Quite remarkably this ABC report on empty shelves is not far away from outlining the truth.  They are still obfuscating some of the predictable reasons, and they completely ignore the vaccination mandate aspect that is going to worsen the issue, but they are nibbling the edges, nonetheless.

The backward-looking comparative statistics they cite, “15% shortage for food and beverages” overall, are nonsense.  The severity of unavailable products is much higher than that.  You will note from your own store visits the most unavailable products are the manufactured food and heavily processed products.

The raw material shortage inside the retail manufacturing supply chain path, combined with the increased demand on those manufactured sectors, is the direct cause of the manufactured food shortage. {Go Deep}  [Example: a high demand for citric acid means complex foods that use citrus flavorings (ie. sports drinks) are in short supply.  Chase that backward, and you see shortages in citrus & higher citrus costs, etc.]

Each seemingly small issue creates another small issue, which creates another small issue, which ultimately pokes holes in the supply.  Poke enough holes in enough small categories from manufactured condiments to manufactured drinks, to manufactured cereals, pasta, grains, soups, pet foods, and the complex food processing system overall begins to show the larger problem.  It’s a system collapse by a thousand paper cuts.

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CBS conducted a poll of the collapsed support for Joe Biden [DATA HERE] and then outlined their findings earlier today.  However, keeping up with their need to ignore things, they skip over how the vaccination mandate is opposed within their responses.

Margaret Brennan and Anthony Salvanto, CBS News’ director of elections and surveys, discuss how inflation and the economy are the two central issues at the top of concern.  However, Joe Biden’s handling of COVID, and specifically the vaccination mandate, are also driving opposition to the regime intent.  WATCH:

The people behind Biden have boxed him in on the economic consequences.  Inflation is an outcome of economic policy that cannot be reversed without completely refuting their own policy and reversing course.  As a consequence, there’s nothing Biden can do to stop this negative outcome.

That said, notice the aspect in the screengrab below (polling outcome) which they completely ignored.

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(h/t No9 Coal) This is specifically the #1 precursor, for all the reasons previously mentioned.

Do not be alarmed; be prudent.

What are you seeing in your area?

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This is crazy.  The Canadian government is saying someone made a mistake when they announced they were rescinding the vaccine mandate for cross border commercial truck drivers.  As of right NOW, the January 15th deadline is in place.  All truck drivers from the U.S. or Canada will have to prove their vaccinated status in order to cross the border.

CANADA – The federal government says that unvaccinated Canadian truckers will not be exempted from the new federal vaccine mandate for truck drivers coming into effect this weekend.

In a joint statement, Canada’s transportation, health, and public safety ministers said that Canada’s initial policy requiring truckers coming into Canada to be fully vaccinated, or face PCR testing and quarantine requirements, stands.

Despite the Canada Border Services Agency telling reporters on Wednesday that unvaccinated Canadian truck drivers arriving at the border would “remain exempt” from any testing or quarantine requirements, the government now says that information, provided by a spokesperson, was incorrect.

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The axiom of “the law of unintended consequences” has never been more appropriate than right now.  In the background, as you are reading, there is a looming storm that is going to soon surface in the food supply chain, and the regional vaccine passports are going to make things worse.

To understand what is happening, it becomes necessary to give a more specific background on how the things work inside the supply chain that has been disrupted by government intervention.  This is complex, but I hope to make it understandable for the average person.

How do we avoid supply chain chaos?   My response seems counterintuitive to those who do not understand this unique issue.

Effective immediately, or at least as soon as possible, every venue that can provide food on a commercial basis must be removed from all COVID regulations, including vaccine passports.

Restaurants, school lunchrooms, cafeterias, industrial kitchens, hotels, bars, food trucks and every possible venue for the delivery of freshly cooked meals must immediately be reactivated, and all terms and conditions for visiting those venues, like “vaccine passports”, must be cancelled quickly.

If they are not, and worse, if the restrictions expand beyond current status, there is going to be a worsening retail food crisis as the total food supply chain begins to collapse even further.

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Comrades, the Premier of Western Australia, Mark McGowan has announced new rules for vaccine passports in the state.  Premier McGowan says life will become “very difficult” for the state’s unvaccinated, as he unveils the toughest proof-of-vaccination rules in Australia.

Let me be very clear, these rules and regulations are going to lead to unintended consequences that government officials have never considered.  The pain this will bring upon the vaccinated, yes, the vaccinated, will be of such consequence the government will be defending itself for years from the backlash of unintended consequences that global leaders have yet to fathom.  More on that later…

In the interim, in his announcement today, McGowan announces that vaccine passports will be required to participate in any level of civil society, and the unvaccinated are going to be intentionally locked out of almost everything.  Watch Video from 01:00 to 04:00 to see the scale:

This totalitarian interventionist exercise will bring a scale of consequence that Australians have yet to realize.  Unfortunately, many state and municipal leaders in the United States are not that far behind.

