Did someone pay Bidens to weaken the United States?

After canceling the Keystone XL pipeline project, draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to dangerously low levels (some of which was sold to a Hunter Biden-linked Chinese energy giant), and vowing “no more oil drilling” on US soil while America’s geopolitical adversaries – two of whom paid his family handsomely – beef up their own energy independence, the Biden administration has done it again.

Last week the regime confirmed that it will cancel seven controversial oil and gas leases in an area of Alaska known as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), which were legally awarded from a 2021 sale.

“On day one of this administration, President Biden directed us to look at the oil and gas leases sold in the refuge by the previous administration,” said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in a Wednesday call with reporters. “What we have found in our analysis is that the lease sale itself was seriously flawed and based on a number of fundamental legal deficiencies.”

Biden, in a written statement, said that the move will “help preserve our Arctic lands and wildlife, while honoring the culture, history, and enduring wisdom of Alaska Natives who have lived on these lands since time immemorial.”

“As the climate crisis warms the Arctic more than twice as fast as the rest of the world, we have a responsibility to protect this treasured region for all ages,” the statement continues, adding “My administration will continue to take bold action to meet the urgency of the climate crisis and to protect our lands and waters for generations to come.”

The administration also proposed a rule on Wednesday that would protect 13 million acres in a different part of Alaska.

In short, NIMBYism (or something more nefarious) meets National Security…

China currently holds 96% of global copper inventories, 75% of global aluminum, 70% of corn, 54% of wheat, 30% of soybeans and 22% of crude oil: JPM

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 24, 2023

In response, Fox Business host and former Trump administration official Larry Kudlow blasted Biden, saying that this latest energy policy aides Russia, Iran and Venezuela, and is “sheer insanity.”

“Biden is … playing into the hands of some of the worst actors in the world. I’ve never seen anything… and damaging, obviously, consumers and businesses here at home,” said Kudlow, adding “This is insanity. Sheer insanity.”

“Who is Biden working for?” asked one X user in response to Kudlow’s segment.

Watch:

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin also slammed the Biden administration over the move, calling the decisions an attempt to weaken American energy security.

“This is yet another example of this administration caving to the radical left with no regard for clear direction from Congress or American energy security,” said Manchin. “Let’s be clear — this is another attempt to use executive action to circumvent a law to accomplish what this administration does not have the votes to achieve in Congress.”

“Canceling valid leases, removing acreage from future sales, and attempting to reduce production in Alaska while taking steps to allow Iran and Venezuela to produce more oil — with fewer environmental regulations — makes no sense and is frankly embarrassing,” Manchin concluded.

As Jack Gist opines in The Western Journal,

Why would the Biden administration make such a move? I’m not the only one who thinks it’s crazy.

“These decisions are illegal, reckless, defy all common sense, and are the latest signs of an incoherent energy policy from President Biden,” Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski declared in a news release.

Murkowski is an on-again-off-again Republican who is often courted by Democrats for her vote. For her to sound off against the Biden administration is telling.

In the same news release, Dan Sullivan, Alaska’s other Republican senator, said, “Not only is this an affront to the rule of law, it’s also a grave injustice to the Inupiat people of the North Slope, especially the people of Kaktovik — the only village in ANWR.”

According to Politico, Sullivan told reporters on Capitol Hill that Biden officials “love to talk about racial equity, racial justice, environmental justice, taking care of people of color, but one big exception — the Indigenous people of Alaska. They screw ’em every time.”

Sullivan is spot-on except for one point. The Indigenous people of Alaska are not the only ones getting the shaft.

Progressives have made a concerted effort to appropriate the word “justice” in an effort to subvert its meaning. They claim the moral high ground while at the same time disdaining morality. For progressives, there is no justice and therefore no morality. There is only power.

Submitted by Gun Owners of America,

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham declared gun violence a “public health emergency” in response to recent deadly shootings in Albuquerque.

While the anti-gun lobby and their allies in the corporate media have long championed the idea that gun violence constitutes a public health emergency, this is the first time after the COVID-19 pandemic that public health has been used as a guise to limit law-abiding citizens Second Amendment rights unconstitutionally.

We staunchly oppose the tyrannical decision of @govMLG to suspend the constitutional rights of law-abiding New Mexico citizens.

