A big win for medical privacy and the principles of freedom.  Ford, General Motors and Stellantis have agreed the United Auto Workers union members will not be forced to take the mandatory vaccine as a condition of employment.  [UAW Announcement] Additionally, the vaccine status of the workers will remain private with a policy of private and voluntary disclosure.

UAW – At a meeting Monday evening, the COVID-19 Joint Task Force, comprised of the UAW, Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, has aligned on a policy of voluntary and confidential disclosure of vaccination status for UAW members. Each company will provide additional communication to employees on how, where and when to report their vaccination status.

In addition to encouraging members to disclose their vaccination status, the Task Force continues to urge all members, coworkers, and their families to get vaccinated and get booster vaccinations against COVID-19, while understanding that there are personal reasons that may prevent some members from being vaccinated, such as health issues or religious beliefs.

After reviewing the status of CDC and OSHA guidelines, the Task Force also decided it is in the best interest of worker safety to continue masks in all worksites at this time. (read more)

This helps swing the pendulum back toward the American worker.

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Eh, this is awkward… and simultaneously so typical of the current administration.   The White House trotted Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to the microphones today to tell the DC stenographers how brilliant, beneficial and strategically necessary it is to release 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to lower gasoline prices.  The enthusiastic Energy Secretary read the script, gave her talking points and then took questions.

However, after spending 15 minutes talking about the strategic brilliance of the 50 million barrel release, one of the stenographers accidentally asked: “that said, how many barrels of oil do U.S. consumers use every day?”…   Granholm paused, looked down and said: “I don’t have that number in front of me, I’m sorry“…  WATCH:

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♦ The amount we are giving you is so incredible and brilliant it will make everyone’s lives better.  The best ever.

♦ How much do we need?

♦ I don’t know. We didn’t get that information.  But the amount we are giving is awesome.

Yup, that’s the Biden administration encapsulated.

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The Senate Banking, Housing, & Urban Affairs Committee held a confirmation today for Joe Biden’s communist nominee Saule Omarova to be Comptroller of the Currency.  It really is quite remarkable that Biden would nominate a person who has advocated for government control over all allocation of capital and credit in the U.S. economy.

Ms. Omarova has advocated for government intervention in the allocation of all resources used within the finance and banking system, completely reversing the free market allocation of capital in the economy.   Omarova’s position of federal control is unchanged throughout her life, yet she has attempted to add nuance and denial to a life-long history of working on this process.

Ms. Omarova is the tip of the spear in using finance and banking to implement the regulatory controls needed to support the Green New Deal, where government would intervene and deny capital to private interests who would not be in alignment with leftist energy policy and total economic change via Build Back Better.  Today she was confronted by several senators within the banking committee.  WATCH:

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A very interesting interview with Chris Spear, president and CEO of the American Trucking Association.

During a House Transportation Committee hearing on supply chain issues, CEO Chris Spear shares an internal survey showing that 37% of truck drivers “not only said no, but said hell no” to the Biden vaccine mandates.

To give some perspective of the downstream consequence, the ATA President noted that “if just 3.7 percent, not 37 percent, just 3.7 percent” of the drivers left the industry, there would be over a quarter million vacancies resulting in a “catastrophic” collapse of the U.S. supply chain.  Mr. Spear also shared his opinion the OSHA rule is completely unworkable and unlawful.

The consequences are grave if just 3.7% did not work.  However, if ten times that many, 37 percent of truck drivers, stopped hauling products because of the Biden vaccine requirement, American civic society would collapse within days as panicked citizens took to the streets.  Desperate Americans would be clamoring for scarce products, and the impact on society could not be measured.  WATCH:

As we have continued to point out, a federal vaccine mandate might sound like a good idea on a think tank, academic or white paper policy level of consideration; but on a practical level, wiping out a large percentage of your most productive workforce over a vaccine mandate is unworkable, and might even end the operation of the entire business.

It is important to note the recent NBC poll on this issue amid the outlook of the vaccine mandates.  A majority of the country do not support the vaccine mandates, and worse still, the number of unvaccinated workers is essentially unwavering in the past six weeks {poll data}.  Remember, the number of Americans who willingly quit their jobs increased to 4.3 million in August {link}, and then increased again to 4.4 million in September {link}. People are not f**king around now.

