Disinfo Rehab

Why The Decision to Cut Saturday Mail Is Not Only Stupid, But Also Makes No Sense

If you haven't heard, the US Postal Service will no longer deliver mail on Saturdays. This is a stupid idea, but not for the reasons you might think. The cause is also a bit more complex than what your "friends" in Congress and on TV would have you believe.

First: why this is stupid. For many years I worked with the US Postal Service producing large direct mail projects for candidates and organizations around the country. During that time I got to learn a lot about how the USPS actually works, and learned a lot from executives at the USPS whose job was to work with high volume mail producers to expedite their projects as efficiently as possible.

One thing that was made abundantly clear was that the one day of the week that the USPS had the least to do was Tuesday. This was for a number of unrelated reasons, owing mostly to how people pay their bills (especially credit cards) and when businesses would mail out fliers and other such things for weekly sales specials. The point is, if the USPS must cut service, cutting Tuesday makes more sense for them, and for you, the customer.

Removing Saturday mail causes more problems than it solves. Many people are busy during the week and use Saturday to get caught up on chores and the like. Not everyone can, or will, pay all their bills online, and getting rid of Saturday service is just going to make things more miserable during the week than they need to be. If you have a US Post Office box, you may or may no longer have access to it on weekends like you do now.

Worse, when you consider that many jurisdictions are openly encouraging "vote-by-mail," and some states voting by mail only it doesn't take a genius to see how killing mail on Saturdays could be worse than killing it on Tuesday. (I know that doesn't seem to make sense, but if you spend enough time at huge mail facilities, trust me, it does).

There's more, however. In addition to competition from online services and the ongoing Great Depression "Recession," the USPS has been prohibited from providing additional services in your neighborhood, the USPS has an unprecedented mandate to fund a huge pension fund. They've been ordered to fund 75 years worth of pensions RIGHT NOW, something no other pension fund is required to do .

Needless to say, if you want to know where all the money is going , it isn't going to postal service - it's going to fund a pension fund in a way no other fund has to comply with. So far, few in Congress have spoken out, with the notable exception of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). have tried to speak out, but of course the chorus of the Know Nothing Party, and the Spineless Corporate Party tend to drown him out on the tv.

For those who sing the siren song of "privatize it," I'll simply leave you with how well that's worked overseas. If you've ever had the stalwart efficiency of private monopolized internet service and cable tv providers in the US, or their esteemed counterparts in the health care industry, then you already can guess how well that would work here.

For decades our postal service has served us fairly well. Yes, it's frustrating when there's a long line, and a service that has to serve everyone, regardless of where they live, isn't going to run perfectly. To see it get destroyed by the morons in Congress for the sake of a quasi-religious devotion to doctrine, however, is not only stupid, it makes no sense.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here we go again. Another San Francisco style cluster-frak in progress.

Let's be clear - I now hate PG&E. After the way they totally f*cked up the pipeline situation in San Bruno, BS-ed their way about it, and caused so much damage, any past ties with these guys was done. Needless to say to have the concept of a "choice" to go elsewhere on its face should be like, awesome.

Enter San Francisco's classic way to ruin things for the benefit of the politicians: the so-called Clean Energy SF "program." It sounds all so politically correct - SF will "build" clean energy sources and people can choose them. OMG TEH AWESOME!

There's just one problem - we're trading one Big Energy giant for another. Worse, we're going to see our power bills go up, at a time when many people can't afford it. Even WORSE, you are going to be told to do as you're told. If you want out, you'll have to file papers and pay money to say "no." (so "progressive" and "democratic.")

In other words, it's the classic "Skinheads vs. Geraldo" Battle: you like the idea that Geraldo Rivera gets his nose broken because he's a jerkwad, but you hate the fact you are rooting for stupid skinhead nazis because they did it. In the end you wish you could root for someone to kick both their asses, because they both suck.

There are many pluses to energy that doesn't require dead dinosaurs to make things happen - after all, I've promoted these at the N-Judah Chronicles because only an idiot thinks that gasoline and coal will be cheap for ever, and an economy based on dead dinosaurs, is, well, gonna die.

Fine and fine.That said, the mad desire of a few progressive politicians, who continue to use City Hall as the stage for stunts to improve their chances for higher office (all on the public's dime) is poisoning good public policy. I don't need my power bill doubled, all to service the corporate masters at Shell Oil to boost their prospects - especially if the goal is public power, we already have the solution. It's called, the Hetch Hetchy system.

Now, oddly enough, the same "pwogwessive activists" who are on fire to give Shell Oil a death grip on ratepaying citizens in SF, are also the ones who want to pay for a "study" (oh see how it always starts as a "study" by people who predetermine the outcome before they start) to dismantle Hetch Hetcy, which provides cheap, non-carbon producing power that makes Muni run and electrifies City agencies.

See what they did there?

One has to wonder whose of pockets got lined on this deal - Shell gets your utility bill and jacks it up, and can burn cow poop if it likes, and can still call it "clean energy" - even if in fact that's bullsh*t.

Sorry, friends, but if you fall for this one, you'll have only yourself to blame for high power bills powered by burning cow poo. If you give promotions to the likes of John Avalos, David Campos and other "progressive" ilk, then you have no one but yourselves to blame as well. Do you really think they care about you at all? Think again - to them you are nothing but trained seals to clap when nice things and a few fish are tossed your way. Meanwhile they laugh all the way to the bank.

