Folks,
The Post Office is in deep need of funds and the Feds under Trump are not playing nice. We could end up without mail in just a month or two.
Many folks are helping out by buying stamps and postcards. I just bought my Christmas card postage for the next two years as well as some “Forever” international stamps. And some “extra ounce” stamps to cover those situations.
Cost: $100 and some change. The value of my investment: priceless
If you can spare a little scratch, they can use a cash injection! Please pass along.
Calling All Artists & Artisans – Submissions Please
Dinah
Bought jigsaw puzzles and a throw blanket for my grandchildren on the USPS website. Lots of nice merchandise there.
Kristine
I bought Spooky Stamps and a postage scale.
Also, I received the starter! How large a container will I need to use?
BR
More importantly, we should call our reps and say they shouldn’t allow anything to pass without funding for USPS, removal of the 75-year pension fund requirement, and vote by mail.
I called my rep last week and will again this week.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Getting rid of cheap rural mail service to own the libs. Wait till granny has to pay UPS $15 to mail her Rural Electric Cooperative check….
debbie
Wonder if Trump et Cron. realize UPS, FedEx, etc. use the USPS for the last leg of many deliveries? Or are they trying to screw them too?
Alain
@Kristine: I use a large jar with a cloth handkerchief on top, kept in place with rubber band. I use a top if I put it into the fridge.
ETA: large jar is quart size or larger.
dmsilev
@debbie: Trump? Doubt it. Conservatives in general? Yes. Think of the “market inefficiencies” that could be overcome by charging prices premiums!
Also, looting that 75-year-prefunded pension plan is high on their to-do list.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I ordered more stamps this morning.
what happened to the postal banking idea that cropped up early in the primary? I don’t know how it would affect the overall financial position of the USPS, but it might make people care about it more
Lapassionara
@BR: Ditto this. There is no reason for the pension requirement to be this strict. Call your reps.
different-church-lady
You know who needs a cash injection right now? Me. Because I don’t expect to have any income until at least June and the hospital bill hasn’t shown up yet.
Feathers
@debbie: Apparently Trump does know that screwing with the Post Office hurts Amazon and thus Bezos, so….
NotMax
Take away bills to name post offices and R Congresspeople would have nothing at all to do.
//
WaterGirl
@BR: @Lapassionara:
Exactly! We don’t need a bake sale, we need the government to fucking fund the fucking Post Office.
debbie
@Feathers:
Forgot about Bezos. Speaks volumes, though, that in an effort to poke Bezos, Trump is willing to hurt countless small businesses, including those of his supporters. Besides, losing USPS wouldn’t be the end of Amazon, would it?
Haydnseek
If you wanted to destroy small, and not so small business in America you couldn’t think of a better way. And all because Donnie Dipshit wants to fuck over that multi-billion dollar earning, USPS shipping, WAPO owning enemy of the state Jeff Bezos. And when the poop hit’s the propeller it will be the fault of Hillary, and Obama, and every enemy of the state Democrat who ever refused to bend the knee all the better to kiss his pasty white ass. I don’t think I’m overstating this. With luck some of his wingnut running buddies will realize that this is a bridge too far and blow enough smoke up his ass to make him back off.
Kent
Don’t forget Bernie! Two out of the three bills that Bernie has passed in the past several decades were post office namings.
pat
On the other hand, my junk mail has gotten totally out of hand. I get begging letters from every organization I have ever contributed to and many more that I don’t. When we are gone for a few weeks the neighbor takes in our mail and it can run to 20-30 pounds with catalogs and magazines. Maybe one or two things that are important, the rest goes into recycling.
BUT that is no reason to destroy the USPS. Isn’t it in the Constitution?
marklar
I just bought the last two years worth of Commemorative sets, because, you know, philately will get you everywhere.
BobS
@pat: You really think the Constitution matters to the Roberts court?
Emerald
@pat: Junk mail is what pays for normal mail. But we all need to buy at least several sheets of stamps! Spread the word. The Rs are terrified of vote by mail and have wanted to bankrupt the USPS for years. We can fund them if we spend $$ there.
Frankly I expected the Roberts court to outlaw vote by mail but eliminating the USPS is much more efficient for them.