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Unfortunately, the upward trend is continuing unabated.  The “producer price index” is essentially the tracking of wholesale prices at three stages: Origination (commodity), Intermediate (processing), and then Final (to wholesale).  Today, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) released December price data [Available Here] showing a dramatic 9.7% increase year-over-year in Final Demand products at the wholesale level.

I’m not going to beat this dead horse {Go Deep Here}, except to point out a few even larger warning signs that are evident.    Suffice to say, despite the spin likely from defenders of the White House occupant, the inflation impact is continuing exactly as we would expect.

The monthly price increase was 0.2% which would under normal circumstances give the impression that price pressure for the month was lower than previous.  However, there’s a key component clouding the problem.

As noted by the BLS, “A major factor in the December decrease in prices for final demand goods was the index for gasoline, which moved down 6.1 percent.” Gas prices momentarily dropped in the December capture of pricing; this has skewed the data considerably.  As a consequence, the energy costs measured in December looked like they dropped 3.3 percent.

You are well aware that gasoline has jumped back up in price in the past few weeks.  Additionally, total energy costs to you have not dropped at all.  In the background of this momentary skew, the costs of final demand goods after the energy impact rose .04% in December.

The momentary drop in gasoline and diesel fuel in December gives an artificial outcome in the data for all three stages.   Oil prices are back on the climb, and the prices of the goods and services overall to consumers have not reflected any decrease; factually they have increased even more.

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We have talked about this quite a bit. {Go Deep} I’m not sure how this attempted needle threading is going to work out in the longer term. The announcement has come as a surprise to the Canadian trucking industry.

Apparently fearing the economic consequences, the Canadian government has dropped the vaccination requirement for Canadian truck drivers, and instructed border officials to permit unvaccinated Canadian truckers to cross the border.

The vaccine mandate for cross border truckers was scheduled to begin in a few days, January 15th.  However, the Canadian vaccination rule for U.S. truckers will remain in place.

MONTREAL — The federal government is backing down from its vaccine mandate for Canadian truckers three days before it was set to take effect.  Ottawa announced in mid-November that truck drivers crossing into Canada would need to be fully vaccinated by this Saturday.

But on Wednesday evening Canada Border Services Agency spokeswoman Rebecca Purdy told The Canadian Press that Canadian big-riggers will not have to quarantine if they are unvaccinated or have received only one dose.

[…] The new rule will still take effect for American truckers, who will be turned away at the border unless they’ve been inoculated starting this weekend. (read more)

How the hell can Canada justify dropping the vaxx mandate for Canadian truck drivers, but not for U.S. inbound shipments?  Are they preparing for a massive amount of rig switching at the border?   Good grief, what a mess.

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A Quinnipiac poll released today [DATA HERE] shows just how far Joe Biden has fallen in the eyes of most Americans.  Of particular note inside the data is how Hispanics and Latinos view the Biden policies as complete failures.

Among adults overall, Americans give negative scores on the following issues when asked about Biden’s handling of…

• The economy: 34 percent approve, while 57 percent disapprove;
• Foreign policy: 35 percent approve, while 54 percent disapprove;
• The response to the coronavirus: 39 percent approve, while 55 percent disapprove.

(See Full Poll Results Here)

Earlier today, the White House pushed the Director of the National Economic Council, Brian Deese, to the podium to defend the administration from the outcomes of their economic policies.   Consider this presser the pre-quake tremors.

Mr. Deese begins his presentation by saying giving American workers back their jobs, after shutting down their workplaces and locking out their ability to work at their job, is the equivalent of creating new jobs; the administration is very proud of their magnanimity. Mr. Deese then moves on to the inflation data from today and celebrates a “decrease in the rate of price increases.”  Yes, he used those exact words.

Deese then goes on to say [01:59] that despite the claimed 7% inflation, prices at the grocery store are not higher, gas prices have dropped, home heating costs and natural gas costs are lower, and things are going swimmingly.   I’m not joking about any of that, just watch the first four minutes:

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There was really bad news following the White House celebrating their current economic success. Brian Deese stated the White House intends to use the federal government to get involved in supply chains (distribution), pricing (federal price controls), availability (distribution of products under newly claimed emergency federal authority power via the “pandemic”) and providing relief (protecting urban areas).

What Deese is saying there [4:00 – 09:00] is the worst thing we could ever want to hear when there are massive price increases and simultaneous shortages.  The federal government is ‘leaning forward’, and is going to get more involved.

Then at 09:00 of the video, the alarm bells start ringing.  Journalists asking Brian Deese what the White House is planning to do to get involved and provide national food security.  “The shelves are too empty, and the food is too expensive. What is the White House going to do?”

Whiskey – Tango – Foxtrot!   Danger Will Robinson, DANGER!!

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