Oh No! My Kids Will Starve!

Supply Chain Crisis Leads To Shortage Of Chicken Tenders, Second Chicken Shortage In 2021 | The Daily Wire

According to a report from NBC’s “Today Show,” chicken tenders, which are fillets cut from the breast of a chicken, are in short supply.

Tenders are different from chicken nuggets, which are made from scrap meat from the whole chicken. Because the tenders take more work to produce, they can be harder to find or more costly, experts told “Today.” The average price of a value pack of whole chicken breast tenderloins has risen nearly a dollar per pound since last year, from $3.02 per pound in 2020 to $3.99 this year.

The shortage has actually prompted several chicken restaurant chains, such as KFC and A&W, to stop featuring chicken tenders in their advertising campaigns in order to avoid selling out of them in their restaurants.

This is a disaster of biblical proportions. It was one thing when I couldn’t get a new video card. But chicken tenders? Now you’ve gone a step too far. Someone’s going to pay for this!

Pretty Sure That Won’t Help Our Supply Chain Issues, but It Might Make the Roads a Little Easier to Travel

Biden’s Vaccine Mandate Will Cause Massive Trucker Shortage, 2.5 Million to Quit (lifezette.com)

If they get their way and the mandate goes into effect January 22nd, the economy will be destroyed. And that’s not hyperbole.

Sure, the democrats will probably suffer massive losses in the November 2022 elections (if they aren’t allowed to cheat again), but we have to survive until that time.

One example of the economic destruction the mandate will bring is in the trucking industry.

CEO and American Trucking Association President, Chris Spear, appeared at a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing last Wednesday and warned them that more than 2.5 million truckers would quit if the vaccine mandate goes ahead.

In a country already having supply chain issues and a shortage of truck drivers, the coming mandate is going to cause havoc on our country.

Ugh.

I’d be really worried if I thought this vax mandate had a prayer of ever going into effect. I don’t even think the Biden Administration wants it to anymore. They see what a disaster this whole thing has turned out to be. They’d run away from it if they could. But their best bet now is just to let it play out in court, and hopefully that will take a while. In the meantime, people that are worried about how the case will eventually turn out will go ahead and get vaccinated, or their employers will push it on them.

My Forecast Is Simple: Inflation Remains High

In Remarks To Congress, Powell Says Omicron Complicates Inflation Forecasts | The Daily Wire

Powell, acknowledging that the inflation rate is running “well above” the Fed’s 2% long-run target, told members of the Senate Banking Committee:

Most forecasters, including at the Fed, continue to expect that inflation will move down significantly over the next year as supply and demand imbalances abate. It is difficult to predict the persistence and effects of supply constraints, but it now appears that factors pushing inflation upward will linger well into next year. In addition, with the rapid improvement in the labor market, slack is diminishing, and wages are rising at a brisk pace.

We understand that high inflation imposes significant burdens, especially on those less able to meet the higher costs of essentials like food, housing, and transportation. We are committed to our price-stability goal. We will use our tools both to support the economy and a strong labor market and to prevent higher inflation from becoming entrenched.

The recent rise in COVID-19 cases and the emergence of the Omicron variant pose downside risks to employment and economic activity and increased uncertainty for inflation. Greater concerns about the virus could reduce people’s willingness to work in person, which would slow progress in the labor market and intensify supply-chain disruptions.

You want less uncertainty? Stop panicking with each new variant. Open up the country. Open up the economy. Stop putting blockers like vax mandates in front of the economy. Stop closing pipelines. Stop making it harder for businesses to succeed. Then the uncertainty will go away along with inflation and unemployment.

Moron.

Well, They Should

They’re to blame. So, yeah, they’re gonna get blamed.

Dems fear supply-chain blame – HotAir

Rep. Cindy Axne (D-Iowa), who has introduced a number of bills to address the supply-chain issue, plans to push House leadership to bring more related bills to the floor in the coming weeks, an aide to the congresswoman told Axios.

A bipartisan group of House members, including vulnerable Democratic Reps. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) and Colin Allred (D-Texas), sought to renew the Supply Chain Caucus last week, according to a Craig aide.