As for I, I will opt out of this scam for sure, and I'll happily sign up for any other energy concern that uses non-dead dinosaur, non-polluting sources to keep my iPhone charged. I won't, however allow my Muni to be forced to use expensive, shitty PG&E power to drive up Muni fares for the benefit of a few politicians who make six figures and don't care about the middle class. Mitt Romney isn't the only one that gives the finger to 47% of the country - in So-Called Progressive San Francisco, it's the left that's the side that says what's yours is theirs, regardless if you can afford to pay.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 9:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A short comment I wrote about a thing I saw on Twitter about, well, fuck it, just go read and listen, por favor.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 7:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Several months ago, a rumor began about the possibility of me running for the Board of Supervisors in 2012. Naturally, this got the SF Internet Rumor Mill treatment for a while, and then as the months passed, quieted down. As many people still ask me if I'm running or not, I am saying today that the answer, sadly, is "no."

I've entertained this notion as I have met people around the City, writing about City politics (particularly when it comes to Muni), who have encouraged me to run. The fact is I have a better understanding of how the SFMTA and Muni works than any other candidate, declared or not in the race for District 5, and I'm well aware of how the corruption, the lawmaking process and the money work at City Hall also. My only promise would be that I would never beholden to them, while others may or may not be.

If I was somehow elected, I'd owe no one anything and I would focus on getting things done at City Hall, not spending endless hours debating phony non-binding resolutions or catering to loud, small groups that too often get the ear of City Hall over Everyone Else.

As I began to research this, however, a few problems began to emerge. When I plotted a Google Map of every potential supporter of mine, a pattern emerged - many people did not live in the district (even if they lived in the Inner Sunset!). This is due in part to the fact that once again, the So-Called Progressives jammed a portion of the Inner Sunset into one of the most leftist districts in town. (Thanks for nothing, once again, guys!)

This has had the effect of dividing the Inner Sunset (for example I can walk a few blocks from my home and end up in District 7), and would put me at a disadvantage. Basically this means it doesn't matter if the Appointed Incumbent can't find the Inner Sunset on a map, because ultimately she can blow it off and still win election. Meanwhile, many voters would regard me as someone from the Farallon Islands, at best. So, this made me realize that right here, right now, this may not be a great idea.

The second, of course is money. Now that I no longer work in consulting, and have a little spare cash, I thought at first I'd be able to finance the startup capital to get the campaign going in a credible manner. However, much of my money is tied up right now in a couple of business ventures that are pending, so I can't tap it like I thought. Plus - I had to ask myself how much I wanted to spend money on dead tree mail and online ads vs. health care or a vacation (an alien concept to me in recent years) or on things for my family. You can guess where I land on that.

More importantly, the Appointed Incumbent will have the billionaire 1% types and others who funded Ed Lee's campaign last year AND the support of city labor unions who rely on the City for members to enhance their power. Going up against both of those without at least a solid base of support within a district meant that at best I'd raise "name ID" for a future run.

The prospect of that, and of having to spend most of my time at some forum answering the same questions in 1 minute or less made the prospect, at least for now, not worth it. Besides, when I do something I do it to win, not to "place" and would want to go to City Hall to do something, not just see myself on TV and blab on about stuff like most do.

Still, I have to say that many, many people came forward and offered support. I couldn't possibly name them all here, but it was truly amazing to have people I never heard of tell me "do it!" and offer true support. I have also had many amazing offline conversations not just about the problems Our City faces, but how there seems to be a Silent Majority out there of folks just waiting to do their best and make SF once again the "City That Knows How."

In recent times plenty of politicians have appropriated words like that, only to offer us more politics of the clubhouse and corruption. Needless to say, it's nice to know not everyone thinks this is sustainable over the long term.

Finally, let me say this: I made the mistake in my early adulthood of getting as far away from San Francisco as I could, for whatever reason. While Washington DC and Seattle were nice places, it is only when I returned in 2000 that I realized this is where I belong, despite the nonsense. To paraphrase Mat Honan's essay a while back, San Francisco has plenty of problems, but despite all that, I'd rather live here than elsewhere. If there's some way I can continue to make things better, I want to go to there.*

For now, I'm going to keep on blogging, writing, and listening to the people about their daily lives and I'll get involved when events warrant as a citizen. I want to thank again my friends, as well as the friends I didn't know I had, for their support, and look forward to one day enlisting all of your help for something positive for Our Fair City.

PS: As for the 2012 race for Supervisor: I'm happy to have any candidate meet with me and tell me why they are the best person for the job, but they can't use canned rhetoric or try and BS me. If one does emerge that warrants your vote, I'll let you know.

PS2: While I may not be running, you can watch this entertaining trailer about a friend of mine in Seattle who challenged the Establishment back in 2001 (the pre Twitter/Facebook era) that's coming out soon. Although my effort might have been a bit better organized, it would have retained an anti-Establishment tone. Also, you really should support my friend Kevin Montgomery and get him to run in District 9.

*Does anyone get this joke?

Posted by Greg Dewar at 6:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)