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Usps drop off6/1/2023 OK so everyone has seen the "viral" photo going around of the piles of mailboxes in Wisconsin being used as evidence that Trump is sabotaging USPS. Gary He, a photojournalist at Eater, contacted Hartford Finishing, where a woman said the company gets collection boxes “from everywhere and make them look good again.” (Eater and Recode share a parent company, Vox Media.) Twitter user traced the photo Kennedy posted back to a Reddit post from August 14, while using Google Maps and other images on social media to identify the location as Hartford Finishing Inc. Meanwhile, others did a bit more sleuthing. And I was like, ‘Holy shit, this looks fucked up.’ And I just shared it.” “There were different images being shared, and I saw that image. “I was reading about the USPS boxes that were removed in Montana and Oregon,” Kennedy told Recode. As many people do online, he simply shared his thoughts along with the photo after seeing it elsewhere. And Kennedy wasn’t the one who took the picture. In a thread, Kennedy links to several reliable news articles about the state of the Postal Service, but the lack of correct context for the photo undermines those reports. These worrisome facts have also created a prime environment for misleading posts like the one above from Thomas Kennedy to go viral. There are verified reports about collection boxes and sorting machines being removed that are fueling concerns about election sabotage. The Postal Service also warned 46 states and Washington, DC, that it could not guarantee mail-in ballots would reach election boards on time in November, while Trump has admitted that he opposes more funding for the USPS because that would enable mail-in voting.ĭeJoy promised to suspend some cost-cutting measures linked to the delays until after the election, and said that “mail processing equipment and blue collection boxes will remain where they are.” But it’s possible the American people’s confidence in the Postal Service is already compromised, due to not just the hard truth but also misinformation. In the weeks since longtime Republican fundraiser and Trump donor Louis DeJoy took over as postmaster general, there have been widespread delivery delays and sorting machines removed from post offices. ![]() This is not to downplay the many very concerning things happening at the USPS right now. What the heck is happening with the Postal Service? In this case, posts containing the viral collection box image can be debunked, and that stands to make people question other accounts about the threat to the USPS. Those that lack critical context also contribute to overall doubt in the electoral process and detract from the truth. Viral posts and images don’t need to contain outright falsehoods to be dangerous, either. While one misleading viral photo is hardly a rarity online, misinformation related to how Americans will vote and the election in general is particularly concerning. It does not reveal an apparent effort to sabotage the election. ![]() ![]() In other words, the viral image shows a place where it’s not unusual at all to see stacks of collection boxes. They’re on a lot operated by a company called Hartford Finishing, which regularly refurbishes mailboxes for the Postal Service. QXLWGIHTrz- Thomas Kennedy August 15, 2020īut the problem is that the collection boxes in the image aren’t in a dump. ![]() This is massive voter suppression and part of their plan to steal the election. They are sabotaging USPS to sabotage vote by mail.
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