Apparently the US Department of DefenseWar thinks that they can order non-US citizens not resident in the USA to cease and desist from mailing things.
Uh…
Hilarity of the items involved aside, the gall of the US military postal service to give orders to civilians not under their command and not even of their nation is shocking.
This is squarely on the military personnel ordering buttplugs to their work address.
If you did that anywhere else you’d get in trouble.
My initial thought was that this is an attempt at a prank (not a very good one) between two military members.
This is to their home address. Where do you think they live?
Why would I get in trouble for shipping myself something to my work address?
Lots of cities have porch pirates, so shipping to work is done commonly.
Does your work xray packages?
my understanding was military mail gets opened by censors.
No, I wouldn’t work for an evil employer
High chance it was a “friend” ordering it for them.
I’m self-employed, so the address isn’t the problem, but I’d have some splainin to do to the wife.
“I KNOW you didn’t order that for ME, so you got something to tell me?”
Why wouldn’t you order them for your wife? Does already have some?
Been married a long time, lost that battle long, long ago, before the turn of the century.
It’s pretty standard for American commenters on social media to unthinkingly assume that American law is somehow “universal.” I guess that’s the level that the American government in general has descended to at this point.
Yeah, you see stories of Americans in foreign countries being detained or arrested and they are like “I know my rights” LOL. Clearly you don’t.
You also see Canadians citing their First Amendment right to free speech, which is always amusing.
It’s like one of my idiot friends who keeps going on about “the feds”. The feds in question apparently operate in North Yorkshire. Personally I’m sceptical.
I know this isn’t what they’re doing at all, but I like to think they’re actually referring to the first amendment of our constitution. I find it comical to think they’re that passionate about either the establishment of Manitoba (technically the first amendment) or strengthening Indigenous peoples’ rights (first amendment after 1982 when we achieved full sovereignty).
Next time you hear it, you should respond with something like, “Hell yeah, respect to the First Nations.”
Sounds like Secretary Kegseth doesn’t have enough things to do.
Ah so it’s not just the department of war it’s also Bahrain’s backwards laws, and the US is obligated to do this any time shit gets sent back I guess.
It’s really silly since she even says they have no idea where it’s going when they ship to soliders.
They really shouldn’t have made such a big deal out of it because now it’s going to definitely happen more often.
Apparently the US Department of
DefenseWarYou had it right the first time.
Congress hasn’t made the name change official.
It’s not legally changed just because Trump waved his magic
wandsharpie and wished it to change.This means war.
Finally, an issue we can get behind!
Great we are going to get huge tariffs on butt plugs.
Would you pay out the ass for things that go in the ass?
The store was in Canada, so DOW can just fuck off, eh, please.
So what I find interesting is that this exact story was reported in CTV like a week ago, but in this one, the reasoning has changed somehow?
Originally reported, the problem was that Bahrain does not allow adult items to be shipped to them. But the adult shop said that it actually doesn’t ship to Bahrain and most of Asia because of rules like that making it more complicated to do business. Owner said that it was likely forwarded to a base (so a third party shipper,
something the shop has zero control over.)But in this one, the rationale has changed to “these objects are dangerous”, and I don’t see focus being placed on the third-party
sellershipper.edit: shipper, not seller. We don’t know if this was after market, just that it’s not directly shipped. They might actually have some amount of control over that, if that’s the case, because they would have needed to label the original package as being shipped to Bahrain.
The more I think about this story, the more I think that it’s being ramped up as a “look how the US military is interfering with canada on behalf of a middle eastern country!” instead of like “someone made a mistake by ordering something not allowed in Bahrain, and the business didn’t check whether they were allowed to ship it there or not.” I dont get what the big deal here is. This actually kinda looks bad on the business now that I take a second look at it.
From the article:
The United States Postal Service and the DOD work together through the Military Postal Service Agency (MPSA), managed by the Army, to provide worldwide mail services (APO/FPO/DPO) for service members. These address formats don’t reveal the country, just the person and military unit.
Bennett had no idea her business’s products were going to a country where they would be illegal.
So how exactly is it her fault if someone buys something they will have shipped somewhere, she has no idea where it’s going, and the MSPA redirects it there? How does she even know where it’s going? Certainly, the buyer should have known, as should the MSPS.
Yeah I saw that part in the article too, but you actually can tell what country something is going to from the APO/FPO/DPO code.
Im not denying that the buyer had responsibility in this.
Wait so everybody in the world is required to just understand US military shipping codes? Assuming that information is even on the delivery package (because you could also just have someone in the US redirect the product after receiving it).