The right to keep and bear arms shall NOT be infringed and her actions constitute a significant infringement on your Second Amendment rights.

— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) September 9, 2023

While the public health order may stop law-abiding citizens from carrying firearms to defend themselves in Albuquerque, it certainly will not deter criminals, who often do not have permits to carry firearms, whether open or concealed in the first place.

In fact, concealed carry permit holders are some of the country’s most “law-abiding” citizens. For example, those who hold concealed carry permits in Texas are 14 times less likely to commit a crime than an average person.

At risk of stating what should be obvious, deliberately violating the Constitution is next-level illegal.

How soon can this person be removed from office?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 9, 2023

So why would Gov. Grisham issue a tyrannical order like this? Well, it’s simple. Because this is a trial run for something much larger.

Since the landmark decision in NYSRPA v. Bruen, which affirmed that the Second Amendment extends outside the home, anti-gun politicians nationwide have had to resort to drastic measures to Americans’ right to a firearm.

Using emergency orders to suspend constitutional rights in response to a tragedy is backward thinking at its finest. It leaves law-abiding citizens more vulnerable to the criminals who committed those violent acts in the first place.

The Governor of New Mexico has just declared the 1st & 2nd Amendment “does not exist” due to an “emergency.”

Under this legal theory *all* of our “rights” are essentially eliminated.

Watch the most evil & tyrannical 60 seconds you’ve ever heard from a politician: pic.twitter.com/xLpMSTbyi2

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 9, 2023

These unconstitutional actions taken by Governor Grisham are unacceptable and will undoubtedly cause more violence and harm to the public. 

We urge Gov. Grisham to reverse course immediately and if she doesn’t then we will be seeing her in court. 👏

— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) September 9, 2023

Gun Owners of America has officially filed a lawsuit against the tyrannical governor. 

🚨BREAKING🚨⁰⁰GOA and @GunFoundation have officially filed our lawsuit against NM Governor Grisham and her tyrannical executive order banning firearm carry.

See you in court! 🔥

— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) September 10, 2023

 See you in court, Governor Grisham.

*   *   * 

We’ll hold the line for you in Washington. We are No Compromise. Join the Fight Now.

Authored by Jakub Bożydar Wiśniewski via the Mises Institute,

The Austrian school – on account of the logical, deductive character of its theories and their realistic applicability to the actual economy – is the only economic tradition that consciously aspires to the discovery of timeless, universally relevant truths that govern the realm of human action. Thus, it should come as no surprise that its analytical apparatus is naturally suitable for the evaluation of all the recent newfangled socioeconomic phenomena.

Previously we noted how despite the best efforts of Washington and its Western partners, the G20 summit was unable to produce a statement condemning Russia and its invasion of Ukraine. Biden clearly failed to rally allies especially among BRICS and global south countries.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who is at the G20 in New Delhi representing the absent President Vladimir Putin, is gloating over the Western allies’ failure at “Ukrainizing” the summit’s agenda, according to his remarks published in Russian media and Reuters.

He told a Sunday press briefing that the Russian delegation had stood firm “to protect their legitimate interests,” and were thus able “to prevent the West from once again Ukrainizing the entire agenda”. He hailed the summit as a “success”. 

Lavrov then pointed to the G20 agreed upon declaration which merely “mentions the Ukraine crisis, but only in the context of the need to resolve all conflicts” – which he said is language in line with the principles of the UN Charter.

He further suggested that the US didn’t get its way of turning the Group of 20 into a “politicized club” – but instead the final declaration that was adopted “highlighted the human suffering and negative added impacts of the war in Ukraine with regard to global food and energy security, supply chains, macro-financial stability, inflation and growth.”

The top Russian diplomat explained that this agenda was thwarted largely through the collective efforts of developing nations and the interests of the global south, led especially by India, the host country. Per Reuters:

The Global South’s position in the talks helped prevent the G20 agenda from being overshadowed by Ukraine, he told a press conference. “India has truly consolidated G20 members from the Global South.”

And more via The Moscow Times:

“The text doesn’t mention Russia at all,” Russia’s veteran diplomat said.

“The Indian presidency has really managed to coalesce G20 members from the global south,” he added, suggesting that Russian allies like Brazil, South Africa, India and China had made their voices heard.

