Free Republic

Supply chains are not something most of us think about on a day-to-day basis. Or they weren't, until the last few years, when we've been exposed, at least on the right, to the fragility and susceptibility of said supply chains. This author works in the shipping industry and has a few thoughts. First and foremost, one needs a rudimentary understanding of how the supply chain actually works, so here is a summation. Let's call it Supply Chain 101: 1. A producer creates goods. 2. Goods need to get to market, which is handled by shippers. 3. Markets may be local,...

Despite Biden administration efforts, children’s hospitals across the country report some chemotherapy drugs commonly used for leukemia and lymphoma are hard to find. Pediatric cancer doctors are sounding the alarm about a growing shortage of chemotherapy drugs for children. The dwindling supplies add another layer to the ongoing cancer drug shortage crisis that’s left doctors scrambling and forced patients to make difficult choices about treatments since early February. The Biden administration has taken steps to address the crisis, in some cases successfully: Doctors say that shortages of two cancer drugs, carboplatin and cisplatin, have eased significantly in recent weeks. However,...

A car dealership has closed its doors for good, citing unprecedented changes in the used car sales industry as the motivating factor behind the decision. Off Lease Only, the Florida-based dealership chain, has filed for bankruptcy and fired all its employees.A message on the company's website explains that management is winding down operations and thanked customers for their years of patronage. Many former employees told local Fox affiliate WOFL that they received notice of their termination directly after a large company meeting on Wednesday. The company boasted five locations across Florida, with over 500 vehicles available. Some frustrated customers were...

American truckers have issued a warning about the Biden administration's plans to reduce air pollution by cracking down on heavy-duty vehicle emissions, saying that President Biden's proposed policies will crush the supply chain and put the American food supply at risk. Under the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which aims to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides and other pollutants by enacting stringent new regulations on heavy-duty vehicles and machinery, businesses will be subjected to unattainable standards which will result in high inflation and put trucking companies out of business, American trucking officials warn. Mike Kucharski, vice president and co-owner of JKC...

Crushing federal and state regulations are forcing California's farmers to move operations to Mexico. What could go wrong? Anybody notice who might be getting their hands on the U.S. food supply? I found it buried in an Epoch Times story about Congress's upcoming Farm Bill spendathon, set to go to a vote in December. It's supposedly aid to U.S. farmers, including California's, the U.S.'s top agricultural state, which produces much of the U.S. food supply. But it's hardly a solution. Turns out the regulatory burden is so nasty out there it's driving farmers in California to move operations to Mexico...

...In December 1958, economist Leonard Read, the founder of the Foundation for Economic Education, published a short essay in FEE's periodical, The Freeman. In the 65 years since its introduction, this masterly work has become the most recognizable element of the Austrian School of economics. "I, Pencil" was conceived as a fanciful anthropomorphism, the genealogy of that most common of household tools, the lead pencil. In those few pages, Leonard Read demonstrated the magic woven by the Invisible Hand of the free market. In the generations since, millions of us have learned to respect how countless different industries, countless people,...

A shortage of cancer drugs is forcing doctors to confront the reality that some patients could die needlessly. “Lives will be shortened,” Dr. Patrick Timmins III, a gynecologic oncologist at Women’s Cancer Care Associates in Albany, New York, told the Atlantic. “A lot of people are going to be hurt,” he added. “I’ve been doing this forever, and this is absolute lunacy.” SNIP Some of these are nonprescription drugs, like cold and flu medicines. But life-saving drugs for cancer patients are also not available. The drug shortage is so extreme that it’s a national security threat, according to a recent...

KEY POINTS • PMA announces the Port of Seattle is entirely shut down to due to a coordinated labor disruption. • The Port of Seattle is one of the top maritime ports in North America that U.S. ag exporters rely on to ship their produce and grain. • AgTC warns the shutdown tarnishes the reputation of U.S. ag exports as being reliable. The labor strife continues on the west coast with the announcement of the Port of Seattle shutting down due to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) refusing to dispatch labor to work at the container terminals. This...

Cancer centers are contending with shortages of key chemotherapy drugs, with potentially dire consequences once the scarcity starts hitting patients. A new survey released this week by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) found that 93 percent of cancer centers are reporting shortages of carboplatin and 70 percent are reporting shortages of cisplatin. These two drugs are commonly used together to treat a wide variety of cancers — including breast, lung, prostate and many types of leukemias — often with the aim of curing them.

Ships are piling up in some West Coast ports and commercial shipping prices are spiking amid a labor fight between port operators and workers, threatening to trigger a new round of supply chain disruptions that could lead to shortages or higher prices. The fight is sparking concerns among lawmakers who worry surging container prices could ripple through the economy and hit all sorts of consumer goods in a repeat of supply chain problems following pandemic shutdowns. “The shippers I know are afraid of what might happen if we shut down our ports,” said Rep. Val Hoyle (D-Ore.), a member of...