Craig said in a statement to Axios: “It’s clear that our reliance on global supply chains have left us unprepared to meet the demand that our economy is currently experiencing.”

Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) filmed a video in her district, home to two GM plants that have closed intermittently because of chip shortages. She said working on legislation to ensure microchips are made in the U.S.

This has the smell of fear. I can’t imagine either of these Democrats putting up such bills if we weren’t in such dire straits and if they didn’t know they were going to be blamed for it.

Still, these ideas have some merit, and if they’re not exactly what I would do, they’re probably the best we can hope for from a Democrat Congress and White House. Can they convince enough others of their party? Time will tell.

“Stay” Might Be an Exaggeration, but neither Are Going Away Soon

Economist: Biden’s supply chain crisis, inflation here to stay | One America News Network (oann.com)

Economist Mohamed El-Erian says Biden's inflation will go on well into next year pic.twitter.com/pOFHlfFk0g

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 28, 2021

We used to talk about the “inflationary death spiral”, which demonstrates how hard it is to get inflation under control once it’s taken hold. It goes like this:

1. Costs for many common goods and services go up
2. People can no longer afford these common goods and services
3. They demand higher pay from their employers or seek new jobs with higher pay
4. Whether these people go or stay, the employer has to pay more, because the replacements will demand more pay. Or at best, the same pay for less experience. Which means the productivity vs cost ratio goes down
5. Employers must raise the cost of their own goods and services to compensate.
6. Consumers of those good services are now at Step 2 in this process. And it just gets worse and worse

The supply chain issues are similar. Hold ups on a few common goods cause downstream impacts everywhere, and ends up holding up many more goods and services, and it spirals along the same lines as inflation. Eventually things stabilize and then start to improve, but you have to get to that stable point first. We’re not there on either of these issues.

Welcome to Biden’s America.

#IToldYouSo

We Need to Stop Treating This Like the Plague

Supply Chain Be Damned: Biden Will Require Canadian Truck Drivers Get Vaccinated To Cross Border | The Daily Wire

We are not in a situation where people are just dropping dead in the middle of the street and have to be picked up later by people with carts full of corpses.

Despite the fact that the supply chain across the United States continues to hurt American consumers, starting on January 22, the Biden administration will require nonresident truck drivers, as well as government and emergency response officials, to be fully vaccinated in order to cross the U.S. border.

“A senior administration official said the requirement, which the White House previewed in October, brings the rules for essential travelers in line with those that took effect earlier this month for leisure travelers, when the U.S. reopened its borders to fully vaccinated individuals,” the Star-Tribune reported.

This is insane. We cannot be this scared of this bug. We are teaching our kids to be afraid of their own shadows. This will not end well for anyone.

Well, It’s Pretty Certain the White House & Congress Aren’t Going to Do Anything About It

Lee, DeSantis, Other Republican Governors Join Forces To Solve Supply Chain Crisis | The Daily Wire

“With 7.4 million people unemployed and 10.4 million job openings, we have a shortage of 80,000 truck drivers, an all-time high for the trucking industry,” the letter says. “With more paychecks at risk, American families are forced to pay more for food, gas, and everyday goods as inflation surges to a 30-year high under President Biden’s watch.”

The governors therefore “commit to using our authority where allowable to modify weight, size, or load restrictions to allow more cargo to move more efficiently; adjust hours of service constraints to provide truck drivers more time and flexibility; deregulate education and occupational licensure barriers to get more commercial truck drivers on the road.”

They likewise promised to “convene state agencies in transportation, commerce, workforce, and other related fields to coordinate with private industry, local governments, and neighboring states where appropriate to ensure greater efficiency, connectivity, and data sharing among shippers and receivers at ports, distribution points, storage facilities, and other intrastate corridors for the expedited loading, unloading, and transport of freight.”

This will help. They need to make sure that safety is ensured for all though.

More Inflation Coming

UN Report: Supply Chain Crisis May Drive Import Cost Of Computers, Apparel, Furniture Up More Than 10% | The Daily Wire

Hooray. That’s just terrific news!

In a recent report, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said that high consumer demand and a variety of supply-side constraints — including “container ship carrying capacity, container shortages, labour shortages, continued on and off COVID-19 restrictions across port regions and congestion at ports” — could lead to price hikes through 2023.