CNN had also observed Saturday, “Diplomats had been working furiously to draft a final joint statement in the lead-up to the summit but hit snags on language to describe the Ukraine war.” The mainstream publication then presented it as a defeat for the White House’s hopes: “The eventual compromise statement amounted to a coup for the summit’s host, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but still reflected a position far softer those the United States and its Western allies have adopted individually.”

The section of the G20 declaration where the US, UK and Europe hoped to include more teeth indeed failed to so much as mention Russia at all. “All states must refrain from the threat or use of force to seek territorial acquisition,” it reads. And the declaration added more mutedly: “there were different views and assessments of the situation.”

Some pundits noted that the final declaration’s language was very favorable to Moscow’s view of the conflict…

🔹And then we removed all wordings such as ‘Russian aggression’ & ‘condemn’ from the G20 resolution! 😂

🔹Wait, it’s even better. It’s now called “war IN Ukraine” and not “war AGAINST Ukraine.”😂😂

Modi and Lavrov at #G20Summit2023

Big win for Putin. Big L for Sleepy Biden. pic.twitter.com/odh4BTnCJy

— S.L. Kanthan (@Kanthan2030) September 10, 2023

French President Emmanuel Macron tried to salvage it as in no way a diplomatic victory for Russia, telling a press conference, “This G20 confirms once again the isolation of Russia. Today, an overwhelming majority of G20 members condemn the war in Ukraine and its impact.”

But at the same time, Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida underscored the fractured perspective and disunity on sensitive issue. “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is something that could shake the foundation of cooperation at G20,” he admitted.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) has pardoned the Loudoun County father who protested his daughter’s rape in a school bathroom by a transgender student, and her public school’s attempted cover up of the incident, Youngkin’s office announced Sunday.

The parent, Scott Smith, was charged with obstruction of justice and disorderly conduct in June of 2021 and convicted in August 2021 after he raged on school officials in a viral video.

Loudoun County dad Scott Smith dragged out of school woke board meeting & found guilty of disorderly conduct/resisting arrest reveals his daughter was ‘raped’ in the girls’ bathroom by a ‘skirt-wearing’ boy who was arrested for a 2nd girl later. & School WOKE Board COVERED IT UP. pic.twitter.com/odjuzYniQz

— 🇺🇸Robert.N🇺🇸 (@Rob_Noorollah) October 13, 2021

And now, after several investigations, he’s been pardoned.

I’m pleased to grant Scott Smith a pardon. He is a dedicated Loudoun County father who was wrongfully prosecuted and convicted for standing up for his daughter at a 2021 Loudoun County School Board meeting after she was sexually assaulted at school. https://t.co/6dWf88U2b1 pic.twitter.com/WCEvciUfzT

— Governor Glenn Youngkin (@GovernorVA) September 10, 2023

Smith in 2021 told the Daily Wire that his 15-year-old freshman daughter at Stone Bridge High School was raped by the 14-year-old transgender boy in the girls’ bathroom on May 28 of that year.

He says school officials called and told him only that there had been a ‘physical altercation.’ After arriving on scene, he learned that she had actually been sexually assaulted, and the school staff said they wanted to handle the situation ‘internally’ without calling the police.

After Smith became enraged, officials called Loudoun County Sheriff’s deputies.

“I went nuts. I called the principal a pussy. Six cop cars showed up like a fucking SWAT team,” Smith continued, adding that he “exploded with rage.”

Smith said his outburst is the only reason his daughter was tested with a rape kit that proved the incident occurred.

“Thank God that I drew enough attention to it, without getting arrested, that we got an escort to the hospital and they administered a rape kit that night.”

Lies, Coverup…

During the June, 2021 school board meeting, board member Beth Barts claimed not to know of any assaults happening in bathrooms or locker rooms during the trans student discussion. Now-fired Superintendent Scott Ziegler echoed that sentiment, saying “To my knowledge, we don’t have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms,” adding “the predator transgender student or person simply does not exist.“

He went on to quote Time magazine research that he said disproved the notion transgender kids might sexually attack cisgender kids, and said: ‘I think it’s important to keep our perspective on this, we’ve heard it several times tonight from our public speakers but the predator transgender student or person simply does not exist.’

