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California environment overregulation sole cause of shipping backup

California environment regulations that ban the use of any truck more than three years old, essentially banning half of all fleet trucks and practically all small private truck companies, is the real cause of the shipping backlog that is piling up outside the ports of Los Angles and Long Beach.

This banning was established by a deal the EPA made with California in October 2020, when Trump was still president.

In effect, what this 2020 determination and settlement created was an inability of half the nation’s truckers from picking up anything from the Port of LA or Port of Long Beach. Virtually all private owner operator trucks and half of the fleet trucks that are used for moving containers across the nation were shut out.

In an effort to offset the problem, transportation companies started using compliant trucks (low emission) to take the products to the California state line, where they could be transferred to non-compliant trucks who cannot enter California. However, the scale of the problem creates an immediate bottleneck that builds over time. It doesn’t matter if the ports start working 24/7, they are only going to end up with even more containers waiting on a limited amount of available trucks.

Essentially, California is now holding the entire nation hostage. The backlog is only going to get worse. Moreover, the deal as designed favored big operations, such as Amazon, Walmart, UPS, FedEx, Samsung, The Home Depot and Target, because they can afford the extra costs of shipping to alternative ports. The small companies are essentially shut out.

So much for protecting the little guy, Mr. Trump. This highlights again Trump’s primary failure. He did not clean house when in office, and thus allowed the bureaucracy — clearly operating as agents of the Democratic Party — to double cross and stymie him at every opportunity.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
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"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

42 comments

  • Steve

    As usual, it was Trump’s unwillingness to dig into the details and actually learn about an issue. Case in point: Trump was angered by Hugh Hewitt’s asking (during the primary) if he knew or could explain what our nuclear triad was. He was clueless and showed little inclination to add to his knowledge. I’m an ignorant, deplorable rube in Idaho and even I could have blurted out: Submarines, land-based silos and aircraft dropped nukes make up our triad.

  • Kyle

    This is true, Trump failed to drain the swamp, he had a lot on his plate in Oct 2020 and the swamp sliped this in. But I would say that I am way more trusting of Trump to get us out of this log jam then that old guy who is currently sleeping in the WH.

  • David K

    Time to ship into Mexico and bypass California. Thankfully we have the USMCA and the borders are opening up finally.

  • Jeff Wright

    There shouldn’t even be an EPA. I would have all our troops home and have the military help with logistics. That and the Walton families heads on pikes at the New York Stock exchange to put fear in the free-trader traitor off-shorers who put us in this fix to start with.

  • John

    Big trucking companies can also afford the requisite trucks, working class independent owner operators are shut out. Overregulation to favor certain groups that have money is just another leftist tyranny.

    There was some work during the Trump admin to stop the draconian californian auto standards from being nationwide. I’m guessing that is gone and you can kiss freedom of movement gone. I’m sure the highly regulated and very expensive electric cars will really give the youth of the next generation the responsibility, freedom, independence, and excitement of hitting the road for an adventure. Good thing the chicoms have the resources for batteries, or nobody will be driving anywhere.

    I’m not sure Trump or anyone can drain the swamp. The swamp is the too big, too entrenched, too well funded, not elected, and lasts across administrations. Government is the swamp. General Flynn put it well, and I have to paraphrase, “Some problems you can solve. Some problems you have to mitigate the best you can.”

  • David Eastman

    Even without this EPA deal, owner/operators are basically locked out a lot of work in CA because of AB5.

    This is one of the things that frustrates me so much about the current state of things. Here we have some policies that had obvious and predicted ill consequences. Those were shrugged off as fear-mongering or otherwise illegitimate concerns, and the policies are enacted full force. Then the consequences do in fact immediately happen, and there are no apologies, no admission of fault, in fact no repercussions at all for the people responsible, who will go on to tout this as a success when pushing their next set of policies.

    Fixing this is going to take a united effort across the executive, with the aggressive support of congress, and the media beating the drum to keep things moving forward. The chances of that happening are basically nil.