Aleta
In addition to the huge $ loss of advertising mail and 1st class business mail since shutdown, another stress on the PO is employee loss in areas where the virus is hitting hard. In the NYC area the number of workers at mail processing plants is down by 50% (due to fear and sickness) and the number of mail carriers by close to 30%. In all the areas affected by employee loss, the mail is being rerouted to other plants* or states for sorting. I think they’re doing a good job, but they’ll probably be blamed. Republicans are despicable for keeping on with the attempt to kill the USPS even during these months when we’re depending so heavily on them.
*Republicans tried to close many of these secondary plants some years ago. It’s a good thing that some areas and their reps fought this. In the last 1-2 years Rs have succeeded in turning a lot of the mail transport over to smaller private contractors who have to bid for routes, and get few benefits.
James E Powell
@BR:
Or, just talking purely hypothetically here, how about we find out the senators and reps who won’t do these things, go to their homes in the middle of the night, pull them out of bed, and beat them senseless? Hypothetically, that is.
Jeffro
I appreciate the spirit of this post.
I’m not doing a GoFundMe for the motherfucking Post Office.
I am up for contacting every single MoC about this BS, though, and reminding them that a blue wave is coming.
Also up for donating a couple hundred bucks to whomever in Congress is speaking loudest about this BS
just buying a couple (or couple dozen) books of stamps and hoping that helps – pass
Bill Arnold
@pat:
Yes, and the various corporations with their hands out/mouths open begging for taxpayer-funded bailouts are not named in the US constitution. Because they didn’t exist until the 1790s and more properly, later than that.
Alain
@Jeffro: if Trump won’t sign a bill with PO money in it as has been reported in the last day or two, direct funding will help through the crisis. It’s an investment that goes directly into operating funds, whether you use the stamps or not.
We shouldn’t have to do this but it’s a brave new world, revealed every day. It is a way around the Republican Senate and current President.
Ruckus
You might want to do double duty and buy PTSD stamps. An extra $2 a panel, $13 on line, which goes to helping PTSD victims.
Two worthwhile causes, the USPS and PTSD assistance.
Alain
@Ruckus: great idea! I’m going back to get a set of those too.
Bill Arnold
@Emerald:
Frankly, if the Roberts conservatives block voting by mail directly or the Republicans block it by bankrupting the USPS, they will kill a lot of people, and some of their (hypothetical, so far, excepting Wisconsin) victims’ relatives have (long) guns. It’ll be stochastic suicide on their part. IMO. (I write this as an advocate of non-violent approaches, just noting the facts of America and the 2nd Amendment.)
mrmoshpotato
@Kent: You watch your mouth! Wilmer will shout unicorn butlers into existence any day now!
Alain
@Alain: done. Two more sets. At least I like and use a fair amount of them.
lgerard
@marklar:
i had a friend who ran a small business for about 30 years starting back in the late 70’s. He would buy sheets of commemorative stamps, get a receipt, and write them off as a business expense.
Those sheets of stamps sat in his safe deposit box, quietly awaiting the day of his retirement.
catclub
Isn’t that like not being broke because you still have checks in your checkbook? Good luck.
Baud
@James E Powell:
Updated for modern times.
Ohio Mom
There is also the question of the international agreement that allows someone in the US to stick a postage stamp on a letter and know it will arrive in another country, and vice versa.
Let’s keep making the rest of the world irritated with us.
senyordave
I assume that the USPS going under would not hurt Trump with his base, but independents? I would guess that most like the post office as backstop at the very least.
leeleeFL
@Haydnseek: I was thinking this AM that Bezos could pledge to bail them out, and use them for at least half of the Amazon Deliveries. That would keep the other delivery services solvent and mayhap likely to be more reasonable in pricing. Do it for Benjamin Franklin, Jeff. Besides, Trump might just stroke out. WIN-WIN!
Kent
Strictly speaking, without the Constitution they are just a bunch of grumpy old men in dresses.
But yes, I agree, they don’t seem to care about it one bit when when preservation of GOP or corporate power is at stake.
Ruckus
The only thing I dislike about the post office is that the cost to do bulk mail is so cheap that we all get a lot of it. Every week, once a week the trash cans next to the mail boxes, 140 of them, at my complex fill up with bulk mail crap. Not to mention the weekly additions from major companies, most of them companies that are horrible, like say a not that old internet provider, can’t remember the name but it starts with an S……. offering come on pricing and after a short while they jack up massively. So expensive and crappy service. I get 2 to 4 “offers” monthly.
