Truckers keep things interesting, don’t they? And they’re at it again with a NYC trucker’s strike organized to protest a verdict against former President Trump.
Last week, New York Judge Arthur Engoron ordered former President Trump to pay $354 million in damages in a civil business fraud trial.
While the court accused Trump of dishonest business practices, no financial institutions have ever made complaints about him. No fine this massive, no prohibitions on conducting business in New York, and no bans on receiving loans from New York banks have ever been handed down in a case like this. This is pure political persecution. Don’t take my word for it: that was how legal scholar and constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley described it too.
BREAKING: Legal scholar Professor Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) EXPLODES After Judge Engoron Hits Trump with $364 Million Fine and 3-Year Ban in New York Civil Fraud Case, Says, "None of us could find a case like this!" Well, no one else has gone through this!!!!! WATCH pic.twitter.com/3Lk5Ef3tRl
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) February 16, 2024
In response to these punitive damages, rumors started circulating on X about truckers refusing delivery into NYC beginning Monday, February 19. This may get really interesting.
What happens if the trucks stop?
CDL Life put out an infographic in 2012 that’s been resurrected recently, showing what would happen to life without truckers. Daisy wrote about it here. Within two to three days, food and fuel shortages would become severe, leading to price spikes. Manufacturing centers used to “just-in-time” processing would have to shut down. Garbage would begin piling up, rail transport would stop, and business transactions would grind to a halt as banks run out of cash.
Within a week, automobile travel would cease due to loss of fuel. Within a month, the nation’s clean water supply would be exhausted, and illnesses would begin to spike. Hospitals would be largely unable to treat people, due to their exhaustion of supplies.
This infographic is from 2012. If anything, things would fall apart faster now. Our supply chain is less resilient than it was twelve years ago. Truckers make First World living what it is.
Is this NYC trucker’s strike happening?
While some posters on X insist this won’t happen because trucking companies will never stand to lose money, a few facts are worth noting.
One is that approximately 10-15% of truckers are independent, and these are typically the more capable and experienced ones. They can simply turn down some delivery jobs and choose others. We’re in the middle of a labor shortage; workers have some choice.
Truckers already dislike NYC. On Sunday, an Amazon driver had to fight off a drunk, naked migrant. And the trucker found himself in trouble with the law. Another Amazon driver was brutally slashed in an unprovoked knife attack in late January and no arrests have been made. Who wants to work in that environment?
The tolls are high, streets are narrow, people are unfriendly, and crime is rampant. Reading truckers’ X feeds, some are happy for an excuse to avoid NYC because of the constant extra fees. NYC is a less profitable area for them anyway. Turning down business there won’t hurt them as much as it might in other places.
And not every trucker has to go along with the boycott in order to make life miserable for New Yorkers. Imagine what just a 10% reduction in goods deliveries would do to prices within a week or two.
This decision by Judge Engoron will backfire in other ways, as well.
Kevin O’Leary, Shark Tank mogul investor, summed it up nicely on Fox News. “$355 million as a penalty, plus 9% interest, and there’s no victim?” He said this decision terrifies possible investors because it’s so arbitrary.
JUST IN: ⚠️ Fall out from Trump persecution continues, Shark Tank mogul Kevin O’Leary is DONE INVESTING in the State of New York..
"I would NEVER invest in New York now! And I'm NOT THE ONLY ONE saying that!"
pic.twitter.com/rIvD5ygM7W https://t.co/KsFoybWAvH— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) February 19, 2024
Lawfare stunts only increase Trump’s support among general voters. He’s sounding less crazy all the time. Many people saw Trump as paranoid when he claimed persecution during the Russian collusion hoax. Well, he was right about that. Even liberal journalists such as Glenn Greenwald admitted he was framed.
The Trump/Russia collusion conspiracy was at the center of the media narrative for only 2 1/2 years. It's been 3 whole days since it got debunked as a hoax and you're still talking about this? Will there ever be an end to it??? pic.twitter.com/9nmr22duiT
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 27, 2019
In 2020, many people still believed in the system enough to think that Trump was exaggerating about the election getting stolen. Now, it looks like he was right about that, too.
The insane lawfare directed at him now makes the Washington elite look deranged. I didn’t like Trump in 2016. But the world didn’t fall apart between 2016 and 2020. I’d rather go back to that, than keep power in the hands of people so dismissive of citizens’ rights.
