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Mail Carriers Pause US Deliveries as Tariff Shift Sows Confusion
- nelblu 1y agohttps://archive.is/824JT https://archive.is/824JT
- tonetheman 1y ago[flagged]
- readthenotes1 1y ago[flagged]
- CamperBob2 1y agoAt least the Biden presidency was distinguishable from a subversive attack engineered by America's enemies. The Trump presidency is not.
- nh23423fefe 1y ago[flagged]
- mrtesthah 1y agoDoes it really matter whether it’s a conspiracy when the end results are the same?
- jondwillis 1y agoSince you're flattening and addressing GPs comment with a political false dichotomy... A conspiracy isn't needed to explain the decay of culture, values, material conditions - all it takes is a set of incentives that don't align with broad public well-being, and some time. Move fast and break things! Feudalism is back, baby! A simple reversion to the mean.
- mindslight 1y agoThere's definitely a problem with gerontocracy, but the reason you heard about it so much last year is because the fascists use the technique of projection to preempt criticisms of themselves. Biden was passive demented, which probably didn't really matter all that much (group project). But this was used as cover for Trump's active combative micromanaging dementia that we're now all suffering.
- noduerme 1y agoCouldn't this backfire pretty badly, though? Raising a national conversation about the dementia of the last President makes it easier to have a conversation about the current one, right? I think the fact that the MSM outright lied to cover up Biden's mental decline is actually the root of the problem, because now they've lost credibility and appear hypocritical if they try to point out Trump's glaring mental deficits. If you're contending that the fascists pushed the issue of Biden's decline because they knew the MSM would cover it up and therefore lose credibility, I think you're giving them too much credit.
- mindslight 1y ago"Conversation" ? Do you really feel there is any kind of conversation happening? I don't think it's possible for the MSM to lose any more credibility at this point. The only credibility left is people giving a pass to their flavor of MSM for articles that confirm their biases - same dynamic as social media posts. For the timeline, Trump has been rambling word salad well before it was an issue for Biden. The difference is that for republicans/fascists, mental incompetence is an endearing feature ("he sounds like the kind of person I could have a beer with"), and the democrats/conservatives application of used-to-be-societal-values is seen as a weakness whereby they're getting "triggered". I don't think the whole story arc needed to be planned ahead of time strategically. Rather I think it comes from flooding the zone with shit that might stick, and then the chaos creates opportunities.
- noduerme 1y agoI think there's been an ongoing conversation about Trump's sanity. Look at Gavin Newsom's Twitter feed, for instance. It's taking some time for the antibodies to adapt, but they're adapting. The argument around Biden's mental acuity surely opened the door to a lot more skepticism about the gerontocracy in general, which is easily reframed to Trump in particular now that he's President. So if the question of Biden's sanity was a decoy created by the right wing, put out just to cover their future tracks in electing another mentally ill person, it has clearly backfired. I think if the MSM had been transparent earlier in that debate, not only could we have gotten most of America to see the problem with Trump more clearly (by framing our governance problem around old men with mental issues, rather than defending one against the other), we also could've had an open Democratic primary and probably avoided this entire situation.
- sethops1 1y agoWe haven't voted for a president who uses computers since 2008.
- DaSHacka 1y agoSo first term Obama did, but second term Obama did not? Am I understanding that right?
- dylan604 1y agoWhile your point is technically not wrong, it's not uncommon to consider and refer to the administration as a whole as the presidential count does not increment for consecutive terms. I'm guessing you knew this though, and we appreciate your bravery in being the pedantic one in a thread.
- CommenterPerson 1y agoOuch that must hurt! I see this in plenty of comments on HN actually. People lose track of the topic at hand, and debate at length on a couple of words in another comment.
- booleandilemma 1y agoIt's the faux-autism a lot of techies like to effect. I see it in my workplace all the time.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- dingnuts 1y agoTrump clearly uses a smartphone. Too much, even. Doesn't count?
- platevoltage 1y ago"Everything's computer" - Donald J Trump
- TheOtherHobbes 1y agoThe country is being run by an unholy cabal of crooks, cranks, and creeps who are using a nasty senile old man as a media distraction. Google how many members of Trump's cabinet are employees of Fox/Murdoch. There's nothing stupid about this. It's a traitorous attack on the fundamentals of freedom and democracy - a cynically planned and calculated attempt to replace a modern administrative state with a neo-aristocratic oligarchy that considers itself above any law, accountability, or morality. Trump himself can barely finish his sentences. I have no doubt what's left of his mind approves of what's being done in his name, but I also have no doubt he has less of a mind than the media are showing.