According to a summary of the analysis:

Manufacturers in the United States rely mainly on industrial supplies from China and other East Asian economies, so continued cost pressures, disruption and delays in containerized shipping will hinder production, according to the report. A 10% increase in container freight rates, together with supply chain disruptions, is expected to decrease industrial production in the United States and the euro area by more than 1%, while in China production is expected to decrease by 0.2%.

I can’t wait.

I’m sure Team Biden will got on addressing this right away. Right after they address gender equity in bathrooms.

The Other Thing to Remember Is That This Is Directly Contributing to Our Inflation Woes

Record Number of Ships Stranded Outside California Ports (freebeacon.com)

One-hundred-eleven container ships are waiting to unload at ports such as Los Angeles and Long Beach, breaking the previous record of 108 ships set on Oct. 21, according to Business Insider. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, ships almost never waited to dock. A spike in demand combined with a shortage of dock workers and truckers has caused the jam.

The supply chain bottleneck is growing despite pressure from the Biden administration for shipping companies to adopt around-the-clock schedules. In October, President Joe Biden announced that the Port of Los Angeles would operate 24/7. Major retailers including Walmart, FedEx, and UPS would also lengthen working hours, Biden said.

California ports said they would fine shippers that do not comply with the extended working hours and leave their containers too long on the docks. Port authorities in Los Angeles and Long Beach pledged to fine shipping companies $100 a day for every container left on the docks.

The ports began tallying the containers left behind at the beginning of November and will levy fines as early as mid-November. More than 60,000 containers are subject to fines.

Typically, a high number for this would be…two. It is exceptionally rare for there to be more than one. And we have over 100. This isn’t going to end anytime soon.

It’s Going to Take a While to Fix the Supply Chain Issues

I’m A Twenty Year Truck Driver, I Will Tell You Why America’s “Shipping Crisis” Will Not End | by Ryan JOHNSON | Oct, 2021 | Medium

What we have is a system with a limited amount of trucks and qualified drivers, many of whom are already working 14 hours a day (legally, the maximum they can), and now the supposed fix is to have them work 24 hours a day, every day, and not stop until the backlog is cleared. It’s not going to happen. It is not physically possible. There is no “cavalry” coming. No trucking companies are going to pay to register their trucks to haul containers for something that is supposedly so “short term,” because these same companies can get higher rate loads outside the ports. There is no extra capacity to be had, and it makes NO difference anyway, because If you can’t get a container unloaded at a warehouse, having drivers work 24/7/365 solves nothing.

TL;DR – Even if we can get the shipping containers off the ships, we still have to go through them, load them on trucks and then have the truckers deliver them. And there just aren’t enough people to do these things.

The supply chain is fragile. You can’t let it get as bad as we have. It’s almost impossible to fix it afterward.  This could take years.

They Don’t Care

Trucking Companies Warn Biden Administration That Vaccine Mandates Worsen Supply Chain Crisis (lifezette.com)

That’s not a bug, it’s a feature!

According to the Washington Examiner, the American Trucking Associations (ATA), Truckload Carriers Association, and International Foodservice Distributors Association sent a letter to the Biden administration, warning them that a vaccine mandate on companies would ultimately lead to trucker shortages.

Recently, the ATA wrote, “We estimate companies covered by the mandate could lose 37% of drivers at a time when the nation is already short 80,000 truck drivers. We ask for flexibility for transportation and supply chain essential workers, particularly truck drivers who spend most of their time in their trucks and have minimal contact with colleagues and customers.”

I only point this out because Trucker’s Unions are traditionally quite Democratic. Biden keeps ticking off his own people. Not a wise course to take.

And the truckers are absolutely right, of course. It will further disrupt the supply chain. And Team Biden knows that, even if Clueless Joe doesn’t. But they don’t care. The suffering of Americans isn’t important. Transforming the nation, no matter the cost, is all that matters.

Worst. Transportation Secretary. Ever.