  • Max

    Let’s see if I remember this correctly;
    Trump was a lifelong New York Democrat. (from the John Kennedy era)
    He made, and lost his money in real estate.
    He had gigs in entertainment like wrestling, beauty pageants, casinos with concerts.
    His break came with NBC telling people “you’re fired” for 14 years. An entertainer/actor being made to look authoritative, even presidential, creating then evolving “his brand”.
    Against the wishes of most of his family, he changed parties. Not because he wanted to be conservative, because he wanted to be president.
    On his second try, the slanted, synchronized government propaganda machine, expressed their entire weight on his side enhancing his prospects with $1 billion of free advertisements in the form of popular recognition, daily news shorts, ignoring the rest of the republican contenders like Ted Cruise. In short, the lying news media picked Trump for us.

    Once they saw to it that he won the nomination for the Republican party, they turned on him. No matter how hard they tried to make him look bad, Hillary Clinton looked worse… She thumbed her nose at the rule of law, saying she would take responsibility when she took none, not for Benghazi, private server, selling of nuclear stockpile, the release of classified material, numerous deaths in her personal circle, etc.…

    Even though Trump failed in a lot of his promises, lock her up, build the wall, (Maga was temporary) and others… His accomplishments outshine his failures, which makes him the best president we’ve had since the last actor was pretending to be president, Ronald Reagan. (he could talk the talk, but his actions was wobbly and tip O’Neill got the best of him which led me not to vote for him for his second term because he raised taxes, breaking promises)

    Then Joe Biden with 15 executive orders on his first day, undid four years of Trump and canceled the constitution (land of the free, home of the brave, gave way to medical tyranny formed by “operation warp speed” A marriage between Health and human services/CDC and the military)

    I do not know the answer, the question is… Was he just an actor? Playing his part too well?
    Or was everything to keep us off-balance while the behemoth government became larger to the point it’s unstoppable in it’s plans and actions.
    When cities were burning down, Trump did the right thing and let the states take care of it. But he let it go too far. Now Joe Biden is doing just the opposite, sending federal agencies into our board rooms and school districts, mandating medical procedures or you can’t work, Bank, purchase, travel. apparently Joe Biden is now the “you’re fired” executive who is draining the middle class…
    How serious is he about the new EPA mandates? We will all find out this winter when we all become like Texas… Know how to drain your water pipes when the power goes out, to save the world from global warming!

  • m d mill

    RZ: thank you for this info…very informative, very important.
    I hope this will become clear to every voter in the country

  • Mark

    I think one can learn a lot about the the current downward trajectory of our country by looking at how other western countries are dealing with their own many crises.
    Dominic Cummings is one person I follow because he was a key player in BREXIT and was director of ‘Vote Leave’ which successfully convinced the British public to vote for BREXIT. Cummings claims that for any serious political change movement to succeed “The goal is not ‘reform’ but *a government that actually controls the government”.

    Bob noted in his post that it was the EPA together with California in Oct 2020 that implemented rules that are now causing havoc in our Supply chains. The quote from Cummings below makes clear that government bureaucracies causing social upheaval is not only a ‘Trump problem’, but is also a problem central to most western governments. Cummings is a wordsmith, and you need to read his quote slowly as if chewing a tasty morsel of fine steak.

    “In Washington as in London, the golden rule of Government is — the government does not control the government and anybody who tries to change this is seen as the enemy by the bureaucracies that actually control ~99% of the government. Politicians talk as if the government controls the government and fundraise as if it does. The media reports as if it does. It does not.”

    How to deal with that reality is one of the central political and social questions of the twenty first century.

  • deadrody

    Seriously, WTF is with everybody pretending that magically President Trump was able to single-handedly control every aspect of the federal government ? FFS when this happened it was 2020 and you’re describing it almost a year later. The entire government is primarily run by career Democrat bureaucrats and even the “Republicans” in the government didn’t support Trump. But you think Trump was able to stop the EPA – probably THE single most leftist agency in the entire government – from making deals with CA ?

    Wake the hell up

  • Cotour

    Strong unambiguous leadership is necessary in all situations, especially our national governmental situation.

    We do not have that by any means right now and it is showing.

    But IMO these “Mistakes” and incompetence is neither.

    Its all designed to level America and weaken it so as to install “The Great reset”.

    That is the intention anyway.

  • Mitch S.