It was after this comment that Smith went ballistic, resulting in his disorderly conduct charge.

In the aftermath of the rape and Smith’s outburst, the Loudoun school board voted in February of this year to keep the findings of an independent report on the sexual assault private.

1. girl raped by skirt-wearing male
2. dad of victim arrested, banned from school board meetings while SB passes transgender bathroom policy
3. Media ignores bc some details ‘unsubstantiated’
4. Obama calls it ‘phony’
5. 24 hours later, all details substantiated in court
6. wapo: pic.twitter.com/540ieM4zkJ

— Luke Rosiak (@lukerosiak) October 26, 2021

“My wife and I are gay- and lesbian-friendly,” Smith told the Wire. “We’re not into this children transgender stuff. The person that attacked our daughter is apparently bisexual and occasionally wears dresses because he likes them. So this kid is technically not what the school board was fighting about. The point is kids are using it as an advantage to get into the bathrooms.”

In October of 2021, a Virginia judge found the transgender student guilty of sexual assault charges. The following month, the boy pleaded no contest to sexual battery involving “forced sodomy” and “forced fellatio.” He was sentenced to probation at a residential treatment facility until his 18th birthday in June 2024. As part of the sentence, he was ordered to register as a sex offender, but a judge reversed that decision.

While awaiting trial, the student allegedly sexually assaulted another teenage girl at Broad Run High School.

In the aftermath of the incident, the Loudoun County school board fired superintendent Ziegler after a special grand jury report found that he lied about the rape.

The school covered up a crime. The justice system behaved in a flagrantly political manner. And the media was happy to participate in the politically-useful smearing, as usual. Morally appalling failures from top to bottom.

— Inez Stepman ⚪️🔴⚪️ (@InezFeltscher) October 13, 2021

Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A George Soros-aligned Texas district attorney who faced removal from office for failing to prosecute cases, including high-profile cases of murder and rape, has resigned.

Nueces County District Attorney Mark Gonzalez, a Democrat, announced his resignation in a Sept. 5 letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, who will name his replacement.

At the same time, Mr. Gonzalez announced a run for U.S. Senate to unseat Republican Senator Ted Cruz, according to local media.

Mr. Gonzalez sidestepped a civil lawsuit scheduled in December to remove him from office for “incompetence and official misconduct under the guise of prosecutorial discretion” and failure to give bond.

The lawsuit claimed Mr. Gonzalez “nullified” the law, abused his authority, and violated his oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitutions and laws of the United States and Texas.

The complaint was initially filed in January by Citizens Defending Freedom state director Colby Wiltse, a resident of Nueces County.

County attorney Jenny Dorsey endorsed the filing in February, allowing it to move forward.

“This is a great day for justice in Nueces County,” Mr. Wiltse said in a statement after Mr. Gonzalez made his announcement.

“Mark Gonzalez, like many of the Soros-aligned District Attorneys across the country, redefined the role of the district attorney in the name of social justice, often at the cost of public safety in the communities they swear an oath to protect.”

In his resignation letter, Mr. Gonzalez criticized “MAGA-aligned political radicals” working to oust him—an apparent harbinger of his Senate run.

In the letter, Mr. Gonzalez said he refused “to play this rigged Republican game, particularly considering the Republicans’ hypocrisy, as their presumptive presidential nominee is under indictment in four jurisdictions across this beautiful country and no less revered.”

Mr. Gonzales, who pleaded guilty to a DWI at 19, painted himself in the letter as a man of the people who had overcome a privileged system skewed to reward the rich.

“They want to use me as a sacrificial lamb to send a foreboding message to other duly elected DAs in Texas who exercise their discretion, intending to chill their constitutional and statutory authority to dispense their job duties as they see fit,” he stated.

Law enforcement charged Wood’s ex-boyfriend, Joseph Tejeda, with her murder. The victim was discovered with a gunshot wound to the back of her head and broken arms, according to court records.

But more than five years after the murder, Mr. Tejeda and two other defendants had not been tried in the case that had initially involved the arrest of seven people.

The victim’s mother, Fallon Wood, became frustrated and spoke about the delays exacerbated by the pandemic as the cases stalled.

