The good news for Republicans: all those price drops in gas will likely turn around and head north again starting Friday.
The bad news: the apparently upcoming rail strike is going to bodge up a good chunk of the rest of the economy.
And you’ve probably heard next to nothing about it. The typical Democrat-voting schmuck driving down Grand Avenue certainly hasn’t. Jim Geraghty:
We live in a country where the (currently) ruling political party and most of the national media have a symbiotic relationship. (Jen Psaki started work at NBC News this week.) One of the problems with this dynamic is that when the ruling class decides something is important — say, emphasizing the issue abortion as the midterm elections approach — it tends to squeeze out everything that the ruling party doesn’t want emphasized.
Don’t get me wrong; abortion is a hugely important issue to many Americans. You can read more about South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham’s bill from Alexandra DeSanctis and Charlie Cooke and John McCormick and Kathryn Jean Lopez.
But there are a lot of things going on in this world, and one issue that seems spectacularly under-covered — a ticking time bomb, if you will — is that starting at 12:01 a.m. Friday, or about a day and a half from now, if there isn’t a deal between freight-rail unions and employers, the U.S. economy comes to a screeching halt and . . . well, the term “derails” seems fitting.
Trains transport most of the crude oil that produces the gas we pay too much for. And with trains transporting none of it, gas get scarcer. Also – everything else produced with crude oil.
Not to mention the coal that powers all those electric cars that Governor Klink wants to force you into, to say nothing of providing a fair chunk of the nation’s heat in the winter.
To say nothing of the food that is already inflating faster than many Americans can afford, especially given that this is happening right at the harvest time that provides so much of the food that people will be eating until next year.
But yeah, by all means keep talking about abortion and Mara Lago.
Believe it or not, after four months the baby formula shortage is still ongoing.
Haven’t heard much about that in the news lately, have you?
Imagine we had a GOP congress & prez, and an out-of-stock rate of 61% for baby formula & you didn’t hear anything about it on the MSM.
Too unbelievable to even imagine . . .
Lindsey Graham to the rescue..
Republicans Struggle to Unite Party Around National Abortion Restrictions
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/13/us/politics/republicans-abortion-national-ban.html
Republicans in August: “Nothing was banned. We just returned the issue to the states! That’s all!”
Republicans in September: “We need a federal ban.”
The Republicans are trying too hard to defeat themselves. Great job, guys. Take a bow.
Supply chain in general is in SNAFU for the past couple of years. This is not going to help, and count me “less than thankful” for the Biden administration’s nonthinking support of unions because he thinks their members voted for him.
What was Graham thinking? “This 2022 election is not going too well for GOP Senate candidates, I know, let’s make it a referendum
on a national abortion ban!”
Abortion drives turnout—more for Democrats than Republicans.
Graham’s a smart politician. He knows how to read a poll. Which makes this all the more peculiar.
Buttagieg probably has a vacation scheduled to begin Thursday.
I don’t believe that any American is more useless at a time of crisis than Mayor Pete.
Might be a good time to stock up on toilet paper.
rail strike
nurses strike
teachers strike
new york times strike
they all claim they need higher wages because of inflation occurring under lesko brandons enlightened regime but obviously none of it is his fault hes just the president who sets the policies and the guy who appoints the heads of every department plainly it must be somebody else fault
damn that putin
MP,
I got a tip from a not-unreliable source saying the next big thing will be a shortage of all things cotton, and to plan accordingly
^^ Paul Volker just drove the economy into a deep recession — inflation came down because labor lost power and oil prices collapsed. The economic boom that followed Volcker’s strong action from 1984 on is unprecedented.
The 2y/10y yield curve has been telling us for a while now that a recession is all but a certainty. Ignore economists’ forecasts, they are not worth the paper it is written on. And remember, inflation is like toothpaste; once it is out of the tube it is very hard to get it back in. It will take a long time to get back to 2%.
That’s the problem with you DemoCommies, bot boy. You don’t want to compromise. You rat bastards want conception to birth abortions. Graham’s bill would prevent you from murdering babies after 15 weeks. This term is in line with the rest of the civilized, if you can call them that, countries and includes the provisions for rape, incest, non viable pregnancies and medical emergencies. Despite the wailing and gnashing of teeth from the usual DemoCommie leadership, polling indicates a large acceptance.
Rail workers do not pay into the Social Security Slush fund. The good news is, their retirement benefits are solid. The bad news is it puts them into the position of a quasi-federally regulated entity.
“The U.S. Railroad Retirement Board is an independent agency in the Executive Branch of the United States government created in 1935 to administer a social insurance program providing retirement benefits to the country’s railroad workers.”