    The “Treehouse” article proposes an interesting theory but the linked evidence does not back the contention.
    The author writes of “a 2020 EPA settlement agreement with CARB” but only links to older agreements. The Settlement discussed is one between the EPA and trucking companies charged with violations. There is no info on when the offences they were charged with occurred.
    The Treehouse links to a video, a very interesting video (I recommend checking it out to get peek at the scale and complexity of shipping/transport. And gotta love the cargo ship named “The Great Profit”!) but the video has no mention of a shortage of trucks – it actually contradicts the theory by recounting that truckers are saying the Port of LA bottleneck is due to the port not being able to handle the volume of trucks.

    There has been an issue with truck emission standards that has been going on for over 10 years. When the EPA tightened diesel emission standards it had several unintended results due to the cost of purchase and maintenance of the new required emission reduction equipment. One was the VW emission cheating scandal, another is that Ford produced a new 7.3L gasoline engine for light/medium trucks (F350/450/550 type uses like tow trucks, school buses etc) because the poorer fuel economy (and greater carbon emissions BTW) of the gas engine is more than offset by the price of compliant diesel engine purchase/maintenance and the higher cost of diesel fuel. And another result was the growth of the heavy duty truck “glider” market.
    This may be what The Treehouse” was thinking about.
    Read this article for more:

    https://www.overdriveonline.com/equipment/article/14898497/emissions-regulations-squash-glider-kit-market

    Regarding Trump’s actions note this from the article:

    “Fitzgerald, which once had glider kit sales of hundreds of millions of dollars a year, fought the regulations from their onset. They appeared headed toward success when President Trump’s EPA sought to exempt gliders from Phase II regulations and allow companies like Fitzgerald to continue their operations. However, changes in leadership at EPA, as well as court decisions, ultimately derailed those efforts.”

  • jburn

    Max,
    you remembered incorrectly in many instances;
    He made and retains his money in real estate – losses are a normal part of investing.
    He owned venues and hired others for “gigs” to fill the venues.
    His brand was well established and NBC capitalized on it, a co-marketing instance — without Trump, Apprentice failed.
    The media was never on his side, but Trump spun their predictable behavior to his favor. A clever judo move, really.

    Trump hasn’t stopped working and is reshaping the Republican party. The Democrat party is in total disarray and imploding, just like Sleepy Joes poll number. 2022 will be a blood bath for the Democrats — have you been following the “Let’s go Brandon” chants?

  • Mark

    Deadrody- I dispute your claim that “everybody pretending that magically President Trump was able to single-handedly control every aspect of the federal government”.
    I specifically stated the opposite in my post using British Politics as an example. Besides being closely involved with Brexit, Dominic Cummings was a close advisor to Conservative Party British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. I quoted Mr. Cummings who described how elected politicians in government do not really direct “The Government”. I could not have been clearer.

    Here is a less subtle and more direct quote from Dominic Cummings: “You don’t control the government unless you can shut down parts of the ‘permanent’ bureaucracy and you can’t legally do this in the current regime without grabbing control of a party.”

  • The problem is that (1) we don’t give Presidents the authority to clean house, to the depth needed to neuter the Deep State, and (2) a more confrontational approach to hiring and firing would have given his enemies even more opportunities to smear the President, enhancing their ability to obstruct both his agenda and the infusion of confidence into the millions of ordinary American people who make this nation work.

    For example, firing the FBI Director can call into question the President’s respect for the “independence” of the agency, feeding right into my point (2). Same with the AG, and to a lesser extent with other officials. Appointing hard-core MAGA thinkers from the get-go would have met resistance in the Senate confirmation process, who expects deference to their institutional status quo.

    Then you have the rot extending deep into the civil-service ranks, which have become snug sinecures for a lot of Democrats/Leftists since they are well-protected from being fired for almost any reason.

    Actually, given how being a Leftist/Democrat is the default cultural position for so many in the civil-service ranks – in large part, since they are insulated from the accountability of a for-profit position – going back to the spoils system would result in a periodic housecleaning of the Deep State – as well as provide a disincentive for granting it more power and authority.

    IMO Trump made the best of a bad situation, in a manner reminiscent of a bomb-squad technician.

  • Edward

    Let’s Go Brandon!

    This isn’t the first time that the California legislature Let’sed up California. Two decades ago, they had directed auto makers to sell a certain percentage of their fleets as electric cars. But instead of making sure that California had enough power plants to provide the electricity to those cars, they had required the power company to sell off their power plants to other states. Thus, we Californians were stuck buying our power from out of state, even if it was generated in-state. But without enough power generation, power was literally being imported, too. Electricity prices skyrocketed as the other states figured out how to game the system and extort nine billion dollars of California’s then-surplus. What putzes.

