Nasty Newsmax Cover

[BlueGreenLady]

I picked up my 91 year old Dad's mail today and there was a Newsmax magazine with a very derogatory front cover with a picture of President Biden with a face mask half off. The headlines on it were the usual RW warnings: something about the coming Biden Recession and de-funding the police, etc. My Dad did not subscribe to this rag, so I don't know why he was sent this magazine. If I had not seen it my Dad would have blithely read the magazine without any knowledge of it's MAGA bias. How do Democrats fight back against this amount of Fascist BS?

[we can do it]

1. Turn them around when you see them.

Carry to toilet paper aisle.

[BlueGreenLady]

4. Unfortunately they came in his mailbox.

At least I let him know that it was a Right Wing Propaganda rag. If I see it again I will consider tossing it immediately.

[EYESORE 9001]

2. I once had a boss who was a full-fledged RW hosebag

This was ca. 2010. He subscribed to NewsMax magazine, presumably on the company’s dime, and left that abhorrent rag on the coffee table in the reception area. I performed ‘housekeeping’ occasionally and the magazines were never seen afterward.

Also, the Democratic House candidate came around to seek an audience with the workers. He was nearly thrown out on his ear by my hosebag boss, who went on to extend an invitation to the repug to come speak at the plant. I dropped a dime on him to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, corporate, and anyone else who would listen. He got his azz reamed good and proper.

[Skittles]

9. good job, good effort

[Hekate]

3. Lesson from my childhood: the person who brings in the mail gets to toss all the junk mail ...

…in the trash can on the way in to the house. You’d be doing him a favor.

I did finally ask my mom who the Scientologists were, as they were sending us multiple mailings per day and my instructions regarding them were explicit.

[BlueGreenLady]

5. I will take your recommendation

Definitely need a trashcan by the mailbox some days.

[we can do it]

6. Since he didn't subscribe, deposit in recycle bin.

Accidentally use to pick up dog poop?

[brooklynite]

21. How do you know that?

Setting aside the fact that it’s illegal to tamper with someone else’s mail, is there evidence that it wasn’t a subscription?

[we can do it]

24. OP said he did not.

[TheRealNorth]

7. Probably being distributed as some sort of tax deduction.....

For "issue-advocacy" or other nonsense. Republican tax laws allow them to propagandize at taxpayers expense.

[czarjak]

8. My money is on the truth. (Eventually)

[Dale in Laurel MD]

10. About three weeks ago I got a copy out of the blue.

They're apparently buying mailing lists more or less randomly (unless they're targeting older folks -- I'm 77).

[summer_in_TX]

11. Mail the mag a request to unsubscribe.

Be sure to includea copy of the address and the UC Code or whatever it's called

Then go to some good liberal mag sites and sign Dad up for free trials.

Same for email newsletters. Sometimes they get so much it's too much effort to unsubscribe them, but you can make sure that what they get is not all one-sided.

That's what helped Jen Senko (The Brainwashing of My Dad) and her mom in dealing with her dad who had become very right wing after years of listening to RW radio and TV, subscribed him to liberal newsletters so he got a mix.

[Archae]

12. Several months ago, I got a "free copy."

Along with a lot of hysterics about how Biden was going to destroy the US, I finally had to threaten them with a lawsuit when they wouldn't stop sending me this crap in my e-mail.

Same with WND.

[panader0]

13. About a year ago. I got The Epoch Times in my mail.

Very right wing. I believe they are owned by the Rev Moon. They had just started and sent copies to
everyone I guess.

[Genki Hikari]

16. They're not Moonies, but Falun Gong

Different cult. Equally as insane.

[GoCubsGo]

20. They were leaving that shit rag on all the driveways in my neighborhood a few years ago.

It came rolled up and in a plastic bag, like the local fish wrap. They left it at least three weeks in a row before it stopped. It always went straight in the recycling bin. A lot of the others in the neighborhood sat out and got rain-soaked, and eventually wound up in the trash without having been read. Which is a encouraging.

[VGNonly]

14. Write refused on it,

leave it in mailbox or give it back to the letter carrier.

[TheBlackAdder]

25. Subscribe, Refuse Delivery, Help to drive that mag into bankrptcy.

.

Refuse delivery so you mail carrier doesn't think you're a dink.

.

[cbabe]

15. Return to sender. Let them pay return postage.

[Genki Hikari]

17. Magazines don't pay return postage

Because they don't get the magazine back if the USPS can't deliver it. It's not part of the rate of postage they pay. Return to sender applies only to First Class mail and above. Magazines are 2nd or even 3rd class mail.

Depending on the kind of postage used, a 2nd class sender and certain 3rd class senders will usually get an electronic notification that the magazine wasn't deliverable. For the rest, some clerk at the local post office will cut out the name and address from the rest of the magazine and mail that scrap of data back to the company so they can remove the recipient from their mailing list. Those senders get charged a minimal amount per addressee put in an envelope. Don't remember the amount anymore, but it wasn't all that much.

Either way, the post office then tosses the undeliverable magazines. So you're not "getting away" with anything by sending it back. Postal workers are smarter than that.

There are ways to stick it to unwanted senders, but that's not one of them. For the record, putting Business Reply Mail postcards on bowling balls or bricks isn't one of them, either. So knock that nonsense off, too.

[cbabe]

18. This works. Every bit they have to pay is good. It all adds up.

For the rest, some clerk at the local post office will cut out the name and address from the rest of the magazine and mail that scrap of data back to the company so they can remove the recipient from their mailing list. Those senders get charged a minimal amount per addressee put in an envelope. Don't remember the amount anymore, but it wasn't all that much.

Plus you get your name off the list.

[Genki Hikari]

22. THEY DON'T PAY FOR ANYTHING BUT THE MAILING

Sending it back does NOTHING.

And I can assure you that the number of people who have to pay for those little scraps of paper? They're a vanishingly small number of postal clients.

Let me put it this way: On any given day when I worked returned mail, I would send out at least 50 buckets of magazines to be tossed.

There are so few of the little scraps to cut up and send, that it could take over a year to fill up 5-10 buckets at some stations.

And most of the people sending those are decent companies, like non-profit organizations, hobby groups, some peer-reviewed science publishers and the like. The number of right wing lunatics? I could count those on my hand. And I was in some of the stations where they had brought me in to get them caught up on a year or more of "paper doll" mailings as we called them. I think the most I ever had to charge any of them was $1.20, and that isn't isn't going to break them.

At the rate I was getting paid, it cost more than $1.25 for me to pick up the magazine, cut out the addressee names, fill out the address to the mailer along with the amount owed, seal the envelope and drop it off for mailing.

So you're not getting any victory at all from this.

Really.

[Genki Hikari]

19. Oh, and Frst Class and above senders don't pay for returned mail

It's part of their initial postage paid. The ONLY time someone has to pay for returned mail is if the mail was returned for lacking sufficient postage on it. Put the 2c or whatever amount it needs on there, and USPS will deliver it. If it can't be delivered, you get it back, no extra charge.

So you still get away with NOTHING for sending back that mail.

[cbabe]

23. Thanks for clarifying but could do without the snark.