In October 2021, Ms. Wood alleged Mr. Gonzalez blocked her personal email address, according to local news accounts.

As a result, Ms. Wood filed a grievance with the Texas Attorney General’s Office and the Texas State Bar.

The lawsuit to remove Mr. Gonzalez contends he failed to establish proper procedures for handling evidence in the case with 14 alleged victims of sexual assault.

Some 865 felony-level cases were dismissed between 2021-2022 under Mr. Gonzales’s watch, including attempted murder, aggravated assault, sexual assault, family violence, and aggravated robbery, according to the lawsuit.

Almost 2,000 misdemeanors, including family violence, assault, and DUIs, were dismissed during the same period, the lawsuit stated.

It will be up to Mr. Abbott’s office to appoint a new district attorney.

The resignation marks a victory for conservatives who have become increasingly alarmed by Soros-aligned DAs that critics say ignore victims while coddling criminals in the name of social justice.

Conservatives have launched recall campaigns, such as the one that successfully removed San Franciso DA Chesa Boudin, or taken legal action against several.

However, proponents of prison reform believe ending mass incarceration is the civil rights issue of our time.

Groups like The Sentencing Project contend the justice system is racist and must be abolished.

Mr. Gonzalez, who already launched a Senate campaign video, was recently touted in Rolling Stone as an abortion rights champion who refused to prosecute women seeking abortions, which are now illegal in Texas.

He told the publication that as a father of four girls, no man or legislator should be able to tell them “what to do with their bodies.”

It’s still being determined if Mr. Gonzalez’s resignation will take effect immediately, according to Ms. Dorsey, who, as county attorney, is awaiting direction from Mr. Abbott’s office.

“We are all finding that out together. We are waiting to hear how the governor is going to move forward,” she said.

The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last month we noted that Victor Shokin – the former Ukrainian prosecutor that Joe Biden got fired, had been praised by former Secretary of State John Kerry – who congratulated Shokin about the job he was doing on corruption reforms. This was revealed in government memos obtained via a FOIA lawsuit filed by Just the News.

The memos completely undermine the narrative offered by Biden and establishment media that the reason Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in US loan guarantees unless Shokin was fired, was because Shokin was Corrupt.

Now, as the NY Post‘s Miranda Divine (of Hunter Biden laptop scoop – turned censorship victim) reports – the Europeans thought Shokin was awesome too…

The European Commission praised Ukraine’s Prosecutor-General Viktor Shokin for his efforts to fight corruption in a December 2015 progress report published nine days after then-VP Joe Biden demanded his ouster.

The report flies in the face of Biden’s claims that the European Union joined his demands that Shokin be removed for being corrupt and obstructing anti-corruption reforms.

In fact, the Dec. 18, 2015, progress report, obtained by the New York Post, says that the European Union was satisfied that Ukraine had achieved “noteworthy” progress, including in “preventing and fighting corruption,” and thus was eligible for visa-free travel in Europe. -NY Post

What’s more, Europe’s praise of Shokin included the fact that he helped in creating a specialized anti-corruption prosecutor’s office, a crucial component to Ukraine’s ability to combat “high-level corruption.”

Both of these revelations fly in the face of as massive smear campaign against Shokin.

In July 2015, US Ambassador Geoffrey R. Pyatt began talking trash, according to a 2019 deposition by Shokin.

“US Ambassador Geoffrey R. Pyatt told him that the investigation [into Zlochevsky] has to be handled with white gloves, which according to Mr. Shokin, that implied do nothing. On or about September 2015 Mr. Pyatt gave a speech in Odessa where he stated that the cases were not investigated correctly and that Mr. Shokin may be corrupt.”

At the time of Shokin’s removal he was investigating Burisma, a company on whose board Biden’s son Hunter sat, receiving $1 million per year. At the time of his ouster, Shokin’s office had issued a warrant to seize properties belonging to Burisma owner, Mykola Zlochevsky – who was alleged coerced by the Bidens to pay them $10 million in bribes.

Zlochevsky, who hired Hunter Biden to sit on his board, granted his own company (Burisma) permits to drill for oil and gas in Ukraine while he was Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources. Shokin also stated in his deposition that there were five criminal cases against Zlochevesky, including money laundering, corruption, illegal funds transfers, and profiteering through shell corporations while he was a sitting minister.

