Build Back Bolshevik

David Pollack - Not Just Pollack-Tics

I pulled up to the drive through window of one of our family’s more frequently visited fast food places, when an employee unapologetically notified me that they were out of ice…”is that okay?” She asked. I didn’t really hesitate when I answered, “yeah, that’s fine.” As I sucked down a lukewarm Diet Coke, it occurred to me that it really wasn’t fine. My warm soda was pretty gross, like soft drink left in a hot car for a few days kind of gross. At the same time, what choice did I have? It was warm Coke or nothing.

And it’s not just my warm Coke. Have you heard about the cream cheese crisis? That’s right, apparently there’s a shortage of cream cheese. I scoured the Internet trying to identify the root cause of this popular schmear’s scarcity, but all I could find was hypothetical explanations such as holiday hoarding and the ever common logistical and transportation issues. Have you tried to buy bourbon or tequila lately, yup shortages. There’s also shortages of Christmas trees, beef, pork, chicken, and juice. In fact, shortages are becoming so common that #BareShelvesBiden has become a meme on social media.

I’m not sure that President Joe Biden deserves all the blame, but at the same time, what has he done to help? His administration’s policies have only served to deepen the wounds opened by the response to the COVID-19 pandemic as he continues to find any good reason for a new “stimulus”, tax advance or some policy that keeps people out of work. Not to mention the exacerbated staffing shortages due to questionable nationwide vaccine mandates. As a result, we have fleets of cargo ships sitting off California. We’ve seen Mr. Biden haphazardly contend that a simple solution is to extend port hours, when they already have 24/7 operations. The issue was reportedly getting enough people to work these overnight shifts. These labor shortages don’t just impact our supply chains, they also affect our service industries as evidenced by the notes on restaurant doors apologizing in advance for poor service and unavailable menu items posted next to a weathered help wanted sign.

If one believes everything one hears from the mainstream media, then we’d think the bare shelves, empty car lots, high fuel and energy costs, increased cost of goods, and deceased quality of service are really a result of that stubborn COVID-19 that just doesn’t want to go away.

Perhaps that’s part of it…but we’ve been dealing with COVID-19 since well, pretty much 2019. Yes, while early on there was an absurd shortage of toilet paper and anything that purported to kill germs, fuel and energy was almost 50% cheaper, labor remained abundant and many at the start of the pandemic were begging to be allowed to work. Shelves were stocked (sans items discussed above), car lots were full, and basic necessities were cheaper all while COVID-19 was having a far more serious impact globally. So why in 2021 are we sipping warm Coke and just okay with it, as if my ice was somehow melting on one of those stranded cargo ships from China?!

It seems that COVID-19 presented an opportunity for those who have long sought to fundamentally transform the U.S., and other parts of the western world. Whether it’s manufactured or simply luck, they’ve certainly maximized the opportunity to push back on those pesky populists and reassert government authority and control; the opportunity to raise wages through designed labor shortages; the opportunity to increase reliance on universal government income; the opportunity to condition the public to expect and accept less from the private sector; the opportunity to create the fear necessary to force people to follow government orders; the opportunity to divide the nation and use that division to help win elections—and the opportunity to steal one if they don’t.

And here we are, at the end of 2021 and Joe Biden is President having won the 2020 election. Australian Citizens sit in concentration style quarantine camps. German Citizens are not allowed to leave their homes unless vaccinated, and outgoing New York City mayor and failed Democrat presidential candidate Bill De Blasio issued similar restrictions here in the land of the free. The service industry, I’m sure, is just grateful for the permission to open, and restauranteurs are feeling fortunate to be allowed to have indoor dining. We still have Americans hesitant to remove a mask even while walking outside or driving alone and it seems that people have just accepted longer wait times for just about everything. We are growing accustomed to bare shelves and have seemingly been trained not to question the nonsensical excuses and explanations.