In August 2020, three months before a presidential election, during a pandemic, postal workers watch perfectly working mail sorting machines being dismantled, some cut with blowtorches, some thrown in dumpsters. 711 post office machines removed in a few months (double normal rate), 10% of national sorting capacity gone. When union leaders ask why, management says they're "no longer needed" while mail volume surges. 

Episode 14 of our postal history tail, the season finale, covers the last five years of postal crisis and resistance. Louis DeJoy becomes Post Office Postmaster General with zero postal experience, $1.2M in Trump donations, and $30-75M in XPO Logistics stock (a USPS contractor) the Board hired him without official candidate search. He bans overtime, machines get dismantled, mail slows dramatically. Federal judge rules in Septem ...