Secretary Buttigieg: Biden Admin To Use Infrastructure Bill To Address Racist Highway Design | The Daily Wire

We have ports blocked everywhere. We have empty store shelves, parts stores without parts, and a stuck economy, and our Secretary of Transportation wants to work on racist bridges.

Yes.

Really.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on Monday that the Biden administration would use money from the infrastructure bill to address what he claims were racist highway designs.

Buttigieg made the remarks in response to a question from White House correspondent April Ryan, who asked him how he would “deconstruct the racism that was built into the roadways.”

Worst problem facing America.

Thanks, Pete.

Bloomberg Says Things Are Getting Worse

Empty supermarket shelves. Ships backed up at ports. Plants waiting on new parts.

The supply chain crisis isn't getting better. It's getting worse — and it threatens to take down the global economy with it. https://t.co/onl0iJ9b9U

— Bloomberg (@business) November 7, 2021

What are the odds that it could be an accident that things have gotten so horrible so quickly?

“Shining Example”...Heh.

California GOP Congressman: The Mess at Our Ports Is a 'Shining Example' of Democratic Policy Failures – PJ Media

U.S. Congressman Mike Garcia (R-CA) didn’t pull any punches when discussing exactly who he believes is to blame for the mess at our nation’s busiest ports. “I blame both the federal government and the state governments,” said Garcia in an interview with Fox News’ Stuart Varney. “This is what happens when you have life-long politicians trying to run a country when they’ve had absolutely zero business experience. Between Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer you’ve got three politicians who have earned 141 years of paychecks, all of which were as politicians–none of which were in the business world.”

True.

Fundamentally, the mess at the ports illuminates the core differences between leftists and conservatives. While leftists fine shipping companies because they have to wait to unload their goods, conservatives believe there’s a better way of relieving the port congestion. “What they should be doing—rather than imposing fines—they should be cutting costs, incentivizing people to get out of there with lower port fees and quicker turnaround times,” explained Garcia. “That’s how we’re going to get this thing moving.” Instead, leftists punish people who don’t do what they think they should. Conservatives believe incentives work much more effectively than punishments.

Also true. Punishments in this case particularly don’t make sense. Democrats want to punish people for something over which they have no control. You’re basically telling shipping companies to stop shipping. It’s the only way to avoid fines.

Democrats continue to set new records in stupidity. But that’s not even the dumbest idea they’ve had this week. The tax on un-realized capital gains wins that award.

Yes, Because They’re Just Sitting Around Not Unloading on Purpose

FACEPALM: Los Angeles Will Fine Cargo Ships That Can't Unload – PJ Media

Unless you’re planning on opening up about three dozen more docks and staffing them with dock workers, I don’t see how you can do this.

According to CNBC, the White House is “hopeful” that fines will “ease the intensifying logjam of cargo ships” waiting to unload at Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles. Together, the two account for 40% of the country’s seaborne imports.

Carriers will have to pay “$100 per day for each container lingering past a given timeline” starting on the first of the month. Containers moved by truck will have nine days before they’ll start paying, and containers moved by rail will have just three days.

How?

I mean…how?

I don’t understand the logic here. It’s so bizarre that I don’t even know how to argue against it. How will fining a stuck ship for being stuck against their will make them unstuck?

Can someone please explain that to me?

Apparently, Pete Buttigieg Has Solved the Supply Chain Issues and Has Nothing Else to Do

Pete Buttigieg Decides to Go to War With Tucker Carlson – RedState

Buttigieg aims to use Tucker Carlson flap to spotlight paternity leave https://t.co/AqS6W4dsxF pic.twitter.com/v5775WIEoa

— The Hill (@thehill) October 24, 2021

Yes, let’s battle with a TV opinion journalist over paternity leave. This has nothing to do with your job, which by the way, you’re not doing.

The country is currently facing its worst supply-chain crisis since the 1970s and Buttigieg, whose job is ostensibly to fix the situation, is making the media rounds to talk about how great it is that he disappeared for multiple months. The mind truly boggles, and it shows how little is expected from these mediocre government bureaucrats. Buttigieg failed up as an unimpressive mayor of a small town, because he checked the right identity boxes. Now, we are getting an eyeful of just how incapable he is.

