Post office will suspend most mail service Wednesday for Bush funeral

[left-of-center2012]

Source: The Hill

The U.S. Postal Service announced on Monday that it will suspend most of its services on Wednesday in honor of the late former President, George H.W. Bush.

"Out of respect for the 41st President of the United States and to honor his vast contributions to our country during his lifetime, and consistent with the Presidential Proclamation, the United States Postal Service will suspend regular mail deliveries, retail services and administrative office activity on Dec. 5," USPS said in a statement on its website.

President Trump on Saturday declared that Wednesday would be a national day of mourning for the former one-term president.


Read more: https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/419563-postal-service-to-suspend-most-deliveries-for-george-hw-bushs

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President Trump announced Saturday that all agencies in the federal government will close on December 5 for former President George H.W. Bush's funeral.

[Squinch]

1. That's weird.

[Owl]

3. Yes very weird.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

2. W T F ?????

Life does not take a hiatus just because this man passed away.

This is absurd.

[Polybius]

7. They have to do it for him because they did it for Ford, Reagan, etc.

I agree that it's over the top though.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

11. Yes, because tradition, unimpeded by progress, is relevant.

[Polybius]

15. Sometimes it's hard to stop something because it will be unfair to the rest

If we stop now, the next one might be a Democratic President, and I do not want him not to have a national day of mourning.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

18. I don't have a problem with paying respects

But shutting down the USPS (especially at this time of year) doesn't connote respect. Remember that the hardest hit on USPS holidays are small business owners. This is the time of year when they make THE profit that carries most of them through the rest of the year.

And face it, when Carter, Clinton or Obama pass away, the outpouring of respect will be HUGE. Why ? Not because we close the USPS, but because they earned our respect and love.

In a time when small businesses are being squeezed out of existence by greedy corporations and indifferent politicians, I had to stand up for all of the small local business people whom I support. And I don't think that GHWB would mind that.

[Sherman A1]

23. Precisely

Shutting down the post office in my opinion is a silly idea for all the reasons you stated and more.

[Cetacea]

26. It's relativily rare.

Last edited Wed Dec 5, 2018, 03:22 PM - Edit history (1)

And coverage has increased substantially since Regan's death.

[NutmegYankee]

28. It's been turned into a gov holiday. And has been done for every president in the past 50 years.

[Cetacea]

47. So approx six times/days in the past fifty years

It's no wonder that a lot of people don't remember. And from what I can gather from a rapidly declining Google, postal workers were not payed on those occasions until 2000. I mention this as the GOP traditionally hated the USPS. While I respect Bush 41, his son did great harm to the service.

[onenote]

35. You are mistaken.

Last edited Wed Dec 5, 2018, 06:54 PM - Edit history (1)

A day of mourning, complete with postal service suspension, occurred following the deaths of JFK, Eisenhower, Truman, LBJ, Reagan and Ford.


JFK https://newspaperarchive.com/bluefield-daily-telegraph-nov-24-1963-p-2/
Eisenhower https://newspaperarchive.com/bakersfield-californian-mar-29-1969-p-1/
Truman https://newspaperarchive.com/bradford-era-dec-27-1972-p-1/
LBJ https://newspaperarchive.com/charleston-gazette-jan-24-1973-p-1/
Reagan https://news.psu.edu/story/215564/2004/06/08/post-offices-closed-friday
Ford http://www.apwu.org/news/web-news-article/day-mourning-be-observed-jan-2

[Cetacea]

44. I stand corrected. But remember, this is a discussion forum

[Kajun Gal]

4. Seriously?

[Squinch]

5. I just looked. They did it for Gerald Ford too. I guess it's a thing.

[violetpastille]

6. Did Postal Service Stop for Nixon?

[dalton99a]

12. Yes. There was a day of mourning and government shutdown

ordered by Bill Clinton

[elmac]

8. I hope this is a joke

and why would the post office follow directions from the joke in the white house?

[TheCowsCameHome]

9. When Trump goes...

...I hope everything stays open 24/7

[flibbitygiblets]

20. When Rump dies (soon I hope), I will mail a bag of tiny dicks to his family

to show my "respect"

[lagomorph777]

36. When Trump goes, I hope he's buried at sea, Bin Laden-style.

[Just a Weirdo]

38. Nope. I want no trace of Trump on earth.

Vaporize his fat ass out of existence.

[lagomorph777]

39. Dispose of him like Kashoggi?

I could live with that.

[Just a Weirdo]

40. No atomic trace of him. As if he never existed except for his spawns.

Nothing to worship

[lagomorph777]

41. That would be expensive

As far as I can tell, he'd have to be thrown into a Tokamak, or the Sun.

Waste of money either way.

[Just a Weirdo]

42. Yeah, but he cannot resurrect from the dead.

He stays all dead.

But the aim for the sun can be done for purely scientific research, so thus, not a waste, and probably the only positive contribution from Trump. This way, when the object reaches the sun, it can be reported back to the Earth that Trump's ass has finally reached the corona of the sun, and the research project is complete, 50 years later.

[Doodley]

10. Anything to get a day off work.

[Demonaut]

13. I bet and hope the didn't seek permission

[KY_EnviroGuy]

14. Kind of odd, considering that....

tRump follows little or no other government traditions.

