Thankful despite it all

And a little guide for your dinner debates

Welcome to a Thanksgiving edition of Progress Report.

This has been the worst year of my life, which has since the late ‘80s included more than a few contenders for that dubious distinction.

I’ve discussed in this newsletter the most basic contours of the year’s challenges and tragedies — major heart surgery, subsequent ongoing heart issues, and a wrenching death in the family among them — and the responses have been overwhelmingly empathetic and kind. Your patience has allowed for the occasional slowdown as I’ve healed my wounds and had new ones ripped open, and I’m thankful for that generosity.

This has also been a horrible year for the media industry, which continues to be crushed under the weight of bad corporate ownership, platform monopoly, and bad faith ideological assaults from the right. Your interest in my reporting and opinions — and in some cases, financial support for them — creates a base from which I can build part of a desperately needed alternative progressive media. doesn’t bow to lobbyists, self-interested oligarchical owners, or sponsors afraid of conflict. This platform gives me hope for our future.

Today I thought I’d highlight big updates on several ongoing stories that I’ve covered or mentioned in Progress Report as well as provide some resources for your Thanksgiving political conversations.

Note: To make this work as accessible as possible, I’ve lowered the price for a paid subscription back down to Substack’s $5 minimum. If you can’t afford that right now, please email me and I’ll put you on the list for free. Every paid subscription makes it easier for me to comp one while becoming sustainable.

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Uprising, delivered: Make sure to tip your mail delivery person generously this year, because the US Postal Service certainly won’t be giving them much.

A few weeks ago, I reported on the burgeoning revolt among city and suburban letter carriers across the country, who are pissed off about the substandard contract negotiated by their union president and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. More than 205,000 carriers have worked for 600 days without a contract, and a growing number of members would rather extend the wait instead of accepting the terrible deal negotiated by NALC President Brian Renfroe.

The tentative agreement calls for a 1.3% annual raise, which calculates out to just $0.20 for city carrier assistants making $19 an hour. For those who have topped out on the pay scale, which takes 13 years, the raise is around $0.43 per hour.

“Everyone's already pissed. Everyone's already on edge,” Jonathan Morris, a postal worker in the Fort Worth area, told me. “And then this contract's taking way too long. People got kids going off to college, or they're trying to buy a house or they got a kid on the way.”

Letter carrier jobs were once a rare pathway to the middle class. But over the past 30 years, and with increasing intensity over the past decade, the job has become more stressful and dangerous. Attacks on letter carriers have doubled since 2019, they are dying from the heat as climate change broils the country and management demands faster delivery times, and the pay has not come close to keeping up with inflation.

I touch on all of this and much more in my new short doc for More Perfect Union, which went online a few days ago.

The anger is palpable and spreading like wildfire, leading to more rallies and conversation about voting out Renfroe and his team in 2026. And yet, aside from local news in various mid-sized cities, I haven’t seen any coverage of what is a serious national issue, happening beneath everybody’s noses.

On the other hand, on Tuesday, the same day that we put out the video, the New York Times ran a puff piece about the USPS’s new trucks, which are 40-years in the making. When we talk about the value of independent media, a lot of it has to do with listening to people who don’t have publicists to pitch their agenda.

Democrats?: Soon after Donald Trump was re-elected, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis announced the launch of a new group of governors dedicated to “safeguarding democracy.” Unfortunately, it seems as if he’s still not all that keen on solving the root problem that led to this perilous period for American democracy.

Polis, a wealthy Democrat with a libertarian streak, has been historically hostile to organized labor, which has slowly begun to gain purchase in a state where it’s never really thrived. The governor vetoed three union priorities this year, and is now expressing early resistance to labor’s next major push, a bill to end the requirement for a second unit election that so often prevents workers from ever reaching a contract.

Polis “is leery of the need for a new bill to open the Labor Peace Act that serves the state and workers so well,” a spokesperson for Polis said earlier this week. The Labor Peace Act is the series of laws that govern unionization and collective bargaining in Colorado.

“Any changes to the Labor Peace Act would need to find common ground with employers and businesses and labor, and the governor is deeply skeptical of this bill without a heavily negotiated, thoughtful and comprehensive process,” the spokesperson added.

Other Colorado Democrats are firmly behind the bill, and it should pass the legislature with flying colors. Polis’s reticence is exactly the sort of roadblock that the party should be clearing.

Trump 2.0

I don’t recommend getting into fights with your Trump-supporting relatives this year, but if you need some information for any debate, these links should be helpful.

Pharma bros: With negotiations over Medicare drug pricing set to begin next. year, executives and lobbyists for Big Pharma are beginning to lean on Trump to delay the implementation of the new, lower prices by up to four years.

Sure, okay: This is a decent rundown if you want a basic understanding of how economic philosophies have been developed and implemented over time. I’m not sure that Trump’s own economic worldview is really anything other than a scattering of policies that he thinks sound good and would benefit his donors, but the piece also makes the case for a more cohesive ideology behind his plans.

This is more like it: Trump 2.0 is probably just going to be a four-year bank robbery, shaped by blatant corruption and government rejection of the public good. Here’s a primer on the pack of lobbyists who have slithered back into Washington and taken roles in his administration.

Trump’s abortion scam: Don’t let his “leave it to the states” talk fool you. Trump can make abortion illegal — or at least very hard to access — nationwide with executive power alone.

Read this: It’s sad and raw and will remind you why we fight for a country that would prioritize fairness, opportunity, and help for those who need it.

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