Democracy by Mail - CD346

Jennifer Briney (0:00)

President Trump's administration has been on a mission to collect voter information from states, and states have refused to comply.

The Trump administration specifically tried to bully 30 states and the District of Columbia by suing them into handing over their voter roll information. And out of the 25 cases that have already concluded, President Trump has lost every single one. And so a new US. Postal Service rule that tells those very states that won in court, that you have to give us your voter rolls or else you can't use the USPS system to send your ballots, it looks like a runaround of the law to me.

Hello, my friend, and thank you for listening to the 346th episode of Congressional Dish. I'm your host, Jennifer Briney. And today, we are going to talk about the United States Postal Service, because there has been some crazy things going on with the Postal Service, which were caused, like so much of the chaos in our country, by President Donald Trump. Now, this episode is being produced after the storm has temporarily passed, because the Supreme Court has stopped a regulation from going into effect for the US. Postal Service for this upcoming election. But I want you to understand what the Trump administration was trying to do, and to understand the regulation that has been, let's say, put on hold, because the Supreme Court didn't actually rule on its legality, and so this new system that is being contemplated for our mail-in ballots, it's still in the process of being created and could be put in place for our election in 2028 But we are not powerless here. Congress has the power to tell the United States Postal Service what they can and cannot do. And so today, I want you to understand this issue so that you can make your feelings known to the people who represent you.

But before we get started, if you have heard this show before, you are aware that this is a listener supported podcast. I don't accept advertisements. I will never accept advertisements so that I can be sure that I am not afraid for my livelihood when I tell you things that you need to know about politicians and corporations. And over the years, I've had a lot of people ask me what my favorite method of payment is. And the real truth of it is I just want money.

So whatever is your favorite is like, it works for me. But right now, I do have to say that I think my favorite method of payment is Venmos. This is because the Venmos, when they come in, first of all, there's a little ding that comes on my phone. And so when I have my notifications on, I love hearing that sound. It's just very gratifying. And a lot of times you guys are giving me comments that let me know which episode inspired you to pay. And for me, this feels like my version of residuals. So you may or may not know this, but I went to college in Southern California. And so like I knew actors, I went to school with actors and I worked with actors. And I knew a few that got big enough jobs that they had residual checks. The one that comes to my mind whenever I, I think about residuals, there was a guy, he's an actor, his name is Antonio, and I worked with him at a restaurant. And he had a role in the movie American History X. And if you remember that movie, you will remember him because I actually, I can't watch this movie again because I had met this man, but he was the one who got curbed. And we'll just leave it at that, if you know, you know. But it was a horrific scene and I knew that guy. And so what was fascinating is that he got money in the mail every month that paid a few of his bills. And I was always fascinated by that. It was like, oh, so like when this movie is played on the television, you just get a few pennies and it adds up to like paying his heating bill or whatever. So when I get a Venmo payment and it has an episode number, it really does feel like a residual check for me. It's like the work that I'm doing just keeps on giving. And I just love knowing exactly which episode which kind of content makes you want to invest in this project. Because it really does affect how I make decisions on what topic to cover next. Like I look at the most valuable episodes list and I can see what you guys are the most into. So it's like, when I call you producers, that really is no joke. Your money is affecting the future of the show. And not only are executive producers doing that, when you guys put an executive producer credit on an episode, which moves the episode up the most valuable episodes list, and then those are the bigger payments. Those are $535 each. But even the small dollar ones, if you send in $5 to me on Venmo and you tell me an episode number, I remember that.