a bunch of late fees over the new year. It was cuz the PO wasn’t doing the rain or shine, sleet or snow like they used to say. No late fees now. ….. Blessings

  24. Awhile ago I had a similar situation with Amazon and called wondering why the tracking claimed “delivered” when it was not. The explanation was: when the package is placed in the delivery vehicle it can be listed as delivered. The assumption being that the vehicle and it’s driver will deliver the loaded packages that day. However, Amazon also requires a few days wait to give the driver a chance to deliver. I suspect this has not changes and your package should finish arriving in a day or two. Silly & stupid but I didn’t create or approve the system.

  25. Renewing a passport requires the use of the USPS! There’s no other way. I cringed each day that I tracked my documents as they presumably moved toward their destination. After over two weeks(using a two day service), I finally got online confirmation of delivery. The famous “in transit – arriving late” notice is all too familiar. I had to rely on three separate mailings – mine to them and two mailings to return my very valuable new and old documents. At least this only happens every 10 years, though it seemed simpler 10 years ago. It was worth the extra $60.00 to get a decent turnaround time in this “age of covid”, but that was obscured by the ineptness of the USPS.

    Of course, USPS delivery of Amazon and Ebay trinkets has not been a problem(for me).

      • Probably true. Many years ago I sent a check for my PN subscription and it went into outer space courtesy of the USPS. I sent the check because there was a problem with my PayPal account. After an extra week’s grace from George, I actually set up a brand new PP account. The day I paid it from the new account, the letter magically appeared, and George returned to me immediately.

  26. End of Feb got a Christmas card that had a postmark if Dec 15 and was mailed from fewer than 200 miles away. Most of 2020 Netflicks dvds’ took from 7-10 days from fewer that 50 miles. On a tastier note, here are 3 brief thoughts. Starving while in between planes and terminals, I grabbed a Nathans and began to fix it. While squirting the catsup on I was horrified to see that what I thought was catsup was actually cocktail sauce. Turns out if you like cocktail sauce, it makes for a darn good dog. We have started to use turkey bacon around here. Not so much for exact taste but for reduced fat and waste. I’ll cook up a package in a non stick pan(with oil … it’s important) then after it’s cooled into 3 -4 baggies, then into the freezer. There are times when a meaty snack is the only thing that will do. Open the freezer bag pull one out then enjoy. (btw if you’re making a burger there’s nothing stopping you from having a slice there either. Finally, since I’m the chief and only cook around here, I’m always looking for a way to plus it as Walt would say. I found a “tube” page(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4WLUMS7Ung) where this guy shows how to make a quick and easy demi-glace for your meat meals. I cheated by just reducing a cup of low salt chicken broth with a small pack of unflavored gelatin then a small pat of butter stirred in at last moment. Put it on chicken breast and wow. Next time I’ll follow the instructions and expect it to be even better.

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