44 Marisa Gerber, Ronald D. White Fri, April 7, 2023 at 2:07 PM EDT·5 min read Long Beach, CA - February 17: An aerial view of the Port of Long Beach at dusk Friday, Feb. 17, 2023. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) A dockworker shortage at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach stretched into its second day Friday, halting cargo traffic at the massive port complex. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) A dockworker shortage at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports stretched into its second day on Friday, halting cargo traffic at the...

China Controls Your MedsDemocrats and Republicans battered TikTok’s CEO at a House of Representatives hearing on Thursday — for good reason. The Chinese app poses a national security risk, accumulating troves of data on its American users. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew’s slithery comment that “I don’t think spying is the right way to describe it,” only heightened concerns.Another Terrifying Chinese ThreatToo bad another Chinese threat — bigger and more immediate — isn’t getting the same attention. China has a chokehold on our medication supply chain. Beijing controls many — in some cases, all — active ingredients for the remedies...

With around 4,000 miles separation, two friends of the Treehouse, Neil Oliver and Lee Smith, essentially asked me the same question this week, “how do we stop this madness?” It should not be an option hearing this talk about the need to secede, fracture, isolate or form smaller defensive boundaries. WE ARE IN THE MAJORITY, they just control the power structures and systems of communication. That’s why they spend so much time, effort and attention manipulating social media. My proposed solution is to draw from history, specifically from the Polish solidarity movement. What we need is a general two-day workers...

[H/T MS.BEHAVIN] In the General/Chat forum, on a thread titled Q ~ Trust Trump's Plan ~ 02/23/2023 Vol.450, Q Day 1944 , MS.BEHAVIN wrote:This is a list of food processing plants that have been destroyed form 01/11/21 to the present. This list is from Jim Hoft. Wanted to share it with you guys!1. 1/11/21 A fire that destroyed 75,000-square-foot processing plant in Fayetteville 2. 4/30/21 A fire ignited inside the Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in Monmouth, IL 3. 7/25/21 Three-alarm fire at Kellogg plant in Memphis, 170 emergency personnel responded to the call 4. 7/30/21 Firefighters on Friday battled...

Georgia Republican Rep. Austin Scott, a new member on the House Intelligence Committee, hopes the panel will investigate efforts by unfriendly foreign powers to insert themselves into U.S. food and technology supply chains. "One of the things that I expect us to look into, and hopefully look into, is where our adversaries have embedded themselves in the supply chain of basic necessities for Americans," Scott said on the John Solomon Reports podcast. "I talk about food a lot, because it's one of the things that we have to have to get through the day," Scott explained. "What are our adversaries...

A few weeks ago, Sheletta Brundidge got a call from her son Andrew’s high school informing her that his daily medication had run out. The 16-year-old has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and takes Adderall to control it. But when Brundidge went to refill it, her pharmacy was out of the drug. “The closest one that was available was over in St. Paul, Minn.,” she tells Yahoo Life. “That’s a whole other city!” Thanks to a continuing nationwide Adderall shortage, there are many families like Sheletta’s who have been scrambling to get their prescriptions filled. So, what can you do...

he surge in Covid-19 cases in China is impacting the completion of manufacturing orders, according to CNBC Supply Chain Heat Map data. Logistics managers are warning clients that because of the spike in infections, factories are unable to complete orders — even with U.S. manufacturing orders from China already down 40% due to an unrelenting demand collapse. Orders for ocean bookings continue to be softer according to SONAR Data. “With 1/2 or even 3/4 [of the] labor force being infected and not able to work, many China manufacturers can not operate properly but produce less than their optimal outputs,” Hong...

Do you remember way back in November when we were teetering on the edge of running out of diesel fuel? Thankfully, reduced demand and some temporary increases from our remaining refineries pushed off that crisis for a while. But it was an important reminder that the nation’s supply chain still runs almost entirely on diesel and if we run out, no products will be moving anywhere for a while. Out in California this month they’re looking at a different but related crisis. Instead of a shortage of fuel, the state will be looking at a shortage of trucks. All tractor-trailers...

ransomnote: This video describes a grain supply chain issues with the country's main rail freight hub which have now worsened as a result of Union Pacific's railway embargo.ALL Shipments STOPPED -MAIN Artery for USA - Railways SHUT DOWN - Cars PILING UP | Patrick HumphreyGrain shipments had already been backing up (not delivered) since October (see chart).Now as of December 29, Union Pacific has announced an embargo which will deepen the supply chain problem with grain. Excerpt:The following excerpt sounds like "14 days to flatten the curve.... Here's a map of the Union Pacific hub impacted by the embargo; it...

News emerged this week that Ford has parked around 40,000 unfinished new vehicles waiting for parts. If you thought parts shortages couldn't get any worse for the auto industry than they did last year, then it's time to hit reset. We've seen multiple car companies, including international giants like Honda and Toyota, struggle to deliver vehicles simply because they can't source the components they need. The same is true with Ford, which announced this week that up to 45,000 vehicles will be held in its inventory this quarter until they receive essential parts—mainly chips. The Blue Oval has made use...