May, 14 2020, 12:00am EDT
Stroman's Murky Postal Service Departure is a Direct Assault on the Reliability of America's Vote-By-Mail Elections
Statement of Kristen Clarke, President and Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
WASHINGTON
The public deserves clarity around the status of Deputy Postmaster General Ronald Stroman today as reports indicate that he has either resigned, been forced out of his position, or both, at the U.S. Postal Service. The following is a statement from Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law:
"We are sounding an alarm regarding the departure of Ronald Stroman from the Postal Service. The Postal Service lies at the heart of our democracy and is critical to the success of an unprecedented vote-by-mail system that is needed for a fair and effective 2020 election season. The Postal Service is also a lifeline for vulnerable people who are counting on mail delivery for medication, stimulus payments, and more. Stroman's untimely departure signals deepening chaos and disruption inside the Postal Service at a critical moment during the 2020 election season.
"We call on Congress to convene oversight hearings to determine whether the recent wave of leadership shifts at the Postal Service stands to harm the public by jeopardizing implementation of the Census and vote-by-mail amid the pandemic."
The Lawyers' Committee is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to enlist the private bar's leadership and resources in combating racial discrimination and the resulting inequality of opportunity - work that continues to be vital today.
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President-elect Donald Trump and his advisers are reportedly considering plans to weaken—or abolish altogether—top bank regulators, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
The Wall Street Journalreported Thursday that members of Trump's transition team and the new Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency have asked nominees under consideration to head the FDIC and OCC if the bank watchdogs could be eliminated and have their functions absorbed by the Treasury Department, which is set to be run by a billionaire hedge fund manager and crypto enthusiast.
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"The next recession starts here," tech journalist Jacob Silverman warned in response to the Journal's reporting.
Eric Rauchway, a historian of the New Deal, wrote that "even Milton Friedman appreciated the FDIC," underscoring the extreme nature of the incoming Trump administration's deregulatory ambitions.
Musk, the world's wealthiest man, is also pushing for the elimination of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency established in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
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Guterres "is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria" and has stressed the "urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts throughout the country," said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
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Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
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"What you're seeing, the outpouring of anger at the insurance companies, is a reflection of how people feel about the current healthcare system."
"What you're seeing, the outpouring of anger at the insurance companies, is a reflection of how people feel about the current healthcare system," he continued, noting the tens of thousands of Americans who die each year because they can't get to a doctor.
"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," Sanders added. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together and understanding that it is the right of every American to be able to walk into a doctor's office when they need to and not have to take out their wallet."
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