Shokin, meanwhile, has accused the Bidens of “interfering with the internal affairs of Ukraine” by forcing his ouster.

Let’s review…

In December, 2015 – leaked audio provided by Ukrainian MP Andrii Derkach revealed that former Secretary of State John Kerry was laying out the case for Shokin’s ouster to former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, saying that Biden is “very concerned” about the lack of reform in the prosecutor general’s office.

In February 2016, the US Senate provided more cover for then-VP Biden, pushing for reforms to the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office on the basis that it was corrupt. Yet, that same month, “warrants were placed on the accounts of multiple people in Ukraine. There were requests for information on Hunter Biden to which nothing was received,” according to Shokin.

Also in February 2016, less than three months after the Kerry conversation- Poroshenko delivers some “positive news” to Biden despite the fact that “we didn’t have any corruption charges” or “information about him doing something wrong,” referring to SHokin.

“Yesterday I met with General Prosecutor Shokin,” says Poroshenko. And despite of the fact that we didn’t have any corruption charges, we don’t have any information about him doing something wrong, I specially asked him – no, it was day before yesterday – I specially asked him to resign. In, uh, as his, uh, position as a state person. And despite of the fact that he has a support in the power. And as a finish of my meeting with him, he promised to give me the statement on resignation. And one hour ago he bring me the written statement of his resignation. And this is my second step for keeping my promises.“

To which Biden replied: “I agree.”

In April 2016, Shokin stated that Poroshenko “called him and told him he had to be fired as the aid to the Ukraine was being withheld by Joe Biden. Mr. Biden told Mr. Poroshenko that he had evidence that Mr. Shokin was corrupt and needed to be fired. Mr. Shokin was dismissed in April of 2016 and the US aid was delivered within one and one half months.”

And then in November 2016, Biden threatens Poroshenko with the $1 billion US loan guarantee.

Shokin was then fired, which Joe Biden openly bragged about in 2018.

“I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’” Biden said.“I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars,” unless they immediately sacked Shokin. To the glee of his CFR listeners who laughed audibly, Biden added, “Well, son of a bitch. He got fired!”

So with the ‘corrupt Shokin’ myth busted, the thin veneer of yet another Biden lie has cracked, and we’re back to – the sitting Vice President of the United States got the guy investigating his son’s benefactor fired.

Of course, Kevin McCarthy won’t simply launch an impeachment inquiry like Nancy Pelosi did against Trump (for asking about Biden corruption in Ukraine). Instead, McCarthy is willing to risk inaction with a full vote of the House.

By Craig Fuller of FreightWaves

No one wants a hurricane to make landfall. Among nature’s most damaging events, hurricanes that hit land in the United States usually cause death, destruction and misery. They can also cause havoc to supply chains. 

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina was a 100,000-truckload event, requiring one of the largest relief and recovery supply deployments in U.S. history. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey prompted one of the greatest truck capacity crunches in recent history. 

Hurricane Lee could cause massive supply chain disruptions if it lands in the United States

Hurricane Lee, which strengthened from a tropical storm to a hurricane on Wednesday, will likely become a major hurricane by Friday and a Category 4 hurricane with winds up to 150 mph by Saturday.

Lee is now in the Atlantic Ocean well east of any land. But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) expects Lee to intensify quickly and become an extremely dangerous major hurricane. At this time, it is too early to know if Lee will hit any of the major Caribbean islands or the United States.

However, if Lee — or any major hurricane — did make landfall near a major city, it could cause massive capacity disruptions for U.S. shippers just prior to the peak season run-up.

If a major hurricane is forecast to make landfall, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and state-level agencies will soak up every available truck in the market for relief activities. 

Shippers will face much higher freight rates. Shippers would be wise to lock in secure commitments (even at higher contract rates) for a potentially chaotic fourth quarter. At worst, they may be left without trucks to haul goods.

Hurricanes create massive demand surges. Rates that shippers locked in to carriers anticipating a slow second half may not work in a tight capacity environment. Many carriers will chase the higher-paying FEMA freight, often ditching shippers that they view as cheap or undesirable.