Protests like this can make people pay attention.
Too many people don’t see the connection between what happened to Trump and what could happen to any American not wanting to go along with the DC establishment. NYC may be home to Wall Street, New Yorkers may see themselves as too sophisticated to care about what goes on in the rest of the country, but Wall Street needs Main Street to survive. What do they think they’re trading without actual on-the-ground production?
The financial and political elite are used to convenience and physical ease, with no curiosity regarding the people who grow and transport their food, who keep the lights on and the water running. Throwing a monkey wrench into the flowing goods and services will hopefully force urban consumers to pay attention.
Protesting European workers have had some measure of success. The European farmers’ protests, largely supported by truckers, won some concessions. They had been protesting punitive tax hikes and unfair competition from cheap imports, as we’ve discussed before. After a few weeks of chaos, they managed to get the European Parliament to agree to a number of concessions, including a continuation of diesel subsidies and tax breaks.
Because truckers and farmers perform so much of the actual production and transportation, they see the effects of regulation before those regulatory effects appear to the average consumer in the form of higher prices. Since 2020, the cost of producing agricultural goods has increased by 28%. No one expects this to change; in fact, the USDA is concerned that prices in 2024 may be below break-even levels for American farmers.
The cost of shipping will probably continue to rise, at least in the short term. Climate change regulations lead to uncertainty regarding fuel pricing; who wants to invest tens of millions of dollars in oil and gas infrastructure when politicians are threatening to make it illegal within the next ten to fifteen years?
Here’s why many truckers support Trump.
Trump pays attention to these issues. He consistently receives the support of blue-collar workers because he listens to their concerns. He’s like Kevin O’Leary in that he sees the connection between his own wealth and the health of the regular economy. He’s popular among the working class because he treats them like valued employees, not “useless eaters” or “deplorables.”
Trump’s natural egomania makes him unwilling to cooperate with the Globo-Blob. Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Accords. If we sign on to the upcoming WHO Pandemic Accord, he’ll probably try to get us out of that, too. He sees America as a company that he wants to run and run well. Trump doesn’t want to share that with anyone else.
Why should he? His vision of a strong, independent America resonates with the average citizen who mostly just wants predictable work so they can raise their families in accordance with their own values.
Unfortunately, this unwillingness to participate in the schemes of the Washington establishment means that a lot of very powerful people know that they may get fired if he gets elected this year. They are becoming increasingly desperate in their attempts to make him unable to run.
60% of the world is going to the polls in 2024.
Indonesia just elected an ultra-nationalist. Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro just had his passport seized. Most of us can assume chaos is headed our way in 2024, and this trucker protest looks to be part of it.
I wish the truckers the best, but for the rest of us, having a plan to survive disruptions in supply chains has never been more important. The same goes for having trusted networks of family and friends.
I love having the internet as a source of news and practical information. YouTube home improvement videos have been invaluable. But nothing replaces real-world friends and neighbors that you can band together with in times of distress. As this crazy election cycle approaches, keep your friends close.
What do you think about the NYC trucker’s strike?
Do you think the NYC trucker’s strike will unfold enough to make an impact? Do you think it will change anything? How much of a problem do you expect this to cause for NYC dwellers?
Share your thoughts with us in the comments section.
About Marie Hawthorne
A lover of novels and cultivator of superb apple pie recipes, Marie spends her free time writing about the world around her.
Unfortunately there is zero sign of it here in NYC, not gonna happen
Yet.
Loved the last two sentences of the article. The observations in the article are very spot on. Except for the going to the polls thing. At least not in November in the US anyway. I don’t think the machine has any intention of putting on another carnival election.
On one hand, if there was a reduced rate of supply coming into the city, the problems mentioned by Marie could be bad for those within the city.
On the other hand, we have discussed the possibility of what would happen to cities if there was a major disruption in the logistical chain and supply to cities. From an academic standpoint, it would be interesting to see what would happen and how fast.
It’s time urban idiots woke up and stopped taking everything for granted. I live in rural TN and people here are much more resourceful. These blue cities have too many brainwashed idiots living there, who just need a wake up call.
