Many people have wondered how the Biden administration could implement massive economic policies against the interests of their own constituents.  The answer to that question is hidden inside the COVID relief bills, which are used as a method to pay the expenses of his policies so that targeted Democrat groups in urban regions do not have to pay for the policy.

One example of this policy and urban dependency scheme is found in the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).

The “American Rescue Plan”, the mechanism to use taxpayer monies as redistributive subsidies to special interests under the guise of COVID bailouts and relief, contained $8 billion in funding to pay for the electricity and home heating costs of low income families.

WHITE HOUSE – […] In 2021, the Biden-Harris Administration and Congressional Democrats delivered $8 billion in LIHEAP funding nationally, more than doubling typical annual appropriations, thanks to an additional $4.5 billion provided by the American Rescue Plan. These funds represent the largest appropriation in a single year since the program was established in 1981. (more)

In essence, what this scheme allows is the Biden administration to trigger ‘Green New Deal‘ energy policies that drive massive increases in the cost of electricity, home heating, and energy use for the middle class and working class families, and yet the federal government pays those costs for the constituents they need to keep voting for them.  Lower income families do not feel the energy policy burden, but middle class families are punished.

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I do not know how better to emphasize the points other than to be direct and brutally honest.  Sometimes you just have to call the baby ugly.  The window to prepare for the incoming crisis of our lifetime is now down to two weeks.  Hopefully, that is specific enough.

As we have discussed on these pages, the interventionist policies and regulations from the people creating the COVID response (writ large) have been fubar from the beginning. {Go Deep} When they shut down the restaurants and hospitality sector (2020 lockdowns), the advisors and bureaucrats triggered a cascading series of events inside the food supply chain {Go Deep}.

Every policy implementation since then has made matters worse {Go Deep}

Adding to the supply chain and inflation crisis, in about a week the vaccine mandate and subsequent commercial passport means 30,000 cross border truckers are about to get shut down from operating between the United States and Canada.

“70% of the 700 billion in trade between Canada and the US is moved by truck. This will have a dramatic effect on supplies and services reaching their destination and getting in the hands of those who need them. One needs to look no further than the recent UK fuel shortage, where the military had to be brought in to deliver fuel as a result of a lack of truck drivers. We are already seeing shortages, if these shortages reach critical levels on items such as fuel, food, blood, medicine or medical supplies, we will see real long-lasting damage.”

~ Mike Milliam, President of the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada

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The pundits are just not getting it.  It’s the inflation, stupid.

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) released the December jobs report today [DATA HERE] showing 199,000 job gains in December, approximately half of what was expected.  Most financial pundits are perplexed as the employment rate drops to 3.9%, because many people have dropped out of the labor force.  The labor participation rate remains unchanged at 61.9%.

Keep in mind, the November jobs report showed a decline in retail jobs of 29,000, and this report shows that despite November & December being the largest shopping months for holidays, the retail sector jobs were nonexistent.

The issue is what we have discussed here for months, inflation.

The job quits and JOLT turnover reports from last week showed massive numbers of employees quitting their jobs.  In part this is pressure from the vaccine mandate (more on that later).  However, in the majority what we are seeing is employment decisions based on inflation hitting the labor market.

Additionally, the current BLS report does not have the Omicron “winter of death” employment impact within it.  That impact will come in the January report, and it will not be good.  But let’s get down to reconciling December jobs data with reality on the ground.

Inflation is chewing up income amid the workforce.  This is not debatable, and this is reflected in every opinion poll and economic statistic that has surfaced for the past six months.   The BLS report somewhat surprised people in the 0.6% wage gains, and average wage increases are now 4.7% year over year.  That should be a good thing.  However, inflation at 20 to 50+% on energy, fuel, gasoline and food means a 4.7% growth in wages is a pittance.

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Whoever said God doesn’t have a sense of humor did not foresee Glenn Beck broadcasting a President Trump interview at the same time that Texas Senator Ted Cruz is saying the January 6th protesters are “domestic terrorists who need to be jailed for a very long time.”   LOL

President Trump granted Glenn Beck a lengthy interview on the anniversary of January 6.  The best part of this interview is President Trump saying all this sh!t that Biden is doing can be fixed quickly.  [He’s right]  WATCH:

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The U.S. government does not operate in a vacuum without knowledge of what is happening and a solid perspective on what is likely to happen.  Whether they listen to the commonsense advisors, or whether the control officers intentionally keep counter positions away from the principle, is another matter; however, the officials generally know what is most likely to happen.

The White House put Port Envoy John D. Porcari, who is also intricately involved in the supply chain taskforce, on the podium today to discuss supply chain issues.   The full video of his remarks is posted below, but my spidey sense is telling me they know what we know, and they are starting to prepare for what will ultimately become impossible to ignore.  WATCH:

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It’s not just a port issue, as we have discussed on these pages, the interventionist policies and regulations from the people creating the COVID response (writ large) have been fubar from the beginning. {Go Deep} When they shut down the restaurants and hospitality sector (2020 lockdowns), the advisors and bureaucrats triggered a cascading series of events inside the food supply chain.

