Joe Biden picked Kamala Harris to be his veep for no other reason than she checked off boxes, namely: female and black(ish). She has no other qualifications and it shows. Biden also chose Pete Buttigieg to be his Secretary of Transoprtion because he’s gay, not because he knows anything about transportation or running a cabinet. It turns out picking gay Alfred E. Newman to be in charge is another Biden crisis/failure as transportation in this country is in shambles.
With all the other crises going on, the transportation cluster*ck is easily overlooked, but very soon it’s going the number one issue in America. The grocery store shelves will be empty and gas will be unaffordable to all but the richest of the rich.
WHGP reports:
There are a near-record 146 cargo ships off the California coast either anchored or at berth with billions of dollars worth of merchandise — and not much can be done about it.
About half of all imports come into Southern California, but it’s now a major choke point in the global supply chain.
This is something I’ve seen with my own eyes. I’ve been taking my dog to the dog beach in Long Beach near the Port of Los Angeles for years. On a normal day I would see maybe a handful of freighters waiting to offload but now there are ships as far as the eye can see. One of these ships even dropped an anchor on a pipeline causing a major oil spill because they aren’t usually waiting in the waters around the oil rigs.
Even when or if these ships unload their cargo, it’s going to be really hard to get that stuff to the rest of the country.
The Washington Post reports:
One of the main rail routes leaving the port leads to Union Pacific’s Global 4 facility in Joliet, which sprawls across the equivalent of 500 football fields.
The rail yard is essentially an inland version of the terminals in Los Angeles. Like an industrial Lego set, the lot is replete with towering walls of orange, green, white and blue containers.
At one point, trains trying to enter the yard were backed up for 25 miles.
And:
WKRC reports:
There may be some shortages you’ve been noticing lately. Part of the problem is getting people to drive the trucks to deliver those goods.
That’s according to industry insiders such as Kevin Burch, who previously owned a company in Dayton and who previously served as national chair of the American Trucking Association.
He says in his 47 years in the business, he’s never seen a driver shortage like this one.
It’s made the backups of container ships at ports on each coast even worse. The trucking association says 71 percent of all freight delivered or shipped in the United States is carried by truck at some point
“We’ve got a lot of catch up to do,” said Burch, now the vice president of government affairs with the Martin Transportation Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan, which employs nearly 1,200 people and has 19 terminals nationally. “We could hire thousands of drivers every day and still need drivers.”
The supply chain in this country isn’t just fractured, it’s on the verge of collapse.
“It’s like an orchestra with lots of first violins and no conductor. … No one’s really in charge,” said Fran Inman, a supply chain advisor.
Speaking of which:
Buttigieg was asked about the massive supply chain clusters*ck in this country and what he plans to do about.
“It’s an incredibly complicated situation,” said Buttigieg. “That’s why we’ve been convening all of the different players, for example, held roundtables.”
Well shit, Buttigieg is holding roundtables so this problem is as good as fixed. In case you couldn’t tell, that was sarcasm. Also, I didn’t cherry pick, that was the only substance in his answer on how he’s going to solve the supply chain crisis.
That system which delivers food to stores, gas to stations, and medicine to pharmacies is on the verge of collapse and Pete Buttigieg is holding round tables. You think Biden has f*cked this country up already, wait until the food riots. We’re this close to living in Mad Max times.