- avidiax 1y agoIs this in-part payola to FedEx? Seems they (and UPS) will be winners in this.
- Spooky23 1y agoThere’s no winners here. This nonsense is killing commerce. The crash in October is going to be devastating.
- lazide 1y agoWhy do you think he’s going after the BLS, the Fed, and replacing all the senior military and FBI types with toadies?
- reactordev 1y agoTo lie about the numbers and pretend everything is fine?
- rjbwork 1y agoDing ding ding! From here on out it's all fake. I expect some private firms that are able to collect somewhat accurate economic data to make a killing, given the government is about to go full China and just lie about the numbers.
- reactordev 1y agoI sincerely hope a financial group out there knows these numbers or can compute them because we’re in uncharted territory here. Never has the United States been under assault from within like this. Without those numbers, no one would invest (wisely), and without influx, we can’t produce goods. Christmas is going to suck so badly this year.
- Spooky23 1y agoNot just within. This is a Russia play. We're in the 2025 version of the manchurian candidate.
- gosub100 1y ago[flagged]
- voxadam 1y agoDo you receive a lot of credit card offers from overseas?
- Scoundreller 1y agooff-topic: As a Canadian, I set up an XM Radio, so I now hear a lot more US ads than I usually do (their music stations are ad-free, but the news channel feeds sub the commercials). Does everyone in USA need a loan in 24h, has IRS problems and is looking to sell (not buy, but sell) their life insurance policy? It's better than Kars4Kids, but I thought people paying for radio might be in a better financial position?
- sarchertech 1y agoNot sure what kind of people listen to XM news, but I’ve never heard any of these ads anywhere here in the US with the exception of an occasional payday loan ad.
- Scoundreller 1y agoI meant their audio-feeds of CNN, Bloomberg, CNBC and... not sure what's on Fox News. That's why those channels have commercials, because the source does, but they overwrite them with XM-specific advertising.
- toast0 1y agoPeople paying for XM radio today probably paid for XM radio a decade ago, which means they skew older. Maybe they're retirees that now have a limited budget, so they have collateral for a loan and have a health insurance policy to sell. Unless you live/drive the wilderness, you probably have better radio options from cell phone. And in my neck of the wilderness, the trees ruin xm reception anyway. :P
- sugarpimpdorsey 1y agoThe article says I can't read it unless I pay Bloomberg their $1.99 tariff.
- presentation 1y agoRead the fine text > You'll pay $1.99/month beginning today for 1 month. Then your subscription will automatically renew at $39.99 every month after the first month, unless you cancel before the 1 month intro period. lol 20x increase after the first month
- kevin_thibedeau 1y agoThey still haven't retracted their lies from the Supermicro hit piece so I say good riddance.
- kmeisthax 1y ago[dead]
- roland35 1y agoNot a tariff. Nice try at a joke though!!
- platevoltage 1y agooh whoa really?
- andrewinardeer 1y agoLoad on Firefox, switch to reader mode.
- Scoundreller 1y agodon't bother with Lynx though: "We've detected unusual activity from your computer network". No you didn't!
- susiecambria 1y ago> Washington’s long-standing de minimis policy had allowed parcels packed with cheap items to flow into the US from around the world with little interruption or oversight, fueled by consumer demand for bargains and immediacy. Trump’s White House claims it’s a loophole used to evade tariffs and funnel illegal drugs. > Now, postal services, online sellers, consumers and shipping companies are attempting to sort through the costly and complicated process to comply with US rules with little guidance from federal agencies. I wonder what consideration individuals are giving this. . . The article says very little about consumer behavior save for the above two grafs. I very rarely buy directly from abroad and that is by design, with nothing to do re: de minimis. What bargains are people buying?! Especially in this economy.
- jleyank 1y agoerr, things like Etsy and other crafter-sized companies, including antiques and other things. Don't know whether used books will be affected as I've not bought any recently. E-stores like Amazon or LL Bean or others at scale might/will have difficulty servicing customers. And all the gifts coming from non-US residents at this point will be emails.