    MTBE was an additive that California required in the state’s gasoline, back in the 1990s, which made it unique to California, thus gas prices were higher due to this uniqueness. But it gets worse, because California had required that all metal underground gas tanks at gas stations be replaced with fiberglass tanks. The idea was that metal tanks eventually rust and leak. What the legislators did not understand is that fiberglass, composites in general, tend to be slightly porous, so they leaked immediately. After billions of dollars were spent replacing tanks, Californians discovered that the microbes that eat gasoline do not eat MTBE, so this foul smelling, bad tasting, poisonous chemical leached its way into groundwater that fed into wells around the state. Talk about Superfund sites, all of California was legislated into being one. Fortunately, the legislature passed another bill that stopped the MTBE additive, five years into the (then) future. Oh, did I forget to mention that the additive ate away at the seals in trucks and other engines?

    But in Obama’s America, the land of the formerly free and home of the tyrant, Brandon thinks that he can solve California’s port problem by mandating overtime and 24-hour operations at ports. I wonder why the ports didn’t think of that as a solution. I guess that Go Brandon is just that much smarter than everyone else. Let’s Go Brandon!

    What a putz.

  • Cotour

    The villagers are getting angry: https://youtu.be/eMIr53FnIIE

  • mike

    AB 5 passed in 2018 plays a bigger role in the backlog. My understanding of the bill is that it more or less forces independant contractors to be reclassified as employees. So much for the independant trucker. Another major factor is lack of parts. A truck repair shop in Baltimore has trucks backed up waiting for repair, because of a parts shortage. There are many issues that cause this issue, and most of them man made. As far as draining the “swamp”; it is much bigger and deeper than any of us thinks.

  • Mitch S.

    “This isn’t the first time that the California legislature Let’sed up California.”
    I laughed the moment I read that, indeed an understatement.
    But as they say California’s trends become the nation’s!
    You didn’t even mention forest management, and, and, and…
    On a national level my favorite example is the ethanol in gasoline mandate.
    Even Al Gore admitted it was a mistake and was done for political reasons, but was it overturned during Bush’s Republican presidency?- =No.
    And Obama tried to increase it from 10% to 15%. Let’s remember that even Consumer Reports said it does nothing for the environment and costs consumers more. And of course even after Trump it remains.
    So now mower shops and hardware stores sell no-ethanol gasoline so you can store your equipment without damage, for $25/gallon!

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethanol-gore/u-s-corn-ethanol-was-not-a-good-policy-gore-idUSTRE6AL3CN20101122

    BTW Matt Taibbi just wrote a piece about how the CIA, NSA etc are now heroes to the left – the deep state wins!

  • Mitch S.

    Let’s remember the current prime focus of the swamp/deep state:
    The $3.5 Trillion spending bonanza.
    If they get it through, once signed, Joe/Brandon will be just fine in their eyes.
    Bezos, Musk, Gates are very influential because they control $100-200 billion.
    But 3.5 Trillion? That’s a mighty big slush fund, a super bonus! (Hey congresspeople are already millionaires, why not billionaires!)
    And the Dems won’t let anyone take it from their grasp – even one of their own such as Sinema (sent a mob to assault her in the bathroom) or Manchin (threaten his daughter with prosecution)

  • wayne

    Q:
    This is part rhetorical— Who is the primary owner of West coast Ports?

    Mitch-
    Thanks for bringing up the ethanol-racket.

    Cotour-
    I was going to link to the “torch wielding mob” from Frankenstein (1931), but instead I’ll go with this one…

    The Man in the High Castle S1E9
    The death of Hauptsturmführer Connolly
    https://youtu.be/jNjSAUMy0vY
    1:42

  • Cotour

    LISTEN TO DR. STELLA (its all related)

    This woman, Dr. Stella, front line Covid doctor from the start called out the manipulation and forced mandate to take an experimental “Vaccine” by the government, big pharma and big tech. This agenda is essential to the New World Order and the “Global Reset”. This is all designed to literally own you and your children and your freedom.

    Its about forcing people of the planet earth to become desensitized and to obey the government and their control. This is your future if you allow it.

    https://rumble.com/embed/vl8euq/?pub=4 8 min.

