If you are reading this blog post, there is a better than likely chance that you are a book buyer and that you are getting many, if not most, of your print reading materials through the mail these days due to the pandemic. As a book buyer and bookseller, I can say with some certainty that you are likely waiting at this very moment for a book delivery. And if you feel like your orders are taking longer than usual to arrive, you’re not alone. I know that TBTP readers outside of the U.S. have experienced these delays, since I am hearing from my book buying customers in Europe, as well.

And as you probably guess, the reason for these delays are political and absurd. Since at least April of this year the current illegitimate regime in Washington has been waging a war against the United States Postal Service. Then in May, things went from bad to abysmal when Louis DeJoy, a former CEO of a logistics company and “major donor and fundraiser” for Donald Trump and the Republican Party, took over as Postmaster General.

This kneecapping of a valued American institution is purely political. It is the machination of a wannabe dictator in an attempt to stay in power. Until Trump and his kleptocrat minions came along, the USPS held a 91% approval rating with the American public. Left in the wake of this autocratic attempt to control voting through the mail are small businesses, like bookstores and other retailers that depend on timely and cost-effective deliveries, hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of jobs, American institutions, and real, people whose lives could be irreparably damaged by one man’s clumsy, fascistic power grab.

While we wait for the cavalry to arrive and end this slow-motion disaster, please be patient with your booksellers and keep placing your orders online with your local bookstore , through Abebooks.com, or through Bookshop.org, which is an online bookstore with a mission to support independent booksellers. If you buy books at Bookshop and choose a specific bookseller, they earn 100% of the profit. Otherwise, your purchase will benefit participating bookstores through a profit sharing plan. Members of Bookshop.org’s affiliate program—like me—can also earn a 10% cut of book sales by participating in an affiliate program.