The Supreme Court ruling is AVAILABLE HERE.  The court ruled 6-3 to strike down the big issue of the OSHA vaccine mandate for businesses with more than 100 employees. However, the court did allow (5-4) the federal vaccine mandate for federally funded healthcare agencies.  Justices Roberts and Kavanaugh joined the communists to allow the healthcare worker mandate to continue.

“OSHA has never before imposed such a mandate. Nor has Congress. Indeed, although Congress has enacted significant legislation addressing the COVID–19 pandemic, it has declined to enact any measure similar to what OSHA has promulgated here,” the majority justices wrote in an unsigned opinion.

(Via Associated Press) –  The Supreme Court has stopped the Biden administration from enforcing a requirement that employees at large businesses be vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing and wear a mask on the job.  At the same time, the court is allowing the administration to proceed with a vaccine mandate for most health care workers in the U.S.

[…] The court’s conservative majority concluded the administration overstepped its authority by seeking to impose the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s vaccine-or-test rule on U.S. businesses with at least 100 employees. More than 80 million people would have been affected.

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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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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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The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the December inflation data today [DATA HERE] for December.  Readers on these pages are not surprised to discover that inflation in the U.S. economy has now reached a forty year high at 7 percent.  {Go Deep}

Unfortunately, the 7% in June of 1982 was when inflation was on the way down from Jimmy Carter’s failed economic policy.  This time our 7% milestone has been achieved while inflation is on the climb thanks to Joe Biden’s failed economic policies.

Carter’s mess was created by regulation, policies and oil prices.  Biden’s mess is created by the same and much more.

Yes, it will be getting worse.

That weird picture with the Bidens and the Carters comes to mind.  The scale within the picture is appropriate when considering inflation and what is to come.  Biden’s inflation is much larger than Carter’s.

As you know, the top line number of 7% is a false premise.  We are feeling much, much higher overall prices in our lives with gasoline, home heating fuel, electricity costs, housing and the astronomical prices at the grocery store.  The BLS data is backward looking, meaning it was compiled in early December 2021 for comparison to December 2020.  Where we are CURRENTLY is much worse than where we were in early December.

We are feeling the front side of the inflation hurricane right now. The consumer prices at end of January and through February are now reflecting new purchase order prices and contract prices to wholesalers, buyers and retailers.  The higher energy costs, fuel costs, warehousing costs, transportation costs and delivery costs are cumulative. As a result, the December report is simply the precursor to what will be much more damaging inflation data in Feb (showing this month) and March (showing Feb).

Additionally, the BLS data captured gas prices at their slight drop from oil prices in late November and early December.  The price of oil has now gone even higher, and the price of gasoline is once again on the rise.  We have not yet seen the worst of this folks.  Hopefully most are prepared.

I modified BLS Table-1, taking out some of the noise, to give the snapshot of how the bureau is compiling data:

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg visited the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) and Port of Long Beach (POLB) to announce the Biden administration officially saved Christmas.  Yes, that actually happened.   Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti took it one step further and proclaimed Secretary Buttigieg as the official “man who saved Christmas”.   WATCH:

The Biden administration is making these ridiculous claims, because they know that no one in the media will actually look into the data and challenge them on the insufferable nonsense.  [SEE DATA HERE]

However, beyond the ridiculous claims about increasing port container delivery, when there was actually a decline in port container delivery, the POLA and POLB scheme to hide the ships {Go Deep} has now spread to the Port of Oakland, California.

“Operation Hide the Ships”

OAKLAND – […] Following its success in Southern California, the new system is being expanded to the Bay Area. Ships will wait 50 miles off the coast in a safety and air quality zone until their scheduled arrival time at the Port.

The new system became effective Monday. Ships will get an arrival time based on when they left their last port of call. Before Monday, ships were given an arrival time when they were fewer than 80 nautical miles from the coast.

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Earlier today, Senator Ted Cruz attempted to regain his J6 credibility with questions to the DOJ and FBI about the day’s events.