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I’m not sure what is more blood boiling: that Joe Biden thinks it is okay to mock the American electorate, or that he actually believes the horse crap that comes out of his twisted, stupid brain.

The question was a perfectly well presented inquiry about the Biden administration’s incompetence to put policies in place to streamline the supply chain chaos that he has created.  His response is disconnected, absent of anything even remotely accurate, and entirely disconnected from factual substance.  This guy is a complete and utter failure of staggering and stunning incompetence.  WATCH:

I do not use the word ‘hate‘ lightly.  I have a solid grounding on what that word actually means.  However, the only people I hate worse than the current occupants of the White House, are the complicit DC media stenographers who sit there and giggle as this pontificating pustule of an idiot spouts nonsense. They clap and comply as if this is the professional or normal state of a functioning government.

COVID didn’t do squat to disrupt supply chains, impact prices or create massive shortages and inflation… people did.  Specifically, the people in the background of this administration who intentionally trashed the U.S. economy, because they are ideologically aligned with that destruction.  The current economic team is devoid of any real world experience that would shape their outlooks on how to solve problems. Example: Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg.

[Transcript] – […] THE NATIONAL FOOL: (Laughs.) (The fool covers his eyes and points towards the press.) (Laughter.)

Q Mr. President, Democratic Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger said of your presidency this week: “Nobody elected him to be FDR. They elected him to be normal and stop the chaos.” How do you view your mandate after Tuesday’s election losses for Democrats? And is she wrong?

THE NATIONAL FOOL: Well, Abigail is a friend. We had a long talk. She joked and said that I have a picture — she said I have a picture of Roosevelt hanging in my office — her office, okay?

I don’t intend to anybody but Joe Biden. That’s who I am. And what I’m trying to do is do the things that I ran on to do. And, look, people out there are — ordinary, hardworking Americans are really, really — been put through the wringer the last couple years, starting with COVID.

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The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) has released the first estimate of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the third quarter (July, Aug, Sept). [DATA HERE]  The top line number of two percent GDP growth is significantly worse than most economists and financial pundits expected.

The second quarter GDP was 6.7%, so a slow down to 2% is very significant considering the economy should be rebounding and reopening after the COVID-19 impacts.  However, when we dig into the details [Table One] you will see how what is happening in your life is actually reflected in the data.   None of this should be a surprise, as the data is simply reflecting what is happening in your personal checkbook economics.

First, here’s the media jaw agape, with false explanations and justifications:

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The drop has nothing to do with the ‘delta variant’, and everything -EVERYTHING- to do with inflation and impacts from Joe Biden’s economic policies.

Let’s take a look at the details, and you will see how the national GDP is simply a reflection on what we are doing to survive the Biden economy.

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No politician in history -sans Carly Fiorina- is as intellectually deficient on any policy yet resoundingly skilled at parseltongue sentence structures as Alfred E. Newman, aka Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

The ability to speak in structured sentence soundbites, that mean absolutely nothing, was and is his forte.

When Barack Obama and James Clyburn were organizing the pathway for Joe Biden in the 2020 election, they reached out in March to the remaining candidates and told each of them they were going to withdraw.   Each candidate was given an offer they could not refuse along with a question of what terms it would take to get them out of the race and support the avatar that was/is Joe Biden.

Having watched the Buttigieg snap-n-pop candidacy, it was obvious his terms involved getting an innocuous job that would provide him and his husband enough graft to facilitate their lifestyle.  Obama and Clyburn offered Alfred E. Newman the job of Secretary of Transportation. Pete Buttigieg’s curriculum vitae included that he held a drivers license, so he gleefully exclaimed his qualifications and accepted the job.

The guy is an absolute doofus; a soy version of Greta Thunberg, who is incapable of speaking about anything that makes any sense.  He is a caricature of the person who thinks they know something, so they speak in weird sentences that amount to total gibberish.   WATCH:

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“What I can tell you is that we are doing everything for the short term and the long term and we will work through the factors that present themselves as challenges in the terms that we encounter on everything.  … The significant problems are not problem of insignificance because they are not important problems, they are significant challenges because of the importance of their significance and we are addressing them in both long and short term solutions. … This is important, not just morally but also economically, because the challenges are what we need to recognize as important maintenance issue challenges.”   (more…)

Hundreds of requests for details on the specifics of the container shipping backlog.  So, I spent 3 days calling sources, digging for details and gathering information on the substantive issue at hand.  The epicenter of the problem is not what is being outlined by financial media, corporate media and politicians who have a specific interest in distracting from the issues at hand.  This has nothing to do with COVID-19.

