There are stories all over reddit about the disappearing mailbox conspiracy. The mainstream media, including CNN and WaPo, are telling people no one is actually stealing mailboxes, but they just keep printing these stories.
Someone took pictures of the inside of a mail-sorting machine repair facility in *checks notes* Missoula, Montana, and the local media is running it as a news story. It was at the top of r/news today.
A new twist as we work for you uncovering what’s really going on at the U.S. Postal Service. Last week, we helped break the story about Montana collection boxes and sorting machines taken off line. Now, we have new photos to back up what sources are telling us.
A postal worker who wants to stay anonymous sent us multiple photos of what they say is a disassembled DBCS sorting machine in a Montana USPS plant. They say the stackers are waiting to be sent to other facilities.
Our source sent another photo of what they say is a disassembled AFCS100 machine in Missoula that is being discarded. It’s one of two that basically cancels stamps and faces mail. It can process 30,000 pieces of mail per hour. Our source says the Missoula branch is supposed to get an upgrade, but it’s unclear when. They worry their sole machine will go down before it comes.
There have been mixed reports on whether these machines or any removed blue collection boxes will be put back.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told her they would not be reinstated.
However, a different representative with the USPS told Sen. Jon Tester’s office about 14 residential collection boxes that were removed in seven Montana communities, and said they would be reinstated until after the election. Those boxes were in Bozeman, Glendive, Helena, Lewistown, Livingston, Manhattan and Shelby. An email from Tester’s office said they do not consider this an adequate response and said their office count of removed boxes exceeds 14 in the state.
“We haven’t gotten any clear information from USPS about why these mail collection boxes were removed or about the metrics that were used to make those decisions,” Tester said. “Regardless of the reasoning, making these reductions in service in a Washington back room without input from Montanans is unacceptable, and Postmaster General DeJoy must explain himself and reverse all changes immediately.”
Democrats in Congress called in the Postmaster General to testify before the Senate today, and he calmly explained to them, as if they were children, that there isn’t a conspiracy against mailboxes.
If Donald Trump actually did a “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” style theft of all of the mailboxes in Montana so that when people go to send in their mail election ballots, they can’t find a mailbox, then he really is the mastermind that QAnon claims.
But in actual reality, mailboxes are changed, moved, replaced, as a matter of course. A mailbox is not a permanent natural fixture like a mountain or a river.
To be clear, I’m seeing the same sort of lunacy on the right-wing. It’s different issues, but the same spirit.
People are officially completely unhinged, you see. They’re all losing their minds. This is what happens when you completely turn society on its head, ban people from working, lock them in their houses, make them wear masks, forbid human contact, use a ubiquitous electronic media to tell them they’re all going to die of the flu.
The good news is, all of this mail conspiracy talk simply bolsters the idea that arranging a massive vote-by-mail program over the next ten weeks is totally unfeasible. (The reason that some liberal media outlets are trying to stop people from freaking out about this is that they understand it only reinforces the idea that an election by mail is not a great idea.)
You’d think if the Democrats were this worried about the safety of the mail, they’d be demanding that Trump figure out a way to do the election in person, with the allegedly necessary safety protocols. But no. They’re just demanding extra mailboxes.
There are positive signs for Trump emerging. The DNC was a disaster, completely, and weird. Trump would probably win if a normal election were held tomorrow.
If it’s vote-by-mail, he loses no matter what.