For shippers unsure about what to pay in the market, they could resort to high-frequency freight rate benchmarking tools, such as SONAR, or the implementation of index-linked contracts. 

Impact on infrastructure

Depending on where a hurricane hits and its subsequent path over land, a variety of infrastructure can be impacted. Seaports in the path of a hurricane close and may take time to reopen, particularly if there is any damage. The same is true for airports, rail yards and track and certainly bridges and highways. 

Some hurricanes have done significant damage to key infrastructure, while others have done very little damage. 

Regardless, these storms usually impact key parts of a state’s or region’s infrastructure, if only in the sense of delays. Supply chains break down because of hurricanes; sometimes they are back up and running quickly, while at other times they can be subject to significant delays. 

Hurricane relief efforts

Years before founding FreightWaves, I ran Xpress Direct from 2002 to 2005. Xpress Direct was the on-demand emergency unit of U.S. Xpress. Over the course of four years dealing with hurricane activity, Xpress Direct handled in excess of 20,000 shipments and billed over $100 million in revenue in disaster-relief loads alone.

Hurricane-relief loads offer an opportunity for trucking companies to demonstrate to the public how critical trucking is, regardless of how challenging a mission might be. 

Hurricane relief is the biggest dog-and-pony show you will ever see in trucking. But there is a certain satisfaction in being able to help people who are suffering.

FreightWaves’ ongoing coverage

Since FreightWaves.com went online in 2017, it has covered the impact to the nation’s transportation and supply chain of all the hurricanes that have hit the United States. 

FreightWaves will cover Hurricane Lee’s path, preparations to deal with it and more — and will continue to do so through any major relief efforts. FreightWaves will do so for any and all natural disasters that strike the nation.

After New York City Mayor Eric Adams rolled out the red carpet for more than 110,000 illegal immigrants, even offering to pay for their shelter costs, the progressive Democrat abruptly changed his tone in recent months, warning the city’s surging migrant crisis could unleash economic doom. In a Saturday press release, Adams’ office proposed annual budget cuts of 5% by November “to stabilize the city’s finances” amid the tidal wave of migrants that Adams and other Democrats welcomed with open arms. 

“Because the city has been forced to bear most costs of the asylum seeker humanitarian crisis at a time when revenue growth is slowing and COVID-19 stimulus funding is sunsetting, the city faces substantial fiscal disruption if circumstances do not change,” Adams’ office wrote in a press release. 

NEW: Erie County New York, a deep blue county, will no longer accept illegal immigrants from New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ resettlement program after another migrant has been charged with sexual assault.

How racist and intolerant of them!

After years of virtue signaling from… pic.twitter.com/4eAEy0xHE8

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 17, 2023

The Democratic-led sanctuary city received more than 110,000 migrants over the last year. Adams’ office said, “10,000 asylum seekers still arriving each month, the city estimates this mounting crisis will cost taxpayers $12 billion over three fiscal years — an amount that will continue to grow without federal and state intervention and support.” 

JUST IN: The ‘loving and tolerant’ co-hosts of The View say migrants need to be kicked out of New York City before blaming the migrant crisis on “global warming and climate change.”

You can’t write comedy better than this.

“They need to be resettled elsewhere. They need to… pic.twitter.com/AxV5O8w0Ia

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 8, 2023

Adams’ office said to mitigate financial pressures on the “city’s fiscal strength,” his administration “directed every agency to implement a 5 percent reduction in city-funded spending in each year of the financial plan through a Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG) as part of the upcoming November Plan, Preliminary Budget, and Executive Budget,” adding there will not be layoffs. 

Last week, Adams warned a crowd at a town hall that the migrant crisis will ‘destroy NYC.’ He even turned on the Biden administration for doing nothing about the migrant crisis they created (so much for ‘unity’). He said, “I’m gonna tell you something, New Yorkers, never in my life have I had a problem that I didn’t see an ending to. I don’t see an ending to this.” 

NYC Mayor Eric Adams expIodes:

The migrants will “destroy New York City” and “everyone will be impacted” pic.twitter.com/R74LydILrR

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) September 7, 2023

“Idealism collides with realism when you have to deal with all the populations,” Adams said at the town hall, who, earlier this year, had open arms for illegals. 