The issues being discussed today relate to events that happened a long time ago.  As a matter of fact, it was so predictable that Amazon, Walmart, UPS, FedEx, Samsung, The Home Depot and Target all had taken actions years ago -long before COVID- because they knew this day would come.  It was not accidental that those companies showed up at the White House to discuss the issue, because there’s now a full court press to hide it.

There is one very specific regional issue driving the problem.  Read on:

The trucking issue with California LA ports, ie the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) and the Port of Long Beach (POLB), is that all semi tractors have to be current with new California emissions standards.  As a consequence, that mean trucks cannot be older than 3 years if they are to pick up or deliver containers at those ports.  This issue wipes out approximately half of the fleet trucks used to move containers in/out of the port.  Operating the port 24/7 will not cure the issue, because all it does is pile up more containers that sit idle as they await a limited number of trucks to pick them up.  THIS is the central issue.

On October 16, 2020, the EPA reached a settlement agreement [DATA HERE] with California Air Resource Board (CARB) to shut down semi tractor rigs that were non-compliant with new California emission standards:

2020 SAN FRANCISCO – “Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced settlements with three interstate trucking companies imposing $417,000 in penalties for violating the California Air Resources Board’s federally enforceable Truck and Bus Regulation, Drayage Truck Regulation and Transport Refrigeration Unit Regulation.

“As trucks are one of the largest sources of air pollution in California, EPA will continue to ensure these heavy-duty vehicles have the needed pollution-control equipment and operate in compliance with the rules,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator John Busterud. “These companies have agreed to bring their trucks into compliance and operate more cleanly in all communities they serve.”

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The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) released the August review [DATA HERE] of producer prices for last month.  August rose 0.7% with cumulative results now showing an 8.3% increase in prices; the largest year-over-year jump in prices for final demand products in the history of tracking. The prior record was July with 7.8%.

Inflation is skyrocketing for consumer goods at all levels of production: Origination (commodity/raw material), Intermediate (Mfr/Wholesale) and Final products (retail).

In part, the extreme upward cost pressure from escalating fuel and energy costs are accumulating throughout the supply chain and surfacing in the prices of the finished products. We are all witnessing this in the prices at stores; especially in the quick turning products, like groceries (fast turn consumable goods), which reflect price increases the fastest.

Final demand prices moved up 0.7 percent in August, 1.0 percent in July and 1.0 percent in June. The year-over-year inflation rate on final demand products now stands at 8.3%.

MEDIA – […] “The data comes amid heightened inflation fears fed by supply chain issues, a shortage of various consumer and producer goods and heightened demand related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Federal Reserve officials expect inflationary pressures to ease through the year, but they have remained stubbornly persistent, with Friday’s numbers indicating that the trend likely will continue.

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The U.S. Census Department releases retail sales data today showing a strong contraction in consumer spending for July [MSM LINK].  The out-of-touch financial pundits were looking for a 0.3% decline; however, the drop was four times greater with a contraction of 1.1% in spending.

“The slide in retail sales comes after Friday’s preliminary consumer sentiment report from the University of Michigan showed one of the largest drops on record, leading some strategists and economists to warn of downside risk to the sales data.” (link)

This should not be unexpected for those who read here.  Massive price inflation on essential goods is eating up wages.  Food, fuel and energy price increases are changing consumer spending habits.  Non-essential purchases have stopped….. they haven’t slowed, they have stopped. ←Emphasize this because it is not showing up yet in the data lag.

The data reflects that auto sales were the primary contributor to the decline in spending (-4.3%).  This should make sense to people because auto purchases are the largest general consumer purchase outside of home purchasing.

When purchase decisions are made by families; and food and fuel prices are skyrocketing; replacing a vehicle is not essential.  Auto sales are a key indicator of consumer confidence and income.

Overall inflation is the primary driver.  Real wages are declining (wages – inflation), and disposable income is dropping quickly.  Americans need to start talking very deliberately about what is about to happen.  CTH predicted this and has been walking through the visible outcomes as each set of new data surfaces {SEARCH BOX}.  Nothing happening right now is unforeseen or not easily understandable.

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