Why would it look bad on the business? You, yourself, said earlier:
the adult shop said that it actually doesn’t ship to Bahrain and most of Asia
If I recall correctly this was more an amusing story of troops stationed in a country where these items were illegal ordering these things to the base and the military trying to remind people to respect local laws. This is probably more about the military not wanting a diplomatic incident with the host country than them morality policing themselves. Reminding a business to not ship items to a country where those items are illegal seems a pretty reasonable thing. For now the US military doesn’t care if you order butt plugs to the base, they care if you bring butt plugs into a country where they are illegal.
Yeah because the US is really big on respecting local laws and not causing international incidents. I’m sure a quick perusal of current and historical headlines will reaffirm this stands.
What B’s Americans never care about local laws.
If only there was a way to smuggle them past airport security…
Apparently the US Department of
DefenseWar thinks that they can order non-US citizens not resident in the USA to cease and desist from mailing things.It’s not to stop mailing things. It’s to stop mailing things to them. That should be a basic right. I want nothing more than to be able to tell my grocery store to stop mailing me anything, and I’m sure most employers don’t want their employees having dildos delivered to their work, especially in places where possession of such items is illegal.
If you’re engaged in international business you do actually have to respect the laws of the countries you operate in.
I think the problem is that she is not sending it for no reason, they should stop ordering first :P
She could also just deny orders to any APO as a matter of policy.
Why would she want to do that?
And get sued?
For what? Using USPS is not compulsory. Having an APO/FPO is not a protected class. There are already restrictions on what can be sent to an APO (to include things that are illegal in the host country, like Bahrain). And logistics processing outside of your companies “normal” flow is not compulsory just to appease a US grunt.
There are plenty of companies that don’t send to APOs and they continue to exist without doing so just fine.
To add to this, lots of companies ship exclusively with UPS and FedEx, neither of which can deliver to APOs.
If she doesnt send stuff, she is leaving herself wide open to law suits.
I mean, if she takes money on an order that won’t be fulfilled, yeah. But she can just refuse to accept orders with a mailing address that’s an APO without risk.
Yeah im making an assumption.
national sovereignty is exactly what the US is trying to discredit
it is like any narcissist the first thing they do when they want to own a person in a relationship is start neg-hitting and making demands for change to lower the self-esteem of the target.
Same shit, different diaper
Why is it her obligation to not fulfill these orders? Why is it not something that is handled between the military and their employee? She isn’t sending random flyers, someone stationed there, who should have been told isn’t allowed at that posting, ordered it nonetheless. If I break the rules by bringing a lighter onto my work premises (fire hazard restrictions), my boss doesn’t call Zippo, he talks to me. It would be a bigger deal if I had one shipped there, but they still wouldn’t be calling Zippo.
She’s doing business internationally and failed to comply with local regulations and courier terms of use for her products’ destination.
There’re agreements that govern how mail transits from Canada to the US and agreements that govern how the US moves mail to military bases in host countries. To facilitate the hundreds of different permutations of local laws USPS provides a portal where you can check if what you intend to mail is permitted.
Bennett had no idea her business’s products were going to a country where they would be illegal.
She should have known. The military member would have given her their address including “APO AE 09837.” She should have then visited the USPS APO restrictions portal and typed in “09837” whereupon she would have seen the following:
E2. Any matter depicting nude or seminude persons, pornographic, or sexual items are prohibited.
At that point she would have known that sending one of her products to that address was illegal in the destination country she was doing business in and a violation of her couriers terms.
She didn’t do that, Bahrain notified the recipient (technically the US Military) and asked them to notify the sender, and they did.
It’s her choice to support APOs, but if she does support APOs she’s doing business all across the world and is subject to the local restrictions. If she just wants to deal with the US and Canada and not have to deal with other countries’ customs than she shouldn’t support APOs.
It’s illegal to mail someone alcohol in the US. It’s also illegal to mail someone alcohol in Bahrain. Regardless of if someone orders alcohol online it’s still illegal to send alcohol. If you disregard that and mail alcohol anyway then you are breaking the law.
Though it’s legal to mail sex toys in the US, it is illegal to mail sex toys to Bahrain–even if to a US military base. Regardless of if someone orders sex toys online it’s still illegal to mail sex toys to Bahrain. If you disregard that and mail sex toys to Bahrain anyway then you are breaking the law.
I stand corrected. She certainly could have determined this was illegal. But as far as I know, it is still illegal for someone to order prohibited items online, and it seems the military could stop a lot of those things on their side if they enforced the laws with their employees, as well.