Kent
There are a shitload of old rural red-state folks who depend on the Post Office as their lifeline for everything from pension checks and religious magazines to mail order delivery of prescription meds. And there are a shitload of tiny little towns for whom the US Post Office is barely the only thing left that provides any source of community. Take that away and all that’s left is the Dollar General on the edge of town.
Auntie Beak
Done.
Emerald
They’ll blame it on Obama.
Mike in NC
As if we needed another goddamn reason to impeach Fat Bastard again. Make it stop, please.
Ruckus
@leeleeFL:
Considering that a lot of rural deliveries are done the last segment with USPS because they go there 6 days a week, no matter who is the original shipper, we are already subsidizing the government support of the USPS. Or at least some of us are.
Kent
@Emerald: Or brown immigrants.
The post office didn’t fail until the Mexican restaurants and carnicerias started to show up in rural America. Cause and effect. Build that wall and save the USPS for real Americans!
BobS
@senyordave: A daily trip to the post office to get a piece or two of mail out of their box is important to rural white America, and the people working the counter (or driving the routes) are friends and neighbors.
While I never underestimate the ability of Fox to get the hive mind reciting the same chant, the post office isn’t Obama or Hillary Clinton.
Kent
Without the USPS, Amazon Prime and free delivery to rural America is going to vanish. Or maybe prime subscriptions in rural zip codes will go up to $500/year. That will leave a mark in rural communities without much shopping.
Nicole
@Kent: The Republicans will vote to fund some private company (or several) to charge twice as much to do half as good a job. It’s all about the grift.
WaterGirl
@Nicole: You are absolutely correct.
And reading that makes me literally feel sick to my stomach.
Kent
@Nicole: Oh, I’m not arguing the point. Clearly that is the end game. Same as for privatization of public education. The ability to kill off the postal unions is an added bonus, same as the charter school effort to kill off teacher’s unions.
lurker3000
Maybe good news, but I got an error message when I tried to buy something. First had to create acct and got a “This service is not available” message. sigh.
Madeleine
I bought stamps–Gwen Ifills and wild orchids–and America the Beautiful postcards for writing voter postcards. Thanks for the suggestion, Alain. I’ll call my Congressperson tomorrow.
Nicole
@lurker3000: Me too. I think they may be overwhelmed right now, which is a good thing. I’ll try again tomorrow and in the meantime, reach out to my Senators and Representative re: making sure funding for USPS is included in any future relief bills.
Mike in NC
We’ve been down this stupid road before, as with Darrell Issa and other Republican assholes in Congress trying to get UPS and/or FedEx (i.e. their donors) to replace USPS. It was quickly shown they would need to charge about 50 times more money to deliver a single envelope with your water bill in it.
dimmsdale
@Alain: Thanks for posting this, Alain! took your link to the PO store, bought some stamps, posted the link on FB in my own timeline exhorting others to do the same. Appreciate that you made it so easy. I was somewhat cheered to get to the store site and see this: “Due to a high volume of orders at this time, please allow an additional 2-3 days for the delivery of your order.”
Nicole
Reminder- if you text RESIST to 504-09, they’ll guide you through composing and send letters to your Representative and Senators for you.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mike in NC: That’s the old plan, the new one is Trump Delivery®… they will deliver your letters and packages in a shiny gold truck and only charge you 50 times what you’re paying now. Such a deal!
Felanius Kootea
Bought a coil of stamps and a stamp coil holder. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
The sheer amount of cleanup that the next Democratic President will need to do is daunting. I hope we’re understanding when everything we want or that we consider important doesn’t happen at once.
Republicans now have this down to a science: break everything, leave the Democrats to fix what they’ve broken and then rally “real America” by pointing out that the broken stuff isn’t being fixed quickly enough or by saying that brown or black people are to blame and the Dems are “their” party. Democrats are basically stuck playing defense on stuff that’s not even their fault. The first Dem politician that figures out how to turn that around will earn my undying gratitude and respect.
dimmsdale
@Nicole: Yeah, not only that, they’ll plunder the PO’s delivery mechanisms and route systems, and (quite probably) our names and addresses, and sell THAT off to capitalist thugs as well. Just a few years ago losing the PO would be unthinkable, but here we are…and as is often said, there is no bottom with these Republican parasites and looters.