    Dr. Stella throws some of Jesus into the mix, but from what I have come to understand about all of the drugs that already exist that successfully treat Covid that she has herself uses to save her patients lives, she has it all correct.

    I like Dr. Stella and IMO she is telling the cold hard truth. This is the Leftist / Socialist / Democrat / New World Order / Globalist agenda.

    And its being played out in real time right in front of your unbelieving and eternally scared self.

    Your a Democrat or a RINO Republican? You vote Democrat or RINO Republican? They are both a part of the Globalist Agenda and are in the process of delivering us all to this agenda. Have no doubt about that, this is exactly what these very well politically connected and monied individuals are attempting.

    How do you feel about that?

  • Questioner

    Cotour:

    You must finally acknowledge that not only globalism (with its agenda of world governance), which you often refer to here, is part of the core problem, but the political values-universalism that is common to the entire liberalist West (but above all America) underlying. So we have to say goodbye to that. Aren’t the opponents of globalization and universalism – like Russia, Hungary and other countries – automatically our allies?

  • Cotour

    85% COULD HAVE BEEN SAVED (Its all related)

    You need to also listen to this doctor, Dr. Peter McCullough. What does Dr. McCullough have to say as he speaks to the Texas legislature? Up to 85% of those Americans who have died from Covid probably died in vain.

    Because they were not allowed to be properly treated as per an agenda (Allow the “vaccine” only) and not due to proper medical care and a lack of compassion due to the agenda (My interpretation).

    https://youtu.be/QAHi3lX3oGM THEE most published doctor in his field! Think he knows what he is talking about?

    You are not allowed to speak the truth about Covid and treating it because it is against the agenda of government control over the people.

    And that has nothing to do with medicine and treating patients. And that is why this entire situation is a Nuremberg level crime against humanity. And everyone who is a part of these flat out lies and manipulations needs to be prosecuted to the max.

  • Cotour

    Questioner:

    Universalism: Loyalty to and concern for others without regard to national or other allegiances. “a tendency towards universalism and inclusion”.

    That is un Constitutional from a traditional American point of view and is based IMO in ignorance of history and the nature of man related to absolute power. That term: “Universalism” is but a “cleaner” and more sanitized manner to describe Globalism and a Socialist model of operation.

    You want to fully appreciate what the true Socialist model delivers? Listen to this account of the true results of the unopposed Socialist model: The Nazi’s. Because IMO that is exactly where this all goes if America is not able to stop it all out in the next year and a half to three years.

    Introduction: Philosophy and History (Nietzsche and the Nazis, Part 1, Section 1) https://youtu.be/3AOrX_9QODo 4 min.

    This entire 3 hour audio book IMO correctly lays out what may be in store for us all if we are unsuccessful.

  • Mark

    Hey Cotour – I’ll commit some time this week to read/listen to what you recommend. I only know 2 areas of German History. One is the Weimar Republic from a college course taught by a leftist who liked ‘The Three Penny Opera’ (the only thing good thing about that IMO was Sinatra’s Mack the Knife song). I was reminded of it recently when I watched the Netflix series ‘Babylon Berlin’ which mixes the police procedural, decadent gangland noir, and a Weimar Republic based political thriller. The other German History I know is the interesting but narrow WWII military history that I’ve been reading for over 3 decades (currently reading ‘An Army at Dawn’ which is about the War in North Africa and which won a Pulitzer Prize). Keep up your posting.

  • Cotour

    Mark:

    Thank you, I will continue.

    This audio book lays out how Hitler attached himself to the philosophies of Nietzsche who died 30 or so years before Hitler came into power. And he apparently used it to justify his nefarious accomplishments (Nietzsche was a bit dark and uber practical). The Nazi’s were really very well organized and they were of the same mind and philosophy. Really quite terrifying to think if they were not stopped what the world would look like today.

    Man In The High Tower? “The Great Reset”? Guess where Klaus Schwab comes from?

    I recently saw a German, I do not remember who it was. What did he say and himself and his countrymen?

    “Don’t ever trust us”.

    And to top it all of they had leading edge technology, and they had one hell of a sense of design and style. Really chilling.