Surging migrant costs come as the state’s top money manager warned in July that higher state spending and lower tax collections will lead to a ballooning budget gap of $36.4 billion by 2027. 

“The estimated gaps are well above typical forecasted levels over the previous 15 years,” State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli wrote in the 28-page report. 

And it’s not just an out-of-control budget deficit that plagues the progressive state, but its voters aren’t thrilled with Democrats throwing free money at illegals.

XENOPHOBIC NATIVISTSpic.twitter.com/4G84hwjJsu

— The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) September 7, 2023

We are witnessing the downward spiral of NYC in real-time, and many of these pressures are directly attributed to the failed policies of the Democratic Party. 

Authored by Alex Gutentag and Michael Shellenberger via Public,

During the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, the Democrats were the party of the future. They were the party of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, who were sworn in as presidents at the ages of 46 and 47, respectively.

Today, that seems like a very long time ago.

Consider the new CNN poll. Three-quarters fear Biden’s age could affect his ability to finish another term. Nearly half of registered voters say any Republican presidential nominee would be a better option than Joe Biden in 2024.

If Donald Trump becomes the Republican nominee, 47% of voters would vote for him, and 46% would vote for Biden. While this difference is within the margin of error, CNN noted that they did not have a single poll in 2020 that showed Trump leading against Biden. 

Democrats were quick to defend Biden’s record. “He’s not getting credit for what I think is a fairly substantial list of achievements,” said David Axelrod, former senior advisor to President Barack Obama.

Yet no matter how much Democrats try to convince the public that “Bidenomics” are working, 58% of Americans still believe that Biden’s policies have worsened economic conditions. Only 30% of Americans say things are going well in the country.

It may be true that, on paper, Biden revived the economy, but the reality most voters experience is different. Prices are up 16.9% since Biden took office, real wages are down 3%, mortgage rates are at their highest in 22 years, and credit card debt has reached a new peak.

It’s likely that the constant flow of money to Ukraine only worsens Americans’ fears that the president is mishandling the economy. With hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars going overseas, 500,000 Russian and Ukrainian troops killed or wounded, and no end in sight, the conflict has become the kind of nightmarish “forever war” that voters once associated with Republicans.

For many years, Democrats insisted that they were the party of diplomatic solutions; today, they are eagerly sending depleted uranium rounds and internationally banned cluster munitions to Ukraine.

Biden’s poor approval ratings are likely also influenced by the brewing scandal around his son. Over half of voters believe that the president’s actions related to the Hunter Biden probe are inappropriate, and 61% say they think the president was involved in his son’s business dealings.

Indeed, there is mounting evidence that Biden’s Department of Justice is criminalizing the political activity of his enemies while shielding his son from real prosecution.

When Biden took office, he vowed that his administration would put an end to the division of the Trump years and would restore unity. Yet, on several occasions, Biden has made highly charged and antagonistic remarks about ordinary American citizens. Despite the media’s efforts to portray him as a wise and grandfatherly figure, Biden often appears to be angry and confused, lashing out at us unpredictably.

Due to the president’s age and obvious cognitive decline, it is unclear who is actually running the country and calling the shots. Biden, a corrupt and disoriented old man controlled by shadowy figures behind the scenes, is emblematic of what the Democratic Party has become.

The old vibrancy and inspiring messages of “hope” and “change” are gone, and all that remains is a cynical and desperate thirst for power.

Like its figurehead, the Democratic Party operates through secrecy and can barely conceal its contempt for large swathes of the country. It has become a party of censorship, war, elitism, and dishonesty.

There is only so long that Democrats can keep pretending Biden is a competent leader, and the latest CNN poll has provided a chance for many to finally state the obvious. Said Van Jones on CNN, “A lot of Democrats look at these numbers and say, ‘The whispers are finally showing up in this data’… People are scared to come out and say anything about it, but I think it’s important for us to have this conversation now.”

And yet Biden has shown no sign of throwing in the towel. Rumors periodically fly that he is about to announce he won’t run for a second term. Many thought it would happen in August.

The problem for Democrats is that they might have no one who can replace him. Kamala Harris is even less popular than Biden, and San Francisco is Gavin Newsom’s albatross.

This is perhaps what is most damning about the current state of the Democrats: Biden may really be the best they have to offer.