Jeff Stahler for October 27, 2021

OK. Minor “cute points”. If you insist on buying Xmas presents for all and sundry, please start YESTERDAY… and don’t order something that isn’t in stock.

Or consider giving (specific) gift certificates. Spouse’s old Kindle is turning flakey, so for her birthday a couple of weeks ago I gave her a “new Kindle”… that won’t ship until November 6 or so… in the form of a printed image with an arrival date printed on it and a “Happy unBirthday” message.

Better yet, give something that YOU DO YOURSELF: A back rub. Some cookies. A promissory note for a home-cooked dinner (or a meal out at a specific restaurant).

I’ve received a donation to the Heiffer Project the last several Christmases. I love it!

If the supply chain doesn’t get fixed, maybe people will have to remember what Christmas is all about…

You run around in a magic sleigh what supply chain do you need?

I heard that the Port of Oakland sent invitations to ships waiting at Ports of Long Beach and L.A. That was last week, and I don’t know of any follow up.

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We hafta do something, or we won’t be able to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas this year.

Ask the privately owned manufacturing corporations, shippers, ports, truck drivers, and sellers. Don’t you people believe in the “Free Market” or is that just some words to use as a weapon against things you don’t like?

Maybe if you paid your elves a living wage, you wouldn’t have to rely on so much imports!

We are grabbing people off the street and forcing them to be truck drivers and dock workers. There, happy now?

The so-called supply chain is the responsibility of the vaunted private sector. You know, those guys who sent all the factories overseas?

Maybe less trampling on Black Friday is a good thing?

I hear that dock workers and truckers are idle because the owners are not operating 24/7. If this is true, I do not understand the profit model behind it.

In 1973, I flew a reconnaissance mission over New York Harbor during the oil embargo. There were dozens of tankers sitting in the harbor low in the water. They bought the oil at $6 a barrel and were waiting for the price to go up before pumping it onshore.

I don’t see that kind of a motive going on here. What could be the possible incentive not to move product?

Key words: “If this is true.”

And don’t expect me to pay elves a living wage.

“When it comes to fixing prices / There are a lot of tricks I knows / How it all increases, all them bits and pieces / Jesus! It’s amazing how it grows!” From Les Miserables (1985); music and lyrics by Claude-Michel Schönberg and John Cameron.

So, the bit about the elves is fake? Finally the old fraud is outed!

So, Santa is a socialist and wanting government intervention.. who knew? I always figured the dude to be a true capitalist.. pays his workers peanuts and charges what the market will bear.

Among the 20 major container ports in the world, the berth loading and unloading efficiency of American ports is significantly lower than that of other ports. Why? The unions that run our ports have resisted technology that would speed up the process in order to protect it’s workers from being replaced by automation. It’s likely not a valid argument when looking at the greater volume of containers they would handle due to efficiency upgrades. That greater volume would require just as many workers as the lesser efficiency model. Then there’s the "I don’t have to bust my arse to get your ship unloaded or to get those containers on your trucks because I’m not required to by my union and they’ll protect me if you bitch. As a loyal union guy I’m more likely to make you wait if your an independent trucker and not a union brother. Talk to some truckers who run out of either NY/NJ or Long Beach (and probably others, but the ones I’ve talked to worked those ports). This has been going on forever.

No, I’m not anti-union, but some of them have lost their way over the years, and there are some places I’d like to see unions have a larger presence.

If Santa Claus got a White House Press Pass . . . that explains who Peter Douchie from Fox Entertainment qualifies . .. ./S

North Pole labor shortage, many elves have left their jobs over wages and working conditions ….

Get the republicans to lie about it.

Jen says Joe is guiding this economy out of the teeth of a terrifying recession.

Non-Union elves.

Any day now, I’m waiting to hear from Faux News that this is a plot between Biden and the Chinese to finally kill Christmas.

Yikes, my grandkids Santa in the supply cain mess!

Why would Santa care about supply chain bottlenecks? His elves make all of the goods that he then delivers himself…

The funny thing is this is a problem that’s been building for the last two years. Even without Covid there was a problem with too many empty containers not returning to China. No one wants to be the one to fund shipping an empty container and not enough goods were being sent back to China.

The other problem was Covid the original disruption of the supply chain, which can hardly be handed at the feet of the President of the USA. This is a global problem, not just an American problem.

Frankly, some of the spoiled brats in America, and I’m talking about the adults, could use to not be able to get what they want, when they want it. Call it lessons in patience. Patience is a virtue. Whining like a little child, not-so-much.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — At least 59,000 meatpacking workers caught COVID-19 and 269 workers died when the virus tore through the industry last year, which is significantly more than previously thought, according to a new U.S. House report released Wednesday. | Associated Press

Did anyone notice how the Press are being portrayed as giving Biden a pass again?

Are American farmers (especially the corporate-owned ones) still getting Federal subsidies?

Uuuhhhh…..nothing? Yeah,good answer,good answer!

Exhaustive list of things that I need to buy/pay for on a regular basis: Food, rent, utilities, transit. Exhaustive list of things that I need to buy every few months: Toiletries, bicycle parts. Exhaustive list of things that I need to buy a few times a decade and either don’t want to buy used or (in the case of the last item in the list) can’t find used and of sufficient quality: underwear, socks, shoes.

While other legitimate needs do come to mind (medicine, for example), the vast majority of things that are impacted by supply chain issues are superfluous items that fall under the category of desires, not needs. In other words, why wring our hands over something as trivial as less availability of crap that we didn’t need in the first place?