Biden’s entire administration seems to have been chosen based upon what minority group checkboxes they fill, and none of them have been picked based on their actual ability to do their job.

Pete knows nothing about transportation and logistics. And the DoT is flailing around without a head, at a time when we really need one. Most administrations the head of the DoT doesn’t have to do a lot other than not get in the way. That’s not the case here.

We need real leadership here, and what we’re getting is someone more interested in social justice and social justice battles than in actually doing his job.

Even More Good News

The Car Shortage Is About To Get A Whole Lot Worse (jalopnik.com)

This is directly related to the car parts issue I blogged about earlier.

Now, it may have an impact on the entire industry. A global shortage of magnesium could result in a near-total shutdown of the auto industry — one that experts say could come by the end of this year.

You may not have thought about magnesium since high-school science classes, but it plays a critical role in the automotive industry. Magnesium is used in many aluminum alloys, mainly (at least in auto applications) the 5xxx, 6xxx, and 7xxx-series alloys.

It’s almost like America is Running out of Everything.

Essentially, you can’t make cars without aluminum. You can’t work with aluminum without using magnesium. And as of December, you may not be able to work with magnesium much — if at all. Amos Fletcher, analyst for Barclays, put it succinctly: “If magnesium supply stops, the entire auto industry will potentially be forced to stop.”

Frightening.

81 million of you voted for this. I will never forgive any of you.

The Entire Biden Administration Has Gone Marie Antoinette

Jen Psaki On Supply Chain Shortages Impacting U.S.: ‘The Tragedy Of The Treadmill That’s Delayed’ | The Daily Wire

“Let them eat cake”, she said.

“It was clear in March of 2020 when COVID hit that the supply chains across the world had been disrupted, even as the sort of work to fight back against COVID proceeded,” the reporter said. “People, it was, it was crystal clear that things were not improving on supply chains. You couldn’t get dishwashers and furniture and treadmills delivered on time, not to mention all sorts of other things. So why is–”

“The tragedy of the treadmill that’s delayed,” Psaki quipped.

I don’t think I can check the “cares about the problems of people like me” box on a poll for Biden.

What an arrogant condescending b*tch.

Nice to Know That You Live in America, Where You Can Always Get Your Car Repaired if Something Happens

Err…or not?

Parts Shortage Stalls US Auto Repair Business (freebeacon.com)

A parts shortage spurred by a supply-chain slowdown is stalling the U.S. auto repair business, according to Bloomberg.

The shortage is delaying auto parts, such as oil filters and carpeting, causing mechanics to wait weeks rather than days to finish routine maintenance. The crisis has been exacerbated by an international semiconductor shortage, which shrank the supply of new cars and raised the demand for used cars as well as mechanical upkeep on old cars.

Ok, but how bad is it?

AutoZone CEO William Rhodes called the crisis "the most difficult supply-chain environment that I have ever seen" and said his company has "the lowest level of in-stock" in recent memory.

The United States imported more than $130 billion in auto parts in 2020.

Oh, that bad.

Welcome to Biden’s America.

I Am Sure They Wouldn’t Be Saying This if Trump Were Still President

Washington Post Op-Ed: Don’t ‘Whine’ About Supply Chain Shortages, Empty Shelves | The Daily Wire

We call this, “protecting the Democrat President”, not “unbiased journalism”.

Across the country, Americans’ expectations of speedy service and easy access to consumer products have been crushed like a Styrofoam container in a trash compactor. Time for some new, more realistic expectations.

Fast food is less fast. A huge flotilla of container ships is stuck offshore in California, waiting to unload. Shelves normally stocked with Halloween candy this time of year are empty, as I saw the other day at a Target here in Ann Arbor, Mich.

American consumers, their expectations pampered and catered to for decades, are not accustomed to inconvenience.

No, we aren’t used to it. We’re used to living in the greatest country in the world. The greatest economic power the world has ever seen. The country that transformed the entire world in about 100 years. We’re not accustomed to socialist economic failures. And we don’t want to become accustomed to that.

Shame on you for trying to make us feel guilty about American Greatness and for trying to make uses feel we deserve less. Whose side are you on, anyway?

The Washington Post isn’t worthy of being used as a place for your dogs to $#!+.