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I’ll get into a little detail about why this CDC change, if implemented, will only speed up the economic crisis we are about to enter.  [However, don’t share that aspect with anyone other than those closest to you.]  First, the change being discussed…

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, the husband of a very sketchy Chinese communist party shadow official that no one ever discusses, told CNN today the CDC is likely to revise the quarantine guidance to include a negative test for COVID before exit.

(Via Daily Mail) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is expected to further change its recommendations for Americans diagnosed with COVID-19, potentially requiring a negative test to leave isolation before ten days.

Last week, the agency shortened its recommended isolation period from 10 days to five days for people who have minimal Covid symptoms. The move drew criticism from experts who said a negative test should’ve been included.

Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy said that the CDC is working to further revise the isolation guidance, telling CNN on Tuesday that he expects a clarification ‘any day now.’

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[REPOST by request with note: We will get the December data in about a week from now]

You might remember: October 13, 2021, Joe Biden delivered widely carried remarks about specific actions his administration was taking to increase operations at the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) and the Port of Long Beach (POLB).

Here we take a closer look at the claims since the original announcement, and then highlight the actual results from the ports.  The port operations are actually doing worse today than they were in October. They are less efficient, less productive and have handled less freight in November than they did in October.  The factual results are exactly the opposite of the administration claims.

The October 13, 2021, White House fact sheet is HERE, “announcing a series of public and private commitments to move more goods faster, and strengthen the resiliency of our supply chains, by moving towards 24/7 operations at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.”  On November 17, 2021, the White House gave an update, “Recent Progress at Our Ports: Moving Cargo and Filling Shelves” and claiming the increased hours of operations were delivering on the White House expectations of increased productivity and offloading capacity.

Throughout these past 11 weeks, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg have been claiming their supply chain task force has been successful in generating exceptional results. They claimed changing the hours of operations increased the port capacity, specifically targeting the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.  However, if we look at the actual records from both ports, we find exactly the opposite:

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the November job openings and turnover data today [DATA HERE] showing 370,000 workers quit their jobs in November bringing the quits rate now to 4.5 million people.

From the report, “Quits increased in several industries with the largest increases in accommodation and food services (+159,000); health care and social assistance (+52,000); and transportation, warehousing, and utilities (+33,000).”

Over the 12 months ending in November 2021, hires totaled 74.5 million and separations totaled 68.7 million, yielding a net employment gain of 5.9 million for 2021. However, while the unemployment rate drops with fewer people working, the employment picture overall appears to be tenuous.

The FRED personal savings rate for Americans overall [DATA HERE] has been dropping rapidly since March 2021, the last federal COVID employment bailout injection. All of the federal assistance has created massive data skews in the savings rate, as federal subsidies gave an artificial boost to the U.S. savings rate.

It appears that the aggregate American worker is now using their savings, created by COVID bailouts, to offset the massive inflation created by the COVID bailouts.  The net result is a workforce going into negative savings each month as inflation driven expenses (energy, fuel, food) are higher than earnings.  This is an unsustainable situation.

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Comrades, the White House occupant announced today that someone told his wife’s sister about grocery store inflation.  The surprising incident happened when a guest made the comment while visiting over the holidays.

Apparently, there are these places, ‘grocery stores’ he thinks they might be called, where people go to get ingredients for cooking food and stuff.  Mr. Biden shared his surprise upon hearing about the issue.  In a rather remarkable result, Joe Biden now states his administration will begin to focus on what policies might help the types of people who have to go to these food store places.  WATCH: 

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Imagine what might happen if Biden finds out the temperature inside is made different from the temperature outside by something called electricity, oil or gas.

Wait…. nah, never mind…

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An interesting question surfaces as the vaccine mandate is enforced.  Is it the Omicron variant creating the labor shortages leading to “societal disruption,” or is it the absence of the unvaccinated workers who have been removed from many companies?

In this segment, Dana Bash asks the chief White House political scientist if the nation should prepare for major societal disruption under the guise of Omicron.   As we have previously noted, the absence of a small number of highly efficient and productive employees, the vital few, can have a major impact on business operations (Pareto’s principle).  Is that what we are really seeing, and they don’t want to admit it?

It does not seem coincidental the specific areas cited by Fauci, police, fire and first responders, are the exact jobs where the vaccination mandate was the most controversial.  Additionally, the percentages he cites are very similar to the unvaccinated percentage previously reported in those work groups.

A data driven Suspicious Cat remains, well, increasingly suspicious.

You decide…

Airline cancellations today, again exceeding 4,000 [FlightAware Link]

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