- roxolotl 1y agoI personally buy things from abroad relatively regularly. Few times a year. Just bought a keyboard from Taiwan and stocked up on Japanese tea in preparation for this. Plenty of things come from abroad though even if you’re not searching it out. Of course there’s SHEIN, temu, and Alibaba but even Amazon has a good percentage of things that come from abroad. It’s kinda hidden but it’s seamless so until now it was hard to tell.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- redserk 1y agoYou can save a lot of money on random stuff from Temu/Aliexpress compared to Amazon. In my experience, often times going to be the same exact item. Bags, odds and ends around the house, component assortments, screw assortments, and some tools (with careful judgement). Sometimes the difference is only 1/3rd the cost, but I’ve had some items be 1/20th the cost by removing Amazon and whichever third party seller.
- jleyank 1y agoFor at least the near term, parcels won't be shipped into the US. Once things stabilize, they'll figure out who'll pay the tariffs stemming from suspending de minimus. But it's going to affect small companies outside the US and the cost of goods entering from outside. That's the intent, but it's going to result in some lean months or years until the payola is delivered or the factories are (re)built. And it's not going to be a fun time for Walmart.
- Larrikin 1y ago>> it's going to result in some lean months or years There's a lot of government officials in their 80s, I'm betting a lot of them will die and these tariffs get thrown out with them. It's an instant win for any politician to lower taxes on consumers.
- jleyank 1y agoThere’s only one relevant old fart politician for this tariff bs.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- Guvante 1y agoThe US imported $3.3 Trillion in 2024 and had goods value add of $4.9 Trillion of which $2.1 Trillion were exports. Given generally speaking imports and exports tend to be distinct products we would need to add 118% goods production to not need to import. The US isn't capable of doing that in even a decade. And it is going to impact everything because unlike most tariffs which exclude manufacturing goods this set hits everything so you cannot competitively produce things unless the entire production chain from raw materials is in the US.
- throwawaymaths 1y agobig bulk importers (e.g. walmart sources) already have infrastructure to deal with import duties so its not like trade is going to come to a halt. IIUC realistically its small shippers that are going to get whacked like aliexpress or temu, shein.
- Yeul 1y agoEven Brexit wasn't this embarrassing.
- disgruntledphd2 1y agoBrexit was about equally as insane as this, it's just that unless you were in the UK or Ireland you could mostly ignore it. The US doing similar stuff is much harder to ignore.
- pdntspa 1y agoDamn it, I have an aliexpress order from a few days ago en route :(
- Scoundreller 1y agoIt might only apply for goods that get on the water / in the air after the change, not those already in transit.
- dhosek 1y agoThat would unreasonably assume competence.
- Tagbert 1y agoSo now some of those scam texts telling me that I need to pay a fee to get a package (that I didn’t remember ordering) a few will now be legitimate messages? That’s going to be a mess and lots more people getting scammed.
- Scoundreller 1y agoUPS and Fedex have made the fatal mistake of dropping off their items before even trying to collect their fees. Then they spam my (postal) mailbox with letters about having to pay extortionate brokerage fees. Can't say I've paid them all and can say they give up pretty quick if you circle file them.
- CamperBob2 1y agoYeah, and then they circle-file your address and any future shipments to it.
- Scoundreller 1y agoso far, so good
- frosted-flakes 1y agoFedEx recently started sending me mail to my parent's address saying I owe them $65 for a product I bought from the US a while ago... in 2014. I wonder if this is related to the whole Trump tariff thing? I haven't paid it, and I won't unless there's a good reason for me to.
- Tagbert 1y agoAre you sure it is really FedEx? Definitely too old for tariffs. Probably too old for any claim against you. I’ve seen a lot of shipping related scams in the last two years.