I feel for our Post Office personnel considering the load they carry during holiday season and this will make things worse.

............ ...........

[truthisfreedom]

16. Except Amazon will get delivered. :p

[Haggis for Breakfast]

19. In a perverse sort of way, you just made my point

See #18.

[byronius]

17. What a very bad idea.

[LibDemAlways]

21. Oh brother. At this time of year mail delivery is

especially important. I honestly don't think most people care all that much about Bush I dying of natural causes at 94. Schools will be open. Private businesses will be open. No doubt many state governments will continue to function. Those interested in watching the funeral will have plenty of opportunity. For those not interested, life will go on as usual - except for the ridiculous inconvenience of no midweek mail delivery.

[onenote]

32. Really? Not having regular mail service on December 5 is some sort of calamity?

I'll be happy to have one day where I don't receive a five pound stack of environmentally unfriendly catalogs.

[Cetacea]

33. Who needs timely mail anyway

The GOP certainly doesn't care.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/karl-frisch/postal-service-cuts_b_961602.html

[elmac]

22. I'm sure UPS anf FedEx will be glad to take their customers. nt

[BumRushDaShow]

24. They did this for at least 3 former-President's deaths when I was still a fed

- For Nixon (1994), for Raygun (2004), for Ford (2006).

Before that, Nixon did it for Eisenhower (1969), did it for Truman (1972) and did it for Johnson (1973). And before that, Johnson did it for Kennedy.

Some history of this - https://www.whitehousehistory.org/modern-mourning-observations-at-the-white-house

[Cetacea]

25. This highly unusual.

https://www.whitehousehistory.org/modern-mourning-observations-at-the-white-house

It's up to the serving president to fine tune the event. If you don't remember Postal Service being suspended on previous occasions, your memory is fine.

It's basically Trump giving another government service the middle finger.

[onenote]

30. No its not unusual You should delete your post.

Anyone who doesn't remember it happening on prior occasions is probably too young to remember or wasn't paying attention. Not sure which category you fall into but your post is simply false.

In my lifetime eight presidents have died and the post office has suspended regular mail delivery for a national day of mourning for everyone of them except, apparently, Hoover in 1964.


JFK https://newspaperarchive.com/bluefield-daily-telegraph-nov-24-1963-p-2/
Eisenhower https://newspaperarchive.com/bakersfield-californian-mar-29-1969-p-1/
Truman https://newspaperarchive.com/bradford-era-dec-27-1972-p-1/
LBJ https://newspaperarchive.com/charleston-gazette-jan-24-1973-p-1/
Reagan https://news.psu.edu/story/215564/2004/06/08/post-offices-closed-friday
Ford http://www.apwu.org/news/web-news-article/day-mourning-be-observed-jan-2

[Cetacea]

45. Subscription only.

Do you happen to know whether or not postal workers were paid on those rare occasions before before 2000 and before they reached a union agreement in 2000?

[onenote]

46. I don't know if postal workers were paid on days when mail service was suspended in the past. Also

you should be able to see the linked articles -- nine "free" views are allowed.

For example, if you open the first linked article (JFK) -- you'll see large thumbnails of the pages of the paper. If you double click on the one labelled "page one" it should open for you. The notification about the post office being closed is in the third column over from the right, below the fold.

The same approach should work with the other links.

[Cetacea]

48. Ok. Thanks

In addition to your theory that age and youth might be contributing to the perception by many that this was a one-off, we could add relative scarcity over fifty years. Also, media coverage has increased substantially since Reagan's death.

[onenote]

49. True. Presidential funerals have occurred only 39 times in the country's history.

Interesting additional factoid: the NYSE has closed on the day of a presidential funeral going back at least to US Grant in 1885. http://www.ltadvisors.net/Info/research/closings.pdf

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

27. They might not deliver the mail, but I bet they deliver Amazon packages.

Neither rain, nor snow, nor eulogies for ex-presidents ....

[onenote]

31. As is the traditional practice, "regular" mail service is suspended

and post offices are closed to the public.

[Red Mountain]

29. They could use an extra day off.....

It's going to be a long month.

[Mawex]

34. Good nor bad.

This is neither good nor bad as it is honoring a national hero, but surely many people will get affected.

[Eliot Rosewater]

43. Hero? Most who served in combat in WWII are or were heros.

Are they national heros? I guess so, but none of them get this level of attention.

I have to date stated ONLY positive things about him as to show respect to his service in WWII. Much of what he did after that was bad, though.

The traitor is making it a national holiday to try and make points, he cares nothing about the passing of GHWB who compared to rump, COMPARED to rump was not only a hero but a great man, COMPARED to rump.

One of the problems with the traitor in the WH, besides the obvious horrific damage and packing of our courts with idiot rightwing sycophants who all hate all minorities is the fact that now cons can live horrible lives and act horribly in public service, like they already do and then get compared to this piece of shit which will make them look better.

SNL showed him some respect, I liked that. I liked it also because they will NEVER show respect nor will anyone with any decency to the traitor.

[Bengus81]

37. Eh...a day when I don't get another load of junk mail

Means there will be twice as much in the box on Thursday.