Looks like it may not happen enough to even be noticed – if the main stream news would even report it. But i would not call Trump an ego maniac for how he dealt with the Globo Blob. The treaty was and is a bad one. He was right to pull out. He may well be an ago maniac. But his actions have not proved that, just that he is willing to take a hit to get the job done, without thought to how it looks.
Given the instigator has already did a 180, not going to happen. Any shortage to a high profit area will result in company resources being pulled from less profitable areas. But if that is the hill on which a person wishes to die, his/her choice. But don’t expect much assistance from the usual sources.
“Hi profit”? lol!!!! Obviously you need to talk to a driver. I can make just as much going to Tennessee, if not more. New Yorkers are going to find out that the world doesn’t revolve around New York
There are ramifications for such behavior:
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/uncategorized/the-investment-boycot-against-nyc-has-begun/
and this:
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/rule-of-law/the-fallout-from-the-extreme-lefts-judge-engoron-destroying-ny-city/
and this:
https://media.gab.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=568,quality=100,fit=scale-down/system/media_attachments/files/159/381/306/original/7e808eacb3cb3c3f.jpg
We stand on the precipice of the fault line that is going to slip into the abyss. Are you ready? It is not a matter of If…but When.
Have a great day.
What’s in it for the truckers? Lower fuel/operating costs? Less regulation? Why punish The People of New York, who cannot influence the judicial process? A strike might get the Mayor to change his position, but not the Jurists. Not all truckers are Trump supporters, but all of them have bills to pay.
“Why punish The People of New York, who cannot influence the judicial process?”
The “judges” are elected officials… The people of NYC, by and large, elected them… Therein lies the influence…
Oh; and at least the TRUCKERS are doing SOMETHING aside from commenting on a blog…
Things like this truckers’ strike never achieves as much as those that are promoting it want it to achieve. I do think this one will have enough participants to have some major impact on New York City, as well as New York State. Probably around the periphery of the city and state as well.
As always, with almost all things, the impacts will be highly situational, with some areas and industries hard hit and others much less so. Since it is primarily being done to make a point, rather than actually take the City down, all the negative aspects that can be attributed to Trump will be played up by MSM and all the misery caused by the strike will, also according to the MSM I suspect, will be endured by the innocent, progressive, citizens of the City.
I think it will help make a difference. Open a few eyes, create a few more Trump haters and anti-Republicans, and create another exodus of big money from the city and state both. As tensions rise in the aftermath and blame starts getting placed around another aspect that will hurt the city and certain parts of the state I think will be a major fall-off of tourism, especially the fall leaf fall season and the Christmas-in-New York Holiday season out of fear of violence. Whether or not it materializes, mainstream people have seen how bad things can get on a moment’s notice with everything that has happened the last twenty years with the uncontrolled riots and actions of agitators and provocateurs.
With the added tensions of all the talk about how dangerous AI is becoming and how likely extra-terrestrials are to openly visit the earth, causing not quite understood unease, I think people will be staying close to home the next several months. Not like the mandated closures and work-at-home influenced by the Wuhan virus, but more by choice, since (hopefully) there will be a choice.
And, if what I suspect will happen at the Democratic debates and nominating convention, with Biden and Harris out and Newsome in, things are going to get explosive. And chances are Trump will still be tied up in court, even if not in jail. Millennials and Gen-Zs will probably be going to the polls in record numbers, and if Trump is in jail, many Baby-boomers will be unwilling to vote for him
All of it tied together, much of it being orchestrated by Soros and others, to eliminate any chance of Trump winning the Presidency in the upcoming election, will be successful.
Be ready.
Just my opinion.
Breaker Breaker 19, the alleged leader of the Trucker Boycott AKA The Rubber Duck was found floating in a bath tub. Fowl play is suspected, 10-4 Good Buddy.
Count me in on this strike only I’m staying out of the entire State of New York. It isn’t worth going to the craphole
It will be a nothing burger. Its like the convoy down to Eagle Pass that only became one lone camper who turned around because there wasn’t an invasion like the hype said there was. Sure maybe some truckers will strike, until their bosses tell them to knock that shit off. I hear of trucker strikes in the past. And it ended up being 20-30 truckers who had their feelings hurt. NYC means too much to the trucking companies to piss off. So when truckers start getting shunned by their dispatchers, there will suddenly be a lot of truckers who ignore the “strike”