While I’m all in favor of getting the wheels off ASAP, the deep state grifters are not gonna like what happens if the gandy dancers go on strike. With the present clusterfuck under way, even a week of no rail transport will be a disaster (yeaaaa!)..but I suspect Pedo Joe’s handlers will join hands with the Neo-cons and declare a national emergency; go back to work or lose your pensions.
As to light in the loafers Lindsay, well I’m not a Republican, but most of my buddies are. Nobody in the Upstate likes Graham, hasn’t for years; but the good ol’ boy$ down in Horry County have always got his back. Difference this time is, everyone *but* the old Horry County money has got to flat-out hating Graham, and the word is, the worst kept secret in South Carolina, that being Lindsay’s fondness for sodomy, will become an issue next time around. That’s not something even the good ol’ boys can save Lindsay from.
I got a tip from a not-unreliable source saying the next big thing will be a shortage of all things cotton, and to plan accordingly
Wouldn’t it be ironic if the greatest opportunity for Southern agriculture to come along in 200 years gets derailed because Northern and California real estate investors have turned all the textile mills into condo’s for hipster carpet baggers?
lol
Have any of you heard the details of how this rail strike is actually all Trump’s fault? And/or Putin’s?
a shortage of all things cotton
This seems a little vague.
There is only down with Slow Joe Biden “at the helm.” Not even any light at the end of the tunnel.
All these disasters on Slow Joe’s watch — the failed vaccine, the Afghan humiliation, baby formula shortage, recession when the economy should be recovering after the fiasco of Covid lockdowns, high inflation, land war in Europe — and not a single person has been fired.
It’s all going beautifully, sez Biden.
Confucius say “never pay attention to economic forecasts from internet troll living in a discarded refrigerator box next to a sewage reclamation pond.”
Late arrival. Bernie Sanders Blocks Proposal Which Would Avoid Rail Strike.
Pingback: In The Mailbox: 09.14.22 : The Other McCain
Buy wait, how’z’about this angle? SPOILER: Biden Wants the Railroad Strike.
You’d think it might be a bigger news item that the country faces a railroad strike one minute after midnight in the darkest moments of Friday morning. But there are a couple of possible reasons for that.
The first is Jim Geraghty’s suspicion that “observers simply assume that a deal will get done because the consequences of even a brief work stoppage would be so far-reaching.”
My suspicion might jar you: What if the White House believes those consequences are desirable?
… oh, never mind, it’s apparently – tentatively – been settled.
^^ The most important issue at stake seem to be the attendance and sick leave policies. Without those I would foresee that at least one union will reject the agreement.
im not a bigshot expert on economics somebody help me out here
if railroad worker pay goes up does that increase the price the railroad charges the shipper to carry freight or does the railroad eat the higher cost
if the price to carry freight is passed to the shipper does he pass it to the retailer or does the shipper eat it
if the price to carry freight is passed to the retailer does she pass it to the customer or does the retailer eat it
if the retailer passes it to the customer does that mean the price of everything shipped by rail is going up resulting in even higher inflation at the consumer level
i thought the lesko brandon administration had inflation under control even passed a new federal law called inflation reduction act what went wrong
The attendance gripe the gandydancers are squirting tears about revolves around their inability to get drunk on their time off, since they may get called in. Working on a train requires a BAC $100k/yr for someone with a high school education is bound to have a catch.
“Working on a train requires a BAC <.02%/ml. A $100k/yr job for someone with a high school education is bound to have a catch."
Buttagieg believes that he is the Secretary of De-Transportation.
New projects could include rapid bus transit lines to link disadvantaged neighborhoods to jobs; caps built on top of highways featuring green spaces, bike lanes and pedestrian walkways to allow for safe crossings over the roadways; repurposing former rail lines; and partial removal of highways.
https://apnews.com/article/race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-transportation-pete-buttigieg-48e09f253781c89359d875f19fc70f9d
I94 through Rondo to be demolished in three… two… one… MN has to outdo CA in their wokeness!
Under Biden, every department of the government is to make explicit racism its number one priority.
It’s not like they are trying to hide what they are doing:
Sec. 3. Role of the Domestic Policy Council. The role of the White House Domestic Policy Council (DPC) is to coordinate the formulation and implementation of my Administration’s domestic policy objectives. Consistent with this role, the DPC will coordinate efforts to embed equity principles, policies, and approaches across the Federal Government.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-advancing-racial-equity-and-support-for-underserved-communities-through-the-federal-government/
In the meantime:
Gas stoves linked to asthma in children, adult cancers, scientist warns
I do not have to tell you how much more expensive it is to run an electrical appliance than gas. And how much more stress replacing gas stoves with electric will have on the already overloaded and inadequate grid that has to support increasing amount of EVs. Ahhh.. I see… wood stoves! That’s the answer! They’ll drag you into stone age yet, by fiat and executive order, whether you like it or not.
^ scientist. Also an expert I presume. We must listen to those people. They’ve always steered us straight in the past.