- frosted-flakes 1y ago
- CosmicShadow 1y agoI sell a niche, handmade product for a living from Canada and 90% of my sales are to the US and this bullshit really fucking sucks. Even our shipping partners don't know what is going on and usually can only fill us in on or after a due date goes past because nobody on either side of the border has any idea what to do or what is actually supposed to happen. Here's the stupidity: USPS doesn't know who is supposed to collect the tariffs...hmm it's the person in the US who bought the product, and you collect money from them, like UPS and FedEx do all the time. It's going to your own government, how do they not understand? I know it's unrealistic for mail carriers to be able to do that en-masse now, but I'm not sure why they think Canada Post should be collecting tariffs, they don't have employees that deliver mail...IN THE US! So we can't ship with Canada Post to the US now as they'll just send it back. Canada Post can also strike again at any moment, but that's another story. So the current advice is for us to now ship our products as Delivery Duty Paid or DDP, which means I'm supposed to pay the tariff that the buyer should be paying all because USPS doesn't know how to collect the money to give to their government. I'm getting double boned. Oh yeah, I also have to pay an extra $2 per shipment to a broker now in addition to the tariffs, which nobody really has any clarity what they will be yet and there doesn't seem to be a good source saying if the items I sell are CUSMA or not. It's one hell of a mess for sure, and especially damaging when you sell low ticket items on volume. I'm going to have to jack my shipping, which will hurt as our shipping is already more expensive than what someone would normally pay from someone within the US. Once we can ship Delivery Duty Unpaid or DDU we will expect 4 out 5 customers to send angry emails asking what these "Hidden fees" are as we don't expect anyone to realize they actually need to pay tariffs and then we get stuck on the defensive side educating people what tariffs are and who caused them and who is supposed to pay them, which is not great for business, sanity or time :/
- Scoundreller 1y agoIf they're not individualized items, send US$800 worth everyday for the next week to an Amerifriend to warehouse there and re-ship domestic on-demand if you can. That's basically what US companies were doing with Chinese stuff when those tariffs were announced but not in force yet (and maybe earlier if they got early wind about it). Dunno what's going on with NAFTA/CUSMA/USMCA. Changes with the wind. Or maybe you'll qualify for duty-free under our supposed trade agreement if you pay some assessor mafia $9999 to confirm that your handmade good is Made in Canada.
- Scoundreller 1y agoThere's two elements to this: 1. Removal of de minimis / low-value duty free exemption. Plenty of countries have very low thresholds to start collecting sales tax on imports. A moot point as a lot of platforms (Etsy/Amazon/Ebay/Aliexpress/Temu) charge the destination's US/EU/Aus sales taxes already. Usually a higher threshold to start collecting duty. Duty is much more cognitively difficult to assess. Historically, sales taxes were more than duty for most items anyway. US is now another exception here. 2. US not accepting "duty-unpaid" postal shipments. This is VERY unusual. As of today, I can walk into the post office and send a parcel to any country in the world. The destination customs will figure out if/what duty/taxes are owed and collect it from the recipient. I don't need to know, nor care, what the rates are in Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Colombia or San Marino. The buyer should know and can complain to their gov if it's unreasonable/incorrect. Next month, USA will be the sole exception to that. Air freight to USA is going to get a lot cheaper if anyone is looking.
- Animats 1y ago> US not accepting "duty-unpaid" postal shipments. This is VERY unusual. To maintain the illusion that the sender pays for tariffs? Keep receipts and customs declarations on everything imported. There's a lawsuit underway and it may well be decided that Trump doesn't have the authority to levy tariffs at all under the Emergency Economic Powers Act. In that case, importers will be due a refund.[1] The Constitution says that Congress sets tariffs and the Emergency Economic Powers Act doesn't mention tariffs. As usual, Trump's strategy is to stall, probably until 2026 when this is expected to reach the Supreme Court. Congress could enact Trump's tariff schedule to resolve this, but that would lock it into law. [1] https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/what-happens-next-us-court-battle-over-trumps-tariffs-2025-08-04/ https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/what-happens-next-u...
- Scoundreller 1y ago> To maintain the illusion that the sender pays for tariffs? I think it’s both that and the overwhelming reluctance to tell (and perhaps hire more) people carrying guns in an already safe and secure area to do (paper)work. Similar issue in Canada where border officers allegedly do enforcement and provide services but want to focus on the “bad guy” enforcement part. Helping people out or sending bills to grandma wasn’t what they were promised when they signed up.
- bsimpson 1y agoDamn. I thought I had another week to order stuff before this nonsense started.
- e40 1y agoI literally just ordered something from the UK and it was shipped a few days ago. Ugh.
- gonzalohm 1y agoHey at least it will reduce consumerism in the US. Will probably send us straight to a recession though
- IAmGraydon 1y agoThis idiot is going to send this country into such economic convulsions that he’ll get himself removed.