The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing provided the backdrop for an urgently needed modification to the marionette strings.  Capitalizing on the opportunity, Senator Ted Cruz (U-DC) asked Jill Sanborn, Executive Assistant Director, National Security Branch at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, about any law enforcement participation in the events of Jan. 6.

Questions were asked, grand protestations were proclaimed, theater lights dimmed to provide the dramatic context, and Ms. Sanborn noted she could not answer the questions.  Curiously (or not) there was no follow-up as to “why the FBI was unable to answer”. WATCH: 

The Cruz campaign staff quickly copied the performance and uploaded it to the Senator’s accounts for immediate distribution.  Many teeth began gnashing, and grand proclamations were made about the possibilities and ramifications.

Shiney things began making a lot of noise all around the social media sphere, and there is now a strong possibility the situation may escalate.  Some observers even noted that strongly worded letters might be sent… and tomorrow is Wednesday.

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The empty shelf problems in/around DC last weekend were mostly due to regional weather and employment issues.  However, the snapshot represents an example of how people react to their first encounter.  The conditions in the video represent a worst case scenario for those who have been watching the supply chain issue coming over the horizon. {Go Deep}

I doubt our average 2022 result will be this bad overall, however, there are areas where this might be the status.  For most people outside urban areas, this severity of a food store shortage is unlikely, unless the federal government gets involved.  If the federal government intervenes, this will be more common.

We know from prior examples, if these types of conditions were to last for just 72 hours across every store in a metropolitan region, you would see a level of panic begin.  Civic stability remains relatively stable for 72 hours (3 days).  However, if these conditions are persistent for more than 3 days, the general mindset of the population changes quickly.  Things rapidly deteriorate.  After three days, all reference points for civic norms are gone.

Those who remember Miami-Dade, specifically the Homestead region, in the aftermath of hurricane Andrew have a solid reference for what happens.  New Orleans after hurricane Katrina was a lesser, albeit more public version.   Hunger, fear and desperation are not a good combination.

{Background on Larger Issues HERE}

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The snowball effect of cumulative inflation is going to be on display tomorrow when the BLS inflation data from December is released.  We have previously discussed the unavoidable price increases as noted within the November data Here, and within the producer price data Here.

While the data being released tomorrow is backward looking, we are in the eye of the inflation storm right now.  The consumer prices at end of January and through February are all reflecting new purchase order prices and contract prices to wholesalers, buyers and retailers.   As a result, the December reports will be the precursor to what will be much more damaging data in Feb and March.

White House spokesperson Jen Psaki began trying to get ahead of the consumer price release with a short briefing to the traveling press pool earlier today.  A short audio-only soundbite reflects the political problem the White House knows they will soon be dealing with. LISTEN:

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It is difficult to imagine how the Biden administration can possibly spin the economic reality of increasing, unavoidable inflation making the economy weaker over the next year.  However, somehow, they will try.

The AP is reporting that 68% of Americans now say the economy overall is their number one concern.  Meanwhile, the federal reserve of New York is reporting the inflation results from December are likely to be the same, if not higher, than the inflation results in November.

The Biden administration has continued to push additional federal spending under the auspices of Build Back Better as the bridge to offset the impact from their Green New Deal energy policies.  In fact, if you look at how the massive spending effort has been shaped, it becomes clear the overall goal is to push a new energy policy and then hide the impact by using COVID as the cover for the subsidies to try and offset the impacts.

It is a sneaky program when reviewed in totality.  Shut down oil and natural gas production, cancel leases, block pipelines and use the regulatory arm to shut down any additional growth in the oil and gas industry, including refinery capacity.  Then, try to hide the consequences by subsidizing the core constituencies who would normally be immediately impacted.

Unfortunately for the Biden architects, no amount of legislative spending is going to be able to offset the massive economic impact of implementing the Green New Deal by executive order, regulatory changes and administrative policy.  The American people are not blind to consequences, and when they start to look deeper into the causes of this inflation, what they discover is easy to see.

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