Chipping away at Trust 

Two stories just broke that show exactly how you destroy the most trusted institution in America, a classic corporate capture. Amazon's $6 billion contract with the Post Office (USPS) expires in October 2026, and after nearly a year of negotiations, there's no deal, just as Amazon finishes building a $4 billion rural delivery network on routes they learned while relying on the Postal Service. Meanwhile, a rule change that took effect December 24th means postmarks no longer prove when you mailed something, threatening to invalidate ballots, trigger IRS penalties, and disqualify time-sensitive documents, especially in rural communities. Both stories reveal the same pattern: what happens when a public institution built to serve everyone gets financially strangled, becomes dependent on corporate revenue, and then watche ...