  • Edward

    On reflection of the discussion as to how President Trump failed to clean the swamp, the cooperation he received from the Republican Party is shameful. As the Republican politicians instructed, their voters handed the House, the Senate, and the presidency to them, yet they refused to perform the task that they had promised for such loyalty. Obamacare is now so heavily metastasized that we may have the same success at getting rid of it that the British have had at ridding themselves of their failed socialized medical system, the National Health (Dis)Service.

    Why did Republicans turn on Trump? They didn’t like his tweets.

    The situation reminds me of the speech that the lawyer, Barney Greenwald, gives at the end of the movie The Cain Mutiny. “You don’t work with a captain because you like the way he parts his hair. You work with him because he’s got the job or you’re no good.” The Republican Party is no good. They didn’t support their president; they didn’t honor their promises; they didn’t support their constituents. They are no good. How can a president drain a swamp when his party won’t even support him in keeping their own promises? And now the ship (country) is going down in the storm, one California port at a time.

    Centralized control of the economy is the demon here. Legislators, governors, and bureaucrats have directed us as to how to operate our businesses, but these people have no idea how to make an economy work. Only in their fantasies do these people, who have never run any business, have enough knowledge of how every industry works to be able to direct each industry to do better than it is able to do on its own.

    Putzes.

    Four centuries of free market capitalism in which we individually figured out what needed doing and then doing it are going down the drain, because dimwits who think they know better: don’t. What a Charlie Foxtrot. All because some idiots didn’t like some tweets.

    Mitch S. wrote: “You didn’t even mention forest management, and, and, and…

    Ah, yes. The (mis)management that led to the forest fires that led to the power outages, Venezuela style, and that led to the burning down of Paradise California (and to think, there was a time when all of California was paradise). No wonder U-Hauls cost so much to travel out of California, nobody wants to live in Perdition.

  • Gary H

    Interesting thread. Nobody can change what is about to happen. This will be a very difficult winter. Biden’s only choice is to blame everyone else and sau that we should have spent much more.

  • Cotour

    Biden (And his leftist America hating handlers within the White House) are going to have to at some point have tp be called out as a traitor by those in the media.

    Everything that Joe Biden has instituted as president from day one has been to diminish America and its standing in the world and to weaken it, and to empower both Communist China and Russia. Each and every move.

    At some point it will become undeniable and they will no longer be able to not see or say what is what.

    A reasonable prediction at this point in time: Sometime after the first of the year China makes its move on Taiwan.

    Joe has been delivering the deliverables, and that will be the cherry on top.

    And anyone who thinks this is all a result of incompetence, is incompetent.

  • Mitch S.

    “{Biden}are going to have to at some point have tp be called out as a traitor by those in the media.”

    Cotour, what media?
    The marginalized right wing media? – they’ve been calling him out already.
    The mainstream media? – the “reporters and journalists” raised on Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, who backed Hillary, Joe, impeaching Trump, covered up the Hunter laptop and the the source of the Fauci virus, then muttered quietly during the Afghanistan fiasco?

    The only calculation Joe and the Dems are making regarding Taiwan is whether the media has enough influence to spin giving up Taiwan in a way that won’t hurt Dems in 2022.
    If the CCP decides to take Taiwan, I expect a major military buildup to immediately threaten Taiwan.
    In the US the MSM will roll out stories about how Taiwan can’t possibly standup to the Chi-coms and resistance will result in a needless bloodbath. And they’ll go on about how the Taiwanese gov’t is corrupt and things there aren’t really good for the majority of the populace.
    Then Biden will send Blinken (maybe with Kerry to help him out) out there to “negotiate a settlement”. The settlement being the US telling Taiwan we won’t defend you and you have no choice but to surrender. Of course Taiwanese leaders will be evacuated and set up with a luxurious lifestyle in the country of their choosing.
    Then they’ll travel to Beijing and announce the Chi-coms have promised to take good care of Taiwan and leave the culture and freedoms in place (remember Hong Kong).
    The MSM will fawn over how Biden’s brilliant diplomacy saved countless thousands of lives and have it’s “experts” blab and publish about how good this is for the Taiwanese people, that Taiwan had been in decline, and this “merger of equals”
    (anyone remember Chrysler history?) is the best thing for them.
    Of course any nastiness done by the Chi-coms won’t be reported and anyone who tries to report it will be derided as a racist right wing conspiracy nut and thrown off the internet.