RedDirtGirl
Just bought the Maine Statehood ones, as well as 10 and 5 cents ones for extra ounces. I’ve been sending my mom crossword puzzles in the mail and sometimes those envelopes get hefty!
PsiFighter37
The reason the USPS has been in such crappy shape is because Dubya and the GOP Congress, before they lost control in 2006, forced USPS to prefund 75 years worth of pension obligations. Donnie and team are just finishing off what the last GOP jerkoff to occupy the White House started.
The Moar You Know
@PsiFighter37: THIS. If held to normal pension funding rules, and freed of the requirement to carry “bulk mail” for the insanely below-cost prices they do, the Post Office would have been profitable for years.
I still cannot find the court ruling, and I’m assuming there was one, that allowed Nixon and Congress to privatize the Post Office back in 1970 (Postal Reorganization Act of 1970). I would think the literal wording of the US Constitution that the government shall create and maintain a postal service would have taken privatization off the table, but I guess not.
Ruckus
@dimmsdale:
Don’t want to break this to you but someone is already selling our names and addresses. I already get far too much junk mail addressed to me. Someone is selling it.
burnspbesq
Trump doesn’t want to destroy the Postal Service. He wants to privatize it.
And don’t think it’s lost on him and his death cult how many African American families got lifted into the middle class by way of unionized Postal Service jobs.
Everything is connected.
burnspbesq
@The Moar You Know:
The 1970 Act didn’t “privatize” the Post Office, in any meaningful sense of the word. Neither you nor I can own shares.
what the 1970 Act did was take it off budget.
sixthdoctor
Thanks for posting this; I’m calling my senators (Maryland) tomorrow and in all of the constant atrocities this one has somehow stuck in my craw and made me so fucking angry. Breaking government and then crying about how government doesn’t work has been a Repub tactic for years and it just pisses me off.
How the hell can you go out of the way to destroy the POST OFFICE and call yourself an American? Why not just go destroy baseball? Or barbecues?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@burnspbesq: just saw this tweet before coming back to this thread
Sab
@Dinah: I had no idea they sold all that stuff. We need puzzles at my house.
SuzieC
Done! I think Trump trying to destroy the Post Office will be a bridge too far for many red states. For Christ’s sake, Ben Franklin included it in the Constitution!!
sixthdoctor
FWIW as I was adding a USPS America Smiles Stamps Puzzle to my shopping cart I got this message:
Due to a high volume of orders at this time, please allow an additional 2-3 days for the delivery of your order. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Thank you.
So, any small victory these days is a cause for celebration…
Chris Johnson
You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.
This is like trying to fix climate change by getting people to fart less. Selling enough stamps is NOT THE PROBLEM here. I will be very pissed off if Putin’s puppet manages to kill countless Americans AND wipe out the postal service. What next, they go out and start ripping up the actual roads?
I am not going to scamper out and buy stamps believing that is going to do anything.
(that said, in previous weeks I’ve been sending superfluous stuff to friends that needed it, Priority Mail, not flinching at the cost, which has been over a hundred bucks, so I’m not saying I won’t spend on the USPS. I’m saying that going out to get stamps is misunderstanding the problem)
OzarkHillbilly
I just gotta say, that ain’t gonna persuade any of them motherfiuckers because they have been salivating over privatizing the USPS for decades. Tar and feathering and 2nd amendment solutions might get their attentions tho.
Might.
Jeffro
@Chris Johnson: thank you
Alain
@OzarkHillbilly:
@Chris Johnson:
It’s about putting funds in the USPS account that they can immediately use so as to not be in such a crisis that lack of additional funding from the Federal government won’t sink it. This is life support we can all offer. Worst case, donate them to a cause you support.
dww44
@debbie:
Well, my 2 person household got 2 taxpayer funded Trump Coronavirus postcards yesterday. I’m assuming that everyone else did as well.
dww44
@burnspbesq: yes, that is true. But what so many don’t realize it’s also Southern white males, WWII veterans all, who got rural carrier routes to supplement their unreliable farm income and retired with benefits and a nice pension. No doubt their only medical insurance (pre Medicare) was courtesy of the USPS. All of those relatives turned into conservative Republicans. Yet if they were still alive, I hope they’d be opposed to defunding/privatizing the post office.
Shantanu Saha
Just bought a roll of flag forever stamps, a page of moon landing stamps, and a page of two-ounce stamps. That should hold me for the next couple of years.