  • wayne

    Apocalypse Now (1979)
    Horror Speech
    https://youtu.be/mPPGMNOLaMw
    4:47

  • Cotour

    Mitch:

    Don’t shoot the messenger.

    In time those in the media who “Will not go there” will have to call out and say what is obvious.

    Joe Biden, from the start of “His” administration has endeavored to deliver the deliverables, America, to its enemies, Communist China and Russia.

    Biden and those who surround and put the words in his mouth in the White House are by definition traitors to their country. Period.

    At some point it will have to be recognized, defined and stated by those in a major segment of the media. No matter what Zuckerberg of Facebook, Dorsey of Twitter, Zucker of CNN or any of them want or say.

    The truth is becoming more and more apparent to the public and if at some point the media does not reflect that truth they will have no place to hide.

    Taiwan is being set up right now to fall, president Xi has clearly and unambiguously stated such. And the only thing that will stop him from moving is a perceived costly military threat. But maybe even more than a costly military threat is a perceived extreme economic threat and cost from the country’s around the planet who will shun them.

    China can not afford to shoot itself in the foot related to the future that they see for their country.

    The Communist Chinse are painted into a very tight corner, even though the American president in power right now has their back.

    If they are going to risk the move it will be IMO early in the next year, before the immanent Democrat blood bath in the mid term elections.

    Its an interesting and close call. How much will president Xi risk? And what if anything will president Biden telegraph that he will allow? The Chinese economy may well collapse before they have their opportunity.

    I really do not think they want to get into a hot war, the Chinese prefer the Sun Zu theory of warfare. Infiltrate your enemy, blackmail their generals and their family members with obscene amounts of money, prostitutes and drugs, steal their technology, weaken their culture with propaganda, fan the flames of racism, export a “Deadly” virus to confuse, interfere in their elections, weaken and force fear into the heads of their population. Sound familiar? In other words do what America would do in the same scenario. The Chinese are not stupid.

    What do you think this has all been about? (That’s a rhetorical question)

    And Taiwan has been in president Xi’s cross hairs, its his white whale. But president Xi’s white whale, Taiwan, was off the table as long as Trump was the president of the United States. And that is just one more reason why Trump had to go no matter what had to be done.

    And that is the exact reason why Trump or a very strong Trump look alike and vetted candidate must once again become the president of the United States and stay there for two terms and their vice president take the next eight years after that.

    That is our only hope. And the people, at least some of them, are waking up to this reality.

  • Cotour

    The cracks in media’s credibility are beginning in earnest?

    “Liberal comedian Jon Stewart scolds media for blaming Trump for nation’s divisiveness”

    https://justthenews.com/nation/culture/liberal-comedian-jon-stewart-scolds-media-blaming-only-trump-nations-divisiveness

    Its coming.

  • Cotour: The link you provide is the very link I am referring to and quote in the above post.

    Do you not ever read what I write?

  • Cotour

    Honestly, not always :)

    Sometimes its just the headline subject matter or reading someone’s comment that sets me off without reviewing all of the content.

  • Cotour: By doing so you embarrass yourself. You need to always review what I post, so that you won’t look like a dummy later. :)

  • Cotour

    Initially “Looking like” a dummy is one of my super powers ;-

    It usually works out OK.

    Embarrassed? I would not go that far, my comments were and are relevant I believe.

  • Mitch S.

    Cotour, since you’ve read the “Treehouse” article please scroll up and read my critique of it.
    I’ve read good stuff on that site but this is one of it’s weaker pieces.
    Problem with this, is that these things sometimes go viral (your friend picked up on it) and if a public figure presents it’s assertion he’ll be left open to ridicule unless he can find evidence not presented in the Treehouse article (as far as I could see there is no evidence presented – the links don’t back the claim that the emissions rules are causing the backlog). Unfortunately public figures and their staff are often sloppy and just rely on the article as a factual foundation.
    Dems/Libs can get away with fictions and lies but Repubs/conservatives need solid facts (not to convince the lib media, but to reach those not firmly in the Lib camp)

    If you find any evidence I missed please let me know, I’m capable of “looking like a dummy” too!

  • m d mill

    There is in fact no evidence presented that trucks over 3 years old cannot ship in California, only the 2010 regulations are cited (or even that ‘half the existing trucking fleet’ is unqualified, although that is more likely to be true).
    Is this a knee-jerk BTB “print anything that sounds good” over statement?

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